The Three Dennis O'Brien Films
Noir at its Cheapest
          
                 
Danger Zone (1951) - 5.5




To my generation Hugh Beaumont is Ward Cleaver. Dad to the Beaver for 234 episodes of handing out fatherly advice to his two sons Wally and the Beaver with his wife June (Barbara Billingsley) doing most of the enforcing. Well, Hugh Beaumont had another life earlier on in film. From 1945 to 1951 he was in about a dozen low budget tough guy noir/crime films in which he mainly starred and though usually he was the good guy, on occasion he crossed the line to the other side. Five of these were as Michael Shayne taking that role over after Lloyd Nolan moved on and three were as Dennis O'Brien, who rents out boats but will take side jobs for $50 which makes his eyes gleam. Here he is Dennis O'Brien doing the narration like Sam Spade except without Mary Astor. His dames are strictly C film starlets.




Not really sure what the pedigree of this film is. It feels like two TV show glued together like flypaper. The Production Company is Spartan Productions (spartan being the key word) and feels like a step below Monogram. But for what they are they are kind of fun. They try so hard to be hard-bitten noir with femme fatales rolling in like the tide and the metaphors coming at you like a squadron of Zeroes out of the sun. Some of them are ok. The screenplays for all three of the O'Brien films are by Julian Harmon based on writing by Herb Margolis. They must have gotten paid by the metaphors and wisecracks. It comes in at a neat 56 minutes.




O'Brien's hobby seems to be sitting in on auctions - not to buy but just to watch. A dame with legs that stretched from Nob Hill to Fisherman's Wharf sidles next to him and purrs a little bit before asking him to bid on a suitcase and she will pay him $50. Magic words. Someone is bidding against her and she finally gets it for $1,000 and then disappears leaving O'Brien with the suitcase and a few headaches. Not to mention a few dead bodies that Lt. Bruger (Richard Travis) wants to pin on him. Just because. On O'Brien's side is his genius drunkard professor friend played by Edward Brophy. Brophy is always a treat to listen to - here edifying with a Brooklyn accent.



In the second story O'Brien takes another job for $50 when a private dick (Tom Neal) has him escort a lady to a party on a  ship out in the ocean. Turns out no one is there. He has been set up. And murder is in the cards. Each story runs about 28 minutes - squashed tight like a jail house alibi. As cheap as cardboard but Beaumont isn't bad as the tough talking cynic who looks at a $50 bill like he does in the opening scene when three girls walk by - one bustier than the other - and says San Fran has its points. You had to be there.
Pier 23 (1950) - 5.0




Hugh Beaumont as Dennis O'Brien is back in two more short crime capers. Short like a quick jab to the gut. Poor guy can't get a break. Every easy job brings him $50 and a lot of trouble. Every girl in San Francisco seems to point a gun at him telling him she wants to kill him. Just a popular guy. He keeps getting bashed over the head to wake up to a dead stiff near him and the cops with a bucket of questions for him. Hell, he doesn't even get his photo on this poster below holding Ann Savage - that's the cop who keeps threatening O'Brien with a nice warm seat with electricity.  Ya, tough guys all around. Only the dames are tougher. You watch enough of these and you will be afraid to go home to your wife.




In the first story a priest comes to O'Brien and asks for help. He doesn't even offer $50. Tithings must be slow. He asks O'Brien to meet a man who is escaping from Alcatraz that night to kill someone. Bring him to me. Sure. Why not. He meets him but first takes him to an apartment where a blonde is waiting - O'Brien turns his head as he always does and gets conked. He wakes up at the feet of Inspector Bruger with the guy on the couch. Dead.





The next one invites some noir through the door in the hulking figure of Mike Mazurki. Or as he was known as a wrestler Iron Mike Mazurki. His name should be in the Noir Hall of Fame. He throws off enough shadow to cover any noir film. He plays a wrestler here and there is a good few minutes of him wrestling in a match - brutal. Ends up throwing his dead opponent onto O'Brien's lap. Even worse is when the widow wants to climb on to his lap as well. There are a couple murders in-between and O'Brien gets knocked out as usual to find a dead body and a cop waiting for him to wake up.  It is getting to be a habit. Edward Brody as the information machine is here for both and talks about Darwin's theory.
Roaring City (1951) - 5.0




The final Dennis O'Brien film for me and not a minute too soon. These are noirs that are so low budget that they can't even afford the shadows. But in their one hour running times they give us two tales of murder and women on the wrong side of the law. There are three of these and it doesn't matter what order you see them in or even if you see them. Your life will be just fine if you never run into these on a dark night of loneliness and despair. And if you see one, you have basically seen all three or six if you count the stories. One might have thought the writers or the protagonist Hugh Beaumont would have gotten embarrassed after a while. What? I get knocked out again to wake up to find a cold corpse and Inspector Bruger waiting patiently to accuse me of the killing. Ok once, maybe twice but hell in every film and twice on Sunday. Does Bruger live in my pants pocket. So, ya if you watch them don't do all three in a row like I did. Their similarities have a stench about them of bad writing. All three of these were directed by William Berke, a well-known B director and he should have known better as well.




In the first segment O'Brien shows his lack of purity by agreeing to place three bets against the favorite in a boxing match though he knows this must mean the fight is fixed. It's $100 so he can overlook a little dirt. Except the favorite wins and bad guys are after him and so is the femme fatale that each of these has. O'Brien takes his lumps and has a few guns pointed at him that he shrugs off like a slow drizzle.




In the second he is offered another hundred to pretend to be the husband of a woman who is worried her ex-boyfriend is going to get rough unless she is married. For a hundred O'Brien would probably actually marry her. It is the usual set-up and after getting conked he wakes up in a trash bin with the woman's real husband next to him. Dead. Bruger is waiting outside for the smell from the garbage to lift.  O'Brien throws a few metaphors, insults and witticisms at Bruger because that is what tough guys do after being knocked out- and then leaves. We get two femme fatales in this one for the price of one. Edward Brophy is again the best thing in it as the drunken professor with a gift for erudite gab and thousand dollar words and an ability to ferret out whatever info O'Brien needs. Whew. Glad these are over. Ok to see one but three in a row was living dangerously.