Singing Tough Guy
I know and love Dick Powell from his early musical days where the goofy grinned, wavy style haired gent always starred as a playful “juvenile” role and sang such great Bugsby Berkeley classics as “Pettin’ in the Park” and “Honeymoon Hotel”. I was surprised to read then, that the man whose gentle silliness could be played with aplomb by Will Farell (well, minus the singing) reinvented himself in Hollywood as a tough guy in numerous noirs. It’s even more surprising that as film noir fans we’ve not seen more of them – except for the flashback Kurt Douglas thriller The Bad and the Beautiful. I’ve been sure to add Murder, My Sweet and Cornered to my queue. I will skip the last film he directed before he passed away, The Conquerer that bizarrely cast John Wayne as Genghis Khan.
But what do you think?