seymourblack-1 Charlton Heston plays an amoral hustler in this moody thriller which has a good plot, a talented cast and plenty of suspense. It's based on the story "No Escape" by Larry Marcus (who is also one of the screenwriters) and, as the title suggests, features a group of characters who find themselves in a life threatening situation, with no obvious way out. It's also a story of revenge in which a growing sense of tension is generated by the presence of an unhinged avenger who, as well as remaining unseen by his victims, very effectively, starts picking them off one by one.Danny Haley (Charlton Heston) is out of the building when his illegal bookmaking business gets raided by the cops and almost everyone present gets arrested. Due to a lack of hard evidence, however, no charges are brought against either, Danny or his associates, Barney (Ed Begley), Augie (Jack Webb) and Soldier (Henry Morgan). As the business has been raided repeatedly in recent months, despite the money that Danny had spent in pay-offs, it becomes impossible to carry on and everyone involved is left without any income. Unexpectedly, an opportunity to minimize their losses arises when Danny meets an out-of-town businessman in the local nightclub where his girlfriend Fran Garland (Lizabeth Scott) is the resident singer and notices that the friendly Arthur Winant (Don DeFore) has a $5,000 cashiers check in his possession.After Winant is lured into a rigged poker game, he gets ripped off so badly by Danny, Barney and Augie, that he loses all his money including the $5,000 which belonged to his employers and unable to come to terms with what he'd done, commits suicide in his hotel room by hanging himself. Danny and his gang immediately fear the possible repercussions and things quickly get worse when Barney is murdered and they learn that Winant's psychopathic and very over-protective brother, Sidney (Mike Mazurki) is out for revenge.Soldier, who was not involved in the card game decides to leave Chicago and goes to work in a Las Vegas casino that's run by one of his old friends and Danny and Augie go to Los Angeles where Danny poses as an insurance investigator and romances Winant's wife Victoria (Viveca Lindfors), in an effort to acquire a photograph of the maniac who's out to kill him. When it becomes clear that Victoria doesn't posses a photo of Sidney, Danny owns up to having deceived her and decides to head for Las Vegas where he's subsequently joined by Fran before some further surprising developments lead to his eventual confrontation with the fearsome Sidney.This movie provided a very young-looking Charlton Heston with his first Hollywood starring role and the character he plays is rather complex because he's a man who, after having been betrayed by his wife and his best friend whilst on military service in England, had become very disillusioned, cynical and embittered. This led to the kind of detachment and lack of empathy he shows when he fleeces Winant and cruelly deceives the recently bereaved Victoria. It's also the reason for the hardboiled attitude that he habitually displays and his inability to commit properly to his loyal girlfriend, Fran. Heston's portrayal of this rather unsympathetic character is incredibly assured and surprisingly subtle, especially considering his relative inexperience at the time when the film was made.Although the pace of the action is inconsistent and the level of suspense isn't fully exploited, "Dark City" is wonderfully atmospheric, well-acted and very enjoyable to watch throughout its entire 98 minutes.

disinterested_spectator Before going any further with that question, we need to make a distinction between expressionistic musicals like "My Fair Lady" (1964) or "Grease" (1978) and backstage musicals like "Gold Diggers of 1933" (1933) or "New York, New York" (1977). In the former, it is sometimes said, somewhat derisively, that people are just walking down the street and then break out into song, accompanied by a disembodied orchestra. In the latter, the singing and dancing occurs during rehearsals or on stage during a performance. In other words, it is realistic, something you might actually see and hear in real life. Actually, Busby Berkeley musicals are not realistic in the sense that the numbers could never be performed on a real stage, but they are more realistic than expressionistic musicals."Dark City" is certainly not an expressionistic musical. But does it qualify as a backstage musical? Early in the movie, we see Fran (Lizabeth Scott) singing a song in a nightclub. I thought to myself, her singing sounds fine to me, but I suspect a lot of people would say that she cannot sing, although I understand that the singing was dubbed anyway. But then, I further reflected, I don't have a good ear, so who am I to judge?After she finishes her song, Danny (Charlton Heston), her boyfriend, tells her he liked her song, to which she replies, "Aren't we a pair? I can't sing and you don't have a good ear." That took me back a little.Anyway, I mused that even though the movie had a song in it, it was not a musical, because one song does not a musical make. But then she sang another song, and another, and another, until she sang five in all. Still, the movie did not seem to me to be a musical, and it would not have been, even if they had managed to squeeze one more number into it. Moreover, just to get an objective assessment, I checked Internet Movie Database and Netflix, and neither of them classified it as a musical, but only as a crime drama or film noir.In reflecting on why this was so, I thought back on that earlier comment by her that she could not sing, followed later by another remark to the effect that singing in a nightclub was just a way of making a living, something she would gladly give up if Danny would marry her. And that must be the key. In the typical backstage musical, the main performers are ambitious, just waiting for their chance to take the spotlight and become a star. Or, as in a Mickey Rooney/Judy Garland movie, where Rooney gets the idea of putting on a show to save whatever it is that needs saving in that movie, the success of the show is what matters. In other words, in a backstage musical, it is not a question of how much singing and dancing there is, but whether the plot centers around the performers qua performers, their individual success or the success of the show as a whole.In "Dark City," on the other hand, the plot centers around people that are not performing musical numbers. Rather, Danny is a bookie who has been put out of business by too many raids and is looking for a bankroll so he can move to another town. He and his pals get a sucker into a poker game and take him for all his money. The sucker is devastated and commits suicide. Now the police are investigating the situation and the sucker's brother is out to kill everyone that was in the game. As a result, the songs Fran sings are just fillers, which actually have the effect of slowing the movie down.As a crime drama, the movie is mediocre, but as an illustration of the fact that a backstage musical must be more than just a bunch of musical numbers, this movie is instructive.

MartinHafer There is a lot to like about "Dark City" and it's an excellent example of film noir. While not as tough and gritty as some of the darker incarnations of noir, it still packs a nice punch and has some excellent characterizations--particularly Charton Heston and Jack Webb.Heston plays a world-weary and jaded professional gambler. He sees most people as suckers and has little to like about him. Inexplicably, Lizbeth Scott adores him and is the perfect enabler. She also keeps on holding out hope that Heston will reform and marry her.One night, Heston and his gambling partners come upon a pigeon (Don DeFore) and invite him for a 'nice friendly game of poker'. DeFore does well the first night--and he doesn't realize he's being set-up for a big killing, as the gamblers know he has a $5000 cashiers check on him. Not surprisingly, the next day, DeFore's luck sours and he's cleaned out--including this check that didn't turn out to belong to him. He signs it over to them---and then promptly kills himself! Two things almost immediately come to light. First, it turns out that one of the gamblers (Webb) was cheating. While these were pros, Heston and his other partner (Ed Begley) were not cheaters. Second, Begley becomes very nervous--saying that he thinks someone is following him. Soon, he's murdered! The police bring in Webb and Heston and inform him that they know about the game and even know who the killer is--DeFore's psychotic brother who'd spent much of his life institutionalized in a mental hospital!! And, apparently, he's soon coming to get Webb and Heston as well! Quite a bit happens after this--but you'll just have to tune in to see it yourself.Excellent writing, wonderful tension and nice acting--this one will keep you on the edge of your seat and is great for noir fanatics--like myself.

sol1218 (There are Spoilers) Charlton Heston known for the Biblical epics and movies with cast of thousands that he made during his fifty or so year career in motion pictures started out in his very first movie, back in 1950, in a little known film-noir curiosity piece playing a small-time hoodlum running a bookie joint in Chicago.Having his gambling den raided three time in just over a month by the cops, even though he was paying them off, has Dan Haley, Charlton Heston,and his three fellow bookies Barney, Ed Bagely, Augie, Jack Webb, and Soldier, Henry Morgan, wonder if they should get into a much safer business like working a bar or being a croupier in a casino. Trying to figure out where the next dollar is coming from Dan goes to the nightclub where his girlfriend Fran Garland, Lizabeth Scott,is doing a show and runs into out of town businessman Arthur Winant, Don DeFore. Seeing Winant pull out a number of big bills, including a $5,000.00 bank check, from his wallet as he paid for his drink Dan invites him for a game of cards at his now closed down bookie joint with his friends Barney Augie & Soldier. Winning $350.00 from the four book-makers Arthur is invited back the next evening, his last day in Chicago, for another card game with the four wanting another chance to win back their money. This time around the bookies were ready for Winant and had the cards rigged, or marked, wiping the poor guy out of everything he had including his $5,000.00 bank check, which Winant signed over to them, which didn't even belong to him. Sick depressed and heart broken Winant goes back to his hotel room and hangs himself. It turns out that Arthur Winart's older brother Sidney, Mike Mazurki, found his body and called the police but Sidney didn't wait around for them to show up, he went out looking for those who drove his brother to kill himself, Dan Barney Augie & Soldier, and pay them back in kind. Superior film-noir thriller with Sidney Winant, who spent a number of years in a mental institution for the criminally insane, out hunting down and killing those responsible for his brothers, Arthur, death and going from Chicago to Los Angeles to Las Vages to do it. Murdering Barney in Chicago and making it look like he killed himself, by hanging, Sidney has the remaining bookies on the run not even knowing What he, Sidney Winant, even looks like. Both Dan & Augie travel to Los Angeles to see the late Arthur's wife Victoria, Viveca Lindfors, to get a photo of Sidney to be able to spot him before he attacks and murders them. Dan saying that he's an insurance investigator and that Victoria and Sidney are to receive a $10,000.00 policy that Arthur made out to them can't get a photo of Sidney since Victoria burnt all the photos she had of him wanting to keep him out of her memory forever, he's a dangerous homicidal lunatic she tells Dan.Dan for his part starts to fall in love with Victoria and want's to give her back the check that her dead husband Arthur signed over to him. When Dan tell's her that he's one of the people who cheated him out of his money, that lead to his suicide, she rejected both Dan and the check.Back in his L.A motel room Dan finds that Sidney got to Augie, while he was at Victoria's house, with him hanging in the shower with a rope tied around his neck. The movie then moves to Las Vagas with Dan on the run getting a job as a card dealer at his friends Swede's, Walter Sande, casino and meeting his fellow bookie Soldier and his girlfriend from the "Windy City" Fran who both were working there. Sidney finding out that Dan is in Vegas from Victoria's young son Billy, Mark Keuning,makes his way down there from L.A. Victoria then unexpectedly calls Dan and warns him about her brother-in-law finding out where he is has the police using Dan as bait set a trap for the big gorilla, Sidney is well over six feet tall and weighs about 270 pounds. The plan almost backfires when Sidney get's to Dan before they, the police,can get there in time to save Dan's life.