Oh. My. God. Gorgeous.

I wouldn´t call it gorgeous exactly, but it sure looks endlessly fascinating - this is the kind of L.A. you don´t often see in classic period movies, shot mostly in the backalleys in bad weather, with a sense of stark realism and an amazing feel for the streets. Even the soundscape of the film is unusually naturalistic for the era. It´s one lean, tough picture with a headlong energy, hard boiled poetry in its heart and numerous great acting turns. Judging by the meager 700+ people that have rated it on IMDb (and the approximately 30 messages posted about it in total), it´s grossly overlooked - there aren´t too many noirs out there as powerful as this.

As for the The Man Who Wasn´t There connection the OP talks about, I´m sure Coens have seen it, but it´s hard to see what cues exactly they took from it for their 2001 effort which is way more mannered, stylized and ponderous than Crime Wave.



"facts are stupid things" - Ronald Reagan

I have to disagree slightly about the photography. It's not nearly as noir as the relevant films of a few years earlier, indeed some of the lighting is rather flat. In several cases this seems to be because of shooting some smallish interiors on location - something that the original noir films tended not to. This was in the relatively early days of shooting modest sized interiors on location and most lighting equipment hadn't been designed with this in mind. Many films, even much later ones, have truly ugly lighting in small interiors because lamps couldn't be placed in the positions they would have been in the studio. Crime Wave certainly avoids most pitfalls but it's less effectively lit in some scenes than if its interiors had been entirely shot on sets.

Possibly the OP is misunderstanding the term "Dutch angle". To Dutch the camera is to mount or hold it so that its vertical axis is noticeably off the vertical. In The Third Man most shots are Dutch angles but they are far rarer in noir and, in Crime Wave there isn't a single one.

Unfortunately, "noir" is a term which now seems to be applied to any crime-orientated film with a few shadows in it. Crime Wave really doesn't have many of the aspects which tended to mark out the original noirs. Not least, there isn't a femme fatale in sight and the ending is one of hope. A film doesn't have to tick every box, but it has to tick more than a few.

I loved the shots of Los Angeles in this, particularly the daytime scenes. I found myself pausing the DVD multiple times so my eyes could scan how the bustling downtown area looked at that time, particularly when Gene Nelson's and Phyllis Kirk's characters are driving out of the grocery store parking lot and, of course, the chase sequence and, finally, the downtown rain scene. The cinematography is really gorgeous, in my opinion, and I feel that André De Toth succeeds with a keen visual understanding of putting himself in the viewer's position.

Yes, this is a really nice looking movie. Andre de Toth had a keen eye for compositions and it didn't hurt that he was working with Bert Glennon, who was the DP on a number of gorgeous films, notably Stagecoach, Wagon Master and Rio Grande for John Ford. He also worked on several other pictures with de Toth.

The street scenes in this film simply rule. They're a real time capsule.



Hey there, Johnny Boy, I hope you fry!

It is beautifully shot! What most impressed me was the location photography aspect. It's great seeing so many parts of Los Angeles in the film noir days.

I. Drink. Your. Milkshake! [slurp!] I DRINK IT UP! - Daniel Plainview - There Will Be Blood

I love all these films, like this one and Kiss Me Deadly, with LA street scenes from the 50s; the TV shows, like Perry Mason, too.

In fact, want to take a vacation in 1950s Los Angeles, but only if it's in black and white. 😀

I thought this post was referring to Timothy Carey.

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