I've decided that Hugo Haas is one of the undiscovered gems of film noir.
He had a knack for making quirky little movies that are tons of fun and as casting himself in likable and memorable roles. He also managed to get terrific performances out of mostly unknown actresses. In this one, that actress is Cleo Moore, who reminded me for the entire movie of a blonde, 1950s version of Marcia Gay Harden. She plays a young woman who steals some money, fesses up, spends time in jail, then goes back to get the money, which she hid away in a forest, once she's released. But the interference of her bar owner boss (played by Haas) complicates things, and we wonder for a while if she'll ever recover the money.
I was really rooting for her to, since she ends up being such a winning character. She's basically a really good person, even if she's got a noirish femme fatale attitude. Every time she does something wrong, she immediately confesses to it, a recurring detail that I thought was pretty funny, whether intentionally so or not. There's also a hunkadoodle sailor played by Glenn Langan, he of the manly, hirsute forearms, but he doesn't have much to do except stand next to Moore every so often, towering over her and looking like he wants to rip her clothes off. One can't really blame him.
This is just a really fun little pot boiler.
Grade: A-
He had a knack for making quirky little movies that are tons of fun and as casting himself in likable and memorable roles. He also managed to get terrific performances out of mostly unknown actresses. In this one, that actress is Cleo Moore, who reminded me for the entire movie of a blonde, 1950s version of Marcia Gay Harden. She plays a young woman who steals some money, fesses up, spends time in jail, then goes back to get the money, which she hid away in a forest, once she's released. But the interference of her bar owner boss (played by Haas) complicates things, and we wonder for a while if she'll ever recover the money.
I was really rooting for her to, since she ends up being such a winning character. She's basically a really good person, even if she's got a noirish femme fatale attitude. Every time she does something wrong, she immediately confesses to it, a recurring detail that I thought was pretty funny, whether intentionally so or not. There's also a hunkadoodle sailor played by Glenn Langan, he of the manly, hirsute forearms, but he doesn't have much to do except stand next to Moore every so often, towering over her and looking like he wants to rip her clothes off. One can't really blame him.
This is just a really fun little pot boiler.
Grade: A-