What makes "I Wake Up Screaming" a compelling thriller are the supporting performances, starting with Laird Cregar as an obsessed homicide detective and Elisha Cook, Jr. as a weedy hotel clerk. Investigating the murder of a hash slinger-turned-sex bomb, Cregar's soft-spoken, unemotional persona hints at a dangerously disturbed mind. He's as frighteningly effective here as he was in "The Lodger" and it only makes it more tragic that he would die soon after the film's release at the age of 31, the victim of a disastrous attempt to lose weight. Cook, on the other hand, would live into his 90s, having a field days playing gunsels, whiners and slimy con artists. Allan Joslyn and Alan Mowbray also contribute as a hack newspaper columnist and an over-the-hill actor respectively and...what the heck...even Victor Mature manages to come off well. Bruce Humberstone's slick direction -- and the film's multiple flashbacks -- are reminiscent of another 20th Century Fox noir thriller, "Laura." And that's meant as a compliment.

It was the dynamic title that drove me to this oddity. Then there was also the cast, Betty Grable in a noir drama? She's very pleasing in her early strait role (was that magnificent blond hair truly real?) Victor Mature demonstrates his increasingly nervous discomfort throughout the progress of this story via his iconic facial expressions, belying his characters over-confident exterior. The cause of this discomfort comes in the form of a creepy Laid Cregar, a strange detective who is determined to nail Mature for a serious crime. An interesting scene has him wake to the sense of an ominous presence in his apartment that would have had me screaming too - I can't too readily recall another actor that could signal fear, with just one instant facial expression.Carole Landis, who tragically took her own life at only 29, following a scandalous affair with married philanderer Rex Harrison, is OK in the part of Grable's sister. With so many others in the support cast also being noteworthy, this just had to be seen.The Director; Bruce Humberstone, whom I had associated more with comedies, musicals, and outdoor actioners (Tazan and westerns) seems to be in his element with this fast moving crime story by prolific writer; Steve Fisher ("Lady in the Lake" '46) Good one liners come rapidly and often.It gets off to a cracking opening with striking sets by multi award winning Thomas Little; "Grapes of Wrath" '40 ~ "Razors Edge" '46 ~ Viva Zapata" '52. With Art Direction by two up and coming directors, Richard Day, and Nathan Juran. Another veteran, Director of Photography; Edward Cronjager, "Roberta" '35 ~ "House by the River" '50 ~ "Relentless" '48 ~ "Beneath the 12 mile Reef" '53, all combine to assure this film a stylish look and feel.It may not always work as well as you might like, but it keeps you watching and guessing to the end. The biggest draw back for me was the musical direction by English born Cyril J. Mockridge. He must have been given only a few days to prepare a score and I don't think he wrote a note of original music. Instead, he uses music tracks from the library of popular standards. The best of these is Alfred Newman's "Street Scene" put to good use under the opening credits. Another is Harold Arlen's immortal "Somewhere Over the Rainbow". Both these melodies keep popping up at the most unnecessary moments during the story, so much so, that by the time the end title arrives you may well wake up screaming too...Not great, but still good entertainment.

Studio thick ear doesn't come any slicker than this. It's TCF's second unit hitting on all eight cylinders, from casting to directing to story telling, all expertly done. And that's despite the dismal comic book title.So who killed fun-loving Vicki (Landis). Could it be the blonde lovely's visual opposite, the dark featured Frankie (Mature). Probably not since he's the male lead. More likely, it's scrawny fall-guy Elisha Cook as the hotel deskman. After all, Cook's taken more movie dives than a washed up boxer. But don't forget the snobbish gossip columnist (Joslyn) or the hammy actor (Mowbray). Frankie sure better figure it out because gruesome cop Cornell (Cregar) has him slated for the kind of seat you don't get up from.The photography's early noir all the way. Catch the many interesting shadowy angles, especially with the thick featured Cregar. Too bad he died so young (crash diet) because there's been no one since who could project such hulking decadence. Speaking of unfortunate early deaths, Landis sparkles in her lively role. Too bad she too left us early, apparently from a broken heart. Here, she and Grable really do look like sisters.Anyhow, the whole thing is really smoothly done, in a way that keeps you riveted to the screen, including the lighter moments with a well calibrated Joslyn and Mowbray. All in all, it's Hollywood slicksters at their professional best.

War-time film noir has small-time promoter Frankie (Mature) accused of murdering a young client (Landis) just as she is leaving him for Hollywood. A brutish police inspector (Cregar) is convinced Frankie did the dastardly deed, and hounds him. The dead woman's sister (Grable), at first skeptical of Frankie, comes to believe him and helps him as the police tighten their net. It will be evident who the real murderer is from the moment he appears on screen, but the fun here is in following the tense cat and mouse game between Frankie and the obsessive inspector. Cregar steals every scene he is in. And pinup queen Grable ain't half-bad as the conflicted sister. Colorful supporting cast includes Alan Mowbray as a washed-up actor, William Gargan as a society columnist, Charles Lane as a florist, Morris Ankrum as an assistant DA and Elisha Cook Jr. as a front desk man. Well worth a look.