Slightly Scarlet (Dwan, 1956): BFI Southbank, NFT3, 3.30pm
This 35mm presentation is part of the Film on Film festival at BFI. Full details here.BFI introduction:
Stepping out of the California state prison for women after serving a
stint for jewel robbery, kleptomaniac red-head Dorothy Lyons is met by
her sister, the equally-red-headed but good June, the secretary to and
fiancé of mayoral candidate Frank Jansen. Does this confluence of
characters offer a ripe opportunity to smear Jansen’s campaign? Crime
boss Solly Caspar and mobster Ben Grace certainly think so. Adapted from
a James M. Cain short story by sometime Douglas Sirk screenwriter
Robert Blees, Dwan’s film is pure noir in its double-crossing,
conspiring individuals, but here the shadows are cast in SuperScope
Technicolor by the great Alton. The opulent, lurid results beg to be
seen on the big screen. The film screens from an original 1955
Technicolor print, which is slightly scratched in places, but
resplendent nonetheless.
Chicago Reader review:
A major film (1956) by Allan Dwan, who, after Raoul Walsh, was the most
expressively kinetic director in American film. The plot is a
complicated affair borrowed from the James M. Cain novel Love’s Lovely Counterfeit:
a high-ranking mobster is assigned to get some dirt on a reform
candidate for mayor but ends up falling in love with the politician’s
secretary—which touches off a series of power plays for control of both
the city and the syndicate. It’s also that rare item the color noir,
photographed by the great John Alton. With John Payne (who became a
first-rate noir performer after shucking his drippy musical-comedy image
at Fox), Arlene Dahl, Rhonda Fleming, and lots of other 50s icons.
Dave Kehr
Here (and above) is the trailer.
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