Femmes Fatales

February 10 2018

HER MOVE

Knight shoots pawn—check and mate.

Patricia Knight made only five motion pictures, but one of them was 1949’s Shockproof, which falls into the category of under appreciated film noir. She plays an ex-convict who moves in with her parole officer. Yeah—bad idea, but no need to say more because we already talked about the film in detail. Check here. Knight married her Shockproof co-star Cornel Wilde and, except for a few more roles, that was pretty much the end of her career. But her contribution to film noir is remembered as one of the better ones. This is a promo photo from the movie, 1949.

Shockproof, Patricia Knight, Cornel Wilde, film noir

Vintage Pulp

January 19 2018

SHOCK VALUE

It isn't easy for a bad woman to go straight.

We think Shockproof has one of the best film noir titles of all time. It just sounds like a killer flick. But is it? Patricia Knight stars as a paroled murderer who can’t quit her past associations, despite the fact that her parole officer Cornel Wilde is prepared to throw her back in prison for life if she violates her terms. But she thinks she’s smarter than the system, and so does her shady boyfriend, so they keep sneaking around Los Angeles to meet each other. Meanwhile Wilde is convinced Knight is redeemable, and in his efforts to steer her straight ends up bringing her deeper into his own circle, and into his personal life. The only way he can keep her away from her bad boyfriend is to be with her as much as possible, so soon the two are living in the same big house along with Wilde’s mother and little brother. But the old boyfriend is still sliming around and plans to use Wilde’s affections for Knight against him. We wouldn’t say the movie is quite as good as its title—it isn’t down and dirty enough for that—but it’s a solid film noir entry, and we recommend it. It premiered in the U.S. today in 1949.

Los Angeles, Shockproof, Patricia Knight, Cornel Wilde, poster art, cinema, film noir, movie review

Intl. Notebook

January 16 2015

STAR NOIRS

San Fran film fest once again celebrates the best and brightest of mid-century crime cinema.

Today, once again, the U.S.’s premier film noir festival begins in San Francisco. Well, we aren’t impartial—we used to live in Berkeley, just across the Bay, and San Fran was our nocturnal playground—but we think the Noir City Film Festival is the best, that its locale the Castro Theatre is awesome, and that San Francisco, with its iconic hills, clanking cable cars, and rogue fogs, is the also the best possible host city. This year the art produced for the festival in its thirteenth year references worn pulp paperbacks, which we can appreciate, and we also love the festival line-up.

The extravaganza opens with Woman on the Run, a film we discussed recently. Apparently the last known print burned in a fire, and this year’s showing represents the culmination of years of restoration work. Since the film was in the public domain, we imagine some secondary sources existed and needed to be tracked down and cobbled together. Other classics to be screened include Clash By Night, The Thin Man, Shockproof, Cry Terror!, and twenty others. Hopefully a few of our Bay Area friends will attend the festival and report back. And to Pulp Intl. readers in that part of the world, this is your official reminder—any chance to see film noir on a big screen is an opportunity not to be wasted.

San Francisco, Noir City Film Festival, Castro Theatre, Clash By Night, The Thin Man, Shockproof, Cry Terror, Woman on the Run, cinema, film noir

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HISTORY REWIND

The headlines that mattered yesteryear.

March 24

1981—Ronnie Biggs Rescued After Kidnapping

Fugitive thief Ronnie Biggs, a British citizen who was a member of the gang that pulled off the Great Train Robbery, is rescued by police in Barbados after being kidnapped. Biggs had been abducted a week earlier from a bar in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil by members of a British security firm. Upon release he was returned to Brazil and continued to be a fugitive from British justice.

March 23

2011—Elizabeth Taylor Dies

American actress Elizabeth Taylor, whose career began at age 12 when she starred in National Velvet, and who would eventually be nominated for five Academy Awards as best actress and win for Butterfield 8 and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, dies of congestive heart failure in Los Angeles. During her life she had been hospitalized more than 70 times.

March 22

1963—Profumo Denies Affair

In England, the Secretary of State for War, John Profumo, denies any impropriety with showgirl Christine Keeler and threatens to sue anyone repeating the allegations. The accusations involve not just infidelity, but the possibility acquaintances of Keeler might be trying to ply Profumo for nuclear secrets. In June, Profumo finally resigns from the government after confessing his sexual involvement with Keeler and admitting he lied to parliament.

March 22

1978—Karl Wallenda Falls to His Death

World famous German daredevil and high-wire walker Karl Wallenda, founder of the acrobatic troupe The Flying Wallendas, falls to his death attempting to walk on a cable strung between the two towers of the Condado Plaza Hotel in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Wallenda is seventy-three years old at the time, but it is a 30 mph wind, rather than age, that is generally blamed for sending him from the wire.

March 22

2006—Swedish Spy Stig Wennerstrom Dies

Swedish air force colonel Stig Wennerström, who had been convicted in the 1970s of passing Swedish, U.S. and NATO secrets to the Soviet Union over the course of fifteen years, dies in an old age home at the age of ninety-nine. The Wennerström affair, as some called it, was at the time one of the biggest scandals of the Cold War.

March 21

1963—Alcatraz Closes

The federal penitentiary located on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay closes. The island had been home to a lighthouse, a military fortification, and a military prison over the years. In 1972, it would become a national recreation area open to tourists, and it would receive national landmark designations in 1976 and 1986.