Tag Archives: Jeff Chandler

Abandoned (Joseph M. Newman, 1949)

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Many of the great cinematographers of the classic period were filming programmers by the late 40’s, here it’s Billy Daniels, doing superb work in what must have been tight circumstances for ABANDONED, a lurid tale of a woman (Gail Storm) who goes looking for her sister and the baby she’s recently given birth to only to find her sister’s dead and the baby sold by a gangland ring that traffics in newborns. It’s got an attractive cast (Dennis O’Keefe, Jeff Chandler) of which I particularly liked Marjorie Rimbaud as the grand dame ringleader and Raymond Burr as a double-crossing detective who evokes a strangely powerful combination of the porcine and the epicene that is right at home in this noir setting. The film is beautifully lit in classic noir style but also attempts a documentary or at least ‘educational’ springboard to the narrative. Thus we get a very amusing explanation of what a police stakeout is, perhaps the first and last time that appeared in a crime film:

The definition of a ‘Stakeout’:

 

The more noir dimensions of the visuals:

José Arroyo

DEPORTED (Robert Siodmak 1950)

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In 1949 Robert Siodmak returned to Europe to film DEPORTED. It’s loosely inspired by the story of Lucky Luciano, whose deportation back to Italy in 1946 had been head-line news nationwide. Jeff Chadler plays Vittorio Mario Sparducci aka Vic Smith, fresh out of a five-year jail sentence for a $100, 000 heist and deported to his home-town in Italy. His loving family receives a cable from the American Embassy, mistake him for a big shot connected to the government, and celebrates him as a local boy made good. He in turn falls in love with the place, his family and the local countess (Märtá Toren).  But complications arise. A former associate believes he’s due half of the heist money and follows him to Italy. Vic dreams up a scam where he’ll import$100,000 worth of food and medical supplies through a charity run by the countess, steal it from the warehouse, and make even more money by selling it on the black market. Lots of double crosses ensue and love gets in the way.

 

Was Siodmak influenced by neo-realism? The film is shot on-location in Italy. All the shots taking place in real locations, teeming with people, evoking a very particular time, place, and way of life. They are beautifully staged and gorgeous to see. The film enters more familiar noir territory, clearly filmed in sound-stages, for the final double-cross; and that’s lovely also. The main problem with the film is that it inevitably whitewashes a notorious crook and avoids dealing with the darker and more unsavoury aspects of his character and career, though to his credit, Siodmak does his best to downplay the sentimentality whilst doing his best to inject some humour, romance, and sentiment. The leads are perhaps not the big stars Siodmak hoped for but they’re both very effective, particularly Chandler.

The film’s style of shooting does evoke, directly and indirectly, a particular structure of feeling of the period, at least as seen from a US perspective: that Marshall-plan aid from America, the want and scrambling for food and supplies by the locals, the can-do to make-do attitude one sees in the Italian cinema of this period; and is the best reason to see this film now. A marvellous giddy village dance is one of the highlights.

Aside from a brief return to Hollywood to film THE CRIMSON PIRATE with Burt Lancaster, Siodmak would largely remain in Europe for the rest of his career, one which would continue for at least another twenty years.

José Arroyo