I Wake Up Screaming

(This post is part of the Betty Grable Blogathon hosted by Taking Up Room)

I Wake Up Screaming (1941) is notable for three reasons. First, it is one of the earliest movies that would later be called film noir. In fact, it is often counted as the first film noir made at 20th Century Fox. Second, it stars Betty Grable in a rare dramatic role. Both prior to and following I Wake Up Screaming (1941), she primarily did musicals and comedies. Third, it was an early role for Victor Mature. It was Mr. Mature's fifth movie and he considered it his first "real" movie.

I Woke Up Screaming (1941) starred Betty Grable as Jill Lynn, whose sister Vicky (Carole Landis) signs with a Hollywood producer. It is not long afterwards that Vicki is murdered. Jill then teams up with Frankie Christopher (Victor Mature), a sports promoter who sought to turn Vicky into a star and was accused of her murder to solve the mystery of Vicky's murder. This was not the first time that Betty Grable and Carole Landis had played sisters. They had also done so in the musical Moon Over Miami (1941). Of course, Miss Landis had previously appeared with Victor Mature in the caveman movie One Million B.C. (1940).

I Wake Up Screaming (1941) was based on the novel of the same name by Steve Fisher. Steve Fisher wrote for several pulp magazines, including Black Mask, Detective Story Magazine, Doc Savage, The Phantom Detective, and The Shadow. He later broke into slick magazines such as Colliers, Liberty, and The Saturday Morning Post before publishing novels. The movie I Wake Up Screaming  would see some changes from the novel. The novel is set in Hollywood, but Darryl F. Zanuck changed the setting to New York City because he did not like stories set in Hollywood. While the movie originally bore the same title as the novel, Zanuck changed the movie's title to Hot Spot. It was under the title Hot Spot that it was previewed in Pasadena, California. The preview bombed as the audience expected a musical, largely because of its star Betty Grable. The movie was then edited and its title changed back to the more fitting I Woke Up Screaming.

Betty Grable was not the only actress considered for the role of Jill in I Wake Up Screaming (1941). Rita Hayworth and Gene Tierney had also been considered. Producer Milton Sperling decided on the unusual choice of Betty Grable, who was happy to play the role. Early on Lucille Ball was considered for the role of Vicky, which ultimately went to Carole Landis. George Raft and Cesar Romero had expressed interest in the role of Frankie Christopher, which ultimately went to Victor Mature. It was Mr. Mature's first film under his contract with 20th Century Fox. He would follow I Woke Up Screaming (1941) with another early noir, The Shanghai Gesture (1941).

In some respects, Betty Grable's role as Jill is not that far off from her characters in musicals and comedies. Jill is as wholesome as many of the other characters Miss Grable played. Originally she was even set to do a bit of singing in I Wake Up Screaming (1941), a scene in which she sings "Daddy" by songwriter Harold Arlen in a record store, but the scene was ultimately cut from the completed movie. And Darryl F. Zanuck made sure to take advantage of Betty Grable's already famous legs and Victor Mature's muscles. I Wake Up Screaming (1941), features a scene set at a swimming pool in which both are wearing swimsuits. Betty Grable was not particularly happy about the scene, saying it "...could just as easily have taken place in a drug store or a bar, but Zanuck would have me and Victor strip down. I loathed that scene."

Beyond Betty Grable, Victor Mature, and Carole Landis, I Wake Up Screaming (1941) featured other notable actors in its cast. Elisha Cook Jr. would make a career out of appearing in film noirs, and by the time he appeared in I Wake Up Screaming (1941) he had already appeared in Stranger on the Third Floor (1940), considered by some to be the first true film noir, and The Maltese Falcon (1941). Laird Creager played the none-too-nice police detective Ed Cornell. He would also go onto appear in the classic film noir This Gun for Hire (1942).

I Wake Up Screaming (1941) was well received by critics. It was also well received by audiences. The movie proved to be a hit and made  a profit of $574,100. The film still remains well respected to this day. Director H. Bruce Humberstone had earlier directed several "Charlie Chan" movies and such lighter fare as the comedies Pardon Our Nerve (1939) and The Quarterback (1940), but with I Wake Up Screaming (1941) he seems totally at home with film noir. Aside from featuring the archetypal noir plot of someone wrongly accused of murder, I Wake Up Screaming (1941) also features the shadows and low-key lighting that would come to define noir. H. Bruce Humberstone would never make another film noir, instead making musicals such as Wonder Man (1945) and The Desert Song (1953).

Following I Wake Up Screaming (1941) Betty Grable would have little opportunity to play dramatic roles. As the Forties progressed, she became established as a musical and comedic star, not to mention a wholesome pinup girl. As wonderful as Miss Grable was in musical comedies, in some ways this is sad. She did a wonderful job in I Wake Up Screaming, and it would be interesting to have seen her in other dramatic roles.