Noir Died, but the Crime Film Lives On

 

The Hollywood Theater in Portland is running Polyester Pulp: The 70s Crime Series over the next few weeks. I’m fascinated by early 70s movies, probably because they were gone by the time I was old enough to go to the movies in the late 70s. They are beyond my living memory, and therein lies the catnip.

Dan Halsted, The Hollywood Theater’s Head Programmer, put the series together. His comments before tonight’s initial film Charley Varrick were interesting; he pointed out that although Film Noir as a genre is now revered, those films were intended to be low-budget "B" crime films. The initial wave of noir films died out by the early 60s, but crime films made a comeback in the early 70s. These films are a different animal, in part because the death of the Hays Code allowed filmmakers to explicitly show the sex, violence, and sadism that classical noir could only lightly touch.

Don Siegel directed the first film of the series, Charley Varrick (1973). Although most well-known for directing Dirty Harry and Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Siegel had directed a number of noirs in his youth, including The Big Steal and The Lineup.

Charley Varrick is a treat for those familiar with Siegel’s films, and those of his protégé Clint Eastwood. Eastwood would poach some of these actors for his own 70s acting troupe, such as John Vernon (Fletcher) and Woodrow Parfrey (Carpetbagger) in The Outlaw Josey Wales. Foremost from Siegel’s crew is Andrew Robinson (The Scorpio Killer in Dirty Harry--and also Garak from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine).

I admit, Walter Matthau seemed a bit of an odd choice as the lead, mostly because in his early 50s, his days as a romantic lead were over. He does bring to the screen a mix of street smarts and weariness that says “I know the score, but this is a young man’s game, and I think it’s time to get out.”

Perhaps that’s the key to Matthau’s casting—he’s an older man, and his time is past, like noir itself. Siegel wanted the title of this film to be Varrick’s company’s motto, “Last of the Independents”.