Everything That Dies, Some Day Comes Back

By a strange coincidence 1944 saw the release of two film noirs starring Edward G Robinson which have some similarities in plot. In 'Double Indemnity' he plays an insurance investigator who doesn't realise that the salesman he trusts and keeps informed is actually the murderer in the case he is looking into. In this film, it is Robinson himself who is the murderer who is kept informed as to how the police investigation is proceeding by his friend who happens to be the DA. But whereas the Billy Wilder picture is a classic and in my opinion the definitive film noir , this Fritz Lang movie is merely entertaining. Anton Chekhov, had he still been alive in 1944, might have been astonished at how liberally his Chekhov's Gun concept is being applied in this film. We start off with overhearing part of a psychology lecture by assistant professor Wanley (Robinson) in which he refers to murder in self defence, and sure enough not that long afterwards he himself is committing just...

This 1947 film is a psychological drama which would like to think it is scarier than it is. Never mind, it’s well enough put together to hold my attention (just) although a bit of pruning here and there from screenwriter Dudley Nichols wouldn’t have gone amiss, just to cut out some repetition and make it tauter. Edward G Robinson and Judith Anderson play Pete and Ellen, a brother and sister who live on an isolated farm, with teenage Meg who they have adopted. Meg's parents supposedly left the area when she was a baby and then subsequently died.  Around the same time, Pete had an accident whereby he fell into a nearby quarry, losing a leg in the process.  It’s no great surprise when eventually we learn that there is a sinister explanation for the disappearance of Meg's parents.   But let’s not run ahead of ourselves. The film starts gently enough with Pete and Ellen taking on a teenage lad Nath to help out on the farm in the evenings. Meg is sweet on Nath but he only ...

This is a rather odd film noir directed by Fritz Lang. It starts off predictably enough. Middle-aged Chris (Edward G Robinson), who has a low paying job as a bank cashier and a very unpleasant wife, meets pretty young Kitty (Joan Bennett). He falls madly in love with her, not realising that she is just humouring him.  She has a grifter for a boyfriend Johnny (Dan Duryea) who immediately sees the opportunity for some easy money.  Very quickly Chris is persuaded to set Kitty up in an apartment even though their relationship is so chaste they haven’t even kissed.  Chris is an amateur painter who pretends to Kitty that he is successful and well-off.  In reality the only way he can fund her lifestyle is to steal money from both his wife and his bank.  It’s at this point that the story takes a bizarre turn.  Johnny takes it into his head to try to sell some of Chris' paintings, and through an improbable series of events an eminent art critic sees them and, very...