DARK CITY: Blu-ray (Paramount, 1950) Kino Lorber

At the time of director, William Dieterle’s Dark City (1950), noted New York Times’ critic, Bosley Crowthers wrote, “A new star named Charlton Heston — a tall, tweedy, rough-hewn sort of chap who looks like a triple-threat halfback on a midwestern college football team—is given an unfortunate send-off…He has a quiet but assertive magnetism, a youthful dignity and a plainly potential sense of timing...but…is called upon to play nothing more complex or demanding than a crooked gambler marked for doom.” There is something to this snap analysis, as Heston’s towering presence in Dark City gets repeatedly sandbagged by a fairly merciless and awkward screenplay from John Meredyth Lucas and Larry Marcus (based on Marcus’ novel, No Escape). Dark City ought to have been a better movie. What, with Hal B. Wallis in the producer’s chair and a cast to also include Jack Webb (as Augie), Ed Bagley (Barney), Dean Jagger (Capt. Garvey) and Harry Morgan (Soldier). The problem with Dark City is that it aspires to something ‘better’ than a standard ‘noir thriller’, but winds up muddling that objective with interpolated songs, sung by puffy-eyed Lauren Bacall knock-off/co-star, Lizabeth Scott (as Fran Garlan). It also needlessly inserts a vignette of domesticity to include the thoroughly ineffectual Viveca Lindfors as widow, Victoria Winant.

Heston is Danny Haley, a square-jawed ringleader of a gambling joint raided by the police. As Danny is not present when the chips fall, he avoids incarceration, leaving the ever-devoted Soldier to pick up the pieces. To recoup his losses, Danny lands on a rube at the nightclub where his gal/pal, Fran sings; ex-flyer come businessman, Arthur Winant (Don Defore), sent by his company with a $5000 check to buy sporting equipment. Danny lures Art into a game of poker, but instructs his cohorts, Barney and Augie to lose to the newcomer, thus ensuring Art will return the following evening, presumably, to win even bigger the second time around. Too bad for Art, it’s all just a set-up. In no time, Danny and his cronies bleed Art dry of his winnings, then, his savings, and finally, get him to sign over the $5000 check.  The next day, Danny and the boys are picked up and interrogated by Capt. Garvey, who informs them Art committed suicide in his motel room, presumably from the shame he had brought upon himself and his family. Danny feigns ignorance. Augie and Barney play along.

However, that evening Barney is felled by an assassin who breaks into his rented apartment and strangles him to death. Again, Garvey rounds up the usual suspects. Only now, he informs Augie and Danny that Winant’s brother, a raving psychotic named Sidney (Mike Mazurki) is out for revenge. Danny is cagey and still holds steadfast to knowing nothing about Art’s suicide or Barney’s murder. However, armed with the name of a man they have never met, Danny plots to hunt down Sidney, leaving Augie to get quietly drunk in his motel room. Posing as an insurance agent, Danny arrives at the widow Winant’s home and pretends he is trying to locate Sidney as the beneficiary of a policy taken out by Art. Taking pity on Victoria and her orphaned son, Billy (Mark Keuning), Danny treats them to an outing at the pier amusement park. Too bad his philanthropy gets him no closer to Sidney.

Upon discovering Augie’s remains dangling from the rafters back at his motel room, Danny is instructed by Capt. Garvey to get out of town. Danny decides to go to Las Vegas. There, he reunites with Soldier, who has since taken work at a casino. Soldier gets his boss, Swede (Walter Sande) to give Danny a job as a poker dealer. Meanwhile, Fran, who cannot get it through her head Danny has no interest in making her his ‘full-time’ gal, has also taken work as a lounge singer in the same casino. When Sidney arrives at Victoria’s home and finds a photograph of Danny, taken while they were at the amusement park, he learns from Billy where Danny has gone. Sidney takes the first bus for their penultimate showdown. In Vegas, Danny plays craps to win $10,000 so Victoria and Billy will not have to vacate their heavily mortgaged home.

When Fran learns of this, she believes Danny is in love with Victoria instead of her and makes plans to depart for Chicago immediately. Unbeknownst to Fran, Danny did kiss the widow in her living room. Now, Danny gives Fran an envelope full of cash, instructing her to have it delivered to Victoria. A heartsore Fran informs Soldier she is taking the next plane out.  Believing he is one step ahead of Sidney, Danny arrives at his bungalow to set a trap at gunpoint. Too bad, Sidney is already hiding in Danny’s closet. As Danny attempts to answer the telephone, Sidney pounces with rope in hand, determined to hang Danny as he did Barney and Augie. Rather predictably, Garvey and his men intrude, shooting Sidney in the shoulder. The big lug dives out an open window, presumably to his death. Danny rushes to the airport, professes his love to Fran, and, they depart the tarmac, presumably to rekindle their romance anew.

Dark City is awash in inconsistencies and cliches. It really is a substandard thriller, but particularly as one produced by Hal B. Wallis, not normally known for such schlock and nonsense. The alure of Lizabeth Scott has always escaped me.  Born to Ukrainian parentage, Emma Matzo, nee Scott, was considered something of a fashion plate in her time. At eighteen, she made her stage debut, and thereafter, quickly rose like cream to become, ostensibly’, the ‘most beautiful’ face in forties’ noir’. While the public took to her, critics were less than kind, finding Scott a wan ghost flower of the aforementioned Bacall or Tallulah Bankhead, which she thinly resembled. The real problem with Scott, however, is she could not act her way out of a paper bag. Presumably aware of this deficiency, director, Dieterle sparsely employs Scott as token estrogen in Dark City. She is in a few key scenes at the outset, merely to set up Fran as Danny’s girl, but then vanishes for almost the entire second act, allowing the plot, previously derailed by the insertion of Fran’s songs, to garner some steam.

We will doff our caps here, to New York press agent/columnist, Irving Hoffman, whose cleverly orchestrated introduction of Scott to Hal Wallis, basically gave Scott her career on a silver platter, especially after Scott had done screen tests for Universal and Republic Pictures, and was summarily rejected for work at both studios. Wallis’ obsession to transform Scott into a star of the first magnitude alienated a lot of heavy hitters in the industry, including director, Lewis Milestone, actress, Barbara Stanwyck, and actor, Burt Lancaster (originally slated for the role of Danny). Having found Scott ‘unpleasant’ to work with during a prior movie, Lancaster refused to oblige a reprise herein. Normally, the clout of a heavy hitter like Lancaster would get the ingenue broomed. But Wallis was having an affair with Scott at the time. So, Lancaster was out, and Heston in. Throughout the bulk of Scott’s heady days in Hollywood, Wallis was singularly responsible for foisting Scott into plum roles intended for other actresses. This ‘romance of celluloid’ lasted until 1954, when Scott and Wallis parted ways. The particulars are a little sketchy here. Scott later went on record with a claim she was responsible for the decision to ‘retire’ from acting. In point of fact, she made only 3 movies after 1954, separated by roughly a decade between them. However, more than likely, without Wallis’ influence, Scott was neither ‘in demand’ nor able to procure the A-list work on her own, her temperament having burned a lot of bridges along the way.

Heston’s beefy thug is adequate. But it’s curious to see where his career eventually went after this, and how he basically escaped being typecast as the valiant successor to the likes of a B-grade pug like Charles McGraw. With all due respect to Mr. McGraw (whom we love), Heston’s star was slated for brighter constellations ahead. In Dark City, Heston does the ‘aloof’ thing rather deftly. We can believe him as the ambition-driven, self-centered, granite-jawed alfa male, using women like Kleenex and thinking on people in general, only for what Danny might be able to get out of them. There is a cruel streak to Heston’s demeanor here, intermittently slackened by a nobler agenda, largely hidden from view, but given full breadth in two scenes. The first is after Danny takes the widow Winant and Billy home from a day’s worth of seaside amusements. She fears for her safety, and Danny, in a moment of honesty, passionately embraces Victoria, planting a kiss on her lips. The other scene that reveals Danny’s future potential as mating material is a tack-on; his eleventh-hour arrival at the airport to beg for Fran’s forgiveness. She’s the forgiving sort, so it all works out in the noir version of ‘happily ever after’. But each moment shows Heston’s inner genuineness to its very best advantage. Allowing Danny’s glacial cool to slip for just a second reveals how much more to Charlton Heston there actually is, and the result is a more nuanced, and strangely tender portrayal than noir leading men are usually afforded or, in fact, are generally able to convey. If only the plot had lived up to Chuck’s performance.

Dark City arrives on Blu-ray via Kino’s tri-box set of Film Noir XIX, in a 4K transfer supplied by Paramount Pictures. Like everything Paramount does, this is a half-hearted, slapdash effort at best. I am sincerely tired of the horse-pucky marketing - ‘new scans’ and ‘4K’. It’s all rather meaningless, unless someone at Paramount actually wants to apply a blue-wash and perform basic ‘clean up’ to legitimately ready a transfer for hi-def. Dark City is riddled in age-related artifacts that could have – and should have – been easily eradicated. While much of this transfer is crisp, there is some minor image instability, with built-in flicker, and a few shots where contrast is woefully anemic. Dirt, scratches, dust. It’s all here, folks. So much for 4K. Again, all of these deficiencies ought to have been addressed, post 4K scan.  And again, none were. So, we have what we have – a middling effort of a plunk noir being peddled as a ‘new 4K transfer’.  Rubbish. And VERY disappointing. This should have looked a lot better – period. The 2.0 DTS audio is adequate. Extras are limited to an audio commentary from noir specialist, Alan K. Rode. It’s solid, and well-worth a listen. There is also a trailer for this and several other noir thrillers. ** Please note: currently, only available as part of a 3-film noir set that also includes, Beware, My Lovely, and, No Man of Her Own. Bottom line: not a fan of Paramount’s handling of its catalog in general, and this title in particular. Judge and buy accordingly.

FILM RATING (out of 5 – 5 being the best)

3

VIDEO/AUDIO

2.5

EXTRAS

1