It was the movie Laura that established Otto Preminger as a film director to be reckoned with. Originally slated to be a B picture it became a huge hit and an important proto-noir; while set among the upper classes of New York it still helped to establish certain thematic and stylistic elements, and to a lesser extent the suspense that would come to characterize the emerging genera. Though Preminger cast a wide net in terms of his directorial projects, he would return to noir film making a number of times. Perhaps the best of these is Fallen Angel, staring Laura's male lead Dana Andrews. Perhaps the worst of these is Whirlpool.
Reuniting the director with actress Gene Tierney, who had been elevated to A-list stardom with her title role in Laura, here the actress seems flat where she had previously been vivid. While many have commented that over time Tierney improved in her acting, even if just in her limited range, Whirlpool seems like a definite back track. She's largely going through the motions, and some of her performance is bad, especially when she gets into hysterics. Part of this is the sub par script, in which Tierney's character is not fully consistent, and goes through a few rather jarring emotive and motivational turns, and this is not including the times she's suppose to be hypnotized.
You see that's what this movie is about, hypnotism, and its use in perpetrating and scapegoating a murder. The hypnotism is performed by Jose Ferrer, who portrays a George Sanders type character who decides to use Tierney as a fall gal for the murder of his former lover and swindle partner Barbara O'Neil. Ferrer chooses to use Tierney in his murder scheme as she has a bit of a shop lifting problem and is willing to submit to 'therapeutic hypnosis', and her husband is O'Neil's psychologist, and hence posses recordings of therapy sessions that incriminate Ferrer, and which a brain washed Tierney can easily steal. Speaking of the psychologist husband he is played by Richard Conte, a largely tough guy actor who feels very miscast in this role. I just don't buy him as the sensitive type, so how could be such a successful psychologist, (yet one who somehow misses his wife's father complex induced shoplifting).
Conte first thinks he's been betrayed by his wife, who he's been lead to believe is having an affair with Ferrer. He soon figures it out however, but now he must somehow find those missing recordings. But How? Well take his wife back to the scene of the crime and see if she recovers some of her memories, how else. The resolution includes a contorted, yea downright stupid plot contrivance where Feerer hypnotizes himself so as to arise from his hospital bed (he scheduled surgery as cover for the murder) and once again (as he did for the murder itself) 'secretly' (how could you do this secretly?) make his way to Barbara O'Neils house to retrieve the incriminating recordings hidden there in. He ends up dying. Charles Bickford plays the police detective assigned to the case who in a nice middle ground portrayal is neither stupid nor brilliant at his job.
A more successful noir outing for Preminger was Angel Face. The plot is fairly standard noir, the relationship between Robert Mitchum and Jean Simmions has some parallels to both the Bogart/Bacell relationship in The Big Sleep, as well (to a lesser extent) as the Stanwyk/McMurry relationship in Double Indemnity. It does what it dose well, but like the critics of the time I felt that I had 'been there and done that', and do not afford the film the same forgotten gem statues as many film buffs. The things I liked most about this are Jean Simmons (love that hair) and Leon Ames as the unscrupulous defense attorney (Jim Backus plays a refreshingly laid back district attorney).
Speaking of Simmons the reason Preminger was brought in to make this movie has to do with her. Having been given a contract by RKO but spurning the romantic advances of the studio's owner (and notorious womanizer) Howard Hughs, Simmons had become a persona non grata. Simmons had one film left in her contract which had to be made before a fast approaching deadline, Preminger was known as an efficient director capable of making a film that would come in on time and on budget, so Hughs recruited him to come in and film this noir in less then a month (I believe there were only about 18 spent shooting). Hughs didn't care how well it turned out, he just wanted it done and Simmons off the payroll. It did turn out fairly well, and boasts a rather quick and somewhat surprising ending, though through most of the film you just know where its going.
Speaking of knowing where a films going how about River of No Return. Robert Mitchum again, this time a western, kind of a weird property for the very European Otto Preminger to be helming. At the request of his long time friend and patron Daryl F. Zanuck, and even though by this time Preminger was no longer under contract at Fox, he agreed to take the job as a favour. Preminger was just then begining what would prove to be a long and successful stint as an independent producer/director and he certainly didn't need the job. He also quickly determined that he didn't need the stress of working with the famously difficult Marlyn Monroe, who plays the sultry saloon singer who is destined to end up with Mitchum (Mitchums kind of rough with her, one scene comes close to being a near rap).
For most of the movie Mitchum, Monroe and Tommy Rettig (the child actor who plays Mitchcum's son and who Monroe apparently became quite attached to on the set), are rafting down 'The River of No Return' (presumably the Salmon River of Idaho which is also known by that name). They are in pursuit of Monroe's lover Rory Calhoun, who cost Mitchum his farm and horse, and are simultaneously being pursued by Indians (I like how the Indians have no apparent motivation for this, they just seem to want to kill these people). Much if not all of the rafting scenes are done in the studio pool, and the back screen projection process employed doesn't work and makes the whole thing look very fake. What isn't fake is Monroe's wet clothes sticking tightly to her figure.
The River of No Return is most certainly not a great movie, but it doesn't try to be and is likable. While Henry Hathaway would have been a more obvious choice to direct this, Otto Preminger does a sufficiently good job, and gets to play in the wide screen format that he would later do so much memorable work in.
These three are most certainly among Preminger's lesser works, but they mostly constitute a sort of middle ground between his great triumphs (like Laura, and Anatomy of Murder) and his almost unwatchable mistakes (The Man With the Golden Arm, Bunny Lake is Missing).
Whirlpool: D+
Angel Face: C+
River of No Return: B-
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