House of Strangers

Edward G. Robinson, Richard Conte, and Susan Hayward star in this 1949 film noir about an Italian immigrant who starts out as a barber but becomes the founder of a bank that caters to immigrants. His domination of his wife and four sons leads to inevitable conflict. Famed director Joseph Mankiewicz wrote and directed this powerful drama. CC. 101 minutes.

Edward G. Robinson, one of the best actors of Hollywood's Golden Age, was never even nominated for an Academy award. However, for his performance in this film, Italian accent and all, he did win the Best Actor award at the Cannes Film Festival.

Despite Robinson's performance, Richard Conte dominates this film from the opening scene where he winds his way through a crowded Mulberry street in New York's Little Italy, to the climatic ending in the Monetti family mansion. Susan Hayward looks and acts like a femme fatale but turns out to be something else. The supporting cast, that includes Luther Adler, Joe Valentine, and Efrem Zimbalist Jr. as the three brothers, and Esther Minciotti as the long suffering Italian Mama is excellent.

This powerful film did not garner any Academy Award nominations, but Joseph Mankiewicz did win the Best Director award that year for A Latter to Three Wives. 

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Richard Conte and Susan Hayward

The Brothers Rico

 Richard Conte stars in this 1957 film as a successful businessman who has managed to escape his past as an accountant with the mob until his former boss calls him back to find his two younger brothers, who are on the lam from both the police and the mob. Dianne Foster co-stars. Based on a story by famed Belgian crime novelist George Simenon. 92 minutes. CC.

This film comes at the end of the film noir era. The dark shadows and stark contrasts between light and dark did not project well on TV reruns, an increasingly valuable market for Hollywood. Only traces of noir technique can still be seen in the cinematography of Burnett Guffey. Nevertheless, director Phil Karlson created a true film noir because of the darkness of Simenon's story even in its film adaptation. George Simenon is best known for his French detective stories centered around Parisian Police Inspector Jules Maigret, but he wrote hundreds of crime novels most with a harshly realistic edge. 

Richard Conte, one of the first Italian American actors to achieve leading man status, gives an outstanding performance. He appears in practically every scene. Dianne Foster, whose looks had her being groomed as the next Rita Hayworth, does a fine job as Conte's wife. The supporting cast includes Argentina Brunetti, a fine actress, who became one of Hollywood's familiar Italian mothers. A number of really believable mob types round out the supporting cast.. 

Later, Richard Conte was considered for the leading role in The Godfather but it went to Marlon Brando. In a way, The Brothers Rico, with its focus on the mobsters rather than the police is the godfather of The Godfather, and all the other mob films that followed. ###

Richard Conte and Dianne Foster

  

Whirlpool

Whirlpool. Gene Tierney, one of Hollywood’s most beautiful actresses ever, stars in this 1950 story of a woman secretly suffering from kleptomania who turns to a hypnotist to cure her condition. Soon afterwards she is found at the scene of a murder with no memory of how she got there and no way to prove her innocence. Richard Conte and Jose Ferrer co-star in this film directed by Otto Preminger who had also directed Tierney in the 1944 film noir classic Laura. 98 minutes. CC.

Gene Tierney, who grew up in my home town of Fairfield, CT is a personal favorite. I believe she was a better actress than most critics think. In Laura, The Ghost and Mrs Muir, and Leave Her to Heaven, for which she garnered an Academy Award nomination, she is just right. Director Preminger certainly valued her ability. 

Richard Conte is another personal favorite. One of the first Italian Americans to play a leading man, he usually played ethnic types in supporting roles. In this film he plays a prominent psychoanalyst, as well as the loving husband of all American Tierney. Jose Ferrer also does a great job as a smooth talking, crafty villain. Later in 1950, he appeared in Cyrano de Bergerac and won the Best Actor award. Veteran character actor Charles Bickford gives a fine performance  as a sympathetic police detective. 

I usually don't like to read about the private lives of film stars, but prefer to judge them on their work. Nevertheless, Gene Tierney's autobiography, Self Portrait, in which she frankly discusses her career, troubled family life, and long struggle with mental illness is excellent. Here is a link to a review on The Weekly Bystander. 

Richard Conte and Gene Tierney

Call Northside 777

Call Northside 777. James Stewart stars in this 1948 film as a newspaperman who reluctantly investigates the case of a convict who has already spent eleven years in prison for the murder of a policeman. Richard Conte plays the convict, and Helen Walker and Lee J. Cobb are featured along with some superb character actors. Henry Hathaway directed this very naturalistic film that was shot on location in Chicago and based on a true story. 111 minutes. CC.

Jimmy Stewart is excellent in a rare film noir appearance, and Helen Walker, usually cast as a femme fatale, is fine as his sympathetic wife. Richard Conte, often cast in ethnic roles, is outstanding as the Polish convict. He is especially good in a scene where he undergoes a lie detector test. Finally, the two relatively unknown actresses who play Conte's mother and wife turn in extraordinary performances. ###

Helen Walker and James Stewart