Traquenard

Most any film directed by Nicholas Ray is usually worth watching, and "Party Girl's" no exception. Ray took here what might have been a quite routine movie under another director and turned it into something quite interesting.

He extracted an unusually strong performance from Robert Taylor, who celebrated his final MGM film here, and drew equally effective work from Cyd Charisse, who also demonstrated her formidable dancing skills.

Then there was that burly "brute" Lee J. Cobb doing his no-nonsense "gangster thing," which always rang true. Yes, "Party Girl" had lots of bite.

A bit of age comparisons are interesting here. Would you believe the actors playing the "handsome leading man" and "sinister character villain" were both born the same year? It was 1911 when Taylor and (gulp) Cobb entered this world. Adding to the mix, Ray was also born the same year, making for a perfect triumvirate. (Trivia note: Taylor and Ray both expired of the same terminal illness.)

Charisse showed what a 37-year-old-dancer-in-shape can do. Dig those mobile movements: cool hip action, fast torso turns, strenuous leg extensions and fantastic full-bodied falls. Cyd seemed one of the last holdouts as the film musical glory days "bit the dust."

The post-Lewis B. Mayer period allowed for more violence than ever before at MGM, and "Party Girl" had its abundant supply in the final gangland sequences.

Crippled Lawyer Thomas Farrell (Robert Taylor) has made a career defending crooks in trials, so much so he's now the front line defender for the Chicago mob. But into his life comes dancer Vicki Gayle (Cyd Charisse), who as he starts to fall in love with her, makes him see that his life is worth so much more than that. However, mob king Rico Angelo (Lee J. Cobb) is keen to retain Farrell's services, at any price it seems.

There's no getting away from it, Party Girl (a euphemism for a prostitute) features a very standard formulaic plot. It's also a very misleading title in that it doesn't scream out this is a crime picture. Directed by Nicholas Ray for MGM (his last for one of the big hitting studios), it's adapted by George Wells from a story by Leo Katcher. Supporting the three principal actors are John Ireland & Kent Smith. Robert J. Bronner (Jailhouse Rock) provides photography and the film is a CinemaScope/Metrocolor production.

Set as it is in prohibition Chicago, it allows Ray to rise above the simple formula and blend his knack for visual touches with interesting characterisations. If we really are going to cement this in the film noir genre? Then it's more down to the director than anything in the story. Yes there's themes such as alienation, vulnerability and the core essence potential for tragi-love-born out of two characters stuck in differing forms of prostitution. But the script is so weak it needed Ray to put an almost surreal sheen over it. There's exotic dancing featuring prominently, some what a given with the weak Charisse starring (in fairness to her it's one hell of a cliché riddled role), but again Ray crafts in such a way it doesn't let the film feel too sprightly. Which is something that this lush production is in danger of being at times. Yet line those dance numbers alongside scenes such as a portrait of Jean Harlow being shot to pieces, or of Charisse being questioned by a policeman's Silhouette - and you get an oddity. And a very enjoyable one at that.

This was Taylor's last contract film for MGM, and fittingly it's one of his very best performances. Again one tends to think this is probably down to Ray's coaxing, but regardless, Taylor plays Farrell with vulnerable elegance and a steely eyed determination that carries Charisse along with him. Thus the romance is believable, and yes, engaging. Cobb does another in his long line of larger than life characters. Chewing the scenery as much as his Rico character chews on his cigars. While Ireland is a by the numbers thug for hire and Kent Smith a talking prop. There's a fleeting performance from Corey Allen as baby faced psychopath Cookie La Motte, a character that the film could have definitely done with more of. Here's the main problem with Party Girl, it's just not edgy or dangerous enough. Which in a film involving gangsters, murders and crooked court cases, is an issue is it not? But thanks to Ray and Taylor the film overcomes the many flaws to wind up being a very enjoyable crime-love story based picture. Film noir though? Well that's debatable really. But lets not get into that... 7/10

''Party Girl'', Ray's final film for a major Hollywood studio(after this he worked with independent producers) is a highly baroque work. Screechingly mannerist in places, occasional head-first dives into camp but also remarkable instances of poetry and subtlety and a highly charged social portrait. It is a very discordant work which is to say that it deliberately skewers audiences expectations of a genre film by working as a genre film but stylized in a manner that the clichés and conventions look highly abstract, not unlike a film by Douglas Sirk.

''Party Girl'' is shot in CinemaScope and Metrocolor, is produced by Joe Pasternak who was in charge of the second-tier MGM unit. The Leonine studio had by the mid-50's devolved into an organization of penny-pinchers and according to Ray, the only reason this film got made was because it's backers wanted to get rid of it's two stars...Cyd Charisse and Robert Taylor so as to exhaust their run of contracted films as quickly as possible. This explains the fact that more than ''Johnny Guitar''(with it's superlative cast of actors), ''Party Girl'' is the closest Ray came to make a B-Film. The storyline is a standard-issue crime drama and it is by a safe distance the most generic of Ray's major films.

That it's still a major film is for me little doubt. Though lacking the strength of his early crime films and his 50's melodramas, ''Party Girl'' is still a deeply compelling film about the universality of compromises in society. The title ''Party Girl'' is essentially a slang for prostitute or for being under someone else's thumb. It refers to Cyd Charisse's character Vicki Gaye, a showgirl who works part-time as escort to various underworld types alongside other gals who work at the ''Rooster Folliers''(no joke). But it also includes mob lawyer Tommy Farrel(Robert Taylor) and applies to everyone else.

Ray's distaste for plot apparent in all his films is full in abundance here as the generic outline of this story of crooked lawyer turned straight through the power of love takes on several asides. Like the one-scene appearance of a fellow showgirl who's waiting for her man and whose depression, Vicki stifles as a result of habit and accord over the years. The scene where she walks into her roommate's bathroom and finds her swimming literally in a pool of her own blood in a bath-tub is one of Ray's most embedded images even if(in accord with then censorship) the image lasts only a few micro-seconds before a quick fade-away. Much of the secondary section of the film centers on Tommy's relationship with Rico Angelo(Lee J. Cobb in a towering performance) and there's very little plot driving their very powerful scenes. Tension arises from flaming egos by a mob underling played by John Ireland over Tommy's relationship with Vicki.

The film's sense of decor and colour is what we'd call now Fassbinderesque. It's pictorially fascinating and the colours are very eye-catching but the underlying design behind it is a sense of decadence of vulgarity. This reflects perhaps that the underlying subtext of this film is less about gangsters than about Hollywood. With Lee J. Cobb's mix of charisma(like Vito Corleone in ''The Godfather'') and crass vulgarity(like Joe Pesci in his films with Scorsese) stand-in for many studio heads of that period and the two musical interludes(numbers is the wrong word for it) by Cyd Charisse while visually striking is poorly choreographed and seems like a parody of the dying MGM Musicals.

''Party Girl'' is a reflection ultimately of what are the results when a great artist and a few good actors are working with conventional plots can achieve. It's a work that's of it's own kind. Not a gangster film entirely, mostly a Film Noir though in colours, visually creative but mostly functional. The decor of the film makes it's genre trappings apparent and obvious revealing and critiquing it's functions yet the scenes between Taylor and Charisse are very much played straight conveying genuine compassion between two characters who have long lost their innocence and are merely doing their best to survive and find a semblance of happiness, a happiness that's threatened not only by the mob but also by the cops who want to use them to catch the bad guys(which has much benefits for their own political careers).

What may put off most fans of Nicholas Ray is the graphic violence of the film which is quite unexpected and strong for a film of the 50's. Plenty of bloodletting is on display on this film...of course Ray would say "that's not blood...that's red."

Quite possibly Nicholas Ray's most visually eloquent film, the poorly- named Party Girl focuses not on the Cyd Charisse titular character but her romantic interest, mob lawyer Tom Farrell, played with great intensity and dedication by Robert Taylor.

Charisse is even more luminous than usual thanks in part to the mesmerizing lighting and camera work utilized by Ray in two major dance numbers obviously included to showcase MGM's most talented dancer. However, Ray was also able to elicit a rather touching albeit somewhat unrealistic performance from Charisse in playing a lonely showgirl drawn to Taylor's disfigured lawyer trapped in the world of defending known criminals.

Such a story had been done before many different ways, yet under Ray's direction the film achieves a certain sense of nobility and appreciation. It is not flashy, but not boring either. It is, as much of Ray's work was at the time, workman-like and beautifully crafted. Compared to much of the other features released at the time, Ray's films stand out today as rising above the material he was given to work with.

Of course we have all seen this type of story line a few times, especially if you enjoy the film 'noire of the 1940s and 1950s era. What sets this crime/film 'noire/romance apart from others is the first class performances of the four main characters. The gorgeous gams of professional dancer Cyd Charisse are on full display in her role as Vicki Gaye and she is the love interest of the smartest criminal defence attorney Thomas Farrell played to perfection by Robert Taylor who unfortunately died in the prime of his life and in his career as a first rate Hollywood star.

Thomas Farrel is the lead counsel for mob boss Rico Angelo played by Academy Award best actor nominee Lee J. Cobb who rules his crime empire and the streets below him by fear of death or serious injury to anyone who would even consider double crossing him. Now lawyer Thomas Farrell does have a close working relationship with the mob boss Rico Angelo who pays him top dollar for keeping him and his cronies out of jail even when they are up on murder charges. Such is the case with Louis Canetto played by John Ireland who is charged with murder but gets off due to the masterful defence strategy used by his lawyer, Thomas Farrel.

Louis Canetto has his eyes set on the pretty party girl Vicki Gaye but so does defence lead counsel Thomas Farrel. It does not take the gorgeous Cyd Charisse who plays Vicki Gaye long to assess that she will have a much more loving relationship with lawyer Thomas Farrel than she would with the mob underling Louis Canetto.

So you can see that this film 'noire has the typical seedy criminal element who require a smart lawyer to continuously defend them, and it has the party girl turned love interest of the brilliant lawyer who is used by the mob boss to get what he wants out of his top notch lawyer Thomas Farrell. Where I see this film excels and where other similar pictures of the era falter is with the high caliber acting of these four main characters such that the film has ended when the audience wants to see more.

I give the film a pretty good 7 out of 10 rating.