William Castle is largely remembered for the horror movies he directed in the 1950’s. To be more accurate, he’s legendary for the gimmicks he employed in select theatres for some of his features. Things like the buzzers under the seats for The Tingler, or a skeleton on a wire flying over viewers’ heads at a key moment in House on Haunted Hill. Some might even remember he was the producer of Rosemary’s Baby.
But I, for one, was oblivious to the fact he dipped a toe in noir before all that. And I was very pleasantly surprised to discover Johnny Stool Pigeon, one such picture he helmed, is incredibly solid.
This 1949 feature stays Howard Duff and Dan Duryea, two veterans of the genre. Heck, I think I can rattle off with ease the film noirs Duryea didn’t appear in. Duryea is a narcotics dealer whose sentence will be shortened if he assists Duff in a breaking a major drug real.
Although this picture is almost entirely set-bound, the scope feels rather epic for a noir as the action spans all three countries of North America. In Vancouver, a gangster moll played by Shelley Winters joins the duo. Eventually, the action will move to Mexico for the finale.
The character Winters plays feels like it is walking a fence between what I see as the two extremes of the actress’s range. This bad girl wants to leave the life, so she is a femme fatale typical of what Winters specialized in early on in her career. At the same time, she’s pretty whiny, which anticipates the mode she would operate in exclusively once a change in her physically ruled out any more femme fatale roles.
The dynamics between these characters is what made the movie for me. Duff, as the law enforcement character, is the designated hero; and yet, he is intentionally portrayed as a bit of a prig and the least likeable person here. Seemingly in direct opposition to the production code, Duryea is far more appealing, even if there is good reason to be suspicious of his motives.
Winters makes for a natural foil for both and the she has the lion’s share of the best lines. For example, what she says to uptight lawman Duff when she hands him her drink: “Here, hold this for me. It will keep the ice from melting.”
The last actor I want to single out is Tony Curtis in such an early role that he is billed as “Anthony” Curtis. He plays a mute thug here, which I thought was odd, as he would later play a deaf-mute boxer in a later noir, Flesh and Fury.
Johnny Stool Pigeon is an incredibly solid noir, despite my finding it difficult to say the title with a straight face. William Castle brings the same sly humor to noir that made his goofy and gimmicky horror films so enjoyable.
Dir: William Castle
Starring Howard Duff, Dan Duryea, Shelley Winters
Watched as part of Kino Lorbers Film Noir: The Dark Side of Cinema VI blu-ray box set