As you might infer from the title of this post, spoilers will follow. So when better than now to entreat you, if you haven’t yet seen The Prowler, a remarkable film on a number of levels (“the best picture I ever made,” according to costar Evelyn Keyes, who makes the pronouncement in a memoir titled Scarlett O’Hara’s Younger Sister, so there), you really have little excuse now that VCI has put the superb UCLA restoration of the film on DVD, complete with a package of nifty extras including a commentary by noir expert Eddie Muller and a documentary featurette on the film featuring the enthusiasms of author James Ellroy, for whom the film was a huge source of inspiration. Among other things, The Prowler is one of the great Los Angeles noirs. When Losey was on, one of the key attractions of his films was just how well he got environments—L.A. in this film, and in The Big Night, and yes, even his rethink of M; Venice in Eve; certain sectors of London in The Servant; and so on. In anyevent, by the finale of The Prowler, we are pretty far from L.A.; we are literally, as it happens, in a ghost town, and it’s here that the film’s disturbed antihero Webb Garwood (Van Heflin) is to meet his fate.
This film being what it is, generically, the viewer is pretty certain that the goat is gonna get his throat cut for the end of the song, as it were. But the way Losey stages the whole thing that’s oddly unusual, and is kind of the cherry on top of a film that, while in a certain sense highly “realistic,” brims with touches of irrationality that usefully bleed outside of the accepted outlines of genre. Film noir is a very good enabler in that respect, one might say. In any event, Webb is cornered; the police have been summoned, they’re here, they’re armed. As he runs, someone shouts, wisely, “You’ll never get away with it.” An odd thing to say, really, as the presence of the police signals that, for all intents and purposes, he hasn’t “gotten away” with anything; it’s too late for that. As for actually getting away, that, too, seems unlikely.
With the cops in pursuit, Webb, rather ridiculously when you think about it, opts to go up instead of down. He takes to a hill, what looks to be a man-made one, and scurries up the thing furiously. “Do as they say, Webb!” shouts a friend at the scene. “You’ll never make it!” As the unhappy Sisyphus approaches the peak of the desolate grey mound, the question “Make it where, exactly?” springs to mind. Once Webb gets to the top, there’s…nothing. Not even a gas leak via which he can immolate himself from the “top of the world,” as in White Heat. If Webb makes it to the top, he will literally be no place.
But Webb will not make it to the top. He will be stopped, as he climbs, by a bullet in the back, fired by a policeman’s rifle, at a suspect who was by all visible indications not armed. This goes against procedure, as they say. Or at least against proper procedure, at least as I understand it. This flouting of realism and/or plausibility has a dual function of heightening the film’s irrationality and underscoring a kind of questioning of authority. Yes, we have our sacrifice, yes, it was good and proper, because the goat, as it were, had it coming; and yet…is this really how it’s done? The movie’s end title comes up mere seconds after Webb’s final fall, leaving that question, and a few more, hanging.
UPDATE: I forgot to mention, ’cause I’m so modest and stuff, that I had given this film some amount of consideration in a prior post, an entry in my series on Manny Farber’s favorite films of 1951. Those were fun times, huh?
Not reading the post yet, as I just got the disc yesterday. Can’t wait to watch it. Seems exactly like the kind of half-forgotten dirty little noir I’ve been in love with discovering lately – MURDER BY CONTRACT, PUSHOVER. The writer and director would be enough to get me excited, but THE PROWLER also has so many distinguished and interesting fans like Eddie Muller, James Ellroy and now you too GK.
A policeman who shoots an unarmed fleeing suspect would be a “bad cop,” but here the suspect is a “bad cop,” so there’s a certain irony there.
You realize that there is a 1981 THE PROWLER directed by Joseph Zito that I just came thisclose to adding to my queue, right?
This sort of off-procedural shooting is very common in film noir, as I’m sure everybody who watches those movies knows. Not to rain on the parade – I truly like your take, Glenn – but remember Robert Ryan’s death in CROSSFIRE? Not just against procedure, but one frickin’ hell of a shot!
My favorite clean, justified shot in film noir is at the end of HE WALKS BY NIGHT, which is pretty much a perfect film anyway.
No raining inferred, Bill; your point is well-taken. I believe what makes this particular fall stand out more than usual is, again, the rather ridiculous scramble to the top of the man-made hill, as if that’s gonna accomplish anything, and the airy sunlit openness of the whole thing.
SPOILERS
Saw this late last year when TCM ran the UCLA print (also saw it many years ago, but didn’t remember many details). Excellent film; fascinating in many ways. Until the coroner’s inquest scene, it seems to take place in a Los Angeles with a population of about four. Unlike the usual noir set-up, the central couple isn’t plotting together – though Keyes constantly seems to be fighting suspicions, Heflin plays her like a violin. Unfortunately, this relegates Keyes to a rather unvaried victim role, and she’s too dim, gullible and weak to root for. But Losey keeps the screws turning, and the film survives an unusual change in tone and setting to reach a tense climax. Films of this era didn’t typically focus on the moral bankruptcy of a seeming “regular Joe,” but Heflin nails the cop’s every contradiction. One of his best roles, for sure.
@ Graig- depending on your threshold for 80s slashers, THE PROWLER (1981) is not half bad. Some of Savini’s best work. And Lawrence Tierney!
Of course, it’s not a patch on the film under discussion. A couple of friends and I treated the TCM premier as appointment viewing and we were floored. I’d always enjoyed Heflin, but I gained a whole new respect for him with this film. He’s just amazing in every single scene.
The answer to the question “Make it where, exactly?” is, metaphorically and as far as The Prowler is concerned, probably “to the top of the Class Ladder, Ma.” For The Prowler (and Garwood) seethes with class jealousy throughout.
Well, I don’t think CROSSFIRE’s killing questions the police’s authority, like this one does. But then, I don’t think CROSSFIRE has anything to say other than that anti-Semitism is really lousy. Mitchum’s really wasted in that movie.
Mitchum may be wasted in CROSSFIRE (and you do mean as in “underutilized,” not “smashed” or “stoned,” right?), but one can’t say the same of Paul Kelly’s deliciously creepy/funny performance as Gloria Grahame’s boyfriend/husband/stalker/pimp or some combination thereof. He has a weirdly calm, apologetic manner that seems liable to explode at any moment. Quite compelling.
what unkle rusty said. Webb is oh so close to the next social strata, metaphorically, but no. his dream of ascension is also blunted a few scenes earlier by the recorded, disembodied voice of the man he murdered. fantastic film, a noir where the schlub is the woman and the scheming conniver is the man