Thursday Movie Picks: Female Investigators
This week's theme from Wandering Through The Shelves is Female Investigators! The rules specify they can be police, or private. I kept thinking of TV shows that fit this theme, but movies were a bit tougher. Here's what I came up with.
1) Lost Girls - The mother of a missing girl essentially turns private detective in this when the police don't do enough. This is based on a true story and is absolutely heartbreaking.
2) Destroyer - Nicole Kidman gives an excellent performance as a police detective that reconnects with an undercover mission from her past. I had some issues with the film overall, but she was amazing in it.
3) Every Secret Thing - This is one of my favorite Laura Lippman books, and Elizabeth Banks plays a detective trying to solve a kidnapping.
I have not seen any of these but have heard of the Nicole Kidman movie
ReplyDeleteShe got a lot of buzz for that one!
DeleteI haven't seen any of these but I love Elizabeth Banks so I'll have to check out Every Secret Thing.
ReplyDeleteThis one was easier than the last few have been and I left off some more recent choices like Miss Congeniality (a fave) and Raising Arizona and went for older underknown films.
The first-"Mary Ryan, Detective" (1949) stars the very recently departed and wonderful Marsha Hunt (who made it to 104!) as a detective who goes undercover to break up a jewel ring, first in the slammer and then as part of the gang.
Next is "Lured" (1947) starring Lucille Ball as a dime a dance girl in London recruited to Scotland Yard to try and catch a serial killer prey on women through the personals. Marvelous noir directed by Douglas Sirk and costarring George Sanders and Charles Coburn. This is the best of the three films by quite a bit.
The last is as obscure as the first "Wanted: Jane Turner" (1936) wherein Gloria Stuart is teamed with Lee Tracy as postal detectives on the hunt for a gang of mail fraud villains.
Ohh, I'll have to check out Lure specifically! That sounds good.
DeleteLured is great fun!! It provides a wonderful opportunity to see Lucy in a different light if you're only familiar with her as the ditzy, daffy flibbertigibbet from "I Love Lucy". Not that she's not brilliant doing that but here she's clever, spunky, ultra glamorous and capable.
DeleteSame goes for George Sanders if your only point of reference is "All About Eve". He's still wonderfully urbane and droll but much more the romantic lead.
Plus as an extra cherry on top Boris Karloff has a small, strange role!
I am only familiar with her comedy! I can't even picture her in a serious role.
DeleteBefore Lucy hit it big on TV she worked her way up through the ranks, starting as a Hattie Carnegie model under the name Diane Belmont, then as a showgirl migrating West she did wordless bits then small parts eventually becoming known as “Queen of B’s” at RKO Studios (which once she became a huge star Desi and she bought!) where she played all sorts of roles.
DeleteThough her ability with a wisecrack was apparent early on (her first lead was as movie star Annabel Allison in the comedy "The Affairs of Annabel" which was popular enough to garner a sequel "Annabel Takes a Tour") in the sausage grinder that was the Hollywood studio system of the 30's and 40's and not being a major star yet (though she was considered a "name" actress) she was slotted into whatever fit into her schedule. That encompassed plentiful dreck, but her filmography is also dotted with some interesting pictures, besides Lured of course.
The best of her dramatic work:
Five Came Back (1939)-A tight little programmer (considered one of the first disaster pictures) about a plane that crashes in the Amazon and the pilots and passengers efforts to repair the aircraft enough to fly out. Lucy plays a shady lady redeemed by love. Made on a shoestring budget it was an unexpected hit netting the equivalent of 5 ½ million in today’s dollars. That fact along with her strong reviews gave her career a significant bump.
Dance Girl Dance (1940)-Lucy is a scheming burlesque queen named Bubbles and eventually Tiger Lily! A failure on release it’s been reassessed in the years since and is seen as a feminist masterpiece. directed by Dorothy Arzner the only female director employed by the studios during 30’s.
The Big Street (1942)-Lucy plays a singer, and total bitch, who is crippled early in the film and must rely on the unwavering devotion of busboy Little Pinks (Henry Fonda) whom she treats abominably. Better than it sounds, with a great supporting cast, its success finally put Lucy into the A category.
The Dark Corner (1946)-A grade A noir with Lucy as the resourceful Girl Friday of the lead.
Easy Living (1949)-Football drama of a man (Victor Mature) facing a health crisis and a rapacious wife (Lizabeth Scott). Lucy’s role as Anne the lonely, kindhearted secretary of the team who carries a torch for Mature is more supporting but one of her best.
She also did some good comedies-including Best Foot Forward (playing Lucille Ball! -a funny lampoon of herself in full Technicolor-her hair is SO red!), Miss Grant Takes Richmond, Fancy Pants, Without Love and The Fuller Brush Girl-but while she is still less scatterbrained in any of them than her show, they are closer to her established persona.
Interesting little tidbit-She was a direct descendant of George Washington through his mother whose maiden name was Mary Ball.
Thanks for the recommendations! I'll see where I can find these.
DeleteI think I have both Destroyer and Every Secret Thing available on cable but I could never find the time to watch them in my DVR as it gets full very often. I want to see all 3 of those films.
ReplyDeleteI hope you get around to them! I do think the book is better than the film, but I thought Dakota Fanning and Danielle Macdonald were perfectly cast.
DeleteI agree. It's so much harder to pick for movies since there are fewer choices.
ReplyDeleteI know of Lost Girls since it's on Netflix but haven't seen it as thought it could be a little TV movie-ish.
It kind of is, but the performances are good. Just brace yourself for the text they display after the story is finished.
DeleteI love watching movies based on books, so I'll have to check out your third pick!
ReplyDelete