3-2-1: The Phantom Lady

 1944, d. Robert Slodmak - Criterion Channel

The Plot 100:
Scott Henderson meets a woman at a bar. She seems in distress, he doesn't seem to notice. They don't really get to know each other but they attend a revue together, and say their good-nights afterwards. Scott returns home to find policemen waiting and his wife dead. The bartender, the cabbie, the people at the show all don't remember him with any lady. He's convicted and sentenced to death. His secretary, Carol, certain of his innocence, hits the pavement to save him, with Inspector Burgess smelling something fishy, and Scott's best friend Jack returning from South America to assist...except....

3-2-1 (there be spoilers)
3 Bad - (1) Structure.  This film doesn't know who its protagonist is. The basic plot would have us think Carol is its lead, but we don't even meet her until 15 minutes into this 86-minute movie, and she doesn't really start her investigation until over a half-hour into it.  Until then it's mostly about Scott, who only pops up briefly in acts 2 and 3.  In the second and third acts, the film seems to want to spend more time with Jack Marlowe, or Inspector Burgess than it does with Carol, taking a lot of ownership of the story away from Carol, and it's certainly not very interested in any form of investigative procedural.  

(2) "Paranoiacs" and other mental health disorders. Jack, we learn about mid-way through, is the murderer. He's paid off all the various people, as well as stumbled into a lot of happy coincidences, that let him get away with his vengeful murder of Scott's wife.  He thought they ware in love. But at the same time, Jack is a psychopath who just can't help himself. He has a need to kill, and the way this movie handles it is with corny hand-wringing and facial twitches. It's the '40's so the film's understanding of mental health disorders is quite poor. Likewise there's the "Phantom Lady" and her depression, that the film uses but doesn't seem particularly sympathetic with or careful in portraying.

(3) Motivations. Carol is putting herself in danger, running around town, pushing buttons, because she's in love with her boss. Sigh.  

2 Good: (1) Alan Curtis' moustache. It's pretty dashing. As much as I was like "get on with it" during the first act of the film, I just marveled at Curti's thin lip pelt and wondered how it was tended to.

(2) The danger women constantly face.  I'm not saying the danger women must face in navigating a toxic, patriarichal society is good, but this film presents that danger very, very well.  There's the leering, obvious, creepy men, the disgusting predators, and the insidious ones who can disguise themselves as seemingly kind, normal guys.  Even in the scene with no lady present, where the cops are interrogating Scott about his wife's death, they all kind of understand that a sour marriage, a woman who laughs at him, a woman who won't give him what he wants are all too common an excuse to abuse or murder her. 

1 Great: Ella Raines, at times. Sure at times Raines acts like so many other emotive screen darlings of the era, where she talks in that cadence, you know the one, the type that no real person ever use.  Or with that softness that it seems all women of the era just had to talk with, lest they seem too tough and masculine, heaven forebid it.  But here Carol has some wonderful scenes, including the stalking of the bartender which thoroughly unravels him. She doesn't say a word and cracks the man open like an egg...unfortunately he almost kills her as he stops just shy of pushing her in front of the subway (again, the threat against women comes at all angles here).  But it's her scenes with sleazy drummer Elisha Cook Jr. (The Killing) where she's coming onto him, luring him into her trap, but absolutely detests him, and cannot hide her repulsion. These scenes are so incredibly well performed by both Raines and Cook, and just bristle with an uneasy energy (again, you're fully aware of how much danger Carol is in at all times with a guy like this).

META

I'm still new with olde Noir, but, like any genre at the height of its popularity, you can easily see there's the greats and then the slew of lesser-thans. Criterion sold this as a proto-feminist picture, and there are hints of it at best. I was really, truly hoping for a surprise, something of a Promising Young Woman of the '40's, of a woman willing to go to any lengths to get the truth out. Alas, Carol is still all too reliant on men in this, and it's mere minutes into her "investigation" when Inspector Burgess (Thomas Gomez) offers his assistance, basically the film assuring the olde-tyme audience "don't worry, there's still a man involved here".  It kind of sucks. Slodmak and team handle the camera well here, and between some nifty angles and lighting it's at times a really striking picture, but like Raines' acting it's not persistently good, just sparks of greatness.