Thieves' Highway (1949) by Jules Dassin
Thieves' Highway was the last American-made film director Jules Dassin would see to completion, as shortly after he was blacklisted from Hollywood under suspicion of holding communist sympathies. In Thieves' Highway Richard Conte plays Nick Garcos, a war veteran returning home to his family and fiancée, only to find that his father has been crippled in an accident that Nick suspects was no accident at all, as it transpires that there was a dispute over money between Nick's father and shady San Francisco produce dealer Mike Figlia. So Nick, along with trucker Ed Kinney, hatches a scheme to drive a truckload of the first golden delicious apples of the season over night to San Francisco, confront Mike Figlia about the money Nick believes he owes his father and try and make a tidy profit on the apples while he's at it. But things are never quite as easy in practice as in theory and Nick has his work cut out for him just getting to 'Frisco, let alone convincing the conniving produce crook Mike Figlia into coughing up they money that he owes.
Richard Conte does a sterling job as the naive young Nick Greco, who in the space of the film's ninety minutes is exposed to realities of the world that alter him and his outlook on life irrevocably, but Lee J. Cobb (who you may know from his role as one of the jurors in 12 Angry Men) is the real star here as the dishonest and corrupt produce dealer Mike Figlia. Also, Valentina Cortesa puts in an excellent performance as the prostitute Rica working on Figlia's payroll, her volatile character switching through a number of masks that she uses to try and conceal the inate attraction she feels towards Nick. Overall Thieves' Highway is a character study about Nick's need for revenge and about his naivety, but also it's about Rica's jealousy of Nick's fiancee and the unrequited love she feels towards him. In the end Nick gets his revenge, sheds his childish outlook on life, realises the mistakes he's about to make and gets the (right) girl. It's an undeniably upbeat ending (as insisted upon by the studio), but in this case it works well and completes the arc of Nick Greco's story, his coming of age.
Paranoiac (1963) by Freddie Francis
Starring Janette Scott and a young Oliver Reed this Hammer Horror thriller from 1963 is somewhat of an oddity when compared to other Hammer films from the era. Where many of Hammer's films were colourful and campy affairs, Paranoiac is a dark and deadly serious thriller starkly framed behind a smoke tint lens and shot in bold, high contrast black and white. The plot follows the members of the Ashby family whose lives are thrown into disarray with the reappearance of their brother Tony, who committed suicide eight years previously and returns out of the blue just three weeks before the matter of the Ashby children's inheritance is to be settled. Oliver Reed plays Simon Ashby, a young man eager to claim his half of the inheritance and cheat his sister out of her's by having her declared legally insane as Eleanor Ashby, played by Janette Scott, has been left a wreck after her brothers apparent suicide. But once Tony returns she awakes from her stupor and returns to her old self, thwarting her brother's schemes, although neither realises just how far is Simon willing to go to claim all of the inheritance, yet Simon doesn't believe that Tony is all he appears to be.
Janette Scott heads the bill, but it's Oliver Reed who puts in a star performance here as the maniacal, scheming drunkard Simon Ashby, his mannerisms and demeanour switching from suave, to anguished, to malevolent in the blink of an eye. Thinking back, Janette Scott's character really is superfluous to the film - the real story is between Simon and Tony. Simon's plans for the inheritance would have been affected with Tony's arrival anyway, regardless of whether the Eleanor character existed or not. Also, the incestuous thoughts Tony has toward Eleanor show the film-makers desire to have a clean cut leading man romance in there somewhere, like it was expected of films to have one at the time, even when it's detrimental to the pacing, plot and quality of the piece. Whatsmore, the incestuous relationship between Simon and his Aunt Harriet (played excellently by Sheila Burrell) is far more engaging and plausible, yet is only ever briefly hinted at. I can only presume that the intention was for this to be a more integral part of the plot, and Aunt Harriet's character along with it, but that the powers that be required a leading lady of 25 years or under and some form of 'good guy gets the girl' subtext to sell the picture.
Despite this, and despite the fact that the plot stutters in a few places (namely with the abrupt ending and too great a focus on Janette Scott's character, which I'll attribute to her celebrity at the time of production and the aforementioned need for a leading lady) this is a taut and compelling thriller that features a wonderful performance from Oliver Reed and some beautiful cinematography that makes Paranoiac a joy to watch. Also, thankfully it looks gorgeous in blu-ray with no aggressive digital noise reduction, which bodes well for future Hammer releases on blu-ray.
