Quickly.
Can you identify the three muggs pictured above, and name the picture from which this still is taken?
Ok, we’ll help out since we’ve already headlined today’s blog about Sam Levene. Yup, that’s Steve Brodie on the right. You shouldn’t have too much trouble identifying the actor to the left. He’s Robert Ryan.
How about the guy in the middle? Yup, that’s Sam Levene, a super seasoned stage actor in the Forties who lent a certain New Yorkish ethnic spice to film noirs.
The movie involving all three is Crossfire, a 1947 thriller made during the Dore Schary “message movie” period at RKO, about four World War II Army buddies — one of whom is a deranged killer who meets an unfortunate end.
Levene, born Scholem Lewin in 1905, is properly revered today not only for his many solid film roles, usually as a cop, a friendly sidekick or sympathetic agent, but for an astounding 54-year theatrical stage career in which he created starring roles in 33 original Broadway productions.
The son of a cantor, Levene’s nearly 50-title movie career began in the mid-Thirties, taking him through some of the finest film noirs ever to come out of Hollywood. Four of the best movies costarred Burt Lancaster, Levene’s lifelong friend. Below is Levene in 1946’s The Killers.
And then there was our man being roughed up by Hume Cronyn in 1947’s Brute Force.
And perhaps most memorably as Burt Lancaster’s adversary in the 1957 classic The Sweet Smell of Success. (That’s Susan Harrison on the left as Lancaster’s daughter.)
Levene died of a heart attack at age 75 in 1980, in New York City — his hometown.
The hubby played Nathan Detroit in a community theatre production of Guys and Dolls, so there is never a time we see Sam Levene that one of us doesn’t remark “Why, it’s good old reliable Nathan.”
Things I need to look up:
Mr. Levene was certainly an excellent actor in his many roles. But who was the guy with clear-framed glasses who was on many panel shows in the 50s and 60s who had almost the same name.
I kept looking for him in Sweet Smell of Success.
What was with those neck ties that were worn so short (see Mr. Lancaster above)? I can think of a few reasons, but there must have been a good one that I’m missing.
And a tiny nitpick–Susan Harrison, who passed away in early March, played Burt Lancaster’s sister, not his daughter, in Sweet Smell of Success. Maybe she WAS his daughter?! (Kidding, sort of). Mr. Lancaster and Miss Harrison were fine performers in the movie, but just didn’t come off as brother and sister. At all. Can we say that Tony Curtis stole that movie? He was terrific.
Sorry, all over the place. But that’s what this blog does for me.
A pleasant day to all.
HOORAY FOR SAM LEVENE!
A great character actor who on this site at least, has attracted more attention than so many other bigger names, that never seem to warrant the slightest COMMENT…
And Joe & Frank are quite right in saying THE SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS was probably Sam Levene’s most memorable performance.
It was written by Ernest Lehman, who had already written SABRINA, THE KING AND I, SOMEBODY UP THERE LIKES ME, and would later go on to write WEST SIDE STORY, THE SOUND OF MUSIC…
And there were others, yet he was nominated just four times. And lost four times. Back in the thirties he used to collect gossip for Walter Winchell’s column. One of his first jobs was as a copywriter for another Broadway publicist which led to his novella titled ‘Tell Me about it Tomorrow’ and the film’s eventual screenplay. He knew his subject matter inside out and produced a screenplay of exceptional quality that deserved to be praised. Instead, it was barely acknowledged at the time. Lehman based his character on America’s most powerful columnist, Walter Winchell, and the release of the picture itself worried hell out of the man. Winchell was greatly relieved when the movie bombed. Audiences hated it and the critics assailed it from every angle. Had he used his enormous clout to influence some of the reviews? Possibly. It does seem strange that a film that is universally lauded today was universally condemned on its release.
James Wong Howe’s cinematography is also outstanding. It captures New York City at night like no other movie has ever done. He gives us a time capsule of the Big Apple of the 1950s and it is marvelous. Elmer Bernstein’s fabulous jazz score fits the mood of the picture and the cinematography like a glove. The combination is dazzling and unforgettable.
And then there are the players. It is Tony Curtis’s picture all the way and he delivers. It is hard to feel sorry for a guy gifted with Tony’s looks, but one can’t help but wonder if the powers that be categorized him as nothing more than a pretty face. How else could they not be impressed by his terrific performance as the sniveling, lying, immoral Sidney Falco? It was his greatest ever performance and it slid by unheralded. The guy could act when the right script came along, as he proved, not only here but in The Defiant Ones (1958), Some Like it Hot (1959) and The Boston Strangler (1968).
Susan Harrison made her big screen debut as JJ Hunsecker’s sister, Susan, and showed genuine promise. However, just 7 years later she chose family over career and more or less retired from the screen. Barbara Nichols was excellent as Rita the cigarette girl, Jeff Donnell whose role was cut extensively, including a big romantic scene with Curtis, was convincing as Falco’s dowdy secretary and Emile Meyer was his usual memorable self as Lieutenant Harry Kello. Martin Milner was good as Susan’s love interest and Sam Levene was perfect as his manager. And a special mention to the under-rated Lawrence Dobkin. He played Bartha, the columnist Falco unsuccessfully tried to blackmail in one of the most memorable scenes in the film.
THE SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS was directed, and even co-written by the man who gave us the classic British comedy THE LADYKILLERS, Alexander Mackendrick. This was his first American film and it is a knockout, yet he only received a handful of projects after it and, in 1969, opted to leave the industry to become Dean of the Film Department at the California Institute for the Arts, later teaching until his death in 1993. Critics did not think much of SSOS back in the fifties and audiences did not flock to see it either. Maybe Mackendrick lost confidence in himself. Perhaps, he became disillusioned, or did he simply fall out of favor with the decision-makers? Whatever the reason his loss was the industry’s loss.
These days, of course, the movie is considered to be a classic and rightly so. All the more reason for us to question how it could possibly have been so universally misjudged in the first place?
Well, at least good old SAM LEVENE wasn’t misjudged or ignored today…
Here’s Sam with Tony-
httpss://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXULG-UKVq8
Just reporting back. I was thinking of Abe Burrows, monumentally talented producer and writer and father of James Burrows, monumentally talented producer and director.
Clearly not Sam Levene or any other spelling of same…