Dial 1119 (1950)

I saw Dial 1119 for the first time about ten years ago, and I honestly couldn’t remember much about it. I’ve seen it a couple more times recently, and I was pleasantly surprised. The film is short, only about seventy-five minutes long, and it is undoubtedly a B movie, even though it was produced and distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, a big-name studio. Its themes are sophisticated for a B film produced seventy-five years ago. These themes are revealed through the storyline and the characters’ conversations—no voice-over narrator is needed to explain anything to viewers.

(This blog post about Dial 1119 contains all the spoilers.)

Some of the characters (Harry, Helen, Skip, Chuckles) who are hostages or victims later in the film are briefly introduced at the start of the narrative to give viewers their separate backstories, and each short sequence shows the characters interacting with others in their lives. Viewers learn about these characters, but they still don’t know a whole about them—not yet anyway. The storyline begins in earnest with Gunther Wyckoff, the main character, on a bus heading to Terminal City.

A woman passenger sitting on the bus next to Gunther offers him part of her sandwich, but he barely acknowledges her. He has his eye on the bus driver’s gun in a holster at the front of the bus. He is so intent on it that even his seatmate notices it. When the bus pauses for a five-minute stop, Gunther steals the gun. When the bus reaches its destination and the bus driver confronts him, Gunther shoots and kills him. No one hears the gunshot because another bus driver is honking impatiently to get moving in the queue to drop off passengers. Gunther has time to walk away before anyone notices him or the female passenger can talk to police officers.

Gunther Wyckoff is in Terminal City to visit Doctor John D. Faron, who is a police psychiatrist. The doctor is not at his office at the Criminal Courts Building, and he isn’t at home either. Gunther notices the Oasis Bar across the street from the doctor’s apartment and heads there to keep watch for Faron. Since the murder of the bus driver and the honking of another bus’s horn, the soundtrack is incredibly quiet, so much so that I thought the DVD I was watching had been damaged. The quiet is very unsettling, but that is the point.

It isn’t long before police officers are investigating the murder of the bus driver, and isn’t long before they identify Gunther Wyckoff as the murderer. His fingerprints are on file because he has already been incarcerated for murder at the Hospital for the Criminally Insane. He has escaped to find Doctor Faron.

Gunther uses the Oasis Bar as a lookout point for the doctor. He notices the bar’s air conditioner and the ribbon fluttering outside its vent. The incident shows something is off about Gunther (besides murder, that is), and the ribbon and the air conditioner actually play a part in the story later. When the news about the bus driver’s murder and Gunther Wyckoff’s involvement is broadcast on the television at the Oasis Bar, Chuckles, the bartender, recognizes Gunther. Chuckles has his own gun on a shelf behind the bar, and he hopes to use it to stop Gunther, but Gunther shoots and kills him before he has the chance to help himself and the others. Helen is already in the bar, and she screams when Chuckles is killed. Her scream is heard by passersby outside on the street, and one of them hails an officer.

Gunther orders everyone who is still in the bar to stay put and takes them all hostage. The five hostages include:

◊ Freddy, who is a woman and a regular customer at the bar

◊ Skip, the waiter, who works for Chuckles

◊ Helen, who is meeting Earl, not a female friend of hers as she promised her mother earlier in the evening

◊ Earl, who is just trying to get Helen to go away with him and doesn’t care about her

◊ Harry, a newspaper reporter

Chuckles, the bartender and owner of the Oasis Bar is already dead. His murder is one of the reasons that the others are taken hostage.

Police officers gather outside the Oasis Bar, as does a crowd of civilians. One of the officers on hand for the quickly developing hostage situation is Captain Keiver. Doctor Faron finally arrives on scene and stops to talk to the captain. Both Doctor Faron and Captain Keiver are already familiar with Gunther Wyckoff because Keiver testified against him and Faron’s professional opinion kept Gunther from being executed three years earlier, something Captain Keiver isn’t very happy about. This time, Keiver wants to do everything he can to make sure that no additional people are hurt, including Doctor Faron. He refuses to allow the doctor to enter the Oasis Bar and talk to Gunther, even though Gunther has already made this specific request. But he will allow the doctor to talk to Gunther on the phone.

The film makes a couple of interesting statements about television journalism and bystander behavior. A bus for Channel 11, WKYL television, pulls up to the scene—or as close to the scene as the police allow. The television reporters are intent on setting up a live feed and broadcasting the action as it happens. They aim for sensationalism, which isn’t hard for them to do with a convicted murderer holding hostages. Many of the bystanders on the street about a block away from the Oasis Bar treat the hostage situation as a spectacle, something for their entertainment. An ice cream truck even drives up to sell assorted frozen treats to the crowd and make some money. People start buying as soon as the truck stops. With the remove of a television broadcast and the luxury of snacks to purchase, the civilian bystanders can afford to be a little distracted, and they show less and less concern for the plight of the hostages.

Doctor Faron and Captain Keiver discuss Gunther Wyckoff and their options. They point out opposing arguments about law and order versus social justice, punishment (including the death penalty, which was more common in the United States in 1950) versus compassion. Their conversations present some philosophical arguments, and here is one example:

• Doctor Faron: “. . . We no longer execute the sick. We’re not in the Middle Ages.”

• Captain Keiver: “I’m not arguing morality. If Gunther Wyckoff had gone to the chair, the life of one man, maybe two—maybe all the people in that bar would have been spared tonight.”

• Faron: “Hank, listen to me for just a moment. Wyckoff has always been unbalanced. Most of us are, in one way or another. But the pressures of tension and circumstances made this boy a killer.”

• Keiver: “This is not news to me.”

Gunther Wyckoff is apparently suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). He remembers his World War II military service in battle vividly, and he is having trouble adjusting to civilian life. He tells this to the hostages, and he describes one battle in particular very convincingly. In the middle of his monologue, Gunther notices that the air conditioner has been turned off: The ribbon is no longer fluttering. He shoots Officer Ulrich, who is in the air-conditioning duct attempting to confront Gunther and free the hostages. Captain Keiver learns that Ulrich is wounded and will be lucky to survive the ride to the hospital; thus, he is likely to be Gunther’s third victim just that day.

Doctor Faron disobeys Captain Keiver’s instructions to stay away from the Oasis Bar and approaches the bar with the intention of talking to Gunther Wyckoff in person. The television crew captures his approach while he is on the street and broadcasts it live on television. Gunther is pleased when he sees the broadcast on the bar’s television and allows the doctor to enter the bar.

Gunther tells Doctor Faron that he wanted to meet him in person because he wants to kill him. Doctor Faron wants to help him, but Gunther feels that the doctor tricked him the last time (when he was incarcerated three years ago). This time, he wants everyone to know “the truth.” But Doctor Faron reminds Gunther that he was never a soldier:

• Faron: “You never were a soldier. You were drafted and wanted to go but you were rejected. Weren’t you, Gunther?”

• Wyckoff: “Doctor, you better shut up.”

• Faron: “You couldn’t face the reason they rejected you. You went out of your head. You killed. Then to justify a killing you knew was wrong, you invented a dream. You made yourself believe you were a soldier.”

Gunther shoots Faron to keep him from talking any more. He doesn’t want to hear the truth and never did. He has used the war to convince himself that he was indeed drafted and served in battle. As a soldier, he would have killed without criminal consequences, but as a civilian who kills, he most certainly does face those consequences. Doctor Faron insists on the truth, which Gunther cannot bear, so he shoots and kills the doctor (his fourth victim in one day).

Now Gunther wants to kill the hostages because they heard what the doctor said, and he knows that they believe the doctor and not him, just like people did before, as he says. He orders them to stand at the bar, and Freddy notices, in the mirror behind the bar, the gun that Chuckles keeps on a shelf. When Skip rushes Gunther, she grabs the gun and shoots Gunther. Gunther is only injured, however, and runs out of the bar to be killed in a hail of police fire. The hostages return to their everyday lives and concerns rather quickly. The police officers outside the bar break up the crowd, telling the bystanders, “Break it up. Party’s over.”

The film does make some negative observations about human nature, especially for people who are in proximity to danger, who are observing it from behind the safety of a police barricade or through a television broadcast. But it also says something about how humans shy away from the unpleasant. It even showcases an extreme case in Gunther Wyckoff, who invents a false story for himself so he doesn’t have to face a truth he doesn’t want to believe or so he won’t have to take responsibility for his actions.

One of the plot details that I especially enjoyed was that Freddy, one of the female bar patrons, is one of two people who save themselves and the rest of the hostages. Freddy is the one who reaches over the bar and grabs it off the shelf when Skip, a bartender working for Chuckles, jumps Gunther. I also enjoyed the thoughtful conversations between Doctor Faron and Captain Keiver, two people who take their jobs seriously and weigh the consequences of their actions. The issues they raise are not resolved in the film. And how could they be? Captain Keiver’s job and his responsibilities are very different from those of Doctor Faron. It’s even more enjoyable to follow a story like this one that presents real-life issues and lets viewers mull them over for themselves.

Dial 1119 was a pleasant surprise. I enjoyed the story, which kept me guessing. I didn’t know how it would end. The themes about PTSD and mental illness are surprisingly sophisticated, and Marshall Thompson gives a wonderful performance as a young man who has lost touch with reality. I read a review online (and I wish I could remember where online) in which the writer thought that James Dean would have made a better Gunther Wyckoff. But I disagree. Now, I have to admit that I have never been a huge fan of James Dean, but I don’t think he would have given the kind of subtle performance that Marshal Thompson did. Like the female passenger on the bus riding with him to Terminal City, you know that there is something wrong about Gunther Wyckoff, but you cannot put your finger on it right away.

November 3, 1950, release date  •  Directed by Gerald Mayer  •  Screenplay by John Monks, Jr.  •  Based on a story by Hugh King, Don McGuire  •  Music by André Previn  •  Edited by Newell P. Kimlin  •  Cinematography by Paul Vogel

Marshall Thompson as Gunther Wyckoff  •  Virginia Field as Freddy  •  Andrea King as Helen  •  Sam Levene as Doctor John D. Faron  •  Leon Ames as Earl  •  Keefe Brasselle as Skip  •  Richard Rober as Captain Henry (“Hank”) Keiver  •  James Bell as Harrison (“Harry”) D. Barnes  •  William Conrad as Chuckles, the bartender  •  Dick Simmons as the television announcer  •  Hal Baylor as Lieutenant Whitey Tallman  •  Barbara Billingsley as Dorothy, secretary to the newspaper editor  •  John Maxwell as Frank, the managing editor

Distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer  •  Produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

The Devil Makes Three (1952): Gene Kelly in a B Film

Gene Kelly ticks off many boxes with his starring role in The Devil Makes Three. Yes, it’s a B film (noir), and it is my entry for the Second Annual “Favorite Stars in B Movies” Blogathon, hosted by Brian at Films from Beyond the Time Barrier. Gene Kelly is one of my favorites, and I have enjoyed finding and seeing films that don’t showcase the talents for which he is most famous, that is, dancing and singing. But The Devil Makes Three is not just a B film noir that happens to star an actor famous for his dancing and singing: It’s a Gene Kelly B noir Christmas rubble film—all rolled into one!

Viewers know right away that they are watching something from the postwar period because the film starts with the following acknowledgment: “Appreciation is expressed to the Office of the High Commissioner of Germany, the United States Army Military Police Corps., and the Munich City Police for their cooperation while filming this motion picture in Germany and Austria.” After the opening credits, a voice-over narrator, Colonel James Terry (and one of the characters in the film), explains that the story takes place in Munich, the city where Adolf Hitler founded the Nazi Party. The events of the film take place in 1947, and they are based on several case studies of ongoing criminal activity and espionage.

The narrative starts with a car driving through a snow-covered landscape and swerving to a stop by a phone booth. A woman in a fur coat jumps out to make a phone call. She speaks urgently in German. Men on motorcycles and wearing masks and heavy leather coats drive up and stop near the phone booth. One of them pulls out a gun and shoots and kills the woman trying to make a phone call. They drive away, leaving her body in the snow. This sequence sets up the mystery that Captain Jeff Eliot (played by Kelly) walks into innocently.

Eliot is on leave for two weeks during the Christmas season. He lands in Munich hoping to spend his time off with the Lehrt family, who helped him escape from the Nazis. He has a soft spot for the daughter Wilhelmina (played by Pier Angeli), who Eliot nicknamed Willie. She was only fifteen when Eliot escaped from Germany, and he believes that he will find her and her family at their home, alive and well. But the realities of war dash those hopes. The Lehrt home is flattened, and Willie is nowhere to be found. Eliot eventually finds her in the Silhouette cabaret with the help of Captain Parker, who knows all the nightclubs and brothels in town. He tells Eliot that hunger forces almost all women to extremes.

(This article about The Devil Makes Three contains some spoilers.)

Eliot wants to thank Willie by treating her to Christmas. She tells him about one Christmas in Salzburg with family friends. At Willie’s suggestion, Eliot rents a car to take her to Salzburg, but the auto rental agency is a front for a smuggling ring. The Take Ten Snack Bar at the Austrian-German border, where Eliot and Willie stop on the road, is also a front, but this one is a front for the U.S. authorities, including Captain Parker, investigating smuggling and spies. Their car is searched, which turns up camera lenses, hypodermic needles, and assorted watch springs, all rather petty items. The U.S. authorities replace everything and allow the car to continue.

At this point, Eliot is unaware that the car is searched, but it isn’t long before he is brought in for questioning and informed that he could contribute to the investigation. At first, Eliot remains loyal to Willie, but some of her actions cause him to doubt her intentions, and he agrees to help the investigation. The U.S. military and domestic German authorities have uncovered information about a smuggling ring based in the Silhouette cabaret and likely connected to Nazis still hiding in Europe. As Colonel James Terry told Eliot during his questioning, the Nazis had a plan before the war even ended to use the gold they collected during the war (mostly from victims of their concentration camps) to finance the rebuilding of the Third Reich.

The ensuing story intertwines all the various plot threads: the romance between Eliot and Willie, the investigation into the smuggling ring operating out of the Silhouette cabaret, and the hunt for Nazis remaining in Europe. Much of it was filmed on location in Germany, amid the ruins of the postwar period—and hence the film’s categorization (one of many) as a rubble film. For example, when Captain Jeff Eliot tries to find the Lehrt family at their home address, he finds the house and the neighborhood in ruins. Later, he and Willie walk from the Silhouette cabaret to her apartment through the ruins of her neighborhood so that they can get reacquainted. A spectacular chase scene near the end of the film ends in the ruins of Adolf Hitler’s home in Berchtesgaden, a site that was destroyed by the German government not long after filming was completed on The Devil Makes Three. The film is a history lesson, too.

I did some research about the film a long time ago and already knew that The Devil Makes Three had been filmed on location in postwar Germany. But the research I did recently yielded even more information about the on-location shooting. Visit the Three Movie Buffs website for more information by clicking here.

Black Hand (1950), a film I wrote about for the first Favorite Stars in B Movies Blogathon in 2023, makes more use of Kelly’s physicality and even of his singing ability. Kelly doesn’t dance or sing in The Devil Makes Three, but there is one curious nod to his dancing abilities. Willie and Jeff Eliot stop for a break at the Take Ten Snack Bar on the Austrian-German border. The snack bar features a jukebox and swing dancing. Willie mentions that she doesn’t think she could ever learn to swing-dance. Eliot tells her, “Sure you could. All you need is a good hard hit on the head.”

Click here to see my article about Gene Kelly in Black Hand.

What to make of this comment? Aside from the association of dancing with Gene Kelly, this exchange is odd—until Willie and Eliot arrive in Salzburg and do a little bit of sightseeing on their own. They stop in a beer hall and watch two men folk dancing. The men engage in a mock fight over a girl during which they slap each other on the head. Willie repeats Jeff’s line from the Take Ten Snack Bar, but the sequence on the whole seems to be more of a way to introduce American audiences to folk traditions in Austria than a nod to Gene Kelly’s talents. Otherwise, it’s a bit of a head-scratcher.

But if you are a fan of Gene Kelly’s musicals and his dance numbers, as I am, you will probably still recognize some of his signature moves in The Devil Makes Three. They are not as prominently displayed as they are in Black Hand, but they are there nonetheless. The best examples occur during Jeff Eliot’s investigation of the rental car in Salzburg late at night. He hears footsteps approaching outside the garage where the car is stored, and he uses his whole body in dancer-like fashion to show his alarm.

I enjoyed The Devil Makes Three, and I have seen it several times, but there is just one more little detail that I notice every time I see the film, and that’s the difference in ages between the two leads. Gene Kelly was thirty-nine when the film was released, and Pier Angeli was only nineteen. Their romance always strikes me as age inappropriate, even though nothing is mentioned about Kelly’s/Eliot’s age. But that still means that Eliot met fifteen-year-old Willie when he was thirty-six. Not so easy to ignore in 2024, and it shouldn’t have been easy to ignore in 1952 either. And age factors into Eliot’s occupation: Kelly strikes me as too old to play a captain in the U.S. air force (although I have nothing really to base this impression on).

The Devil Makes Three is many things: a B movie, a film noir, a rubble film, a Gene Kelly movie. It takes place during the Christmas holidays and could be called a Christmas movie. But one category it cannot be put in is musical, which is the category one usually associates with Gene Kelly. Once again, Kelly is taken out of his usual milieu, where he is dancing and singing, and plunked into a B film. But his physicality still shines through, especially when he cannot use dialogue to get his point across.

This article about The Devil Makes Three is my entry for the Second Annual “Favorite Stars in B Movies” Blogathon, hosted by Brian at filmsfrombeyond.com. Click on each link in the list below for day-by-day access to participants’ blogs. The list is updated each day of the blogathon:

◊ Day One, April 12, 2024

◊ Day Two, April 13, 2024

◊ Day Three, April 14, 2024

September 19, 1952, release date  •  Directed by Andrew Marton  •  Screenplay by Jerry Davis  •  Based on a story by Lawrence P. Bachmann  •  Music by Rudolph G. Kopp  •  Edited by Ben Lewis  •  Cinematography by Václav Vích

Gene Kelly as Captain Jeff Eliot  •  Pier Angeli as Wilhelmina (Willie) Lehrt  •  Richard Rober as Colonel James Terry  •  Richard Egan as Captain Parker  •  Charles Gordon Howard as Lieutenant Farris  •  Michael Tellering as Detective Lieutenant Ernst Haltmann  •  Wilfried Seyferth as Hansig, owner of the Silhouette cabaret  •  Otto Gebühr as Mr. Nolder  •  Gertrude Wolle as Mrs. Nolder  •  Heinrich Grether as Mr. Keigler, Lehrt family friend  •  Annie Rosar as Mrs. Keigler, Lehrt family friend  •  Charlotte Fleming as the woman shot in the phone booth  •  Harold Benedict as the sergeant at the airport  •  Bum Krüger as Oberlitz, owner of the car rental agency  •  Sepp Rist as the customs official  •  Claus Clausen as Heisemann  •  Margot Hielscher as the Silhouette cabaret singer  •  Iván Petrovitch as Sigmund Neffs  •  Claus Benton Lombard as the waiter at the Take Ten Snack Bar  •  Ruth Megary as the waitress at the Take Ten Snack Bar

Distributed by Loew’s, Inc.  •  Produced by Metro Goldwyn Mayer