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 I Wake Up Screaming (1941) is among the many Film Noirs made in during this Hollywood era. Based on the novel by Steve Fischer, the film was originally titled Hot Spot, which was the title of a 1932 short comedy. The name was later changed, and is rather odd since no one in the film ever wakes up screaming. H. Bruce Humberstone directs the film that has a weighty cast including Victor Mature, Betty Grable, Carole Landis and Laird Cregar.
Victor Mature, Alan Mowbray, Allyn Joslyn, Carole Landis
The movie starts on one of the Hollywood infamous police station scenes. You know the ones - a sea of suited police officers standing around Frankie Christopher (Mature). The room is dark and only one light shines over his head. He's being grilled about the murder of Vicky Lynn (Carole Landis) since he was supposedly the last one to see her alive. He's bombarded with questions mostly by the cynical detective Ed Cornell (Laird Cregar) who has no doubt Frankie is their man.
During one of his answers the film does a flashback and the story begins when Frankie first encounters Vicky. Frankie, a prominent New York sports promoter, had stopped in late one night to a restaurant with his two cronies, washed-up actor Robin Ray (Alan Mowbray) and newspaper columnist Larry Evans (Allyn Joslyn). They all admire the beauty of their waitress, Vicky (Landis), but while Robin and Larry are thinking only face value, Frankie gets an idea to turn her into a recognizable beauty among the social class.
In what is presumably a few days later the three guys hit one of the big night clubs with the dolled up and much-practiced-in-social-graces Vicky. Their ploy works for as soon as the threesome enter the nightclub the words "Who is that beautiful girl?" is uttered from one of the knight's table with some of New York's elite society members.
Betty Grable & Victor Mature
Frankie begins to enjoy playing promoter to Vicky until the night her sister Jill (Betty Grable), who shares her apartment, walks in to find Frankie standing over Vicky's dead body. The police are called, and Frankie is suspected of the murder. He had cause, as Vicky, seemingly ungrateful that it was Frankie who recreated her, was leaving the next day for Hollywood to make her fortune.
Although Frankie is free until they get more evidence he's constantly stalked by Cornell. The large, brooding Cregar is perfect as his stalker. He's positive Frankie is the man and becomes so obsessive he slips into his and Jill's apartments without permission, and Frankie even wakes up to find Cornell sitting in a chair staring at him sleeping.
Jill and Frankie are soon infatuated with each other, and the film includes some romantic elements. Frankie takes Jill to a fight that he promoted where she gets her first sense that he's a really a decent man and she has no doubt that he didn't kill her sister.
The police think otherwise, and when Jill attempts to give Frankie back a letter he wrote to Vickie, Cornell is right there to grab it. Frankie is arrested, but Jill helps him escape and the two become fugitives, often hiding out in a two-bit movie theatre and watching the Flames of Passion again and again.
There are many unusual elements of this film that maintain the Film Noir persona. Although Humberstone did direct a lot of crime who-done-its - several Charlie Chan films, The Dragon Murder Case (1934) Time Out For Murder (1938 with Gloria Stuart) - he wasn't focused on Film Noir. Interestingly he did reteam with Betty Grable in Pin Up Girl (1944).
Although Edward Cronjager did shoot a few other film noirs like Fritz Lang's House by the River (1950) with Jane Wyatt, his work reflects a cornucopia of genres. I Wake Up Screaming fails to fit a true Film Noir aspect in several ways. The story becomes less about who did it in the second half concentrating more the whirlwind romance of Frankie and Jill. Cronjager's camera is less interested in offering up those sharp camera angles and intense black and white scenes as it is in giving us a typical 1940s era film. Which is not to say I Wake Up Screaming isn't entertaining.
That's mostly because of the cast. Mature (The Robe 1953, China Doll, 1958) is great as the hapless good-looking-gent and even glib about being perused by Cornell, Cregar (The Lodger 1944, Hangover Square 1945) is utterly irritating to watch which is exactly why he's a fascinating character in the film. Grable (Tin Pan Alley, 1940, My Blue Heaven, 1950) does a good job in a serious role, too bad she didn't make more of the same during her wonderful career. As Jill she handles the emotional range of her character from everything that covers doubt, fear, horror, and wide-eyed wonderment to love, exceptional well.
Although Landis (My Gal Sal, 1942, Orchestra Wives, 1942) has a very short part, she too pulls it off. And Frankie's cronies played by Mowbray (Never Say Die, 1939, The Man Who Knew Too Much, 1956) and Joslyn (Heaven Can Wait, 1943, The Jazz Singer, 1952) add just the right amount of merriment (again, not a film noir asset) to keep the film entertaining. Elisha Cook, Jr. (The Maltese Falcon, 1941, Up In Arms, 1944) plays a creepy switchboard operator who is also a likely suspect in the murder.
The movie was remade in 1953 as Vicki a film noir directed by Harry Horner. Again, while I Wake Up Screaming isn't pure Film Noir, I did find it entertaining and recommend it for anyone who likes these cast members.
Director: H. Bruce Humberstone
Writer: Dwight Taylor
Cast: Victor Mature, Betty Grable, Carole Landis, Laird Cregar, Alan Mowbray, Allyn Joslyn, Elisha Cook, Jr., William Gargan
Rating: Not Rated (okay for 12 and up)
Classic Movie Guide Rating: 3 stars out of 5
Run Time: 82 minutes
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Format: Black & White
Photo credits: 20th Century Fox
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