The Gambler and the Lady (1952)

Jim Forster, played by Dane Clark (one of my film noir favorites and the star of the film in my last blog article), is the gambler of the title, and he is a very interesting character indeed. He is an American living in London—and not entirely by choice. He has a hot temper, and he is more easily prone to violence when he drinks. But he is loyal to his friends, and he so desperately wants to belong. It just so happens that Forster wants to be accepted by the British upper class, and that burning desire is what proves to be so destructive, even more so than his temper.

The film starts with shots of narrow, cobblestone alleys at night. On the soundtrack suddenly are gunshots followed by running footsteps. Jim Forster appears in the next shot, clutching his arm. He appears to be wounded. A car starts up, and when the driver turns on the headlights, Forster is blinded. The car then heads right for him and runs him down.

The film then goes back to the beginning of the story, but the rest of the film is not a flashback exactly, not in the usual film noir tradition, not in the sense that a character starts telling a story and the film fades into a memory. The opening sequence sets up the mystery for the viewers, in the present, and then proceeds to explain how Forster ends up on a dark cobblestone alley crumpled by a car. The transition to the past is simply the end of the opening credits.

The Gambler and the Lady was produced by Hammer Film Productions in Britain and distributed by Lippert Pictures in the United States. Hammer Film Productions was known mainly for its horror films, but it partnered with several U.S. studios to produce all sorts of films using American stars. Many actors, including Dane Clark, Dan Duryea, and Zachary Scott, starred in films noir produced by Hammer. Click here for more information about Lippert Pictures and here for more information about Hammer Film Productions.

The history of Jim Forster starts with a shot of his friend Dave Davies looking out a window and seeing a police officer and a police car in the street below. When another man appears at the window and mentions that, in his country, bribing police officers is common, Davies says that they cannot get away with bribery in London. Davies works in a gambling den owned by Jim Forster. On that particular night, one of the gamblers, Lord Peter Willens, owes the house 150 pounds. He pays by check, even over the mild objection of Jaco Spina. Spina is another one of Forster’s employees, and he is responsible for collecting money.

Willens’s check bounces, and Jim Forster decides to take on the debt. But Jaco Spina steals the check and goes after Lord Peter Willens on his own initiative. Willens visits Forster to complain about the harassment; Forster is furious that Spina went against his wishes and tried to collect the debt. Then, in an example of how hotheaded Forster can be, he attacks Spina and almost chokes him. Forster finally relents, but he fires Spina over the betrayal.

Jim Forster has higher ambitions, and he is willing to give members of the British aristocracy a break because he desperately wants to join their ranks. He takes etiquette lessons from Miss Minter because he wants to know the rules for acceptance in British high society. His employee Dave Davies is one of his best friends, and he thinks Forster is shooting for something he can never attain, but Forster wants to keep trying. Right now, Forster is in the gambling business. He also owns a racehorse, a boxer’s contract, and a nightclub called The Jack of Spades. In addition to learning all the rules of etiquette, Forster wants to be what he calls “legitimate,” and “legitimate” does not include nightclubs, racehorses, and fights.

(This article about The Gambler and the Lady contains spoilers.)

Viewers learn of Forster’s past during one of his conversations with Dave Davies. Forster doesn’t drink any more, not since he was imprisoned in the United States for manslaughter after drinking too much and beating a man he doesn’t remember meeting. He cannot figure out a way to control his temper, and he wishes that he hadn’t physically assaulted Jaco Spina. Dave Davies is loyal to Jim Forster; he tells Forster that the Colonna brothers (Arturo and Angelo) are in town. They want to buy his gambling business, and they mean “business.” Forster isn’t interested in selling to the Colonna brothers, and the brothers let him know that the issue isn’t resolved by sending their henchmen to destroy The Jack of Spades, Forster’s nightclub, and two of Forster’s gambling dens.

Forster has been dating Pat, who dances with her partner Tony at Forster’s nightclub, The Jack of Spades. He is losing interest in her, and she is devastated about it. But she gets very angry with Forster and starts needling him, which just makes things worse between them. Forster sees Lord Peter Willens in his nightclub and stops to say hello. Willens and his group are a little sarcastic with Forster, but Peter’s sister, Lady Susan Willens, is intrigued by Forster. She wants to dance with him and they hit it off. This doesn’t escape Pat’s notice, and eventually she causes trouble for Jim and Susan. Pat threatens Susan and tells her that Forster is still in love with her, even though this is obviously not true. Susan will not be intimidated and stands up to Pat.

The upper class that Jim Forster so desperately wants to be a part of is not as smart, as business savvy, and as free from darker instincts as he believes. Susan’s brother, Lord Peter Willens, and her father, Lord Willens-Hortland, are in business with someone who is the one to teach Jim Forster that lesson. They wonder if Forster would consider investing in a gold mine that they have already invested in but that needs more capital. Their friend, Richard Farning, is their investment partner, and he is asking for more money.

Forster is interested in investing in the gold mine because he sees it as a chance to get into a legitimate business and as an entrée into the British higher classes. He asks Dave Davies to sell all his businesses. Davies tries to talk him out of it, but Forster is determined. It isn’t long before Forster loses all his money in the gold mine investment because Richard Farning disappears with the money. The Willens lose their investment money, too, but Forster thinks that Lord Peter Willens and his sister played him for a fool. Forster starts drinking again, a decision in a line of decisions that lead to the fateful night that started the film, with an injured Forster looking for an escape in the dark alleys of London.

The film’s narrative has an unusual construction for a film noir. It’s a mystery to be solved because The Lady and the Gambler sets up a horrible accident for Jim Forster and then shows how he found himself in that predicament. Forster is pretty likable, despite his faults. He just wants to belong. It’s easy to see why Lady Susan Willens is attracted to him, and it’s very easy to root for Forster in spite of his hot temper and his illegal business dealings. He is loyal to his friend Davies and he treats his old girlfriend Pat well, even when she is seething with jealousy and looking for ways to hurt him. The fact that he is played by Dane Clark was a boost for me.

The title of this film noir made me wonder at first if perhaps Jim Forster, the gambler, would be done in by an unscrupulous femme fatale. I imagined that she wanted him for his money, his nightlife, and his winning streak, and then when he started to lose, she dumped him for someone younger, more daring, and luckier at the tables. But that’s not the case. Jim Forster wants what he cannot have because it doesn’t really exist in the first place (especially for an American), and he makes some serious mistakes before the film ends. He also suffers some pretty serious losses, and not all of them are financial. But he doesn’t lose the lady, which is a nice surprise.

December 26, 1952, release date  •  Directed by Patrick Jenkins, Sam Newfield  •  Screenplay by Sam Newfield  •  Music by Ivor Slaney  •  Edited by Maurice Rootes  •  Cinematography by Walter J. Harvey

Dane Clark as Jim Forster  •  Naomi Chance as Lady Susan Willens  •  Meredith Edwards as Dave Davies  •  Anthony Forwood as Lord Peter Willens  •  Kathleen Byron as Pat, dancer at Jim’s nightclub  •  Martin Benson as Tony, Pat’s dance partner  •  Max Bacon as Maxie  •  Mona Washbourne as Miss Minter  •  Jane Griffiths as Lady Jane Greer  •  Richard Shaw as Louis  •  Julian Somers as Licasi, maître d'  •  George Pastell as Jaco Spina  •  Eric Pohlmann as Arturo Colonna  •  Enzo Coticchia as Angelo Colonna, Arturo’s brother  •  Hal Osmond as the stable groom  •  Percy Marmont as Lord Willens-Hortland, Susan and Peter’s father  •  Anthony Ireland as Richard Farning, the Willens’s investment partner

Distributed by Lippert Pictures (United States), Exclusive Films (United Kingdom)  •  Produced by Hammer Film Productions

Gunman in the Streets (1950)

Several details about Gunman in the Streets intrigued me when I first heard of the film. First was Dane Clark in the starring role of Eddy Roback. Dane Clark has become another one of my film noir favorites, so it is always a plus for me when I hear he is in a film. Another was the fact that Gunman in the Streets was never released for theatrical showing in the United States. The film was shot in Paris, France, and the first time that U.S. citizens had a chance to see the film (if they didn’t visit Paris, Britain, or Canada in 1950, that is) was on television in the 1960s, when the film was syndicated. On U.S. television, the film went by the title Time Running Out.

I saw Gunman in the Streets on DVD, which I found in my local library system. The film is also available for free online. Click here to see it at the Internet Archive.

The limited release for Gunman in the Streets in 1950 led to a variety of titles in different markets, which somehow seems fitting for a film noir. Gunman in the Streets has about five titles (aliases, if you will) that I could find in my little bit of research. Here’s the list:

◊ Gunman in the Streets (British release)

◊ Le Traqué (The Hunt) (French release)

◊ Time Running Out (U.S. television syndication in the 1960s)

◊ Gangster at Bay (Canadian release)

◊ It Happened in France (working title)

The opening credits appear over still shots of street scenes in Paris and some recognizable landmarks, including the Eiffel Tower, l’Arc de Triomphe, and the Seine River. Then a woman picks up a copy of a newspaper with the following headline: “Eddy Roback Faces Paris Court Today” and then “Gangster’s Trial Starts After Ten Months Investigation.” A passerby with a sandwich board advertisement ambles past. The camera then focuses on an unmarked police van driving by the newsstand on the street.

The film then cuts to the storefront of a liquor store as seen from the street, then to the interior of the store looking out onto the same street. The man with the sandwich board peers into the window; he sees in the reflection a car stopping the police van. The camera is still inside the store when a gunman gets out of the car and opens fire on the van. Other men and police officers start a shootout with a barrage of gunfire. Bullets smash the store window and the bottles of liquor on the shelf inside the window. After a few moments of quiet, the film explodes, almost literally, with violence and action.

People run for cover. Bystanders are killed, as is one of the drivers of the van. A police officer arrives and calls for help via a police call box. Eddy Roback escapes in the mêlée. From a police broadcast, viewers learn that he is a deserter from the U.S. army. Before being caught by the police, he had been making his living by staging brazen robberies and participating in the postwar black market. He had been captured in 1949, but he has now escaped. A police manhunt for Roback begins after this spectacular opening sequence.

Roback hides out in a department store, Les Magasins réunis. He escapes from police officers hunting for him in the store by pretending to be the father of a boy he picks up when the mother is distracted. Eventually Eddy makes it to a hiding spot in the street outside the apartment where members of his gang are expecting him. The police arrive instead, and Eddy’s gang members are arrested. Eddy Roback is running out of options to escape.

The police discover the identities of four women that Roback might contact, and different groups of officers check on them all. Commissioner Dufresne visits one of them, Denise Vernon, himself. He calls her “the favorite girlfriend,” but this is in reference to Eddy Roback, not himself. He seems to know who she is already, and she recognizes him, too. Her apartment is luxurious, especially for postwar Paris. The implication is that she is earning her keep by dating men with money and that she doesn’t care how they earn it or get it.

Denise Vernon is planning to meet Frank Clinton, a journalist, at a restaurant called Chez Bertrand. She is followed, of course, by the police, but she leaves the restaurant by the kitchen exit in the back. She takes a cab to meet Eddy Roback at another restaurant, Chez Pitin, which is owned by someone they both know. Eddy and Denise ride around Paris in the cab trying to come up with ideas about how Eddy can get his arm treated (he was hit in the arm by a bullet in the shootout) and how he can find 300,000 francs. Eddy needs the money to go to Toufflers, France; meet someone named Leon; and escape over the border into Belgium. Denise doesn’t have the money, but she promises to get it for Eddy. But then she returns to Chez Bertrand, where Frank Clinton is still waiting for her patiently. Frank might be useful to her after all.

You might think that I have given away almost everything there is to know about the plot, but there are still plenty of surprises left in the story for first-time viewers. The film surprised me more often than not, and I always enjoy that in a film or novel. One example is the level of violence depicted in the film. Eddy Roback is a violent criminal, and he is given the chance to show how far he is willing to go. But he does have an ego, and he can be manipulated. For instance, he is more than willing to let Frank Clinton escape without harm because Frank plans to write at least one article about Eddy and his daring flight out of the city during a police manhunt.

Any film is a look into the time period during which it was filmed, and Gunman in the Streets is no exception. The story in the film is fictional, but it was shot on location, and I found myself taking in a lot of background detail while following the narrative. I enjoyed the film’s particular view of life in postwar Paris. Paris itself looks relatively unscathed considering the war in Europe ended only five years prior to the release of Gunman in the Streets. The shots of Eddy Roback trying to escape in the store, Les Magasins réunis, tell a slightly different story, however. The merchandise is crowded into the store, which has no shelves and few counters. In contrast, Denise Vernon’s apartment is luxurious for any period, but especially so in 1950 Paris. It is obvious that she gets her money, and a lot of it, from dubious means. One of them is dating a rich criminal like Eddy Roback, someone who knows how to work the postwar black market to his own advantage, someone who would be wanted by the police and be the perfect subject for a film noir.

I can understand why the film wasn’t given a theatrical release in the United States in 1950. Eddy Roback, the main character, is a U.S. army deserter. Gunman in the Streets was released soon after the end of World War II in 1945, and the main character is a serviceman gone rogue. He is not only a military deserter; he is also a criminal, a participant in the postwar black market.

And maybe the frank discussions about the downsides of relationships had something to do with it, too. Denise Vernon and Frank Clinton talk about their feelings: he toward her and she toward Eddy Roback. They have trouble explaining why they feel the way that they do, but they have no trouble doing whatever they can to help the people they love. In both Denise’s and Frank’s cases, they are willing to break the law. I thought their honesty with one another (Denise and Frank, that is) helped to create a lot of sympathy for both characters, but that probably wasn’t enough for postwar Hollywood and the United States in general in 1950.

December 13, 1950 (Paris, France), release date  •  Directed by Frank Tuttle (English version), Borys Lewin French version)  •  Screenplay by Victor Pahlen (English version); Jacques Companeez, André Tabet (French version)  •  Based on a story by Jacques Campaneez  •  Music by Joe Hajos  •  Edited by Steve Previn  •  Cinematography by Claude Renoir, Eugen Schüfftan

Dane Clark as Eddy Roback  •  Simone Signoret as Denise Vernon  •  Fernand Gravey (aka Fernand Gravet) as Commissioner Dufresne  •  Robert Duke as journalist Frank Clinton  •  Michel André as Max Salva  •  Pierre Gay as Mercier  •  Edmund Ardisson as Mattei  •  Albert Dinan as Gaston  •  Jean-Marie Robain as the elevator operator at Les Magasins réunis

Distributed by DisCina, International Film Distributors (Canada), United Artists (United States)  •  Produced by Joinville Studios