#Mike Mazurki

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Murder, My Sweet (1944) Edward Dmytryk

January 18th 2024

[citizenscreen]

Mike Mazurki (December 25, 1907 – December 9, 1990)

[holy-shit-comics]

[erstwhile-punk-guerito]

[lobbycards]

Night and the City, US lobby card #6, 1950

[mariocki]

Abandoned (1949)

"Now, look, pal. If it were me, I'd tell you I couldn't fix it, not for love nor money."

"Who said anything about love?"

"Like all the rest. You think you can buy me for money."

"Here, Delaney."

"Well, you're right. But it takes more."

"Who said anything about no more?"

[oldshowbiz]

1959.

Mike Mazurki in yellowface on an episode of M Squad.

[twittercomfrnklin2001-blog]

Abandoned

A woman walks into the Los Angeles City Hall at night, followed by a sinister figure keeping to the shadows. The chiaroscuro cinematography for the scene, by the accomplished William Daniels, and the presence of Raymond Burr as the stalker, place Joseph M. Newman’s ABANDONED (1949, TCM, YouTube) squarely in the world of film noir. Yet the actress, Gale Storm, would seem somewhat incongruous in the world of corruption and double-cross. It’s not that she’s bad. She’s thoroughly competent. It’s what her later image brings to the film. In a way, that’s symbolic of how what could have been a distinctive, hard-hitting treatment of sexual hypocrisy goes soft because of the Production Code.

Storm is a small-town girl trying to find her older sister, who vanished after giving birth in a private hospital where nobody has any record of her stay. Reporter Dennis O’Keefe helps her dig into the case, which leads to a baby adoption racket led by respectable society matron Marjorie Rambeau. Irwin Gielgud’s story was inspired by an actual L.A. case from the year before and oddly prefigures the case against Mary Tan’s Tennessee Children’s Home Society a year after the film’s release. For 1949, the implication that Rambeau preyed on unwed mothers was hot enough, and the suggestion that the rich and socially prominent were using the unfortunate almost subversive. But the Code cut Gielgud’s suggestion that the missing woman had run from an incestuous relationship with her father, who had refused to pay for an abortion. All that remains is Storm’s line about their father: “He never would leave either one of us alone.” It’s supposed to explain his hiring Burr to track the older sister and later trail Storm, but even without context, it sounds like an accusation. But it still doesn’t quite explain why he’d hire a thug like Burr in the first place or how he stumbled into hiring someone who just happens to be connected to the adoption racket. And it blunts what could have been a noirish nightmare image of the American family.

The film is highly entertaining nonetheless. Newman keeps it moving well, and Daniels’ photography is a joy to watch. Storm isn’t bad, but her apple-cheeked charm (she’s like the teen Shirley Temple, only with more baby fat) just feels out of place. She’s at her best flirting with O’Keefe, who has some good wisecracks provided by writer William Bowers. Jeanette Nolan turns up more restrained than usual as the head of a legitimate home for unwed mothers. Also featured are Jeff Chandler as the district attorney, Will Kuluva and Mike Mazurki as Rambeau’s muscle and, very briefly, Frank Cady as O’Keefe’s editor. Main acting honors go to Rambeau, who in one scene shows how to use stillness to dominate an actor as large and imposing as Burr.

[fourorfivemovements]

Films Watched in 2024: 18. Bud Abbott and Lou Costello in Hollywood (1945) - Dir. S. Sylvan Simon

[gatutor]

Anne Bacroft-Mike Mazurki "Siete mujeres" (7 women) 1966, de John Ford.

[tcmparty]

@tcmparty live tweet schedule for the week beginning Monday, December 12, 2022. Look for us on Twitter…watch and tweet along…remember to add #TCMParty to your tweets so everyone can find them :) All times are Eastern.

Tuesday, Dec. 13 at 8:00 p.m. MURDER, MY SWEET (1944) Detective Philip Marlowe's search for a two-timing woman leads him to blackmail and murder.

Sunday, Dec. 18 at 5:45 p.m. IT HAPPENED ON 5TH AVENUE (1947) Two homeless men move into a mansion while its owners are wintering in the South.

[letterboxd-loggd]

4 for Texas (1963) Robert Aldrich

May 21st 2023

[citizenscreen]

Mike Mazurki, born on December 25, 1907 #botd

[lotrobsession]

December 25 birthdays Alannah Myles, Annie Lennox, Barbara Mandrell, Cab Calloway, Humphrey Bogart, Jimmy Buffett, Ken Stabler, Mike Mazurki, Rod Serling, Sissy Spacek

[ruleof3bobby]

NIGHTMARE ALLEY (1947) Grade: B- 

Holds up great! The plot is great. Could see why it''s been remade. I could see a modern remake working as well. I think the remake is set in the same setting. Really like the full circle ending. 

[lobbycards]

...All the Marbles, German lobby card #5, German theatrical release 1982