"99 River Street": a noir gem directed by Phil Karson, starring John Payne

Karlson’s 99 RIVER STREET (1953) is truly a forgotten gem on Phil Karlson's résumé, a brutal and hostile jeremiad set entirely at night about a bitter, failed boxer (John Payne) whose unhappy wife gets mixed up with a diamond heist; that initiates a fall of dominoes that gets so despairingly twisted, you can’t imagine how the luckless hero will ever punch his way out. Twitching with rage, Payne finally obliterates the memory of his nice-guy lawyer from Miracle on 34th Street, and as his new love interest, Evelyn Keyes, playing a strangely impulsive actress, flits in and out of the darkness like a neurotic moth. But Karlson fills in the margins so beautifully: imperturbable buddy Frank Faylen, smiling scumbag Brad Dexter, faithless slut Peggie Castle, Yiddishe diamond fence Jay Adler, bullet-headed hitman Jack Lambert, and so on, all biting at one another like lab rats left to starve in their maze. -Michael Atkinson (Boston Phoenix)

John Payne as Ernie Driscoll in "99 River Street" (1953) directed by Phil Karlson

"John Payne stars in Phil Karlson’s two-fisted thriller as a down-on-his-luck boxer reduced to a night shift cab hack, the easy target of his disappointed wife’s enduring scorn. His wife’s sudden murder, in a dark fulfillment of his unspoken wish, only brings bigger problems as he must move quickly to clear his name while staying one step ahead of the law and the criminal underworld. Karlson’s direction is extremely lean and sophisticated, as he plays with a Chinese box structure of hidden perspectives and brilliantly stages one of the most unexpected and cruelest jokes in film noir.

John Payne as Joe Rolfe in "Kansas City Confidential" (1952) directed by Phil Karlson. "Kansas City Confidential is a gem in the rough, a condensed roller-coaster of vengeance, betrayal, deception, the fluidity of identity, the microscopic line between guilt and innocence, and the power of luck, both good and bad." -David N. Meyer

"Little known today, John Payne was, like Dick Powell, an extremely popular song and dance man who grew tired of the sunny side of the street and rejected lucrative assignments to seek out tougher roles after the war." Source: hcl.harvard.edu

"Mentioning John Payne and Film Noir in the same sentence is virtually an oxymoron considering his main claim to fame is as the leading man to Alice Faye and Betty Grable in 1930s musicals, and playing opposite Maureen O’Hara in one of the most beloved Christmas films of all time, “Miracle on 34th Street”. And even though he was one of the most handsome men ever to grace the silver screen, Tyrone Power and Robert Taylor often overshadowed Payne, leaving him less remembered than he deserves.

Although John Payne is better remembered for his singing pipes and college-boy good looks, Payne proves here to be a formidable noir hero, as equal to the task as Robert Mitchum or Dana Andrews. Quintessential bad man Lee Van Cleef and wild eyed Jack Elam co-star. Featured on the same bill is “99 River Street”, also directed by Phil Karlson. Payne is a heavyweight boxer who has lost a championship match, and now drives a taxi for a living much to the scorn of his nagging wife and winds up involved with underhander business with less than reputable men. He matches wits with Evelyn Keyes and Brad Dexter as they maneuver their way through the machinations of an underground machine. This film is considered by Film Noir Of The Week as 'One of the most hardboiled, brutal, and inexplicably forgotten films of the noir cycle'. Source: www.filmjerk.com

So what’s a guy like Ernie Driscoll, stumbling through life in a daze and hating himself for it, choose for a dream? A gas station. Saving up his tips to buy one is an absurd an ambition for a man who recently stood toe to toe with the champ, but even Ernie knows he’ll probably never make it happen. Driscoll is a man who feels sorry for himself and can’t get over it. Payne’s performance sweats with pathos and verisimilitude. Source: wheredangerlives.blogspot.com.es

John Payne studied acting and singing and even wrestled for a bit. He's one of those guys you might call a "big lug," and is best known for believing in Kris Kringle and romancing Maureen O'Hara in Miracle on 34th Street. In his later career, he's best known for his tough guys in lower-budget noirs and Westerns. He eventually became the father-in-law of screenwriter Robert Towne. According to some sources, Payne and Karlson both contributed to the screenplay for 99 River Street, their second film together.

Ernie Driscoll (John Payne) is a washed-up boxer who was on the verge of becoming champ until he injured his eye in the ring.

He's married to the gorgeous Pauline (Peggie Castle), who was hoping for the good life, and now spends her time being angry and disappointed. But she has chosen a way out; her new lover Victor Rawlins (Brad Dexter) is a thief who has just stolen a batch of diamonds and hopes to trade it for enough cash to skip town.

Meanwhile, Ernie decides to help a friend, Linda James (Evelyn Keyes), an actress hoping for a break on Broadway. Through a complex series of circumstances and coincidences, the cops are soon hunting Ernie for an assault and battery charge (which is real) and a murder charge (which is false).

"99 River Street" is notable for its frank, brutal violence, which doesn't stop at images of men smacking around women. Andrew Sarris wrote that one of Karlson's themes was the outbreak of violence in a world controlled by criminals and the corrupt. The film opens on an absolutely astonishing boxing sequence, close-up, ringside and off-kilter, that Martin Scorsese surely studied before he made Raging Bull. Karlson continues this low-angle violence throughout, and even echoes certain key shots over the course of the film. Many small moments further establish his agenda, such as when Rawlins simultaneously takes a belt of liquor and slugs a man in the jaw. In another scene, Linda plays out a lengthy post-murder scene in panicked close-up, with no cuts or cutaways.

"It's an example of the kind of humble brilliance that often emerged from the American genre cinema." -Dave Kehr

Great Line: "There are worse things than murder. You can kill somebody an inch at a time." Source: blog.moviefone.com