Noir Chronicles

Not a strong lineup at this year's annual Guild Cinema summer festival of film noir:

RIDE THE PINK HORSE (1947) (C+) - This slow twisting drama lacks action and fails to make it up in intrigue.

An ex-GI named Lucky Gagin (Robert Montgomery (Liz's dad), who also directed from a Ben Hecht script) arrives in San Pablo, a town in northern New Mexico, played here by Santa Fe. He seeks to avenge the death of a buddy by blackmailing mobster Frank Hugo (Fred Clark, "Burns and Allen").

Gagin makes friends with a carousel operator, Pancho (Thomas Gomez), and he's constantly trailed by simple, doe-eyed Pila (Wanda Hendrix), who, in the worst colonialist manner, acts as his good-luck charm. The fiesta is in town, so that adds a dash of local flavor (though Montgomery and the producers don't have the budget to actually show the burning of Zozobra, so the characters just make reference to the off-screen spectacle).

Montgomery and Hecht throw in a kindly but cagey G-man, and while most of the performances are strong, the story never coheres and the tension frequently falters. The cinematography is often more muddy than moody. In many ways this is smart and subtle, but it can be a bit of a drag. 

THE HITCH-HIKER (1953) (B) - Two blue-collar guys pick up the wrong dude along the highway.

Screen sizzler Ida Lupino ("While the City Sleeps") slips behind the camera to unwind a familiar tale -- the gunman on the run, taking two fishing buddies hostage for a ride across the border into Mexico. William Talman (Hamilton Burger on "Perry Mason"), the Steve Buscemi of his day, is perfect as murderer Emmett Myers, who's trying to keep a few steps ahead of the law, with the forced assistance of Collins (Edmon O'Brien) and Bowen (Frank Lovejoy). Myers uses physical and psychological tactics to keep the men in line, as their attempts to leave clues are repeatedly foiled.

Lupino has a keen sense of danger and suspense, and she works the forbidding landscape of Baja California to great effect. The weak links here are the cutaways to wooden law enforcement officials on both sides of the border as they struggle to track Myers.

A fine rhythm develops among the three actors, and Lupino (who co-wrote with three others) keeps things believable. She wisely wraps it up in a neat 71 minutes, with a climax as good as any of its era.

BONUS TRACK
Eighties heartland popsters the Embarrassment with a tribute to Robert Montgomery's daughter: