Wait while I look up who did the singing* for Gloria Grahame on the excellent and terrifying number, "Ace in the Hole," in Naked Alibi, because it was so not her. She certainly did her own her "dancing."

It was a packed house at the Castro Theatre last night for the "Bad Girls" Noir City X double feature, Naked Alibi  (1954) and Pickup (1951) and worth every yawn and creaking joint this morning. What a wacky picture Naked Alibi is. Everyone was slapping somebody or shootin' 'em or stabbin' 'em or kissin' 'em...hard.  Sterling Hayden plays a seemingly-psycho cop who is convinced that the seemingly-innocent Gene Barry, local baker and family man, has murdered a few cops (one of whom was the ubiquitous Max Showalter) and becomes obsessed with proving it even after he is dismissed from the police force for brutality. Then for some reason they all go to Mexico.

Once over the border, we learn that Gene Barry has a hot cookie on the side in the form of Gloria Grahame and that Sterling Hayden has virtually no police instincts, as he is lured into a dark alley, stabbed and robbed within an hour of arriving. Billy Chapin, shoeshine boy, becomes the catalyst for Hayden meeting Grahame so they can begin their doomed romance. Eventually everyone (except Billy Chapin) goes back over the border and Gene Barry is revealed to be the murderous heel Sterling Hayden always knew he was. Gloria Grahame doesn't make it, sad to say, and I'm sorry, but Sterling Hayden is still psycho.

Gloria Grahame to Sterling Hayden: "I don't understand you, you don't understand me. We have a lot in common."
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* The singing was done by Jo Ann Greer, says the excellent site "Movie Dubbers" and the angel who posted the song on YouTube (it starts about a minute in). 

Beverly Michaels is my new best inappropriate girlfriend who my parents think is a bad influence and forbid me to hang arround with. I can't express how much I enjoyed her performance in Pickup, a surprisingly funny, moderately suspenseful glimpse into the life of bored bad girl in a small town.

Hugo Haas starred in, wrote, and directed this picture. Apparently, this was the first in a series of films Haas made throughout the 1950s on exactly the same topic — hot, mean girl takes shlubby middle-aged man for all he's worth (this from Eddie Muller, the Czar of Noir, who gives a short lecture before each movie. Muller, bless him, is kind of a toolbag, but he really knows a lot, so it's worth sitting through the smarm). I'll be trolling for more of Haas's pictures, so stay tuned.

Contrary to what the posters would have you think, Pickup, isn't especially hardboiled. Each character is believeable and flawed; their choices stupid and human. Yes, it's a B noir, but the story is ultimately about loneliness, companionship, and forgiveness — even "Betty" (Beverly Michaels) isn't completely rotten. I'm not going to elaborate, because you really should see it if you can.

Betty stepping out of Hunky's jalopy once she sees the railroad "shack" he lives in: "When's the floor show start?"

According to the web stats for my little Blorg, the term that drove people to  istavisio.com the most this month was "Max Showalter Gay." Lower down, but still  on the list are "max showalter married" and "Max Showalter + Gay." Sure enough, if you type "max showalter gay" in the Google, Mildred's Fatburgers comes up  second, but doesn't go to the right post.

This  is the right post, for all the curious (or bi-curious) Max Showalter fans out there: What's Up With Max Showalter? (2/18/2011).

He really was a fine character actor, playing sad clowns especially well (see peculiar YouTube post below) and you've probably seen him in at least three things if you've ever caught a Late Late Show or watched television with any regularity between 1954 and 1983.

Max Showalter was much loved by his peers, fans, and community, as this memorial tribute in Variety (10/9/2000) attests. My blog-friend, Carl, author of the excellent Hollywood Movie Memories site remembers Max Showalter fondly as a great promoter of the arts in Connecticut, where the Max Showalter Foundation contributes to support local theater in his honor.

Let's see, including this next one,  I've mentioned Max Showalter 11 times. Take that, number one Google search return.

p.s. my favorite term on the list was "joan fontaine posture," but I
suspect that was my sister.

Just finished watching Niagara to confirm my feelings about Jean Peters and Joseph Cotten. I still think she was underrated and he was overrated (don't get me wrong, Cotten was by all accounts a very nice guy and I loved him in Shadow of a Doubt...), but the person I couldn't stop puzzling over was Max Showalter.

The character Showalter had to play, Ray Cutler, was a total doofus and, in my opinion, completely undeserving of the lovely, intelligent Polly Cutler (Peters). I mean. He actually "hyukked" when he laughed and who knows how much of that was character or a the actor trying awfully hard to be butcher than he was.

For instance, when Marilyn comes out of her bungalow in a hot, tight, fuschia number, Showalter says to Jean Peters, "Why don't you ever get a dress like that?" Not "because that's super hot and I'd totally rip it off you if you wore it" but "honey, you should really do something about your wardrobe." And Peters, as any best friend of the nice gay man she's married to would say, "Listen, for a dress like that, you have to start laying plans when you're about 13."

But what do I know?

Later Ray completely dismisses his wife's panic at seeing the supposedly dead Joseph Cotten in her bedroom as some silly woman thing, then pout/forces her into a business outing with the VP of Shredded Wheat and his poor  yup-that's-the-bargain-I-struck wife. So, yeah, not the most sympathetic of characters.

But Niagara is a really good picture — suspenseful, beautifully shot, and worth a second look if you haven't seen it in a long time. Just think of the Cutlers as Will and Grace and it will all come out right.

I absolutely love Marilyn Monroe in this film. She's so good at that thing she does with her whole body when her character just wants more. Delicious.