Displaying items by tag: Charles Korvin
Killer That Stalked New York
THE KILLER THAT STALKED NEW YORK
US, 1950, 79 minutes, Black-and-white.
Evelyn Keyes, Charles Korvin, William Bishop, Dorothy Malone, Lola Albright, Barrey Kelly, Carl Benton Reid, Ladwig Donath, Whit Bissell, Connie Gilchrist, Jim Backus, Richard Egan, Paul Picerni.
Directed by Earl McEvoy.
This is a small feature from Columbia Studios in 1950, a story about smallpox in New York City, released the same year as the bigger-budget, Panic in the Streets, from 20th Century Fox with Richard Widmark.
The film is a police investigation, trying to track a courier for a jewel thief, returning from Cuba, married to the thief. She is played by Evelyn Keyes. The thief is played by Charles Korvin, a callous villain. Various authorities have been tracking down the courier but she keeps alluding them. There is also the complication of selling of the jewels, the broker wary because of surveillance. There are some emotional scenes, and the thief disappearing for 10 days.
But, the killer stalking New York is actually the plague, smallpox. Evelyn eyes has contracted it, goes to a doctor who gives her some medicine, gives a brooch to a little girl at the medical centre who then becomes seriously ill and dies. Then a number of characters, the porter at the hotel who carried the bags, the milkman and his deliveries, the head of a nightclub, all contract smallpox.
The attention of the drama then goes to the steps taken by the authorities, led by the Mayor of New York City, to immunise the millions of New York inhabitants, plans and discussions, meeting with industry, the getting of the doses, the needles, setting up centres, managing and crowds…
The centre of this investigation is the doctor in the children’s centre who gave the medicine to the infected woman. He is very much involved, tracking down those with the disease.
In the meantime, authorities get more information, show detective work in tracking down the infected woman, her fincally taking refuge with her brother, confronted by the thief and his inability to sell the diamonds, his escape, pursued, a dramatic and violent conclusion.
The film was released in 1950. There are quite a number of character actors very popular in the 1940s and 50s who turn up here, including Whit Bissell, Connie Gilchrist, and some who were to merge and successfully during the 1950s including Jim Backus, Richard Egan, Paul Picerni.
For audiences who watch this film in the post-Covid era, they will find it very interesting to see how New York City handled a plague epidemic in the 20th century compared with the international response in 2020-2021, especially the United States with President Trump and some denials, conspiracy theories, effects and demonstrations (and the appointment of Robert F Kennedy in the second Trump administration in charge of health given his conspiratorial theories and stances).
Smooth as Silk
SMOOTH AS SILK
US, 1946, 64 minutes, Black-and-white.
Kent Taylor, Virginia Gray, Milburn Stone, John Litel, Jane Adams, Danny Morton, Charles Trowbridge, Teresa Harris, Harry Cheshire.
Directed by Charles Barton.
A small film from Universal Studios in the immediate postwar period, the period of the popularity of film noir. Those wanting a good example of this genre, Smooth as Silk is well worth seeking out.
There is a lot going on in the 64 minutes running time. The cast is not topline but featuring many character actors who were frequently seen in films of this kind, effective in their roles.
The film introduces a smooth as silk lawyer, Kent Taylor, getting an alcoholic off a charge of manslaughter, paying witnesses to lie. As the film progresses, he is more and more unlikable, looking behind the scenes, manipulating. He is also in love with an actress, played by Virginia Gray, a scheming and unscrupulous femme fatale, starring a play, an agreement with the lawyer that he do a deal with an entrepreneur, John Litelon the, to cast her in the forthcoming play. The entrepreneur refuses.
What follows is a great deal of manipulation, especially part of the actress, manipulating her younger sister who has come to live in New York, urging the various men attracted to her, the lawyer, the entrepreneur, the alcoholic young man. In fact, the young man is due to inherit into a large amount of money administered by the entrepreneur.
Unexpectedly, the actress is seductive and successful with the entrepreneur, even to having him announce their engagement at a party, to the surprise of the lawyer.
The film then becomes a murder story, the lawyer attacking the entrepreneur at a party, allegedly coming to apologise, shooting him, setting up the scene as if it was the actress who killed the entrepreneur. There is an honourable lawyer in the background and he is persuaded to take on the task of defence but investigates the possibilities, the various aspects of the lawyer’s story, re-creating the scene, complicated by the actress turning up and confused in her testimony.
Ultimately, the lawyer then tries to frame the young man but is caught in the act.
A lot of action in 64 minutes, complex characters, a film in which only the sister, the African-American maid, this time also a confidante of the actress, the entrepreneur’s butler and the honourable lawyer, supporting characters, are the only characters with some moral integrity.
