Richard Moore's comment about 77 Sunset Strip reminds me of
an oddity I encountered at Noir City Seattle, a film festival
programmed by Eddie Muller. Before series creator Roy Huggins
became one of the giants of television he was a crime
novelist and screenwriter. Two of his earliest films screened
on a single night. Pushover is an underrated thriller about a
crooked cop that marked Kim Novak's screen debut and a rare
return to the dark side of the street for Fred MacMurray
after Double Indemnity. I Love Trouble was based on Huggins's
own novel, which Eddie called "an egregious Raymond Chandler
rip-off." Franchot Tone makes a surprisingly effective
Marlowe stand-in. The oddity is that he's playing Stuart
Bailey, the P.I. character later made famous by Efrem
Zimbalist, Jr. on 77 Sunset Strip. A heads-up for any
completists out there.
The Criterion DVD of Elevator to the Gallows includes footage
of that memorable night when Miles scored the film as it
unspooled before him. The movie itself is worth watching,
too.
On a related note, I was recently blown away by the final
installment of Jean-Claude Izzo's Marseilles Trilogy, Solea,
which is named after a track from Miles's Sketches of Spain.
Total Chaos, the first in the series, remains the strongest,
but I've come to view all three books as a single epic novel,
noir to its very core.
Vince Keenan
http://www.VinceKeenan.com
Pop culture, past and present, high and low. One day at a
time.
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