Intriguing Newspaper Noir

CALL NORTHSIDE 777 (1948)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

When James Stewart first appears in "Call Northside 777," he is working at a Chicago newspaper office typing away at a desk in the background, from the perspective of his editor boss's desk. The editor calls out "BOY!" to a relatively short young man who is sent to procure details on a convicted felon. Stewart is then called to the office and he is so tall and lanky that he has to shrink himself a little just to be in frame. There is some sense of towering over any story with a certain healthy skepticism from Stewart and, right away, I was immersed in Henry Hathaway's completely absorbing newspaper noir film.

A newspaper ad with a $5000 request for information on a convict serving 99 years for killing a police officer piques the interest of Chicago Times editor Brian Kelly (Lee J. Cobb, quite restrained). He asks one of his top reporters, McNeal (James Stewart), to verify it. This leads to an older woman scrubbing floors who had worked 11 years to come up with the money because she believes her son (Richard Conte) is innocent of the crime. McNeal is skeptical at first yet he is pushed further by Kelly to interview the suspect, get a lie detector test, interview the ex-wife, and so on. What transpires is not exactly hard-boiled detective (or reporter as detective) non-fiction nor will it invite much comparison to tougher noir pictures from the same period. What is fascinating is that "Call Northside 777" remains thoroughly involving as we are carried along with McNeal's own thorough investigation and we learn the details as he does (a rival newspaper photo has a clue that leads to a race-against-time climax). It will not come as any surprise that Conte's character and an alleged accomplice are innocent but it is the process that is intriguing.

Between the backroom intrigue of rival newspapers, legal ethics and selling newspapers with stories where someone's life is at stake, there is McNeal's crisis of conscience - can he really make a difference and do the right thing beyond printing salacious stories for a buck? Of course, with James Stewart aboard in an effortless performance, you know how this will turn out. "Call Northside 777" is an extremely entertaining, suspenseful and juicy film with close-to-the-bone documentary realism and occasional narration that actually works in its favor. Based on a true story, the film is so involving, so precise in its filmmaking and its performances that you will want to rewatch it immediately. I did.

Finding strength in what remains behind

SPLENDOR IN THE GRASS (1961)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

Up until the release of 1961's "Splendor in the Grass," the sprightly Natalie Wood had already played the naive ingenue in films like "The Girl He Left Behind, "A Cry in the Night," "Cash McCall" and "Marjorie Morningstar." The differences, aside from her spectacular turn in "Marjorie," is that Natalie delves into deeper territory here, exposing wounds that almost lead to tragic consequences. Elia Kazan's "Splendor in the Grass" is a grown-up movie about young people who are unable to conform to parents' expectations. 

As the story begins in Kentucky 1928, Wilma Dean "Deanie" Loomis (Natalie Wood) is deeply in love with football player Bud (Warren Beatty), but nothing is what it seems. There is no question loves exists between the two teens but is it just puppy love where sex is nonexistent? The answer is yes because Deanie will not have sex with Bud, despite his ongoing frustration. Deanie's mother is insistent that the couple do not consummate their love - the mother consummated with her husband only to produce a child, having sex recreationally was never a choice or a conjured thought. Deanie doesn't comprehend such a love bereft of passion.

Meanwhile, Bud wants to fulfill his own dreams and not necessarily what his wealthy father (colorfully and explosively played by Pat Hingle) expects. Bud's father wants him to attend Yale and then he can return to run the family business and marry Deanie (of course, if Deanie gets pregnant, Bud is expected to marry her regardless).

"Splendor in the Grass" has no real sentimental inclinations and probably bespeaks the 50's nuclear family unit more so than 1920's Kentucky values. Of course maybe writer William Inge is saying that nothing has changed, family unit is important and so is attaining wealth and conformity is essential. Since the period is the 1920's, the stock market crash is impending and tragedy befalls one family over the other. As we shift from the societal expectations of family unity, we see how Deanie reacts to Bud's brief affair with one of her classmates and how she cannot process the emotion of losing someone she loves. The naive ingenue has turned into an exposed live wire of emotion, and the film implies that such wrecked emotion (which almost leads to a suicidal drowning) can only be solved in a mental institution.

Natalie Wood has several electrifyingly emotional scenes, particularly when she breaks down while quoting Wordsworth in a classroom or the scene where she has a crying fit of rage in a bathtub. The scene in the bathtub with a naked Deanie screaming at her mother in agony at the prospect of her calling Bud is so powerful, so intensely saturated with emotion that you will spring from your chair and want to hug Natalie and tell her everything will be okay. It probably helps that director Elia Kazan was on board yet Natalie Wood's strength is in finding the vulnerabilities of her characters and nakedly exposing them - she is the movie, no question.

Warren Beatty has always been a strangely remote actor to me but as the indifferent Bud (who doesn't express a speck of emotion over the passing of his father), he singularly captures the kind of young man who sees a future that he cannot attain. His remoteness here works wonders and you feel more pity for him than sympathy. He is a lost soul but it is Deanie who finds the meaning of Wordsworth's poem and has learned that happiness is not always attainable.

"Splendor in the Grass" is elegantly made with a finesse and sophistication that can only come from Kazan with his upfront approach to the material. From scenes of heartbreak over Bud's flirtatious and drunk sister parading herself around others at a party, to the last chilling smile from Pat Hingle as Bud's father, to Bud seeing the possible mistakes he has made in the final scene, to Natalie Wood showing us an emotionally unstable young woman who is not so much emotionally disturbed as she is in adapting and controlling her emotions, "Splendor in the Grass" captures the soul of young love and its consequences. Deanie has control of the past by letting it go and is ready to move on, the other characters have more difficult adjustments to make. Pure Wordsworth poetry, and one of the purest Natalie Wood performances.

Jimson Weed and coffee don't mix

THE BURNING HILLS (1956)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

A western starring a largely stoic Tab Hunter as a stalwart cowboy hero and Natalie Wood as a strong-willed, half Mexican, half English woman is an unusual combination. Of course, if you expect the usual prerequisites of the average western from the 50's or earlier, you've got them in 1956's "The Burning Hills." There are elongated fistfights, myriad shootouts, an adept half-Native American tracker who can spot hoof prints and their formation like nobody's business ("and a jackrabbit in a hundred miles of brush"), and more and more of the same.

Natalie Wood's role has pizzazz and a lot of heart as Maria Colton, who does all the work around the farmhouse while her younger brother is a tad cowardly and her drunk uncle lays around all day sleeping (Stereotypes alert, for those keeping track). It must be that jimson weed that makes one lazy, which we learn from this film is not a good combination with coffee because it might keep you awake? It is supposed to be a hallucinogen and poisonous but I was confused by the effect it ends up having. Yeah, they try that on some anonymous villainous ranch hands (Claude Akins being the most memorable) and the effects are less than stellar. Back to Maria's character, she initially thinks that our hero (Tab Hunter replacing John Wayne) is a bad white man after she finds him unconscious. Slowly they develop an affection for each other and she shelters him until the villains come into play. Hunter is Trace Jordan, who seeks revenge for his brother's death at the hands of some ranch hands hired by a Mr. Sutton (Skip Homeier, a hell of a good performance from a character that, well, disappears a little too soon). He wants to own the entire valley and kill all settlers who want a piece of it. Of course, this is a common subplot in any western.

For a while, "The Burning Hills" (based loosely on a Louis L'Amour novel) sets its spurs in action and Hunter, more handsome than anything else, dominates the screen - you can't help but look at him. Ditto Natalie Wood as the no-holds-barred Maria who fires a pistol in the air at fairly close range nearly shooting the villains in the face! Of course, by the end of the flick, Hunter takes center stage in a fistfight over rocky waters that goes on for an eternity and she sits in her horse concerned. What happened to the fearless Maria we see in the beginning? One noteworthy moment is after she fires the pistol, the ranch hands get close to her as if they are ready to attack her. They don't but it is a nice touch of tension and a hint of the violence to come.

It is a watchable enough flick with one too many lulls (miscegenation is only hinted at yet never really discussed) yet for Natalie Wood and Tab Hunter film fans, it is worth a view (they both fared better in "The Girl He Left Behind" released shortly after "The Burning Hills").