THE WILD ANGELS (1966)

 

Three years before he starred in the iconic EASY RIDER (1969) Peter Fonda first tried his luck on a motorcycle in this innovative exploitation flick that was produced and directed by Roger Corman for American-International Pictures. With this film, Fonda abandoned his clean cut screen image (1963's TAMMY AND THE DOCTOR) and made the big plunge into the Counterculture. 

The real-life motorcycle gang, The Hell's Angels, lend their name to the fictional gang in the film. Fonda plays the gang leader, who is stuck with the unlikely name Heavenly Blues. (??) Along with his girlfriend, Mike (Nancy Sinatra), his best friend, Loser (Bruce Dern), and his girl, Gaysh (Diane Ladd, Dern's wife at the time), and some of the real-life Angels, they ride, fight, party, make out, etc., all to a soundtrack of innocuous rock music, similar to the music heard in other "hip" movies of the period. 

The plot has the gang setting out to retrieve a bike that was stolen from Loser. A brawl ensues. The cops show up. The gang flees, but Loser gets left behind. He steals a police motorcycle and is shot in the back during a getaway chase. His injuries are serious and he undergoes surgery. The gang springs him from the hospital and he dies soon afterward. They take Loser's body to his home town in the California mountains. The funeral in a small church turns into a drunken, violent orgy. When the gang tries to bury Loser's body in the local cemetery, some townspeople confront them. A brawl ensues. The cops show up. Everyone flees, except for Heavenly Blues, who laments to Mike: "There's nowhere to go." 

This unsavory little photoplay was the beginning of a long string of similar biker flicks to follow, some of them released by AIP. Roger Corman may have considered this film to be a kind of sequel or homage to the 1953 Marlon Brando classic THE WILD ONE. Or maybe he didn't. In either case, the two films have little in common, other than the central theme of a motorcycle gang. There are some good moments in THE WILD ANGELS, most of them involving Bruce Dern's excellent performance in a relatively small role. But the overall feeling is one of cheap sensationalism and an attempt to preach to the audience about the yearnings of young people caught up in the 60's culture. During the climactic funeral sequence, Heavenly Blues gets to passionately speak lines such as: "We want to ride our machines without getting hassled by The Man!" And: "We want to get loaded!!" Peter Fonda must have learned something valuable from this experience. In EASY RIDER, his character, Wyatt, is tight-lipped and doesn't say much of anything during the entire movie.

For American-International, THE WILD ANGELS marked the beginning of their next phase of film production. Having successfully made and marketed horror movies and beach party movies, they were ready to move into more adult content. In the next few years, the biker flicks would be released, along with other countercultural films such as THE TRIP, PSYCH OUT, and MARYJANE. Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello would step aside to make room for Jack Nicholson and Susan Strasberg.

Also featured in the cast are Buck Taylor, Gayle Hunnicutt, Joan Shawlee, Michael J. Pollard, Frank Maxwell, and a brief appearance by Corman regular Dick Miller, always a welcome presence in any movie.

LADY ON A TRAIN (1945)

 

A delightful combination of comedy, music and mystery, LADY ON A TRAIN was created primarily as a vehicle for Deanna Durbin, Universal Pictures' number one box office star from 1936 until her retirement in 1948. From her beginnings as a teenage operatic prodigy, Miss Durbin had matured into a beautiful and talented young woman in possession of more warmth and charisma than most female stars of her era. This is one of her best films. Directed by Charles David, who would later become Miss Durbin's husband, the film also stars David Bruce, Ralph Bellamy, Edward Everett Horton, Dan Duryea, Elizabeth Patterson, Patricia Morison, George Coulouris and Allen Jenkins. Based on an unpublished story by Leslie Charteris.

LADY ON A TRAIN is included in the book Film Noir: An Encyclopedic Reference To The American Style, edited by Alain Silver and Elizabeth Ward. It may be considered an odd choice for such a classification, given the overall lighthearted nature of the movie. However, there are many moments of Noir sensibility throughout the film, thanks in part to the striking cinematography of Woody Bredell, who shot the low budget classic PHANTOM LADY at Universal in 1944.

Nikki Collins (Durbin) is on a train pulling into Grand Central Station when she witnesses a man being murdered in a nearby office building. But she doesn't see the face of the killer. When she is unable to get the police to believe her, she enlists the help of mystery writer Wayne Morgan (Bruce). Nikki learns that the murder victim was a man named Waring, a shipping magnate. She goes to his mansion and meets his rather bizarre family, headed by crusty old Aunt Charlotte (Patterson). She also meets Waring's nephews, Jonathan (Bellamy) and Arnold (Duryea). The plot from there is a combination of mistaken identity, broad physical comedy, and three musical numbers performed by Miss Durbin, one of which is a stunning rendition of Cole Porter's Night and Day.

It shouldn't be surprising that the same studio that had produced so many marvelous, atmospheric horror films would be able to add convincingly dark sequences even into their best comedies. And that is the case with LADY ON A TRAIN, mainly at the beginning and toward the end of the film. The scene where Nikki looks out of her window and witnesses the murder, which occurs right after the opening credits, could easily have been the beginning of a serious Noir crime thriller. The fact that Nikki was reading a pulp crime novel, and her overstated reaction to the murder, add a comic veneer to the scene.

At the film's climax, however, when Nikki learns the identity of the murderer, the atmosphere turns exceedingly dark and serious. Trapped in the exact location of the murder, Nikki is confronted by both of the Waring brothers, played convincingly by Ralph Bellamy and Film Noir regular Dan Duryea. Which one is the killer? The revelation is expertly played out in the darkness of the deserted building. There is one memorable shot of Miss Durbin's face as a ghostly reflection in a glass door as she gazes in terror at the killer. And there is also a nice bit of psychological weirdness thrown in as the killer, addressing Nikki, alludes to a twisted, incestuous relationship between old Aunt Charlotte and himself that began in his childhood. Some pretty heavy stuff for a 1940's comedy with music!

A thoroughly engaging film on so many levels, LADY ON A TRAIN is highly recommended. And I dare you not to fall madly in love with Deanna Durbin!

A POVERTY ROW DOUBLE FEATURE

 

 

ONE FRIGHTENED NIGHT (1935)

This 66 minute programmer from Mascot Pictures follows the pattern of many similar "old dark house" mystery-comedies. Wealthy old guy Jasper White (Charlie Grapewin), who has one foot in the grave, gathers together a small group of family members and other associates, including the family housekeeper, to announce his plans to give each of them one million dollars. That is, of course, unless he is able to find his long lost granddaughter, Doris Waverly, in which case all of the money will go to her. Well, lo and behold, guess who shows up at the front door? The long lost granddaughter (Evelyn Knapp). While everyone in the house is trying to process this alarming development, another woman (Mary Carlisle) appears, also claiming to be the granddaughter. Mayhem ensues.

Christy Cabanne directed this movie with all of the appropriate dark-and-stormy-night atmosphere and creepy old mansion sets. The black and white cinematography is very good, especially in the opening moments. Also featured are Lucien Littlefield, Regis Toomey, Wallace Ford, Arthur Hohl, Hedda Hopper, Clarence Wilson and Rafaele Ottiano.

SWAMP WOMAN  (1941)

The woman inhabiting this particular swamp is burlesque queen Ann Corio, whose performance strongly suggests she would be better off concentrating on stripping in front of a live audience rather than emoting in front of a camera. The beautiful Miss Corio is joined in this cinematic swamp by perennial tough guy Jack La Rue, this time cast as a good guy and giving the best performance in this low budget programmer from PRC. Miss Corio plays, believe it or not, a burlesque queen who returns to her close knit backwoods community in the Deep South Swampland. While there, she gets involved with an escaped convict, an unsolved murder, and tries to entice her former boyfriend La Rue into some hot, swampy love. We get to see a few of her mildly suggestive dance moves as the film meanders to its eventual, and not terribly exciting, conclusion, whereupon life in the swamp is peaceful once again.