Whiplash (1948)

Dane Clark and Zachary Scott are two of my noir favorites, and both star in Whiplash. I was really looking forward to seeing it, but I started dragging my feet when I learned that boxing was part of the plot. Boxing is not one of my favorite sports or film noir themes, but it was a mistake to let the boxing dissuade me. Yes, the film starts in the ring, but almost the entire film—approximately seventy-six out of ninety minutes—is an extended flashback, and it has little to do with boxers in a ring.

The film does start with Mike Angelo (played by Dane Clark) of California fighting Duke Carney of New York City at Madison Square Garden, and Mike is on the losing end. An announcer says that the middleweight challenge of the world should take fifteen rounds, but Mike is fading and almost knocked out in the fourth. While Mike recovers in his corner of the ring, he thinks about returning to a California beach, and the film turns into an extended flashback, where Mike is on that beach making a sand sculpture of two fighters, with a crowd of children looking on.

A boy calls Mike from the bluff overlooking the beach and tells him that Sam wants to talk to him. When Mike arrives in Sam’s bar and restaurant, Sam tells him that he sold one of Mike’s paintings. Mike is upset because, for him, his paintings are just studies, and they are not for sale. Mike wants to know where the purchaser, a woman, lives so that he can get the painting back. Sam tells him that she lives in Bungalow C at the Casa de Oro Hotel in Monterey.

Mike goes to Laurie’s hotel bungalow and finds the front door unlocked. He lets himself in (would he do this if he had known the purchaser was a woman?) and starts investigating some of Laurie’s possessions in her bedroom. He is so absorbed that he doesn’t notice when Laurie returns from the beach and finds him going through her things. He comes off as a creep, even though the music on the soundtrack makes the incident seem romantic. Laurie apparently thinks he is creepy, too, and starts for her phone to call the police.

Mike talks her out of making the phone call, but he can’t talk Laurie out of taking her money back and returning the painting. But now Mike doesn’t care because he likes her reason for buying it in the first place: Laurie says that she thinks the artist shows imagination. When Mike introduces himself as Mike Gordon, Laurie realizes that she is talking to the painter. She still won’t return the painting, but Mike does convince Laurie to go out on a date with him that evening.

Laurie and Mike have dinner at Sam’s bar and restaurant. She tells Mike that she used to sing professionally, in another life about which she reveals nothing. After dinner, Mike takes Laurie home and insists on coming in because he wants to talk to her. He asks her a lot of questions, and she remains evasive. She asks Mike to leave. He says that he will if she will go for a swim with him, he won’t ask any more questions. She agrees. On the beach, under the stars, Mike declares that he has already fallen in love with Laurie. She is taken aback at firsts because they barely know one another. Mike is pretty convincing, however, at least for Laurie, and she gives in to a passionate kiss.

It was hard for me to believe that Laurie would fall for Mike in the first place, or at least as quickly as she did. Mike was a man who had invaded her home and was going through her things (checking out her intimate clothing, sniffing her perfume bottle) when she came home from the beach. Why didn’t she run out and look for help? And when they arrive back at her front door after their first date, she gives Mike her key and lets him open her front door. I found that one simple act confusing, even a little alarming. Was this a custom in 1948 America? Why would a woman trust a near stranger with the key to her front door? And how much can she trust a man who proclaims his love for her after less than twenty-four hours?

Laurie not only trusts Mike; she has fallen in love with him. She comes to Sam’s place and talks with Sam about Mike. While Sam leaves to get some coffee for himself and Laurie, a man (Trask) walks in and plays a song on the jukebox. Laurie spots Trask and leaves the restaurant, seemingly in fear, and perhaps with good reason because Trask follows her out the door.

(This article about Whiplash contains spoilers.)

Mike learns from the front desk at Laurie’s hotel that she has checked out and left no message for him, no forwarding address. All he finds is a package that she wants forwarded to a Dr. Arnold Vincent in New York City. The package is wrapped, but it looks just about the same size as the painting that Laurie purchased from Sam in the restaurant. Mike becomes depressed after Laurie’s sudden departure. Sam tries to convince him to go to New York City, look for Laurie, and then go to Paris and return to painting if he cannot find her. Mike finally agrees.

In New York City, Mike is unsuccessful in finding Dr. Arnold Vincent. Like Laurie, he seems to have disappeared, too. Mike has rented a room where he paints, including one of Laurie from memory. His neighbor Chris Sherwood invites him out for an evening at the Pelican Club with her and a Texas oil man, Tex Sanders. (The oil man likes Chris; Chris likes Mike.) At the club, Chris and Mike learn that Laurie is one of the acts. Laurie is alarmed when she spots Mike in the audience. She runs off the stage when her song is done and refuses to talk to him when he comes backstage.

Trask, the stranger who showed up at Sam’s place in California, wants Mike to leave the nightclub and is willing to fight him. One of the man’s friends, Duke Carney (the prizefighter in the film’s opening sequence), also wants to fight him, but they don’t get anywhere because Mike is good with his fists. Someone named Costello finally comes up behind Mike and knocks him out with a handgun to the head. Costello and Trask bring Mike into the office of their boss, the owner of the club, Rex Durant (played by Zachary Scott), and Laurie follows them inside. Mike learns that Durant is Laurie’s husband and that he is confined to a wheelchair.

After Durant learns how Mike handled himself with Trask and Carney, he wants to know if Mike is interested in fighting professionally because he wants another fighter to win for him in the ring once again. Durant was once a prizefighter, but an injury in the ring paralyzed him. Mike refuses at first and walks out. Laurie meets Mike outside the club and warns him about getting involved with Durant. Her interference is enough to change Mike’s mind: He decides then to fight for Durant.

Mike reports the next day to Durant’s gym and learns that Dr. Arnold Vincent, the one that he had been looking for when he first arrived in New York City, is the gym’s doctor. He learns a lot now and quickly about Dr. Arnold Vincent. The doctor is Laurie’s brother, and Durant blames the doctor for his paralysis, even though he had nothing to do with Durant’s accident. And then he sees the painting that Laurie bought hanging in the doctor’s office.

Mike starts training and becomes a ruthless fighter. His drive comes from wanting revenge for his unrequited love for Laurie Durant and for what he perceives as her deception. Laurie is distressed at his transformation. She tells Mike that Rex is using him, but Mike is happy being a fighter. He doesn’t feel anything anymore, and he is happiest about that. Like Laurie’s brother, however, Mike becomes enmeshed in Durant’s schemes and convinces himself it is all for the best—until he is in the ring fighting and unaware that he was already seriously injured before the fight began.

The fight in the opening sequence may have started as a losing one for Mike, but when the long flashback is over, the fighting and the pause seem to have knocked some sense into him. The film moves back to the present with the referee’s whistle, back to Mike in his corner of the ring and the championship fight. Mike wins the championship but then collapses onto the canvas. Dr. Vincent arrives and says that Mike has been fighting with a concussion and needs to get to the hospital immediately. The two men in Laurie’s life that she cares for most—Mike and her brother—finally come to their senses and save her from a loveless and bitter marriage.

As I mentioned, it was already hard for me to believe that Laurie would fall for Mike in the first place: He invaded her home uninvited; he wants her key to let her in her own home after their date; he proclaims that he is in love with after their first date. And in New York, when Mike finally agrees to train as a fighter, he becomes crude, angry, and cruel. Laurie finally starts to wonder about Mike, but she forgives him rather quickly when he makes a turnaround after hearing about her marital situation and the predicament her brother has found himself in. Mike helps to save her from a bad marriage to Durant, but what happens when he starts being suspicious of her again for any reason at all?

If you can look past all that, maybe the attraction between these two would seem more natural. But I still had my original questions, and more questions: When Laurie found Mike (then a complete stranger) in her bedroom, why didn’t she run out and look for help? Was she afraid making a scene would attract enough attention to make the news and alert her husband? If that was the reason in California, it couldn’t have been in New York City, after she had already returned to her husband and watched Mike turn into a vicious boxer. His transformation back into a concerned lover was a bit rushed for me. The title of the film, Whiplash, could easily apply to Mike’s changing attitudes toward Laurie.

Dane Clark is one of my noir favorites, but he didn’t pull off the whiplash changes in his character Mike Gordon well enough to convince me like he convinced Laurie, although I was relieved that they reunited in the end. Zachary Scott plays a type of character for which he is most famous: a thug with a mean streak. But Scott is convincing. How many actors can be so menacing in a wheelchair?

My description may make Whiplash sound like a soap opera, but that is not true of the film. The love story between Laurie and Mike is the central theme, and it is the motivation for almost everything that Mike does. It’s true that I found it to be the weakest part of the story, but there is more to the film’s narrative than the love story. Whiplash is a film noir after all, and Zachary Scott and his henchmen have enough menace to give the film the tension that it needs. I enjoyed Whiplash in spite of all my questions about Laurie’s feelings for Mike and my reservations about boxing as a central theme.

December 24, 1948, release date  •  Directed by Lewis Seiler  •  Screenplay by Maurice Geraghty, Harriet Frank Jr., Gordon Kahn  •  Based on a story by Kenneth Earl  •  Music by William Lava, Franx Waxman  •  Edited by Frank Magee  •  Cinematography by Peverell Marley

Dane Clark as Michael Gordon  •  Alexis Smith as Laurie Rogers  •  Zachary Scott as Rex Durant  •  Eve Arden as Chris Sherwood  •  Jeffrey Lynn as Dr. Arnold Vincent  •  S. Z. Sakall as Sam  •  Alan Hale as Terrance O’Leary  •  Douglas Kennedy as Costello  •  Ransom M. Sherman as Tex Sanders  •  Freddie Steele as Duke Carney  •  Robert Lowell as Trask  •  Don McGuire as Jimmy Harkus  •  Jimmie Dodd as Bill, the piano player  •  John Harmon as Kid McGee  •  Charles Marsh as Charlie, the hotel manager

Distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures  •  Produced by Warner Bros.-First National

Force of Nature (2024)

I looked forward to seeing Force of Nature because I have read all three of the novels in Jane Harper’s Aaron Falk trilogy and because I have seen The Dry, the film adaptation of the first novel in the series. I enjoyed Force of Nature (based on the second novel in the series), and I guess I could say that I did so in spite of the expectations set up by its subtitle: The Dry 2. Force of Nature is hardly a direct sequel to The Dry, and the novel Force of Nature doesn’t have any subtitle at all. I am guessing that it was added as a marketing gimmick: The original film was a huge success, especially in Australia, home country of Harper and her creation Aaron Falk, but the second film in the series is very much worth seeing based on its own merits.

The three novels of the Aaron Falk trilogy, by Jane Harper, have been published in the United States after their initial publication in Australia:

◊ The Dry (2017, first U.S. edition; copyright 2016)

◊ Force of Nature (2018, first U.S. edition; copyright 2017)

◊ Exiles (2023, first U.S. edition; copyright 2022)

Force of Nature begins with a few opening credits, first on a black background, but then it switches to foreboding shots of nature. By the time that the camera pans down to ground level and a single large plant, the music on the soundtrack has let viewers know that the story ahead will be mysterious and dark and that nature will be a commanding presence. The soundtrack makes a huge difference by emphasizing the difficult terrain, the bad weather, the danger ahead, all to create a somber mood. The sounds of nature—birds calling and insects chirping night and day—add to the mysteriousness. The film uses original music (composed, arranged, and produced by Peter Raeburn) and an orchestra to perform the music score.

After the title card, the film cuts to a group of four women emerging suddenly from the thick vegetation and flagging down a passing car. One of the women was bitten by a venomous spider. A fifth, Alice Russell, is missing. One of the women asks the strangers in the car about her and then screams her name when she gets no answer. All five women had started a corporate retreat a few days earlier, and all five work for Bailey Tennants Finances. Jill and Daniel Bailey, owners of the company, are under investigation by the federal Australian government for money laundering and other types of corporate corruption.

(This article about Force of Nature contains spoilers.)

Aaron Falk and his partner Carmen are called to join the investigation because Alice Russell was an informant working for them in the corporate corruption investigation. She had stolen some money from her employer, and when the federal agents discovered her theft, they used that information as leverage to convince her to gather evidence. Before they arrive on scene, Aaron tells Carmen that he thinks he pushed Alice too hard. He is afraid that the pressure he applied caused her to take chances that might have led to trouble, even danger, on the corporate retreat. She is lost in a fictional remote area of Australia called the Giralang Ranges, an area that Aaron Falk knows well. He respects its power. He knows from personal experience how unforgiving the Australian bush can be. He lost his mother on a camping trip when he was a young boy in the very same area where the five women were lost.

The investigation into Alice’s disappearance is the main plot thread in the film. It is intertwined with flashbacks to Aaron’s childhood and the family trip to the same area, the Giralang Ranges. Additional flashbacks reveal Alice Russell’s first involvement with the federal case and the start of her work as an undercover informant. Another plot thread without any flashbacks involves Martin Kovacs, a serial killer who lived off the land in the Giralang Ranges and preyed on women at about the same time that Aaron’s mother died. Kovacs used his pet dog to lure the women and then abducted and killed them. Many of the bodies of his victims have never been found.

As I mentioned, Aaron Falk expressed some doubts to his partner Carmen about the handling of the case. He is afraid that the pressure he applied caused Alice to take chances. He is the one to find her dead, which only increases his feelings of ambiguity about the work that he and his partner are doing and the methods used to get the evidence they need, not only in the case against Bailey Tennants but in their other cases. This creates some tension between Aaron and his partner. Carmen tends to see the world more in black and white. She reasons that Alice stole money from Bailey Tennants Finances, and it is her fault for choosing to steal money in the first place. Aaron, on the other hand, worries that they hold some responsibility for how Alice reacted and for her death on the company retreat, even after he learns of the circumstances surrounding her death.

There is also a bit of tension between Aaron Falk and Sergeant Vince King of the local police force. King is in charge of the search for Alice Russell, and he is not quite as convinced as Aaron Falk that she is still alive on the Giralang Ranges. In addition, he was working on the police force when the serial killer Martin Kovacs was terrorizing the area. When King hears from the survivors that they spent a night in a cabin that could have belonged to Kovacs, he also becomes interested in finding it and possibly some clues about the missing and murdered women because he would like to help their families find closure. Aaron accuses Sergeant King of being more interested in Kovacs and his murder victims from years ago than he is in finding Alice Russell, who could still be alive.

All these plot threads work well in the narrative and give the story more depth. Each overlaps the others so that the details are important for all. The main characters, including the five women on the corporate retreat, are multidimensional, and the multilayered plot helps the story rather than hinders it, even if it makes the overall narrative more complicated. The tension coming from so many sources weighs particularly heavily on Aaron Falk, and it also weighs on viewers as they try to figure out who knows what.

The flashbacks to Aaron Falk’s childhood and the loss of his mother emphasize how much he knows about the Giralang Ranges and how dangerous and confusing they can be. He knows well how quickly things can turn bad in the Australian bush. It gives him more sympathy for the women and for Alice Russell’s plight. Alice may have stolen money from her employer, but that doesn’t mean she deserved to lose her way in the Giralang Ranges and not come out alive.

I always find that seeing a noir film a second time helps with the details, and this is true of Force of Nature. The switch from the present investigation to two sets of flashbacks can be a little bit complicated, and repeat viewings can help keep details sorted. I have seen the film several times, and each time I see more depth and nuance, which is a huge plus in my view. For me, the repeat viewings also allowed me to separate the story more and more from the first film in the series, The Dry, which I found to be another great plus because both are such good films.

Click here for my article about The Dry (2020).

All the novels and thus the two films are related, but their plots don’t build on one another. The mysteries and their solutions are distinct and separate. Both The Dry and Force of Nature use nature as a central theme, but The Dry is hot, sunny, and, of course, dry. Force of Nature is cold, cloudy, and damp. Whatever extreme form it takes, nature is a force to reckon with. Aaron Falk is the main character and his life and his past do take center stage; however, it’s unfair to make any other comparisons between the two films. It is unfortunate that the title card for Force of Nature includes a subtitle, perhaps setting up unrealistic expectations for viewers. The films should really be approached as two separate works.

Eric Bana is great in the role of Aaron Falk. He is completely believable as a dedicated federal agent and a person trying to keep his perspective in a very complicated situation. His past trauma related to the loss of his mother gives him some empathy toward the women involved in his and Carmen’s investigation. He can understand how difficult it must have been for them when they were lost and confused in the wilderness. I enjoyed the film immensely, so much so that I hope the third novel in the series, Exiles, is adapted for the screen, too.

January 21, 2024 (Melbourne, Australia); February 8, 2024 (Australia)  •  Directed by Robert Connolly  •  Screenplay by Robert Connolly  •  Based on the novel Force of Nature by Jane Harper  •  Music by Peter Raeburn  •  Edited by Alexandre De Franceschi, Maria Papoutsis  •  Cinematography by Andrew Commis

Eric Bana as Aaron Falk  •   Archie Thomson as young Aaron Falk  •  Anna Torv as Alice Russell  •  Deborra-Lee Furness as Jill Bailey  •  Robin McLeavy as Lauren  •  Sisi Stringer as Bethany (aka Beth)  •  Lucy Ansell as Brianna (aka Bree)  •  Jacqueline McKenzie as Carmen Cooper  •  Tony Briggs as Ian Chase  •  Jeremy Lindsay Taylor as Erik Falk  •  Richard Roxburgh as Daniel Bailey  •  Kenneth Radley as Sergeant Vince King  •  Ash Ricardo as Jennifer (aka Jenny) Falk  •  Ingrid Torelli as Margot Russell  •  Matilda May Pawsey as Rebecca

Distributed by Roadshow Films, IFC Films  •  Produced by Screen Australia, Fim Victoria, Made Up Stories, Arenamedia, Pick Up Truck Pictures

Force of Nature, by Jane Harper  •  New York: Flatiron Books, 2018 (first U.S. edition; copyright 2017)

Smooth as Silk (1946)

Smooth as Silk is included in the same Blu-ray set, published by Kino Lorber, as The Great Gatsby and Dr. Broadway, but this one seems the most noir of the set. I couldn’t find much romance or comedy in the film. Smooth as Silk is a dark story of people using other people to get ahead or, in the case of lawyer Mark Fenton, to beat a murder rap. It is a low-budget B (or maybe even a C) film with many plot twists. It helps to pay attention to details.

You can see Smooth as Silk free online. Click here to see it at the Internet Archive. The print quality of the version at the archive is just as good as that of the Blu-ray, but the Blu-ray includes audio commentary by author and film historian Alan K. Rode, which is definitely worth a listen.

Mark Fenton is a successful defense lawyer who has just won a murder case defending Don Elliott, who has just been found innocent of murder. After the verdict, outside the courtroom, relatives of the victim accuse Don of getting away with murder. Don is an alcoholic with blackout problems, and these accusations make him wonder about his own innocence. Don is accompanied by his uncle Stephen Elliott, who helped his nephew get through the trial by keeping him sober. Fenton wants his girlfriend, actress Paula Marlowe, to star in Stephen Elliot’s latest production of the play Miracle at Midnight. He expects that she will get the part as a reward for his work getting Don Elliott acquitted, but Stephen Elliott doesn’t think Paula Marlowe is right for the part.

Mark Fenton goes to the theater to see Paula, who is in her dressing room entertaining her sister Susan. Susan is new in town and hoping to find a secretarial job. Paula wants to help her do better than that. Over dinner at a local restaurant, Mark tells Paula that she didn’t get the part in Stephen Elliot’s play. She was counting on it; she even gave her two weeks’ notice for her current job, in a play that she doesn’t want to act in anymore.

District Attorney John Kimball stops by the restaurant table to talk to Mark Fenton. Kimball is in the restaurant with someone named Fletch. He points out that Fenton’s last defendant/client, Don Elliott, is at the bar in the restaurant getting drunk. Paula arranges a date for her sister Susan with John; it’s part of her plan to entertain her sister and see that she doesn’t settle for secretarial work. After hearing that Don is in line to inherit a fortune, Paula has financial gain on her mind. She goes to the bar to congratulate Don on his acquittal and to arrange a meeting for later that night, after she is done working at the theater.

When Paula arrives home, she learns from Susan that Mark has arranged to take the sisters out without telling Paula, which irritates her. Paula wants to stay home and wait for Don Elliott. She complains of a headache and sends Susan to meet Mark in the lobby. Until this point, Susan seems like the innocent younger sister who is new to the big city and doesn’t know her way around. But in this scene, she proves to viewers that she is more observant than her sister gives her credit for: On the way out the front door, Susan runs into Don Elliott and lets her sister know of his arrival by calling out, “Paula, darling, your headache is here.”

Don Elliott tells Paula that his uncle is looking for a leading lady for his new play. Don calls the lead “a selfish mercenary character,” and he can’t see Paula in the role. But that’s not going to stop her. Paula tries to convince Don that her sister Susan has her eye on him because she wants to go after Stephen Elliott and the leading role in his play. She auditions her for the part and gets it.

(This article about Smooth as Silk contains spoilers.)

Susan Marlowe is becoming suspicious of her sister’s motives. She has been dating John Kimball, the district attorney, and he has confided some details about Mark Fenton that worry her. And she is right to be concerned. Fenton goes to the Marlowe apartment to pick up some items from Paula’s bedroom: a cigarette butt with her lipstick on it and a bracelet. He arrives next at the Elliott home, where Stephen is waiting for Paula. He shoots and kills Stephen, then leaves the front door of the Elliott house partly open and waits for Paula Marlowe’s arrival.

Paula finds Stephen’s dead body and runs out the front door, right into Mark Fenton, who has been waiting to tell Paula that he will take care of everything. She believes him and leaves him in charge, part of his plan all along. Fenton goes inside the Elliott home to plant the evidence—the cigarette butt and Paula’s bracelet—that will incriminate Paula. He calls District Attorney John Kimball and, in an interesting twist, tells him that he killed Stephen Elliott.

This twist orchestrated by Mark Fenton is one of many in the film. I didn’t see all of them coming, and I always count that as a plus for any story, whether film or novel. It is definitely worth it to pay attention to details in any film noir, and it certainly helps in Smooth as Silk. A second or third viewing won’t hurt either.

Smooth as Silk is the most noir of the three films (The Great Gatsby, Dr. Broadway, and Smooth as Silk) in the Blu-ray boxed set. I enjoyed all three films, and in comparing all three in the boxed set, this one came at number three, which is like saying I like a chocolate bar less than mocha almond ice cream! Like Dr. Broadway, Smooth as Silk is just a little over an hour long, but I wish Smooth as Silk had been a little bit longer because the ending seems rushed. I have seen the film more than once, and each time I felt the same about the ending. But really this is a minor complaint. The story is undeniably tight and full of twists. And I always enjoy plot surprises in any story.

February 1946 release date  •  Directed by Charles Barton  •  Screenplay by Dane Lussier, Kerry Shaw  •  Based on a story by Florence Ryerson, Colin Clements  •  Music by Ernest Gold  •  Edited by Ray Snyder  •  Cinematography by Elwood Bredell

Kent Taylor as Mark Fenton  •  Virginia Grey as Paula Marlowe  •  Jane Adams as Susan Marlowe  •  Milburn Stone as District Attorney John Kimball  •  John Litel as Stephen Elliott  •  Danny Morton as Don Elliott  •  Charles Trowbridge as Fletcher Holliday  •  Theresa Harris as Louise  •  Ralph Brooks as Detective Connors  •  Bert Moorhouse as a detective  •  Harry Cheshire as Wolcott  •  Joe Kirk, as Joe, Mark’s private detective  •  Chester Conklin as Pop, the stage door attendant  •  Boyd Davis as Eddie Johnson

Distributed by Universal Pictures Company  •  Produced by Universal Pictures Company

Blu-ray title: Film Noir: The Dark Side of Cinema XXVI, published by Kino Lorber, KL Studio Classics, 2025