Hotel der Verlorenen (1950)

Hotel der Verlorenen: Directed by Joseph Lerner. With Zachary Scott, Faye Emerson, Mary Boland, Sam Levene. An alcoholic ex-cop, now the house detective at a scuzzy hotel in an even scuzzier part of town, stumbles through New York City’s sleazy underworld searching for his kidnapped son.

“This is beautifully photographed and features a score by Dimitri Tiomkin. Scott to me was always an uneven actor, there just doesnu0026#39;t seem to be much going on behind his eyes but heu0026#39;s pretty good in this film. The main character seems intent on remaining drunk and finding his son and for most of the movie heu0026#39;s more successful at finding drinks nearly everywhere he goes. There is a memorable chase/fight sequence in the New York subway, seemingly done for real on real locations, at another point there is a room full of corpses found post shoot out. And another scene on a darkened staircase that is well done on all levels.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eBut what drags the movie down is the seemingly shapeless plot or lack of one, and long dialog scenes which I guess in some instances are supposed to be romantic but are just long and talky. Nevertheless there are memorable moments of noir photography and music. It may not ultimately work, but is not without scattered virtues of production and performance.”