Crane WilburRezensionen

In this Warner Bros. short, a Marine in a South Sea island during World War II, Joe Fingers, tells tales of the influence he’s had on various personalities. In the words of one of his buddies, he’s either the biggest liar in the world or the most important man in show business. He claims to be a piano player and his stories are brought to life in the minds of the boys, especially those that involve a pretty girl. When a piano arrives on the island in a shipment, he refuses to play, convincing the doubters that he’s been telling them lies all along. They change their tune however when a Hollywood movie star stops on the island. (Fonte: Imdb)

This is an effective noir film set in late 1940s Los Angeles. It starts out documentary style with a voiceover about LA--just like Dragnet, but settles down into a much more serious police procedural. (Dragnet's Jack Webb, by the way, plays a key role here as the LA Police Department's lab specialist, who not only can do ballistics but also Identikit! Webb apparently got the idea for Dragnet here.) The film looks great all the way through, and the scenes in the storm drains will remind you of the Third Man, but He Walked by Night was filmed a year earlier. The film is made most interesting by its alternation between scenes of the killer, well played by Richard Basehart, and the police investigation. Of course, the LA police department, make up entirely on white guys in dark suits, comes off as completely competent and uncorrupt. This is based on a true story, by the way. I guess I have given it only 3 1/2 stars for the simple reason that the killer's motives are never revealed or even hinted at. Which I guess is why it was so hard to track him down! I watched this movie on Kanopy through my library, so it should be easily available to anyone who wants to journey back 70 years. Recommended.½

This was more enjoyable than I'd expected, the Sydney underbelly bar culture was tangible, and the book exploded from a routine investigation into death and gore around half way through. The book also gave a lot more biographical info on Harry which was nice.

Spoiler alert
Minor niggle, having worked out that the pattern of murders coincided with a touring group, fixating on one member of the group seemed unlikely, and a bit of a clunky red herring...

First rate SF adventure yarn, fine special effects by Ray Harryhausen. The balloon escape at the beginning is worth the price of admission, and the rest is a lot of fun. Terrific musical score by Bernard Herrmann!

Substance: Tedious introductory scenes establishing characters. Unless I missed it (blink), nothing was shown that motivated the actual perpetrator.
Style: Melodramatic.

Thriller

stop-motion photography with moving mattes, by ray harryhausen.