Those accustomed to seeing Charlton Heston stride across a big screen flowing robes and saying things like, "Bring on the Hebrew dancing girls," are liable to be disappointed. Chuck Heston may be taller than Michael Jordan but he's a small-time gambler here, and not a very pleasant one.Chuck is a member of a group that runs a small bookie joint in Los Angeles, the others being Ed Begley, Jack Webb, and Henry (Harry) Morgan Or maybe it's Harry (Henry) Morgan. It always mixes me up. There was another actor with a similar name from whom he wanted to distinguish himself and he did all too good a job of it. I can't grasp how he managed to untangle those two names himself. Maybe he was confused too. Why didn't he simply call himself H. H. Morgan? Or Humbert Humbert Morgan? Is that too much to ask? Has he no pity? Okay. I've been waiting twenty years to get that off my chest. Yes, doctor, thank you. the Xanax helped.The five hoods soon sort themselves out. They all cheat when they can inveigle some stranger into playing poker with them, but their attitudes towards cheating differ. Hubert Horatio Morgan, known as "Soldier," is a bit of a dull bulb but generous and mostly helpful. Ed Begley is a professional who harbors no particular ill will towards anyone but just makes his living by illegal bookmaking and gambling. Jack Webb is not his Dragnet self. Not at all. A cynical, hard-headed character whose guiding vision is a dollar sign. He snarls a lot and natters the good-natured Soldier.Heston has probably never had a nastier role. He was sometimes abrasive -- "The Big Country," "The Naked Jungle" -- but always proud and needful. In this film he has Lizabeth Scott (nee Emma Matzo) singing smoky ballads to him in her nightclub and mooning over him night and day. But due to some traumatic experiences with a woman while he was in the Army, he wants nothing to do with anybody. And he's not afraid to express himself. To Scott, who is trying to comfort him: "I want to be alone." To Webb: "Get out." The gang get the innocent Don DeFore hooked into a game in which DeFore unwisely loses five large that don't belong to him. He hangs himself. When DeFore's estranged, murderous brother gets wind of this, he begins stalking the gang members one by one. First to go is Ed Begley, found strangled in his flat. The police question Heston and Webb. "What was Barney like when you saw him last?" "He was -- just Barney," replies Heston indifferently, while Webb taps his foot impatiently, bored. Some friends, Begley had.Webb gets the feeling he's being stalked too. He turns all sweaty and fidgety. He IS being stalked, too, and by a Mount Everest of muscle, Mike Mazurka, in real life a former pro wrestler. Webb is found hanging in his bathroom but nobody grieves.Then it gets a little complicated, with Heston blowing town for a job in Las Vegas, trying to hide, knowing that if you're going to get lost, Las Vegas is the place to do it. He's gotten a little close to Don DeFore's widow, Viveca Lindfors, who is magnetic in appearance and demeanor but doesn't sparkle in the trashy way that Lizabeth Scott does.I won't give away the ending. It's about what you'd expect. In his first film, Heston isn't very expressive but then the role calls for a somewhat arid character. Not counting the sympathy generated by the plight of the two women -- one loving from afar, the other a the widow of a nice guy -- the best performance may come from Horatio Hornblower Morgan in the role of the moral simpleton. He could have crawled out of the pages of a Russian novel.

There is a lot to like about "Dark City" and it's an excellent example of film noir. While not as tough and gritty as some of the darker incarnations of noir, it still packs a nice punch and has some excellent characterizations--particularly Charton Heston and Jack Webb.Heston plays a world-weary and jaded professional gambler. He sees most people as suckers and has little to like about him. Inexplicably, Lizbeth Scott adores him and is the perfect enabler. She also keeps on holding out hope that Heston will reform and marry her.One night, Heston and his gambling partners come upon a pigeon (Don DeFore) and invite him for a 'nice friendly game of poker'. DeFore does well the first night--and he doesn't realize he's being set-up for a big killing, as the gamblers know he has a $5000 cashiers check on him. Not surprisingly, the next day, DeFore's luck sours and he's cleaned out--including this check that didn't turn out to belong to him. He signs it over to them---and then promptly kills himself! Two things almost immediately come to light. First, it turns out that one of the gamblers (Webb) was cheating. While these were pros, Heston and his other partner (Ed Begley) were not cheaters. Second, Begley becomes very nervous--saying that he thinks someone is following him. Soon, he's murdered! The police bring in Webb and Heston and inform him that they know about the game and even know who the killer is--DeFore's psychotic brother who'd spent much of his life institutionalized in a mental hospital!! And, apparently, he's soon coming to get Webb and Heston as well! Quite a bit happens after this--but you'll just have to tune in to see it yourself.Excellent writing, wonderful tension and nice acting--this one will keep you on the edge of your seat and is great for noir fanatics--like myself.

Dark City is a well crafted film. Most film noir fans will love it. It was released in 1950 and Stars Lizabeth Scott and Charlton Heston.Heston plays a gambler (Danny Haley) who along with two friends sucker a man from out of town into a game of poker. Only one problem...it wasn't his money to gamble with. He signs over his check with the knowledge, (I'm in big trouble!) It is later revealed that he hung himself.Now the story really takes off. The dead mans brother (who is insane), vows to track down those who were responsible for his brothers death, one at a time! This is a very intense storyline and will keep you on the edge of your seat.Heston is wonderful in this film as is Lizabeth Scott. Scott had been in the film business for a number of years by the time she made this picture. But remember, this was Heston's first film. To watch him, you would never know. However it didn't hurt to have so many veteran actors surrounding him. Names like Dean Jagger, Don DeFore, Jack Web, Harry Morgan, Walter Sande, and Mark Keuning. This was a solid cast! If you haven't seen it yet, I highly recommend it. You will need this for your film noir collection.

(There are Spoilers) Charlton Heston known for the Biblical epics and movies with cast of thousands that he made during his fifty or so year career in motion pictures started out in his very first movie, back in 1950, in a little known film-noir curiosity piece playing a small-time hoodlum running a bookie joint in Chicago.Having his gambling den raided three time in just over a month by the cops, even though he was paying them off, has Dan Haley, Charlton Heston,and his three fellow bookies Barney, Ed Bagely, Augie, Jack Webb, and Soldier, Henry Morgan, wonder if they should get into a much safer business like working a bar or being a croupier in a casino. Trying to figure out where the next dollar is coming from Dan goes to the nightclub where his girlfriend Fran Garland, Lizabeth Scott,is doing a show and runs into out of town businessman Arthur Winant, Don DeFore. Seeing Winant pull out a number of big bills, including a $5,000.00 bank check, from his wallet as he paid for his drink Dan invites him for a game of cards at his now closed down bookie joint with his friends Barney Augie & Soldier. Winning $350.00 from the four book-makers Arthur is invited back the next evening, his last day in Chicago, for another card game with the four wanting another chance to win back their money. This time around the bookies were ready for Winant and had the cards rigged, or marked, wiping the poor guy out of everything he had including his $5,000.00 bank check, which Winant signed over to them, which didn't even belong to him. Sick depressed and heart broken Winant goes back to his hotel room and hangs himself. It turns out that Arthur Winart's older brother Sidney, Mike Mazurki, found his body and called the police but Sidney didn't wait around for them to show up, he went out looking for those who drove his brother to kill himself, Dan Barney Augie & Soldier, and pay them back in kind. Superior film-noir thriller with Sidney Winant, who spent a number of years in a mental institution for the criminally insane, out hunting down and killing those responsible for his brothers, Arthur, death and going from Chicago to Los Angeles to Las Vages to do it. Murdering Barney in Chicago and making it look like he killed himself, by hanging, Sidney has the remaining bookies on the run not even knowing What he, Sidney Winant, even looks like. Both Dan & Augie travel to Los Angeles to see the late Arthur's wife Victoria, Viveca Lindfors, to get a photo of Sidney to be able to spot him before he attacks and murders them. Dan saying that he's an insurance investigator and that Victoria and Sidney are to receive a $10,000.00 policy that Arthur made out to them can't get a photo of Sidney since Victoria burnt all the photos she had of him wanting to keep him out of her memory forever, he's a dangerous homicidal lunatic she tells Dan.Dan for his part starts to fall in love with Victoria and want's to give her back the check that her dead husband Arthur signed over to him. When Dan tell's her that he's one of the people who cheated him out of his money, that lead to his suicide, she rejected both Dan and the check.Back in his L.A motel room Dan finds that Sidney got to Augie, while he was at Victoria's house, with him hanging in the shower with a rope tied around his neck. The movie then moves to Las Vagas with Dan on the run getting a job as a card dealer at his friends Swede's, Walter Sande, casino and meeting his fellow bookie Soldier and his girlfriend from the "Windy City" Fran who both were working there. Sidney finding out that Dan is in Vegas from Victoria's young son Billy, Mark Keuning,makes his way down there from L.A. Victoria then unexpectedly calls Dan and warns him about her brother-in-law finding out where he is has the police using Dan as bait set a trap for the big gorilla, Sidney is well over six feet tall and weighs about 270 pounds. The plan almost backfires when Sidney get's to Dan before they, the police,can get there in time to save Dan's life.