Sat 15 Nov 2014
A MICKEY SPILLANE Movie Reviewed by Dan Stumpf: THE LONG WAIT (1954).
Posted by Steve under Crime Films , Reviews[15] Comments
THE LONG WAIT. United Artists, 1954. Anthony Quinn, Charles Coburn, Gene Evans, Peggie Castle, Mary Ellen Kay, Shawn Smith, Dolores Donlon. Based on the book by Mickey Spillane. Director: Victor Saville.
Victor Saville’s film of The Long Wait from the novel by Mickey Spillane, is an action-packed but mostly banal affair, bucked up somewhat by Anthony Quinn as a hard-boiled amnesiac who loses his fingerprints and memory in a fiery car crash that opens the thing.
Wandering back to his home town, he finds himself wanted for an old murder by the local cops, and definitely unwanted by the local crooks, who find his presence somehow threatening to Organized Crime thereabouts. Indeed, the only ones with a friendly interest in Quinn are a half-dozen beautiful women who — because this is a Spillane story — fling themselves at him, knees akimbo, and — because this is a 50s movie — take him up to their apartments and dance with him.
The story proceeds mostly by-the-numbers, competent but unremarkable, helped along by vigorous thesping from the likes of Charles Coburn, Gene Evans and Bruno VeSota as the sweatiest henchman in film noir.
Anthony Quinn, who cut his acting teeth playing small-time hoods in Paramount “B” movies, brings a mean-spirited panache to the goings-on, and then…
… and then for some reason there are five minutes in The Long Wait of pure, sadistic brilliance: A protracted execution, set in an abandoned warehouse, with harsh lights, minimal sets and camerawork that spreads like an expressionist dream across the screen as Gene Evans taunts and toys with his bound victims until….
But that would be spoiling things. Suffice it to say that The Long Wait may be a more descriptive title than the producers intended, but it’s definitely worth the time.
November 15th, 2014 at 12:27 pm
I have never visited any film or television program in which Anthony Quinn is first billed, which does not mean I have had the experience. Bah!!!
November 15th, 2014 at 12:29 pm
More on Quinn. A powerful presence but even in support overly indulgent. A below the border Rod Steiger, rolling his eyes and whining.
November 15th, 2014 at 4:07 pm
I share some of Barry’s problems with Quinn as a leading man — particularly post Zorba when we got Zorba the Pope, Zorba the Scout, Zorba the Cop, Zorba the Mafia Don, Zorba the Greek Billionaire married to an ex president’s widow …
That said his presence here brings this much closer to Spillane than just about anything until KISS ME DEADLY (considering Bezzeridies and Aldrich were trying to destroy the Hammer character they came much closer than anyone on screen to it until Mickey himself played the role).
To some extent this is Spillane’s RED HARVEST (about half the pi novelists out there did their versions at some point — Macdonald’s BLUE CITY, Cleve Adams did is over and over, Ard’s HELL IS A CITY, Halliday’s MURDER WEARS A MUMMER’S MASK, to a great extent JDM’s THE GREEN RIPPER)the one violent man turns over the whole corrupt applecart — with a bit of amnesia thrown in. It’s not unlike the plot of THE ERECTION SET either with the prodigal returns for revenge theme though the latter was Spillane doing his favorite Alexandre Dumas THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO just as MORGAN THE RAIDER was Leslie Charteris the Saint.
The book is probably Mickey’s most accomplished mystery novel until ONE LONELY NIGHT though is lacks the power of the early Hammer books without the presence of Hammer and his interior monologues. It is also one of the rare times Spillane takes himself outside of his familiar New York environs (even the Tiger Mann spy novels were set in NY and NJ)as he does in THE ERECTION SET, MORGAN THE RAIDER, CONTANGO, SOMETHING OUT THERE, and some of the novellas.
And Dan is one hundred percent on the nose when he states that suddenly at the end in that starkly photographed and atmospheric warehouse scene this not only becomes a striking noir exercise it also becomes Spillane and close to pure unadulterated for film Spillane. It lifts the film far above itself.
Because Peggy Castle is the femme fatale in I, THE JURY her character here gets to be a little less straightforward than actually written. Audience expectations play as much a role as her performance or the screenplay, but it works and that is all that matters. In the book her role is much more in doubt and not resolved until virtually the last line, where in the film you pretty much know where it is going before the final scene unfolds. It is certainly not her fault, and the screenplay does try, but even with the history of film noir and Spillane’s penchant for pulling rugs out from under readers the movie telegraphs this quite a bit and undermines the tension whether you have read the novel or know anything about it.
And watching this, even though he is too ethnic to really fit the part (so was Assante but he worked), I couldn’t help but think Quinn would have been an interesting Hammer bringing something of the menace too often missing on screen. My ideal Hammer on screen would have been Lawrence Tierney because even his good guys were a bit sinister, but Quinn might have been interesting (I have a theory that Hammer is best served when played by actors who play villains as often as heroes save for Spillane himself).
Of course the problem, as with I, THE JURY, is they could not film the Spillane ending, and while they do a yeoman like job trying it falls a little flat. That’s no real criticism of the film because many of Spillane’s endings won’t work on screen — even when they could do the nudity the Armand Assante I, THE JURY lacks the books impact, and while technically I might want to see it done I don’t really want to see a baby shoot the bad guy on screen, and I’m afraid “Juno was a man!” would have audiences rolling in the aisle on screen though they sort of did it in Blake Edwards GUNN to good effect.
But I give this one high marks for accomplishment against the odds and the times it was made it, grant Quinn’s presence is a major asset, and agree with the praise for the always praiseworthy Coburn and for the usually praiseworthy Gene Evans.
And did anyone but me notice how much the warehouse scene looked like the cover illustrations usually used for Signet’s early paperback editions of the book? One of the early printings has a really striking cover that is virtually recreated on screen. I’m giving credit for that to the vivid nature of Spillane’s writing, but someone must have seen that cover image before lighting and staging that scene.
November 15th, 2014 at 4:31 pm
David,
The Monte Cristo reference is right on and not alone in 20th century crime literature and film. I ran Once Upon A Time In America, an interminable bore, but abounding in Monte Cristo references. Prison for the hero, years in taking a complex revenge. Lost love and emptiness at the conclusion. I however felt empty all the way through, which is not something Dumas does to me, or anyone else in all probability.
November 15th, 2014 at 6:04 pm
In his early years at Paramount, there was something about the bit-player Quinn that caught your attention: like John Ireland in RED RIVER, you wanted to see more of this character who looked tough without even trying.
Unfortunately, as David pointed out, once he became a star the results were disappointing. Very much the same filmic fate befell Lee Marvin, Charles Bronson and Walter Matthau, except that they did a perhaps few more good things after stardom descended upon them.
I’d say THE LONG WAIT is about as far as Quinn ever got: he’s tough here but not self-indulgent.
November 15th, 2014 at 6:40 pm
Dan
Matthau, Bronson, and Marvin would stretch a bit once in a while and Bronson was a bit easier to take as a leading man, but Quinn never seemed to get over Zorba — maybe because he had been around and struggling since THE PLAINSMAN when he convinced his future father in law de Mille that he was a Cheyenne and not Mexican. He always brought a touch of class to his B film appearances or A films like THE GHOSTBREAKERS, but I still always preferred him in roles like those in GUNS OF NAVARONE, LAST TRAIN FROM GUN HILL, or LUST FOR LIFE. He seemed to sit better in small doses. His shtick and mannerisms ran thin quickly when he starred, even in ZORBA Alan Bates has more screen time since the story is told through him. In a film like BLACK ORCHID he actually got in the way of a good plot idea.
Barry
MONTE CRISTO may be the most borrowed plot since THE ODYSSEY and THE ILLIAD, a few even using Monte Cristo in the title. It was certainly partial inspiration for my TAPESTRY OF FOOLS and Stephen Frye wrote a very good modern version. It’s been used for numerous movies including several westerns. Jules Verne openly wrote MATTHIUS SANDORF as his Monte Cristo, and every hero with a secret identity or mysterious past owes him something. Alfred Bester’s classic THE STARS MY DESTINATION is a science fiction Monte Cristo. To some extent Zane Gray’s RIDER OF THE PURPLE SAGE is a Monte Cristo story replete with mysterious hero returning for revenge.
Spillane was a huge Dumas fan (as was Dennis Wheatley) as well as Tarzan, Charteris Saint, and Homer. THE LONG WAIT is as much inspired by THE ODDYSSEY as it is RED HARVEST.
If you ever read Guy Endore’s THE KING OF PARIS, a novelistic biography of Dumas, there is a great line where he points out that for all his duels and arguments, the man who wrote the greatest novel of revenge ever written was incapable of holding a grudge.
You and I, again, form a minority that think ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA is pretentious, too long, and despite some good performances, empty. Only Ennio Morricone’s score is really as good as its reputation. But it is the Monte Cristo story.
November 15th, 2014 at 6:50 pm
Agreed about Ennio Morricone’s score. The cast, all good, but De Niro, Tuesday Weld, Darlanne Fluegel, Danny Aiello, Joe Pesci and Richard Bright in his small, murderous part, all shine. Take away the meaningful pregnant pause’s and we would probably have something both an hour shorter and far more involving.
November 15th, 2014 at 10:41 pm
I love this movie. I’ve watched it more than a few times and find nothing banal about it. David is 100% right about Quinn having the chops to play a great Mike Hammer. I find this to be a tense, brutal film with Quinn and the whole picture (“adapted for screen” though it may be) capturing quite faithfully the tone and style of one of Mickey’s best books.
November 15th, 2014 at 11:45 pm
I’m no fan of Quinn but I did like this movie and gave it a high rating back in 2007. Time to watch it again!
November 16th, 2014 at 11:57 am
All I remember of this film are the first 10 or 15 minutes or so. I’m sure I enjoyed it, or I wouldn’t have remembered that much. I too will have to watch it again.
As for Anthony Quinn, I enjoyed ZORBA THE GREEK immensely when it was first released, but the funny thing is, I have had no desire to watch it again. That happens sometimes. Other movies I can watch over and over, but not this one.
November 16th, 2014 at 12:21 pm
Dan,
John Ireland in Red River is in top support and not a bit player. That is a term with definition, usually reserved for actors who are paid by the day and often without credit.
Terms seem thrown around all the time. B-picture, when the film was not. Poverty row studio, when again, not the case. Things like that, and bit player.
November 16th, 2014 at 5:40 pm
Barry
B films does get thrown around loosely since the last actual B was made around 1954 (I think a western with Wayne Morris). Many films we call B’s here were not true B’s but simply not major productions ( most of Abbott and Costello’s films aren’t B fare nor most of the Universal horror of the early period — look at casts and credits on them). John Wayne’s early films are B’s but his post STAGECOACH films like WAR OF THE WILDCATS or FIGHTING SEABEES, no matter how much they seem like B films, are not.
In most cases the B units of studios were virtually a separate operation.
And often, as you know I’m sure, independents get branded as Poverty Row, which in truth were a small handful of studios like PRC and Monogram.
But, once the studio system was gone most of these terms were meaningless and got assigned in aptly to films they did not apply to. I’m sure most people would call Audie Murphy primarily a star of B westerns, and Audie was never in a B film in his career.
November 16th, 2014 at 6:02 pm
Right you are, David.
November 17th, 2014 at 3:57 pm
Hey Barry,
I never said John Ireland was a bit player.
November 17th, 2014 at 4:53 pm
…about the bit player Quinn that caught your attention: like John Ireland in Red River…so, an interpretive issue. Sorry about that, Dan.