I watched three of these B-movie crime dramas over the weekend, one a piece starring Mamie Van Doren, Cleo Moore, and Beverly Michaels. My goal was to get one movie from each actress in the can over my three-day weekend.
The first movie I watched was ONE GIRL'S CONFESSION, the 1953 low-budget film noir from Columbia Pictures. The film stars Cleo Moore in the title role, and features Hugo Haas and Glenn Langan in supporting roles. Haas wrote, produced, and directed the film as well as acted in it.
The premise of the movie is pretty simple: Mary Adams (Moore) is a waitress at a waterfront bar run by an older man who swindled her father's fortune years before. One night, Mary sneaks into the man's bedroom and steals $25,000 from underneath his pillow. The rest of the movie is her spending time in jail for her crime, and rotating her time between the likes Damitrof (Haas), a foreign scoundrel, and a fisherman named Johnny (Langan). The story takes you a rollercoaster of emotions and different plot twists, leaving us guessing where Mary's going to end up before it all gets wrapped up in the end.
ONE GIRL'S CONFESSION is the one movie of Cleo Moore's I've always wanted to see. It seems to be a very typical vehicle of hers, and perhaps one of her more popular efforts since it's been released officially on DVD over the years. It's a basic B-movie, therefore the runtime is a mere 74 minutes and the plot moves along quickly as a result. There are a few instances where the story seems a bit "rushed" and as if some things were possibly thinned out to keep the movie within its shoe-string budget.
Moore gives a capable "bad girl" performance, perhaps a little stronger than required by the script and "quickie" feel of the movie. Haas, a well-known character actor-turned-filmmaker, gives a good performance as the semi-slimy restaurant owner who has an eye for Moore, although the relationship eventually evolves into a father/daughter-type deal. Langan is a handsome young actor, and I don't believe I've seen him in anything else before (or even heard of him for that matter), but he does good as Johnny, the "everyman" that ultimately gets the girl in the end.
I'd definitely recommend this movie, especially if you're new to the genre and want something to sink your teeth into.
The next movie I watched was WICKED WOMAN, another 1953 low-budget film noir starring Beverly Michaels in the title role. It features Richard Egan, Percy Helton, and Evelyn Scott in supporting roles, and was directed and produced by Russell Rouse, a filmmaker Michaels married in 1955 shortly before she bailed on Hollywood.
The film is another basic story: A young woman named Billie Nash (Michaels) moves into town and gets a job as a waitress in a local bar. She immediately sets her eyes on the bar's handsome owner, Matt (Egan). The duo decides to rid themselves of Matt's alcoholic wife, Dora (Scott), but their plans are thwarted by a nosy neighbor of Billie's named Charlie (Helton).
One thing I really like about WICKED WOMAN is that the movie has its own theme song. Beverly Michaels is a compelling leading lady, and I'd argue that her performance elevates this movie. She definitely isn't typical of the era, however, considering her 5'10" frame and the way she sluggishly walks across the stage hitting her marks. Richard Egan is a handsome leading man, and it's easy to tell why he want on to greater things after this movie gave him his first leading role.
WICKED WOMAN seems to sum up the genre of B-movie crime dramas, and Beverly Michaels seems destined to be the star of such movies. She looks the most like Marilyn Monroe in her get-up, but her husky-voice and tall, slender frame gives her a personality distinctly hers. Actress Lily Tomlin is a big fan of Beverly Michaels and WICKED WOMAN in particular, and has written a few different articles explaining her admiration of the movie and actress.
With such talent as she had, it's a shame that Michaels left Hollywood as early as she did. She only did a handful of movies before marrying Russell Rouse and leaving the limelight altogether. And she had zero interest whatsoever in returning to the spotlight when her movies were rediscovered by a new generation in the 1980s.
WICKED WOMAN is a good movie, and I will definitely revisit in the future. I didn't get to watch it with my wife because she was at work, but we're going to get around to watching it together real soon.
The last movie I watched was GUNS, GIRLS, AND GANGSTERS, a 1959 low-budget gangster movie starring Mamie Van Doren, Gerald Mohr, Lee Van Cleef, and Grant Richards. Van Doren did the movie as apart of a two-picture deal she had with producer Edward Small. The other movie she made for him was VICE RAID (1959), another film that easily fits into this B-movie melodrama wannabe genre.
This movie seems to be a little more inventive that the previous two I've watched. The plot follows a guy called Wheeler (Mohr), who has just been released from prison. During his time there, he and Mike Bennett (Van Cleef) cooked up an idea to rob a Las Vegas casino of $2 million. Wheeler drags nightclub owner Joe Darren (Richards) and songstress Vi Victor (Van Doren) into the scheme. A nice young couple, Ann and Steve Thomas (Elaine Edwards and John Baer), get caught in the crossfire as they own a little motel where all the drama is going down. I won't spoil the ending for you, but it's good.
GUNS, GIRLS, AND GANGSTERS is a delicious title for this B-movie sub-genre, and Van Doren seems right at home in its tawdry little tale. One thing that I liked about this movie (although it took some getting used to) was the narration navigating the story from on point to the next. Instead of relying solely on dialogue and scenes, the narrative brings us up to speed and explains away the time jumps without us having to see everything little detail on the screen. I didn't necessarily know if I'd like it at the beginning, but I ended up looking forward to how it was all going to be explained.
Movies such as this one is definitely a prototype of the B-movie crime genre. This movie is more of "crime" movie than ONE GIRL'S CONFESSION or WICKED WOMAN, both which basically centered around wronged or self-centered young women trying navigate their lives the best way they saw fit.
I have more movies that I'm going to watch that'll fit inside this genre, especially some starring Van Doren, Moore, and Michaels. Of the three, I'd probably say Michaels is the best actress, Moore the most attractive, and Van Doren the sexiest. They each serve the purpose of their presence in their pictures, although Van Doren cannot be said to be the sole star of GUNS, GIRLS, AND GANGSTERS, since her character is primarily employed as a go-between and lookout for the men actually pulling off the robbery.
These movies shouldn't be mistaken for high-art or fine drama. They should be taken solely for what they are: Cheap, salacious entertainment that moves along quickly and features lovely-looking platinum blondes. I've had fun watching them, and I will continue to have fun as I watch more of them.
All three of these movies are currently on YouTube.
