Monday, August 18, 2014

Cy Endfield's The Underworld Story

It's unclear how important a title is, but Endfield's work suffers from bad titles:  The Underworld Story (1950) is not about the underworld, and his powerful film about lynching is now apparently known as Try and Get Me (1950), after originally being titled Sound of Fury; neither title is particularly good.  Enfield was eventually blacklisted and moved to England, where he fortunately hooked up with Stanley Baker to make some good films.  But there is still much to be said about Endfield's contributions to film noir, as well contributions by others on the left (Losey, Polonsky, et al.)

The Underworld Story stars the always-sleazy Dan Duryea, who manipulates a murder suspect the way Kirk Douglas manipulates a man caught in a mining collapse in Ace in the Hole (1951):  to sell newspapers.  Endfield's film is even more cynical than Wilder's, with rival newspapers grinding their own axes and manipulating the news, as a newspaper tycoon's son tries to frame a an African-American maid for a murder he committed, and Duryea raises money for the defense which he then splits with the lawyer.  The film, with cinematography by Stanley Cortez (who did The Magnificent Ambersons and Night of the Hunter), captures the glittery surface of a small town, underneath which the locals are always hunting for witches.  There are numerous references to slavery and witch-hunts and all the hypocrisies Americans were subject to then and often still are today, as  prominent businessmen quickly change sides when they find out on which side their bread is buttered. 

No comments:

Post a Comment