Party Girl (1958)

In 1930s Chicago, two hardened and cynical individuals, a criminal lawyer (Robert Taylor) who works for the mob and a showgirl (Cyd Charisse), reassess their lives when they fall in love. But starting over may not be so easy when a power mad mob boss (Lee J. Cobb) threatens them both if they deviate from his wishes. Nicholas Ray directs this stylish, candy colored gangster drama that is as far away from the B&W gritty Warner gangster movies of the 1930s as you can get. But Ray isn't interested in the "realism" of those films. Beautifully shot in CinemaScope (a format that Ray proved he was a master of with REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE and BIGGER THAN LIFE) by Robert Bronner (WHERE THE BOYS ARE), Ray creates a claustrophobic atmosphere where the bruised lovers (an upscale version of his lovers from THEY LIVE BY NIGHT) are thwarted by the circumstances of their own distrust which has turned in on them and of which they are now its victims. Used here principally as an actress, Charisse gets to do two splashy dance numbers which only add to the near surrealism of Ray's vision. With John Ireland, Kent Smith, Claire Kelly, David Opatoshu, Corey Allen, Carmen Phillips, Barbara Lang, Myrna Hansen, Vaughn Taylor and Geraldine Wall.