Old Movies I Find on YouTube: The Fat Man (1951)

[moon_custafer]

Based on a radio show that was popular at the time, this was supposed to be the first in a series; word has it the property was sunk when HUAC went after Dashiell Hammett, who had his name on the credits as the show’s creator even though he didn’t write the scripts. So we just have this one movie, made by future cult-movie-director William Castle, with a cast that includes Rock Hudson, Julie London and Marvin Kaplan, all very early in their careers, and circus clown Emmett Kelly in his first movie role (I’m pretty sure one of the clown masks in The Killing, which also appears in the opening sequence to The Dark Knight, is based on Kelly’s face and make-up); and of course J. Scott Smart, the star of the radio show, as private-eye Brad “The Fat Man” Runyon.

As always with a lot of these things I watch, I don’t know whether it’s an objectively good film. It doesn’t seem to know if it’s a comedic mystery or a film noir: it has too high a body count to be the former, but it's not quite gritty and subversive enough for the latter. I do think it’s worth seeing. Some spoilers ahoy:

I'd say the performances are good – even woebegone assistant/comedy sidekick Bill isn’t too annoying. Anyone who thinks Brad Runyon and Bill are a simple Nero Wolfe/Archie knockoff isn’t paying attention -- Runyon is more like Archie’s personality in Wolfe’s body: picture a slightly shorter version of John Candy, with a rakish moustache, some pretty good dance moves, a tendency to address everyone (including at least two of the male characters) as “sweetheart,” and no particular qualms about blackmailing a suspect’s philandering chauffeur for information.

Rock Hudson is pretty memorable considering his scenes are all flashback. Jayne Meadows is good enough for me to feel annoyed that her character disappears from the narrative, and then that the script  remembers her existence just long enough to get rid of her. As far as Julie London’s character goes, my only quibble with the script is that I can’t see a woman like that giving up hope and going home, not without hard proof that her husband is dead, no matter how much she trusts Runyon’s promise to keep her informed on the case. I do believe that she trusts Runyon – London and Smart have very good non-romantic chemistry, which is always an interesting thing to see between actors who aren’t the same sex.

Kelly plays a clown with a past; it’s probably not that much of a spoiler, given the genre, to note that the narrative plays on his face being more familiar to audiences when thickly covered in white paint. Out of make-up, he has a bit of an Elisha Cook, Jr. vibe, though he’s a medium-size rather than a small man. His gestures and body language show his training, whether we can see his face or not, but he belongs to the noir rather than the comedy side of the movie.

Comments

[sovay]

Kelly plays a clown with a past; it’s probably not that much of a spoiler, given the genre, to note that the narrative plays on his face being more familiar to audiences when thickly covered in white paint.

That entirely makes me want to see this movie.

[moon_custafer]

Hmm. Now I’m wondering whether Kelly’s identity actually was meant to be a surprise, since in 1951 he would have been the biggest name in the cast list, and as TV Tropes points out, if there are three suspects and only one of them is played by an actor you recognize, there’s probably a reason.