Noir City 7, pt. 1

Two O'Clock Courage
Like last year's Reign of Terror, Two O'Clock Courage is another from the vaults of Anthony Mann's (the Man from Laramie, the Furies, Winchester '73) early career. This film could arguably be the closest effort Mann ever made at comedy (if we don't include El Cid), though even then someone still winds up murdered.

Ann Rutherford (Gone With the Wind, Orchestra Wives) plays Patty Mitchell, a wise-cracking cabdriver in Los Angeles. One night she picks up Tom Conway (Cat People, I Walked With a Zombie) only to discover he has amnesia, possibly induced by his bleeding headwound, and can't remember who he is or where he was headed. She takes a shine to him and agrees to help him hideout when they discover via a newspaper headline that he's just fled the scene of a murder. Hot on their trail is the odd couple pairing of a prying crimebeat reporter and a blustery police chief who is up for re-election and set on solving the case that night.

Once they're joined by a boozy socialite, a busybody neighbor and an indignant butler the film becomes delightfully reminiscent of John Brahm's The Undying Monster. Monster made just a few years prior, also told the bulk of its story in a dead man's parlor while a gang of misfits spend a night together trying to solve the crime.

Johnny Stool Pigeon
William Castle's long-lost film, originally titled Cocaine!, was one of the first Hollywood films focused on the international drug trade. In a recurring theme of this year's Noir City line-up the story centers on two men who grew up together but wind up betraying one another.

In Johnny Stool Pigeon, George (Howard Duff) has chosen the good life and became a police detective, Johnny (Dan Duryea) is now in prison for various mob activities. When a new crime syndicate pops up in San Francisco the police are caught by surprise and unsure how to take action against them. Howard arranges early parole from Alcatraz for Dan and makes him an unofficial adjunct police officer. Using Johnny's street smarts they go undercover to get a beat on the local heroin smugglers.

Their plan starts to go awry when sexpot Terry (Shelly Winters) comes on board and the men begin to compete for her affections. But despite the seriousness of plot and the shadiness of its players the trademark Castle approach to levity is still on full display. George and Johnny wind up waiting for a big delivery in a cowboy bar while being eyed by a suspicious druglord underling played by Tony Curtis (billed as Anthony), a plane explodes, a coffin is packed with drugs and the film culminates in a shootout followed immediately by a wedding.

Noir City 7 runs from January 23rd to February 1st at the Castro Theatre.