Stranger
Cats: Film Noir|This picture falls into a category that we made up at the store. It is called tawdry noir.
This picture is the epitome of tawdry noir. It is also a great movie and was a regular on the screen at Movie Place.
The story follows three kids and the paths they take. Young, orphaned and wealthy, Martha Ivers is living with her cruel aunt. After the third failed attempt to run away from the clutches of her aunt and her overbearing tutor, Martha accidentally kills her aunt. The boy she was going to run away with, Sam Masterson, does just that – he runs away. Martha, however, is in love with Sam. The tutor and his son Walter convince Martha to blame the accident on an intruder. The police buy the story.
Skip ahead 20 years and we find Sam (Van Heflin) accidentally (literally with his car) returning to the small town he fled long ago. He runs into recently paroled Toni Marecek (Lizabeth Scott) who was innocent to begin with. Missing her bus back to her hometown somehow violates her parole and she ends up in jail. Sam goes to see the local authorities to try to get Toni out of jail. The local district attorney is none other than the tutor’s son Walter (Kirk Douglas) who had eventually married Martha (Barbara Stanwyck), became the DA and developed a drinking problem. Walter sees Sam, he believes Sam wants to blackmail Martha and him, and his misunderstanding leads the former friends to tragic revelations about the fatal night and discloses dirty secrets about Martha and Walter. Although Martha is still in love with Sam, he wants nothing to do with her and only wants to be with Toni.
This picture was Kirk Douglas’s debut.� Mr. Douglas, who was a Movie Place favorite, got himself into the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and began getting small parts on Broadway and radio. World War Two suspended his career but when it was over he began working in New York again. While Mr. Douglas was serving in the Navy, a former classmate of his had hit it big. This former classmate insisted that producer Hal Wallis, who had left Warner Brothers and was now at Paramount, screen test Mr. Douglas. Lauren Bacall was the former classmate and she was right, Hal Wallis should and did test Mr. Douglas and the rest is history.
See what I mean by “tawdry noir” and see this one.� You might want to record it though as it will be shown at 2:00 AM on December 14 on Turner Classic Movies.
