[Pen-l] Act of Violence

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

Last night I watched an extraordinary film noir on the Turner Classic 
Movie channel that was new even to me, a long-time aficionado of the 
genre. Directed by Fred Zinnemann in 1948, “Act of Violence,” available 
from Netflix,  confirmed once again my suspicion that the developing 
Cold War spawned many of the finest noir films. Since noir films are 
typified by a bleakness of vision, what other period could have topped 
the late 1940s for having the effect of destroying hope in a better 
world-except perhaps for the last several decades.

“Act of Violence” stars Van Heflin and Robert Ryan as two WWII veterans 
who have found themselves embroiled in a deadly revenge scenario. Heflin 
plays Frank R. Enley, a pilot who informs on his fellow soldiers in 
their bid to escape from a Nazi prison camp in exchange for food. Only 
one man has survived-Joe Parkson, played by Ryan-and he shows up in the 
beginning of the movie to kill Enly, who has tried to bury the past. He 
is now a successful building contractor enjoying the fruits of the 
post-WWII boom, while Parkson is crippled and half-crazed.

It was unheard of for an American GI who ratted out his comrades to be 
portrayed in as complex a fashion as Enly. While not a hero by any 
stretch of the imagination, he comes across as somebody who was just 
desperate to survive. Meanwhile, Parkson is nearly as flawed. He is 
intent on killing Enly even after he gets a chance to meet his prey’s 
young wife (played by a very young Janet Leigh) and their infant son. 
The “act of violence” becomes a ritual vendetta stripped of any 
ideological associations with the “good war”.

In keeping with noir conventions, the film takes place nearly entirely 
at night in all the usual places: seedy saloons, desolate railroad 
tracks, and empty urban streets. The characters are also drawn from the 
noir world. After Enly takes refuge in the aforementioned seedy saloon, 
he runs into a prostitute who takes interest in his problems and escorts 
him to a shady lawyer who convinces him to pay $10,000 to a hit man to 
get rid of Parkson. The prostitute is played by Mary Astor, Humphrey 
Bogart’s foil in “The Maltese Falcon”, while the hit-man is played by 
Berry Kroeger who specialized in such roles. He was a bad guy in “Gun 
Crazy”, another noir from the period written by Dalton Trumbo.

One scene strongly suggests that the bloom had faded from the post-WWII 
rose takes place in a hotel banquet room. Enly has joined fellow 
building contractor for a night of celebration following a day-long 
building contractors’ convention. The room is filled with drunken 
businessmen, while a weaving conga line reenacts the famous painting of 
George Washington in a headband leading his troops. It has the power of 
a George Grosz painting from the Weimar Republic.

If you haven’t heard of “Act of Violence”, you surely would be familiar 
with some of Fred Zinnemann’s other films. He followed up this movie 
with another decidedly unromantic view of WWII veterans. The 1950 “The 
Men” starred Marlin Brando as a crippled and embittered ex-GI in a 
veteran’s hospital. The screenplay was by Carl Foreman, who would be 
blacklisted in a couple of years. It was filmed at the Birmingham 
Paraplegic Hospital in Van Nuys, California, and included real patients 
and caregivers.

full: http://louisproyect.wordpress.com/2008/08/27/act-of-violence/
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