jarrodmcdonald-1
As most people already know, this was Charlton Heston's very first Hollywood film at Paramount. He's very thin, very young, and very good in it. I think the story has an excellent premise-- it's a noir version of Agatha Christie's AND THEN THERE WERE NONE, where a killer is picking off a group of cons one by one. But the script is a bit padded in the middle. It did not need 97 minutes running time...it could have been told adequately in 75 minutes. And one has to wonder which city is darker-- Chicago, Los Angeles, or Las Vegas (since the action occurs in all three places).Lizabeth Scott is good in all her dramatic scenes but sorry to say her lip syncing is pretty phony when she is trying to get over the illusion she's a singer. Don DeFore does a great job as a doomed gambler, and so does Ed Begley Sr. In his memoirs, Heston called this a good B film. I'm not sure producer Hal Wallis would have labeled it such. It's an A film that doesn't quite live up to its potential, but the moments of greatness in it (and there are some) do outshine the parts that don't work.
blanche-2
From 1950, Dark City is a noir starring Charlton Heston, Lizabeth Scott, Viveca Lindfors, Harry Morgan, Dean Jagger, Jack Webb, and Ed Begley. This was Heston's first major starring role; previously he had appeared in Julius Caesar, an independent film done in Chicago and starring Northwestern University students and graduates.Heston is powerful as Danny Haley, a not very likable gambler who hangs out with a low crowd. One night he and his friends play poker with an out-of-towner (Dom Defore) and cheat him out of a check for $5000 that wasn't his money. Later, he hangs himself, and the group is questioned by a police detective (Dean Jagger) who feels that Danny is above the group in intelligence and potential, but is going to be murdered if he keeps going the way he is.The dead man's brother, a psycho, is committed to tracking down every single person at the game and killing him. They start dying, too. No one knows what this man looks like, so Danny goes to see the widow (Lindfors) to see if she has any photos. That's when he realizes how scary this guy really is.This is an effective film that for some reason has several long numbers performed by Lizabeth Scott, who plays a nightclub singer and Danny's girlfriend. It was almost as if she was being showcased, and her voice was dubbed! She looks beautiful, but one wonders what the director, William Dieterle, had in mind.Heston is surrounded by first-class character actors and easily holds his own opposite them. His character is tough, and it isn't until a little later in the script that we see there's a heart there. It's a powerful performance. Scott pines for him with her breathless voice, and she's good as well.Fine film, interesting to see Heston at 27.
jotix100
Charlton Heston, a man that worked extensively in the American cinema, was seen for the first time in an important role in "Dark City", a decent drama-mystery with shades of film noir. This vehicle clearly took him to a prominent position in Hollywood. The German director William Dieterle, a veteran in the industry, was a reliable man to have behind the camera, as he proves here.The story of Dan Haley, a young man that went from a somewhat privilege life to one on the other side of the tracks, is not too credible as the story develops, nothing redeems this man until he realizes what the consequence of his actions have a profound effect on the family of the man that he enticed into a poker game in which he and his underworld associates tried to get money that had been entrusted to the victim.Dan was seeing the beautiful night club singer, Fran Garland, who obviously loves him. She knows there is something shady with Dan, but is she wants to believe that he has a good side. Things get complicated with the arrival of the widow of the man that was murdered, who knows nothing about the connection to Haley and his comrades. When he and Augie follow her to Los Angeles, he suffers a change of heart because he realizes what he was instrumental in destroying.Charlton Heston's performance dominates the picture. Lizabeth Scott also enhanced it with an honest take of the singer. Viveca Lindfors shows up as the widow of the victim. The supporting cast is excellent, Dean Jagger, Don DeFore, Frank Morgan, Jack Webb, Ed Begley, and specially the brutish Mike Mazurski, contribute to the over all enjoyment of "Dark City" Victor Milner's black and white cinematography works well with the story being told. Franz Waxman musical score also serves the narrative well.
yarborough
Being a huge "Dragnet" fan, I just had to see the two movies that Jack Webb appeared in with Harry Morgan before the two worked together in "Dragnet." "Dark City" is one of them and the other is "Appointment with Danger." Although "Dark City" was released in 1950, the year before "Appointment with Danger" was released, "Appointment with Danger" was actually filmed first (shot in the summer of 1949). "Dark City" was Jack Webb's final filmed feature before hitting the small screen with "Dragnet" in 1951. Truthfully, I was disappointed with this movie. It contains one of the thinnest plots I've ever seen, and it tries to convince the audience that Charlton Heston somehow doesn't deserve to die, but Jack Webb and Ed Begley do, even though all three of them took part in cheating the killer's brother out of money. Only Henry (Harry) Morgan really deserves to live because he didn't take part in the cheating. In the movie, Morgan even tells Heston "You're worse than the rest of them." The movie simply avoids that problem and we're supposed to feel happy for Heston when he survives. In addition, Heston's performance is somewhat flat (this is his first feature film), and the two romance situations (yes, both involving Heston) take away from the film noir feel this movie tries to have. Also, the torch songs that Lizabeth Scott sings aren't very powerful (though Lizabeth looks drop-dead gorgeous when she sings them). The best part of the movie is the colorful supporting cast (Webb, Morgan, and Begley). The bickering and joking that goes on among them is pretty funny (especially Webb's hole-in-one glass joke). Worth seeing for interest sake.
AD
