Wed 5 May 2021
RED LIGHT. United Artists, 1949. George Raft, Virginia Mayo, Gene Lockhart, Raymond Burr, Henry (Harry) Morgan, Barton MacLane, Ken Murray, William Frawley. Directed by Roy Del Ruth.
Watching old movies like this one, you begin to wonder all sorts of strange things, such as how some actors and actresses became well-known stars, and others didn’t. Take George Raft, for example. Take Virginia Mayo, for another , Neither one could act their way out of a dark room, not if you take this movie as a prime example of their work (and quite possibly you shouldn’t).
Admittedly it’s a low budget crime drama, but that doesn’t stop all of the lower ranked players in the list of credits from showing them how it should be done, if they were paying attention. As the owner of a trucking company whose brother is killed in a bit of gangland revenge, George Raft is as dapper a dresser as ever, but he’s stiff as a board in any small matters such as facial expressions or simply walking across a room.
As for Virginia Mayo, she had the looks and figure to be a star, I suppose, but her delivery here is as wooden as the board that Raft is as stiff as. The real star of this movie is Raymond Burr. In fact this was shown on TNT as part of a afternoon-long Salute to Raymond Burr, which shows that the people at TNT know what they are doing.
Burr is the hoodlum who’s been sent up by Raft, and he’ s the one who hires Harry Morgan to wipe out Raft’s brother. Burr was a little overweight at this time of his career, but his dark, glowering eyes made him a perfect villain in any number of films of this same caliber. Morgan, before he began to make a name for himself in comedy roles, was also perfect as a series of dim-witted killers or former boxers who’d taken one too many on the chin.
Whenever Burr is on screen, the story takes on life. Whenever he’s not, the temptation is to find the fast-forward button. Not a ”noir” film, except on occasion, but in reality an inspirational type of movie, a testament to the practice of leaving Gideon Bibles in every hotel room in the country. (*)
(*) And speaking of Gideon Bibles, it reminds me that the shooting (and a good deal of the subsequent investigation) takes place in the Carlton Hotel, San Francisco. Trivia question: what long-running radio/TV series was there that began almost every episode in the same hotel?
May 5th, 2021 at 11:40 am
“…sane actors and actresses became well-known stars, and others didn’t.”
Perhaps being sane to begin with was an advantage.
May 5th, 2021 at 12:38 pm
Oops. An OCR error that spellcheck didn’t catch. Glad you did. Thanks!
May 5th, 2021 at 12:34 pm
As to the Carlton Hotel, that would be HAVE GUN WILL TRAVEL. As to this movie, just looking at the credits you’d have to say to yourself “How could I miss?”. As far as I remember I have never seen this movie but will seek it out regardless of your review. I could watch Virginia Mayo all day no matter how bad the film. I wonder if this was before or after “White Heat”? It would be near impossible to beat that film!!
May 5th, 2021 at 12:40 pm
1949 was a very busy year for Virginia Mayo. Taken from Wikipedia, presumably in chronological order:
Flaxy Martin (1949) as Flaxy Martin
Colorado Territory (1949) as Colorado Carson
The Girl from Jones Beach (1949) as Ruth Wilson
White Heat (1949) as Verna Jarrett
Red Light (1949) as Carla North
Always Leave Them Laughing (1949) as Nancy Eagen
May 5th, 2021 at 12:37 pm
Roger,give Steve a break. He can’t catch ’em all.
As for Raft, he could at times project a certain amount of screen presence, and is quite watchable in MANPOWER and NIGHT AFTER NIGHT.
May 5th, 2021 at 12:41 pm
Before White Heat, and Mayo, George Raft and company managed to be big stars, in Raft’s case for decades, which means they were in good pictures and had personalities that projected. Raft was, as we should all know, John Huston’s first choice as Spade in The Maltese Falcon and George turned it down, having worked with top directors, Raoul Walsh for example, he did not want to expose himself to a neophyte. We can all criticize at arm’s length, but his view makes sense.
May 5th, 2021 at 12:46 pm
For another view of the film, but still mine, check out this later review from 2009:
https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=1229
May 5th, 2021 at 1:13 pm
I have just read your prior review and the comments. Steve, your thoughts, while not mine, make more sense and remain negative. Good going. Now about Raft and Casablanca. He did not turn it down. Not on the table for him, but he would have been great in it as he was in They Drive By Night and Manpower. David called Raft a non-actor, but a guy who seduced the screen, or camera. That is acting.
May 5th, 2021 at 3:08 pm
Headquarters of a man called ‘Paladin’! (But you won’t find anyone there today named, “Hey-Boy”).
Gideon Bible: there’s an OTRR episode of ‘Escape’ which takes place in New Orleans during Mardi Gras, which features a traveling salesman, and a Gideon Bible at the crux of it all.
May 5th, 2021 at 4:07 pm
The Man Who Stole the Bible
https://www.escape-suspense.com/2008/02/escape—the-ma.html
Guess what? Its broadcast date was May 5, 1950. That’s downright spooky!
May 5th, 2021 at 8:43 pm
Raft mostly played a version of himself, as did some much bigger stars and better actors, but he managed to do so for a long time and very successfully largely because he was apparently well aware of his limitations (he was supposed to have counted his lines and if he had too many turned down roles according to legend).
Bogart is supposed to have said after Raft turned down HIGH SIERRA that if Raft turned down one more role at Warner’s he would be a star, and as we know Raft turned down FALCON.
Raft could be quite effective within his limits. He’s generally adequate, and usually much better in films like JOHNNY ALLEGRO, MANPOWER, THE GLASS KEY, EACH DAWN I DIE, and others. He was wooden, but he held the screen and that used to be far more important to a career in Hollywood than range as an actor.
Mayo, well, an Arab prince once said her looks alone were proof God existed which is pretty good reason for a career, but frankly she was more than competent on screen, and if at times it seemed as if a stripper had been miscast in some things she played in she was often good in comedy and drama holding her own opposite screen stealers like James Cagney, Bob Hope, and Danny Kaye.
She was damn good in one of my favorite Western’s of all times with Joel McCrea in COLORADO TERRITORY, managed to play everything from half breed Indians, to high born ladies, sophisticates, and sex symbols in Westerns, comedy, musicals, film noir, and historical drama. Granted she was always some version of Virginia Mayo, but most actresses would have been happy to have less acting talent and more of what Mayo had on screen.
But again stardom was only occasionally about acting ability and far more often about screen presence and the love affair the camera had with some people. Gary Cooper would eventually win Best Actor, but in WINGS William Wellman thought he was the worst actor he had ever seen until he watched the rushes and saw the camera absolutely loved him.
John Wayne still hadn’t progressed beyond B Cowboy status when John Ford posed him in front of Monument Valley and the camera and public fell in love with him in STAGECOACH. You can look at Ray Milland in early roles like CHARLIE CHAN IN LONDON and THE GLASS KEY and see he is a clearly more natural and comfortable on the screen than anyone else in the films.
Clark Gable dominates films like NIGHT NURSE, PAINTED DESERT, and THE SECRET SIX even against big names like Stanwyck, Harlow, Beery, and silent star Bill Boyd.
There is a story Burt Reynolds used to tell about he and Clint Eastwood being let go from their Universal contracts on the same day. Walking out of the studio together Reynolds began to laugh and Eastwood asked him what was so funny.
Burt answered, that while they had fired Eastwood because he was funny looking and had a big Adam’s Apple they fired Burt because he couldn’t act.
“So?” Eastwood asked.
“So, I can learn to act.” Burt said.
For a lot of Hollywood stars the camera loved them first and they learned to act later, and in more than a few cases took home an Oscar later for their efforts.
May 5th, 2021 at 9:22 pm
Elegantly written, David, but range has little or no place in film stardom, and any time an actor starts behaving like one on screen, you can be certain producers, agents, and lawyers, are there to counsel him. Spencer Tracy was a so-called great actor, watch him now in Captain’s Courageous. Outrageous and miscast. Take a look at Olivier in The Jazz Singer; no more need be said, George Raft was never NEVER so lousy. Add Marlon Brando in most things to this list, and you will know what I mean.
On the other hand, John Wayne in Red River is superb, as were Gable or Grant in almost anything, but not Burt Lancaster playing little old men, which began when he was a great big one in Come Back Little Sheba.
May 5th, 2021 at 9:36 pm
An addendum: Charles Laughton and Maurice Chavlier do not play Gable or Grant or John Wayne’s part, and they reciprocate by not singing, or even humming, Thank Heaven for Little Girls, or pretending to be Quasimodo.
May 6th, 2021 at 7:03 am
I have to agree with Steve here. While he was OK in a few films (mentioned above), i always disliked Raft and thought he was a crappy actor.
May 6th, 2021 at 11:42 am
Virginia Mayo, second wife of Irish actor/entertainer Michael O’Shea
May 6th, 2021 at 4:27 pm
(addendum: ‘star quality’. I privately admire the actors-with-range camp. Maybe my judgment of, ‘what is good acting?’, is not very astute. That’s always a possibility. Whadda I know? But yes, I like the ‘actorly’ stars of the studio era. Clift, for example.
After all, is not this same quality which later recommends to us great names like DeNiro, Nicholson, Duvall, Hoffman, Pacino, and Voight? Most of these guys are not handsome or magnetic. Isn’t their range what made them famous? Just asking.
May 6th, 2021 at 4:44 pm
Not a complete redress, just a thought: Laughton was a major star and even uglier than the guys on your list, however, they all had an ability to communicate within their own personalities. As for magnetic, you are simply wrong. They are and were.
May 6th, 2021 at 7:48 pm
I agree that outside of Henry V Olivier never seemed quite comfortable on screen and his comic accents and make up in some films are a total turn off for me (I found his Van Helsing in Badham’s Dracula offensive), and Tracy could mug terribly if given his head.
Some like Muni could and did overact, but could also lose himself in a part which is why he was one of the more successful actorly actors on screen. I often find Al Pacino near unwatchable though there are films he is quite good in, and re Dustin Hoffman I sympathize with Olivier telling him “It’s just acting, old boy,” even of Oliver was mugging terribly in the same film.
But there is a reason a Cary Grant or Robert Mitchum becomes a big star and much if it has to do with a presence on screen that drew the eye. It isn’t that they didn’t act, only that the acting was a bonus. First they held the audiences eye.
Johnny Weismuller is another who could barely act, but just didn’t need to all that much.
I’m a bit more tolerant of the better actors, but well aware that most of them were limited to certain kinds of roles for all their talent, and it is notable that many of the best screen actors started out as heavies or in comedy before they found that one dramatic role that suddenly propelled them onto the screen.
The saving grace of all three of the senior Barrymores was that they recognized the big screen was no place for great acting, but a wonderful place to ham it up and play. John in particular exhibits a kind of manic energy in some films almost bouncing off the screen and ironically they are usually his best films, while Lionel recognized early on he had a million dollar scowl.
I won’t go quite as far as Barry, but if you look at the pantheon ot great stars, I’m talking number one box office name draws who could open a picture on their name alone (which few can today) almost every one of them commanded the screen by merely being filmed on it from the start and only later honed their craft as actors. You went to see a John Wayne, Errol Flynn, Humphrey Bogart, James Stewart, Gary Cooper, or Cary Grant film, not the specific film they were in, but because they were in a movie, any movie.
May 7th, 2021 at 3:46 pm
H’mmm. What a lot of notions to chew on here.
I willingly doubt my own ability to judge good acting. Glad to defer to others more experienced. Glad to learn. Glad to listen.
But when film buffs speak of ‘mugging for the camera’ or ‘chewing the scenery’ …if I go back and look at the scenes in question, I can hardly ever see it. These terms elude me in practice, even if I understand their dictionary meaning.
Question: Spencer Tracy. I thought he, Fonda, and Stewart all came from the same training and background. Is it known to everyone but me, that they were also prone to hammy acting…? What about March?
At the end of the day I’m still compelled to admire hard-working actors who try (or at least try to) “re-invent themselves” for each role. I’m delighted by all the weird roles Olivier tackled.
Muni was a good reminder too, and what of Lon Chaney?
‘Charismatic’ stars, I agree they were talents who’s fans would ‘go see them in anything’. I feel the same way.
But Burt Reynolds never did learn to act, nor could many other hopefuls who came along. I don’t think Monument Valley can save everyone.
The ‘big charm’, the big magnet theory above, rings true. But on the other hand, if a star like Wayne gets to the end of his career of 179 films and has almost always “played himself” then I personally can’t help but sort him into a different category of star than a Monty Clift. They just don’t seem to share the same skill-set. I don’t feel Monty comes off any less a film star compared to Wayne.
Sure, I will ‘watch him (Wayne) in anything’ but I also skip some of his work because I want to be …’surprised’. If a star tends too often to ‘phone in’ a performance …well…
Heston too. Like Wayne, I will watch his flicks over and over …but all told Heston and Wayne only have maybe 3-4 films together where their acting ever *startled* me; where they ever *transcended* their usual routine.
It’s not ‘bad’ …it’s just ‘different’ than how I view Olivier or (my favorite) Ralph Richardson. Richardson, not a handsome man in the traditional sense, but he could deliver a scene in dozens of different styles. That impresses and moves me.
Link to a good article which explores this better than I can:
https://tinyurl.com/w2zxus8
Hest compared to Paul Scofield, in this article.
May 7th, 2021 at 5:36 pm
Lazy, if they are on stage or on film and being paid to act or perform over decades, then they cannot all be dismissed as non-actors, if so, are they plumbers or electricians? Certainly, they are something. No one said Tracy could not act, but he could be rewarded for hamming the place up. Tracy and Gable, who was not a ham, are a classic team. Two guys who could play ping pong, and who came to pictures playing the same stage part, Killer Mears in The Last Mile.
Oh,Ralph Richardson is so not classically handsome he might easily qualify as homely. Yes…?
May 7th, 2021 at 8:00 pm
Richardson, like Laughton, is the exception that proves the rule, a face that for some reason the camera loves. He is also a very subtle actor in many of his best roles, and yet when called to is much more acceptable than say Olivier when hamming it up, perhaps because he seems more capable of laughing at himself.
Tracy was known as a great scene stealer, but it was often done with bits of business and not hamming it up. There is a scene in THE DEVIL AT FOUR O’CLOCK where Sinatra is on the ground with a dying friend and priest Tracy is only seen from his feet up to his hands, but those hands are moving constantly and you end up watching him and not Sinatra’s big dramatic scene.
There is a scene in FATHER OF THE BRIDE where a young actor is alone in the kitchen with Tracy and opens a bottle of pop in a unique way, and Tracy supposedly told him after he would go far because he just stole a scene from Spencer Tracy.
I agree Tracy hams it up too much in CAPTAIN’S COURAGEOUS though Barry and I are in the minority about him in that film. He is one of my favorites, but I tend to like him best when the role really calls for hamming like Colonel Drummond in INHERIT THE WIND, THE LAST HURRAH or fairly sedate as in JUDGEMENT IN NUMREMBERG. He often was at his best on screen in comedy and notably steals IT’S A MAD MAD MAD MAD WORLD from an entire cast of the best comedy had to offer.
May 8th, 2021 at 12:04 am
Okay, okay, okay. I’m too tickled by the mention of Captain Culpepper to press my point. I’m satisfied.
But how about this example, since everyone above seems to agree that Marlon Brando over-acts.
My jaw dropped through the earth’s crust when I learned it was Brando opposite Glenn Ford in ‘The Tea-House of the August Moon’. Watching the flick, I’d have never dreamed such a thing. I only found out later and was amazed.
I’m sure that performance is probably rated as extravagant, campy, scenery-chewing but I was completely fooled. And I loved it. Not the movie, but the fact that Brando played such a preposterous role, and gave it his all.