Betty Grable Takes a Walk on the Noir Side: I Wake Up Screaming (1941)

I’ll admit it. I’ve only seen Betty Grable in two films. It’s not because I’m not a fan; I’ve always thought she was lovely, with a gorgeous figure – I’ve even read her biography – but she’s mostly a musical gal, and if you know me, you’ll know I’m not exactly the world’s biggest fan of musicals. But I Wake Up Screaming is no musical, and in it, Grable shows that she doesn’t need to sing or dance to make an audience sit up and take notice.

Released in 1941 by 20th Century Fox, and originally known as Hot Spot, I Wake Up Screaming is an early film noir entry that centers on the murder of a beautiful New York model, Vicki Lynn (Carole Landis). At the film’s start, Vicki is already dead, and we’re told her story via series of flashbacks as two of the people closest to Vicki are questioned by police: Frankie Christopher (Victor Mature), a well-known sports promoter, and her sister-slash-roommate, Jill (Grable).

— The plot unfolds through the police questioning of Jill and Frankie.

We learn that Vicki was a waitress in an Eighth Avenue diner when she was discovered by Frankie and his two pals, newspaper columnist Larry Evans (Allyn Joslyn) and actor Robin Ray (Alan Mobray). Frankie bets his buddies that he can turn Vicki into a star within six months, and the next night, he introduces her to “café society” at the swanky El Chico nightclub. Before you can say “Bob’s Your Uncle,” Vicki’s face is on the cover of every major magazine and she’s fielding gigs from modeling clothes to performing in ice ballets.

Behind Frankie’s back, though, the ever-ambitious Vicki winds up wrangling a motion picture screen test and plans to leave New York behind for a career in Tinseltown – but just before she’s scheduled to depart, Frankie finds her dead in her apartment. Police detective Ed Cornell (Laird Cregar) is determined to pin the crime on Frankie – and Frankie and Jill are equally determined to find the real killer.

— Jill and Vicki are like night and day.

Grable’s Jill is the ying to her sister’s yang – she’s sensible, practical, and oozing with common sense, while Vicki is flighty, with her head in the clouds. Jill is thoughtful and compassionate, and Vicki is as shallow as a kiddie pool. And Jill refers to herself as “the plain, ordinary garden variety” sister, while Vicki is the “glamour girl.” We see the obvious differences between the sisters when Vicki returns from her evening at El Chico, excitedly telling Jill that she met important people, danced with good looking men, and “got dozens and dozens of invitations.” Jill is clearly unimpressed: “Invitations to do what?” she sarcastically inquires, telling Jill she’s making a fool of herself. “You’ll never come out on top by any short cut. One week your face is on the cover of a magazine, and the next it’s in the ashcan.” Unfortunately for Vicki, she doesn’t heed her sister’s sage warning.

All things considered, we don’t really get to know much about the rather unlikable Vicki – there doesn’t appear, in fact, to be much to know. She wants to be famous and she doesn’t care what she has to do to achieve that goal – that’s about the size of it. But Jill, while far less showy, is infinitely more interesting. Here are a few reasons why:

— Jill is smart.

Jill is smart. While talking to the cops, Jill remembers “a queer thing that happened” a year earlier; while waiting for her sister at the diner, Jill saw a man skulking outside the window, staring at Vicki. She recalls having seen the man several times after that. “Perhaps if you could find that man,” she muses, “you’d find the murderer.” And later, when Jill is released from custody by cops banking on her leading them to Frankie, she craftily climbs up her fire escape and flees via the roof of the building next door. “I wasn’t a Campfire Girl for nothing,” she tells Frankie.

Jill is feisty. During Jill’s questioning, the cops accuse her of covering for Frankie because of her romantic feelings for him; one of them tells her, “You were in love with him, and when he wouldn’t give you a tumble, you put your sister out of the way.” Jill’s response is to smack the cop squarely in the face. “You have no right to talk to me like that,” she snaps. “Who do you think you are?”

— Jill is brave. (And pretty!)

Jill is brave. When Cornell and a uniformed officer show up at her apartment and handcuff Frankie, she knocks Cornell out with a single blow from an iron. She then sends the officer on a misdirected chase (“Leave the cop to me,” she tells Frankie).

Grable does a good job conveying Jill’s various emotions – loving concern over Vicki’s flighty ambitions, disdain when she first meets Frankie, suppressed anger when Vicki tells Frankie that Jill is in love with him, sorrow and disbelief when she finds Frankie kneeling over Vicki’s dead body, alarm when she’s cornered in her apartment by Ed Cornell. Above all, she makes you care about Jill, and root for her. It’s a first-rate performance in a well-done film – as aptly described by the reviewer for Variety, Grable is “enormously appealing.”

Miscellaneous stuff:

Although this is a decidedly non-singing/non-dancing role for Grable, the film nonetheless manages to allow her a bit of warbling. In a scene where Vicki and Jill are riding in a car with Frankie, Grable can briefly be heard singing a wordless tune.

Speaking of music, two tunes are heard consistently throughout the score – Street Scene by Alfred Newman and Somewhere Over the Rainbow, which you’ll recognize, of course, from The Wizard of Oz. Street Scene is a familiar melody that was also used in several other 20th Century Fox noirs: Cry of the City, Kiss of Death, Where the Sidewalk Ends, and The Dark Corner.

— Vicki as Lady Vere de Vere.

On the night when Vicki makes her first appearance in the El Chico club, she speaks to Frankie’s friend actor Robin Ray in an affected manner, mimicking the hoity-toity crowd. Mobray tells her, “Listen, you little hash-slinger, don’t give me any of that Lady Vere de Vere stuff or I’ll bite you.” This is a reference to a poem by Alfred Tennyson, about a haughty lady in a family of aristocrats; it was used back in the day when someone was acting especially snobbish. (“Lady Vere de Vere” was also mentioned by Joan Crawford’s character in the 1930 pre-Code Our Blushing Brides.)

Pay close attention to the look of the film – it’s rife with unusual camera angles and an exceptional use of light and shadows. The man responsible for the film’s effectively atmospheric look was cinematographer Edward Cronjager. He earned a total of several Academy Award nominations during his career. (He should have received one for this film.)

— This is one noirishly gorgeous film.

Near the movie’s end, Cornell tells a story about a rare female butterfly from Africa that was kept in a glass box, which attracted a mate once it was freed. He uses the tale to convince the D.A. to release Jill from custody. One of Cornell’s lines gave me pause: “We’ll have Frankie and Annette by tomorrow.” Wait, what? Frankie and Annette? From the Beach Party movies? Those were made in the 1960s and this film came out in 1941. What was the connection?? Then I listened to the line again. What he actually said was, “We’ll have Frankie in the net by tomorrow.” Ha!

The film was based on a novel of the same name by Steve Fisher. It was remade by 20th Century Fox in 1953 as Vicki, starring Jean Peters in the title role, Jeanne Crain as Jill, and Elliott Reid as Christopher (with a first name change to Steve, for some reason). Vicki is worth seeing, but I like I Wake Up Screaming better.

I Wake Up Screaming can be found for free on YouTube. If you’re mainly used to seeing Betty Grable dancing and singing her way across the screen, you’ll want to see her in this.

You only owe it to yourself.

This post is part of the Betty Grable Blogathon, hosted by Rebecca over at the Taking Up Room blog. Click here and treat yourself to some top-notch Betty Grable posts!

~ by shadowsandsatin on July 1, 2023.