The Worst Film Ever

Such a frustrating disappointment

Highly Overrated But Still Good

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

NOTES: Charlton Heston's professional movie debut. Locations filmed in Los Angeles and Las Vegas. All songs rendered by Lizabeth Scott.COMMENT: Disappointing. The script seems so attenuated as to lose its promise of suspense and tension along the way of what turns out to be a long-winded yarn. Romantic interludes with first Lizabeth Scott and then Viveca Lindfors don't help. And when the killer is finally revealed, it turns out to be a familiar cinema friend. A lot of the initial promise is dissipated by songs - lots of songs - plus tedious and unbelievable romancing, and much talk (like the scenes in Jagger's office) to little purpose. More of the smart ripostes given to Jack Webb in the early sequences would have been most welcome. Also more action - what little we have is confined to the beginning and the climax.Scott's performance is superficial, but Heston impresses in his professional screen debut, whilst Morgan, Webb and DeFore contribute solid support. To sum up, Heston was fortunate to make his debut in such good company. Begley and DeFore give stand-out portrayals and the rest of the players are no slackers either. Although disappointing in many respects, the script was directed with characteristic expertise by William Dieterle.

Dark city is classic film noir with legendary Charlton Heston, this was his first movie so I would say that maybe he was a little stiff in his film debut but sure he gave a decent performance. I also think that Jack Webb was great in this movie, at some parts like he was more self-confident and convincing then other actors. One of the problems is that I expected more scary scenes with Mike Mazurki, it could been a much more tense and mysterious if the director was more focus on imaginative writers for the scenes of the movie, also music that is Lizabeth Scott singing too often prevent to convince the audience that there is a tense situation in the lives of the main characters. Danny Haley character played by Heston I think was more like a depressed man then a hustler. I also can't understand why people feel sorry for Arthur Winant? he was a gambler who lost the money that were not his, he also had a wife and child and he was still flirting with Fran Garland Denny's girlfriend, also Arthur was so proud that his older brother Sidney was a bully. People like Arthur Winant get what the are asking for so you can't blame same hustlers for cunning people like him. I give 7 out of 10. Worth watching for sure.

The description "Film Noir" still seems to cause lots of confusion: some people seem to think that every black & white movie with some cynicism in it is a Noir movie. By extension, Dark City is often labeled as Noir. It's OK with me to use jargon, but let's only use it correctly, shall we…Although Dark City certainly has elements of the Noir genre, there is a very simple reason why this movie really don't qualify as such: indeed the cynical main character Dan Haley slowly but surely turns into a better man, gradually allowing his conscience to play a more important role in his life, and taking several correcting steps after a life of causing sadness and anger. In the end, there's even the promise of a bright future for him with torch singer Fran. All this is very un-Noir ! That doesn't make it all of a sudden a bad movie. On the contrary !To me, Dark City actually has a very clever psychological plot. All along the way, we get bits of information about why Haley has become a cynical hoodlum. He has been a courageous soldier during the war, but the infidelity of his British wife led him to kill her new love interest. Charges against him were dropped, but it clearly left him quite cynical about interpersonal relationships. Still, he's not rotten to the core. We get first evidence of this, when he discovers that his poker game buddy Augie has been cheating in a game that left L.A. business man Arthur Winant penniless.Another indication of his double feelings about the world around him can be found in his relationship with Fran:Fran: Don't you ever need somebody Danny ? Danny: What for ? Fran: Just to need…Although he keeps on pushing lovesick Fran away when she's once more trying to get too close to him, he will remain -in his own particular way- loyal to her.So, if one of the reviewers complaints about the lack of chemistry between Heston and Scott, he seems to have completely missed the point this movie is trying to make. Of course there are no sparks flying around here !!! Heston's character is still too much influenced by his troubled past, by the betrayal of his love by his British wife and a friend. He's still in the process of adapting, of regaining some hope. In the end of the movie, he's only beginning to think about romancing again.Then, several small elements distributed cleverly along the storyline like Tom Thumb's crumbs will lead to big changes in Haley's life. His friend Soldier's remark that he's "Worse than the others" is one of these little seeds, that makes him reflect about his actions. Another one is dropped, when Swede tells him about the Irish boy he killed during a boxing contest. Swede brought all the money he could find to the mother of the deceased young man, but she spat him in the face. This element makes Haley review his reactions concerning Victoria. Victoria too has an important impact on his life, as he sees how she's taking care of Billy, protecting him against uncle Sidney, and how difficult she must have got it, after her husband came back from the war. (Unless he was boasting, he is supposed to have been involved in Special Operations, a kind of work that generally leaves no one without psychological changes. The man is a heavy drinker, and although he has a gorgeous wife and a young son, he's soon playing Casanova in Chicago, dating Fran). Fran too drops several little seeds in Haley's mind, and so does the Police Captain. Although he remains outwardly cynical, all these little drops soon find a way to his heart. The fact that he was upset when he discovered that Augie had been cheating during the poker game already made it clear he wasn't rotten to the core. There still was the possibility for him to change his life. The several meetings with people he has after the suicide of Arthur Winant all turn out to be guiding lights to the right path of life again. And in the end, the patience and extreme loyalty of Fran is rewarded. So, although this film starts as a Film Noir, this clever movie is in fact about how all kind of positive little events can set in motion important positive changes in someone's life. It's about hope, about starting all over again, about how something positive still can come out of sad events, such as a suicide. Real Film Noir isn't about optimistic at all. The main characters are cynical and self serving, and don't go through changes. Or if they do, it's only to become even more cynical at the end. See for ex. Fred MacMurray's character in Pushover, or Lizabeth Scott herself in Too late for tears. That's Noir with a capital N. I was extremely pleased by this movie. I'm still trying to find out who actually sung the songs Lizabeth Scott's singing in this movie. Although she took 2 ½ years of singing lessons in the 1950's, and even released an LP, she never reached a sufficient good level to leave an impact as a singer. But the female singer who sang the songs in Dark City surely did. It are haunting melodies such as "Letter from a lady in love" or "Old black magic", sung with a sultry voice. Globally: nice storyline, fine cast, a movie that's worth adding to your collection ! 9/10

(There are Spoilers) Charlton Heston known for the Biblical epics and movies with cast of thousands that he made during his fifty or so year career in motion pictures started out in his very first movie, back in 1950, in a little known film-noir curiosity piece playing a small-time hoodlum running a bookie joint in Chicago.Having his gambling den raided three time in just over a month by the cops, even though he was paying them off, has Dan Haley, Charlton Heston,and his three fellow bookies Barney, Ed Bagely, Augie, Jack Webb, and Soldier, Henry Morgan, wonder if they should get into a much safer business like working a bar or being a croupier in a casino. Trying to figure out where the next dollar is coming from Dan goes to the nightclub where his girlfriend Fran Garland, Lizabeth Scott,is doing a show and runs into out of town businessman Arthur Winant, Don DeFore. Seeing Winant pull out a number of big bills, including a $5,000.00 bank check, from his wallet as he paid for his drink Dan invites him for a game of cards at his now closed down bookie joint with his friends Barney Augie & Soldier. Winning $350.00 from the four book-makers Arthur is invited back the next evening, his last day in Chicago, for another card game with the four wanting another chance to win back their money. This time around the bookies were ready for Winant and had the cards rigged, or marked, wiping the poor guy out of everything he had including his $5,000.00 bank check, which Winant signed over to them, which didn't even belong to him. Sick depressed and heart broken Winant goes back to his hotel room and hangs himself. It turns out that Arthur Winart's older brother Sidney, Mike Mazurki, found his body and called the police but Sidney didn't wait around for them to show up, he went out looking for those who drove his brother to kill himself, Dan Barney Augie & Soldier, and pay them back in kind. Superior film-noir thriller with Sidney Winant, who spent a number of years in a mental institution for the criminally insane, out hunting down and killing those responsible for his brothers, Arthur, death and going from Chicago to Los Angeles to Las Vages to do it. Murdering Barney in Chicago and making it look like he killed himself, by hanging, Sidney has the remaining bookies on the run not even knowing What he, Sidney Winant, even looks like. Both Dan & Augie travel to Los Angeles to see the late Arthur's wife Victoria, Viveca Lindfors, to get a photo of Sidney to be able to spot him before he attacks and murders them. Dan saying that he's an insurance investigator and that Victoria and Sidney are to receive a $10,000.00 policy that Arthur made out to them can't get a photo of Sidney since Victoria burnt all the photos she had of him wanting to keep him out of her memory forever, he's a dangerous homicidal lunatic she tells Dan.Dan for his part starts to fall in love with Victoria and want's to give her back the check that her dead husband Arthur signed over to him. When Dan tell's her that he's one of the people who cheated him out of his money, that lead to his suicide, she rejected both Dan and the check.Back in his L.A motel room Dan finds that Sidney got to Augie, while he was at Victoria's house, with him hanging in the shower with a rope tied around his neck. The movie then moves to Las Vagas with Dan on the run getting a job as a card dealer at his friends Swede's, Walter Sande, casino and meeting his fellow bookie Soldier and his girlfriend from the "Windy City" Fran who both were working there. Sidney finding out that Dan is in Vegas from Victoria's young son Billy, Mark Keuning,makes his way down there from L.A. Victoria then unexpectedly calls Dan and warns him about her brother-in-law finding out where he is has the police using Dan as bait set a trap for the big gorilla, Sidney is well over six feet tall and weighs about 270 pounds. The plan almost backfires when Sidney get's to Dan before they, the police,can get there in time to save Dan's life.