Epitaph and Born Again

The Lineup (1958)
directed by Don Siegel
rating: 4 out of 5 cravats
on DVD from Vidéothèque

So incontrovertible is the fascist verve behind the gun-carrying fantasy of Dirty Harry that, with the exception of Charley Varrick, I've avoided the second half of Don Siegel's career ever since. I guess I wasn't even aware of the first twenty years, but 1958 splits Siegel's credits right down the middle, and it's time - on this blog, at least - for a revival. The Lineup belongs in any repertory of great San Francisco crime films, stripping the city of its fog and noir for unfinished highways, industrial ports, and roads through the barer parts of town. There is splendor, too - houses on hills, unwitting tourists in glamorous rooms - and a kind of near-dark strangeness in spades - the man in the wheelchair, the inexplicable relationship between Eli Wallach and Robert Keith - but all of it stitched with the strength of a machine, punctuating the cloth with gunfire, speed, and death after death - in steam rooms, in parlors - in an altogether democratic glee.