Since I have been covering crime fiction on this platform, I have watched lots of classic Film Noirs. Many, if not most of them, were B-movies, lower budgeted films with second tier stars designed to fill out a double bill with a more prestigious movie. Some of them, despite their B-movie status, became classics of the genre. A bunch, however, are just enjoyable and somewhat formulaic, made by professionals and starring some of my favorite character actors (Lee Van Cleef, Charles McGraw, Ted de Corsia, Dan Duryea, etc...)
Of course, the days of the double bill in theaters has passed (sadly) so the modern B-movie is often an indie production. Sometimes they may be direct to video, which are actually more like the poverty row productions of the 40s. But like the B-movies of the past, indie genre movies can fill that role as enjoyable entertainment free of big studio bullshit.
2017's Small Town Crime reminded me of those fun old B-Movies. It's built on very familiar elements, is competently made, stars a bevy of terrific small-time actors, and is quite watchable.
Small Town Crime is led by John Hawkes, one of my favorite character actors. He first got on my radar in From Dusk to Dawn as the convenience store cashier who engages Clooney and Tarantino in a memorable, Tarantino-scripted dialogue. He was extremely memorable in Winter's Bone (Academy Award nominee) and a key character in Deadwood. He's just one of those guys that makes me smile whenever he shows up in a movie or TV show.
Hawkes plays an alcoholic ex-cop, fired from his job for severe incompetence, who finds a girl left for dead on a roadside. Rescuing her (she later dies) unlocks something inside of him, and he begins to clean himself up and tries to solve the crime.
Along the way, as he uncovers a prostitution ring the girl was involved with, and the rich dicks who hired hit men to cover up their dalliances (it's not clear what they did that was so bad). Hawkes connects with a solid line up of other character actors. Jeremy Ratchford is unrecognizable as an off-center hit-man, Clifton Collins Jr. is memorable as Mood the pimp, and the always dependable Robert Forster shows up as the murder victim's vengeful grandfather.
Hawkes' best friend, played by Anthony Anderson, is kidnapped by the killers, who want to exchange him for another young prostitute he is sheltering. Everything resolves in a violent gunfight in the end and everyone lives happily ever after – except for all the bad guys.
And that's it. Nothing new or original, all the elements you've seen before many times. As a writer, I kept hoping that the movie would take some left turns; I saw several opportunities to do so. There was nothing special about the tone of the film, it played things right down the middle, refusing to go too dark or swing over into farce.
The execution of Small Town Crimes reminded me of one of those solid B-movies from the Golden Age of Noir: Armored Car Robbery.
Armored Car Robbery is a heist movie; William Talman is a mastermind who devises a plan to rob an armored car at the end of its route, picking up cash from a baseball stadium (Los Angeles' Wrigley Field!) He brings in Douglas Fowley, Steve Brodie and Gene Evans for the crew; Fowley needs the cash to keep his stripper girlfriend happy. In true Noir fashion she is banging Talman behind his back.
The heist goes off as planned except that just as they are about to flee with the score, a police cruiser shows up and in a shootout, the cop is killed and Fowley is wounded.
From there, in true heist movie fashion, the gang begins to fall apart as they try to escape with the money. Double crosses ensue, the cops - led by rock jawed Charles McGraw - close in. There's a tense shoot out in a warehouse, which Talman escapes from. The movie's ironic ending, featuring Talman and the money, is one of the best in Noir history.
The movie closely resembles two other Film Noir classics: The Killing and The Asphalt Jungle. The Killing, of course, was released four years later, but The Asphalt Jungle went into production a few months before Armored Car Robbery. Of course, the other two are absolute classics, while Armored Car Robbery is just a low budget programmer competently made with a cast of gritty character actors.
And there's nothing wrong with that.
Cool piece. I'd never heard of this one before but John Hawked is awesome.
It's a great feeling when an overlooked B movie turns out to have more heart, creativity and ingenuity than A movies with many times the budget but a third of the heart
I'll look for Small Town Crimes.