The Prowler (1951) Joseph Losey

Bad cops, family values and the middle class American dream are the themes driving Joseph Losey’s dark riveting film noir, “The Prowler.” Whenever one thinks of voyeurism in the cinema, Alfred Hitchcock’s “Rear Window” tops the list. For 110 minutes we watch James Stewart observe what goes on in the magnificent studio constructed Greenwich Village court yard. But “Rear Window” was not alone in approaching this topic, in fact, released at almost the same time, within a week of each other was another film, this one from Columbia called “Pushover.” It was directed by Richard Quine and starred Fred MacMurray and a young Kim Novak.   Plenty of other films have dabbled in voyeurism including “Psycho,” “The Conversation,” “Peeping Tom,” “Body Double” and more recently “Suburbia.” If one thinks about it, and if you take it to the extreme every film is voyeuristic, subsequently making every moviegoer a voyeur. Now, doesn’t that make you feel good?

So now that you feel nice and dirty we can delve into Joseph Losey’s ”The Prowler”, a  nasty tale of bad cops, misplaced trust, repressed sexuality, desires and chasing the middle class American dream. That last piece is part of what would get Losey in trouble with the HUAC. It may seems insignificant today but back in the early 1950′s right wing communist witch hunters looked at “The Prowler”   as downright subversively un-American, but more on this later.

Short Takes: War and Prison -Two Views of Man’s Brutality

At first glance these two films would seem to have very little in common. The first was made by an expatriate arty American filmmaker, the second a former actor turned writer/director of little consequence and barely remembered today.

Joseph Losey established himself as a unique filmmaker to watch with his first feature, “The Boy with Green Hair.” He would make four more films before getting caught up in the HUAC witch hunts and decided to leave the country rather than face Joe McCarthy’s inquisition. His first stop was Italy where he made one film before settling in for good in England where by the early 1960′s he began a cycle of films (The Servant, Accident, The Go-Between) that would cement his reputation, especially with a series of works written by playwright Harold Pinter.

Crane Wilbur began his career as a suave, handsome, silent film actor, most famously as Pearl White’s co-star in “The Perils of Pauline” serial. Wilbur also showed a knack for writing and directing becoming a triple threat. By the time the sound era arrived, Wilbur’s acting career was on its last legs; he would spend the remainder of his career behind the screen. As a screenwriter Wilbur wrote or co-wrote such films as “Crime School,” “Alcatraz Island,” “House of Wax,” “Women’s Prison,” “The Miracle of Our Lady of Fatima,” “I Was a Communist for the FBI,” “He Walked by Night,” Crime Wave,” and “The Phenix City Story.” As a director, Wilbur spent the bulk  of his career in “B” film alley with most of the films largely forgotten today. Best remembered is arguably his next to last directorial effort, “The Bat” starring Vincent Price.