La vengeance de Scarface

Fast and efficient slice of thick-ear, with a plot borrowed from previous year's The Big Heat (1953). The producers, however, had the good sense to locate the action in Ketchican, Alaska, definitely not an over-used locale. Director Stevens makes good use of the outdoor settings, lending exotic flavor to the action. To bad that the photography is definitely non-noir. But then the interiors were filmed in a TV studio.

The plot may be borrowed, but there's an interesting wrinkle. Namely, nominal, good guy Stevens is more fearsome than the ostensible mobster, bad guy Kennedy. That's because Stevens thinks Kennedy killed his family and framed him. Now, ravaged with revenge, Stevens wants to kill Kennedy's family, including his winsome little daughter. So, we're left wondering just who to root for. Then there's the psycho hit-man Homeier who's kind of a wild card in a mop of ultra- blonde hair. (Note, for example, the cold-hearted abruptness of the execution scene.) Add a number of familiar supporting players, like Mills and Doucette, and you've got a generally persuasive cast. And, oh yes, on the blondined distaff side mustn't forget barfly Vohs or the fetching Martha Hyer.

Considering this movie along with Stevens' tour-de-force Timetable (1956), it's too bad his niche with b&w B-films was giving way to TV. In my book, he shows himself a filmmaker of more than average aptitude. Anyway, the movie's both interesting to follow and scenic to eyeball, a pretty good combination for any film.

Cry Vengeance (1954)

Leading man Mark Stevens falls something short of a cult figure. He is director and first actor in four movies from 1954 (this one, his first) to 1963. He plays his roles as if he is in control, which he is, literally, from the director's chair. He's the hardened type, and here he is bitter bitter bitter, to the point that he is not quite a fully developed character and it's hard to get absorbed in his problem.

The rest of the movie is functional. It doesn't lack interest--for one thing, it's shot in Alaska, mostly (the exterior shots)--and the supporting cast is middling to good, filling roles we've seen before from pretty girl befriending the unlikely hero to chatty bartenders to a sweet kid who turns the man around through her innocence. And the filming (William Sickner, a routine cameraman with nearly two hundred B-movies to his credit) and editing, likewise, are workaday...the job gets done, but it lacks some kind of richness or aura or plain old drama.

Then to make it a little more disappointing, a couple of the main themes are taken a little too directly from earlier noirs, namely "The Big Heat" which came out the year before. The theme, established right away, is a cop who is out for vengeance against whoever killed his wife and child in a car bomb meant for him. Stevens plays this part with cold certitude. It's an interesting film in some ways, but a clunker in many others. Take it for what it was, and what it is.

Here is another off the radar Noir, its not listed in the Encyclopedic Reference to American Film Noir but its no doubt a Noir though "noir light" most of the action takes place in Ketchican, Alaska and the film has great locations and action sequences using the town and its environs making full use of the vertical aspect of the town, its waterfront docks and the paper mill.

Story is ex cop Vic Barron (Stevens) was not only framed (and sent up for 3 years) by the mob, but also had his face partly blown off while his wife and child were killed in a a car explosion, is out of prison and looking for vengeance. He's looking for mob boss Morelli (Kennedy) who has changed his name and is living as a model citizen with is young daughter and a bodyguard in Ketchican. Mob hit man Roxy (Hormeier) is sent by San Francisco racketeer to take care of all three.

Martha Hyer & Cheryl Callaway provide some nice eye candy, the daughter of mob boss takes a liking to Barron a bit too easily (different times compared to today's zeitgeist of not trusting strangers) but its nothing that will detract from the film if you keep the times in mind, streaming on Netflix

By 1954 the Elements of Film-Noir were Diluted to the Point of Virtually Killing the Genre. At Least the Purity that Made it Remarkable and Different than the Standard Crime Stuff.

Beginning about 1950 the Genre was Intruded Upon with more "Friendly" Considerations as a Bid to Please the more Conservative Elements Taking Hold in Society and "Big-Brother" Authority.

In Mark Stevens Crime Thriller it can be Witnessed by the Location (Alaska) and the Heavy Plot Laden Little Girl.

These Things can Turn Noir into a more Pedestrian Film as the Defining Tropes Gave Way to other More Easily Digested Stories by Increasing Suburbanite Family and the Enormous amount of Kids in Everyone's Life.

The Film Contains some Fine Outdoor Cinematography and some Brutal Scenes, but Overall these are Counterpointed Quickly with a Softer Touch.

The Cast is Competent with Skip Homeier Stealing the Show as a Platinum Blonde Junkie that may put You in Mind of Lee Marvin's Psycho in Fritz Lang's "The Big Heat".

In Fact the Film is often Mentioned as a Low Budget Version of the Aforementioned Classic. Overall it's Worth a Watch.

But it's Sad to Watch Film-Noir Fade Away.

With the exception of the second half's move from an American big city to rural Alaska, the film noir CRY VENGEANCE is a strange, offbeat venture... and wouldn't be if strange and offbeat Skip Homeier didn't play the primary villain...

Despite there being a mob boss that director and star Mark Stevens wants to kill, befitting the revenge title since his family was murdered while half his face burned and deformed before imprisonment... but the tall and lanky Homeier's hit-man Roxey Davis, with white spiked hair that would be normal decades later, soon becomes just about everything...

Making up for dragging expository scenes that hinder otherwise neat and smokey tavern settings with his target's oblivious bar-working moll Martha Hyers, spending the most time babysitting who's technically the most important character in child starlet Cheryl Callaway as the targeted mobster's daughter...

She's so precious you know our hero with antihero motivations won't pull through on his urban-to-rural journey's primary goal to off her daddy: but it's henchman Mort Mills and scene-stealer Homeier... the latter turning-out even more evil than he'd initially seemed... that provide Stevens, both the director and actor, some worthy tension on screen.