Hell's Half Acre (1954)

That was an excellent one.

Nice effects though.

I'll tell you why so serious

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Hell's Half Acre is directed by John H. Auer and written by Steve Fisher. It stars Wendell Corey, Evelyn Keyes, Elsa Lanchester, Marie Windsor, Nancy Gates and Leonard Strong. Music is by R. Dale Butts and cinematography by John L. Russell.Filmed and set in Hawaii, one could be forgiven for thinking this couldn't possibly work as a piece of film noir. In fact, the opening credit sequences lends one to think this could well be a frothy Elvis Presley type of movie - but it most assuredly isn't.Cash or Cave in?Story has Corey up to his neck in femme fatales, shifty criminal acquaintances and coppers. Which is not bad for a guy who was apparently killed during the attack on Pearl Harbor! The Hell's Half Acre of the tile is what is termed in the film as a shabby tenement district, this is the seedy underbelly of what we know as the paradise island. The location makes for some excellent atmospheric noir touches, with the production line abodes and the ream of wooden stairs and banisters making for a moody backdrop. At night the shadows come in to play, hanging nicely off of the alleyways and tawdry bars.Dirty Rat!Though a little too contrived for its own good, the many characterisations on show make the annoying itches easily scratched. From two-timing dames and thugs in need of anger management - to alcoholic slobs and batty taxi drivers, this has a roll call of colourful people drifting in and out of Hell's Half Acre. There's even some censor baiting going on, though the whiff of violent misogyny could have been less pungent.Some serious noir credentials are found with the makers, Auer (City That Never Sleeps), Fisher (I Wake Up Screaming), Corey (The Big Knife), Keyes (The Prowler), Windsor (The Narrow Margin), Gates (Suddenly), Lanchester (The Big Clock) and Russell (Moonrise), and that's only really scratching the surface. With its distinctive setting and well controlled unfurling of noir conventions, this is well worth a look by the noir faithful. 7/10

As I recall this little slice of b&w exotica got quite a bit of buzz back then. No doubt, that was because of the naughty innuendo and unusual locale. 1954 was before Hawaii became a state or showed up on weekly TV, so the backgrounds and people were still foreign to American living rooms. Anyway, the plot's anything but tight, running two or three threads at the same time. There's no need to recap what others have already done in detail. What carries the film are the Hawaiian 'mise-en-scene', colorful characters, and good acting. Honolulu's Half Acre amounts to a hellish maze of rickety stairs, balconies, and walkways, all used to good effect by director Auer. Couple that with a noir character like Chester (Corey), a bosomy slut like Rose (Windsor, of course), and a slimy yucko like Ippy (Strong), along with other shady types, and who cares about plot logic. As a result, the visuals and characters rivet even when the narrative doesn't. Still, what's with Tubby (White) who gets bloodlessly shot in the shoulder and seconds later pulls a Tarzan escape with perfect coordination. Even cowboy matinees are more realistic than that, and who knew matinees better than Republic. All in all, it looks like a feature length appeal was aimed at, including something of a 'name' cast and a spicy story. Still, I'd like to know how the results actually performed dollar-wise. Nonetheless, the movie's not without points of interest, along with an ending that is not predictable, plus a Hawaii that sure doesn't show up on tourist brochures.

Director: John H. Auer, Story by Steve Fisher, Cinematography by John L. Russell with a surprisingly great cast, Wendell Corey, Evelyn Keyes, Marie Windsor, Jesse White, Nancy Gates, Keye Luke, Phililip Ahn, Robert Costa, Leonard Strong, and Elsa Lanchester. The film takes place in for that time period the Hawaiian Territory. Hell's Half Acre is to Honolulu what Bunker Hill was to Los Angeles, the ghetto district of Honolulu, a multi-story labyrinth, a rats nest of cribs, flop houses, clubs, gambling dens and dime a dance joints. I wonder if this film along with Cry Vengeance & Alaska Seas were a way of priming the territories for statehood as in "see your just as corrupt as the rest of U.S.". Story opens with a couple planning to be married, Chet and Sally Lee (Wendell Corey and Nancy Gates), sitting in Chet's tiki nightclub "Chet's Hawaiian Retreat" the ultimate Tiki Bar. Chet Chester has a burn scar on the left side of his face, he is something of a racketeer, at the start of WWII he started a syndicate in Hell's Half Acre with "Slim" Novak (Robert Costa) and Roger Kong (Phililip Ahn), then after the war he bought them both out and went legit. Now he pretty much has gained some pull and respectability Honolulu. He has enough leisure time on his hands to also compose and record songs. Chet's friend Roger Kong is throwing a party in his honor by staging a Hawaiian band & chorus floor show playing Chet's hit song "Polynesian Rhapsody" While they listen, sinister looking Novak passes a threatening note to Sally Lee who excuses herself to meet him in the clubs office. He tells her that he is going to blackmail Chet exposing his past so he and Roger can re start the syndicate. Sally, taking no BS from Novak, puts a bullet in his forehead, in a surprisingly pretty graphic sequence for 1954. Sally Lee goes back and tells Chet what she did. He tells her that he will take the rap for her but that she is to leave for the mainland with $50,000 of his money to give to a lawyer buddy of his back in LA to get him off. Cut to a record store in LA. Donna Williams (Keyes) is sitting mesmerized listing to "Polynesian Rhapsody" at the end however, she is startled by the final line "you're my golden dream at the rainbows end". She buys the record and runs home, the final line is exactly the same as an inscription her dead sailor husband wrote to her on a framed picture she has on a table. It can't be a coincidence, and she is still holding the torch for Randy who was on the USS Arizona when it was bombed at Pearl Harbor. Could he be alive, She wants to talk to the composer. So she flies to Hawaii to check things out. So beings an interesting convoluted story of murder, shady characters, and the Hawaiian underworld. The film has a very entertaining cast of supporting players Keyes is very cute in this masquerading as a taxi dancer at one point, waking up naked in a bed at another, Marie Windsor is also great and equally good looking as sort of a Femme Fatale, and Elsa Lanchester is a blousy woman cab driver. Jessi White plays Windsor's alcoholic husband and Ahn is Windsor's Chinese lover. Don the Beachcomber was the technical adviser for the film the inventor of the Tiki Bar.Wasn't expecting much but was pleasantly surprised. Some nice noir-ish sequences, but not a lot of them. Available on DVD from Olive. 8/10

This little gem of a film noir B movie is about a woman trying to track down her long lost husband in Hawaii after the War (WWII) where he was supposed to have died. In the process she finds herself in the middle of an underworld power struggle. Beautifully filmed in Hawaii with Ms. Keyes really working those facial expressions, as she tended to do. The film is tight, cynical and at times redeeming. Just a good little film.