Conclusion
See Part 1,’Film Noir in Culver City’
See Part 2, ‘MGM’s, Ahem, Independence Deprived Culver City of National Attention’
In 1944, Raymond Chandler himself turned to screenwriting with an adaptation of James M. Cain's "Double Indemnity," which starred Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck.
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From left, the author Ross Hawkins, founder of the Backlot Film Festival, the legendary Budd Schulberg, honoree at last year’s Festival, the actor Ben Still and Prof. John Jordan of West Los Angeles College.
Chandler’s second novel, "Farewell My Lovely" with private detective Philip Marlowe, was published in 1940. In "Farewell," Chandler called Santa Monica "Bay City." He described the town thusly:
"The name's like a song; a song in a dirty bathtub."
Santa Monica's long standing City Hall was described as;
"It was a cheap looking building for so prosperous a town. It looked more like something
out of the Bible Belt…
“Inside was a long dark hall that had been mopped the day
McKinley was inaugurated."
Out in the bay, anchored beyond the three-mile limit in "Farewell My Lovely" are two gambling boats, "The Montecito," and "The Royal Crown.”
In reality, there was only one gambling boat, "The Rex," which was owned by Tony Cornero a gambler who ran a casino in Culver City.
Charlie Suskind was a longtime Santa Monica resident who told me 25 years ago that he had been a purser on the Rex when it was raided by the California Coast Guard and towed into San Pedro.
He said the Rex was converted into a cargo ship for the U.S. Navy and sank off the
coast of Greece during World War II. When I inquired about the Rex at the Navy Dept. a year later, I was told the information was still classified.
"Farewell My Lovely" was adapted for three different films.
The first was in 1942 for a B movie, "The Falcon Takes Over," starring George Saunders as The Falcon, a character created by Michael Arlen.
In 1944, Edward Dmytryk directed the second version, starring Dick Powell and Claire Trevor.
The name was changed to "Murder My Sweet" because up until this time Powell had appeared mainly in musical comedies. RKO did not want moviegoers thinking they were going to see a musical. The third version was made in 1975, starring Robert Mitchum as Marlowe.
In the 1940s and early ‘50s, RKO was Film Noir heaven. Many of the noir classics made at RKO and filmed partly in Culver City during that period that featured Mitchum, including "Out of the Past," a noir western, "Blood on the Moon," "His Kind of Woman," and "Macao."
Louis B. Mayer hated film noir. He felt MGM should not make that type of film. Over his
objections, MGM production chief Dore Schary green-lighted "The Asphalt Jungle," directed
by John Huston and starring Sterling Hayden and Jean Hagen, with a brilliant cameo appearance by Marilyn Monroe. Critics called "The Asphalt Jungle" the best heist movie ever made.
Mayer, however, told director John Huston that the film wouldn't make a nickel. Mayer was correct.
Former Culver City Mayor Steve Gourley told me that he grew up watching film noir on Channel 9's "Million Dollar Movie."
He remembered that “it was always dark. Lots of shadows,
and the windows always had venetian blinds."
One of the most memorable scenes in a noir film made in Culver City took place in "Nocturne," starring George Raft as a cop tracking down the murderer of a composer, played in Noel Coward-style by Edward Ashley.
Raft goes to a suspect's apartment in the dead of night. When he enters the apartment, he hears the rustling of the venetian blinds and a thudding sound on the window sill.
Raft finds the suspect hanging from the venetian blind sash. The producer was Joan Harrison. She also produced several of Alfred Hitchcock's earlier films, leaving one to wonder if some of her ideas didn't rub off on Hitchcock.
In 1950, George Raft went to Italy to make "Lucky Nick Cain," directed by Joseph Newman.
During the production, Raft was accused of laundering drug money for Lucky Luciano.
Director Newman told me that the story wasn't true. But the publicity hurt him. In 1952, Raft turned down the lead in Republic's "Hoodlum Empire." After playing a gangster in 1954's “Rogue Cop" and
in "Some Like It Hot," his career was pretty much over.
Raft's last film role was in the spoof detective movie, "The Man With Bogart's Face," starring Robert Sacchi, shot on the sound stages at MGM in 1979.
Director Newman recalled that in spite of his tough guy image, Raft "was really a nice man who was very lonely. In his last days, he would stand outside the apartment building he lived in and talk to anyone who recognized him.
This article was compiled from interviews with director John Huston, director Joseph Newman, writer Budd Schulberg, Lois Laurel Hawes, daughter of Stan Laurel, former Culver City Police Chief
Ted Cooke, actors Robert Mitchum, Bob Sacchi and Edward Ashley and conversations non-industry persons, my father, Clyde Hawkins, Charles Suskind and retired Culver City Assistant Fire Chief, Ray Moselle.
Other sources were"Raymond Chandler's Los Angeles," by Elizabeth Ward and Alain Silver, and "Lion of Hollywood —The Life and Legend of Louis B. Mayer,” by Scott Eyman.
Mr. Hawkins may be contacted at rjhculvercity@aol.com
