Le gang de l'or noir

"The Houston Story" is a film noir movie from director William Castle about an overly ambitious guy who wants to move too quickly up the ranks of organized crime.

Gene Barry plays Frank Duncan, an oil worker who has dreams of being a big man. So he comes up with a scheme to do some slant drilling (in essence, drilling sideways instead of down) and tapping into other folks' oil claims. But he lacks the money to do this and makes a pitch to some guys in organized crime. After a short time, it becomes very apparent that Frank is pretty nutty as he wants to scheme to replace the hoods running this local deal. And, for a while it looks like he'll succeed....at first!

This is a good, tough film. I enjoyed the dialog, the femme fatale and the story idea. But it also felt very rushed....as Frank goes from a nobody to a huge man too quickly and it just felt a bit ridiculous...though STILL a very good film...especially for noir fans.

Oil driller Frank Duncan has an idea to steal oil worth millions. He goes through nightclub singer Zoe Crane to recruit Houston mobster Paul Atlas for the scheme. Atlas intends to double-cross him but Duncan intends to win in the end.

This is a functional crime noir. I don't recognize any of the faces. The acting is fair. It's good that the lead character is a bad guy but still one worth rooting interest. The slap fight is kinda funny but I get the reason. The production looks good and the style is mostly fine.

In The Houston Story Gene Barry plays an oil company executive who has come up with an interesting idea for robbing the oil fields of crude. But he needs operating money and a lot of it. His torch singer girl friend Barbara Hale puts him in touch with some local Houston wise guys and upon that our story begins.

Barry wants to slant or side drill some existing oil fields. You might remember in the Paul Newman film The Drowning Pool, oil millionaire Murray Hamilton makes some illusions to slant drilling. Basically it's drilling into an existing pool on an angle and pumping out hat you need.

The big surprise her is Barbara Hale best known as Della Street on the Perry Mason series. She's one sultry chanteuse and she's good. But they should gave dubbed her singing of Put The Blame On Mame as they did for Rita Hayworth. Hale just is not a good singer.

Edward Arnold is a mid level hood in the Houston organized crime scene and Paul Richards as usual does a fine job as a torpedo for hire.

As for Barry he does good for a while, but in the end he's batting way out of his league.

The Houston Story is a slightly formulaic yet very entertaining film from William Castle of The House on Haunted Hill and The Tingler fame. The movie is about a young, ambitious oil-driller who involves himself with organized crime and double crosses his way to the top of his respective racket. Gene Barry turns out a solid performance as well as Perry Mason veteran Barbara Hale, who plays the femme fatale to a tee, always following the money and the man in charge. Hale is introduced in a very enjoyable song act that did the job of conveying her character as well as,if not better than, the writing did.

Despite a few predictable scenes and some forced writing, The Houston Story is a thoroughly enjoyable film worth viewing.

Also, watch for a few entertaining performances from Edward Arnold and Paul Richards.(remember Beneath the Planet of the Apes??)

Houston Story, The (1956)

*** (out of 4)

Gene Barry plays an ambitious oil worker who gets involved with a Mob boss (Edward Arnold) because he hopes to work his way up. Barry comes up with a way to steal about $5 million in oil each year but he soon learns there's always a way to get yourself knocked off. Here's another gem that rarely gets talk about and even though the thing starts to get dragged out towards the end, this is still highly entertaining. Castle is best known for his horror films but this is perhaps the best directed film I've seen from him. He does a great job with the visual style of the film and I'd also add that he handles all the action quite well. It certainly doesn't hurt that Barry turns in a remarkable performance. He is so incredibly good in the role and believable because you can't help but feel his desire to succeed in not only his body language but also his voice. You can even look into his eyes and see his passion for making money. Arnold is also very good in his supporting role of the Mob boss. Barbara Hale, Paul Richards and Jeanne Cooper are also good in their work. Apparently Lee J. Cobb started out in the lead role but suffered a heart attack so he can be seen in a few of the medium shots. Apparently Castle filled in for him during the long shots before Barry eventually took over the role. When people mention film noir this film often gets overlooked and while it's not a masterpiece of the genre it's still a very entertaining little gem that's worth checking out.