cigarjoe

The Wild Party (1956) Beatnik Noir The more I explore the Noirs from the end of the fifties and into the early sixties, the more I've noticed that besides the fact that, as a lot of the old "hard" Crime genre component was draining quickly over into television, a generational change was also taking place on the silver screen. The visual stylistics were retained but the dark side bad guys, comprised before of mostly gangsters and petty criminals had morphed into the new societal boogie men. Crazed beatniks, surreal artists, jazz musicians, junkie dope addicts, marijuana smokers, poets, juvenile delinquents, commies, floozies, hookers, strippers, porno producers, drunks, serial killer nut jobs, rapists, voyeurs, psychos, schizos, sadists, sexual deviates, and other psychologically damaged individuals. The sixties would add hippies, LSD droppers, pop artists, racists, blacks, Hispanics, draft dodgers, and ****. The Wild Party - Beat Speak - Kicks Johnson (Nehemiah Persoff) The Wild Party even sounds different, the old familiar hard boiled dialogs, are replaced with cool cat hipster, beatnik slang, you dig? It's not of the Classic Noirs it's not of the Neo Noirs, it's in between, one of the Lost Noirs/Transitional Noirs. One of the main components of The Classic Noirs, besides the stylistic visuals that first got them noticed, of course, were the screenplays based on hard boiled pulp stories of Hammett, Woolrich, Chandler, and others. Tales that were originally set in the 1920s and 1930s that didn't get translated to the screen until the 1940s. So originally they had this sort of time delay filter, and combined with the Motion Picture Production Code (1930 -1968), there also a serious censorship filter. Part of the charm of the classics was the creative ways the directors, producers, and artistis wiggled around the dictates of the code. As Classic Film Noir coursed through into the 1950s and the Code began to weaken with the competition from TV, the stories began to explore previously taboo subject matter (deviates, racsism, drugs and sex) and they began to catch up with real time events (tales about communist infiltration, radioactive materials, nuclear testing, beatniks, etc., etc.). Then once the Code completely disappeared Noir was cut loose from most of its original moorings, this allowed creative artists the freedom to delve into infinite variations. Independent poverty row Film Noir that went too far over the line depicting violence started getting classified as Horror, Thriller (even though they were just say, showing the effects of a gunshot wound, or dealing with weird serial killers, maniacs, and psychotics, etc.). Those that went too far depicting sexual, drug, torture, etc., situations were being lumped into or classed as various Exploitationflicks, (even though they are relatively tame comparably to today's films). The the noir-ish films that dealt with everything else, except Crime, concerning the human condition were labeled Dramas and Suspense. Those that tried new techniques, lenses, etc., were labeled Experimental. Some films are so so bad in all aspects that they acquire the "so bad it's good" Cult status. The film was directed by Harry Horner (Beware, My Lovely (1952), and the remake of I wake Up Screaming, Vicki (1953)), the cinematography was by Sam Leavitt (The Man with the Golden Arm (1955). Anatomy of a Murder (1959), The Crimson Kimono (1959) Cape Fear (1962), The music was by Buddy Bregman with jazz sets by Buddy De Franco and his Quartet. It's the hipsters against the squares. The film stars Anthony Quinn as Tom Kupfen a washed up pro football star, the "Wild Party" of the title, he heads up a group of down and out hipsters who all need money for one thing or another. Tom Kupfen (Anthony Quinn) Tom is first viewed out moochin' for money. He hits up a Bop/Bepob Club owner he knows for a C note. He turns him down flat, since Tom already owes him $1,400. The owner slips him a fiver but Tom shruggs off both it and the offer of a job as a "car parking grease monkey" for the club. Kathryn Grant is Honey, Tom's main squeeze, a leftover from his college glory days, she needs cash for the rent. Honey (Kathryn Grant) Honey: Tom, they locked me out of my room tonight. I can live with that, but they got all my records, my player..... Honey's been rode hard and put away wet so many times by Tom that she figures she has "40,000 miles on me." Nehemiah Persoff is Kicks Johnson a jazz pianist, and another member of Toms beatnik "posse." Kicks narrates the story in beat slang which is told in the film in one long flashback. Kicks needs doe to get back his union cabaret license so that he can earn a living playing the clubs. Lt. Arthur Mitchel (Arthur Franz) and Erica London (Carol Ohmart) Carol Ohmart is Erica London a high society gal hanging out at the bar of the Beverly Hills Hotel. She is there with Navy Lt. Arthur Mitchel (Arthur Franz) her fiance. They are looking for a little excitement, before he ships off on his next tour of duty. Gage Freeposter (Jay Robinson) Jay Robinson is Gage Freeposter a wound a bit too tight weasel. A switchblade knife wielding beatnik pickpocket con artist working out of the bar of Beverly Hills Hotel, posing as a hotel guest, Derek Fielding from Stamford. He sets up square marks with money, out looking to "make the scene." He learned how to talk and look "square" from watching movies. The squares get lured out of various square bars by Jay who tells them that he knows a great after hours club called The Fat Man, where, he tells them the "real cats swing". Before they leave the hotel Gage calls Tom and tells him he's got some squares on the hook. Gage: First we'll play them cool, then we'll play them hot! Noirsville Buddy De Franco Beverly Hills Hotel Erica: "I don't do what I want, I do what I should." Gage, Erica, and Arthur take Erica's car to The Fat Man's. There they meet up with Tom and crew and spend a wild hour or two dancing to Kick's piano music. "When Tom gets fat all the other cats get cream" When Erica and Mitchel get into a tiff over spending his last night ashore listening to this "noise," Erica starts coming on a bit to Tom. Tom reacts. Tom: Let's you and me go take a walk, huh. Erica: I can't do that. Tom: Why not, you want to. Erica: I don't do what I want, I do what I should. Tom wants to play hide the sausage with Erica, so when Gage steals Erica's keys out of her purse the simple roll job for Erica's furs and jewels and Mitchel's cash turns into a sexual assault and kidnapping. Gage offers them a drive in Tom's car to a cab stand, but Tom takes them to a deserted gas station. When Mitchel loudly objects Tom beats him up. They then go to Toms beach shack where Erica is locked up with Honey. Mitchel, at knifepoint is forced to go get the ransom money of $10,000 together. Tom, Gage, and Kicks take Mitchel to Ben Davis (Paul Stewart), a nightclub owner friend of Mitchel. Davis thinks he's wise to the con, thinks Mitchel lost big gambling and is getting muscled by Tom and Kicks for the doe. Davis pulls out a .45 and tells them all to scram. The rest of the cast includes Barbara Nichols in a bit part as Sandy the goofy chorus girl girlfriend of Ben, and Buddy De Franco playing himself. The scheme all falls apart when Kicks convinces Honey to break with Tom, because he's gone too far. When Tom violently confronts Kicks, Honey crushes Toms legs by driving his car into the wall he's up against. Anthony Quinn (The Long Wait (1954), La Strada (1954), The Naked Street (1955), Requiem for a Heavyweight (1962), Across 110th Street (1972)) and Nehemiah Persoff (The Naked City (1948), On the Waterfront (1954), The Harder They Fall (1956), The Wrong Man (1956), Psychic Killer (1975)), both seem just a tad to long in the tooth for being members of The Beat Generation, but Jay Robinson (Tell Me in the Sunlight (1965)) and Kathryn Grant (Rear Window (1954), Tight Spot (1955), 5 Against the House (1955), The Phenix City Story (1955), The Brothers Rico (1957), Anatomy of a Murder (1959)) are more convincing and seem spot on. Jay Robinson will always be remembered by me for his two turns as the vile Roman Emperor Caligula in The Robe (1953) and Demetrius and the Gladiators (1954). Carol Ohmart best know for the campy (House on Haunted Hill (1959)), holds her own with Quinn's loose cannon Tom, Arthur Franz (Red Light (1949), The Sniper (1952), Beyond a Reasonable Doubt (1956)) is also quite believable. Looking back it's quite humorous contemplating that beat speak, bebop jazz, and switchblades were deamed so frightening to the squares out there in 1956 Squareville. Screencaps are from the Spanish Region 2 DVD but the clip on Youtube is obviously superior. Curiously entertaining enough, 6/10. Full review with more screencaps here: Noirsville

My wife loves it, it's entertaining I'd give it a 8/10

Yea, (THE GLASS MENAGERIE) but it was a one shot they didn't put it On Demand.

Harry Tracy: The Last of the Wild Bunch (1982) (aka Harry Tracy, Desperado) A sirupy sweet take on the story of Harry Tracy, nice scenery (shot in British Columbia and Alberta) but story lacks grit. Seems more of a love story with Bruce Dern in his aw-shucks mode. Also stars Helen Shaver, Michael C. Gwynne, and Gordon Lightfoot. If it had a music video included it would fit right in the Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid, The Life And Times of Judge Roy Bean, The Ballad Of Cable Hogue, and The Dutchess And The Dirtwater Fox. 6/10

Harry Tracy: The Last of the Wild Bunch (1982) (aka Harry Tracy, Desperado) A sirupy sweet take on the story of Harry Tracy, nice scenery (shot in British Columbia and Alberta) but story lacks grit. Seems more of a love story with Bruce Dern in his aw-shucks mode. Also stars Helen Shaver, Michael C. Gwynne, and Gordon Lightfoot. If it had a music video included it would fit right in the Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid, The Life And Times of Judge Roy Bean, The Balad Of Cabel Hogue, and The Dutchess And The Dirtwater Fox. 6/10

Check out True Romance (1993) a Quentin Tarantino film Directed by Tony Scott

Try The Straight Story

See Barry Lyndon practically every frame is a masterpiece.

Me I'm partial to Westerns, Noirs, and Neo Noirs, I also like early Gangster, Historical Dramas, and some SyFy.

Sort of proto Lynchesque, you might say.

Like I said I see it as an experimental, psychological, neo noir, shot in neither color or black & white its "sui generis."

The only Coen film I've really not liked was the remake of The Ladykillers

Yea me too.

You can say the same thing about people with David Lynch and Quentin Tarantino films.

I classify Reflections In a Golden Eye as a Psychological Neo Noir

Yes Madigan leaves me a native New Yorker pretty blah, I get the same vibe from The Detective with Sinatra. Kiss of Death (1947), The Unsuspected (1947),Naked City (1948), The Window (1949), Side Street (1950), The Killer That Stalked New York (1951), Killers Kiss (1955), Sweet Smell Of Success (1957), Odds Against Tomorrow (1959), Something Wild (1961), Blast Of Silence (1961), The Young Savages (1961), Requiem for a Heavyweight (1962), The Pawnbroker (1964), Who Killed Teddy Bear (1965), Mister Buddwing, from 1966 (even though it too has a few backlot brownstone shots), Aroused (1966), The Incident (1967), does NYC much better.

Gunman in the Streets (1950) American army deserter Eddy Roback (Dane Clark) is a criminal-on-the-run after his cohorts brazenly ambush a prison van in Paris. Police are in hot pursuit. Simone Signoret is his gal pal. 6/10

Hint stick to Disney or pre 60s movies....

the did have a pre Barnabas flirt with the supernatural with the Phoenix ( when Rodgers missing wife Laura returns from Egypt) story line.

Not many in comparison, the opening episodes had Vicky on the train, The station, we saw the outside of the Inn, can't remember if they showed the Blue Whale or not though.

I'd go with these also but put Cat On A Hot Tin Roof top and Giant last.

Yes, and interestingly those first episodes had a film noir-ish/gothic vibe, and actual on location footage, compared to the post Barnabas episodes which had none.

Interesting list.

Sweet Love, Bitter (aka It Won't Rub Off, Baby!) (1967) Jazz Noir A paean to bebop jazz. The film is based on the novel "Night Song" by John A. Williams, which itself was loosely based on the last years of the life of jazz great Charlie (Bird) Parker. The film is an eloquent portrait of the 1960's jazz scene. Though the story takes place in New York, the film was partly shot with Philadelphia, filling in for NYC. No matter it's all Noirsville. There is a very small sub genre of Classic Film Noirs and also Biographies or "true story based" films that have a quasi noir vibe, I call them Bio Noir's. Films such as Dillinger (1945), Young Man with a Horn (1950), I'll Cry Tomorrow (1955), The Wrong Man (1956), Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956), The Bonnie Parker Story (1958), I Want To live (1958), Baby Face Nelson (1957), and Neo Noirs In Cold Blood (1967), The Honeymoon Killers (1970), Lenny (1974) and Raging Bull (1980). There are probably a few others out there. Sweet Love, Bitter shadows Charlie 'Bird' Parker's story arc through the fictitious tale of Richie 'Eagle' Stokes, a quasi famous bebop sax player, who's life is a series of flying highs and gutter lows, boozin', geezin', screwing, and blowin'. He's got a jive **** crumb for manager whose sole qualification is that he used to sell zoot suits, a pusher who keeps him buzzed, and friends who give him shelter from the storm. When he's out of doe he panhandels, puts the touch on his admiring devotees, or pawns his saxophones. Produced by Lewis Jacobs. Directed by Herbert Danska known for, The Gift (1962), and Right on! (1970). Written by Herbert Danska, and Lewis Jacobs. The cinematography was by Victor Solow, and the soundtrack was by American jazz pianist Mal Waldron and his Orchestra, with Charles McPherson ghosting for Dick Gregory. The film stars Dick Gregory, an African-American comedian, civil rights activist, social critic, writer, entrepreneur and a perennial guest on countless talk shows during the 1960s, Robert Hooks (Trouble Man (1972)), Don Murray (A Hatful of Rain (1957), The Hoodlum Priest(1961), Twin Peaks TV Series (2017– ), Diane Varsi (Bloody Mama (1970), Johnny Got His Gun (1971)). The performances of the main characters are all good for such a low budget production. Dick Gregory's is particularly moving, Don Murray is very convincing as the kid who finally gets into the jazz candy store. Robert Hooks and Diane Varsi have some touching sequences but you get the feeling that there should have been more, either their relationship was somewhat tacked on to the predominant tale as an afterthought, or that some of their story was left on the cutting room floor. The film was re-cut and shown at art houses under the alternate titles of Black Love--White Love as well as It Won't Rub Off, Baby! A real treat for jazz fans. 7/10 Below - Loser's Lament from title sequence of film (obviously images are not from the film)

Sweet Love, Bitter (aka It Won't Rub Off, Baby!) (1967) Jazz Noir A paean to bebop jazz. We have our Noir protagonists as detectives, femme fatales, newspaper reporters, truck drivers, wronged men, railroad workers, amnesiacs, the falsely accused, victims of circumstances, revenge seekers, gangsters, hit men, prisoners, telephone electricians, armored car drivers, ex cons, sailors, insurance salesmen gone bad, drifters, ex cops, bad cops, nut jobs, killers, hitch-hikers, kids looking in windows, writers, promoters, boxers, hash house owners, floozies, carnies, doctors, postal workers, secretaries, serial killers, housewives, radio program hosts, prostitutes, taxi drivers, and in this a jazz musician. The film is based on the novel "Night Song" by John A. Williams, which itself was loosely based on the last years of the life of jazz great Charlie (Bird) Parker. The film is an eloquent portrait of the 1960's jazz scene. Though the story takes place in New York, the film was partly shot with Philadelphia, filling in for NYC. No matter it's all Noirsville. "(Charlie) Parker was an icon for the hipster subculture and later the Beat Generation, personifying the jazz musician as an uncompromising artist and intellectual rather than just an entertainer." (source Wikipedia) There is a very small sub genre of Classic Film Noirs and also Biographies or "true story based" films that have a quasi noir vibe, I call them Bio Noir's. Films such as Dillinger (1945), Young Man with a Horn (1950), I'll Cry Tomorrow (1955), The Wrong Man (1956), Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956), The Bonnie Parker Story (1958), I Want To live (1958), Baby Face Nelson (1957), and Neo Noirs In Cold Blood (1967), The Honeymoon Killers (1970), Lenny(1974) and Raging Bull (1980). There are probably a few others out there. Sweet Love, Bitter shadows Charlie 'Bird' Parker's story arc through the fictitious tale of Richie 'Eagle' Stokes, a quasi famous bebop sax player, who's life is a series of flying highs and gutter lows, boozin', geezin', screwing, and blowin'. He's got a jive **** crumb for manager whose sole qualification is that he used to sell zoot suits, a pusher who keeps him buzzed, and friends who give him shelter from the storm. When he's out of doe he puts the touch on his admiring devotees, or pawns his saxophones. Produced by Lewis Jacobs. Directed by Herbert Danska known for, The Gift (1962), and Right on! (1970). Written by Herbert Danska, and Lewis Jacobs. The cinematography was by Victor Solow, and the soundtrack was by American jazz pianist Mal Waldron and his Orchestra, with Charles McPherson ghosting for Dick Gregory. The film stars Dick Gregory, an African-American comedian, civil rights activist, social critic, writer, entrepreneur and a perennial guest on countless talk shows during the 1960s, Robert Hooks (Trouble Man (1972)), Don Murray (A Hatful of Rain (1957), The Hoodlum Priest(1961), Twin Peaks TV Series (2017– ), Diane Varsi (Bloody Mama (1970), Johnny Got His Gun (1971)), Jeri Archer, Osborne Smith, George Wilshire, Bruce Glover (Who Killed Teddy Bear (1965), Chinatown (1974)), Leonard Parker (Malcolm X (1992)), John Randolph (The Naked City (1948), Fourteen Hours (1951), Seconds (1966), Serpico (1973), Prizzi's Honor(1985)), Woody King Jr. (Serpico (1973)), Florette Carter (probably Aroused (1966), she looks like the same actress who plays Angela and just spells the first name differently), Carla Pinza, and Barbara Davis (The Front Page (1974)). David Hillary (Don Murray) The film begins with David (Murray) and Keel (Hooks) combing the streets looking for their friend Richie "Eagle" Stokes (Gregory), a cool cat, a sad genius, a beboppin' sax blower, a Jazz God, crusin' down his personal boulevard of decaying dreams. Eagle is a high flying junkie, a hard drinking boozer, and a reefer smokin' womanizer. They find him dead of an overdose on the bed in David's crib, a back room in Keel's coffee house "Sadik's." The whole film is told in a long flashback after an unforgettable brilliantly filmed stylistically minimalist and abstract title sequence of a saxophone wailing Mal Waldron's "Losers Lament." David is a self pitying drunk, an ex professor, a jazz hipster, who blows into Manhattan like trash in the gutter. He's from a hicksville flyspeck, Onondaga, up in fly over country, upstate New York. He's got a battered old suitcase heading to a flop hotel someplace. He's a broken man. He's boozing because he killed his wife in an auto accident, he's lost his job, and his way. David's broke. Been sleeping in his clothes apparently, from all the dust on his coat. He pawns a hundred dollar "eye-talian" ring for a Jackson. Life's a drag. Eagle dips into the same shop. He queues up behind David. He's wearing an ascot cap, shades, and a toggle coat, he's cradling his sax in a paper bag. Eagle is coolly maintaining, but he's also running on empty. He scopes out David and sees a kindred spirit, a just fell off the turnip truck, fellow busted flat loser. A damaged soul. Knowingly he gives him directions to the closest gin mill. Richie 'Eagle' Stokes (Dick Gregory) In the tavern David breaks his bill for a beer and a shot. Eagle joins him at the bar. David eventually recognizes him as jazz great Eagle Stokes. They both blow their wads talking music and getting drunk as skunks.They cut into the night. Out on the cold concrete stroll, looking for some more scratch, Eagle spots an older white couple up at the corner. Turning to David...... Eagle: Wait here baby. And watch me good, and you'll never have to starve. (Eagle walks up and successfully puts the touch on the old couple, then walks back) Eagle: You see that baby. David: (chuckles) Eagle:Too weak to tell you to go to hell, Too guilty to tell you to kiss their as- (laughs), so they pay for it. They tell themselves it's like to keep you away man. And you know, I take it all man. Bread, that's your only friend. Jenzie. Don't try to make your ol' lady, always around when you need it, and when there's enough it screams baby..... It screams to tell you! Morning. David and Eagle. Three sheets to the wind. Passed out in a doorway. A cop rousts them awake. He's about to run them in when Keel, a good friend of Eagle finds them. Keel wants to leave David to the cop, but Eagle tells him he's jake, so Keel and Eagle, with David in tow head to Keels pad. Keel offers David a backroom crib at his coffee house in exchange for work. Keel is an ex street preacher who now owns a successful coffee house down in the Village. Keel's reluctant at first charity, which in itself is somewhat racially motivated, soon sets David back on a trail to redemption. Keel's got a fly girlfriend Della (Varsi) who is white. In the ensuing weeks, David starts to get a grip on life, integrating himself into Eagle, and Keel's lives. In the process he bridges boundaries, grasps black and white dynamics, encounters the complexes of racism, miscegenation, discrimination, impotence, forbidden love, he deals with drug addiction, and OD'ing, and gets immersed in the bewitching mystic world of jazz, jazz, jazz, that makes the outer world go away. Noirsville Keel Robinson (Robert Hooks) When David finally gets back on track Eagle helps him buy some new threads to go to a professor job interview back at a college in Onondaga. David gets the job, but Eagle while waiting for David is roughed up by a baton wielding local hick policeman for standing around being black. David walking on the street with the college president sees the altercation but does nothing to stop it. He doesn't want to get involved or jeopardize his new job, he's back in "Whitelandia." His guilt is overpowering. When Eagle finds out that David saw the whole deal go down, his depression sends him off to see a wealthy society dame Candy, (who represents Charlie Parker's patroness the Baroness Pannonica de Koenigswarter) through her contacts Eagle gets the fixings for his fatal overdose of junk and makes his way to Sadik's where in Davids bed, he crashes and burns. Keel tells David that Eagle's cause of death was "resisting reality." The performances of the main characters are all good for such a low budget production. Dick Gregory's is particularly moving, Don Murray is very convincing as the kid who finally gets into the jazz candy store. Robert Hooks and Diane Varsi have some touching sequences but you get the feeling that there should have been more, either their relationship was somewhat tacked on to the predominant tale as an afterthought, or that some of their story was left on the cutting room floor. The film was re-cut and shown at art houses under the alternate titles of Black Love--White Love as well as It Won't Rub Off, Baby! Which of the three versions of the film is on the EFORFILMS DVD reviewed here, is not known by me. The film does include some dream segments and amusing fantasies. A real treat for jazz fans. 7/10 Full review with more screencaps here: Noirsville