Rhonda Fleming, Robert Ryan in "Inferno", TCM

Oznell · ‎11-08-2014

10:00 p.m. Eastern-- "Inferno"-- A perfect Friday night movie! TCM says in the guide it's the first time they've shown it on their channel, so it'll be interesting to hear their commentary on it just before the film.

This is an exciting noir-ish suspense film. Ryan is a millionaire with a beautiful restless wife, the stunning Rhonda Fleming. She's restless b/c he's a pain and an untreated alcoholic, and she has a scheme. While out in the desert with her husband and a mining engineer (with whom she is torridly involved), hubby breaks his leg. This is the opportunity for her and her amour, William Lundigan, to leave him, saying they are getting medical help. The plan though, is to just leave him and let him rot, telling the authorities he "wandered away".

The movie flips between Robert Ryan's dawning realization in the desert of his wife's treachery, and his struggle to survive, and Fleming and Lundigan's gilded structure of deception back in Los Angeles. There they weave their lies and wait for Ryan to expire.

The stark desert photography, the gritty resourcefulness of Ryan dragging himself to improvise splints and crutches, the couples' guilty unease in her mansion fortress-- it is all extremely well done, and well worth watching.

drizzellla · ‎03-14-2010

And before Inferno starts - right now on the Fox Movie Channel, How Green was My Valley is on.

Oznell · ‎11-08-2014

Movies about beautiful, beleaguered Wales are heart-tugging to me, @drizzellla. My Dad's father, who died when he was only 28, was a coal miner in Wales....

IMW · ‎06-15-2014

Oznell, a great big thank you once again for your very

interesting review. I’ll be watching. Robert Ryan is one of my favorites along with Robert Mitchum.

Ryan was quite a man, took some controversial roles, ie Crisscross, difficult ones, Hickey inThe Iceman Comeith.

He supported civil rights, was. married to the same woman 60 years or so.

golding76 · ‎05-19-2012

Ah, Rhonda Fleming, the Arlene Dahl lite.

Oznell · ‎11-08-2014

Ha, ha, @golding76, Rhonda Fleming and Arlene Dahl do resemble each other, hadn't thought of that. Both beautiful, elegant redheads, and both, interestingly, have so well contributed to the film noir canon. I like them both.

Oznell · ‎11-08-2014

@IMW, I so agree, Robert Ryan was a fascinating, principled, brilliant actor. And he was never afraid to show the weasel-ly, malevolent side of humanity in his acting. One of the greats.

golding76 · ‎05-19-2012

Oznell,

When I was young (elementary school age), I bought all the movie star fan magazines. To my juvenile mind, Rhonda Fleming had fewer roles -- and fewer good roles -- than Arlene Dahl. Hence, my "lite" designation.

You, as someone who knows the sort of films both routinely appeared in, may be helping me set the record straight. But Rhonda was featured far less often in my fanzines than Arlene.

ETA: And I never purchased the black and white 8" X 10" photos of any of them; at that time, true fans bought photos offered in the magazines' advertising pages.

I still have quite a few of my favorite -- Esther Williams -- as well as Robert Wagner. Possess many smaller photos of lesser stars that appeared 10 or 12 to a sheet.

Interestingly, both Arlene and Esther were married to Fernando Lamas.

Oznell · ‎11-08-2014

@golding76, I bet they are very collectable today!

I really like Arlene Dahl in a terrific, lesser-known noir from the late Forties, "Scene of the Crime". She's married to cynical but honest policeman Van Johnson, and they have a wonderful rapport all through the film, even though they're thrown a few curve balls..

I like Rhonda Fleming in "Inferno" very much, and even more in Fritz Lang-directed "While the City Sleeps", that wonderful crime thriller and newspaper opus with Dana Andrews, Ida Lupino, Thomas Mitchell, Vincent Price et al. She's a faithless wife in that one too, but not a murderous one....