Noir Nook: Canada Noir | Classic Movie Hub Blog

Noir Nook: Canada Noir

Canada Day – formerly known as Dominion Day and sometimes referred to as “Canada’s Birthday” – is a federal holiday commemorating the anniversary of the Canadian Confederation. This happened on July 1, 1867, when the three separate colonies of the United Canada, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, were united into a single, self-governing nation within the British Empire called Canada. (You learn something new every day, don’t you?)

To celebrate the upcoming Canada Day, this month Noir Nook shines a spotlight on a trio of Noir veterans from Canada. Enjoy!

Raymond Burr

Born Raymond William Stacy Burr, the actor later best known as Perry Mason was born on May 21, 1917 in New Westminster, British Columbia. He was the eldest of three children of William, who worked as a salesman at a hardware store, and Minerva (a native of Chicago, Illinois), who studied music and played piano in the local symphony orchestra and silent films at the city’s cinema. When he was six, the family moved to Vallejo, California, where his mother’s family owned a small hotel. In his youth, Burr took part in church plays and school plays; He later honed his skills in repertoire and summer theater before making his Broadway debut in 1941 Crazy about the heat. The play ended after only seven performances; The production was taken over by then-newspaper reporter Ed Sullivan, who restaged it – and Burr was out. Despite this setback, Burr stayed in New York, working odd jobs to make ends meet, and returned to Broadway in 1943, playing a French patriot The Duke in the Dark. This time, his performance caught the attention of a Hollywood agent, and a short time later, Burr signed a deal with RKO. In 1946 he appeared in his first motion picture, RKO’s Without a reservationstarring John Wayne and Claudette Colbert, and made his film noir debut the following year Desperate. In this Anthony Mann-directed feature, Burr played Walt Radak, a local man out for revenge when he blames an old neighborhood buddy (Steve Brodie) for his brother’s conviction and impending execution.

Burr would later appear in numerous other noir films, in which he excelled in villainous roles. In addition to Desperatethe best of it included Cases (1948) as a disturbing insurance detective; raw deal (1948), where he was memorable as a sadistic gang leader; And The Blue Gardenia (1953), in which he played a wolfish womanizer.

Glenn Ford

On May 1, 1916, Gwyllyn Samuel Newton Ford was born in Sainte-Christine, Quebec, Canada, the only child of Hannah and Newton, a conductor on the Canadian Pacific Railroad. His performance had a dramatic prologue: three weeks before his mother was born, a fire broke out in the shop above which the Ford family lived. When a firefighter tried to carry the heavily pregnant Hannah down a ladder, the rungs broke and they both fell two stories to the ground. Luckily both survived. When Ford was young, the family moved to Santa Monica, California, for Newton’s health reasons. His first exposure to acting was while he was a student at Santa Monica High School. After graduating, Ford appeared in various plays with the Santa Monica Players and later appeared in a production of self talk which played first in Santa Barbara, then in San Diego and finally on Broadway. Although the play was a flop, Ford did a screen test for 20th Century-Fox shortly thereafter and was cast in his first film. The sky with a barbed wire fence (1939), starring Jean Rogers and Richard Conte. After release, Ford hired Zeppo Marx as his agent and signed a long-term deal with Columbia Studios. He remained in the studio for the next 14 years, making his first foray into film noir in 1946 Gilda. In this popular feature film, he starred opposite Rita Hayworth as Johnny Farrell, a humble gambler-turned-hand of a Buenos Aires casino owner (George Macready) who happens to show up one day with Johnny’s ex-girlfriend on his arm (and a ring on her finger).

Ford excelled in six other noirs, including framed (1947), starring Janis Carter and Barry Sullivan; Sentenced (1950), the remake of a 1931 supporting film starring Phillips Holmes; and my favorite Ford movie, The great heat (1953). In this feature film directed by Fritz Lang, Ford plays a detective determined to bring down the gangsters responsible for his wife’s murder.

John Ireland

John Benjamin Ireland is from Victoria, British Columbia and was born on January 30, 1914. His mother, Gracie Ferguson, was a piano teacher from Scotland; He never knew his biological father, but Grace later married Irish vaudeville father Michael Noone and had three other children – one of whom became actor Tommy Noonan. When Ireland was a child, the family moved to San Francisco and later to Harlem in New York City. He reportedly stumbled into acting years later when he walked into the Davenport Free Theater in Manhattan one day, simply intending to catch a free show. Instead, he learned the company was offering free acting training, and the disoriented, financially strapped young man signed up. After a year at the Davenport Theatre, Ireland gained experience with various companies including Clare Tree Major’s Children’s Theater and a Shakespearean company in Delaware before being cast in the 1941 production of Macbeth. His stage successes eventually caught the attention of Hollywood and Ireland starring in his first screen appearance. A walk in the sunin 1945. Two years later he entered the realm of film noir railroad! (1947). Anthony Mann directed this film, which starred Ireland as a psychopathic guy with a penchant for scenting his gun bullets.

After Railroad, Ireland was featured in The gangster (1947), plays a gambling addict named Karty; raw deal (1948), as a gunman named Fantail; And party girl (1958), a rare color noir in which he portrayed the sleazy henchman of a 1930s gangster.

Happy Canada Day to all Canadian residents and expatriates – why not join the celebration and enjoy a noir by one of these Canadian natives? You only owe it to yourself.

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– Karen Burroughs Hannsberry for Classic Movie Hub

You can read all of Karen’s Noir Nook articles here.

Karen Burroughs Hannsberry is the author of the Shadows and Satin blog, which focuses on films and cast from the film noir and pre-Code era, and is the editor-in-chief of The Dark Sides, a bi-monthly newsletter about film noir. Karen is also the author of two books on film noir – Femme Noir: The Bad Girls of Film And Bad Boys: The Actors of Film Noir. You can follow Karen on Twitter at @TheDarkPages.
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