A Dark and Suspenseful Film Noir Classic: Great Flamarion (1945)

"Great Flamarion" is a film noir drama from 1945 directed by Anthony Mann. The story revolves around a group of traveling vaudeville performers, with the titular character, the Great Flamarion (played by Erich von Stroheim), as the main attraction. Flamarion is a sharpshooter who performs a dangerous trick where he shoots a bullet into a small target held by his beautiful assistant Connie (played by Mary Beth Hughes). However, when Connie and her husband Al (played by Dan Duryea) hatch a plan to swindle Flamarion out of his earnings, things take a deadly turn. As jealousy and betrayal escalate, Flamarion finds himself drawn into a dangerous web of deceit and violence.

With its moody, shadowy visuals and complex characters, "Great Flamarion" is a classic example of film noir. Von Stroheim delivers a haunting performance as the tortured sharpshooter, while Hughes and Duryea provide compelling support as the conniving couple. The film's suspenseful plot and dark themes of love, greed, and obsession make it a must-see for fans of classic cinema and film noir.

Erich von Stroheim as The Great Flamarion
Mary Beth Hughes as Connie Wallace
Dan Duryea as Al Wallace
Steve Barclay as Eddie Wheeler
Lester Allen as Bert
Esther Howard as Hazel
Harold Goodwin as Detective

The Great Flamarion is a 1945 film noir mystery film directed by Anthony Mann starring Erich von Stroheim and Mary Beth Hughes. The film, like many films noir, is shot in flashback narrative. The film was produced by Republic Pictures.[1]

This film is now in the public domain.
Plot
Mary Beth Hughes as Connie Wallace

The film opens following a murder at a cabaret in Mexico City in 1936; a shot is heard, but the body of the female victim (Connie) has been strangled. The police take the woman's husband into custody, assuming he is the murderer. But Flamarion, who has been shot, is the murderer and he explains to a stagehand why he killed Connie in flashback.The Great Flamarion (Erich von Stroheim) is an arrogant, friendless, and misogynous marksman who displays his trick gunshot act in the vaudeville circuit. His show features a beautiful assistant, Connie (Mary Beth Hughes) and her drunken husband Al (Dan Duryea), Flamarion's other assistant. Flamarion falls in love with Connie, the movie's femme fatale, and is soon manipulated by her into killing her no good husband during one of their acts.

After Al's supposed accidental death, Connie convinces Flamarion to wait three months before the two can marry and flees back to Minnesota. Meanwhile, Connie has already begun a relationship with another performer, Eddie (Stephen Barclay). After failing to show up at an arranged meeting place three months later, Flamarion goes into a downward spiral of drinking and gambling. Flamarion eventually finds Connie who informs him that she never loved him and used him to get rid of her husband.
Cast

Erich von Stroheim as The Great Flamarion
Mary Beth Hughes as Connie Wallace
Dan Duryea as Al Wallace
Stephen Barclay as Eddie Wheeler
Lester Allen as Tony
Esther Howard as Cleo
Michael Mark as Nightwatchman

See also

Public domain film
List of American films of 1945
List of films in the public domain in the United States

References

The Great Flamarion at the American Film Institute Catalog.

External links
Wikiquote has quotations related to The Great Flamarion.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to The Great Flamarion.

The Great Flamarion at the American Film Institute Catalog
The Great Flamarion at IMDb
The Great Flamarion at AllMovie
The Great Flamarion is available for free download at the Internet Archive
The Great Flamarion at Rotten Tomatoes
The Great Flamarion complete film on YouTube (public domain)

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Films directed by Anthony Mann

Dr. Broadway (1942) Moonlight in Havana (1942) Nobody's Darling (1943) My Best Gal (1944) Strangers in the Night (1944) The Great Flamarion (1945) Two O'Clock Courage (1945) Sing Your Way Home (1945) The Bamboo Blonde (1946) Strange Impersonation (1946) Desperate (1947) Railroaded! (1947) T-Men (1947) Raw Deal (1948) Reign of Terror (1949) Border Incident (1949) Side Street (1950) Winchester '73 (1950) The Furies (1950) Devil's Doorway (1950) The Tall Target (1951) Bend of the River (1952) The Naked Spur (1953) Thunder Bay (1953) The Glenn Miller Story (1954) The Far Country (1954) Strategic Air Command (1955) The Man from Laramie (1955) The Last Frontier (1955) Serenade (1956) Men in War (1957) The Tin Star (1957) God's Little Acre (1958) Man of the West (1958) Cimarron (1960) El Cid (1961) The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964) The Heroes of Telemark (1965) A Dandy in Aspic (1968)

Categories:

1945 filmsAmerican black-and-white films1940s English-language filmsFilm noirFilms directed by Anthony MannRepublic Pictures filmsFilms set in ChicagoFilms set in Mexico CityFilms set in Los AngelesFilms set in the 1930sAmerican mystery drama films1940s mystery drama films1945 drama films1940s American films

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Flamarion