Private Hell 36
Private Hell 36 is a 1954 American crime film noir directed by Don Siegel, and starring Ida Lupino, Steve Cochran, Howard Duff, Dean Jagger and Dorothy Malone.
The picture was one of the last feature-length efforts by Filmakers, an independent company created by producer Collier Young and his star and then-wife Ida Lupino.
Plot
Los Angeles police detectives Cal Bruner and Jack Farnham meet a nightclub singer, Lilli Marlowe, who may hold the key to solving a major New York robbery. Lilli assists the detectives in the search for a suspect she has encountered, and a romance develops between her and Cal. When the suspect is finally spotted, a chase ensues that results in the death of the fugitive. Inside the suspect's car there is a box filled with money, and Cal pockets $80,000 of it. Jack wants nothing to do with this and reminds his partner that the money is marked. Cal has a plan, however, and Jack finds himself drawn into it. He reluctantly accepts a key to a trailer in which Cal has hidden the money, the idea being that Jack can access his share, but Jack - a family man who just wants as normal a life as possible - is increasingly agitated and racked with guilt. Cal receives a call from the dead man's partner threatening to reveal the cop's deceit unless he gets his money back. Jack insists that they turn in the money and take what is coming to them, but Cal says he intends to murder the blackmailer and claim self-defence. After a time, Cal agrees to return the money, but he is actually preparing to kill his own partner. When the crook suddenly shows up, Cal wounds Jack, then Cal is killed by a shot from the dark. Their boss, Captain Michaels, appears and reveals what really happened: he suspected the detectives had taken the money, and the blackmailing crook was just a ruse.Background
The extensive racetrack scenes in the film were shot at Hollywood Park Racetrack in Inglewood, California. The interiors of real bars and shops were used so that the actors could walk out into actual streets within the same scene.The film starts with a pre-credit sequence in an early modernist foreshadowing of the action teaser before it became commonplace on television series of the sixties. Typical of The Filmakers' productions, the last title card misspells “Made in Hollwood, USA.“
The film is notable as one of the early Siegel B movies on which future auteur Sam Peckinpah, credited under his first name, David, learned his craft as a dialogue director.