Tom Loves a Bad Girl

E. V. "Marsh" Marshall (Tom Tryon) and his lover Paulie Nevins (Carol Ohmart) meet clandestinely in a wooded area outside Los Angeles. As they are leaving, they notice three men meeting. The couple sneak over to listen and hear the men discussing the robbery of a local home - the takeway will be $350,000 worth of jewelry. Paulie decides that, if they steal the loot from the thieves, it's not a crime, and they can use the money to run away from her husband - and his boss - Ralph Nevins (James Gregory). Our film is The Scarlet Hour (1956).

Noir City DC aired this rarely seen film. It's an interesting plot, but it suffers from a big problem - the three lead actors (Tom Tryon, Carol Ohmart and Jody Lawrance) can't act. Thankfully, there are other people in the film who can, so one ends up ignoring the leads, and concentrating on James Gregory and Elaine Stritch (Phyllis Rycker). 

 Directed by Michael Curtiz, the film "introduces" Tryon, Ohmart, Lawrance (and Ms. Stritch, though not listed as such). For Mr. Tryon, Ms. Ohmart, and Ms. Stritch, this was their first film. All had appeared on television; Ms. Lawrance however had appeared in several film prior to The Scarlet Hour, including a starring role in Ten Tall Men (1951) with Burt Lancaster.  Nevertheless, Paramount and Mr. Curtiz wanted to emphasize the "new faces" in the film; thus, they were "introduced" (AFI Catalog). 

Tom Tryon is just adequate as a man who can't make up his mind about much of anything. Mr. Tryon expresses everything - concern, fear, love, anguish - by furrowing his brow. It's not really convincing. He'd started on Broadway as a waiter in Wish You Were Here (the play starred Jack Cassidy). He continued worked in films and on TV, most famously on The Cardinal (1963), a film he disliked because of the abuse he suffered at the hands of Otto Preminger (The World and Its Double: The Life and Work of Otto Preminger by Chris Fujiwara). Preminger fired Mr. Tyron in front of his parents (later rehiring him). The abuse continued when Tryon was cast in Preminger's In Harm's Way (1965). It ceased when Kirk Douglas walked off the set in protest. Mr. Tryon eventually left acting and became a successful novelist. He died in 1991 of stomach cancer at the age of 65. 

Both Ms. Ohmart and Ms. Lawrance (Kathy Stevens) are simply okay as the Bad and Good Girls. Ms. Ohmart is rather flat; emotions rarely cross her face. Ms. Lawrance, on the other hand, simply oozes sympathy as she emotes in Mr. Tryon's direction. What's not clear is why she would be in love with this banal man who doesn't look in her direction.

The actor who makes this film worth watching is the always wonderful Elaine Stritch (Phyllis Rycker), playing Paulie's best friend from their days as B girls. While Paulie has married rich - and miserably - Phyllis has married a plumber, Tom (Billy Gray) and they are ecstatically happy. Ms. Stritch bubbles with joy, and does it all without being saccharine.
Elaine Stritch began her Broadway career in 1946; she would eventually be nominated for four Tony Awards (for Bus Stop, Sail Away, Company, and A Delicate Balance), and won Emmy Awards for appearances in Law and Order and for her one-woman show Elaine Stritch: At Liberty (which also won a Tony for Best Special Theatrical Event as well as two Drama Desk Awards). She didn't make many films, but was a frequent guest star on a number of television shows (including a one-year stint as Ruth Sherwood in My Sister Eileen). Much of her life is outlined, along with her stellar Broadway career, in At Liberty and a follow-up Elaine Stritch: Shoot Me. She retired to Michigan in 2013, and died there the following year.  You can see her performing the song "Zip" from Pal Joey in her one-woman show, as well as discussing her adventures getting to the previews.
James Gregory (Ralph Nevins) is back to playing a villain in the piece, and he is a doozy. Yes, his wife is a philanderer, but the film implies that she started fooling around when she discovered he was an abusive brute. It's really hard to have any sympathy for the character; were our lovers nicer people, we might end up rooting for them. 

Watch for E. G. Marshall  and Edward Binns as police officers Lt. Jennings and Sgt. Allen. And we get the pleasure of Nat "King" Cole singing "Never Let Me Go" in a nightclub. And though IMDB lists Billy Gray as Phyllis' husband, it's not the right Billy Gray (the star of Father Knows Best was only 18 years old when the film was released); our Billy was well into his 40s.

You can read more about the film in this article from the Film Noir Foundation, which it says of  "brings that arc of the noir cycle to a close—an arc that wouldn’t be reopened until Body Heat." If you are a noir fan, it's worth a viewing - and if you've never seen Elaine Stritch, watch to see her take control of the action. In the meantime, here is a trailer: