RETREAT
TO GOODISVILLE 2012
Tour by Lou Boxer and Duane Swierczynski
Race Street Pier (N Columbus Blvd) [N39° 57.1843', W075° 8.3146']: under the shadow of the Ben Franklin Bridge.
This waterfront community remained a food distribution hub and a residential area well after being subsumed into the city of Philadelphia. Even in the 1950s, when the neighborhood was certainly shabby and forgotten, Callowhill/Waterfront was still an active meat and produce center. But it was, by then, part of Philadelphia’s Skid Row district, a place replete with cheap flophouses, grubby bars, dilapidated warehouses and so on.
This is a truely rare noir. Dan Duryea (Scarlet Street, Woman in the Window, Criss Cross) plays a down on his luck burglar that falls for Jayne Mansfield. Based on a book by pulp novelist David Goodis.
In this tense crime drama, jewel thief Nat Harbin (Dan Duryea) joins forces with two of his buddies, Baylock (Peter Capell) and Dohmer (Mickey Shaughnessy), for a job at the estate of famed spiritualist Sister Sarah (Phoebe Mackay), who has a very valuable diamond necklace stashed away.
Nat's half-sister Gladden (Jayne Mansfield) -- who also has a criminal past -- asks to tag along, and Nat agrees. However, it turns out to be more of a mistake than he imagined when Charlie (Stewart Bradley), an unscrupulous cop trailing the thieves, catches them in the act and kidnaps Gladden, demanding the stolen jewels as ransom.
This was one of Mansfield's early vehicles and casts her in a surprisingly serious role; it's a real change of pace from the brain-dead sex-kitten routine that was the hallmark of most of her films. In my book, no movie of the classic film noir period of the 1940s and 1950s starring Dan Duryea could be a complete failure. This one borrows a bit too heavily from its predecessors but still works to exert its pull and draw us into the nightmare. Besides Duryea, who never fails to fascinate as he projects the complexities under the surface of his characters with a peculiar quirky instability, the film features Jayne Mansfield as a child-woman and the catalyst for trouble among the gang of thieves. The heist scene near the beginning in near-real time, though amateurish compared to the edge-of-the-seat tautness of truly great films of the genre such as "The Asphalt Jungle" or "The Red Circle," takes us through 15 tense minutes as they pull the job, complete with interruption by police. Though gang leader Duryea is a pretty cool customer, we are sweating a little along with him.
The opening scene in the tradition of "Citizen Kane" shows movie newsreel footage of the death of a wealthy Philadelphia industrialist, then cuts to the jewel robbery planning session of professional burglar Nat Harbin and his pals. The deceased man had given his cars, mansion and some fabulous jewels to Sister Sara, a shady evangelist. Nat (Duryea) sends Gladden (Mansfield), looking as plain Jane as possible (for Mansfield), to case the mansion. Their relationship unclear, Nat is tormented by nightmares of his past and troubled by her presence.
Moving back and forth between the gang, the solid police investigation in pursuit of them, and a mysterious man whose face we don’t see, the fugitive life proves burdensome. The visual style features exaggerated, distorted camera angles that reach their peak in the conclusion at the fun house on the boardwalk at Atlantic City, reminiscent of "The Lady from Shanghai." The forceful score completes the picture and succeeds at bringing the familiar noir elements together for a satisfying finish. Though made the same year as "Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter," Mansfield plays Gladden with admirable restraint, without the affectations that marked her career, and it is probably one of her best performances.
RACE STREET PIER, 1931. BEN FRANKLIN BRIDGE (FORMERLY THE DELAWARE RIVER BRIDGE, BUILT 1926) ON RIGHT.
This waterfront community remained a food distribution hub and a residential area well after being subsumed into the city of Philadelphia. Even in the 1950s, when the neighborhood was certainly shabby and forgotten, Callowhill/Waterfront was still an active meat and produce center. But it was, by then, part of Philadelphia’s Skid Row district, a place replete with cheap flophouses, grubby bars, dilapidated warehouses and so on.
This is a truely rare noir. Dan Duryea (Scarlet Street, Woman in the Window, Criss Cross) plays a down on his luck burglar that falls for Jayne Mansfield. Based on a book by pulp novelist David Goodis.
In this tense crime drama, jewel thief Nat Harbin (Dan Duryea) joins forces with two of his buddies, Baylock (Peter Capell) and Dohmer (Mickey Shaughnessy), for a job at the estate of famed spiritualist Sister Sarah (Phoebe Mackay), who has a very valuable diamond necklace stashed away.
Nat's half-sister Gladden (Jayne Mansfield) -- who also has a criminal past -- asks to tag along, and Nat agrees. However, it turns out to be more of a mistake than he imagined when Charlie (Stewart Bradley), an unscrupulous cop trailing the thieves, catches them in the act and kidnaps Gladden, demanding the stolen jewels as ransom.
This was one of Mansfield's early vehicles and casts her in a surprisingly serious role; it's a real change of pace from the brain-dead sex-kitten routine that was the hallmark of most of her films. In my book, no movie of the classic film noir period of the 1940s and 1950s starring Dan Duryea could be a complete failure. This one borrows a bit too heavily from its predecessors but still works to exert its pull and draw us into the nightmare. Besides Duryea, who never fails to fascinate as he projects the complexities under the surface of his characters with a peculiar quirky instability, the film features Jayne Mansfield as a child-woman and the catalyst for trouble among the gang of thieves. The heist scene near the beginning in near-real time, though amateurish compared to the edge-of-the-seat tautness of truly great films of the genre such as "The Asphalt Jungle" or "The Red Circle," takes us through 15 tense minutes as they pull the job, complete with interruption by police. Though gang leader Duryea is a pretty cool customer, we are sweating a little along with him.
The opening scene in the tradition of "Citizen Kane" shows movie newsreel footage of the death of a wealthy Philadelphia industrialist, then cuts to the jewel robbery planning session of professional burglar Nat Harbin and his pals. The deceased man had given his cars, mansion and some fabulous jewels to Sister Sara, a shady evangelist. Nat (Duryea) sends Gladden (Mansfield), looking as plain Jane as possible (for Mansfield), to case the mansion. Their relationship unclear, Nat is tormented by nightmares of his past and troubled by her presence.
Moving back and forth between the gang, the solid police investigation in pursuit of them, and a mysterious man whose face we don’t see, the fugitive life proves burdensome. The visual style features exaggerated, distorted camera angles that reach their peak in the conclusion at the fun house on the boardwalk at Atlantic City, reminiscent of "The Lady from Shanghai." The forceful score completes the picture and succeeds at bringing the familiar noir elements together for a satisfying finish. Though made the same year as "Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter," Mansfield plays Gladden with admirable restraint, without the affectations that marked her career, and it is probably one of her best performances.
This little seen 1957 highly stylized crime caper is marked by extreme close ups, eccentric camera angles and a melodramatic screenplay. From a novel by David Goodis, in other hands it may not have worked at all, but from the director of a lot of early television work, Paul Wendkos, it’s an arty addition to the more well known films in the genre, and a genuine rediscovery.
Seens from THE BURGLAR. Screenplay by David Goodis.
1931 Looking West on Ben Franklin Bridge, New Jersey
The Goodis-heads descend upon the Race Street Pier for one of the last stops of Retreat 2012.
The Goodis-heads descend upon the Race Street Pier for one of the last stops of Retreat 2012.
The Race Street Pier park Spring 2011
Thank goodness we had a great photographer because I needed my memory "jogged" a bit! Love you, Lou!
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