1941 - I WAKE UP SCREAMING, an early Fox film noir.

This early film noir from 20th Century Fox is a fairly modest production with good noir photography from Edward Cronjager.  One of Fox's contract director H. Bruce Humberstone did a decent job putting the film together, but the film seems more like an excuse to show off three of the studio's stars. 

Victor Mature who was considered a piece of studio beefcake is a sports agent trying to make a star out of Carole Landis another performer probably more known for him body then her acting.  Also along for the ride is Betty Grable who would be one of Fox's biggest stars during World War II.  The film has a gratuitous scene where Mature and Gable go for a midnight swim a fairly obvious bit to get these two into swimsuits.

The film is essentially about Landis being murdered and Mature becoming the patsy of creepy cop Laird Cregar who is trying to set him up for the crime. There's lots of sneaking around and police interrogations with that good old 40's cliche the bright light pointed at the person being interrogated in order to sweat a confession out of them.

 

The film is for the most part good mystery type entertainment and has that excellent production polish that a major studio could bring to a film like this.

 The film runs a quick 82 minutes and was written by Dwight Taylor and Steve Fisher.