Happy Noirvember! I thought this month was a perfect opportunity to, hopefully, get back into writing here (but – I am also participating in NaNoWriMo this year so I won’t make any promises). My goal is to watch at least ten noirs this month and I selected some obscure titles so I hope it is going to be thrilling.
The Lady Confesses (1945)
Mary Beth Hughes plays Vicki McGuire, a women who is about to get married to her love, Larry Craig. How wonderful. But in the very first scene of the film her life is disturbed by an unexpected visitor. Larry’s WIFE herself knocks on her door and says that while she does not care about her own relationship with Larry, she will not let Vicki marry him. Let me explain: Larry’s wife was missing for seven years, their marriage was about to be legally annulled. It’s a problematic situation but not a matter of a man hiding the fact he was married.
So, we get introduced to a mysterious intrigue pretty much right off the bat, and the noir just becomes darker as we move into… a nightclub. Of course. Larry is there, clearly having a great time as he is drunk and wants to have fun with club’s patrons, including Lucile, the singer. It gets even wilder than that, as when Larry meets Vicki they find themselves in, basically, the middle of crime scene as it turns out Larry’s wife was murdered! Strangled with a thin wire!
Since Larry is the one with a reason to get rid of his wife, wanting to marry someone else, the detectives start their investigation by checking his alibi, which is that he spent the night of the murder at the aforementioned nightclub (called 7-11. Hmm). Lucile confirms he was there but the owner of the club, Lucky, claims he did not see Larry. This casts the shadow of the doubt on both men, especially when the detectives learn the dead wife, Norma, lent Lucky the money to open the club.
It becomes pretty clear early on that there is something about Lucky. Vicki decides that what she should do is conduct an investigation of her own – she meets up from one of the nightclub employees (apparently, the club’s official photographer) and arranges for herself to take her job for a few days. Vicki is the one who starts working the case harder than the police.
The film was directed by Sam Newfield who, as it turns out, had multiple aliases and was actually one of Hollywood’s most prolific directors. He made over 250 films and his credits include such gems as The Terror of Tiny Town, I Accuse My Parents (featured on MST3K), and the anti-marijuana flick The Wild Weed. Say what you want about the quality of these pictures, but I love a man with a passion for his work.
This is a Poverty Row production and it shows – it is only 60 minutes long, it does not feature any big names, and the sets are very bare. But there is a visible attempt to create the noir atmosphere, from introducing a nightclub and shady business practices to incorporating a lot of shadows in the cinematography. And I really appreciate that. And, while not being the most inventive of stories, it is still pretty enjoyable and engaging. Plus, it’s always great to see a woman taking matters in her own hands. I support Vicki’s detective aspirations.
(The one thing I don’t understand is the title. Oh well).
Swingin' at the Seance 