Neglected Movie Gems of the 1950s: Outrage, So Long at the Fair and More

Sometimes minor movies stay in the viewer's mind longer than the so-called blockbusters. It may be due to the story that was told, or the way it was told, or because the film actually had something to say. Presented here, in chronological order, are five minor gems from the early 1950s that have stayed with me since I first saw them.

Outrage (1950). Directed by Ida Lupino and starring Mala Powers, Tod Andrews, and Robert Clarke.

Sure, this movie is syrupy at times and the acting is "B" level at best, but writer-director Lupino deserves great credit for covering a topic long considered taboo in American movies. In the film, a young woman (Powers) is hunted down and raped in the back alleys of a small town. Traumatized by the event, she is unable to face her sympathetic fiancé and is further humiliated by the gossips of the town who believe that she was "asking for it". Feeling desperation and guilt, she flees the town, hoping to put her life back together, and in the process meets a minister (Andrews) who tries to help.

Ms Lupino's treatment of the victim is well handled; leaving the viewer feeling sympathetic and caring for her. Even the ending is not necessarily a happy one, and leaves both the woman and the audience wondering if she can ever truly recover. The director also uses several techniques to enhance the desperation felt by the victim. Of particular note is the sequence leading up to the attack. Relying upon techniques reminiscent of German expressionism, the flight through the alley ways becomes increasingly harrowing and seems to be much longer than the three or four minutes of actual screen time.

So Long at the Fair (1950). Directed by Terence Fisher and starring Jean Simmons, Dirk Bogarde, and David Tomlinson.

A British production, this film is set during the 1889 Paris Exposition. English siblings (Simmons and Tomlinson) have arrived to take in the fair and spend their first night in a respectable hotel. On awakening the next morning, the young woman discovers that not only has her brother disappeared, but so has his room! Furthermore, after she reports the disappearance to the authorities, all the hotel employees claim that she had arrived alone the night before. In the process of discovering what has happened, she finds that the only who believes her is a fellow Brit (Bogarde).

The movie, based on what some claim is a true story and others on an urban legend, does an excellent job of creating suspense in the audience. Is the woman insane? Is she actually telling the truth? If so, what happened to the brother and why are so many covering it up? The satisfying denouement answers all the questions although, once the plot is resolved, the viewer realizes that it was all quite preposterous. However, the story telling is so good that he or she doesn't care.

This film allegedly was one of suspense master Alfred Hitchcock's favorite movies, and was Ms Simmon's last before coming to America. Honor Blackman in her pre-Pussy Galore days has a small role.

Them! (1954). Directed by Gordon Douglas and starring James Whitmore, James Arness, Edmund Gwenn, and Joan Weldon.

Although one of many 1950s sci-fi flicks dealing with creatures mutated through atomic radiation (in this case ants), this movie stands head and shoulders above the others. It is well directed and has an intelligent script, items often not found in mid-20^th Century science fiction films. The special effects are also pretty good considering the time period.

Two New Mexico highway patrolmen discover a five year-old girl wandering in the desert, leading in turn to the discovery of three murders, all under mysterious circumstances. Soon, a fourth murder, one of the patrolmen, is added to the list. When the traumatized girl later alludes to strange creatures (Them!), a father-daughter team of scientists (Gwenn and Weldon) and a FBI man (Arness) are assigned to help the surviving police officer (Whitmore) investigate. This leads to the discovery and destruction of a giant ant nest and subsequent attempts to find two queens that have escaped.

The opening scenes in the New Mexico desert are very well done, slowly building up suspense before revealing the behemoth ants. The climatic scene in the Los Angeles sewers is exciting, but a little more predictable (with one notable exception). Whitmore is very good, as is the stoic Arness in his days before Gunsmoke. Gwenn is his usual crotchety, but loveable self, as the scientist who has spent his life studying ants. The little known Weldon plays the romantic interest for Arness, although it is more implied than stated. The middle of the movie is a little slow, but is helped by the cameo appearances of Fess Parker and a funny Olin Howland. A very young Leonard Nimoy appears briefly.

Suddenly (1954). Directed by Lewis Allen and starring Frank Sinatra, Sterling Hayden, James Gleason, Nancy Gates, Paul H. Frees and Willis Bouchey.

Sinatra is the leader of three paid killers whose mission is to assassinate the President of the United States. In order to carry out the mission the trio takes over a house overlooking a small town's railroad depot where the President is scheduled to make a brief whistle stop. The house is occupied by a young widow (Gates), her eight year-old son, and her father-in-law (Gleason), a retired Secret Service agent. During the course of the action, the local sheriff (Hayden), who is helping the Secret Service maintain security, comes to the home with an agent. The agent is killed, the sheriff wounded and taken captive.

The movie is not so much a political thriller as a psychological thriller. The bulk of the movie becomes a battle of wits as Hayden and Gleason try to break the will of the psychotic Sinatra and turn the three assassins against each other. The result is a brief but taut and suspenseful story.

As the lead actor, Sinatra is outstanding as the thoroughly detestable and mentally unbalanced ex-veteran who seeks "fame" for his deed, as are Hayden and the then eighty year-old Gleason. A nice little subplot revolves around the pacifist Gates (her husband was killed in the war) reconciling her beliefs with the violence going on around her. Unfortunately, some of her reactions border on hysteria and create a stereotype that does not otherwise fit her somewhat strong-willed persona.

Supposedly, this movie was seen by Lee Harvey Oswald shortly before he murdered President Kennedy. Sinatra, a friend of JFK's, was so upset upon hearing this that he was influential in having the movie withdrawn from circulation for several years.

The Night of the Hunter (1955). Directed by Charles Laughton and starring Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters, Lillian Gish, James Gleason, Billy Chapin, Sally Jane Bruce, and Peter Graves.

Charles Laughton's first and only directorial attempt resulted in a movie that is an allegory of good and evil, selfishness and sacrifice. Robert Mitchum, in one of his strongest performances, plays a "preacher man" in the Depression-era South. He has a penchant for marrying and then murdering widows for their money, and his latest prey is a young, naïve woman (Winters) and her two children (Chapin and Bruce). Her recently executed husband (Graves), who had been a cellmate of Mitchum's, has left a hidden cache of money. After wooing, wedding, and then killing Winters, the preacher chases after the two children who have taken the money and fled. After a series of harrowing adventures, the siblings come under the protection of an eccentric, Bible quoting, and shotgun wielding, older woman (Gish) who, in a sometimes outlandish climax, confronts the psychotic "man of the cloth".

Mitchum's character has "love" and "hate" tattooed across the knuckles of each hand, and this can be seen as symbolic of viewers' reactions to the movie. There is no neutral ground here. Supporters see the movie as a masterpiece of storytelling, filled with stark black and white photography and surreal vivid images. It has become a cult favorite. Critics cite the sometimes over-the-top acting and this is a valid complaint. Others have said that, based on Mitchum's character, there is an anti-religion tone to the film that they feel is offensive. In saying this, they fail to realize that the Gish character is a strong Christian woman. In reality, the two protagonists represent "twisted religion", on the one hand, and "true faith", on the other.