Got a minute? 60 seconds is all it takes to watch my Turner Classic Movie channel quick pick. This week: Kiss of Death (1947). Richard Widmark received a best supporting actor nomination for his portrayal of gangster Tommy Udo. Not the 1930’s mobster-with-a-heart-of-gold, the victim of an impoverished upbringing, but a disturbing sociopath. The fault lies not in his stars, but in the fact that he’s psycho. Stars Victor Mature.
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Top notch film noir set in London. But it’s not the London of “Westminster Abbey, the tower Big Ben.” It’s a London of dark alleys and narrow stairways and basement bars.
Richard Widmark
Harry Fabian (Richard Widmark) is a small-time operator looking for a big score. He longs for “a life of ease and plenty” and he’s driven by a passion to “show them all.” He’s a man with a plan, but unfortunately, it’s yetanother plan. In a long series of dubious and unsuccessful plans. Harry Fabian is, in a word a schnook; but he’s a schnook with a scheme to corner the market for professional wrestling in London. And as with any plan, it requires financing. Which requires double and triple dealing: with his grotesque boss, night club owner Philip Nosseross (Francis L. Sullivan); with Nosseross’s wife (Googie Withers), who happens to be his lover; and with his
Gene Tierney works the crowd
girlfriend Mary (Gene Tierney), who sings at the club.
Widmark is three years removed from his chilling performance as arch-psychopath Tommy Udo (see “pushed old lady in wheelchair down stairs”) in Kiss of Death (1947). But Harry is more weasel than wolf. He’s a craven blowhard, and there seems to be an inevitability that the many plates he’s spinning can’t help but come crashing down around him
Director Jules Dassin came to prominence after WW2 with film noirs like Brute Force (1947) and the seminal TheNaked City (1948). He became ensnared in the blacklist hysteria, and was forced to jump to Europe to complete Night and the City. It was another 5 years before he jumpstarted his career 2.0 with the classic Rififi (1955), setting the standard for a generation of caper films.
Also check out the 1992 remake with Robert DeNiro and Jessica Lange.
