William Talman

Quote:
The 1950s was an incredible time for television. Many of the best actors, directors and writers had moved from the big screen to TV and shows like “Playhouse 90” and “Screen Directors Playhouse” assembled some amazing talent. Here, Ida Lupino directs Teresa Wright, Peter Lorre and William Talman in a drama about some crooks who have chosen Wright’s isolated hotel in which to hide out from the law. Wright plays a deaf woman who is terrified of these men and it is very reminiscent of many other films–including a few in which Miss Lupino appeared (such as “Deep Valley”, “On Dangerous Ground” and “Beware My Lovely”). It also is a bit like the later film “Wait Until Dark” (with Audrey Hepburn)–though in this case the terrified woman is blind, not deaf.Read More »

Synopsis:
Uniformed Chicago cop Johnny Kelly, Jr., who originally joined the force to make his policeman father happy, has grown restless in the job and has decided to resign the next day. He allows himself to be compromised by a shady lawyer and has decided to desert his wife because of his obsessive affair with a stripper in a sleazy nightclub. Although the sergeant who partners with him for his last night of duty is a stranger to Kelly, the enigmatic cop seems to know Johnny very well. They leave in a squad car for what will be a very eventful last night on duty for the disillusioned young policeman.Read More »

by Hans J. Wollstein
Touching on both the film noir style of the 1940s and the “just the facts, ma’am” approach popular in the early television era, and incorporating both shadowy alleys and bright, almost flat sunlit street scenes, Richard Fleischer’s plebeian, no-nonsense Armored Car Robbery remains the quintessential low-budget heist melodrama. Starring tight-lipped Charles McGraw as the tough, unyielding police detective, the potboiler also benefited from a downright vicious performance by an unredeemable William Talman as the brains behind the ill-fated caper, as well as the presence of luscious B-movie icon Adele Jergens as one of those hardboiled dames seemingly born to destroy gullible dime-store gangsters like Benny McBride (Douglas Fowley).Read More »

The Hitch-Hiker is the most well-known movie in Kino on Video’s “Ida Lupino–Queen of the B’s” video series. In the past, The Hitch-Hiker has been available in poor video transfers from small video companies. Now thanks to this pristine print, this taut, suspense-filled film noir can be better appreciated. The only film noir directed by a woman, The Hitch-Hiker tells the story of two buddies (Edmund O’Brien and Frank Lovejoy) on a fishing trip. Unbeknownst to them, however, the police are pursing a psychotic killer who hitches rides and then kills the occupants of the cars. (This character is based upon drifter William Edward Cook and the news coverage that followed his 1950 murder spree in the Southwest.) Emmet Meyers (played by William Talman) becomes a forerunner of the killer in Henry–Portrait of a Serial Killer. Without any remorse, he kills and then moves on to the next victim. O’Brien and Lovejoy make the mistake of stopping to pick up a hitchhiker and soon find themselves looking into the barrel of a .38 caliber revolver.Read More »