Road House (1948) starring Ida Lupino and Cornel Wilde

Ida Lupino

Film noir has become a term tossed around very casually, largely through lack of a clear definition, though partly through marketing attempts to cash in on the term's sophistication and general trendiness.

Jean Negulusco's "Road House" (1948) is one such film which receives the label by both fans and Fox's packaging. While it certainly is atmospheric, I find "Road House" lacking the darkness I generally associate with noir films, as well as a couple of other usual hallmarks: a murder, though there is a crime, and the femme fatale, though Ida Lupino comes close.

I'd hate to label "Road House" noir light, because it is a very good movie, but while it touches upon the usual elements of film noir it never fully embraces them. Perhaps subtle noir would be more apt?

I chose to write about "Road House" today as a reminder that while Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is indisputably king of television for classic film fans, there are still other options. Second best in this case is the Fox Movie Channel, which while airing primarily more recent films from the Fox catalog does still, usually each morning, air several older films as well.

"Road House" next airs on the Fox Movie Channel tomorrow, April 29, at noon Eastern time. If you forget to set your DVR then it's a good time to be thankful to Fox for making most of their DVD releases extremely affordable--"Road House" retails $14.98 but is currently on sale at Amazon.com for $9.99. My most recent viewing came as part of my Netflix subscription. "Road House" is available for immediate download on Netflix.com, so within a moment I was able to pipe it through my Roku box and onto my TV.

Richard Widmark

"Road House" stars Ida Lupino as Lily Stevens, a singer from Chicago who's brought to town by Jefty (Richard Widmark) to perform at his club, Jefty's Road House. Widmark as Jefty is the town big shot, playing city slick but always with a whiff of the gutter. His best friend, Pete (Cornel Wilde), runs the Road House for him. While the two obviously have a long standing friendship, it's pretty obvious Jefty has to remain in control of the relationship, at least from his perspective.

Lupino, presented as experienced and standoffish, chain smokes her way through the movie and even warbles the lyrics of a few songs in her own voice. She has no use for Jefty, she's just in town because she needed the money and the opportunity presented itself. On the other hand Jefty is interested in Lupino's Lily to the point of obsession and it just so happens the fact that she's a singer buys him some time to try and win her over. Uninterested from the start, Lily instead sets her eyes on Pete, doing her best to break him down over bowling lessons inside the Road House.

Sharing the bill with the big three here is Celeste Holm as nice girl Susie Smith. Susie's a local who works at Jefty's Road House and has a crush on Pete herself. While Lily and Susie don't get along it isn't really a case of them baring their claws at one another, much more so that Lily upon her arrival keeps the walls up and comes off as unkind and incapable of friendship. Susie makes some catty remarks, but really, I can't see who wouldn't.

The hitch in the story comes after Jefty goes out of town for a week to clear his head and Lily finally breaks Pete down. Upon Jefty's return he shows Pete the marriage license he's taken out in Lily and his name and is as excited to tell Lily as he was Pete. Understandably Lily is a little taken aback by Jefty's phone call and winds up hanging up on him. Immediately afterwards Pete goes over and breaks the truth to Jefty, he and Lily are in love and going to be married. Jefty explodes and tells Pete he never wants to see him again.

When Pete and Lily decide to blow town, we see Pete first leaving a note for Jefty at the Road House and then are greeted with a very obvious close-up of the week's receipts for $2,600 signed by Suzy. There's really no surprise as to what comes next after the first glimpse of the police approaching Pete and Lily at the train depot when they were about to leave town.

Here's where "Road House" gets interesting. Pete stands trial for theft of the week's receipts and is found guilty. Jefty has a talk with the judge and convinces him to alter Pete's planned sentence. What was going to be 2-10 years is turned into 2 years parole ... under Jefty's custody.

It's at this point that Widmark's Jefty descends to the levels of his Tommy Udo character from his previous year's debut in "Kiss of Death" (1947), complete with maniacal laughter and violent tendencies. I can only imagine Fox played up this likeness in the trailers for “Road House.”

Ida Lupino and Cornel Wilde are both excellent in “Road House,” while Celese Holm is more incidental and Widmark is, well, see the Tommy Udo reference above.

Lupino does a fine job as Lily, playing her rough to protect herself as the new girl in town, then easing up when appropriate such as with the older, or in other words, non-threatening, bartender Sam, whom she chats with casually right from the start. Widmark and Wilde see a different side of Lily, both young enough and attractive enough to set off her defense mechanisms. She’s warding off any threat of sex or even attraction until she makes up her own mind about them.

Lupino’s singing was a pleasant surprise for both the viewer and the audience at Jefty’s.

Wilde on the other hand is down to earth. You get the immediate impression that his subservience to Jefty is voluntary, where even at the start a warning he delivers near the end of the film, “Don’t go one inch too far,” has always held true. His initial repellence towards Lily is because he’s loyal to Jefty and does his best to make sure his cocky buddy doesn’t get himself into trouble with the wayward women he brings through town.

I enjoyed “Road House,” even so, I came away with an impression of it as more of a light thriller than as film noir. Still a decent enough movie to recommend.

Featured collectibles: At the top right of the page Ida Lupino is featured on a 1939 R.J. Lea "Famous Film Stars" tobacco card. Next at the left Richard Widmark is shown alongside Marilyn Monroe in an ad for "Don't Bother to Knock" (1952), which took up a full page in this movie theatre program which was handed out to patrons. Above at the right Cornel Wilde holds Jane Russell in his arms on a publicity photo for the film "Hot Blood" (1956). Below is another shot of Ida Lupino, this time on an 8x10 linen-textured premium photo dated approximately 1936, ACC designation R95. The Lupino piece promotes the movie "Sea Devils" (1937).

For more info: