Bury Me Dead (1947)

It pays to ignore first impressions, especially when they are several years old. I saw Bury Me Dead several years ago and, to be honest, I really didn’t remember enjoying it a whole lot. But I decided to see it again, and I am really glad I did. True, it is a B film with a very low budget, and this lack of money shows in almost everything about the film, including the first time that the star, June Lockhart (playing Barbara Carlin), appears on-screen. She is supposed to be dead, and she shows up to attend her own funeral. The veil she is wearing looks like a thin piece of untrimmed burlap died black, pleated with pins, and thrown over her head!

In spite of the low budget, Bury Me Dead portrays a tight story of less than seventy minutes. It is deadly serious (pun alert!) about its murder and other crimes, but a lot of the story is told with humor that makes the film surprisingly fun to watch. The cinematographer John Alton does a fantastic job making the best of the budget to create shadowy sets that emphasize the action and the characters’ emotions. The film is worth watching just to see a master’s lighting techniques. Just imagine what it would have looked like if the print was restored to its original condition.

Bury Me Dead is available for free online. Click here to watch it at the Internet Archive. I watched the film on DVD because it came with audio commentary (by Jay Felton), but the print quality is rather poor both on the DVD and at the Internet Archive.

The opening credits appear over a minimalist shot of a bare, leafless, dead-looking tree that looks more like an artist’s rendering, then the film cuts right away to a conflagration. A barn is supposed to be burning, but Jay Fenton says in his commentary that it is stock footage used with rear projection. (I found it convincing.) Horses neighing and running, with some being rescued, add to the chaos. Viewers learn that someone, Barbara Carlin, is unaccounted for and presumed dead. Right away, before the fire is even out, the housekeeper, Mrs. Haskins, points the finger at Rod Carlin; she thinks he is responsible for his wife’s death. She has no evidence to back up her suspicions, so Rod is free to go when his lawyer Mike Dunne (played by Hugh Beaumont) shows up to take charge.

Barbara Carlin and her husband Rod are having some problems in their marriage, and she had decided to take a break and spend time at Arrowhead, her summer place, at the time of the fire. She reads about the fire and her own death in the newspaper. (This film was released in 1947, way before the Internet and social media were introduced.) Rather than rush back to reveal that she is alive and well, Barbara decides to show up at her own funeral to find out what she can. Who is in the casket at the burial? Was her death an accident, or was it really murder? And if it was murder, who wanted her dead?

(This article about Bury Me Dead contains some spoilers.)

After the ceremony, Barbara asks for a ride with Mike Dunn. He doesn’t recognize her behind the tacky black veil, nor does he recognize her voice (which was a bit unbelievable for me, quite honestly). But when she lifts her veil and reveals her true identity, Mike is in a state of shock. He asks her, reasonably enough, why let the funeral go on? But Barbara wants to know if someone really is trying to kill her, and she wants that person or persons to think that she is dead. Mike says that it was an accident, but Barbara has her doubts.

Next, Barbara and Mike visit Rusty, Barbara’s adopted sister, because Barbara noticed that she did not come to the funeral. Rusty is not home, but they get an idea of her current state of mind by examining the books she has left lying around: Misconceptions of Psychoanalysis and The Neurotic Personality. (Later in the film, Rusty tries her hand at amateur psychology and tries to convince Rod Carlin that he is really in love with her.)

In a flashback, Barbara explains to Mike the shock she and Rusty both suffered when their father died: Rusty was never adopted by the father, and Barbara and Rusty aren’t related by blood. They aren’t the sisters that they both thought they were. Rusty’s insecurities were heightened by this revelation. Rusty was in love and is still in love with Barbara’s husband Rod. There’s a bit of competition and jealousy between them, but it seems to come mostly from Rusty. Or was Barbara always insincere about her feeling for her younger sister?

Rusty wasn’t the only complicating factor in Barbara and Rod Carlin’s marriage. Rusty became infatuated with a prizefighter named George Mandley, but Barbara disapproved of him. George is mostly beefcake and not too bright, but Barbara falls for him anyway, much to Rusty’s and Ron’s consternation. But it isn’t too long before George Mandley’s secretary Helen Lawrence becomes Rod Carlin’s mistress.

It quickly becomes evident through the flashbacks and their many revelations that there is no shortage of suspects if Barbara’s death is indeed a murder. Each flashback fills in details and casts suspicion on different characters as they are introduced. A lot of the story is told in flashback, and almost everyone could have a motive for killing Barbara. The remainder of the film follows Barbara’s investigation of her own murder. It also includes more humor than is typical for film noir: lots of puns, physical slapstick, dark banter between Rod and Barbara Carlin about her death, and the fight scenes between Barbara and Helen and between George and Rod.

The DVD commentary by Jay Fenton, a film restoration consultant, has lots of great information about the film, the actors, and the production. Here are just a few of the points that he made:

◊ Producers Releasing Corporation (PRC) was considered the lowest of the B studios, but it managed to attract talent in all departments.

◊ PRC had no interest in preservation or restoration. The company did not renew the copyrights for its films, including Bury Me Dead.

◊ Bury Me Dead is a comic noir and has many comic moments. The first one is the double-take by the cab driver taking Barbara Carlin to her own funeral. It lets viewers know that the film will have comic elements. The humor also deflects suspicion: Viewers find it hard to believe that a comical character can commit murder.

◊ Many don’t consider Bury Me Dead a noir at all because of the humor. But the humor serves a purpose (see above). The comic noir is the most unusual subgenre of noir.

◊ Sets from Bury Me Dead were also used in The Amazing Mr. X.

◊ The cinematography is beautiful, especially the indoor scenes. John Alton put the same effort into all his films, both B and A.

◊ Alton liked to light the good women so that their lips and eyes glow, their hair is backlit. The femme fatale, if there is such a character, is lit with darker lighting.

◊ The fight scenes are well staged. The fight scene between Rod Carlin and George Mandley used stunt performers.

For viewers who have watched June Lockhart and Hugh Beaumont in television shows like Lassie, Lost in Space, and Leave It to Beaver, it’s a pleasant change to see them in a darker film, even if it does include more comedy than is typical of film noir. The cinematography and the lighting give it a polish that minimizes the tight budget, especially once Barbara Carlin gets rid of that awful burlap veil.

So there really is plenty to recommend Bury Me Dead. It’s free to watch online, and it’s a great way to spend about seventy minutes.

October 18, 1947, release date  •  Directed by Bernard Vorhaus  •  Screenplay by Dwight V. Babcock, Karen DeWolf  •  Based on the radio play Bury Me Dead by Irene Winston  •  Music by Emil Cadkin  •  Edited by W. Donn Hayes  •  Cinematography by John Alton

Cathy O’Donnell as Rusty  •  June Lockhart as Barbara Carlin  •  Hugh Beaumont as Michael Dunn  •  Mark Daniels as Rod Carlin  •  Greg McClure as George Mandley  •  Milton Parsons as Jeffers, the butler  •  Virginia Farmer as Mrs. Haskins, the housekeeper  •  Sonia Darrin as Helen Lawrence  •  Cliff Clark as Detective Archer  •  Charles Lane as District Attorney Brighton

Distributed by Eagle-Lion Films  •  Produced by Ben Stoloff Productions, Producers Releasing Corporation (PRC)

The Spiritualist (The Amazing Mr. X) (1948)

July 29, 1948, release date

Directed by Bernard Vorhaus

Screenplay by Crane Wilbur, Muriel Roy Bolton, Ian McLellan Hunter

Based on a story by Crane Wilbur

Music by Alexander Laszlo

Edited by Norman Colbert

Cinematography by John Alton

Turhan Bey as Alexis

Lynn Bari as Christine Faber

Cathy O’Donnell as Janet Burke

Richard Carlson as Martin Abbott

Donald Curtis as Paul Faber

Virginia Gregg as Emily

Harry Mendoza as Detective Hoffman

Distributed by Eagle-Lion Films

Produced by Ben Stoloff Productions

This may be the first time that I describe a film noir as fun and entertaining, but The Spiritualist certainly was a fun film noir. It reminds me of the films that I used to watch on television years ago, on weekday afternoons when I should have been doing my homework. And this may be the first time that I wasn’t really sure what to call this film. The Spiritualist also goes by the title The Amazing Mr. X, and for the longest time, I couldn’t figure out why.

I’m sure no one ever intended to make both the plot and the title of this film mysterious. Was one title used for release in Great Britain? For release around the world? Was one a working title that was abandoned after test audiences saw the film before wide release? No one in the film is referred to as Mr. X, not even Alexis, the spiritualist. He’s the only one with an x in his name, so maybe viewers were just supposed to assume a connection. That seemed a bit weak to me, but finally I found the following information from TCM:

The title on the print viewed, The Amazing Mr. X, was apparently used for the film’s reissue and subsequent television release.

The Spiritualist is the title on the DVD that I watched (it was published by Columbia Classics and Sony Pictures). Based on the DVD and the information from Turner Classic Movies (TCM), I decided to go with The Spiritualist.

Now, to the film, which is really much more than a film noir. The mystery includes a dead husband supposedly calling to his wife from the grave. Is this film about a spiritual connection, or is the wife in need of some mental health care? The film starts with Christine Faber, the wife, looking out her bedroom window in the house overlooking the beach. (The opening credits appeared over this same beach.) She is approached from behind by a shadow; it appears to be a person holding a gun. But it’s Janet Burke, Christine’s sister, and she is holding nothing more than a hairbrush. Christine is standing in front of her window because she thought she heard the voice of her late husband Paul, who has been dead for two years now, calling to her.

Christine and Janet talk about Christine’s boyfriend, a lawyer named Martin Abbott. He plans to propose to Christine, and Janet is determined that her sister doesn’t miss what she thinks is a wonderful opportunity. Paul is dead, and nothing can bring him back. After such a sinister introduction and her sensible views about Paul, Janet comes across as flighty, a romantic who is barely out of her teenage years, during this conversation. I was never quite sure if Janet was to be trusted or not. The conversation between the sisters ends because Janet has a date of her own and leaves for a night out.

Christine talks to Martin on the phone and tells him that she would like to walk along the beach to meet him. On the beach, she hears the voice of her late husband calling her name several times. Then she literally bumps into Alexis, who seems to know a lot about her and her husband. I’m not sure if the filmmakers intended this, but Alexis comes across as odd for more than his extensive knowledge about Christine. He is also standing on the beach in a suit and tie, rather formal attire for night of sand and crashing waves! Alexis draws a distinction between himself, a psychic, and Martin, a very logical lawyer. He knows a lot about Martin Abbott, too. He gives Christine his business card, in case she would ever like to pursue her connections to her late husband. From this introduction of Alexis, the audience knows that Christine shouldn’t contact this man. And, of course, she does.

(This blog post about The Spiritualist contains some spoilers.)

A series of strange coincidences convinces Christine that Paul must be trying to contact her from the other side. But when she talks about these coincidences with Janet, she can’t prove any of it, and Janet cannot be convinced when she sees the evidence for herself. It seemed to me while I watched these scenes that Christine was being gaslighted, and I still had the feeling that Janet might not be as flighty as she came across after the opening of the film. This contradiction sets up the ambivalence and doubt that keep viewers guessing about what is going and who is responsible.

Christine mentions to Janet that she would like to talk to Alexis, the “psychic consultant” (so reads his business card) that she met on the beach. Based on Janet’s reaction, Christine starts going to Alexis for consultations in secret. The film cuts forward in time, to a scene when Janet and Martin follow Christine to Alexis’s house. Janet is trying to convince Martin that Christine could be in trouble, and now he is convinced. He and Janet consult a private detective, Detective Hoffman, and he tells them that all the psychics he has investigated are phonies.

The three of them decide to bait Alexis by sending in Janet, someone he doesn’t know. She goes to his house and is greeted with all the same stunts that greeted Christine, for example, the front door to Alexis’s house closing automatically behind her, the pet bird cawing on its perch in the living room. Alexis observes Janet through a two-way mirror as she touches up her lipstick and polishes a cigarette case. Alexis purposely leaves his fingerprints on the cigarette case, and I finally realized why Janet polished it in the first place. But Janet has fallen under his spell, and she has fallen in love with Alexis. When Janet leaves Alexis’s house, she is in such a fog that she walks past the car driven by Martin, with the detective in the passenger seat. She tells Martin that she got Alexis’s fingerprints but that she erased them. The film has some moments of humor, and one moment comes when Janet gets into the backseat of the car; Martin gives her a quick indelicate shove because he wants evidence, not another woman enchanted by Alexis.

The rest of the plot is a wonderfully entangled web in which no one can trust anyone else and no one knows what to believe. Viewers are caught up in this, too, especially when they find out what Alexis is up to and the tricks he uses to scam his clients into handing over more and more money. But even Alexis has a surprise or two up his sleeve.

I enjoyed this film much more than I thought I would. I didn’t have high hopes about it; the confusion about the title didn’t help much. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but the plot provided some real surprises. It was great to watch a film that kept me guessing so effortlessly.

But I especially enjoyed the way the sisters, Janet and Christine, were compared and contrasted throughout. Christine appears to be the sensible older sister and Janet is the flighty younger one. Then Christine falls for Alexis’s psychic scams, and Janet eventually does, too. But it’s Janet, the younger sister, who finally realizes what’s been going on all along and does some investigating of her own. In another interesting twist, she has fallen in love with Alexis and still loves him, even after she finds out what he’s been up to. She is the reason that he redeems himself in the end.