Nonureva Really Surprised!

MamaGravity good back-story, and good acting

Listonixio Fresh and Exciting

StyleSk8r At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Michael O'Keefe Top notch direction by Don Siegel and very good 1950s film noir. Los Angeles detectives, Cal Bruner(Steve Cochran) and Jack Farnham(Howard Duff)come across $300,000 in stolen money. The suspected robber is killed in a high speed car chase and loose greenbacks scatter from a box thrown from the vehicle. Cal decides to pocket a few bundles in hopes of keeping up with his girlfriend Lilli's(Ida Lupino)spending habits. Jack, a family man, could use extra cash, but nixes what his partner has done. Pleading with Cal is not working, because he wants to make a fast getaway out of the country with his night club singer girlfriend. Capt. Michaels(Dean Jagger)has a suspicion something isn't right with his detectives, who are being blackmailed over the stashed cash. You have to listen close to see how the number 36 fits into the film's title. Very good acting and believable screenplay co-written by Lupino. Other players in this crime drama: Dorothy Malone, Kenneth Patterson, Dabbs Greer and Richard Deacon.

Dfree52 Co-screenwriter and star Ida Lupino wrote this tale of ambition with former husband (and producer) Collier Young. One of the costars is Howard Duff, her current husband, though in the film he's married to Dorothy Malone and his LA detective partner Steve Cochran is Lupino's love interest.***CONTAINS SPOILERS****The plot revolves around a cache of stolen, marked bills that begin turning up in LA, a year after being lifted in New York City. Lupino plays a down on her luck lounge singer in a class B type bar, who'd been tipped a marked bill by a boozy customer. She reluctantly agrees to go on stake outs at various racetracks with the boys; she also resigns herself to the affections of Cochran.After some time she spots the bad guy leaving the racetrack parking lot, a car chase and crash ensues and at the crash site, bad cop Cochran pockets some of the loot, to the dismay of good cop partner Duff. Cochran uses the singer's longing for a better life and diamonds as his motive. Then comes clean and admits to wanting a better life for himself.I won't divulge the ending, but good does triumph over evil.The movie is quite well directed by Don Siegel, though both co-writers and producers (Filmways was Lupino's studio) were said to have given him fits. Not being under a major studio's restraints a few things got passed by the censors. One is a scene with husband and wife (Duff and Malone) conversing in their bed, not the standard separate twin beds all movies showed at the time.Another is the Lupino-Cochran relationship. Frankly, he generally treats her like dirt, part of his character's ambition; part of her knowing that she's fraying at the edges. She's still attractive, but for how long? She's not desperate, but how far away is she from it? He's abusive and it seems to turn her on.Not great, but entertaining.

Spikeopath No, not really.Two detectives, Jack Farnham and Cal Bruner are deeply investigating a robbery in which $300,000 was stolen. As their investigation progresses, they, by way of a sultry woman called Lilli Marlowe, manage to find the perp and recover the cash. But Bruner has fallen for Marlowe, and realising she has expensive tastes and that his police salary can not sustain the relationship, he ponders turning to the dark side, with Farnham equally at odds with himself over the pressures of raising a family.Is Private Hell 36 a Noir film? Well I'm no paid expert on the subject but it certainly has all the ingredients in place. Yet the film, in spite of some watchable attributes, is a largely character driven talky piece of fluff that isn't really raising the bar in film noir. Or, in fact, crime picture history. Certainly it's not a film that screams out that it was directed by Don Siegel. It's a solid premise to work from, and in Ida Lupino (Marlowe) and the great Steve Cochran (Bruner), the picture boasts two very fine performances, with each actor giving the film its emotional weight. A nod of approval also goes to the scoring of the piece by Leith Stevens, as jazzy blues like combos flit in and out to create an ear worthy alliance as our detectives battle with their very conscience. All things considered it's an enjoyable enough piece, but one that fades very quick from the memory. Solid if unspectacular, and reliable if lacking in any major amount of thrills and brain tickling plotting. 5/10

David (Handlinghandel) It's nice to see the old Republic logo at the start of this. Seeing Ida Lupino is always a delight. Steve Cochrane was a handsome, effective performer who was underutilized. And Don Siegal was a great director of gritty noirs in the 1950s.Unfortunately, these parts do not add up to much of a whole. It's a standard rogue cop story that doesn't ring true. The duologue is very arch. Are we trying for Oscar Wilde here or are we making a gritty detective movie? Dorothy Malone is beautiful in that somewhat unusual way she had and she also acts well.Lupino seems either to have been allowed, or directed, to chew up the scenery. She is playing to the balcony. And saying that about one of my all-time favorite perfumers hurts.