Sat 23 Dec 2023
A PI Movie Review: BEHIND GREEN LIGHTS (1946).
Posted by Steve under Mystery movies , Reviews[14] Comments
BEHIND GREEN LIGHTS. 20th Century Fox, 1946. Carole Landis, William Gargan, Richard Crane, Mary Anderson, John Ireland, Charles Russell, Roy Roberts, Don Beddoe, Bernard Nedell. Screenplay: W. Scott Darling & Charles G. Booth. Director: Otto Brower. Currently streaming on YouTube (see below) and Amazon Prime.
There really is a PI in this movie, but his part is so small that the actor who plays him (Bernard Nedell) does not even get on-screen credit. Besides being a PI, he also dabbles in blackmail on the side, which makes him an ideal victim of a blackmailee as well, making his role in the film exceedingly small.. Quite remarkably his body is found in a car left in front of the local police station, which causes the lieutenant in charge (William Gargan) all kinds of problems.
It seems as though a young girl (Carole Landis), who is the daughter of the reform candidate for mayor in an upcoming election, had an appointment with the dead man just before his body was found, and all kinds of political pressure is placed on the cops to book her, at least for being under suspicion, if not for the murder itself.
The pacing is fast. I think the whole movie takes place all in one night, without much of a letup. It’s a black-and-white crime movie, so it’s probably called a noir film by viewers who don’t know better, but it isn’t. Well, I’ll take that back. The lighting and the camera work is often the same as in true film noir.
What makes the movie really enjoyable, though, is the acting and story line, both glossier and more professional than for any of the so-called Poverty Row productions. That’s what having a movie produced by 20th Century fox will do for it. As for the two leads, I confess I do not see William Gargan as a leading man in any film that has a hint of romance in it (and yes, it’s there), but any movie graced by the presence of Carole Landis in it makes it very easy to recommend this one.
PostScript: I do not know from whence the title comes. Perhaps the lights in the globes beside the front door of the police station are green, but who would know in a black-and-white movie?
December 24th, 2023 at 12:51 am
Steve,
In 1940 Charles Laughton and Carole Lombard filmed They Knew What They Wanted with William Gargan as the handsome rival to Laughton. Charles did not think Gargan was attractive enough, but he was nominated for an Academy Award.A matter of personal taste. I have followed Gargan since I heard on the air as Ross Dolan, Private Detective in I Deal in Danger. And, of course, other private detective shows. I understand your take, but Laughton was ugly as hell, Gargan was good enough looking, and Carole married the King, who would never have played that part.
December 24th, 2023 at 10:14 pm
No, I don’t think so, either, but now you have me thinking. What if??
December 24th, 2023 at 11:14 am
I see the pulp/Black Mask writer Charles G. Booth
wrote part of the screenplay. I believe he was included in The HARD-BOILED OMNIBUS. I can only hope that’s what makes this movie a cut above. I’ll watch it tonight on Amazon Prime. Thanks for posting! And THANK YOU! Steve for this WONDERFUL blog, and Merry XMAS to ALL!!!
December 24th, 2023 at 1:24 pm
Yup, the pulp/mystery writer Charles G. Booth is the same Charles G. Booth who had a hand in writing the screenplay for this movie. His Wiki page is short, so what’s below is almost all of it:
Charles Gordon Booth (February 12, 1896 – May 22, 1949) was a British-born writer who settled in America and wrote several classic Hollywood stories, including The General Died at Dawn (1936) and Sundown (1941). He won an Academy Award for Best Story for The House on 92nd Street in 1945, a thinly disguised version of the FBI “Duquesne Spy Ring saga”, which led to the largest espionage conviction in the history of the United States. He also penned the short story “Caviar for His Excellency” which was the basis for the play “The Magnificent Fraud” [1] and was the basis for Paul Mazursky’s 1988 film Moon Over Parador.
Works
Sinister House, (1926)
Gold Bullets, (1929)
Murder At High Tide, (1930)
Seven Alibis, (1932)
The Cat And The Clock, (1935)
The General Died At Dawn, (1937)
Mr Angel Comes Aboard, (1944)
Murder Strikes Thrice, (1946)
And of course, it’s well worth repeating: MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!
December 24th, 2023 at 1:28 pm
As a Christmas present, here’s Charles Booth’s really enjoyable novelette, Stag Party:
https://media.npr.org/programs/day/features/2008/jan/Stag%20Party.pdf
December 24th, 2023 at 2:15 pm
Wonderful! Thanks, Tony!!
December 25th, 2023 at 8:52 am
I think the title refers to traffic delays caused by someone texting at a traffic signal. Cars back up behind green lights.
December 25th, 2023 at 11:55 am
Only one flaw in that suggestion, Dan. The movie was made in 1946, and those were prehistoric times (I was very young). Were traffic signals even dreamed of yet? I think perhaps not.
December 25th, 2023 at 12:23 pm
Mao, in his cultural revolution phase, suddenly changed the traffic laws, ordering that red would heretofore mean ‘go’ and green ‘stop’–because, of course, ‘red’ must mean progress. The result, predictably, was anarchy. And car crashes. (Or does anarchy imply car crashes?). Not having seen the movie, I’m going to proclaim (much like Mao) emphatically and without any reservation that this movie was referring to green traffic lights during the Chinese cultural revolution.
December 25th, 2023 at 12:51 pm
Makes sense. Almost. Close enough.
December 26th, 2023 at 8:01 pm
Gargan was, among other things, a middle-aged Ellery Queen. I can’t say I ever truly appreciated him as a leading man though he was good in several films and popular. After throat cancer and until his death his voice was often dubbed by other actors while he could still work.
The term “Green Light used here is a variation on the idea to go ahead as in green traffic lights, yes, they had them in 1946, and to a specific use of green light that refers to crime as in to “green light” a hit or professional murder. So here the reference would be to whoever committed or hired out the crime and looking behind the crime the “green light” to find the culprit and motive, a metaphor Charles G. Booth likely was familiar with. But it is a bit of criminal vernacular they should have explained for the audience.
December 26th, 2023 at 8:19 pm
Ignore my previous speculation.
Tradtionally dating back to when New York was still known as New Amsterdam and patrolled by Rattle Watchmen (they rattled doors to be sure they were locked) there were green lights in front of police stations. The police station in New Rochelle still has them. Behind the green lights simply means what goes on inside the precinct.
December 26th, 2023 at 8:49 pm
That’s a theory I can agree with. “…what goes on inside the precinct” or station house. The whole film takes place over the course of one evening and various other cases or complaints keep coming up throughout the night, so that fits too.
December 26th, 2023 at 10:17 pm
Uh, oh. The dreaded thirteen. And you guys are leaving me to clean it up. Luckily for everyone I still have the strength, never mind the energy to do the heavy lifting around here.
Most of it, anyway.