In which Chuck Heston teams up with the Dragnet boys for a little tale of revenge and regret…
Film noir was the name given by the critics of the French New Wave to a certain type of classic Hollywood-era film, noted for their German expressionist-styled photography and a dark, seething undercurrent of cynicism. Most consider noir to be a genre in and of itself, a special blend of crime movie and thriller - but that doesn’t really capture it. Many would also say it’s all in the style - the trench coats and slinky blondes and shadows that have their own shadows - but that’s not really it either. Truth be told, noir doesn’t really have to be a crime film, per se; you don’t need gangsters or cops or thugs or any of the other trappings most associated. No, at it’s core, noir is an attitude. An outlook that surveys the world around us and says something is deeply wrong. Noir is paranoia, desperation - tearing the layers of society back and finding it all to be rotten underneath. It’s our darkest fears and desires plucked out from the collective unconscious and turned up to eleven - passion and violence laid so bare it would get a shiver in sixty degree weather. In their heyday, the studios churned out the film noirs with the exacting precision of car parts on a factory line - not a whole lot of difference in each, but well-made enough to get the job done regardless. Dark City fits in quite nicely amongst the classics, but a few decisions keep it from being a true noir. Even so, its cast and overall style makes sure the film stands well ahead of the pack.
The story concerns the two-bit gambler Danny Haley and his fellow racketeering partners duping Arthur Warrant (a man with $5000 check in his pocket) into a game of high stakes poker. They let him win the first night, but after cleaning him out at the next game Arthur goes back to his hotel and hangs himself. The cops question Haley and his gang, but with no real evidence they let the men go. All fine and dandy, except Arthur’s psychopathic brother Sydney rolls into town, looking to pick the gamblers off one-by-one. With no one to turn to, Haley and his partners have to find the mysterious older brother (who everyone seems to know nothing about) before he finds them.
A baby-faced Charlton Heston plays Danny Haley in his first Hollywood leading role - and watching him here it was clear this Heston kid was going places. It’s a very different role than the actor usually took on, often playing heroic or noble figures of authority. Haley is the exact opposite, a jaded war veteran who really doesn’t give a damn about anyone but himself. Throw in his intimacy issues with on-again, off-again nightclub singer girlfriend Fran, and we have the perfect noir hero: cynical, jaded and completely broken on the inside. There’s much to be said about the relationships between the hero and his love interest in noir - it’s a complete emasculation of the male psyche, along with a bit of war-time anxiety. Haley lost his British wife to another soldier during the war, and couldn’t deal. He killed the man in self-defense, and although the charges were dropped, Haley found himself court-martialed. He was a soldier, and dealing with the situation in the only way he was taught (i.e., violently), he was then abandoned by everything and everyone he once cared about. Heston’s character constantly refutes Fran’s affections because he doesn’t even want to open up the possibility of being hurt again, and generally distances himself from the world for much the same reason.
The character’s main arc in the film is getting him back in the world, making Haley care again - and that’s precisely what keeps the film from being a true noir. Haley does some rather despicable things throughout, including wooing the late Arthur’s widow in order to gain info on Sydney, so the idea of a happy ending for this character doesn’t really jibe with the rest of the movie’s themes. Redemption should be all but unattainable for the film noir hero (kind of the point of noir itself) - and while the story of a man regaining his faith in people once more is no less valid, the film comes at it from so far out of left field it winds up damaging the overall impact in the end. It’s not enough to derail or ruin the film, it’s just a bit of a narrative and thematic cheat.
Another interesting facet of the cast are future Dragnet partners Jack Webb and Harry Morgan as members of Haley’s entourage. Webb is fantastic in the role of Augie, playing the complete opposite of the taciturn Sgt. Joe Friday - a smartass thug who’s not nearly as tough as he seems on the outside. Morgan plays Soldier, an ex-fighter who’s gone a bit soft in the head, and who consistently tries to get Haley to leave the bookie trade altogether. Rounding out Haley’s crew is Ed Begley as Barney, an aging, ulcer-ridden card shark who is the first to feel Sydney’s vengeance - in a scene that plays out more like a horror film than anything else. Eternal noir actress Lizabeth Scott plays Fran as far too demure - the sultry, husky-voiced actress was far more suited to eating men alive as a femme fatale than settling to play girlfriend to the male lead.
Director William Dieterle’s involvement with the film is not only crucial to the film’s success as a narrative, but also historically significant in the context of the film noir. Dieterle was one of many German filmmakers who defected to Hollywood once the Nazis rose to power in their native land. They brought with them the sharp-angled architecture and heavy shadows of the expressionists, and more importantly they brought their own bleak, disillusioned view on life - the type that only immigrants escaping from tyranny in an unfamiliar land could produce. It was these aspects the French critics noticed appeared again and again in these types of films, and what would later become the pillars of film noir. But besides all that, Dieterle was just a plum good director, as evidenced by his work here. There is a constant undercurrent of menace - such as the fact we never see Sydney’s face, only his hand and distinctive ring - giving the film it’s tremendous pace and tension. It’s a well-made movie, all said and done.
Even though the ending falls shy of the mark, Dark City is otherwise a master-class in film noir, and a stunning debut for Charlton Heston.
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