Customer Reviews

Dark City (1950)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Dark City is Charlton Heston's first film. He plays the role of Danny, an overly determined revenger, who spends the film tracking down the killer of the 4 members of his poker game gone bad, one by one. Lizabeth Scott plays Fran Garland, Danny's under appreciated singer at the local Nightclub which Danny frequents. She delivers 5, yes 5 songs, one of which is the best rendition of That Old Black Magic available. This is one of Lizabeth Scott's best films - even though she does not have a gun in her purse!!. A fine supporting cast of Paramount Contract Players of that era help move things along-Jack Webb, Harry Morgan, Don Defore, Ed Begley, Dean Jagger, Mike Masurki, and of all people, Vivica Lindfors. Aside from being a Charlton Heston film premier, this is a MUST for any Lizabeth Scott fan.

I am very pleased to see "Dark City" finally made it to DVD via Amazon. I haven't seen this film in some years. The last recall I had of it was when that other Dark City was released a few years ago, the insipid mystery about aliens chasing people around on an imaginary set.

This "Dark City" is about crime lords in the 1940s, a card game, some lost money, a double cross, a dame and some other stuff. It doesn't have a great script. Heston was 25 when this film was released; it was his first major film. Far from being an ingenue or a beginner, he exhibits all the same electric charm and animal attraction that made him a leading man in films as varied as Ben-Hur, Airport 75, El Cid, Planet of the Apes, The Ten Commandments and Soylent Green for more than then next half-century.

Heston is aided here by some of the best character actors of the 1950s -- Harry Morgan and Jack Webb, who went on to stardom in television's "Dragnet" series -- as well as Ed Begley and Don DeFore. It isn't the greatest revenge movie ever made but Heston is dynamite, as always, as he rivets viewer attention in every scene. One of the best is the opening credit with Heston walking into the frame. Dynamite! Thanks for finally bringing this gem back to us!

"Dark City" was Charlton Heston's first Hollywood film, and it's easy to see why he became a star. Heston projects a strong persona as Danny Haley, an Ivy-leaguer and war hero without the status those things might imply. Danny co-owns a bookie joint with older, gruffer Barney (Ed Begley). One evening, when Danny visits his girlfriend Fran (Lizabeth Scott) in the downscale club where she sings, he meets Arthur Winant (Don DeFore), a friendly athletic director in town on business. Arthur hangs himself after losing his company's money in a poker game to Danny's weasely associate Augie (Jack Webb). Then Barney is murdered. Danny, Augie, and police Captain Garvey (Dean Jagger) suspect that someone is seeking revenge for Arthur's death, and Danny and Augie will be the next targets.

Charlton Heston does a good tough guy with emotional baggage. It makes me wish he'd done more movies in the film noir mold. "Dark City" makes use of noir conventions, but its tone softens after an hour. And being pursued by a homicidal maniac is prosaic by film noir standards. It could be said that Danny is being pursued by his conscience, but that is even further from noir themes. Pop culture critic Carl Macek remarked that "Dark City is a vision of the noir world without the emphasis of the noir ethos." That about says it. It's a solid thriller that's intermittently noir. Heston is a strong presence. Lizabeth Scott gets to sing a lot but Fran is beneath her talents. Beautiful Viveca Lindfors plays a modestly-attired widow. And Jack Webb is always spot-on as a small-time creep. The print and sound on the 2010 Olive Films DVD are good. No subtitles or bonus features.

During a rigged card game, a rube (an over-the-top and impossibly naive Don DeFore) gets taken for money he doesn't have and he commits suicide. From there on, its just a matter of time before justice catches up with the bad guys. Twist and turns? Not really. The only question is, will Charlton Heston be redeemed, and given the character he plays, it seems likely. Dark City is nicely written and Charlton Heston is undeniably very good. But somehow, this dark city isn't terribly dark. I can't think of one scene that stands out although there is an odd moment when Heston's character, Danny tells the widow "He didn't have to play and he didn't have to commit suicide". Coming when it does, the comment is so spot-on, it seems almost amusing. DVD quality is excellent and its always nice to see Lizabeth Scott, but I took off a star for too many musical numbers and for the predictability of the whole thing. Definitely worth seeing, but its not Out Of The Past.

I was surprised at how good this movie was, especially as I did not find that it rated mention in The Big Book of Noir, which seems to be the best general reference on the genre. First, the plot is interesting and a little different for noir--a gang of card sharks manipulates and cheats a hapless businessman (Don DeFore) who is on a buying trip for his athletic club and gets suckered into losing the club money he has brought along for the trip, causing him to kill himself out of guilt. The gang itself is not a cohesive lot, and much of the interest of the movie comes from their interaction, especially that of Jack Webb (yes, playing a bad guy) and Charlton Heston (in his first movie role), who is a redeemable bad guy with a surprisingly respectable background (college, military, etc.). The brother of the hapless DeFore (Mike Mazurki, whom we don't see until the final scenes and who is a homocidal nut) finds out about the swindle and hunts the gamblers down one by one until only Heston is left. Among the better and most surprising things about the movie are the dialogue, which is extremely good for the genre, and the opportunity for character interaction and development. As mentioned, the Heston-Webb interplay is top notch. So is Heston. His character quite believably comes a long way and seems ready to accept by the end of the movie that he is and should be a better man than he had become. Lizabeth Scott has a decent part and this is a good movie if you are a fan. I think her singing is a bit overdone, but she plays to her strengths, a sultry and alluring woman, probably better than her milieu, who always seems to be let down by the men in her life but keeps trying, always with an idea of a better future. There are some interesting and accomplished supporting players, including Harry Morgan and Ed Begley. Overall, quite a good movie, far more intelligent, original and accomplished than many in the genre and well worth the viewing.

I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR YEARS FOR THIS MOVIE TO COME OUT ON DVD.
I WISH I COULD OF SEEN THIS MOVIE ON THE BIG SCREEN ,I GUESS THE
DVD WILL HAVE TO DO.

No question after running through a seemingly endless run of crime noir films that not all the films in the genre are equal. The classics like The Big Sleep, Maltese Falcon, Gilda, and Out Of The Past speak for themselves with fine plot lines and slightly awry femme fatales to brighten things up. The film under review, although not in that category, could have been better had it not gotten caught up in some melodramatic flim-flam and stayed the hard-boiled, gritty classic grifter story that it set out to be. The outlines of the plot surely gave more promise that was delivered.

Down in those post-World War II means streets out West a lot of war-weary, war-tousled, war-scarred guys tried to do, well, the best they could. And the best they could usually was some grifter scheme to make a score off some bozo mark and hit the road, hit the road fast, and leave no forwarding address. That is the substance of the plot here. Ex-soldier (World War II just in case you might have forgotten, or were not sure what war I was talking about since there are many to choose from these days) Dan Healy (played in an understated, post-war alienated, existential man kind of way by Charleston Heston before he became Moses or Ben Hur or whatever big screen techno-color champ he became later) make his downwardly mobile way to grifter-dom in some seedy skid row town.

Dan's thing is gambling and, of course, for such an endeavor you need suckers with dough, easily parted with dough. And, as well, some confederates in on the scam. That is the case here as Dan and two fellow grifters (one played by Jack Webb before he got "religion" and became Sergeant Friday on the 1950s television show, Dragnet) rope in the sucker, a guy holding a five thousand dollar check (serious money, serious money down on mean street then) although the money is not actually his. Needless to say a fool and his dough are soon parted.

And that is where things start to go wrong with this film (as well as in the lives of our three gamblers). Filled with remorse the mark (played by Don DeFore) can't face the horror of going back and confessing to his employers that he blew the dough on gambling, and instead hanged himself in his lonely room. Not for him the easy road of blowing town and changing his name, toughing it out, or even filing a court claim against the miscreant gamblers. In short, nobody, nobody this side of Hollywood takes the rope on the facts presented here. And then it gets worst. See the mark has an older dominating brother who watches out for him. Now this suicide business once he finds out the cause gets him a little exercised. See the brother is a stone-cold psycho and he is out to even the score-three dead, very dead gamblers.

Well, if you have been paying attention you know that Charleston Heston, the star and therefore kill-proof, is one of those marked for extinction so the other two get their just desserts and old Heston squeaks by after some close moments. The problem is when we see finally see who the killer-brother is there is no way that anyone could believe, or at least I could believe, that this gorilla was anybody's brother. Come on.

The other place where the film goes wrong is on the inevitable love interest angle. Now Danny boy, who spends a good part of the film moodily cutting up old torches from back in the day, has a sort of girlfriend. A very fetching smoky-voiced chanteuse, Fran, (played by Lizabeth Scott) girlfriend who wears her heart on her sleeve for him, although he is mostly indifferent to her. No femme fatale here-just a what you see is what you get gal who can sing the blues, while having them over her man who done her wrong. The problem is that the chemistry between Danny and Fran is all wrong, all wrong alls ways. Fran is the girl next door and Danny, is well Danny, a grifter and the two don't mix. And the plot gets further muddied when Dan, trying to get a lead of where the mark's brother is, starts to play footsie with the dead mark's non-grieving widow. So you see now what I mean when I say that not all crime noirs are created equal.

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Heston's film debut is a lot of fun -- he's charming, sturdy, conflicted and overwrought. The plot is entertaining and clever, but filled with more than its share of improbable plot devices. The cinematography is deftly noirish. But the film really belongs to the brilliant supporting cast: Dean Jagger, the frequently under-rated Elizabeth Scott, Ed Begley, Harry Morgan, and Jack Webb. We know what Heston was to become, so it's a pleasure to watch him at this point in his career surrounded by real pros who effectively round out each scene and the film as a whole.

It's a four-star movie but it gets three because of the DVD. There was about 5 minutues of horizonotal waviness half-way through the film, and isolated pops and crackles on the soundtrack. Still well worth it for any fan of the genre, though.

It only takes a few moments to see that Charlton Heston, who first appears under the opening credits, striding along in what would become his iconic walk, is going to be a big Hollywood star in his first film, "Dark City," which was recently rescued from video oblivion by the enterprising Olive Films and released on DVD. Heston is on screen for virtually the entire film, and it is solely his presence that propels the film forward. Having read about this film for years, and not being able to see it until now, I was sorely disappointed in the film itself. Script has few surprises, and is totally formulaic as its predictable plot unfolds. Weak writing, plodding direction by William Dieterle (whose classic work includes "Hunchback of Notre Dame" and "The Devil and Daniel Webster") and a group of poorly used actors, who have been better used elsewhere (Harry Morgan, Viveca Lindfors, even Jack Webb). Worst of all is Lizabeth Scott (who at 88 is still alive and living somewhere in seclusion), whose doormat of a nightclub singer, begging to be mistreated by Heston's character, is at her dullest. Ms. Scott, not a particularly versatile actress, was best when she was bad ("Easy Living," "Bad for Each Other" with Heston), but here she poorly lipsynchs several too many songs (that stop the already slow-moving plot dead in its tracks) to the voice of Trudy Stevens (who sang for Scott in other films and for Vera-Ellen in "White Chistmas"), and reads her lines as though she were a drama school dropout. Don't look for the classic femme fatale in this movie; she simply isn't here.

The three stars are only for Heston in his film debut; the film itself would only rate two.
Biggest problem is poor quality of video. What should have been crisp black-and-white is pale grey, with many scenes looking washed out and flickering, further diluting the pleasure of seeing the film. Couldn't Paramount provide a better copy to Olive Films, after all these years of waiting? Rent it for Chuck, and keep your expectations low.