#David Brian

[peggy-elise]

Richard Egan and Joan Crawford in The Damned Don’t Cry 1950 🖤

[weirdlookindog]

Castle of Evil (1966) - VHS cover

[70sscifiart]

Art by David Brian

[gatutor]

Mercedes McCambridge-David Brian "Inside straight" 1951, de Gerald Mayer.

[twittercomfrnklin2001-blog]

This Woman Is Dangerous

Joan Crawford’s career kept petering out in silliness. Her final MGM films, REUNION IN FRANCE (1942) and UNDER SUSPICION (1943) are patently absurd. She ended her career nurturing a thawed-out cave man in TROG (1970). And to finish her Warner Bros. contract, she agreed to make Felix E. Feist’s THIS WOMAN IS DANGEROUS (1952, TCM). It’s not that she’s unspeakably bad in it. It’s just that the film is so poorly written Jack Warner offered it to her and Dennis Morgan hoping they’d turn it down so he could put them on suspension and not pay them. Not a wise move on his part, as he not only wound up having to pay them but also invested in a film that lost money. Then again, at that stage in their careers, neither star needed to be seen in such shoddy material.

She’s the brains behind a criminal operation run by her lover (David Brian) and his brother (Phil Carey). But her eyesight is failing, so after a big job in New Orleans, she flies to an Indiana clinic where eye surgeon Dennis Morgan can cure and fall in love with her. The feeling is mutual, but how can she pursue it with a jealous boyfriend, the FBI and serious film critics dogging her tail?

Feist had made some intriguing low-budget films noirs like THE DEVIL THUMBS A RIDE (1947) and THE THREAT (1949). But his work here is spotty. He and cinematographer Ted McCord get some good atmospheric shots of the criminals’ hide out and an operating observation room, but a lot of the good people’s spaces are flat, and an early heist scene is flaccid. It seems to exist only to provide the funds for the crooks’ later activities. Crawford does well with her more vulnerable moments. In her initial interview with Morgan, who’s not that bad, she’s at her most open.  But she has a bad habit of playing entire scenes without looking at her co-stars, even after her sight is restored, and even though her character initially can’t stand bright lights, she has no problem opening her eyes as wide as possible whatever the lighting level. Brian and Carey have their moments, and Mari Aldon is quite good as another member of the team. The script, however, never bothers to explain her role in the group until almost halfway through, which is pretty sloppy writing.

[erstwhile-punk-guerito]

[lookcaitlin]

[pierreism]

The Damned Don't Cry, 1950. dir. Vincent Sherman

Cinematography by Ted McCord.

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Beyond the Forest (1949) King Vidor

January 22nd 2023

[badmovieihave]

Bad movie I have How the West was Won 1962

[beguilingcorpse]

[travalicious]

[weirdlookindog]

We have reserved your coffin!.. If you drop dead while watching:

Castle of Evil (1966)

[shoeboxgoblin]

The Brian David Gilbert episode of Very Important People is funny front to back but the best part is right after the reveal when Brian is clearly experiencing some kind of mad scientist gender euphoria. Me too.

[gatutor]

Mercedes McCambridge-Paula Raymond-Arlene Dahl-David Brian "Inside straight" 1951, de Gerald Mayer.

[emily-e-draws]

RANDOM DASHBOARD INSPECTION!