C-Man

The main reason to see Joseph Lerner’s C-Man is to hear it: the haunting, inventive score by Gail Kubik, which he later developed into the Pulitzer Prize-wining “Symphony Concertante,” is like nothing else in noir. Its vigorous, dissonant chords, reminiscent of Stravinksy, create an almost supernatural ambience for an already weird film that often veers toward noir satire or surrealism. Dean Jagger plays U.S. Customs agent Cliff Holden who’s assigned to track down the jewel thieves who murdered his childhood best friend; this sets him on a trek through cartoonish jazz clubs and frenetic car chases while becoming acquainted with a suspicious Parisian woman and a gang of thugs who engage in over-choreographed fist fights. One highlight is a scene on a nighttime international flight in which Kubik’s moody, disorienting brass score accompanies the flight crew as they attend to a passenger who fainted in the bathroom.