I Wake Up Screaming (1941)

User Rating:

7.4/10   

Director:

H. Bruce Humberstone

Writers:

Steve Fisher (novel)
Dwight Taylor (screenplay)

Release Date:

31 October 1941 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Film-Noir | Mystery | Romance | Thriller

Plot:

Why is Inspector Ed Cornell trying to railroad Frankie Christopher for the murder of model Vicky Lynn?

Plot Keywords:

Promoter | Police | Sister | Murder | Model

Cast

Betty Grable	...	Jill Lynn
Victor Mature	...	Frankie Christopher (Botticelli)
Carole Landis	...	Vicky Lynn
Laird Cregar	...	Police Insp. Ed Cornell
William Gargan	...	Jerry 'Mac' MacDonald
Alan Mowbray	...	Robin Ray
Allyn Joslyn	...	Larry Evans
Elisha Cook Jr.	...	Harry Williams
Chick Chandler	...	Reporter
Cyril Ring	...	Reporter
Morris Ankrum	...	Assistant District Attorney
Charles Lane	...	Keating, Florist
Frank Orth	...	Cemetery Caretaker
Gregory Gaye	...	Headwaiter
May Beatty	...	Lady Handel (as Mae Beatty)

Also Known As:

Hot Spot (UK) (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

82 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono | Mono (RCA Sound System)

Certification:

Sweden:15 | USA:Approved (PCA #7647) | USA:Passed (National Board of Review) | Finland:K-16 | Argentina:13

Filming Locations:

New York, USA

Company:

Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

Trivia:

Two famous melodies are heard in the Cyril J. Mockridge background score: "Over the Rainbow" (music by Harold Arlen, lyrics, not sung here, by E.Y. Harburg) from The Wizard of Oz (1939), and Alfred Newman's theme from Street Scene (1931).

Goofs:

Continuity: During the nightclub scene, Frankie removes a price tag from Vicky's glove that wasn't in previous shots.

Quotes:

Lady Handel: How old are you, anyway?
Robin Ray: That, my dear Lady Handel, is a secret that I keep even from my own mother.

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Biography: Betty Grable: Behind the Pin-up" (1995)

Soundtrack:

The Things I Love

Story of obsession, murder key movie in developing noir cycle

WWII pin-up gal Betty Grable took her first dramatic part as the sister of a murdered model in Bruce Humberstone's I Wake Up Screaming, based on a serialized novel by Steve Fisher. It sounds like second billing, but the victim's role – as coffee-shop hostess turned toast of Manhattan Vicky Lynn – remains curiously understated (and played by Carole Landis).

Landis is discovered by publicist Victor Mature and falls under his benevolent spell, which launches her onto magazine covers and ultimately to a Hollywood contract. She proves ungrateful and winds up strangled. Mature, among other suspects, comes under the scrutiny of the police, particularly of a dogged detective whose interest in the case borders on the obsessive. Portrayed by the immense but oddly vulnerable Laird Cregar, the detective becomes Mature's nemesis (in one scene, Mature wakes up to find Cregar watching him, hoping he'll incriminate himself by talking in his sleep). Cregar's ominous bulk makes for a number of looming shadows skulking through nighttime New York.

I Wake Up Screaming, which appeared very early in the noir cycle, certainly displays the dark look and fragmented structure of its successors, but its tone remains ambiguous. Basically, it's a high-style, `sophisticated' murder mystery, a precursor to the more famous and accomplished Laura. But, unlike Laura, it found many of the implications of the story perhaps too grim for wartime audiences – the theme of obsession gets played down, for instance. But it's a key work in the developing noir cycle, released the same year as Johnny Eager, The Glass Key and This Gun For Hire.

Eleven years later, the releasing studio, 20th Century Fox, remade the film as Vicki. Though changes for the most part were minimal, the title role was enlarged (and taken by Jean Peters) while Mature's part was weakened by routine casting. The most interesting change was engaging the young Richard Boone for the Cregar part, who delivers a more brutal portrayal and thus underscores the theme of sexual obsession. It could be argued that the remake, despite lapses in casting and direction, remains the more intriguing version.