And Then There Was Nun...

Those of you who have been following my exploration of "Noir" cinema over the past few months will have heard me discuss Noir as Tragedy, in the grand, classical sense.

In films such as Double Indemnity, The Killers, Criss Cross, Hollow Triumph or Out of the Past, the protagonist is someone (often sympathetic) who finds himself on the wrong side of Justice, and must inevitably pay a price at the end of the story. However comprehensible their story, however much we might want to see them succeed, we know deep down that they will never be allowed to escape punishment, because there was an inflexible moral code in force in Hollywood at that time.

In a very practical sense, the Hays Office acted as Divine Judgement for these characters. 

"Noir" of the 1950s felt different.

I have already screened The Narrow Margin and Union Station (both of which are often described as "noirs") whose heroes are "law enforcement" types: a detective and a transit cop respectively.

These characters do not find themselves on the "wrong side of Justice" because they are Justice. They are the ones who "keep us safe" and are therefore (apparently) justified in doing anything, no matter how violent, immoral or unethical, if it means defending Truth, Justice... all that good stuff.

This shift is not completely random.

The Hollywood blacklist was in full swing in the early 1950s, and writers, directors, actors were almost literally being grabbed out of their offices or picked up off the street and frog-marched into oblivion. Everyone still active in the movie industry was terrified that their name might be next on some Government list. 

This wasn't just film-makers learning to work within a set of censorship codes; this was more like working under a Police State.

In fact it was exactly like working under a Police State.

That's why it's no coincidence that you start to see films about law enforcement agents who won't hesitate to break the rules, step on heads or generally act like barbarians if it means Defeating the Bad Guys. 

This was more or less what law enforcement agents were actually doing at the time, but I guess that's what Makes America Great.

This week's film follows in the tradition of these Mid-Century Noirs, with a story that centres around yet another brutal Government Agent.

But this time... there's a Nun.

The unimaginatively titled Appointment With Danger tells the story of Al Goddard (Alan Ladd), a US Postal Inspector who uncovers a plot to rob a mail truck in Gary, Indiana.

This is one of those films that could very easily have been just another cookie-cutter, by-the-numbers genre picture. Alan Ladd's postal inspector is the usual hard-nosed, incorruptible G-man who lives his life on the front line of the never-ending battle to protect America from its Enemies.

But Appointment With Danger succeeds in setting itself apart from the crowd.

For one thing, there's the Nun. 

Sister Augustine (Phyllis Calvert) happens to be in the wrong alley on the wrong dark and stormy night, making her a key witness in the whole affair and therefore a target of the criminals who are afraid she might identify them. The interplay between Calvert and Ladd is genuinely sharp and not your typical "noir" material.

Likewise, the contribution of Jan Sterling, who manages to bring something surprisingly subversive to the role of "gangster's moll".

Unlike the Femmes Fatale of earlier films, Jan Sterling has no agenda (other than an easy life and a plentiful supply of bebop) and she practically manages to abscond with the whole film.

And then there are the particulars of the heist itself.

Like last week's Union Station, Appointment With Danger makes extensive use of real world locations, enabling some genuinely dramatic set pieces. Noir of the 1940s was all about light and shadow. Late-stage noir is more of an "Industrial Revolution."

It's also worth paying attention to two of the hoodlums at the heart of the hold-up caper.

Actors Jack Webb and Harry Morgan met on this production and began what was to become a lifelong friendship. And twenty years later they would be instantly recognisable to millions of Americans as the "good guys" of television law enforcement in Dragnet.

But all of that was still in the future. First, they have to hold up the mail truck. And outwit the postal inspector and the Nun.

(Spoiler alert: they don't!)

We will screen Appointment With Danger at 7.30 on Thursday, the 29th of May at the Victoria Park Baptist Church.