I never heard of director H. Bruce Humberstone before- he's not an immediately recognizable director of thrillers and particularly in the mood of film-noirs like Fritz Lang or Robert Siodmak or Otto Preminger to a degree- but after I Wake Up Screaming I'll try my best to remember it. He's directed an exemplary film, a B-movie that crackles non-stop with terrific, sometimes explosive dialog, and the actors- all cast against their usual genres at the time (and Victor Mature, a musical performer, who knew)- and retains its classic status as a more-than-whodunit.
Actually, the 'who-dunnit' part is both the least exciting and the most potent of the picture (yeah, contradiction in terms). Vicki Lynn has just been murdered, and Inspector Cornell (Laird Cregar) is out to bust the guy who did it - and that guy, right from the start, is sports promoter/slickster Frankie Christopher (Mature). At first it's cut and dry it seems, but then... ah, personality seems to go a long way in these stories, and this is where some directors might play for safety in the treatment of the plot and characters, but Humberstone follows along with it, makes the mystery exciting and curious for the audience. I've seen many of the quintessentially darkly-lit movies of the 40s, and this one still caught me up in the grip of suspense, the thick of not always so much who did it but what clue would slip up who, and at just what turn.
The dialog is one indicator of how continuously watchable I Wake Up Screaming is; the lines just between Christopher and Cornell, slinging barbs at each other and going in their molds of Christopher the wisecracker but tough (and claiming innocent) guy and Cornell the smug, slimy Inspector who, by proxy of a very underrated performance by character actor Cregar, becomes all deliciously more obvious as the picture goes on. And yet the writers know well: it's good to be witty, even sarcastic and with touches of grim humor or catchy one liners like, "Here, have a tootsie roll!" But it's also the acting all around, on top of the perfectly moody cinematography (the smoke in one room could be cut with a scalpel, and the contrasts of light and reflecting of lines of shade is remarkable), that makes this stand out, with Grable, Landis and especially Mature giving all they got.
Watch it in the dark, have no distractions, and get sucked into I Wake Up Screaming, a tale of a woman being sucked into the fantasy of showbiz, the possibility of two folks finding love together, and the lines of who's good or bad getting blurred all along the way. Pretty simple themes, but expressed wonderfully and with a tough sense of style, plus with an oft-repeated "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" rendition fitting in (sometimes) ironically in scenes. Basically, any self respecting fan of film noirs, or just brilliant B-movies, should see it.
Actually, the 'who-dunnit' part is both the least exciting and the most potent of the picture (yeah, contradiction in terms). Vicki Lynn has just been murdered, and Inspector Cornell (Laird Cregar) is out to bust the guy who did it - and that guy, right from the start, is sports promoter/slickster Frankie Christopher (Mature). At first it's cut and dry it seems, but then... ah, personality seems to go a long way in these stories, and this is where some directors might play for safety in the treatment of the plot and characters, but Humberstone follows along with it, makes the mystery exciting and curious for the audience. I've seen many of the quintessentially darkly-lit movies of the 40s, and this one still caught me up in the grip of suspense, the thick of not always so much who did it but what clue would slip up who, and at just what turn.
The dialog is one indicator of how continuously watchable I Wake Up Screaming is; the lines just between Christopher and Cornell, slinging barbs at each other and going in their molds of Christopher the wisecracker but tough (and claiming innocent) guy and Cornell the smug, slimy Inspector who, by proxy of a very underrated performance by character actor Cregar, becomes all deliciously more obvious as the picture goes on. And yet the writers know well: it's good to be witty, even sarcastic and with touches of grim humor or catchy one liners like, "Here, have a tootsie roll!" But it's also the acting all around, on top of the perfectly moody cinematography (the smoke in one room could be cut with a scalpel, and the contrasts of light and reflecting of lines of shade is remarkable), that makes this stand out, with Grable, Landis and especially Mature giving all they got.
Watch it in the dark, have no distractions, and get sucked into I Wake Up Screaming, a tale of a woman being sucked into the fantasy of showbiz, the possibility of two folks finding love together, and the lines of who's good or bad getting blurred all along the way. Pretty simple themes, but expressed wonderfully and with a tough sense of style, plus with an oft-repeated "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" rendition fitting in (sometimes) ironically in scenes. Basically, any self respecting fan of film noirs, or just brilliant B-movies, should see it.