DVD Review: Mamie Van Doren Noir Collection

Often as film buffs venture down bypaths away from the established classics, they encounter happy discoveries in the realm of B movies, low budget indies, and other areas that are given far too little attention. Such is the case with Kino Lorber’s new blu ray collection containing three such films.

One of the most popular sub-genres in vintage cinema is Film Noir, which deals with a myriad of mysterious subjects that are bathed in the darkness and sounded by hushed tones. Noir is filled with top flight actors like Humphrey Bogart and Robert Mitchum, but it also is well represented with low budget indies and tightly constructed B movies that often resonate as strongly as any noted classic.

Mamie Van Doren is one of several actresses who sprang up in the 1950s in the wake of Marilyn Monroe’s massive popularity. Mamie spent most of her career in exploitation movies. She is prominent in teen delinquency dramas like “High School Confidential” and “Untamed Youth.” She is well represented in such exploitation movies as “Sex Kittens Go To College,” “3 Nuts in Search of a Bolt,” and “The Private Lives of Adam and Eve.” But she does also appear in films like “Teacher’s Pet” with Doris Day and Clark Gable, “The Big Operator” with Mickey Rooney, and “Jet Pilot” with John Wayne, albeit often in smaller roles.

Mamie Van Doren was a striking, attractive presence, and had the talent to add layers to characters that were often one-dimensional on paper. A skillful actress when given the opportunity, Van Doren makes a discernible impact in each of these films.

The 3 low budget noir films in this collection include “The Girl in the Black Stockings” (1957), “Guns, Girls, and Gangsters” (1958), and “Vice Raid” (1959). Each has its own merit within the parameters of 50s indie cinema.

“The Girl in the Black Stockings” was directed by Howard Koch, who also helmed Van Doren in “Untamed Youth,” as well as another indie noir released by KINO, “Shield For Murder (reviewed here). Koch responds to Richard Landau’s screenplay (based on a story by Peter Godfrey), gathering such disparate characters as a wheelchair-bound lodge owner, his sister, their switchboard operator, a Los Angeles lawyer, a drunken actor, his blonde girlfriend, and a sheriff who is called in to investigate a young girl’s brutal murder. The actors are all playing stereotypes, but the roles are filled out by the formidable talents of Lex Barker, Anne Bancroft, Ron Randell, Marie Windsor, and John Dehner. Koch essentially lets the narrative carry the film, but does have at least one impressively artful scene, when a murder is committed off camera. A close-up of the door being slowly opened, then a shot of an ashtray on a table with two lit cigarettes. There is a banging sound and the still picture vibrates. The next shot shows a character with a lump on his head and his companion dead.

Ron Randell’s angry, snarling delivery, forcefully claiming he hated the murdered girl, exhibits a bitterness that impacts the narrative greatly. When he calls the murdered girl a “common creature whose every word, every breath, every gesture, was the show of an empty, shallow promise,” and states, “Miss Morgan was an example of completely justifiable homicide,” it locks the narrative onto his character for the remainder of the film. It is unfortunate that his long, busy career did not amount to greater stardom. Lex Barker, best known as taking over the Tarzan role from Johnny Weissmuller, is reasonably effective in his undemanding part. Performers like Windsor and Dehner are welcome old veterans whose presence enhances any narrative. Anne Bancroft, very young here but already in nearly 20 movies, gives perhaps the most impressive performance.

Mamie Van Doren is actually given very little to do in “Girl in the Black Stockings.” But she has one scene where she drunkenly snuggles paraplegic Randell, much to his and Windsor’s chagrin. This incident is the catalyst for the following scene. With almost no screen time, Van Doren still manages to make a lasting impact, not only for her beauty, but for understanding her character’s ambition crowded by flirtation.

Mamie gets top billing for “Guns, Girls, and Gangsters” and “Vice Raid,” both directed by the reliably competent B director Edward L. Cahn, who went from Our Gang shorts to sci-fi cult classics within his career. An indie produced for Edward Small and released through United Artists, “Guns, Girls and Gangsters” is a pretty typical armored car heist movie, and offers much more action than “Girl in the Black Stockings.” Cahn utilizes Mamie Van Doren’s abilities most effectively as she plays a nightclub performer who gets mixed up with an ex-prisoner who once shared a cell with her jealous husband. Her husband is still locked up, but when he escapes prison, another element to the suspense, and the action, is introduced. Van Doren turns in a snappy, wise-cracking performance, supported by Gerald Mohr (a B actor who later did cartoon voiceovers and TV), and notable bad guy Lee Van Cleef. The cast is dotted with familiar character actors like Paul Fix and John Mitchum.

“Vice Raid” is another Edward Small indie with Mamie Van Doren supported by Richard Coogan, Brad Dexter, and Carol Nugent. This one deals with the successful framing of a police officer, racketeers, and models who double in prostitution. A pretty sordid story for the 50s, “Vice Raid” probably got more freedoms due to its low budget indie status. This film features the best acting work by Mamie Van Doren of the three films offered in Kino’s blu ray collection. Playing one of the models who decides to go after the gangsters, Van Doren is given a more solid acting role here and she meets the challenges effectively.

Each of the movies is enhanced by a strong musical score and the sharp image of the black and white cinematography really jumps out on blu ray. Each film has been newly restored in 2K. Extras include an interview with Mamie Van Doren and trailers for each of the films.

This set is recommended for noir fans, B movie fans, fans of the actors and directors involved, libraries, and research centers. The two-disc, three-film collection can be ordered at this link: MAMIE