I Wake Up Screaming (Fox Film Noir)
by H. Bruce Humberstone
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Actor: Betty Grable, Carole Landis, Laird Cregar, Victor Mature, William GarganDirector: H. Bruce Humberstone
Brand: Fox
Cinematographer: Edward Cronjager
Editor: Robert L. Simpson
Producer: Milton Sperling
Writer: Dwight Taylor
Writer: Steve Fisher
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 1.0; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); Portuguese (Original Language)
Format: Black & White, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 82 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2006-06-06
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: 20th Century Fox
DVD Reviews of I Wake Up Screaming (Fox Film Noir)
DVD Review: Solid early noir may be headlined by Betty Grable, but really belongs to Laird Cregar
Summary: 4 Stars
An up-and-coming glamor girl/starlet, Vicki Lynn (Carole Landis), has been murdered. The sports promoter Frankie Christopher (Victor Mature) who had been pushing her into the spotlight is suspected of the killing, and as the film opens, he's being questioned under the bright spotlights of pre-Miranda law police interrogation. There's a soft, velvety but sinister voice belonging to a big guy, hidden behind the light. He's the head investigator. He's trouble for Frankie, who of course didn't do it - or so he claims. The camera tracks through the police department to another room, where Vicki's sister Jill (Betty Grable) is also being questioned. Between them, over 82 minutes, they fill in the story of Vicki's rise and untimely death in flashback form, even as they struggle in the presence to clear Frankie's name - meanwhile falling in love.
The sinister velvet voice turns out to belong to Inspector Ed Cornell (Laird Cregar), a top cop who's never failed to solve a case, but who seems to take a delight in this one - and in particular, in hounding Frankie - out of proportion to his job. Cornell seems to show up everywhere in the present, and it turns out, in the past as well - he was paying attention to the sisters well before Vicki's death, for some reason that remains a mystery throughout the film. And then there are Frankie's friends, Robin (Allan Mowbray) and Larry (Allyn Joslyn) with whom he made a sort of Pygmalion-type bet when he decided to transform young uncultured waitress Vicki into a society girl - perhaps one of them knows something about the untimely demise of the starlet-to-be. And the clerk at Vicki and Jill's apartment building (Elisha Cook Jr) also seems to have a story - but will he reveal it, and will it be enough to save Frankie - if Frankie is innocent?
I'm making this very early noir effort out to be perhaps a little more suspenseful than it really is. Truth to tell, it's actually full of comedy, a "light" affair that was probably toned down quite a bit from Steve Fisher's novel so as to make it palatable for the audience of Betty Grable fans. Though I wouldn't quite call it a "comedy" noir like HIS KIND OF WOMAN, it definitely doesn't have the tension that we usually associate with prime examples of the style. Often we'll get a tense sequence but it will be immediately followed by a moment of light humor - even slapstick - which brings us out of the shadows and dread. Still, as the always-excellent commentary by Eddie Muller makes clear, this was a very early noir - shot at exactly the same time as THE MALTESE FALCON which is of course far more heralded and influential; the building blocks are all there in the terrific lighting by Edward Cronjager, the snappy dialogue by Dwight Taylor, and Humberstone's gorgeous framing and gliding camerawork. Most of all, it's the cast that makes this work; Grable and Landis are both fine, both showing aspects beyond the pretty faces that they're seen as by the men in the film, but it's Mature and especially Cregar who really lift this into near-classic status. Mature has to be one of the most underrated actors of all time; like Robert Mitchum he was very self-deprecating and had a habit of looking like he wasn't acting - unlike Mitchum he really was rather insecure, and sometimes didn't give his all when he felt like he was just there to be "Victor Mature, shirtless guy". In his noir work though - this film and especially Kiss of Death - he really does show some depth, an easy-going manner when it's called for but also some real pathos and animation.
Ultimately, though, good as he is in this film, he's upstaged by Cregar, who at 6'3" and about 300 pounds will probably remind most noir aficionados most of Orson Welles in TOUCH OF EVIL, or perhaps Raymond Burr. Cregar only lived a few more years after this film, dying from a heart attack after a too-quick crash diet for his last film, Hangover Square in 1944. He's got an incredible presence in this film, physically huge but emotionally tiny and wimpering, soft-voiced but menacing in intent. Like Mature he acts as much with his face, with his eyes and his forehead, as he does with his voice and his physique, but that hulking form combined with Cronjager's lighting assures that he dominates every scene, a Golem or Frankenstein figure always lurking about, waiting to crush the hopes of the protaganists for his own diabolical reasons.
It's not one of my very favorites of the style, but certainly it's important and worth seeing as an early example, and Cregar's performance is just stunning. As I mentioned above, this one has Eddie Muller commentary, and Muller is the absolute top guy for this stuff, both thoroughly engaging and knowledgeable, and funny and conversational. Right off the bat he's talking about how lucky the young actor who plays a newsboy in an early scene was to sleep with (and marry) Gloria Grahame a few years later, and his commentary on how the repetition of two musical themes - "Over the Rainbow" and "Street Scene" work in the film was quite revealing. He also talks a fair bit about Steve Fisher, author of the novel and a man with almost a hundred film and TV credits as a writer or screenwriter, as successful in his day as Chandler or Hammett, but almost completely forgotten now. I'm tempted to give this release an extra star just for Muller - but heck, I can't rate ALL the Fox Film Noir stuff 5 stars. In any case, a must for noir aficionados.
Description of I Wake Up Screaming (Fox Film Noir)
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