Phil Karlson: director and filmmaker biography

¶ … Karlson

The objective of this research is to explore the 'themes' that Phil Karlson used in his work over a ten-year period and through description examples from at least three scenes in Karlson's films to show the area that he explored creatively.

Phil Karlson was the son of Lillian O'Brien, a popular Irish actress. Phil studied at the Chicago Art Institute and studied law at California's college, Loyola Marymount. Karlson released his first feature-length film in 1944 but really caught his own wave in the 1950's with his production of the realistic down and dirty as well as melodramatic crime movies. Phil Karlson spent the decade of the 1950's creating some of the best crime thrillers of the decade although he never gained the same laud as other directors.

Some of Karlson's films are "Scandal Sheet," "99 River Street," "The Phenix City Story," and "The Brothers Rico" all of which are not available on home video sources but according to Gary Johnson p.1 (not dated) However, the film entitled "Kansas City Confidential" can be found on VHS video produced by 'Image Entertainments (1951).

What the Reviewers Have to Say

Reviewer, Gary Johnson, writes that:

This is prime Karlson. it's brutal, hard-edged, and unflinching, but it's also livened by a distinct streak of optimism....Karlson tempered the surface of his films with an underlying sense of hope. People will die during the course of his dramas, and good people will be pulled toward corruption. Likewise, the pervading corruption in Karlson's films can be stifling, but through it all Karlson's movies are about defeating daunting odds and eliminating corruption." (Johnson Review Online)

Also stated of Phil Karlson by Robert Smith is that Karlson

Directed what were some of the "most compelling crime films of the 1950's and the rarely seen 99 River Street is Karlson at his hard-hitting, unpretentiously innovative best. Building on typical noir elements -- a down-on-his-luck protagonist, an untrustworthy blonde wife, and a grisly gallery of underworld mugs -- this film ventures beyond standard crime-gone-wrong themes to explore the overlaps between reality and spectacle."

Three Scenes from Karlson's Films

99 River Street'

The opening scene of '99 River Street' focuses on a prizefighter gone cab driver and watches clips of himself on the production "Great Flights of Yesterday" on television this is where the film slips into the mode of reality and fantasy converging with one another. Review Robert Smith states that:

Building on typical noir elements -- a down-on-his-luck protagonist, an untrustworthy blonde wife, and a grisly gallery of underworld mugs -- this film ventures beyond standard crime-gone-wrong themes to explore the overlaps between reality and spectacle.... Karlson exploits shifting points-of-view to disorient both audience and characters. But the film is hardly a dry formal exercise; well-chosen details and vivid performances make the story thoroughly engaging. The working title was "Crosstown," evoking both the characters' mutual betrayals and the cabby's nocturnal travels across the map of New York, finally leading him down a dark street in Jersey City."

The Big Heat

In the 1953 film 'The Big Heat' Debby Marsh who is played by Gloria Grahame winner of Best Supporting Actress Academy Award the previous year for her role in the Bad and the Beautiful (1952). Debby plays the part of a kept-woman and is a cold creature and the paramour of Vince Stone played by Lee Marvin. Vince is Lagan's chief henchman in this film. In one scene Debby is thrilled to be an interruption of the boys at a poker game when she answers the phone and hands it to Vince who rudely tells her to leave the room...Debby pauses in front of a mirror preening at her reflection giving an insight into her vain character and is only the first of many preening scenes on her part in the movie.

Scandal Sheet (1952)

Scandal Sheet (1952) is a film noir thriller set at a sensation grabbing tabloid-style newspaper. It is based on the novel the Dark Page (1944) by Samuel Fuller, himself a major filmmaker. In one of the shots which is a complex one shown is a lower East Side tenement from above the street scene and there are approximately four separate fire escapes all shown from different angels with people standing on them. There is an alleyway between two buildings with a car in the alley. The use of geometry is interestingly in its' complexity.