Tonight's Movie: The Flame (1947) - A Kino Lorber Blu-ray Review

It's New Year's Eve, and a camera glides over the city to a darkened apartment, where a shot rings out...

This description might make a savvy classic film viewer think of the opening of Eagle-Lion's REPEAT PERFORMANCE (1947), which begins with Joan Leslie shooting husband Louis Hayward...but in this case the sequence is from an entirely different movie from the same year, THE FLAME (1947).

THE FLAME was just released on Blu-ray by Kino Lorber in the Dark Side of Cinema XXV collection. To my knowledge this is the first time it's been available for home viewing.

John Carroll plays George MacAllister, the shooter in the movie's opening scene. Carroll, formerly an MGM contract player, had moved to Republic Pictures that year; before THE FLAME he appeared for the studio in a pair of Bill Elliott's Westerns, WYOMING (1947) and THE FABULOUS TEXAN (1947).

Most of THE FLAME is told in flashback, as we learn that ne'er-do-well George's girlfriend Carlotta (Vera Ralston) is nursing his wealthy brother Barry (Robert Paige), who's in poor health due to an unnamed malady.

George and Carlotta have a plan for her to marry Barry, who's not expected to live long, after which she'll inherit Barry's millions and she and George will live happily ever after.

There are just a couple of problems: George has another girlfriend on the side, Helene (Constance Dowling)...and George also hasn't counted on Carlotta falling for Barry for real.

Nor has George figured in that Helene has another boyfriend, Ernie (Broderick Crawford), who's in need of funds to keep Helene happy and discovers he has an excellent opportunity to blackmail George and Carlotta...

I thoroughly enjoyed THE FLAME, finding it one of those relatively unknown little movies which proved to be a wonderful discovery. It has a solid script by Lawrence Kimble, based on a story by Robert Terrance Shannon, and I found it a very worthwhile 97 minutes which I hope will become better known.

The movie was shown in a Republic Pictures series at the Museum of Modern Art several years ago -- Farran Smith Nehme wrote an excellent overview for the Village Voice -- and I'd love to see this one shown at future film noir festivals.

With its "gothic noir" elements -- Barry lives in a forbidding coastal mansion which calls to mind MY NAME IS JULIA ROSS (1945) -- and a feeling of impending doom, THE FLAME has a touch of the otherworldly tone which also sets apart REPEAT PERFORMANCE. These New Year's Eve films would make a marvelous double bill.

The movie has some superbly directed sequences, such as an early scene with George driving towards his hotel; it manages to be both spooky and heart-pounding, as George is stopped by a police officer (Eddie Dunn) and initially makes the incorrect assumption as to why he was pulled over. The movie has a number of similarly well-orchestrated moments which elevate it above the norm.

The cast may not be comprised of the best actors of the era, yet I rather enjoyed that they were relatively fresh faces on the noir scene.

This is one of several films teaming Ralston and Carroll, who were frequently teamed at Republic; their other films were WYOMING, I, JANE DOE (1948), SURRENDER (1950), and BELLE LE GRAND (1951).

I've always liked Carroll, who like his MGM contemporary James Craig gradually moved into doing good character work; one of his final films was Budd Boetticher's DECISION AT SUNDOWN (1957), where he played a strangely admirable villain. He's got just enough sleaze here to make the role work.

Ralston isn't especially believable in her early scenes as the film's ostensible femme fatale, lacking the varied shadings needed to convey her character's transformation from bad girl to good; at the same time, you could easily read the character as not having what it took to be a "bad girl" from the outset. She's likeable and at times downright angelic in the film's latter sections, and I quite enjoyed her here.

Ralston has been unfairly stereotyped over the years as a poor actress who was the paramour and later wife of Republic Pictures head Herbert J. Yates, but I don't feel she's received her due. While certainly not one of Hollywood's better actresses, she nonetheless had what it took to sustain a successful career over the better part of two decades, and she was actually quite good in a number of films, including DAKOTA (1945), more than holding her own in a spunky role opposite John Wayne, and the underseen JUBILEE TRAIL (1954), where she headed a deep cast alongside Forrest Tucker and Joan Leslie.

Paige (CAN'T HELP SINGING) is similarly considered a rather bland actor, yet I found him entirely believable and effective here as the kindly Barry, a genuinely nice guy. What can I say? I liked him.

Crawford and Dowling also had supporting roles in the previous year's outstanding BLACK ANGEL (1946) for Universal Pictures, a personal favorite. They're excellent here, providing the film with some needed spice, with Crawford perfect as the determined blackmailer.

Dowling has a lot of fun with her more ambiguous character and has a couple terrific scenes. In the first, she puts over a sultry take on Kahn and Donaldson's "Love Me or Leave Me" when performing in a nightclub; in the second, she pays a call on Carlotta and shares some plain facts about George. Her exit is a great moment.

Kudos also to Victor Sen Yung, who takes an initially stereotypical role as George's houseboy, Chang, and turns the part into something deeper and quite moving in his final scenes.

The supporting cast also includes Blanche Yurka, Henry Travers, Hattie McDaniel, Harry Cheshire, John Miljan, and Garry Owen.

Bess Flowers fans will spot the movies' best-known "dress extra" walking through a lobby near the movie's start, dressed in New Year's finery. I remember at one point Flowers' IMDb credits numbered in the 800s; her listings are now at over 1100! I've added a couple of her credits myself over the years.

Like the other films in this Kino Lorber set, the previously reviewed CITY THAT NEVER SLEEPS (1953) and HELL'S HALF ACRE (1954), THE FLAME was directed by John H. Auer, who mostly worked at Republic Pictures. He does a fine job on all three films, in each case sustaining a very effective moody tone and making good use of actors often seen in support in leading roles.

The film was memorably shot in black and white by Reggie Lanning. Kino Lorber's beautiful, gleaming Blu-ray print shows off Lanning's photography to great effect. The print is from a new Paramount Pictures HD master from a 4K scan.

Disc extras consist of a commentary track by Heath Holland (Cereal at Midnight), plus a gallery of trailers for three additional films available from Kino Lorber.

This Dark Side of Cinema set is another winner, especially as it makes THE FLAME available on Blu-ray for the first time, and is very highly recommended.

Thanks to Kino Lorber for providing a review copy of this Blu-ray collection.

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