Los condenados no lloran

For me, the best part about this film was the exceptional lighting which made this a great movie to see on DVD. The great black-and-white photography reminded of films like The Sweet Smell Of Success and To Kill A Mockingbird. The camera-work in this movie does not take a backseat to those great films, believe me.

Story-wise, it's a somewhat-familiar Joan Crawford movie with a bit more emphasis on the melodrama than the film noir, a la Mildred Pierce. That's a compliment because "Mildred" was a well-crafted story and so is this. It's an effective mixture of drama and noir. However, unlike "Mildred," this Crawford character ("Ethel" aka "Mrs. Forvbes") has a worldly edge to her with a chip on her big shoulders. It's tough to sympathize with her in this story, frankly.

Kent Smith plays her naive, wimpy dupe for much of the film but when David Brian enters the scene, the movie really picks up. Gangster Brian is nobody's patsy and he's fascinating, portraying the most intense character in the story.

This is another one of the fine classic movies that never got a VHS showing but finally got a break with a recent DVD release, which is all the better since the camera-work is deserving of the nice look this transfer gives it. Once more, another impressive movie from 1950, one of the better years Hollywood ever had.

The Damned Don't Cry! Is directed by Vincent Sherman and collectively written by Gertrude Walker, Harold Medford and Jerome Weidman. It stars Joan Crawford, David Brian, Steve Cochran and Kent Smith. Music is by Daniele Amfitheatrof and cinematography by Ted McCord.

Loosely based on the relationship between Bugsy Siegel and Virginia Hill, story has Crawford as Ethel Whitehead, a weary housewife who decides to break off from her hum-drum existence to climb the social ladder: But at what consequence?

Part gangster's moll tale, part lady led melodrama, The Damned Don't Cry! Is enjoyable enough entertainment as a Crawford vehicle. At 45 years of age when she made this, some scenes, such as her doing some slinky modelling work, just don't sit right and stretch credulity, but she commands the screen like an ageless swan hiding a dark seductive heart. The film as a whole is a bit hit and miss, with its themes of disillusionment, morality and social standings jostling for attention in the narrative, while the reliance on clichés and parody for parody's sake irks a touch, but it's good and solid black and white fun. Especially if you happen to be a Joan Crawford fan. 6.5/10

'The Damned Don't Cry' is an obvious attempt to capitalize on Joan Crawford's success with 'Mildred Pierce' (also made with Warner Bros.) Both films are melodrama tinged with noir, although I would certainly hesitate to classify 'Damned...' as a noir. It has a few of the noir trademarks, but is not executed particularly well enough to be considered as a true film noir.

Like 'Mildred Pierce' it begins with a murder, and is then told via Joan's (her character's name - don't laugh - is Ethel)flashback. We're then treated to some vintage down home Joan, again like her character in 'Mildred Pierce' she is a struggling mother trying to please her child. Instead of tryng to buy a dress for Veda, in 'The Damned Don't Cry' she is trying to purchase a bike for her pathetic son.

The morality of the 50s is in full effect here, again like 'Mildred Pierce'. In the latter film, when the woman leaves the family home and has desires for a professional life, chaos and misery begins. The same is true for 'The Damned...'. Ethel wants a life better than her near-poverty existence, having to leave her husband and child. Therefore, she must be punished in the eyes of the narrative. Ethel then gets mixed up in some gangster situations. There's one amusing scene where in a restaurant her date (a poor accountant) orders 'a chicken salad and a coffee' and Joan nearly has a seizure. The mise en scene changes when Ethel is involved with the criminal activities: a gothic mansion is used and the lighting begins to contrast between light and dark. But, again, not really enough to make a convincing case for this being a noir.

Joan gives a good performance as Ethel/Lorna. Certainly not one of her best, but she is particularly good in the final scenes. If you enjoyed 'Mildred Pierce' or 'Flamingo Road', this is one to watch.

The Damned Don't Cry finds Joan Crawford on a roller-coaster ride from poverty, to riches, to notoriety and then to God knows where. Her fate is by no means clear at the end of the film.

Joan is an older version of the shop girl she played in her MGM days. She leaves her hard working, but dull husband Richard Egan after their little boy is killed in a traffic accident. She has beauty, but little else in the way of work skills. The answer is obvious, become a model.

The modeling gig gets her involved with the mob and she's soon trading up men from accountant Kent Smith, to mobsters, Steve Cochran, and David Brian. Along the way Joan acquires riches, polish, and a new name and identity of a wealthy Texas oil heiress. That's only befitting the position of mistress to the gangster elite.

With Virginia Hill's testimony before the Kefauver Committee and the spectacular death of Bugsy Siegel a couple of years earlier, the recognition of the characters played by Crawford and Cochran would have been easy for the movie-going public. In fact I'm surprised Steve Cochran never got to play Siegel in a biographical picture long before Warren Beatty did his film. Cochran would have been perfect in the role. Of course it was probably too close to Siegel's demise and a lot of Hollywood people might have been burned a bit.

David Brian is a sleek version of Lucky Luciano who was not as polished in real life as Brian is here. But beneath the polish, Brian's a deadly man although he would not be doing his own work if he was really Luciano at that stage. And Kent Smith in the Meyer Lansky part is really quite the stretch.

Crawford pulls all the stops out in The Damned Don't Cry. Her fans and others will really love this film.

5 years after "Mildred Pierce" and Joan Crawford is at it again. Again, she is poor and is willing to climb to the top no matter what. In this film, she becomes involved with organized crime and becomes a real pro in being used to infiltrate other wayward mobsters.

From poverty to that Mildred Pierce mink, Crawford gave a truly memorable performance. She will stop at nothing to get to the top.

Along the way, she seduces timid accountant, played masterfully by Kent Smith, to join the mob only two realize that the two of them are trapped.

Another favorite co-star of Crawford, David Brian appears as the head mobster who is against violence but must come to grips with it when renegade hood, the always terrific Steve Cochran, seduces Crawford and then goes after her when he discovers that she is a Brian stooge.

This is a gripping film-noir at its best.