Petticoat Marshal given short-shrift

 TARGET (1952)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

Seen one B-movie western shot in a Hollywood backlot, seen them all. Tim Holt was a B-movie actor of many westerns (though I'll always remember him best as handsome and vulnerable George Minafer in Orson Welles' "The Magnificent Ambersons") and 1952's "Target" might not be so distinguishable from the average but it does score a couple of points for a hint of progressiveness.

It is the lawless town of Pecos, Texas, well, lawless in the sense that there is no marshal. A marshal is desperately needed due to the greedy businessman Conroy (Walter Reed) and his stalwarts who pay for land for next to nothing so they can have their railroad. In the first scene, a newspaper man or just a printing press employee (from the Sentinel, a "progressive" newspaper and also Chairman of the Town Council) is nearly killed by the men after painting a sign warning landowners of Mr. Conroy. Tim Holt (played by Tim Holt!) is a cowhand who comes to the rescue, along with his partner Irish-Mexican Rafferty (enthusiastically played by Richard Martin). They have come into town for a job with stubborn landowner named Bailey (John Hamilton), who refuses to sell his home for a cheap price just so they can build a freight terminal and a stockyard. Land-grabbing for a railroad - progressive times ahead.

Speaking of progressive, the daughter of an ailing marshal comes into Pecos so she can aid in some law and order. Naturally, everyone except Tim and his partner believe a woman (Linda Douglas) can become a marshal (I believe an actual line of dialogue spoken is "We don't need a petticoat marshal!") The female marshal doesn't do enough to justify such a position and the filmmakers I guess felt that such a marshal would never fire a gun (she figures out how to break out of a jail using a belt, a major cliche). As I said, a hint of progressiveness.

"Target" is a fitfully exciting and humorous enough western with the same old gunfights (they could've been shot with more pizazz), same old fistfights, cowboys on horseback running through town, etc. Nothing new here but it will keep you captivated during its short running time, plus Tim Holt is an appealing hero and I love Richard Martin as the flirtatious Rafferty, a recurring role he played in many westerns.    

Frivolous yet fun Powell entertainment

PRIVATE EYE 62 (1933)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

William Powell is so dashing and such a romantic in appearance, and clearly at heart, that it is hard to see him as anything but. "Private Eye 62" is not a special treat in Powell's filmography but I wouldn't write it off either. Some occasionally pungent dialogue and some stylized moments give it some weight to make it a slight cut above the usual mediocrity. 

Starting off with a visually pleasing and foggy view of the Eiffel Tower, we are introduced to Powell as Donald Free, a State Department diplomat who is caught stealing some French government papers. Free is deported to the U.S. until he gets wind that the French want him back (an extradition despite being deported that quickly?) so he jumps off a boat to swim to NYC. Before you start being inquisitive on the movie's plot, Free is in New York and injects himself as a partner for a failing detective agency called "Peerless." Dan Hogan (Arthur Hohl) is the main detective who is more than a mite incompetent and completely unethical. Nevertheless, a sassy socialite, Janet Reynolds (Margaret Lindsay), is making huge cash winnings at Bandor's Club. Is Janet really winning based on luck or is she cheating? The movie never quite answers that and assumes we will just buy that she has exorbitant luck. The detectives are hired to check on her and there is more than meets the eye.

A Depression-era and Pre-Code crime drama that seems more comedic early on than dramatic, "Private Eye 62" is consistently engaging. Arthur Hohl shows the corruption seeping into Dan's veins and Margaret Lindsay holds her own as Janet, though whether she's duplicitous or not is questionable. William Powell is so damn good that it almost doesn't matter whether the story pays off. Frivolous Michael Curtiz movie yet you'll have a good time.

He Can't Help Himself

 M (1931)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

I have a deep appreciation for Fritz Lang's "M," a German psychological suspense thriller that jangles your nerves and makes your heart skip a couple of beats. The fact that Peter Lorre, one of the most haunted and haunting faces in movies, appears in just a few scenes is extraordinary. More extraordinary is the fact that his character does not inform the film exactly - the victims' mothers, the murdered children and the mob of people at large do. 

Berlin is facing a monumental crisis - a psychopath is in the city and kidnapping and killing children. This is all presumed, the killing aspect that is, because the bodies of the children are never found and supposedly buried somewhere (or at least that is the implication). Wanted posters are placed in the town square yet the police are mystified and cannot find the child killer. Eventually, they discover the culprit but the mob of people in the area - some of them criminals and parents and there are business owners,  who feel their livelihood is being affected - gather together and decided to apprehend the killer. They fake being homeless street persons, and other just simply watch any individual passing a balloon or candy to any young child. A blind beggar is central to the identification of the killer who whistles Edvard Grieg's "In the Hall of the Mountain King."   

"M" is chilling to the bone throughout especially in the depiction of the aftermath of a child's disappearance. Lang and his cinematographer, Fritz Arno Wagner ("Nosferatu"), show a montage of different settings such as the empty chair at the kitchen table, the long empty staircase leading to one child's apartment where the child should be running and skipping up to her home and, the most frightening symbolic shot of lost innocence, a balloon floating up in the air near power lines. 

"M" does contain too many scenes of the mob, mostly criminals, infiltrating an office building where bug-eyed Hans Beckert (Lorre), the deranged killer, is hiding out. Still, there is much to distinguish this stylish German noir with its askew shadows (especially of the wide high-angle shot of the street where Beckert is seen) and its police procedural point-of-view of detectives finding clues to the mystery killer. One striking shot in particular shows Beckert finding a chalk imprint of an M on his back coat - moments like this impart a nightmarish logic of being identified only as a murderer. Does Beckert have any sense of remorse or guilt? It is difficult to say but by the time we arrive at the unbelievably powerful confession given by Beckert, it is an admission where he knows he has committed such crimes yet he can't help himself. Lorre is so amazingly emotional in his fear of himself that he makes the other criminals of this mob see themselves and the crimes they have committed. A purposely abrupt ending where the mothers plead for others to keep watch of their own children while they await the killer's fate, Lang's "M" is probably more moral than any American film on the same subject. E for Excellence.  

Check your pockets!

MAIN STREET AFTER DARK (1945)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

I don't think there is a moral to "Main Street After Dark" other than if you are a sailor, avoid ritzy clubs where women take can advantage with their feminine wiles and swipe your wallet. A burly police lieutenant named Lorrigan (Edward Arnold) finds a way to catch these women thieves - plant sailors with wallets carrying a detectable fluorescent powder. The Lieutenant figures that if any of the suspected women identified by the victims are caught, he can check their palms with a fluorescent light! Nifty.

A criminal named Lefty (Tom Trout), known for armed robbery, is just out of the slammer and returns to home to his mother (Selena Royle); his devoted, sneaky wife, Jessie Belle (Audrey Totter, her film debut), and his young sister Rosalie (Dorothy Ruth Morris). The sister is something of a pickpocket due to her stealing watches, which the mother disapproves of! Ultimately, the mother has no problem with her son leading a criminal life with no ambition to work a regular job. Lefty's wife, much to the chagrin of Lefty, is pickpocketing sailors downtown. There is also Lefty's brother, Posey (Dan Duryea), who has taught the women how to lure men and take their wallets which initially makes Lefty angry - Posey was supposed to be the man of the house earning money! One inventive method of robbing sailors involves a hotel room scenario where Posey pretends to be a hotel clerk, thus convincing the naive sailors to pay for their rooms and place the money in a box for safekeeping!

 

"Main Street After Dark" is more of a lark and often very funny, with a few explosive and unexpected moments of violence. The actors flourish on screen giving it as much pizazz to separate the film's somewhat undernourished screenplay from the rest of the mediocre crime pictures at the time. Of course, we get a "Crime Doesn't Pay" epilogue that feels tacked on since these movies were made during the Hays Code days. Still, for 57 minutes you get your money's worth - just check your pockets after it is over.