Lawrence Tierney is “Born to Kill”

Born to Kill (1947) is an American film noir directed by Robert Wise and starring Lawrence Tierney, Claire Trevor, and Walter Slezak. The supporting cast includes Esther Howard, Elisha Cook Jr. Philip Terry, and Audrey Long. The cinematography was by Robert De Grasse (Stage Door, Carefree, Kitty Foyle).

After obtaining her divorce in Reno, Nevada, San Francisco socialite Helen Brent (Trevor) meets Sam Wilde (Tierney), a mysterious man who intrigues her. Little does she know that he is responsible for two murders.

Wilde follows Helen back to San Francisco and begins to court Helen’s sister Georgia (Long). Helen believes Sam is marrying Georgia for her money. Georgia inherited the largest newspaper in the city and lives in a beautiful mansion. Sam quickly convinces Georgia to marry him and that’s when the trouble starts.

 

Lawrence Tierney and Claire Trevor

Robert Wise (1914 - 2000) was an American director, producer, and editor. Wise began his movie career at RKO as a sound and music editor. For several years, he worked with senior editor William Hamilton. Wise’s first solo film editing credits were on Bachelor Mother (1939) and My Favorite Wife (1940). He was the film editor on Citizen Kane and was nominated for an Academy Award for Film Editing. Wise got his chance to direct at RKO from Val Lewton, the producer of horror classics like Cat People (1942). The Curse of the Cat People (1944) was the first film that Wise received director credit for. He eventually directed films noir, westerns, melodramas, and science fiction. Some popular films directed by Wise include The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), Executive Suite (1954), I Want to Live! (1958), which earned Wise his first Oscar nomination for Best Director. He went on to win Best Director Oscars for West Side Story (1961) and The Sound of Music (1965).

Lawrence Tierney (1919 – 2002) was an American film and television actor best known for his roles as gangsters and tough-guys. He became a popular star with the release of Dillinger (1945). His performance as the notorious gangster led to a string of popular films noir. Some of his famous films include The Devil Thumbs a Ride (1947) Born to Kill (1947), Bodyguard (1948), and Kill or Be Killed (1950). Once Tierney’s film career slowed, he appeared on television guest starring on shows like The Alfred Hitchcock Hour.

Claire Trevor (1910 - 2000) was an American actress who appeared in over 60 movies. She received nominations for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for Dead End (1937), and The High and the Mighty (1954). She won the award for her performance in Key Largo (1948). Trevor got her start on the New York stage and made her film debut in 1933. She also appeared on radio with Edward G. Robinson in the popular radio program Big Town. Trevor’s most famous role is probably Dallas in Stagecoach, but she had other memorable roles in Murder, My Sweet (1944), and Born to Kill (1947). Her last film role was in Kiss Me Goodbye (1982) where she played Sally Field’s mother.

Walter Slezak (1902 – 1983) was an Austrian-born film and stage actor. Slezak started in silent films as a leading man, often directed by his friend Michael Curtiz. As he aged and gained weight, Slezak played character roles. He made his American film debut in Once Upon a Honeymoon (1942) starring Cary Grant and Ginger Rogers. He appeared in over 100 films. He also worked on Broadway where he won a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical for his work in Fanny. Slezak also worked on radio and television. In 1974, he appeared on the soap opera One Life to Live, playing the godfather of Victoria Lord, played by his daughter Erika Slezak.

 

Born to Kill trivia

• Tallulah Bankhead was considered for the role of Helen, but she was unavailable and the role went to Claire Trevor.
• Phillip Terry divorced Joan Crawford the year before the film’s release.
• Esther Howard, part of Preston Sturges’ stock company, does a rare dramatic turn.
• Claire Trevor wears more hats in this film than probably any other film actress.
• Although not a box office success when first released, it is considered a classic film noir by many of today’s critics and fans.

 

Click HERE to watch the film on YouTube.

Click HERE to join the online discussion on November 4, 2024, at 6:30 p.m. Central Time. Once you RSVP, you will receive an email with an invitation and a link to join the discussion on Zoom.

 

Discussion questions

1. What did you think of Lawrence Tierney’s tough-guy performance?
2. The film was considered shocking in its day with many contemporary critics considering it unsavory. Did you find it shocking?
3. What did you think of Claire Trevor’s performance as Helen? She’s not the typical femme fatale. Instead of leading the man astray, Helen is drawn to his brutality.
4. Did the film remind you of any other films noir?

 

Eleanor Parker, Patricia Neal, and Ruth Roman have "Three Secrets"

Three Secrets (1950) is an American drama directed by Robert Wise and starring Eleanor Parker, Patricia Neal, and Ruth Roman. The supporting cast includes Frank Lovejoy, Leif Erickson, and Ted de Corsia.

Three women (Parker, Neal, and Roman) gave up a son for adoption when their lives were in turmoil. After a private plane crashes in the California mountains the sole survivor is a five-year-old boy. All three women believe that the boy on the mountain may be the son they gave up for adoption. 

As the drama on the mountain becomes a national story, all three women recall what their lives were like five years ago. How will the news of their past affect their present and future?

Publicity photo of Ruth Roman, Patricia Neal, and Eleanor Parker

Robert Wise (1914 - 2000) was an American director, producer, and editor. Wise began his movie career at RKO as a sound and music editor. For several years, he worked with senior editor William Hamilton. Wise’s first solo film editing credits were on Bachelor Mother (1939) and My Favorite Wife (1940). He was the film editor of Citizen Kane and was nominated for an Academy Award for Film Editing. Wise got his chance to direct at RKO from Val Lewton, the producer of horror classics like Cat People (1942). The Curse of the Cat People (1944) was the first film that Wise received director credit for. He eventually directed films noir, westerns, melodramas, and science fiction. Some popular films directed by Wise include The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), Executive Suite (1954), and I Want to Live! (1958), which earned Wise his first Oscar nomination for Best Director. He went on to win Best Director Oscars for West Side Story (1961) and The Sound of Music (1965).

Eleanor Parker (1922 - 2013) was an American actress in film and a three-time Best Actress Academy Award nominee. She signed a long-term contract with Warner Bros. in 1941. For the next few years she played minor roles in some important films, but her first big role came in Between Two Worlds (1944) opposite John Garfield and Paul Henreid. She was again cast alongside Garfield in Pride of the Marines (1945) and that film made her a star. Some of the films she made after that were not as successful and Parker was more careful choosing film roles, often refusing parts and being put on suspension. Warners cast her (after much lobbying from Parker) in Caged (1950), a film about a woman’s prison. The film was a hit and her performance earned Parker her first Best Actress Academy Award nomination. For her performance, she won the Volpi Cup for Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival. After leaving Warners, Parker freelanced for a while with limited success. In 1953, she signed a long-term contract with M-G-M. At her new studio, she co-starred with Clark Gable, Robert Taylor (they made three films together), and Glenn Ford. One of her most celebrated roles was as opera singer Marjorie Lawrence in Interrupted Melody (1955) which earned her third Oscar nomination. In the mid-50s, Parker was one of the most popular female stars in the movies. With all her accomplishments during her prime, she will most likely be remembered for her role as Baroness Elsa Schraeder in The Sound of Music (1965), one of the most popular and successful films of all time.

Patricia Neal (1926 - 2010) was an American film and stage actress. Neal gained fame on Broadway, winning the 1947 Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play for her role in Another Part of the Forrest. Coincidentally, 1947 was the first year the Tony Awards were presented. Hollywood came calling and Neal signed a contract with Warner Bros. In 1949, she made three films including The Fountainhead co-starring Gary Cooper. In 1951 she starred in the science fiction classic The Day the Earth Stood Still. In the early 1950s, she left Hollywood to go back on the stage. She returned to the screen in 1957's A Face in the Crowd co-starring Andy Griffith. She co-starred with Audrey Hepburn and George Peppard in Breakfast at Tiffany's and she won the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1963 for Hud. Neal continued to act in film, stage, and television until 2009.

Ruth Roman (1922 – 1989) was an American film, stage, and television actress. Roman got her start in the movies starring in the Jungle Queen (1945) film serial. She had a notable role in The Window (1949) which lead to her being cast in Champion (1949) co-starring Kirk Douglas. These successes earned her a contract with Warner Bros. During her years under contract, she co-starred with some of Hollywood’s top leading men including Gary Cooper, Errol Flynn, Glenn Ford, and James Stewart. Roman also worked steadily on television during the 1950s and beyond, appearing on such popular shows as Mannix, Marcus Welby, M.D., The Mod Squad, The FBI, and The Outer Limits.

To watch the film on YouTube, click the link below.

To join the discussion on October 10, 202, at 6:30 p.m. Central Time, click here. Once you RSVP, you will receive an invitation and link to join the discussion on Zoom.

Discussion questions

1. Did you find the situation realistic or believable?
2. Of the three women, did you have a favorite? 
3. If this film were made today, how might it be different or the same?
4. What did you think of performances? Did one of the actresses outshine the others?
5. Did the film remind you of other films you've seen?

Harry Belafonte and Robert Ryan are up against the “Odds Against Tomorrow”

Odds Against Tomorrow (1959) is an American film noir, produced and directed by Robert Wise and starring Harry Belafonte, Robert Ryan, and Shelley Winters. The film features a jazz film score directed by John Lewis of the Modern Jazz Quartet. 

A former policeman (Ed Begley), an ex-con (Robert Ryan), and a nightclub entertainer (Harry Belafonte) join forces to rob a bank in upstate New York. There is tension between Earle Slater (Ryan) and Johnny Ingram (Belafonte) due to Slater's racism against Ingram who is black. David Burke (Begley), the mastermind of the robbery does his best to keep the tension between Slater and Ingram to a low boil. 

Will Burke be able to keep Slater and Ingram on task to get the job done or will it all blow up before right in front of him?

Robert Wise (1914 - 2000) was an American director, producer, and editor. Wise began his movie career at RKO as a sound and music editor. For several years, he worked with senior editor William Hamilton. Wise’s first solo film editing credits were on Bachelor Mother (1939) and My Favorite Wife (1940). He was the film editor on Citizen Kane and was nominated for an Academy Award for Film Editing. Wise got his chance to direct at RKO from Val Lewton, the producer of horror classics like Cat People (1942). The Curse of the Cat People (1944) was the first film that Wise received director credit for. He eventually directed films noir, westerns, melodramas, and science fiction. Some popular films directed by Wise include The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), Executive Suite (1954), I Want to Live! (1958), which earned Wise his first Oscar nomination for Best Director. He went on to win Best Director Oscars for West Side Story (1961) and The Sound of Music (1965).

Harry Belafonte (1927 - ) is an American singer, songwriter, and actor. As a singer, he popularized the Caribbean music style to an international audience. He had the first million-selling album by a single artist in 1956. Belafonte made his movie debut in Bright Road (1953) co-starring Dorothy Dandridge. The next year he starred with Dandridge again in Carmen Jones (1954) directed by Otto Preminger. In 1957 Belafonte starred alongside James Mason, Joan Fontaine, and an all-star cast in Island in the Sun. He didn't like the film roles that he was offered during the late 50s and early 60s so he decided to concentrate on his singing career.

Robert Ryan (1909 - 1973) was an American film and stage actor. Ryan got his start in acting with a theater group in Chicago, where he was born, in the late-1930s. By 1939, he had a film contract with Paramount appearing in minor roles in a variety of pictures. In 1943, he signed a long-term contract with RKO based on his stage performance in Clash by Night (1941). The studio was grooming him for stardom with 1943’s Tender Comrade co-starring Ginger Rogers when he enlisted in the United States Marine Corps, serving as a drill instructor. He resumed his career after the war and was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award for his performance in Crossfire (1947). Ryan worked on stage, TV, and in film during the next three decades. His other film roles include The Set-Up (1949), Flying Leathernecks (1951), On Dangerous Ground (1951), Clash by Night (1952), and Bad Day at Black Rock (1954).

Shelley Winters (1920 - 2006) was an American actress whose career in film began in 1943 and continued into the 2000s. Some of Winters’s film roles include A Double Life (1947), The Great Gatsby (1948), Winchester 73 (1950), and A Place in the Sun (1951) for which she was nominated for a Best Actress Academy Award. Winters was in demand throughout the 1950s having four films in release in 1955 including Night of the Hunter. She won a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for The Diary of Anne Frank (1959). She won her second Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her performance in A Patch of Blue (1965). Besides her film work, Winters starred on Broadway and was a frequent guest star on popular television series and made-for-TV movies.

Odds Against Tomorrow trivia

• Harry Belafonte was the first black protagonist in film noir.
• Shelly Winters signed onto the film without seeing a script, based on the director and cast involved.
• Richard Widmark was offered the Robert Ryan role.
• Cicely Tyson's second film role

Shot on location in New York City, Robert Ryan lived at the Dakota and later sold his apartment to John and Yoko Lenon.

To watch the movie on YouTube, click on the link below.

To join the discussion on January 10, 2022, at 6:30 p.m. Central Time, click here. Once you RSVP, you will receive an invitation and link to the discussion on Zoom.

Harry Belafonte, Ed Begley, and Robert Ryan

Discussion questions:

1. New York Times film critic Bosley Crowther wrote in his review of the film that it was “tight and strong ... sharp, hard, suspenseful melodrama,” with a "sheer dramatic build-up ... of an artistic caliber that is rarely achieved on the screen.” Do you agree with his review?
2. What do you think the film’s overall theme is?
3. Did you think the performances were realistic/believable? Was there a standout among the cast in your opinion?
4. Did the characters as played by Harry Belafonte and Robert Ryan have anything in common?
5. Did anything about this film surprise you?

Valentina Cortese discovers the dark secrets of the “House on Telegraph Hill”

House on Telegraph Hill (1951) is a thriller/suspense film directed by Robert Wise and starring Richard Basehart, Valentina Cortese, and William Lundigan. The film is based on the novel The Frightened Child (1948). The screenplay was written by Elick Moll and Frank Partos. The cinematography was by Lucien Ballard (The Lodger-1944, The Parent Trap-1961, True Grit-1969).

Valentina Cortese and Richard Basehart

A Polish woman named Viktoria Kowalska (Cortese) has lost everything—her husband, her home—during the German occupation of Poland. During her time in the concentration camp at Belsen, she becomes friends with another prisoner, Karin Dernakova (Natasha Lytess) who is desperate to be reunited with her young son Christopher (Gordon Gebert) who was sent to live in San Francisco with Karin’s rich Aunt Sophia.

Karin dies before the camp is liberated and Viktoria sees this as an opportunity for a better life and assumes Karin’s identity. While posing as Karin, Viktoria meets Major Marc Bennett (Lundigan) when the camp is liberated; he helps her get placed in a camp for people displaced by the war. Viktoria continues assuming Karin’s identity and eventually makes it to America and San Francisco. She is romanced by “her” son’s guardian Alan Spencer (Basehart) and agrees to marry him thinking it will be easier for her to stay in America if she marries a citizen.

At first life in the big old mansion with Alan and Christopher is idyllic, but things begin to go south when Christopher’s governess, Margaret (Fay Baker) resents her intrusion on her life with Christopher, whom she has raised since he was an infant and Alan’s increasingly peculiar behavior.

Has Karin walked into a situation worse than the one she escaped in Poland?

Robert Wise (1914 - 2000) was an American director, producer, and editor. Wise began his movie career at RKO as a sound and music editor. For several years, he worked with senior editor William Hamilton. Wise’s first solo film editing credits were on Bachelor Mother (1939) and My Favorite Wife (1940). He was the film editor on Citizen Kane and was nominated for an Academy Award for Film Editing. Wise got his chance to direct at RKO from Val Lewton, the producer of horror classics like Cat People (1942). The Curse of the Cat People (1944) was the first film that Wise received director credit for. He eventually directed films noir, westerns, melodramas, and science fiction. Some popular films directed by Wise include The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), Executive Suite (1954), I Want to Live! (1958), which earned Wise his first Oscar nomination for Best Director. He went on to win Best Director Oscars for West Side Story (1961) and The Sound of Music (1965).

Richard Basehart (1914 - 1984) was an American actor who worked steadily in film and television. Basehart starred in several films noirs of the late 1940s and early 1950s. He also had a lead role in director Federico Fellini’s La Strada (1954). Other film roles include Moby Dick (1956), Decision Before Dawn (1951), The Brothers Karamazov (1958). Baby Boomers would remember Basehart as Admiral Harriman Nelson on Irwin Allen’s science fiction television series Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1964 -1968).

Valentina Cortese (1923 - 2019) was an Italian actress. She graduated from the Academy of Dramatic Art in Rome and began her film career in Italian films in 1940. She starred as Fantine and Cosette in an Italian production of Les Miserables (1948). In Europe, she worked with all the top directors including Michelangelo Antonioni, Federico Fellini, and Francois Truffaut. She signed a contract with 20th Century-Fox and made several American films including Thieves Highway (1949), House on Telegraph Hill (1951), and The Barefoot Contessa (1954). She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Truffaut’s Day for Night (1973).

William Lundigan (1914 - 1975) was an American film actor. Lundigan started working in film in 1937. He had film contracts with Universal, Warner Brothers, M-G-M, and 20th Century-Fox. Some of the over 125 films he appeared in include The Old Maid (1939), The Sea Hawk (1940), Santa Fe Trail (1940), The Courtship of Andy Hardy (1942), Andy Hardy’s Double Life (1942), Pinky (1949), Love Nest (1951), I’d Climb the Highest Mountain (1951), and Inferno (1953).

House on Telegraph Hill trivia

• Valentina Cortese and Richard Basehart met on the set of the film and married the year the film was released.
• The runaway car scene was shot partly on location in the Telegraph Hill area of San Francisco.
• Julius Castle, a restaurant on Telegraph Hill, was dressed to look like the mansion that belonged to Aunt Sophia.
• Actors considered for the Richard Basehart role included James Mason, Hugh Marlowe, Richard Widmark, Dana Andrews, John Lund, and Richard Conte.

Why watch this film?

• It represents a film early in the career of director Robert Wise.
• The performances of Richard Basehart and Valentina Cortese are worth watching.
• It’s one of the few American films Cortese starred in.
• The film features great production values from the classic studio era.

To watch the film on YouTube, click the link below.

To join the discussion on July 12, 2021, at 6:30 p.m. Central Time, click here. Once you RSVP, you’ll receive an invitation with a link to the meeting on Zoom.

Questions for discussion

1. Many critics consider this movie a film noir. Do you agree? Why or why not?
2. What did you think of the performances of Valentina Cortese and Richard Basehart?
3. Did anything about the film surprise you?
4. Was the ending satisfying to you?
5. Did the movie remind you of any other films you’ve seen?

Field Trip: “West Side Story” at AMC River East 21 on the big screen June 24

West Side Story on the big screen
Date: June 24 
Where: AMC River East 21, 322 East Illinois, Chicago, IL 
Time: 2:00 p.m.


This electrifying musical, with music by Leonard Bernstein and lyrics from Stephen Sondheim, sets the ageless tragedy of Romeo and Juliet in the slums of 1950’s New York. The event will feature exclusive insight from TCM Host Ben Mankiewicz.

You may order tickets in advance by clicking here. Or purchase tickets at the theater.

If you’d like to join the Chicago Film Club Meetup group for this event, I’ll be holding a Meetup sign by the concessions. Depending how everyone feels, we can go to the theater bar for a discussion afterward.

I will be holding this sign by the concessions.

For more information on the Chicago Film Club, click this link.

Val Lewton: The genius nobody knows

Val Lewton is credited with elevating the horror film to artistic levels during the 1940s. At RKO he set a standard few filmmakers have matched. When other horror films of the period featured creatures and monsters that didn’t exist, Lewton’s movies were populated with ordinary people. The horror did not come from monsters or demons, but from neighbors, coworkers, and those in positions of authority. And Lewton knew that nothing on screen could match the horrors conjured up inside the mind of the viewer. By combining believable characters, literate scripts, film noir-like cinematography, and clever editing, Lewton’s films drummed up more suspense and horror than all the monsters on the Universal lot combined…and that was his goal. Not only were Lewton’s films truly frightening, but they explored unusual (for the times) themes like psychosexual frustration (Cat People) and hints of lesbianism (The Seventh Victim). Alfred Hitchcock would explore these themes further in films like Spellbound, Strangers on a Train, Psycho, and Marni.

Lewton started his movie career working for David O. Selznick as a story editor. While working for Selznick, Lewton had a hand in shaping movie classics like A Tale of Two Cities (1935), A Star is Born (1937), and Rebecca (1940), among others. He’s famous for advising Selznick against buying the rights to Gone with the Wind, calling it “ponderous trash.” Lewton managed to survive that blunder, but he grew tired of working for Selznick.


In 1942, Lewton was named head of the newly formed horror unit at RKO. At the time of his hire, RKO was in financial straits because of their costly relationship with Orson Welles and the failures of Citizen Kane and The Magnificent Ambersons to connect with the public. Lewton’s task was to make horror films that: cost under $150,000 per picture, did not run more than 75 minutes, and used the lurid titles supplied to him by the studio bosses. Starting with Cat People in 1942, Lewton produced a string of successful horror films that helped keep RKO in the black. At RKO, Lewton collaborated with director Jacques Tourneur (Out of the Past, Way of a Gaucho) and gave Robert Wise (The Set Up, The Sound of Music) and Mark Robson (Champion, The Bridges at Toko-Ri) their first assignments as film directors. Although not a household name, Lewton left an indelible mark on the horror film genre and influenced numerous filmmakers, including William Friedkin, Martin Scorsese, George Romero, as well as the aforementioned Alfred Hitchcock to name a few.