I think I’m suffering from flashback whiplash after watching The Locket. It all starts when a wedding is interrupted by the bride’s ex-husband, a morose British psychiatrist. He wants to warn the new groom about the seemingly angelic Nancy and launches into a wild tale of manipulation, madness, and murder. From there we fall into this series of flashbacks within flashbacks, back to the shrink’s relationship with Nancy, her previous affair with tortured artist Robert Mitchum, and eventually all the way back to her childhood. I won’t give away all the details of the plot on this one, but I will say that even though the final twist is laughably unlikely, it’s still a wild ride.
No-frills, straight shooting B programmer The Bodyguard was exactly what I needed to clear my head after all the twists and turns of The Locket. Lawrence Tierney stars as a disgraced detective hired as a freelance bodyguard for a slaughterhouse heiress. Needless to say he finds himself framed for murder and, in the process of trying to clear his name, discovers a conspiracy of corruption in the meatpacking industry. At a lean 62 minutes, this flick features death by “hog saw” (!) and Tierney’s amazing line “My job is to keep the meat warm.” What’s not to love?
Also, is it just me, or was The Bodyguard’s Priscilla Lane reincarnated as the Toxic Avenger’s girlfriend Andree Maranda?
Really looking forward to tonight’s Broderick Crawford double feature at the LA Film Noir Festival, New York Confidential and Human Desire.