It's...Movie Time!
Today's cinematic themed post goes back to 1949 for a film noir called Follow Me Quietly.
Calling this entry "film noir" may be giving this too much artistic credit. Follow Me Quiety is more a "just the facts, ma'am" police procedural with an almost quasi documentary kind of vibe.
This movie was directed by Richard Fleischer. Never heard of him? That's OK, neither have I.
The film stars William Lundigan, Dorothy Patrick and Jeff Corey and no, you don't know who they are either and I'm drawing a blank as well.
Well, with this ringing endorsement, let's plunge right in to Follow Me Quietly.
The city is in the grip of terror.
A killer is on the loose.
A mysterious sinister figure known only as "The Judge".
His victims? Anyone he deems as immortal and worthless.
Police Lieutenant Harry Grant is tasked with bringing this killer to justice.
Which ain't gonna be easy as he leaves skant clues.
To help him and his squad get a handle on who the hell this fiend is, Grant has a faceless mannequin set up to which they add clothes, hair or any other features they can discern which each successive murder.
Each piece of knowledge on who the Judge really is paid for in blood.
The body count keeps going up and Grant is frustratingly no closer to bringing this killer in.
Maybe plucky girl report Ann Gorman can help! If her reckless nose for news doesn't get her killed.
Grant finds Gorman to be a terrible nuisance. She's also gosh darn cute. Oh, he's gotta get her off this beat, tracking down murderers is no place for a girl, yadda yadda yadda, you know the drill.
And of course it's Ann Gorman who uncovers the crucial piece of information that finally puts Harry Grant wise to the identity of the Judge.
The Judge is Charlie Roy, a middle age man of sour disposition and rather unattractive appearance who can't get laid so he's taking his sexual frustration on people he thinks he's morally superior to.
Or something.
Grant has Roy cornered in a refinery but our killer ain't gonna be taken that easily and makes a run for it through the refinery's catwalks where he....
(I know, you've gotten there already)
...falls to his death.
The film ends with Harry Grant and Ann Gorman on a date.
Well, that didn't sound like much.
And it wasn't. With a run time of 59 minutes, there's not a lot of time to do much than run the numbers of this crime... I don't wanna use the word "thriller" as that might imply the presence of actual thrills... or Michael Jackson.
Back in 1949, the New York Times was also dismissive of the film. "There is no intelligent reason why anyone should heed the proposal of Follow Me Quietly...for this utterly senseless little thriller is patently nothing more than a convenient one-hour time-killer between performances of the eight-act vaudeville bill."
More recent assessments have been kinder.
Gene Triplett of The Oklahoman: "This obscure gem packs a remarkable amount of thrills and dramatic weight into a mere 59 minutes".
Paul Mavis of DVD Talk rated it 4.5/5 stars and called it a "strange, unsettling film noir mystery, with a disturbing subtext".
Follow Me Quietly is... functional.
- There are murders.
- There are people who want to stop the murders.
- The murders are stopped.
What more do you want?
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Tomorrow on the blog: the debut of a regular blog feature as I look back on the 60 year history of Star Trek.
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