Thu 3 Jun 2021
A Movie Review by Dan Stumpf – THE SCARF (1951).
Posted by Steve under Crime Films , Reviews[4] Comments
THE SCARF. Gloria Productions, US, 1951. John Ireland, Mercedes McCambridge, James Barton, Basil Ruysdale, Emlyn Williams, David Bauer (as David Wolfe) and King Donovan. Written by E A Dupont, Isadore Goldsmith, and Edwin Rolfe. Directed by E A Dupont.
Robert Bloch contended that The Scarf was ripped off from his book of the same name, but the spirit of the thing comes closer to Goodis than Bloch, and aside from the title and a bit of 40s pop-psychology, it’s an original film — not a complete success, but strange enough to keep watching.
John Ireland, a couple years after All the King’s Men and struggling to achieve leading-man status, stars as an amnesiac escapee from a state mental hospital who makes his way across the desert and onto the poultry farm of philosophical turkey-rancher James Barton, who asks him not so much about his crime as about his place in the universe.
Okay, that caught me by surprise. As did a too-clever cop who turns up to trade quotations from the great thinkers with Barton. Later on we get David Wolfe (an actor who spent most of his career in uncredited bit parts) as Level Louie, a thoughtful bartender, and Mercedes McCambridge (also of …King’s Men) as “Cash ‘n’ Carry Connie” a torch singer in one of the seediest bars in the B-movies. The sight of McCambridge slinking awkwardly about this poverty-row dive trying to be Lizabeth Scott is hysterical in every sense of the word, but somehow it’s not without a certain desperate charm, as one studies the actress and the character and wonders how a woman could fall so low.
All this is directed by E.A. Dupont, himself once a director of note, now fallen on harder times, who focuses more on the characters than the plot, which is a good thing because the story is a rather silly affair of murder supposedly committed by a mental patient but actually done in a moment of mad passion by the most obvious suspect in the film. I don’t mean to sound dismissive, though; The Scarf, for all its faults and pretensions, carries enough loopy appeal to keep lovers of strange movies happy enough for its brief running time.
June 4th, 2021 at 1:22 pm
I’ve never seen this.
But saw and liked a Dupont film from his earlier success period. This was the British silent “Piccadilly” (1929). It too is set in a night club. It has a good reputation among film historians, in general.
June 4th, 2021 at 5:10 pm
The Scarf was a fine opportunity for both McCambridge and Ireland, that it did not work out, just unfortunate, but had it been made in France by some Gitanes smoking bore, people might be running into Central Park railing at the injustice of capitalism, while, of course, enjoying its benefits.
June 4th, 2021 at 7:48 pm
I think loopy but fascinating is a good description of the film, and McCambridge, who probably had her best moments in films playing unattractive women (KING’S MEN, LIGHTNING STRIKES TWICE, GIANT) does project a certain seedy charm with some element of pathos here.
The film has pretensions it can’t quiet live up to, but it’s not the fault of the cast it doesn’t quite live up to them.
Ironically in the end what lets it down is that it doesn’t have the courage of its convictions, and ops for a much sunnier conclusion than it would take to make it a classic. It’s betrayed by its indecision whether to be a B movie or an art house classic lost somewhere between sub Hitchcock and DETOUR.
And too, Cash and Carry Connie may be the most on the nose character name until Pussy Galore.
While I agree Bloch ultimately doesn’t have a leg to stand on plot wise, the film was marketed very much with poster art designed to ape the book and I suspect cash in on the title. I get the feeling no one involved at that end of the thing would have been terribly upset if viewers thought the movie was based on the Bloch novel.
September 9th, 2021 at 10:52 am
I remember you telling me about this once, McCambridge singing in a seedy club in a low cut dress. Sounded such a weird role so was glad to get fuller description. Thought it probably like a guilty pleasure, but it may be a little more than that.