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Act of Violence/Mystery Street (REGION 1) (NTSC)


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Buried secrets and unburied bones: Two movies that are worth a rental
Review date: 2008-11-19 Rating: 6 out of 10

Act of Violence (1948):
Act of Violence is a film that tries to be more than what it can deliver. It tries to be a significant film, as Hollywood defines "significant," of weakness and obsession, with a bit of irony and, of course, redemption at the end. It fails, in my opinion, because the dramatic core of the movie is as earnest, unlikely and melodramatic as the plots of most $3.98 remainder novels. Fred Zinnemann directed some well-crafted movies such as The Day of the Jackal and High Noon. He also made a number of highly popular, long and dull movies. What makes Act of Violence interesting is the performances of the two leads, Van Heflin and Robert Ryan. Both were fine actors.

Heflin plays Frank Enley, a successful small town businessman with an attractive wife and a small child. He's a nice guy with a secret that leaves him in turmoil. Robert Ryan plays Joe Parkson, Enley's worst nightmare. In a German POW camp Enley betrayed a group of men who were planning to escape. He thought he had a promise that nothing would happen to the men. They were, of course, all shot. Parkson somehow survived. Now, after the war, Parkson has only one purpose in life...to find Frank Enley and make him pay with his life for what he did.

If it weren't for Heflin's earnest desperation and furrowed angst, something he did better than most actors, and Ryan's fierce anger and internalized tenseness, something he did better than most, we'd have a long slog until we reach the point where final payment is made and life, we hope, can go on. The movie, for me, seems more and more contrived and trivial as the time goes by.

Heflin is probably not thought about much nowadays. He was very good, in my opinion, as the hapless Charles Bovary in Madame Bovary (1949), the hardworking Joe Starrett in Shane, and the determined and nervous Dan Evans in 3:10 to Yuma. He didn't have the looks, as he pointed out himself (think of an honorable-looking, reasonably handsome J. Edgar Hoover, if that's possible), so he concentrated on his acting. Ryan, on the other hand, is usually recognized as one of film's outstanding lead and character actors. For subtlety and vulnerability, try On Dangerous Ground; for nastiness, try Bad Day at Black Rock; for deliberate evil, try Billy Budd; for tired resignation, try The Wild Bunch.

Mystery Street (1950):
When the body is found on the beach, no one knows except us who it is. We know it's a cheap, no-good call girl named Vivian Helton because we watched her, desperate for money, meet the man who owed her, and who shot her. Now she's not only lost her looks, she's lost her flesh. Sand and waves have left nothing but bones. The cop in charge, Lieutenant Pete Morales (Ricardo Montalban), calls on Dr. McAdoo (Bruce Bennett), a forensic scientist at Harvard, to help with identification. In the process of establishing sex, age, height and occupation (possible dancer, not probable call girl), we'll get a lesson in forensics that would do credit to Kay Scarpetta or the Skeleton Detective himself, Gideon Oliver.

Then the police learn Vivian Helton was pregnant. Pete Morales, working his first case in Boston, had earlier made up his mind that Vivian was murdered before there was evidence to establish this. Now he's determined to find the murderer. Morales is a good guy...smart, ambitious, cheerful, hard working. But when he decides someone is guilty, he's not about to change his mind. Before he gets things right, he'll get things wrong.

Along the way we'll meet Henry Shanway, the poor drunk sap who met Vivian at a bar while he was feeling sorry for himself. He let her move his yellow Ford from a no-parking zone. The next thing he knew they were on the Cape, where she tricked him out of the car so she could drive off and meet the man who will shoot her. We'll meet Henry's wife, too. There's Vivian's eccentric and venal landlady (played by Elsa Lanchester), who thinks she can pick up the blackmailing where Vivian left off. And, of course, there's the killer. Most importantly, perhaps, there's McAdoo. Turns out that with his knowledge of bones, bullet angles and logic, he's a better detective than anyone else.

The movie benefits from the moody cinematography of John Alton and the efficient direction of John Sturges, Sturges moved on to direct such successes as Last Train from Gun Hill, The Magnificent Seven, The Great Escape and Ice Station Zebra. Mystery Street is a solid entry. It's not an A movie, but it's interesting, unsentimental, well made and shorter.

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Reviews


Act of Violence
Review date: 2008-06-22 Rating: 8 out of 10

Only seen first movie here & it's a very tense film noir starring Van Heflin(a family man with a horror secret from his past)& Robert Ryan(as the man stalking Heflin) in main roles-very well supported by a young Janet Leigh -Mary Astor (from Maltese Falcon fame) has a great role as a prostitute-tons better than a lot of modern thrillers & not even one of the best 40s/50s film noirs.

Product Details/Specifications


Actor(s):
Robert Ryan
Janet Leigh
Van Heflin
Ricardo Montalban
Sally Forrest

Creators:
Van Heflin (Primary Contributor)
Robert Ryan (Primary Contributor)
Frank E. Taylor (Producer)
Collier Young (Writer)
Leonard Spigelgass (Writer)
Richard Brooks (Writer)
Robert L. Richards (Writer)
Sydney Boehm (Writer)

Director(s):

Recording label: Warner Home Video
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
EAN: 0012569797901
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 1
Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, DVD-Video, Original recording remastered, Subtitled, NTSC,
Release date: 2007-07-31
Universal product code (UPC): 012569797901
Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
Region code: 1
Running time: 175 minutes
Theatrical release date: 1948-12-21
Language: English (Original Language)
Language: German (Original Language)
Language: English (Subtitled)
Language: French (Subtitled)

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