Riff-Raff

An almost completely forgotten Film-Noirish adventure, set in Panama and made by no-one famous, but at moments up there with just about the very best. The long wordless opening scene with the plane is as good a beginning as Touch of Evil or The Letter or any other film for that matter, and I think it likely to have been an inspiration for the first 20 minutes of Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom as well.

The dialogue is a delight throughout: so many great, succinct, telling lines, all pregnant with further meaning, and the camera communicates so much to us too. It's the kind of quality script that just isn't being written anymore today, and yet it's in what appears to be a cheap, throwaway B-movie: although all the bit parts are charming and likeable, the only face in Riff-Raff I've seen before is the lead, Pat O'Brien (though I can't remember where), and he's excellent as a cool, crooked, out of shape and morally questionable private eye - a gone-to-seed Humphrey Bogart - and the film is very much cut from a similar (if markedly cheaper) cloth to Casablanca or The Maltese Falcon, So if you like those, I see no reason you won't find something to enjoy in this one too.

The central macguffin of the map everyone's looking for being in plain sight all the time is a little far fetched, and there's no real emotional depth or dramatic urgency on display, which would have knocked it up into the big league of the classics, but even as it stands it might be one of the most enjoyable and best-realized B-movies ever made, so it's a crime it somehow fell through the cracks of history and is so forgotten today: existing copies are of poor quality, and it would be lovely to see it restored and rediscovered.

Riffraff (AKA: erm, Riff-Raff) is directed by Ted Tetzlaff and written by Martin Rackin. It stars Pat O'Brien, Anne Jeffreys, Walter Slezak and Percy Kilbride. Music is by Roy Webb and cinematography by George Diskant.

Something of a little cracker is this one, a pic for those with a discernible palate of Private Investigator based film noir. Don't be misled into believing others when they write that it's minor noir, or borderline of such, it quite simply is a noir pic from what was a stellar year for that film making style.

Story is based in Panama and finds P.I. Dan Hammer (O'Brien) involved in the search for a map that shows priceless oil concessions. Sure enough there's others who desperately want the map, so in comes murder, beatings and a sultry babe.

Pic opens with the shot of a reptile at nighttime, sitting on a rock in the pouring rain, it probably would have been better to use a snake in the shot, but it certainly is a most appealing and appropriate film opening. From there the piece is a veritable feast of super photography and punchy dialogue. OK, so the plot story is standard fare, but the makers never let it drag things down, there's always a quip or a punch thrown to keep things perky.

Tetzlaff was himself a fine cinematographer (see the previous year's Notorious), and here armed with Diskant (They Live By Night/On Dangerous Ground/The Narrow Margin) in his corner the director makes hay. The plot set-up sequences in an aeroplane are moody visual supreme, and often when a scene calls for it - such as when Hammer is getting tortured in his office by Sleazak and his thugs - the noir style comes to the fore. There's wooden slats everywhere in this, wonderful!

Initially one can be forgiven for being sceptical at a portly 48 year old O'Brien playing a tough P.I., but he pulls it off, sharp of tongue and he throws a good punch does Pat. Jeffreys (Dillinger) slinks in for some initial sultry suspicion, and does well, even getting involved in the key fight scene, Kilbride is wonderfully wry as Hammer's unofficial aide, and Sleazak does what he does best, Weasle time!

Capping it off is the MacGuffin map, whose whereabouts at reveal is cheeky and something Hitch would have been proud of. Riffraff is a winner and well worth seeking out. 7/10

One of the many felicities of Ted Tetzlaff's top-notch Riffraff, the cinematography of George Diskant can be best seen, unencumbered by dialogue, in the first few dazzling minutes. Torrential storms darken an airfield in Peru, where in the dead of night a cargo plane bearing two passengers departs for Panama; only one of them arrives. The opening previews Tetzlaff's pure-cinema approach; he lets the story unfold through images (and occasionally sounds) with a casual adroitness that remains striking more than half a century later.

At the center of the story is Pat O'Brien, a Canal Zone operative-for-hire. The surviving passenger engages him for protection, but doesn't survive for long. Then an oil company hires him to find a map, supposedly with the vanished man, of unclaimed oil fields in Peru. Walter Slezak wants it, too, but through strong-arm tactics. O'Brien, with the help of his driver Percy Kilbride and nightclub singer Anne Jeffreys, sets out in pursuit of the elusive document (which we know from almost the get-go hangs pinned to a screen in his room).

In retrospectives of film noir, Riffraff usually gets overlooked. While its genre is international intrigue and its touch on the light side, its conventions and, especially, its look, bring it to the fringes of the noir cycle. (And it's a better movie than two noirs released the same year which mine similar veins: Calcutta and Singapore.)

Bigger stars like Humphrey Bogart and Alan Ladd monopolized this tough-guy-in-ports-of-call genre, but O'Brien acquits himself honorably. Unfortunately, he was nearing 50 at the time, and his early-middle-age looks probably weren't what post-war audiences were looking for (Bogart, however, was exactly the same age). No matter: the real heroes of Riffraff are Tetzlaff and Diskant, who collaborated to make what Judith Crist used to call a `movie movie.'

Riffraff finds Pat O'Brien as Dan Hammer, hardboiled private eye, operating in the Canal Zone which when the USA was operating the Panama Canal had a kind of hybrid sovereignty between America and Panama. Of course other than an aerial shot at the beginning of the film, no one got closer to Panama than the backlot of RKO Studios.

I'm not sure if Mickey Spillane had already created his character of Mike Hammer, but O'Brien's portrayal sure could have been the model for it.

O'Brien is hired by someone to locate a missing map of some undiscovered South American oil fields. His client is later murdered and that starts the ball rolling.

A lot of the plot elements of Riffraff are found in that other private eye classic Murder, My Sweet and though Riffraff is entertaining, it doesn't hold a candle to that classic noir.

Anne Jeffreys does well as the singer/moll who actually proves to be quite a bit of help to him in that last encounter with the bad guys. Walter Slezak is as always one charming, but dangerous villain. Jerome Cowan does well as the feckless and luckless oil executive and the best performance in the supporting cast is that of Percy Kilbride as a laconic cabdriver.

In fact Percy's the one who gets the best of Slezak. You should see Riffraff just to see how he does it.

It seems that everyone in Panama has their eyes out for a missing map worth a fortune and P.I./con-man/fixer Dan Hammer (Pat O'Brien) is at the center of everything. Caught between the police, hoodlums, and gorgeous dame, Hammer's got his work cut out for him. But like everyone else, he has no idea where to find the map - even though it's hidden in plain sight.

What a nice surprise! Going in, I had no idea what to expect from Riffraff (or Riff-Raff or Riff Raff or however you want to spell it), but it's truly a wonderful little film. It's got a lot going for it. Frist, the cinematography is fantastic. Riffraff looks way better than its modest budget would suggest. Second, the acting is very strong. Overall, I'm not much of a Pat O'Brien fan, but here, he does a nice job. Anne Jefferys is more than his equal as the blonde love interest. Walter Slezak makes for the perfect heavy. And Percy Kilbride (of Ma and Pa Kettle fame) shines as the comic relief. Third, the direction is spot on. Director Ted Tetzlaff does a remarkable job with the film's nifty pacing. There are very few dull moments to slow things down. And that opening - wow! It must have been a gamble to film the first 10 or so minutes in silence, but it paid off. Finally, the writing is first rate. Riffraff has all that cool, fast-talking dialogue I've come to love in a film noir.

7/10