Side Street

 Farley Granger and Kathy O’ Donnell, who clicked in the film noir classic, They Live by Night, again appear as two young lovers in this 1949 film directed by Anthony Mann. As usual, after one mistake their lives go from bad to worse. The film ends with one of the first car chases in film history. 83m. CC.

The film also features Jean Hagan as a down and out night club singer. Hagan was a fine actress best known for her role as Lina Lamont, the nasty silent screen star in Singing in the Rain. James Craig, usually an appealing leading man, plays a brutal killer. 

It can also be said that New York City plays a featured role. From the opening helicopter shot above the Empire State Building to the closing car chase shot in a deserted Wall Street on a Sunday morning, cinematographer Joseph Ruttenberg's camera gives us an extraordinary view of the City and its life at mid-century. ###

Cathy O'Donnell and Farley Granger

They Live by Night

 They Live by Night:

Farley Granger and Cathy O’Donnell star in this 1949 film about two young lovers mixed up with a criminal gang. Although it is a crime drama with film noir trappings, it is really a love story with an ending as tragic as Romeo and Juliet. 95 minutes. CC.

This film marked the film debut of famed director Nicholas Ray, perhaps best known for "Rebel Without a Cause" with James Dean. It was filmed in 1947 but only released in London in 1948 where its critical acclaim finally led to its USA release in 1949. It was a breakthrough film both in its story and in its telling. 

As mentioned above, it is a tender young love story from the opening scene, a kind of preface with closeups of the two young lovers. Immediately after we go to a unprecedented helicopter shot of a speeding getaway car racing down a lonely road, and the action never lets up.

Farley Granger and Cathy O'Donnell make an extremely attractive and likable pair of lovers. Granger is best known for his starring role in Alfred Hitchcock's "Strangers on a Train," and O'Donnell gained screen immortality in 1946 as Wilma, the teenage girlfriend of the sailor returning from WWII with hooks in place of his hands in "The Best Years of Our Lives".

Eddie Muller of Turner classic Movies (TCM) provides a fine intro to this groundbreaking film.

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Farley Granger and Cathy O'Donnell

 

 

Strangers on a Train

Strangers on a Train. Farley Granger and Robert Walker star in this 1951 thriller directed by Alfred Hitchcock. A chance meeting on a train results in murder in one of Hitchcock’s  best films. The last scene which takes place in an amusement park is one of the most memorable in film history. The musical score is by Dimitri Tiomkin. 101 minutes. CC.

This is my favorite Hitchcock film. Farley Granger is fine but Robert Walker is superb. Walker's film persona was that of the nice boy next door, but here he plays the charming psycho next door in posh Washington D.C. The film also features beautiful Ruth Roman and Patricia Hitchcock, the director's daughter, who gives a surprisingly good performance.

Eddie Muller's fine intro gives much credit to Patricia Highsmith, a famed crime writer whose first novel provided the basis for the film.

Farley Granger and Robert Walker