Barnett) and his slightly addled wife (Virginia Brissac). Brandy does a minor-key CITIZEN KANE/ MASK OF DIMITRIOS bit, inter- viewing folks who knew Lefty in his previous careers as a trouble- some orphan, carny huckster, wartime underwater demolitions expert (the sort of set-up which is bound to have a pay-off) and professional gambler. The fond- est testimony comes from for- tune teller Minnie Mitt (Claire Carleton), who remembers Lefty’s lush eyelashes. By the time Brandy catches up with Lefty, fixing a bingo game in her favor, she’s already slightly smit- ten. They bond in shared cyni- cism (“I don’t trust women any more than you do”) before she outlines the scam, which neces- sitates Lefty losing the tip of his little finger—a mutilation she ar- ranges by slamming it in a car door, then taking him to a beach house for a month of manicure- like buffing to make the wound seem old, with Mailer’s muscle (Robert Anderson) around to add veiled threat. To get to the McIntyres, Brandy tries to make their niece Kathy (Terry Moore) notice Lefty—which, in an amus- ing reversal, she does only when she realizes he’s a shady charac- ter. Excited, Kathy fantasizes “you’re the kind of burglar that... that lone women aren’t safe with!” and sets out to reform Lefty, finally noticing that miss- ing finger and making the connection.
Most impersonation noirs
(NO MAN OF HER OWN, PARA- NOIAC) trade on suspense as the protagonist delays the inevitable moment when the truth will out and squirms as suspicious foils or would-be whistle-blowers threaten to blow the gaff. TWO OF A KIND takes a different ap- proach, based on the shifting loyalties of the conspirators and the cannier-than-they-seem
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prospective victims. Late in the day, it becomes apparent that Mailer has been presumptuous in assuming that, even if McIntyre accepts Lefty as his son, he’ll will his fortune to the young man. Moore’s fidgety, wide-eyed nymphet performance throws a screwball curve into the game, and her sub-plot is paid off with a black joke involving her attrac- tion to dangerous men. Scott, with her whispery voice and sly eyes, was Columbia’s answer to Lauren Bacall (the studio threw her at Bogart in DEAD RECKON- ING) but comes across as a touch reserved for a bombshell. Slightly pudgy O’Brien is oddly cast as the guy women go for in a big way, but has an appeal- ing, knife-edge personality that makes him credible both as a lowlife hothead and a war hero. When Lefty connects with Kathy, O’Brien puts on a hardboiled act with a wink which defuses the potentially seamy side—Kirk Douglas, say, or Ralph Meeker would have bedded the teenager to further the con—and the warmth of the scenes with the canny millionaire suggest that Lefty hasn’t the heart to be an all-the-way heel. Unpretentious and brisk, with cinematography by Burnett Guffey and music by George Dunning, TWO OF A KIND is a likeable, light caper rather than true noir (the finger- crushing is a tough moment) but an enjoyable watch. An extra is a short interview with the still-lively Terry Moore, recalling the film and this phase of her career, as she moved out of “animal pic- tures” but wasn’t yet up for bad girl roles.
Lizabeth Scott returns in BAD FOR EACH OTHER, as the sort of dame the hero’s mother warns him about with “A lot of things look good until you’ve got them—especially expensive women!” Though scripted by noir
novelist Horace McCoy (source author for KISS TOMORROW GOODBYE and THEY SHOOT HORSES, DON’T THEY?) and sold in the trailer as an exposé of “the ghost surgeon racket,” it’s a medical soap opera, closer in tone to the work of the other author involved in its creation (Irving Wallace) and directed by suds specialist Irving Rapper (NOW, VOYAGER, MARJORIE MORNINGSTAR). Colonel Tom Owen (broad-chested Charlton Heston) comes home to “Coal- ville” after two wars, in which he has served as a battlefield doc- tor, to find himself abused in the street because his late brother is held responsible for a fatal mine accident. Tom’s mother (Mildred Dunnock) laments that her other boy went wrong by having aspi- rations above his station, but Tom is soon going the same way—attracting the attention of twice-divorced Helen Curtis (Scott), who introduces him into her social circle. Taken on as a junior partner by smooth society doctor Hiram Gleeson (Lester Matthews), whom Helen’s canny father (Ray Collins) “wouldn’t trust to treat a hangnail,” Tom is a hit with rich, idle, hypochon- driac or nymphomaniac ladies. However, his devoted nurse (Dianne Foster) is as disillusioned with his waste of talent as his supposed-to-be-a-voice-of-com- mon-sense-but-actually-comes- across-as-somewhat-spiteful mother, and deserts the plush practice for the cramped offices of Dr. Jim Crowley (Arthur Franz), who stays behind to treat miners’ ailments.
When Helen’s dowager aunt (Marjorie Rambeau) needs an operation, Gleeson begs Tom to step in and untangle her intesti- nal blockage, then sweet-talks the younger man into letting him take the credit for the save. Boil- ing inside as only Heston can,
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