Although Lupino was still two years away from her first official project as a director, she was still a major factor in getting Road House<\/em> made, selecting the original story by Margaret Gruen and Oscar Saul and receiving top billing over co-stars Wilde and Richard Widmark. This is Lily\u2019s story, and she remains in charge of it, even as she ends up in the middle of a lopsided love triangle with Pete and Widmark\u2019s Jefty. There\u2019s no real question where Lily\u2019s affections lie, and the dangerous, manipulative figure in this scenario is the sadistic Jefty, not Lily.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At first, he just seems like a common lech, an entitled small-time operator who inherited the road house from his father. Located in an unnamed town somewhere between Chicago and the Canadian border, it\u2019s a lively joint that\u2019s a combination of bar, bowling alley, and cabaret, with Lily hired to sing and play piano. As Pete notes when she first arrives, she\u2019s the latest in a string of dubiously talented performers Jefty picks up on his travels to Chicago, hiring them for a few weeks so he can bed them and then discard them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lily is wise to Jefty\u2019s ways from the start, though, and Lupino radiates contempt when she pats his hand like a small child\u2019s after he places it on her shoulder. She deftly rebuffs all his advances, and she proves Pete wrong when she puts on her first performance, a sultry take on the standard \u201cOne for My Baby (and One More for the Road).\u201d Pete has previously tried to run her out of town, driving her to the local train station and attempting to pay her off rather than see her run through Jefty\u2019s customary cycle of seduction and rejection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cShe\u2019s something, isn\u2019t she?\u201d says the bartender at Jefty\u2019s to cashier Susie Smith (Celeste Holm), who responds dismissively, \u201cIf you like the sound of gravel.\u201d Lupino\u2019s husky voice is a key part of Lily\u2019s appeal, though, both as a singer and as an object of desire. The way she casually shoves the piano with her hips to properly position it for her first song, then places her lit cigarette on the edge while she sings, is an expression of her aloofness, but it also belies the genuine passion she puts into her music. She sarcastically downplays her own abilities when people ask, but she\u2019s more than just a sexy figure to put on a poster in front of the road house.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pete eventually figures that out, and during a week when Jefty is off on a hunting trip at his remote cabin, Pete and Lily fall in love, in the familiar accelerated fashion of classic Hollywood films. It\u2019s obvious that Jefty is going to be angry about this development, but Widmark and director Jean Negulesco take things even further, turning Jefty into a devious psychopath with a maniacal laugh that makes him sound like the Joker. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNobody\u2019s all good; nobody\u2019s all bad,\u201d Pete tells Lily about Jefty, which is also a handy summary of the thesis of film noir, but he underestimates just how bad Jefty can be. To Pete, Jefty is merely a spoiled brat who is used to always getting his way, but as a woman, Lily sees signs that Pete misses. When Jefty uses the hotel passkey to enter Lily\u2019s room uninvited at 7 a.m. to bring her breakfast in bed, it\u2019s more than a misguided romantic gesture. It\u2019s a signal that this is a man who ignores and obliterates boundaries, who views women as his exclusive domain because he\u2019s paying them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s a bit jarring when Road House<\/em> shifts from a simmering potboiler into an all-out thriller in its final act, but Jefty\u2019s increasing volatility is an outgrowth of his inflated self-importance. He easily maneuvers the local cops and legal system to keep Pete and Lily under his control, and when they seem to be escaping, he resorts to even more desperate methods.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Road House<\/em> is full of crackling dialogue, expertly delivered by its main stars, especially Lupino and Widmark. Negulesco captures the striking mix of rustic and art deco inside the road house itself, and his stars enter every scene with maximum swagger. The movie is entertaining on that level of pure craft, but it\u2019s also a powerful cautionary tale about male entitlement, led by a woman who\u2019s confident in both her sexuality and her autonomy. Like the best noir, it arouses the senses while challenging entrenched institutional ideas. It\u2019s sexy, but it\u2019ll slap you in the face if necessary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Road House” is available on Blu-ray<\/a> from KL Studio Classics. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/road-house2-1024x752.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n