Noirsville Clip of the Week

Private eyes Ann Savage and Richard Conte in The Spider (1945)

 

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Noirsville Pulp Fiction / Title Art of the Week

 

The Spider (1945) New Orleans - Café au Lait Noir

Directed by Robert D. Webb (Beneath the 12-Mile Reef and Love Me Tender).

Written by Jo Eisinger & Scott Darling and based on the play by Fulton Oursler & Lowell Brentano.

Now there was a 1931 version of the original play filmed. The basic premise of the first film was this: 

The Spider (1931) begins with a magician's show. The great Chartrand can make people disappear and his assistant floors the audience with his psychic abilities. A woman and her uncle come to the show looking to perhaps gain some clues about a long lost relative; in fact, the assistant is the woman's long lost brother, but he has amnesia and does not know her. The lights go out go out in a theater and a shot is fired. The woman's uncle has been killed. The magician Chartrand then tries to find the killer in the audience. 

So Twentieth Century Fox had Jo Eisinger & Scott Darling rework the material turning it into a decent Detective film set in New Orleans, barely keeping the showbiz magician act and the missing person premise, and jettisoning everything else. Additional dialogue was supplied by Irving Cummings Jr., Anthony Coldeway, and Ben Simkhovitch

The adequate Cinematography was by Glen MacWilliams (Lifeboat). Music by David Buttolph 

The film stars Richard Conte (has 14 Classic Noir in his credits just one less than Bogart) as Chris Conlon, Faye Marlowe (Hangover Square) as Delilah 'Lila' Neilsen, (alias Judith Smith), Kurt Kreuger (Hangmen Also Die!, Sahara, The Dark Corner, The Enemy Below, The St. Valentine's Day Massacre) as Ernest, alias Garonne, Roy Gordon as "Picks" Pickett (Foreign Correspondent, Attack of the 50 Foot Woman), John Harvey as Burns, Martin Kosleck (Foreign Correspondent, Transitional Noir Something Wild) as Mikail Barak, Mantan Moreland (he was at one time ostracized, but now looked at more sympathetically because Moreland was a highly talented comic who, in the only way he knew, broke major barriers and opened the doors for other black actors to follow) known for Charlie Chan flicks, and I probably seen them all as a kid on TV in the 50s, titles like Charlie Chan in the Secret Service, The Scarlet Clue, Dark Alibi and he was also Eyes in the Night). Morland is Charlie,  Detective Chris Conlon's assistant. 

Richard Conte as Chris Conlon Private Eye

Faye Marlowe as Delilah "Lila" Nielsen

Mantan Moreland as Henry

Ann Savage as Florence Cain

Kurt Kreuger as Ernest, aka Garonne the magician

Martin Kosleck as Mikail Barak

Cara Williams as Wanda Van

Also, in the cast are Walter Sande (To Have and Have Not, Bad Day at Black Rock) as Det. Lt. Walter Castle, Cara Williams (Laura, Boomerang!, The Defiant Ones) as Wanda Vann, neighbor, Charles Tannen as Det. Tonti, Margaret Brayton as Jean, police records clerk, and Ann Savage (Detour) as Florence Cain.

Here's another Noir BTW with a Female Voice Over. There's not many. We get titles over a shadow of a spider and a web in a shaft of light that is projected against a wall. When the directed by Robert D. Webb appears it then fades to leave us with just the web. Webb must have liked that, lol.

We get some New Orleans establishing shots. 

Delilah 'Lila' Neilsen [VO]: New Orleans city of many moods. gay, reflective, and sometimes bad. Canal Street surging with 20th Century tempo..

A sound element is missing here in this print.

Cut to Latin Quater. An overhead shot of rain slicked cobblestone streets. We watch a woman walk with the VO.  

 

Delilah 'Lila' Neilsen [VO]: I discovered myself walking through the Latin Quarter. Fear left a frosty whip on my back. But my impulse, my fear that something had happened to my sister, drove me on. Seeing a woman I've never seen before, come into my dressing room and saying she could prove my sister had been, murdered. But I couldn't believe that. But she had been so positive. She said if she was wrong I could go to the police. I couldn't embarrass my friends again with my notions. Florence Cain told me to see Chris Conlon her partner. Florence Cain said I would have a question and I would find the answer here. 

Delilah comes to a stairway that has Cain and Conlon Private Investigators 202 advertised on a riser. She ascends to a dimly (gobo) lit the 2nd floor. (Cain and Conlon, we find out are ex NOPD cops who started a private detective agency)

Delilah's V.O. ends when she knocks on room 202's office door. 

Behind Delilah, as the light from an opening door floods her back, she turns counterclockwise into that frame of light. A nice entrance. 

It's Henry who opened the door he is Chris Conlon's assistant and he apparently uses one of the office suite rooms as his abode. 

He's a stocky character.  He tells her that Mister Chris is not in and he directs Delilah to the Creole Bar. As she descends and Henry closes the door he opened, we see only in silhouette a man in a fedora slip out of Conlon's office and slide to the hallway banister, to watch Delilah step down out of sight. A bit melodramatic with the music cue to boot, something you'd get in an old cliff hanger serial. 

The Creole Bar is a corner brick dive with arched windows. as we zoom in we hear a piano tinkling. Inside we see Chris Conlon dark hair 35-ish, seated at a table with two friends Picks an actor, and Burns a news reporter.

Picks and Burns are griping about the same things again, enough to make Chris tell them both that they need new material. They keep bullshitting with each other until the bartender calls out to Chris.  

Roy Gordon as "Picks" Pickett

John Harvey as Burns

There's a lady to see him. The bartender nods at Delilah who is standing at the bar with her back to us, and again we get a, spins into the camera, intro. Chris is impressed enough to start fixing his tie as he stands.

Delilah gets an interested look on her face when she spots Chris getting up and walking over towards her. They like what each other sees.

They say hello to each other. Chris obviously, isn't what she was expecting. She stumbles a bit with her words. She must have had a completely different idea in her head of what a detective was like. He directs her to a booth. 

Chris asks what she wants. Delilah tells him that she wants him to bring brooch to a woman and pick up an envelope from the woman and bring it back to her here. Chris is a little insulted, he stands and tells her that he's not a errand boy. Delilah has to explain. She explains to Chris that she was sent to him, and she needs his help. 

Chris sits back down and tells her that he needs a retainer, and he has to know what's in the envelope. She at first tells him that she doesn't know what's in it and then says its her birth certificate. She then passes the brooch to Chris telling him to give it to her at her apartment and she will give him the envelop. When Chris asks who she is? Delilah tells him Florence Cain his partner. 

Chris excuses himself walks over to the bar and calls Flo. Flo wants him to bring the trinket to her apartment, Chris tells her no dice. He tells her to come to his place. 

Then Chris goes back to Delilah. When he asks her name she tells him it's Judith Smith and that she's staying at the Hotel Royale. He tells "Judith" to wait here he'll be back in a few minutes. 

Chris puts on his hat and steps out of the bar and heads to his apartment. Again we see a silhouette of a man in a fedora. He follows Chris. 

We cut to Chris' apartment, where Flo is talking on the phone to the Creole Bar, asking "When did he leave?" But Chris walks in right at that moment. Florence being in the apartment means she has a key. A bit of unspoken subtext to ponder. 

Flo: Hello wonder boy.

Chris: Hello doll face. [takes off Panama and throws it on his easy chair] Well your girlfriend contacted me, what's your racket this time, blackmail? 

Flo: Don't be silly Chris this is a private deal. 

Chris: Anything that doesn't come through the office is a private deal, huh, that your understanding? Florence I don't like this it sounds like a shake down. And I particularly don't like you using me as a fence.

Chris: Anything that doesn't come through the office is a private deal, huh, that your understanding? Florence I don't like this it sounds like a shake down. And I particularly don't like you using me as a fence.

Flo: What Difference does it make? You got a nice piece of change out of it didn't you? 

Chris: Fifty.

Flo: Fifty, you should have hit her for a century, she's got plenty. 

Chris: You're putting the squeeze on this dame aren't you.

Flo: Have you got something for me Chris?

Chris: Yea, a little nick-nack, worth a grand maybe. First, what have ya got for her, after all she is my client. Come on Flo lets have the envelope. 

Flo: What kind of a sucker do you think I am?, I haven't got the envelope on me.

Chris: envelope no nick-nack.

Flo: Well it just so happens that it's in my apartment safely locked up.

Chris: You'd better go get it but quick.

Flo: Wait till I put on a new face.

Flo slips out of the room and into a bed room as she heads towards the mirror on a chest of draws. We see this partly from outside  through a french window and we see that shadow silhouette slipping along a balcony following Flo.  

Chris heads into his kitchen and opens his icebox.

It goes Noirsville when the silhouette opens the french door and sneaks up behind Flow as she powders her nose and then strangles Flo to death while Chris is in the kitchen having a sandwich and a beer. 

The silhouette strangler dumps out Florence's purse on the bed. We see hands searching through Flo's handbag contents and spreads it out on Chris' bed. While the killer is looking for "the envelope" Chris comes out of the kitchen and yell to Flo to come on. No answer. He yells Florence once more before he opens the louvered doors an see Florence's body sprawled by the bed. 

He yells Florence, once more before he opens the louvered doors an see Florence's body sprawled by the bed. 

He bends over her then runs out the open french doors onto the balcony, twisting his head in both directions. 

He comes back in goes back to check on Florence but she is definitely dead. He pick up the phone and dials the police. When they answer though he hesitates and hangs up the phone. 

As soon as Chris hangs up, his doorbell buzzes. Chris shuts the louver doors and answers the front door. It's Henry wearing a straw boater.  Chris pulls him inside by his jacket and locks the door. 

Henry: Now Mister Chris I thought I'd tell you that a lady came by your office said she was looking for you, [Chris pulls him inside by his jacket and locks the door].  Mister Chris what are you doing? {points at the door}.

Chris: Henry I'm in a terrible jam.

Henry: What is it.

Chris:  Henry, you and I have know each other a long time right

Henry: That's right Mister Chris and you can trust me. 

Chris:  Good. Somethings happened to Miss Cain.

Henry: Oh Miss Cain, is that all, heh. Anything can happen to Miss Cain.

Chris:  She's been murdered. 

So Mantan as Henry continues doing his comic schtick during the above convo. This is the comic relief back when they thought the audience would need some conic relief. 

Mantan does a double take and pops his eyes open when he repeats loudly murder. It's not anything different than say Jackie Gleason as Ralph Kramden did on The Honeymooners or Joe E. Ross did on Car 54 Where Are You?

Eye pop schtick - Mantan Moreland, Joe E. Ross, Jackie Gleason

It's still jarring to see, now that a lot of us are aware of it, whenever it does pop up unexpectedly in Hollywood Films. There's probably a few other Noir that do similar stereotype humor it was unfortunately a part of the zeitgeist back then. 

Murdered!

Henry: Murdered, well I. [pops his eyes out] Murdered! [he gets up heading towards the door] Oh Mister Chris that's mighty big trouble. 

Chris [grabbing Henry's lapels]:   Henry you don't think I had anything to do with it?

Henry: Oh Mister Chris I wouldn't think that you'd harm anyone.

Chris: Good. Now the police mustn't find the body here. If they do, the thing will be on me, and I won't stand a chance. We got to get the body out of here.

Henry: We! we got to get outta here, hehe, you got to get her out of here Mister Chris.

Chris [grabbing Henry by his lapels]:  Henry you got to help me.

Henry you don't think I had anything to do with it?

Henry: I guess your right Mister Chris anything that you said.

Chris: You know what this means if we're caught

Henry: I ain't in the mood to think of that now. 

Chris: [Chris slaps him on the shoulder] Lets take the body over to her apartment now. 

So we get an involved sequence of Chris and Henry taking Flo covered in a sheet out of Chris' place and back to Flo's apartment. 

Henry has his boater back on and is carrying Flo, who is covered with a sheet. Chris is getting the elevator up and using a trash basket to hold the door open. Once inside Henry leans back against the elevator car interior wall which of course tips his boater up and we get another eye pop. 

This hat brim tipping up was another old schtick called the Chaplin Hat Trick. 

Chaplin Hat Trick and the eye pop - a twofer

Then after Chris and Henry are driving the body of Flo back to her apartment, we get another Mantan Moreland eye pop when Flo's body bumps against Henry while he's sitting in the back seat. 

While this body transfer is going on, see Delilah get tired of waiting for Chris, so she gets up and leaves the Creole Bar, but she is followed out by a man who we see is seated in the next booth. Whether this man is the same as the silhouette man we do not know.   

Chris and Henry just get Flo back into her place, spread out the contents of her handbag on her bed when they hear Wanda, a girlfriend of Flo, calling Flo's name and opening Flo's apartment door.  Chris and Henry run out to the balcony and are climbing down a trellis when Wanda, discovers Flo dead and screams.

Flo

Flo!

Chris and Henry hop in the car and split. 

Back at the office Chris calls the Creole but finds out from the bartender that the red head in the second booth left 10 minutes ago. So he calls the Hotel Royale asking for Judith Smith and finds out there is nobody there registered with that name. 

Soon after Chris hangs up he gets a visit from the NOPD who ask if he's seen Florence that night. Chris says no, he saw her earlier. The cops ask to see his hands and he has a scratch from the rose bush on the trellis he climbed down. 

The cops found blood on some thorns and it's enough to haul Chris in. 

 Chris with Walter Sande as Det. Lt. Walter Castle - Busted!

At the police station the police question Chris and Wanda. However they can't hold Chris so when he gets back to his office there's a stranger sitting there in the dark waiting.

The guy tells him that he came to pick up the envelope for his wife. Chris wants some ID the guy pulls out a card and in handing it to Chris, he drops it. When Chris bends down to pick it up, the man pulls out a gun. 

Chris annoyed, remarks that this is more like it. because now we can get somewhere. Chris criticizes the man's technique, and loudly tells him how to do a stick-up correctly. 

This convo wakes up Henry in his room next to the office, who sneaks quietly out and knocks out the stranger. They lay him out and systematically search through his pockets.

They find out his name is Mikail Barak and works for the Great Garonne Company, a Spider themed Magic Act appearing at the Grand Theater. 

Chris heads to the theater to catch the act. One of Garonne's routines is a mentalist act and Delilah is the medium who supposedly picks up mental signals from Garonne as he works the audience. They really communicate through a code and flashes between Garonne and the blindfolded Delilah. 

She falters on stage when Chris gives Garonne the envelope with Judith Smith and the Hotel Royale written upon it. 

Later Chris confronts her in the dressing room telling her that Florence Cain was murdered, and next day she comes to his office and finally spills the beans telling Chris that Florence had told Delilah that she had proof that her sister was murdered. This is just before the midpoint of the film.

The rest of the tale is figuring out who murdered Florence and a succession of others, and the connection to Delilah's sister's murderer.

Noirsville

This was the second time I was able to watch it. The copy is slightly better than the first PQ print I saw but not by much. It's nothing special but it's rare. It must have been trying to jump on to the success of The Maltese Falcon, and Murder My Sweet.

Interesting low budget film that was Richard Conte's first Noir and he's pretty good in it and it's a kick to see Ann Savage in another Noir, and dead again in another bedroom, lol.

Again be forewarned Mantan Moreland provides some eye popping stereotypical shtick that may be disturbing. He comes off though, aside from being the comic relief, as highly competent assistant to Conte. 

It does have some nice noirish cinematography but it really isn't anything to actively seek out, it's more for noir aficionados. A light "On the Cusp of Noir" Noir, it could tip either way. Watch for Ann Savage, 6/10 maybe another half point with decent print. 

A nice review from IMDb:

Don't watch it for Ann Savage; she's the first to go 6/10 stars by bmacv (Western New York)

Pretty much the only thing you think while watching The Spider is that it's too bad Ann Savage kissed the dust about seven minutes into it. Playing the enterprising partner of New Orleans private investigator Richard Conte whose attempt at extortion sets the plot in motion, she gives the film an initial jolt of deadly femininity that the rest of the movie sorely needs.

Lovely but less prepossessing Faye Marlowe is the mysterious client who hands Conte a diamond brooch, engaging him to retrieve an envelope. It contains evidence obtained by Savage that Marlowe's missing sister was in fact murdered, but Conte doesn't know this, or the identity of the woman who hired him under a false name. He finds out that she's part of a phony spiritualist act with arachnoid sets and get-ups (hence the movie's title). The sister, who could pass as her twin, was part of the illusion. In order to solve Savage's murder (to name just one), Conte must burrow back to 1940, using old newspaper clippings and hotel registers, to unravel the earlier killing.

Short and plot-laden, The Spider borrows, or steals, piecemeal from earlier successes (a shakedown in Conte's office harks back to Joel Cairo and Sam Spade in The Maltese Falcon, as does Marlowe's pseudonymous identity). The presence of Conte and Savage (however abbreviated) has led some viewers to chuck this movie under the rubric `film noir;' that may be stretching things. (The New Orleans locales stay strictly generic, which is a shame, as it may be the only such film set in The Big Easy, unless the even more dubious Glory Alley is admitted.) The Spider is an entertaining enough crime programmer that even a second scene spotlighting Savage would have helped mightily.