It's Movie Time!
After a break last weekend, I'm back with a movie post about not one, not two but THREE movies, all directed by Nicholas Ray.
Ray lived a rough and tumble life and directed films about people who were broken and lived on the outskirts of an otherwise normal or respectable life, much like the man himself.
First up is They Live by Night is a 1948 American film noir that was Ray's directorial debut. Based on Edward Anderson's Depression-era novel Thieves Like Us, the film follows a young convict on the run who falls in love with a woman and attempts to begin a life with her.
Life has other plans.
Meet Arthur "Bowie" Bowers. When he was 16 years old, he was an accessory to murder. At 23 years old, he's cooling his heels in prison for that rap when two older bank robbers, Chicamaw and T-Dub, make their escape and they bring Bowie with them. He's gonna be their getaway driver when they get back to robbing banks.
Whether Bowie agrees with this plan is irrelevant.
Their first big bank robbery goes off without a hitch but the subsequent getaway is another story when Bowie crashes the car and Chicamaw kills a police officer investigating the crash.
Chicamaw and T-Dub book it for another town leaving an injured Bowie in the care of Chicamaw's neice, Catherine "Keechie" Mobley.
Bowie and Keechie, as they saying goes, take a liking to one another. Bowie's of the mindset that he doesn't want to do anymore robberies with Chicamaw and T-Dub.
Bowie and Keechie get hitched and run off to a remote resort cabin to spend Christmas together while avoiding the long arm of the law as well as Chicamaw and T-Dub.
Bowie and Keechie's idyllic interlude is interrupted when Chicamaw and T-Dub track them down. Chicamaw coerces Bowie into agreeing to another bank robbery.
During the second robbery, T-Dub is killed while Chicamaw and Bowie escape in separate directions.
Chicamaw gets killed during a liquor store hold up.
Bowie reunites with Keechie who reveals she's pregnant. Still dreaming of a normal life together, the young couple leave the resort to travel east, driving mostly at night. Bowie is still in the cross hairs of the law for his role in two bank robberies and his escape from prison.
Complications with Keechie's pregnancy force them to seek help which in turn gets Bowie turned into the police.
Bowie is killed in a hail of bullets.
I suppose I should have said "spoiler" but man, this is not the kind of movie where we're going to get a happy ending.
But it's the sort of movie that can make a man's career and They Live By Night showed Nicholas Ray could deliver a solid, taunt film noir fraught with tension, violence and heartache.
Two years later. Nicholas Ray was in the director's chair for another film noir, this time starring Humphrey Bogart, In a Lonely Place.
The post promises a surprise finish. It does not lie.
Bogart is Dixon "Dix" Steele, a down-on-his-luck Hollywood screenwriter who has not had a successful movie since before World War II. Dix has a bad habit of not staying out of his own way, given to paranoia which expresses itself with a hair trigger temper.
A young night club hat check girl named Mildred turns up dead, brutually . Since Dix was the last one to see her alive and with his rep for having a violent temper, the cops have our hapless screenwriter pegged as a likely suspect.
One thing keeping this from a being a total lock is Dix has an alibi, in the form of a neighbor named Laurel (Gloria Grahame) who can place Dix being at home at the time of the murder.
Dix and Laurel begin a friendship that turns into love. Inspired by Laurel, Dix is motivated to get back to work, writing a screenplay.
But Dix can't stay out of his own way, prone to moodiness and anger.
And Laurel is starting to wonder if Dix may have killed Mildred. She did see him at home during the time of the murder but she didn't have eyes on his front door the entire evening.
The detective investigating Mildred's murder isn't helping. Despite Laurel's testimony, he still sees Dix as the most likely suspect for the killing.
Laurel's doubts about Dix's innocence and her concerns with his behavior are creating a great deal of anxiety so she makes plans to leave.
Discovering her plans, Dix flies into a rage and attacks Laurel, strangling her. Laurel's life is saved when a friend of Dix drops by with good news: Mildred's ex-boyfriend has been charged with her murder and Dix is off the hook for that murder.
As for this murder he did just try to commit.....
Laurel gasping for breath, bruises around her neck... yeah, this is awkward.
And whoa! Yeah, a surprise finish indeed with Bogart's character off the hook for one murder but almost commits another and for no other reason than his out of control paranoia and rage directed at the woman he loves and who wanted to love him back.
Well, that's fucked up now.
The original ending of the story was Dix does indeed strangle Laurel to death. Nicholas Ray originally shot that ending but he didn't like it. Working with Bogart and Grahame, Ray improvised the ending we got. Ray thought it was more powerful to see Dix walking away from Laurel, knowing he had lost her love and it was his own damn fault.
In A Lonely Place is not one of Humprey Bogart's more famous movies but many film critics consider this one of his strongest performances. It's clear Dix is suffering from some form of depression and needs professional help. Flailing and lost, even with the help of someone with good intentions such as Laurel, Dix is doomed to a downward spiral.
We move on to 1952 to our next film directed by Nicholas Ray. It's time for... The Lusty Men.
Well, is this Movie Time's first gay porno?
No, it's not.
The Lusty Men is a Western film starring Susan Hayward and Robert Mitchum.
When I say "western", you might think this is set in what is commonly referred as the "OId West". While horses and cowboys are involved and it's set in the American West, the movie takes place in the modern day.
Robert Mitchem is Jeff McCloud, a longtime professional rodeo competitor. But he's putting those days behind him after he's injured in a bull riding incident.
Jeff hitchhikes back to his childhood home which is now a decrepit place now owned by a rancher named Jeremiah.
Though it is run down, it is a dream home for cowhand Wes Merritt and his wife Louise, who are painstakingly saving Wes's meager wages to buy the house.
Jeff gets a job working as ranch hand with Wes who recognizes Jeff as a rodeo competitor. Wes has dreams of becoming a rodeo performer himself and looks to Jeff for guidance to become a success.
With Jeff as a trainer and partner, Wes hits the rodeo circuit. Louise objects to this but reluctantly goes along with it on the condition Wes will stop when they've earned enough to buy the house.
Which he does not do. Yes, he does earn enough money to buy the house but he will not quit. Wes is seduced by the success he's experiencing on the rodeo circuit, all the fame and money that comes with it.
Meanwhile, Louise is becoming increasingly disenchanted with the whole deal, the itinerant nature of rodeo life, watching men ("lusty men?") becoming damaged or even dead from bull riding, living in constant anxiety the same will happen to Wes.
Jeff develops feelings for Louise and asks if she could love another man. Although feeling isolated and neglected, Louise reaffirms her loyalty to Wes.
But damn he's making that hard.
Wes gets cocky and arrogant, deciding he doesn't need Jeff anymore taking part of his winnings as his partner and trainer.
Jeff opts to get back into the rodeo game himself despite his injuries and being out of shape. He actually does well even with these obstacles and regains Wes' respect.
But a single misstep during a bronc riding event gets Jeff killed.
Wes decides to quit as he and Louise return home.
The Lusty Men may be billed as a western but it's pure soap opera but it's a well done soap opera with Nicholas Ray capturing the desperate intensity of life on the rodeo road.
Three years later, Ray would direct his most famous film, Rebel Without a Cause, starring James Dean (which I've actually never seen.)
Nicholas Ray was described as "one of postwar American cinema's supremely gifted and ultimately tragic filmmakers". Ray was a hard drinking, hard living adventure seeker who had numerous affairs with many women. (And perhaps men as well; there were rumors Ray was bi-sexual.)
After peaking as a director in the 1950's, Ray found fewer opportunities to direct. The last feature film he completed was 55 Days In Peking in 1963.
Towards the end of his life, various ailments wreaked havoc with lung cancer, a brain tumor and more before he died of heart failure in 1979.
Nicholas Ray inspired a generation of directors such as Martin Scorecese, François Truffaut, Curtis Hanson and Wim Winders.
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| Nicholas Ray circa 1950 |
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