What about "Nevada noir?" Is there such a thing—a subgenre that mixes standard noir elements with local color and time-honored Silver State themes, such as remorseless indulgence in vice? These eight films make a case that the answer is yes.
Dark City |
Release Date: October 17, 1950.
Director: William Dieterle.
Cast: Charlton Heston, Jack Webb, Ed Begley, Lizabeth Scott.
Location: The Last Frontier Hotel
The Plot: Danny Haley (Heston in his film debut) is a bookie looking for a quick score, when his operation is shut down. He and his associates (Webb and Begley) con a family man from Los Angeles, Arthur Winant (Don DeFore), into indulging in a night of poker. After Winant loses $5,000, he hangs himself. But Winant had a psychotic, protective older brother who's coming to Las Vegas for revenge.
The Skinny: Dieterle (The Life of Emile Zola and The Hunchback of Notre Dame) was a superb director who knew how to keep things moving and coax good performances from his cast. Unfortunately, the script has too many distracting subplots, including Danny's affair with a torch singer (Scott) and his attraction to Winant's widow (Viveca Lindfors). At a mere 98 minutes, the film is too short for such diversions. The film's best sequences are casino scenes where the patrons are hopping to the action.
The Las Vegas Story |
Release Date: January 30, 1952.
Director: Robert Stevenson.
Cast: Victor Mature, Jane Russell, Vincent Price.
Location: Fremont Street, Hoover Dam, Lake Mead.
The Plot: Jeweler Lloyd Rollins (a suitably smarmy Price) and his wife, Linda (Russell), stop in Vegas. As Lloyd gets the gambling bug and ignores Linda, she seeks fulfillment elsewhere: in the arms of policeman Dave Andrews (Mature), who had an affair with Linda when she was a lounge singer in the Last Chance casino in Vegas years ago. Is this wise? Can robbery and murder be far behind?
The Skinny: Here we have it, folks—the film that established our favorite Vegas hack elements: sultry women, the ready submission to vice, gamblers who don't know when their luck is running out, the hope to escape your past, the desire to win the big pot and, of course, greed and lust leading to murder in the city of neon. But before these became Vegas clichés, director Stevenson did deliver this entertaining melodrama. The actors go through their paces with gusto, and the fact that the film was shot almost exclusively in Las Vegas (the custom sheen of Fremont Street is particularly arresting) gives the movie a refreshing authenticity. It's not a classic, but it is a damned entertaining look at Vegas in its glory days.
They Came To Rob Las Vegas |
Release Date: February 5, 1969.
Director: Antonio Isasi.
Cast: Gary Lockwood, Elke Sommer, Lee J. Cobb, Jack Palance.
Location: Various casinos, stretches of nearby desert.
The Plot: A gang of robbers led by the vicious Tony (Lockwood, playing a character who needs no surname), with the help of inside information from his girlfriend (Sommer), plans to rob an armored truck in Las Vegas. They succeed, but only partially, as tensions mount among the thieves, and the owner of the transport company (Cobb) and a federal agent (Palance) are hot on their trail.
The Skinny: This multinational production (Spain, Italy, France, West Germany) was only partly filmed in Vegas, but there are enough shots of the vintage Strip to give it a kicky late-'60s travelogue look. Nonetheless, They Came To Rob Las Vegas is a tough, mostly engaging crime drama. Nice scene: when Tony and his band bury the armored vehicle in the desert and hide from the feds. But director Isasi's style is a little too florid, and it doesn't mix particularly well with the intricate plot. Still, slick footage of swank casino patrons living it up with cocktails and dice; the shot of Elke Sommer in a miniskirt; and the great Lee J. Cobb are compensation enough.
The Grasshopper |
Release Date: May 27, 1970.
Director: Jerry Paris.
Cast: Jacqueline Bisset, Jim Brown, Joseph Cotten.
Location: Las Vegas Strip, Circus Circus Hotel.
The Plot: Christine (Bisset) leaves her small town in British Columbia for a more exciting life with her boyfriend (Christopher Stone) in Los Angeles. She soon gets bored and heads for Las Vegas, where she falls in love with a former NFL player (Brown). They marry, but after a tragic accident, Christine is forced to fend for herself as a Vegas prostitute.
The Skinny: It plays more like a melodrama than you'd expect for noir, but the film has some definite noir qualities: doomed love, the sheer pessimism and despair that permeates the tale. The muted color scheme, grim shots of the Strip and Bisset's fine performance makes this worth seeking out.
Kill Me Again |
Release Date: October 27, 1989.
Director: John Dahl.
Cast: Val Kilmer, Joanne Whalley, Michael Madsen.
Location: Las Vegas Hilton, Harold's Club (Reno), Downtown Reno.
The Plot: Vince and Fay (Madsen, Whalley) steal a suitcase of cash from mob couriers. She turns the tables on him, escapes with the money and enlists private eye Jack Andrews (Kilmer) to arrange her death so they can live off the hot money in Las Vegas. Things get ugly when Vince starts figuring things out.
The Skinny: A neat homage to the noirs of old. Kilmer is a bit wooden, but Whalley and Madsen are wonderful, and director-writer Dahl wisely keeps the air of mistrust between Jack and Fay palpable to the end, giving the flick an undercurrent of uncertainty. The most enjoyable sequence has Fay gambling up a storm at the Hilton, fulfilling a fantasy of gambling and intoxication that's worthy of any "what happens here stays here" ad.
Hard Eight |
Release Date: February 28, 1997.
Director: Paul Thomas Anderson.
Cast: John C. Reilly, Philip Baker Hall, Gwyneth Paltrow.
Location: Jack's Coffee shop in Sparks, Peppermill Hotel and Casino, John Ascuaga's Nugget, Sands Regency.
The Plot: Sydney (the always reliable Hall) is a shrewd, veteran gambler who befriends John (Reilly), a penniless bum, in the wee hours at a small coffee shop. Sydney shows him the secrets of professional gambling. He even helps him develop a relationship with Clementine (Paltrow), a young waitress who sidelines as a hooker. John's life begins to come together, but fate has a way of stepping in ...
The Skinny: Before he became the auteur of the San Fernando Valley, Paul Thomas Anderson churned out this incisive character study of loneliness, isolation and redemption. Smart choice using Reno as his backdrop; it doesn't reinvent itself at the pace that Las Vegas does, so it works well for Anderson's meditative examination of old and young. Anderson's feel for casino scenes and seedy downtown motels never feels forced, and he's spot-on at capturing the perspective of a 24-hour gambling town. An overlooked gem.
The Deep End |
Release Date: August 8, 2001.
Directors: Scott McGehee, David Siegel
Cast: Tilda Swinton, Goran Visnjic, Jonathan Tucker.
Location: Lake Tahoe, Downtown Reno.
The Plot: With her husband away on military service, a mother (Swinton) is force to raise her children alone. Things get sticky when her teenage son (Tucker) comes out to her and admits to having an affair with an older man. She confronts her son's lover (Josh Lucas) in a gay bar in downtown Reno, and soon after discovers his dead body on the shores of their lakeside home. Did her son kill him? Will the police suspect her? Was it a crime of passion—or a crime at all?
The Skinny: This fine Hitchcockian thriller is distinguished by Swinton's tense, nervy performance; the effective use of Tahoe's pristine beauty to counter the threat of murder; and a fine modulation of plot as Swinton's character digs deeper into her own hole. The film's themes of devotion, sacrifice and trust make The Deep End a strong noir thriller with an impressive moral aspect.
The Cooler |
Release Date: November 26, 2003.
Director: Wayne Kramer.
Cast: Alec Baldwin, William H. Macy, Maria Bello, Paul Sorvino.
Location: Las Vegas and Reno.
The Plot: Bernie Lootz (Macy) is a jinx. He's deep in debt, but luckily for Bernie, he works for Shelly Kaplow (Baldwin), the crusty owner of the Shangri-La Casino. Bernie has been labeled a "cooler," and Shelly uses Bernie to jinx gamblers who happen to be on a hot streak. Wouldn't you know it? Bernie falls for a sexy cocktail waitress (Bello) and his luck begins to change—much to Shelly's frustration, as he has his own financial troubles.
The Skinny: Okay, forget the fact that you can see the neon lights of Reno's Silver Legacy on a rooftop supposedly set in Las Vegas. A trio of terrific performances and a gritty desire to appreciate the Las Vegas of old anchors this atmospheric tale. As with the most skillful practitioners of noir narrative, Kramer handles the tale of betrayal and manipulation with unflagging momentum, and his set pieces, regardless of their Reno markings, are suitably unromantic.