Whenever I feel bad about my posture, I can always watch a Sterling Hayden movie. It was his birthday yesterday so I watched 1954's Crime Wave, a noir in the mould of Naked City, featuring copious real location shots of its city setting, Los Angeles. The story's a little absurd but in a way that makes it feel more like a nightmare and maybe a little funny, too.
Gene Nelson is Steve Lacey, an ex-con who doesn't want to go back to robbing banks but doesn't want to be a fink, either. His lovely wife, Ellen (Phyllis Kirk), is always trying to get him to call the cops when things get dicey and Steve, the chump, thinks it's not an option. The best he can do is call his parole officer.
Hayden plays Detective Lieutenant Sims, an irascible, bitter, raggedly accoutered cop. There's a lot of irony in the fact that Sims keeps calling Lacey a slob when Sims is always wearing his tie backwards.
And his hat is oddly crumpled, like he balled the crown up in his fist. You see the same thing on a hat worn by one of the crooks, a boozy veterinarian called Hessler (Jay Novello).
Evidently the costume designer thought some guys really wreck their hat crowns.
Hessler is oddly sweet, especially when you see him taking care of animals.
Another of the crooks is played by a young Charles Bronson. Just look at the muscles on this young man:
Even strongmen in this period usually looked pretty doughy. Bronson was already one of a kind.
Anyone who's been to L.A. will recognise a lot of buildings and streets, even to-day. I definitely know this bridge:
Crime Wave will be on The Criterion Channel until March 31.
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