1941 Directed by H. Bruce Humberstone
A young promoter is accused of the murder of Vicky Lynn, a young actress he "discovered" as a waitress while out with ex-actor Robin Ray and gossip columnist Larry Evans.
Betty Grable Victor Mature Carole Landis Laird Cregar William Gargan Alan Mowbray Allyn Joslyn Elisha Cook Jr. Chick Chandler Cyril Ring Morris Ankrum Charles Lane Frank Orth Gregory Gaye May Beatty Brooks Benedict Edward Biby Stanley Blystone Wade Boteler John Breen Ralph Brooks Russ Clark Stanley Clements James Conaty Heinie Conklin Bob Cornell Dorothy Dearing Eddie Dunn Ralph Dunn Show All…
Me despierto gritando, Quem Matou Vicki?, Silmukka kiristyy, ¿Quién mató a Vicky?, En studie i brott, Acordei aos Gritos, Vanidad fatal, I wake Up Screaming, Qui a tué Vicky Lynn?, Mă trezesc ţipând, Situazione pericolosa, Hot Spot, Agapi pou skotonei, Ночной кошмар
Let’s just dwell for a moment on that title. Brilliant, isn’t it? One of my favourites. It doesn’t have a tremendous amount to do with the plot, but it strikes a pleasing note of terror and despair, which I think we can all get behind.
I Wake Up Screaming.
Lovely.
The film itself is a little less wonderful than its name, but only a little. It’s also extremely important, especially in the evolution of one of classic cinema’s most modern diversions: the swerve into the abyss that was film noir.
Noir, memorably described by Lee Server as “the genre that didn’t know its own name”, was a hybrid of German expressionism, French poetic realism and post-isolation American malaise, peopled by…
Victor Mature looks like what would happen if Dean Martin and Tyrone Power had a baby but it didn't come out quite as good as expected.
Noir-November Challenge! Movie #41
A decent watch due to a great cast Betty Grable, Victor Mature, Carole Landis and Laird Cregar!
Some good acting, NOIRish shadows and angles scattered about! Not too shabby but on the other hand I'm not jumping up and down out of excitement either!
Well worth seeing if only for the top notch performance of the brilliant Laird Cregar. He simply shines. This film is a great introduction for anyone unfamiliar with this underrated, fantastically talented actor.
Unique soundtrack and great lighting.
Hmm. Let's start with the negatives. I frequently found myself making a face like I had just caught a whiff of some terrible smell. That's because a lot of this dialogue stinks. Don't watch this if you're looking for snappy one liners, hardboiled tough talk, or creative insults.
Victor Mature gets a lot of flack but I liked what I had seen prior to this (Kiss Of Death, Violent Saturday, Cry Of The City). But he was pretty bad here. Cheese and ham. And cheese and ham are generally what stops this film from being really good: there is even a "cute" (cringey) little scene in a swimming pool, for no other apparent reason than to show the leads in…
Vicky Lynn: "Is that all?"
Larry Evans: "No, but the rest of it isn't on the menu."
Vicky Lynn (Carole Landis), a struggling actress is discovered waiting tables by promoter Frankie Christopher (Victor Mature) while out with his two pals an ex-actor Robin Ray (Alan Mowbray) and gossip columnist Larry Evans (Allyn Joslyn). All three men help and pursue Vicky in equal measures, but as Vicky begins to change with her mounting ambition it causes her sister Jill (Betty Grable) to worry. When suddenly Vicky is found murdered on the eve of her leaving for Hollywood, Frankie becomes the prime suspect. With Inspector Ed Cornell's (Laird Cregar) interest in the case and determination for Frankie to get the chair causing…
A young model is found murdered and the prime suspect seems to be the sports promoter who discovered her working as a waitress and engineered her ascent to fame. He gets cleared initially but a relentless detective who is obsessed with the case refuses to accept the findings and continues his own investigation.
Well-made whodunit which bears all the stylistic earmarks that would later characterize the film noir. Director Cumberstone's use of a non-linear narrative (the same year "Citizen Kane" popularized that technique) is another thing that makes "I Wake Up screaming" stand out from the other contemporary features.
Dramatically it also takes a couple of chances, especially when it comes to the depiction of one character's sexual obsession with…
20th Century Fox stumbles into Film-Noir out of nowhere with I Wake Up Screaming (1941). From what I understand this wasn't supposed to such a dark movie, but they went with it and so started their journey into what's become a favorite style of movie lovers with the shadowy tones and intense mind games. Because the style wasn't tweaked for this production, the characters becomes a rather grossly exaggerated, which in a strange way enhances the experience for a real blend of the classic Hollywood entertainment and dangerous feel of expressionism. Betty Grable is almost too sweet for her role, but give a little shadow to Victor Mature's face and you have the right contrast! There is no doubting the…
This plot and these characters would have been sharpened to a fatal point if this had come out a scant two or three years later, but as is this is still a pretty potent, witty proto-noir caper. Its killer app is "Big" Laird Cregar, who gets real weird with it as an obsessive psycho cop.
Featuring one of the all time great screen Lairds as an incel with a badge. Weird in that there's more chemistry between his persistent cop and the lead suspect (Victor Mature) than there is between the lead suspect and the romantic lead (though the scene where she's sawing off his handcuffs is pretty sweet).
Holy cow! This movie...
Maybe/possibly the very first one, this has all the good stuff you want in a Film Noir: the Dutch angles and tilts, the shadows, the smoke filled rooms, the mystery, the interesting characters, flashbacks, and the femme fatales. Oh, does it have them. And all of that works in unison and it never seems overstuffed like a lot of these movies can sometimes be. A superbly paced plot that doesn't meander but never short shrifts the characters or allow them to take a back seat.
The movie does such a good job at delivering characters you care about but also giving everyone a hint of both innocence and danger. Everyone from the stars on the poster,…
I woke up screaming once. I woke up and my eyes for some reason interpreted an overhead light fitting as a flying saucer.
But that doesn't happen in I Wake Up Screaming. Because nobody wakes up screaming.
It was dead good, this. For some reason it seems overly interested in describing people in certain professions as 'slingers', something I might bear in mind when I do some porn blogging tomorrow. The best thing about this film though, aside from Laird Cregar's borderline stalker cop and Elisha Cook Jr., is the fact that it's not just a flat whodunnit.
They do such a good job framing Cregar's obsession with showing Victor Mature as guilty of murdering Carole Landis that we end up doubting it ourselves. Well, I did anyway, I wouldn't want to speak for anyone else.
I'm sorry, I'm going to dunk my head in a sink full of cold water and Vicks. That poster's rubbish as well.
