Before They Were Stars: Cutting Their Teeth on Film Noir
Before they became Hollywood stars, Tony Curtis and Rock Hudson were paying their dues in the dark conrners of flim noir. I Was a Shoplifter (1950) featured a young “Anthony Curtis” in a minor role as Pepe, a two-bit thug and womanizer, plus—if you don’t blink—Rock Hudson in an even more minor role as store detective Si Swanson, usually uncredited. Both were unknown twenty-five-year-olds.
In this 1950 B-grade crime drama, a judge’s kleptomaniac daughter is caught shoplifting, leading an undercover cop to infiltrate a California theft ring that preys on California department stores and vulnerable young women to commit the swipes.
Later that year both actors appeared as minor characters in Winchester '73. Curtis is a cavalry solider fighting off Indians led by Rock Hudson doing his best fearsome on-the-warpath Indian chief. The movie is regarded as a formative “film noir western,” although some fans might think that phrase an oxymoron. The director was Anthony Mann, who had earned his noir chops for films like The Raw Deal and South Street.
I Was a Shoplifter was a master class in department store larceny, which put it in direct conflict with the Hays Code that stated: “Methods of Crime shall not be explicitly presented.” There was plenty of crime not to explicitly present: hijacking, pickpocketing, break-ins, explosives, safecracking, smuggling, poisoning, torture, even murder. Talk all you want about the crime, but don’t let it turn into a how-to manual. Always beware of "the effect which a too-detailed description may have upon the moron".
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The Hays Code - officially known as "A Code To Govern The Making of Motion and Talking Pictures" was a detailed twenty-page set of moral guidelines that governed all Hollywood film production from the mid-1930s to the late 1960s. Though officially voluntary and studio-industry run, it was in practice mandatory, restricting portrayals of sex, crime, violence, religion, and social behavior. Scripts and final version of all studio films were reviewed, and many had parts deleted or rewritten before release.
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In the movie, you learn the ins-and-outs of “booster bloomers” - baggy undergarments and skirts to conceal sundry items. “Booster coats” let you slide merchandise directly from shelves without removing your hands from the pockets. Imagine what you could lift with a “heist box” – a neatly wrapped package with a false bottom.
Film writers include such details for entertainment, not to promote crime, but how can you sell it to the censors? As education. A studio exec might have said to the Hayes Board: “Gentlemen, by demonstrating these much-used techniques, we’re alerting the general shopping public and retail store staffs across the nation. This exposé will discourage would-be thieves and save American citizens millions of dollars. And let me point out that the professional criminals face harsh consequences in our script.”
Tony Curtis appeared in a handful of noirs, most notably as the cynical, opportunist press agent Sidney Falcon in Sweet Smell of Success (1957), which I review in the "Worth a Look" section of this blog. The Academy Awards ignored that performance but he was nominated by BAFTA (British Academy of Film & Television Arts) for Best Foreign Actor. Rock Hudson had minor (some uncredited) parts in three other noirs and a more substantial role in Dashiell Hammett’s The Fat Man (1951).
The very first movie appearance of Tony Curtis was a brief, uncredited, no dialogue sexy rumba dance with Yvone de Carlo in the noir classic Criss Cross (1949). He was spotted by director Robert Siodmak on the Universal lot and cast.
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