I’ve had a good run… the last dozen or so movies I’ve watched have held some real gems. Tonight, that ended. Robert Aldrich directed one of my favourite Film Noirs – actually favourite films for that matter – Kiss Me Deadly in 1955. KMD has everything – thrills, chills, tough guy humour and a truly apocalyptic ending. Aldrich pulled out all the stops on this one and it remains one of the most vibrant, exciting and claustrophobic thrillers to ever come out of Hollywood.
The year before, he produced and (although uncredited) directed another noir starring Dan Duryea called World For Ransom. I’d heard and read about it but it’s tough to find.
Don’t bother. It is an atrocious Monogram quickie, reportedly made on a budget of $90K and you’ll wonder what they spent the extra 80G’s on. Part crime drama, part detective noir and all shite. Dangerous Dan is fine as always and there are a couple of decent turns by the likes of Nigel Bruce (Dr Watson to Rathbone’s Holmes) and Key Luke (Number One Son in the Oland Charlie Chan series). Everything else about World for Ransom blows.
I guess the lesson learned here is that not all films done by normally solid directors work. Some suck… like say, World for Ransom. The only interesting thing I could find about the film is that Aldrich didn’t have his name removed from the director’s credit because the movie is a complete hunk of trash, but rather because he wanted Duyrea’s love interest to dust him off in the end because she was a dyke and hated men. The studio said no and the only thing worth watching this movie for ended up on the cutting room floor.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment