Interpol | Der Mann, den keiner kannte

UCM.ONE launches the new series “Édition Film Noir” with the movie “Interpol” (German title: Der Mann, den keiner kannte“). The film, which now appears for the first time as a DVD in Germany in the unabridged theatrical version in the original CinemaScope widescreen format, is also known under the English title “Pickup Alley” and has been elaborately used in original locations in Lisbon, Genoa, New York, Filmed Rome, Paris, Madrid, Athens and London. As actors are u.a. with: Victor Mature (“Samson and Delilah“), Trevor Howard (“The Third Man“) and Anita Ekberg (“The Sweet Life“). While Trevor Howard was one of the most prominent English-speaking character actors for decades, the former Miss Sweden Anita Ekberg was considered a sex symbol of the 1950s.

Summary:

Interpol Commissioner Charles Sturgis (Victor Mature) persistently chases the drug dealer Frank McNally (Trevor Howard), who has been searching for years. McNally, who also has his hunter’s sister on his conscience, has gone into a facial surgery. But at the latest after the death of his sister Helen (Dorothy Alison) in New York, the professional investigation has become something personal. Sturgis is obsessed with McNally and so his private vendetta drives him from New York via London, Rome and Athens back to the US.

About John Gilling:

Born in London on May 29, 1912, scriptwriter and director John Gilling worked until he was 17 years old in the oil industry, then moved to Hollywood, where he kept afloat with various jobs, some in the film industry. In 1933 he returned to England and two years later began to work as an assistant director. At the beginning of the Second World War, he volunteered for the Royal Navy. Two years after the war, he made his debut as a scriptwriter (“Black Memory” 1947) and a year later as a director on the short film “Escape from Broadmoor” (1948). From then on, his directing work focused on films of crime thrillers, adventure and horror genre, with Gilling often also took over the screenplay and many of his productions rather had to do with low budgets. In the mid-1950s, Gilling was screenplayed and directed by Warwick Films, including director of the British Noir “Interpol“. It followed with “The Doctor and the Devil” (1960), a film by Triad Pictures, which is considered the best film of his career. A year later, Gilling founded his own production company and turned the smuggling adventure “The Bay of Smugglers” in the same year. In the early 1960s, he also signed a contract with the London-based Hammer Film Productions, where he shot another of his most successful films. His zombie film “The Nights of Horror” was well received not only by the audience, he also had a formative influence on the entire zombie horror genre. By 1966, Gilling had been making horror and adventure films for Hammer Productions, giving British TV a flying visit and eventually moving to Spain, where he retired in the early 1970s. He died on November 22, 1984 in Madrid. He was 72 years old.

About Victor Mature:

Victor John Mature was born on January 29, 1913 in Louisville, Kentucky, the son of blacksmith Marcello Gelindo Maturi. He went to the Pasadena Community Playhouse, where he learned and practiced acting. Finally, in September 1939, he was discovered there by an agent of the producer Hal Roach. Roach, who had made Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy famous, let Mature sign a seven-year contract and so in 1939 he first appeared in “Call me Hilda“. The “handsome Tarzan-type”, as he was called by the audience, got his first starring role from Roach immediately afterwards and had to deal with dinosaurs as a caveman in “Tumak, the master of the jungle“. The film was successful and consolidated Mature’s image as “little Johnny Weissmuller”. This was followed by several productions for Hal Roach, RKO Radio Pictures as well as with “Retreat to Pleasure” and “Lady in the Dark” some trips to the theater stage. After his time at the theater, he returned to the camera and was supposed to film “Bowery Nightingale” with Alice Faye for 20th Century Fox – Hal Roach had sold half of his contract to Fox. The film was never shot. Instead, he starred alongside Betty Grable, who had replaced Alice Faye, 1941 in the thriller “I wake up Screaming“, which is considered the early milestone of the Film Noir, the sports promoter Frankie Christopher.

In 1941, Mature wanted to volunteer for the Navy and go to war, but since he was color blind, he was rejected and reported instead to the US Coast Guard. After the war, he continued his film career and embodied above all the Muskellösen history and monumental film heroes, especially his main role in “Samson and Delilah” from 1949 his career gave a huge boost. With well over 30 films, the 1950s became his most productive decade, and again and again he took on the role of daring heroes. In the early 1960s, he said farewell to the big screen. On August 4, 1999, Victor Mature died of leukemia at the age of 86. A star on the Walk of Fame bears his name.