99 River Street (1953)

Cab driver Ernie Driscoll is the lead character in 99 River Street, and his luck has soured even before the film starts. The narrative itself starts with a long shot of a prizefight. The camera moves in to show Ernie is one of the fighters, and he is losing the match to his opponent, the reigning heavyweight champion. Then the camera zooms out to show that Ernie is watching a television show that is highlighting his last night as a fighter. Ernie was forced to withdraw from the ring and quit fighting because of the serious injury to his eye that he sustained during this very fight.

Ernie’s wife Pauline isn’t interested in the past. She wants Ernie to turn off the television and finish his dinner. She wants results, especially financial results, now. She and Ernie argue about Ernie’s failure as a fighter, his job as a taxi driver, their lack of money, the necessity that she work in a florist shop. It’s a long list, with one more item to be added in this initial scene between husband and wife: Ernie notices that Pauline is wearing a new bracelet. He doesn’t know where it came from or whether it’s real or rhinestone, as Pauline claims. He is losing his wife, and he’s the only one who doesn’t know it.

You can see 99 River Street online for free. Click here to see it at the Internet Archive.

Ernie drops Pauline at work after their disagreement, then meets his boss Stan at a drugstore before starting his shift as a taxi driver. Stan thinks Ernie can solve his marital problems with a baby and convinces Ernie to sweet-talk Pauline into having a child. Ernie decides it’s worth a try, although viewers know already that this ploy is not going to work. Before Ernie leaves the drugstore, a regular cab customer, Linda James, drops in to tell him that she has the chance to read for a part in a Broadway play called—appropriately enough—They Call It Murder.

(This article about 99 River Street contains spoilers.)

In the meantime, Victor Rawlins stops in at the florist to visit Pauline, and viewers now know for certain that Ernie is too hopeful about a future with his wife. Victor wants Pauline to leave New York City with him. His jewel heist went exactly as planned, and he has $50,000 for both of them. Pauline can’t wait to leave the city—and Ernie—soon enough. At the moment that Victor kisses Pauline to seal their deal, Ernie stops by outside the florist with his box of chocolates and sees Pauline and Victor kissing.

Victor takes the jewels—and Pauline—to the jeweler, Mr. Christopher, who was set to buy the stones, but he won’t do business with a woman present. Victor insists that Pauline stay while he and Mr. Christopher finalize the post-heist transaction. Pauline learns from Mr. Christopher that Victor killed the man from whom he stole the jewels. Now Mr. Christopher has a second reason not to do business with Victor and is even more adamant about not buying the stolen jewels. Mickey, an enforcer for Mr. Christopher, pushes Mickey and Pauline out of Mr. Christopher’s store.

Linda, Ernie’s regular cab customer and aspiring actress, runs into Ernie back at the drugstore and tells him that she needs help because she has killed a man. She wants Ernie to go to the theater where she auditioned for the play and help her. She explains that the producer of the play, Waldo Daggett, would have been willing to give her the part if she would sleep with him. Ernie agrees to help Linda, and when they arrive at the theater, Linda describes to Ernie the attempted rape and that she killed the producer in self-defense. Ernie believes Linda and decides to take Daggett’s body to a gravel pit near the Hudson River. As soon as he puts his hands on Daggett’s body, everyone associated with the play comes out of the shadows because Linda was just using Ernie to audition.

This last act of deception is one too many for Ernie. (Ernie is a nice guy who believes Linda’s story about an attempted rape, only to be duped.) He wants to leave his wife and his life behind, and he goes home to pack. Linda arrives at his apartment to warn him that the theater people have called the police and that there is a warrant for his arrest on charges of assault and battery. Although all the folks at the theater, Linda included, are responsible for the deception and inciting Ernie’s reaction, they have decided to press charges because the publicity would be good for the play. I found this plot detail especially interesting: publicity seeking is nothing new; it was an old ploy, way before the Internet. Linda insists that she has no part in the publicity grab and has withdrawn from the play.

When Ernie returns to his cab, his suitcase in hand and accompanied by Linda, they find Pauline’s body in the backseat. Linda wants to help Ernie. She feels that she owes it to him for the trick she played on him for her audition. Ernie isn’t so sure that he can trust Linda. He’s much more wary about women now that he knows his wife has been cheating on him and that Linda has lied to him once already.

Part of his reasoning is also that Linda should get away while she can so that she can avoid any trouble, but Ernie relents a bit because he could use some help. He tells Linda, “When I was a kid, I thought I’d grow up and meet a girl who would stick in my corner no matter what. Then I grew up. Things aren’t the way you think they’re gonna be when you’re a kid . . .” These lines sum up rather nicely the dilemma that Ernie finds himself in. It’s the kind of disillusionment that is made for noir. It’s also the kind of disillusionment that almost everyone can identify with on some level, although probably not quite so acutely as Ernie Driscoll can.

Ernie gets a lot of help: from Linda, his boss Stan, one of his fellow cab drivers. Victor Rawlins has framed him for Pauline’s murder; the theater folks are pressing charges; the police are pursuing him, first for assault and battery, then for the murder of his wife. Both he and Mr. Christopher are looking for Victor Rawlins: Ernie needs to clear his name, and Mr. Christopher wants the money that Rawlins stole from him, and he is quite willing to let Ernie and Linda serve as collateral damage if that’s what it takes to get his money back.

The film’s title comes from the address of the bar where jewel thief and murderer Victor Rawlins waits for his forged passport from someone named Monk. It’s the Harbor Light Café at 99 River Street in Jersey City, New Jersey. Rawlins is the reason that all the surviving main characters go to the bar in the final sequence. He’s the bait that brings them all together for the final showdown, so to speak. Ernie Driscoll may have lost his last fight in the ring, but he wins his fight with Victor Rawlins in Jersey City outside the Harbor Light Café. Sounds from the ring and echoes of his own words replay in his mind as Ernie pursues and catches Rawlins. He doesn’t have to think of himself as a loser anymore.

I don’t remember how many times I have seen 99 River Street. I think it’s because I have seen so many clips from the film in other contexts: for film classes or as examples posted by other bloggers to illustrate points about film noir. John Payne, who plays Ernie Driscoll, and Evelyn Keyes, who plays Linda James, are two of my noir favorites, and they are fantastic in 99 River Street. Evelyn Keyes turns from conniving actress into a willing partner for Ernie Driscoll, and the transformation is completely believable.

Low-angle shots emphasize the dark turn that Ernie’s life takes. The frequent use of extreme close-ups is one of the hallmarks of noir, and these types of shots in 99 River Street must have been impressive on a large movie theater screen, the way viewers would have seen the film in the 1950s. Every time I see 99 River Street, I see once again why so many turn to it as representative of what is so great about film noir.

August 21, 1953 (Los Angeles), October 2, 1953 (New York City), October 3, 1953 (United States) release dates  •  Directed by Phil Karlson  •  Screenplay by Robert Smith  •  Based on the short story “Crosstown” by George Zuckerman  •  Music by Arthur Lange, Emil Newman  •  Edited by Buddy Small  •  Cinematography by Franz Planer

John Payne as Ernie Driscoll  •  Evelyn Keyes as Linda James  •  Brad Dexter as Victor Rawlins  •  Frank Faylen as Stan Hogan  •  Peggie Castle as Pauline Driscoll  •  Jay Adler as Mr. Christopher  •  Jack Lambert as Mickey  •  Glenn Langan as Lloyd Morgan  •  Eddy Waller as Pop Durkee, the gym owner  •  John Day as Bud  •  Ric Roman as Monk  •  Ian Wolfe as Waldo Daggett  •  Peter Leeds as Nat Finley  •  William Tannen as the theater director  •  Gene Reynolds as Chuck  •  Paul Bryar as the bartender

Produced by Edward Small Productions  •  Distributed by United Artists

Hidden Fear (1957): Murder in Copenhagen

I always enjoy postwar films noir filmed on location. Such films are like video histories, a look into what the location was like after World War II, and, in Europe, that often involves the wreckage left behind by warfare. I was very interested in seeing Hidden Fear, which was filmed on location in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 1956 or 1957. The film is a joint U.S.-Danish production, and apparently it was given only a limited release; many in the United States did not see the film until a television screening in 1963.

The opening credits for Hidden Fear start outside an apartment building. They continue over several scenes, including one of a dark-haired woman running down the apartment building’s fire escape, followed by shots of a police car and the sound of sirens and then a dead body carried out of the apartment building and placed in an ambulance. I wish the credits had been placed to allow these opening scenes to be more prominent because they provide some details that are important for the narrative to come. I did notice that John Payne gets top billing, however. I’m sure the Danish studios producing the film were counting on his star power, and it is amusing that several Danish characters in the film make a point of telling Mike Brent how much they like Americans.

The murder victim is Tony Martinelli, the boyfriend of Susan Brent and her partner in a nightclub act. Susan Brent has been arrested for Martinelli’s murder. Mike Brent arrives in Copenhagen to help her (she is his sister), which is the start of the narrative after the opening credits. It’s never made clear why he comes to her aid because he’s not particularly fond of her. He even says as much to the Danish police officer, Lieutenant Egon Knudsen, who greets him and with whom he will be working on the murder case. Mike Brent is very straitlaced and conservative, and he doesn’t approve of his sister’s occupation, choice of boyfriend, and her lifestyle. During one of his conversations with her in the police station, he accuses her of lying to him about her boyfriend’s criminal activities and about her involvement. After Mike slaps her and accuses her of being a tramp, Lieutenant Knudsen decides to intervene. He enters the interrogation room to interrupt Mike.

• Lieutenant Egon Knudsen: “Mike, we don’t work this way.”

• Mike Brent: “Sometimes it’s the only way.”

• Lieutenant Knudsen: “When one way serves, it’s trouble. A man can lose his balance and try too hard, and do things and say things that he wouldn’t let anyone else do and say.”

The lieutenant has a very gentle way of pointing out that Mike Brent is veering toward police brutality. Mike isn’t even trying to cover up his willingness to use force to get what he wants out of a suspect, even if she is his own sister. The other characters in the film may profess their fondness for Americans, but Mike seems willing to tarnish the U.S. postwar reputation all by himself.

Susan tells Mike that she hated Tony Martinelli, which gives her a motive for killing him. Martinelli stole money from her and cheated on her with women in every town they visited while touring. But Susan insists that she knew nothing of his criminal activities and had nothing to do with his murder. She does mention that someone named Inge was Tony’s girlfriend in Copenhagen. Susan admits to all of this in her first conversation with her brother in years. She also tells Mike that her friend Virginia Kelly might know something about Martinelli’s activities.

Mike Brent meets Virginia Kelly in a ritzy jazz club. Her character provides some romantic interest for Mike and some mystery, too. How much does she know about Tony Martinelli, Susan Brent, and Tony’s murder? What does she know about the counterfeiting that Lieutenant Knudsen has uncovered? Mike goes to Martinelli’s apartment to investigate, but he does this on his own, without telling Lieutenant Knudsen or anyone else in the Danish police. But he is not the only one keeping back information on the case.

Mike hears someone inside Martinelli’s apartment, but he won’t break the police seal (string with sealing wax!) outside the front door—not because of an attack of conscience but because a neighbor’s child is watching him. So he goes outside, climbs across the roof, and enters through a window to get inside. He catches a man, someone named Jacobsen, breaking open clubs (they look like maracas to me!) that Susan Brent purchased for her nightclub act with Martinelli. Mike Brent and Jacobsen get into a fistfight (one of several for John Payne’s character), and Jacobsen escapes.

Mike Brent finds counterfeit bills inside the clubs, which is how he learns of the counterfeiting operation. Lieutenant Knudsen doesn’t tell Mike or Susan Brent about the counterfeiting connected to Martinelli until Mike finds the bills in Martinelli’s apartment. It’s quite possible that Lieutenant Knudsen would never have mentioned counterfeiting as a way to learn what Susan Brent knows. It seems that two can play at Mike Brent’s game of deception, although Lieutenant Knudsen doesn’t resort to violence or intimidation like Mike does.

The investigations into Martinelli’s murder and his connection to a counterfeiting ring are complicated and confusing. Characters come and go without introducing themselves or being introduced by others. The progressive alternative jazz on the soundtrack was distracting and loud on the DVD that I watched. The location shooting is a plus, but background noises sometimes overwhelm the dialogue. I had an easier time hearing what people were saying the second time that I watched the DVD because I turned up the volume for dialogue and turned it down when the music was the only sound on the soundtrack. But this technique wouldn’t have helped viewers in movie theaters. The film must have been difficult to follow, and apparently reviewers noted the production problems at the time.

Another draw for me, in addition to the on-location shooting, is the star: John Payne. Payne plays criminals in some wonderful films noir, including Larceny (1948), with Dan Duryea. In Hidden Fear, he plays Mike Brent, a no-nonsense, self-righteous Texas police officer who travels to Copenhagen to help his sister. He’s very believable as a criminal in other films, and although his role in Hidden Fear is in law enforcement, he is an officer who will push past the boundaries of right and wrong if he thinks it’s necessary to get what he wants. It’s easy to forget that one of John Payne’s most famous films is Miracle on 34th Street!

Hidden Fear reminds me of another film noir, Gunman in the Streets. Both were filmed in European cities after World War II (Hidden Fear in Denmark, Gunman in the Streets in Paris), and neither one was widely distributed in the United States. The main character in Gunman in the Streets is a U.S. army deserter who specializes in working the black market in postwar Paris. Mike Brent in Hidden Fear is a Texas police officer who is willing to resort to violence and intimidation to get the information that he wants. It’s easy to see that both films, with their themes of desertion, police brutality, and criminal behavior, would have been hard to accept in the United States after World War II.

Click here for my article about Gunman in the Streets.

I found myself taking in a lot of background detail for both films. I enjoyed each film’s particular view of life in a postwar European city. And I enjoyed Hidden Fear in spite of its production flaws. It has a lot to offer, especially for anyone interested in history—and, of course, film noir. And it has plenty of lines of dialogue worth listening for. For example, one criminal (Hartman) says to another (Gibbs) about his wife’s impending mental health crisis: “My wife walks near the darkness again.” The actor portrays a lot of resignation in that one line, so fitting for noir.

But so is the murder of Tony Martinelli, which opens the film. Everything after that revolves around solving the crime and clearing Susan Brent. Her brother Mike Brent is a force to be reckoned with, and his arrival in Copenhagen right after the murder signals his takeover of the case—but not the plot. Mike may be tough and he may be willing to bend the rules, but he never forgets the reason that he is in Copenhagen.

This article about Hidden Fear is my entry for the Classic Movie Blog Association’s 2022 Fall Blogathon: Movies Are Murder. Click here for the complete list of blogathon participants and links to their blogs. The list is updated each day of the blogathon, from November 7 to November 11.

July 3, 1957, release date  •  Directed by André de Toth (from Pitfall)  •  Screenplay by André de Toth and John Hawkins  •  Based on a story by Robin Howard  •  Music by Hans Schreiber  •  Edited by David Wages  •  Cinematography by Wilfred M. Cline

John Payne as Mike Brent  •  Alexander Knox as Hartman  •  Conrad Nagel as Arthur Miller  •  Natalie Norwick as Susan Brent  •  Anne Neyland as Virginia Kelly  •  Kjeld Jacobsen as Lieutenant Egon Knudsen  •  Paul Erling as Gibbs  •  Marianne Schleiss as Helga Hartman  •  Knud Rex as Jacobsen  •  Elsie Albiin as Inga Jorgensen  •  Buster Larsen as Hans Ericksen  •  Preben Mahrt as a Danish detective  •  Kjeld Petersen as Jensen, a lawyer  •  Mogens Brandt as Lund, a lawyer

Distributed by United Artists  •  Produced by St. Aubrey-Kohn Productions Inc.  •  Produced at Palladium Studios, Copenhagen, Denmark