''Private Hell 36'' is a 1954 American

crime In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definitions of", in Ca ...

film noir directed by

Don Siegel Donald Siegel ( ; October 26, 1912 – April 20, 1991) was an American film and television director and producer. Siegel was described by ''The New York Times'' as "a director of tough, cynical and forthright action-adventure films whose taut ...

starring

Ida Lupino Ida Lupino (4 February 1918Recorded in ''Births Mar 1918'' Camberwell Vol. 1d, p. 1019 (Free BMD). Transcribed as "Lupine" in the official births index – 3 August 1995) was an English-American actress, singer, director, writer, and producer. T ...

Steve Cochran Steve Cochran (born Robert Alexander Cochran, May 25, 1917 – June 15, 1965) was an American film, television and stage actor. He attended the University of Wyoming. After a stint working as a cowboy, Cochran developed his acting skills in loca ...

, Howard Duff,

Dean Jagger Dean Jagger (November 7, 1903 – February 5, 1991) was an American film, stage, and television actor who won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Henry King's ''Twelve O'Clock High'' (1949). Early life Dean Jeffrie ...

and

Dorothy Malone Dorothy Malone (born Mary Dorothy Maloney; January 29, 1924 – January 19, 2018) was an American actress. Her film career began in 1943, and in her early years, she played small roles, mainly in B-movies, with the exception of a supporting role ...

. The picture was one of the last feature-length efforts by Filmakers, an

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

company created by producer Collier Young and his star and then-wife

Plot

L.A. police detectives Cal Bruner and Jack Farnham are partners. After a fleeing suspect is killed, they discover a box filled with money and Bruner pockets $80,000 over Farnham's objections. Farnham reluctantly accepts a key to a safe deposit box so that he can access his half, but he immediately becomes agitated and racked with guilt. Bruner receives a call from the dead man's partner threatening to reveal the cop's deceit unless he gets his money back. Farnham demands that they turn in the money, but Bruner says he intends to murder the blackmailer and claim self-defense. Bruner finally agrees to return the money instead, but he is actually preparing to kill his own partner. When the crook suddenly shows up Bruner wounds Farnham, but Bruner is killed by a shot from the dark. Their boss, Captain Michaels, appears and reveals that the blackmailing crook was just a ruse.

Cast

as Lilli Marlowe *

as Cal Bruner * Howard Duff as Jack Farnham *

as Capt. Michaels *

as Francey Farnham *

King Donovan King Donovan (January 25, 1918 – June 30, 1987) was an American film, stage, and television actor, as well as a film and television director. Early years Francis King Donovan was born in Manhattan on January 25, 1918. His parents were vaudev ...

as Evney Serovitch *

Dabbs Greer Robert William "Dabbs" Greer (April 2, 1917 – April 28, 2007) was an American character actor in film and television for over 60 years. With nearly 100 film roles and appearances in nearly 600 television episodes of various series, Greer ...

as Sam Marvin *

William Boyett William Boyett (January 3, 1927 – December 29, 2004) was an American actor best known for his roles in law enforcement dramas on television from the 1950s through the 1990s. Early years Boyett was born in Akron, Ohio, and lived there until th ...

as Stimson * Tom Monroe as Patrolman Tom * Richard Deacon as Mr. Mace *

James Anderson James Anderson may refer to: Arts *James Anderson (American actor) (1921–1969), American actor *James Anderson (author) (1936–2007), British mystery writer *James Anderson (English actor) (born 1980), British actor * James Anderson (filmmaker) ...

as Patrolman in Locker Room * Bridget Duff as Bridget Farnham * Kenneth Patterson as Detective Lt. Lubin *

Chester Conklin Chester Cooper Conklin (January 11, 1886 – October 11, 1971) was an early American film comedian who started at Keystone Studios as one of Mack Sennett’s Keystone Cops, often paired with Mack Swain. He appeared in a series of films with Ma ...

as Murdered Man

Background

The extensive racetrack scenes in the film were shot at

Hollywood Park Racetrack Hollywood Park was a thoroughbred race course located in Inglewood, California, about 3 miles (5 km) from Los Angeles International Airport and adjacent to the Forum indoor arena. In 1994, the original Hollywood Park Casino was added to t ...

in Inglewood, California. The interiors of real bars and shops were used so the actors could walk out into actual streets within the same scene. The film starts with a

pre-credit In film production, the pre-credit is the section of the film which is shown before the opening or closing credits are shown. Many films will by common convention have a short scene before the credits to introduce characters who may, or may not, ...

sequence before the first titles appear in an early modernist foreshadowing of the action teaser before it became commonplace on television series of the sixties. Typical of The Film kers productions the last title card misspells “Made in Holl ood, USA.“ The film is notable as one of the early Siegel B movies on which future

auteur An auteur (; , 'author') is an artist with a distinctive approach, usually a film director whose filmmaking control is so unbounded but personal that the director is likened to the "author" of the film, which thus manifests the director's unique ...

Sam Peckinpah David Samuel Peckinpah (; February 21, 1925 – December 28, 1984) was an American film director and screenwriter. His 1969 Western epic '' The Wild Bunch'' received an Academy Award nomination and was ranked No. 80 on the American Film Institut ...

(credited under his first name of David) learned his craft as a dialogue director.

Reception

Film critic

Bosley Crowther Francis Bosley Crowther Jr. (July 13, 1905 – March 7, 1981) was an American journalist, writer, and film critic for ''The New York Times'' for 27 years. His work helped shape the careers of many actors, directors and screenwriters, though his ...

wrote a tepid review, "A critic might note that attention is sharply divided between the main theme and the incidental character that Miss Lupino plays. This is somewhat understandable, since Miss Lupino happens to be one of the partners in Filmakers and a coauthor of the script. But let's not worry about it. No deplorable damage is done. There's not very much here to damage. Just an average melodrama about cops."Crowther, Bosley
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'', film review, "Private Hell 36,' a Story of Policemen, Has Premiere at the Paramount", September 4, 1954. Accessed: June 23, 2013.

References

External links

* * * *
''Private Hell 36''
at Film Noir of the Week by

Megan Abbott Megan Abbott (born August 21, 1971) is an American author of crime fiction and of non-fiction analyses of hardboiled crime fiction. Her novels and short stories have drawn from and re-worked classic subgenres of crime writing from a female perspec ...

{{Ida Lupino 1954 films 1954 crime drama films American crime drama films American black-and-white films Film noir Films about police officers Films about corruption in the United States Films directed by Don Siegel Films scored by Leith Stevens Films set in Los Angeles Films set in New York City 1950s police procedural films American police detective films 1950s English-language films 1950s American films