New York Confidential (1955)

February 18, 1955, release date

Directed by Russell Rouse

Screenplay by Clarence Greene, Russell Rouse

Based on the novel New York: Confidential! by Jack Lait, Lee Mortimer

Music by Joseph Mullendore

Edited by Grant Whytock

Cinematography by Eddie Fitzgerald

Broderick Crawford as Charlie Lupo

Richard Conte as Nick Magellan

Marilyn Maxwell as Iris Palmer

Anne Bancroft as Katherine Lupo

J. Carrol Naish as Ben Dagajanian

Onslow Stevens as Johnny Achilles

Barry Kelley as Robert Frawley

Mike Mazurki as Arnie Wendler

Celia Lovsky as Mama Lupo

Michael Ross as Ed Barnes

Robert Keys as Stan, Katherine Lupo’s boyfriend

Herbert Heyes as James Marshall

Steven Geray as Morris Franklin

William (aka Bill) Phillips as Whitey

Henry Kulky as Gino

Nestor Paiva as Martinelli

Joseph Vitale as Batista

Carl Milletaire as Sumak

Gloria Dadisman as Sumak’s girlfriend

William Forrrest as Paul Williamson

Ian Keith as Waluska

Charles Evans as Judge Kincaid

Mickey Simpson as Leon Hartmann

Tom Powers as District Attorney Rossi

Lee Trent as Ferrari

Leonard Bremen as Larry

John Doucette as Shorty

Frank Ferguson as Dr. Ludlow

Hope Landin (aka Hope Landon) as Mrs. Wesley

Fortunio Bonanova as Senor

Ralph Clanton as the narrator

Distributed by Warner Bros.

Produced by Edward Small Productions, Greene-Rouse Productions

New York Confidential begins with a mob hit on someone named Peter Andratto. He is killed on a New York City street, an event that leads to three murders: Andratto’s and two innocent bystanders. The New York City crime syndicate can’t let Andratto’s death go unpunished, and law enforcement authorities feel the same way about the two innocent bystanders.

The New York crime syndicate, headed by Charlie Lupo, hires a Chicago hit man, Nick Magellan. As a Chicago gangster and an outsider, Nick should be an unknown in New York City. He should thus find it easier to take his prey by surprise and then skip town. Political forces, who start by acting on the side of law enforcement, organize a commission to investigate the murders of the two bystanders and the violent street crime in general. When Nick Magellan arrives in New York, he and Whitey, a driver for the New York City syndicate, tail the object of their hit briefly until Nick can carry out the execution.

(This blog post about New York Confidential contains spoilers.)

The rest of the film follows the two threads: the actions of the crime syndicate and the investigation by law enforcement. The investigation by law enforcement is not shown much on-screen. Viewers learn about it because of its effects on the members of the crime syndicate and because some in law enforcement cannot resist the financial gain that corruption and bribery can bring. As politicians and members of law enforcement are drawn into the corruption, they sometimes make an appearance on-screen, but the criminals’ conversations and their budding “business” relationships with the people they are bribing are what reveal most often the law enforcement side of the narrative.

One of the details that I find fascinating about the film is that the crime syndicate is headquartered in an office building. The head of the syndicate, Charlie Lupo, has a desk, an intercom, a secretary, a lawyer, and an accountant. At home, he has a servant, Ed Barnes. Barnes acts like a member of the family, which includes Charlie Lupo’s mother and daughter. The servant, in fact, offers a little bit of comic relief. Charlie Lupo is a lot like the business leaders he is bribing. I wonder if this was a subtle commentary on the state of business and white-collar crime in the United States in the 1950s. It makes me think that not much has changed in the white-color criminal underworld.

It’s not law enforcement that brings down Nick Magellan for all the murders that he has committed. It’s his own penchant for violence. (The word penchant is actually a small plot detail that I find amusing.) Eventually, everyone connected with the syndicate knows too much, and hits are ordered on the hit men who have been executing hits for a living. Nick ends as a victim of his own professionalism and expertise.

Anne Bancroft is another reason to see New York Confidential. She is great as the daughter, Katherine Lupo, of the crime syndicate leader. Katherine is a young woman at the start of the film who is realizing what kind of man her father is and the kind of people he does business with. Her part of the story could be called a subplot, but I found her part in the story the most fascinating. She is desperate to escape a life that she never created but one in which she is nonetheless trapped. She even manages to get away briefly and start leading her own life, but her father just can’t stop himself from interfering. Her story, like so much about the film, is tragic and reveals a lot about how far her father will go to exert his control over everything around him.

Did you happen to notice the long list of actors at the start of this blog post? The number of characters in New York Confidential is very confusing at times, and I had trouble keeping track of all of them. The fact that the lines between the criminals, politicians, and law enforcers are blurred repeatedly did not help. The DVD commentary by film historian Alan K. Rode and film writer Kim Morgan filled in many gaps in this regard. They also talk a bit about something that I noticed on first viewing and already mentioned in this blog post: the level of corruption in the white-collar world, past and present.

Morgan and Rode did not seem to have a script or any notes prepared in advance, which makes all the information they provide even more impressive. Their observations about the character actors playing the various parts helped me keep the identities of at least some of the characters straight and added to the fun. My favorite comment (and I paraphrase) comes from Kim Morgan: “Even the servant Ed is a goon!”

I’ll have to see the film and listen to the commentary again. New York Confidential is a tight film noir that shows crime doesn’t pay and isn’t particularly glamorous. And it’s such a satisfying story, even if it does show modern viewers that human nature hasn’t changed too much when it comes to money and power. Seeing it again will give me a chance to keep better track of the corruption on both sides of the law.

Dressed to Kill (1941)

August 8, 1941, release date

Directed by Eugene J. Forde

Screenplay by Stanley Rauh, Manning O’Connor, Brett Halliday

Based on the novel The Dead Take No Bows by Richard Burke and on the character Michael Shayne created by Brett Halliday

Music by Cyril J. Mockridge

Edited by Fred Allen

Cinematography by Glen MacWilliams

Lloyd Nolan as Michael Shayne

Mary Beth Hughes as Joanne La Marr

Sheila Ryan as Connie Earle

William Demarest as Inspector Pierson

Mantan Moreland as Rusty (misidentified in the end credits as Sam)

Ben Carter as Sam (misidentified in the end credits as Rusty)

Virginia Brissac as Lynne Evans, aka Emily, the maid

Erwin Kalser as Otto Kahn/Carlo Ralph

Henry Daniel as Julian Davis

Dick Rich as Al

Milton Parsons as Max Allaron

Charles Arnt as Hal Brennon

Charles Trowbridge as David Earle

Hamilton MacFadden as the newspaper reporter

May Beatty as Phyllis Lathrop

Charles Wilson as the newspaper editor

Distributed by 20th Century Fox

Dressed to Kill is the third in a series of twelve films about the detective Michael Shayne. Lloyd Nolan starred as Shayne in seven of the films until the series was dropped by Twentieth Century Fox. These seven films were released from 1940 to 1942. When the series was picked up by Producers Releasing Corporation (PRC), Hugh Beaumont took over the role of Shayne for five more films, which were released in 1946 and 1947.

I am putting Dressed to Kill in the category of avant noir (avant is French for “before”), a category that many call proto-noir. I have done this with all of the Michael Shayne films that I have seen and written about so far. Many will probably argue with my choice, in spite of the private detective as lead character and the elements of murder and mystery. I can see their point: The story is so much fun, and the script includes so much humor. There is nothing angst-ridden about any of the Michael Shayne films that I have seen, including Dressed to Kill.

◊ Michael Shayne, Private Detective: Click here for my blog post about the first film in the series.

◊ Sleepers West: Click here for my post about the second film in the series.

After the opening credits, the film starts with Michael Shayne (“private investigator to you”) in a clothing shop to buy a suit for his upcoming marriage to Joanne La Marr. Smiley Joe Bishop is the proprietor of Smiley Joe Bishop Credit Clothing, also known as Smiley Joe Bishop Clothier. The opening sequence starts with a touch of humor, which is the hallmark of Nolan’s Michael Shayne films. Here is part of his conversation with the store’s owner, Bishop:

• Smiley Joe Bishop: “Well, well, well. If it isn’t my old friend, the private dick.”

• Michael Shayne: “Private investigator to you.”

• Bishop: “Mike, you’re looking fine. Wonderful. If you looked any better, you’d have to be twins. Glad to see you, boy. Getting everything you want?”

• Shayne: “Well, I was just—”

• Bishop: “It’s a beautiful thing, a beautiful thing. You’re sure dressed to kill. [to the store’s salesman] Uh, say, isn’t this the suit I told you to put away for another customer? You can’t sell that suit. [Shayne starts to take off the suit jacket; to Shayne] Well, all right. So I’ll lose another customer. You’re worth it, Mike. You’re worth it. Mmm, does it fit? Like a glove.”

• Shayne: “It should fit like a suit.”

• Bishop: “Like a—[laughing] You panic me, Mike, from head to foot.”

• Shayne: “Now, look, Smiley, this has got to be right because I’m buying it to please a dame.”

• Bishop: “Any dame that’s got the taste to go out with you will be crazy about that suit.”

The dialogue in this opening scene is just the beginning of a lot of banter, slang, and word play throughout the film. I saw Dressed to Kill on DVD, and I find it helpful to turn on the English language subtitles for this and other classic films so I can understand the dialogue and look up the 1940s slang later. Here are definitions for a few slang terms from Dressed to Kill (click on each term to see the source and some additional information):

◊ palooka: a stupid, clumsy person.

◊ roto section: Scroll down to see this definition from “Skibberoo”: “Several websites identify the ‘roto-sections’ of newspapers as being those with the preponderance of photographs.”

◊ simoleon: a dollar bill. Jimmy Stewart uses this term in It’s a Wonderful Life.

◊ sweet patootie: sweetheart; pretty girl.

Did I mention that Michael Shayne also solves a murder or two in this film? He and his fiancé Joanne are leaving the Hotel du Nord, where Joanne rents a small single apartment, to get married when he hears a woman scream in an apartment upstairs. Emily, the hotel housekeeper, has found two dead bodies: Desiree Vance and Lou Lathrop. Shayne needs the work, so he offers his investigative services. The sleuthing begins, much to Joanne’s dismay. She is not happy about postponing the marriage ceremony, even if the job is a lucrative one for her husband-to-be.

Dressed to Kill is one of those B films that packs a lot of information into a short viewing time (this film is approximately seventy-four minutes long). I found it difficult at times to keep track of all the characters and details of the case. Michael Shayne gathers clues, but he’s not especially fond of sharing them with police officers—or with viewers. I suspect that the real purpose of the film is simply to entertain, provide a few laughs, and let the character Michael Shayne solve the mystery and explain how he did it in the closing sequence.

I have to admit that I am hooked: I always enjoy these Michael Shayne B films. Part of the reason is that Lloyd Nolan always looks like he is having a lot of fun playing the lead role of Michael Shayne. I haven’t yet seen one starring Hugh Beaumont, but those films have been added to my queue.

Michael Shayne is a competent and ethical detective who can do a better job solving crimes than the local police inspectors, who are portrayed as bumbling fools. He cannot seem to keep his girlfriend and fiancé Joanne La Marr, however, even on their wedding day, which is also part of the fun and the humor.

I suppose it is a bit of a stretch to call Dressed to Kill a noir of any kind, but—gosh, darn it!—it’s so much fun.