cigarjoe

Mudbound (2017) Story of a black man and a white man who return home from World War II to work on the same farm in rural Mississippi, it's good, watchable but it's been seen before in various guises. 7/10

I can see that if all you ever watched of the Coen Brothers were Raising Arizona, O Brother, Where Art Thou? or The Ladykillers remake Their films are not all like those. The Coen's cover a large range of styles This one reminded me of Blood Simple, Fargo. and No Country For Old Men.

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017) This one's a keeper, quirky story reminded me of a Coen Bro's film 8/10

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017) This one's a keeper, quirky story reminded me of a Coen Bro's film 8/10

Seen two more Darkest Hour (2017) Gary Oldman is convincing as Churchill, if that's your thing. Oldham reminds me of Paul Muni with all the various roles he played. 7/10 The Shape of Water (2017) SyFy story of a woman who falls in love with an Amphibian Man starring Sally Hawkins, Michael Shannon, Richard Jenkins, Octavia Spencer, Michael Stuhlbarg, and Doug Jones as the Amphibian Man. Reminded me of the film collaborations of Directors: Marc Caro, Jean-Pierre Jeunet 7/10

It's a double bill with whatever Debbie Reynolds movie was playing at that time (and the "s" might have fallen off the marquee) probably Posse From Hell (1961) with Audie Murphy, Lee Van Cleef, Vic Morrow and John Saxon.

me take a guess, the go jump in the lake sequence?

Agree: Appointment With Danger

The Big Sick (2017) Pakistani stand up comic falls in love with American woman, with complications, with Kumail Nanjiani, Zoe Kazan, Holly Hunter, and Ray Romano, funny 8/10

It's a Neo Noir, and if you get a chance check out Shirley Stoler in Seven Beauties (1975) where she plays a Nazi Concentration Camp Commandant.

I remember watching My Mother The Car. RIP

The Big Sick (2017) Pakistani stand up comic falls in love with American woman, with complications, with Kumail Nanjiani, Zoe Kazan, Holly Hunter, and Ray Romano, funny 8/10

Barry always sound to me like the Lucky Charms leuprecan, hell even Orson Welles sounded like him in The Lady from Shanghai (1947) I guess I was imprinted with that way before I saw many of Fitzgerald's films.

Zero Effect (1998) A sort of riff on Sherlock Holmes/Nero Wolf type eccentric detectives where their sidekicks do a lot of the legwork. Daryl Zero (Bill Pullman) is the "worlds greatest detective" his assistant is Steve Arlo (Ben Stiller), Arlo functions as the Dr. Watson/Archie Goodwin partner in sleuthing. Daryl Zero is a bit of a recluse with no social skills and similar to Sherlock Holmes and his fiddle plays the electric guitar badly. In this case Daryl actually becomes emotionally involved with a woman. entertaining 8/10.

I lived for 24 years in Montana beginning in the 1970s. The actual law read that the speed limit was whatever was "reasonable and prudent" for the conditions present, so yes on a blue sky day you could go pedal to the metal. Also there was no open container law. If you were in a bar and you didn't finish your drink you could ask the bartender to put it in a "to-go" cup, and take it with you as you drove down the road to to another bar or town. Eventually they first added a night time speed limit for trucks. Then with the "gas crisis" they made a lot of the two lanes 55 mph and the interstates 75 mph, but if you were caught speeding you got a slap on the wrist $5 ticket that didn't go on your insurance and that you could pay the Highway Patrol Officer on the spot.

Brown's Requiem (1998) Forgotten L.A. Neo Noir Gem "I cant remember if my first drink was to celebrate my good fortune, or grieve my losses..... I figure if I sit here long enough I'll remember,....about how a guy who has nothing can lose everything." Third novel of James Elroy to be filmed. After the success of L.A. Confidential (1997), Jason Freeland wrote and directed this adaptation of Elroy's fist published novel, Brown's Requiem. It's an almost forgotten gem. Why is this not listed in the Film Noir Encyclopedia by Silver, Ward, Ursini, and Porfirio, and short shrift-ed elsewhere? Possibly because it's populated with all B list actors. Michael Rooker grows on you, he's got a rough carved in granite, world weary, pugilist look and a bit of a Tom Waits like rasp to his voice, he's very convincing as the vulnerable somewhat clueless P.I., fumbling his way through a case that isn't quite what it was described to be, and it's driving him to drink. He's no pushover though, he's tough, but also caring. Will Sasso as the manic "King Of The Caddies" is both intense and impressive, a very memorable character. The rest of the bottom dwelling cast, Harold Gould, Brion James (Blade Runner (1982)), Jack Conley, William Newman, Brad Dourif (Blue Velvet (1986)) and Christopher Meloni are all appropriately slimy. Selma Blair's, Jane is the only character that needed to be fleshed out a bit more. The film is not without its bits of humor. When Fat Dog finally leaves the office, Fritz grabs a deodorant can and sprays the area Fat Dog occupied commenting that he should have gotten the first clue right then that the case stunk. Later when transporting Fat Dog in his convertible Fritz drops the top even though it's raining over Fat Dogs protestations. We know it's because the Dog stinks and Fritz is airing him out. Director Freeland makes great use of various Los Angeles locations. Seo Mutarevic's Noir Cinematography does them justice, and the beautiful score was by Cynthia Millar. A surprise B Neo Noir Gem. 8/10 Fuller review with screencaps in Film Noir/Gangster pages.

Brown's Requiem (1998) Forgotten L.A. Neo Noir Gem "I cant remember if my first drink was to celebrate my good fortune, or grieve my losses..... I figure if I sit here long enough I'll remember,....about how a guy who has nothing can lose everything." Third novel of James Elroy to be filmed. After the success of L.A. Confidential (1997), Jason Freeland wrote and directed this adaptation of Elroy's fist published novel, Brown's Requiem. It's an almost forgotten gem. Why is this not listed in the Film Noir Encyclopedia by Silver, Ward, Ursini, and Porfirio, and short shrift-ed elsewhere? Possibly because it's populated with all B list actors. The opening credits have a great mournful trumpet and melancholy piano in a slow funeral dirge. Michael Rooker (Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986), Sea of Love (1989)) plays Fritz Brown a raspy, alcoholic, ex L.A.P.D. cop, who makes pretty decent scratch repossessing cars for a Southern California used car lot king Bud Meyer. With a lot of off time between paying gigs, Fritz decides to moonlight as a Private Detective. He tools around the L.A. strips in a early 60s Ford rag top. Fritz Brown (Michael Rooker) We first meet Fritz warming a stool at a strip joint. On the bar top before him, a pair of long disembodied legs are grinding. The limbs and that "heaven's above," should have him mesmerized, but Brown, in true hard boiled fashion, is almost oblivious, his mind is elsewhere, narrating the requiem of his last case. The entire film and its convoluted plot is told in an extended flashback. Fat Dog Baker (Will Sasso) A guy is pounding on the office door, it's a land whale name of Fat Dog Baker (Will Sasso). The guy is animated. Wound a bit too tight. He's huge, dirty and stinks. He claims he's the "King of the Caddies, the greatest ****' looper who ever packed a bag." Fat Dog wants Fritz to keep an eye on his kid sister Jane (Selma Blair). She's 17 and living with a rich dirty ol' man deviant Solly Kupperman (Harold Gould), aka Solly K. He's a big shot living in Beverly Hills. Solly and Jane drive matching "his and hers" Rolls Royce's. Solly had a nightclub Solly K's that burned down just the night before. After flashing a roll of dough that could choke a horse, Fat Dog pays Fritz five bills. Tells Fritz he can get a hold of him at the Rustic Inn and splits. So Fritz, half a grand richer, begins to tail Jane, she heads to piano lessons. A tail of Solly is more productive. Solly heads to a low rent liquor store and comes out carrying two packages. These he puts in his trunk and heads up the two lane towards Palmdale. At a dump highway pit stop he watches Solly transfer the packages to a corrupt big shot L.A.P.D. internal affairs brass name of Cathcart (Brion James). This Cathcart was the highfalutin ****-bag that threw Fritz off the force for being an alkie. Now the case is personally interesting. Cathcart (Brion James) Fritz heads to the Rustic Inn to report to Fat Dog. He's not there and they haven't seen him. After a tip from caddie Augie (William Newman), he intercepts eventually intercepts Fat Dog and gives him the scoop about Cathcart. Now even more worried about his sister, Fat Dog offers Fritz ten Gs to make sure nothing happens to her. He has the money in a shack he has in Venice, and asks Fritz to drive him there. In Venice, they get ambushed by a couple of Hispanic goons, Fat Dog gets away but Fritz caught with his guard down is beaten up. They ask Fritz where are the ledgers? Fritz "what ledgers?" Fritz, searching the next day around Venice finds a wino (Lee Weaver) who points him to the shack where Fat Dog has been occasionally hanging out. Fritz finds the walls covered in pinups and centerfolds intermixed with images of Hitler, and also a mason jar of gasoline making him suspect that Fat Dog burned down Solly K's. From a junkie, named Edwards (Brad Dourif), at the St. George Hotel in downtown LA, Fritz finds out that Solly K's was really run by an ex ballplayer name of "Hot Rod" Ralston (Jack Conley). Later while Fritz is still shadowing Jane, he sees her meet the very same Richard "Hot Rod" Ralston. Ralston is caddie master at a prestigious Beverly Hills club. Ralston drops Jane off at her regular piano lessons. Fritz decides to this go round to keep following Ralston. It again pays off. At a Beverly Hills country club, Fritz overhears Ralston, in the caddie shack, putting pressure on Fat Dogs looper buddy Augie. Ralston accuses Fat Dog of some heavy ****, stealing money and ledgers from Solly K's. Augie tells him he knows nothing of either. Ralston wants just one more thing, he asks Augie to tell him where Fat Dog is hiding. Augie bluts out TJ. So Fritz heads off to Tijuana to see if he can get a line on Fat Dog. At the only country club there, a patch of green surrounded by desert, he gets a tip that eventually finds Fat Dog very dead, a couple of days dead, other bodies pile up quick, mix in some pedophilia and incest and ol' Fritzie goes seriously off the wagon, and it all goes deliciously Noirsville. Noirsville Michael Rooker grows on you, he's got a rough carved in granite, world weary, pugilist look and a bit of a Tom Waits like rasp to his voice, he's very convincing as the vulnerable somewhat clueless P.I., fumbling his way through a case that isn't quite what it was described to be, and it's driving him to drink. He's no pushover though, he's tough, but also caring. Will Sasso as the manic "King Of The Caddies" is both intense and impressive, a very memorable character. The rest of the bottom dwelling cast, Harold Gould, Brion James (Blade Runner (1982)), Jack Conley, William Newman, Brad Dourif (Blue Velvet (1986)) and Christopher Meloni are all appropriately slimy. Selma Blair's, Jane is the only character that needed to be fleshed out a bit more. The film is not without its bits of humor. When Fat Dog finally leaves the office, Fritz grabs a deodorant can and sprays the area Fat Dog occupied commenting that he should have gotten the first clue right then that the case stunk. Later when transporting Fat Dog in his convertible Fritz drops the top even though it's raining over Fat Dogs protestations. We know it's because the Dog stinks and Fritz is airing him out. Director Freeland makes great use of various Los Angeles locations. Seo Mutarevic's Noir Cinematography does them justice, and the beautiful score was by Cynthia Millar. A surprise B Neo Noir Gem. 8/10 Full review with more screencaps here Noirsville

Blade Runner: The Directors Cut (1982) Sci Fi Noir Masterpiece The Noir City Of Angels, less than a year from now. So begins Blade Runner, though now, and at the pace we are going, the producers would have been safer to call it 3019. We don't have deep space off world colonies quite yet, warp speed or wormholes to bridge the 817 light years to Orion, nor anywhere near the robotics/biogenetics technology depicted, or some of the other advances shown. Though, we do have phenomenally better TVs than shown in the film, along with computers and cellphones. But then, we've managed to screw things up in completely other ways. Los Angeles, in the noir universe in this film, is a vast megalopolis, skyscraper sized refineries belching flames among megalithic buildings, all threaded by flying cars. The perpetual night sky is a drab, dirty, rusted brown. The future city has transformed into a weird paella of still extant vestiges of Tinsel Town, Chinatown, and Seattle. Long periods of rain with a heavy Asian fusion. We see crowded streets hovered over by advertising billboard blimps. The latest fad du jour are frivolous umbrella shafts that glow in the murky evening rush hour. Directed brilliantly by Ridley Scott (Alien (1979), Gladiator (2000), Hannibal (2001), Black Hawk Down (2001)), who, except for Alien and Gladiator has never, in my opinion, directed anything to match this total imagination immersional experience since. The beautiful cinematography was by Jordan Cronenweth (The Nickel Ride (1974)). The absolutely stunning, intricately detailed Production Design was by Lawrence G. Paull and the Art Direction by David L. Snyder. Special effects are by Douglas Trumbull, Richard Yuricich, and David Dryer. The excellent soundtrack was by Vangelis. The film stars Harrison Ford whose Neo Noir creds include (The Conversation (1974), also The Fugitive (1993)), he and the entire cast should have been in more, similar fare. I haven't seen Presumed Innocent (1990) which may be another Neo Noir. Ford is basically playing a retro, slightly disheveled, hard boiled detective. Rutger Hauer (The Hitcher (1986), Sin City(2005)) as Roy Batty leader of the skinjobs is appropriately cold blooded. Sean Young (Dune (1984), A Kiss Before Dying (1991)) plays Rachael. Rachael reminds me a bit of Joan Crawford with her extreme shoulder pads and hair in a 1940s styled pompadour with rolled bangs, there is also a hint of Victorian Gothic emphasized when she's out of the office wearing ridiculously large Edmund Gorey-ish overcoats with high collars. Edward James Olmos is Gaff the weird and creepy cop flunky. M. Emmet Walsh (Midnight Cowboy (1969), Mikey and Nicky (1976), Blood Simple (1984), White Sands (1992)) is the good ol' boy L.A.P.D. Inspector. Walsh is a good, memorable, character actor, he is another who, if we were still under the studio system and if they would have been cranking out Neo Noirs with the same dedication that they did for Classic Noirs, would absolutely have been a Neo Noir staple. Daryl Hannah (Kill Bill: Vol. 1 and Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2003)) as Pris, William Sanderson (Death Hunt (1981)) plays J. F. Sebastian, Sanderson would have been a natural for the parts that usually went to Elisha Cook Jr. during the Classic Film Noir Era. Brion James (The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981), The Fifth Element (1997), Brown's Requiem (1998)) plays skinjob Leon Kowalski. Joe Turkel is the only member of the cast who was a Classic Film Noir veteran appearing in (City Across the River (1949), Johnny Stool Pigeon (1949), Southside 1-1000 (1950), The Glass Wall (1953), The Human Jungle (1954), The Naked Street (1955), The Killing (1956), The Case Against Brooklyn (1958)) He plays the oily replicant tycoon Dr. Eldon Tyrell. Joanna Cassidy as Zhora Salome, one of the sex worker replicants was in The Laughing Policeman (1973), and the very recent Neo Noir Too Late (2015)). Hy Pyke plays Taffey Lewis the Chinatown strip club owner, and James Hong (The Satan Bug (1965), Chinatown (1974), Big Trouble in Little China (1986), Black Widow (1987)), plays Hannibal Chew the replicant eye manufacturer. Bob Okasaki (House of Bamboo (1955), The Crimson Kimono (1959)), is noodle shop counterman. A visually atmospheric masterpiece. 10/10 Full review in Film Noir/Gangster with more screencaps.

Blade Runner: The Directors Cut (1982) Sci Fi Noir Masterpiece The Noir City Of Angels, less than a year from now. So begins Blade Runner, though now, and at the pace we are going, the producers would have been safer to call it 3019. We don't have deep space off world colonies quite yet, warp speed or wormholes to bridge the 817 light years to Orion, nor anywhere near the robotics/biogenetics technology depicted, or some of the other advances shown. Though, we do have phenomenally better TVs than shown in the film, along with computers and cellphones. But then, we've managed to screw things up in completely other ways. Los Angeles, in the noir universe in this film, is a vast megalopolis, skyscraper sized refineries belching flames among megalithic buildings, all threaded by flying cars. The perpetual night sky is a drab, dirty, rusted brown. The future city has transformed into a weird paella of still extant vestiges of Tinsel Town, Chinatown, and Seattle. Long periods of rain with a heavy Asian fusion. We see crowded streets hovered over by advertising billboard blimps. The latest fad du jour are frivolous umbrella shafts that glow in the murky evening rush hour. At the massive pyramidal Tyrell Corporation an official seems to be giving a worker, Leon Kowalski (Brion James) some sort of test. A question and answer test using the Voight-Kampff machine. The machine is used to detect replicants, measuring changes in air density and monitoring pupil dilation and blush response. It doesn't go well, Leon in a move from Leone's The Good The Bad And The Ugly, shoots his interrogator from beneath, right up through the table. The interrogator was actually a special unit cop a "blade runner," and Leon was a "skinjob," a replicant (a bioengineered being). Deckard (Harrison Ford) A man Deckard (Harrison Ford), is sitting on a bench reading a newspaper. He is across a sidewalk from a crowded outdoor noodle shop. The counterman calls him over when a stool opens up. He's in the middle of his lo mien noodles when two cops, one of them a cripple with a cane named Gaff (Edward James Olmos) approach. He's arrested. They tell him Inspector Bryant wants him. They head to the Blade Runner LAPD division which is now spilled over into old Union Station. Bryant: We got three skinjobs walking the streets. Took a shuttle off world killed the crew and passengers. The found the shuttle drifting two weeks off the coast, so we know they're around. Deckard: Embarrassing. Bryant: Not embarrassing, because no one is going to find out they're down here. Now you're going to spot em' and you're going to air them out. Deckard: I don't work here anymore. Holden. He's good. Bryant: I did. He can breathe okay, as long as nobody unplugs him..... Not good enough. I need you Deck, this is a bad one the worst you get. I need the old Blade Runner. I need your magic. Deckard: [getting up to leave] I was quit when I come in here, Bryant, I'm twice as quit now. Bryant: Stop right where you are! You know the score, pal. You're not cop, you're little people! [Deckard stops at the door] Deckard: No choice, huh? Bryant: [smiles] No choice, pal. Bryant: I need ya, Deck. This is a bad one, the worst yet. I need the old blade runner, I need your magic. It turns out that six skinjobs made it to L.A., two were fried when they tried to storm the Tyrell Corp, security perimeter, the other four are on the loose, the only clue they got was the last known address given for Leon Kowalsky, The Yukon Hotel. So begins Deckard's quest to find and retire the renegade replicants. While the replicants desperate mission is to breach the Tyrell security systems and confront it's genius, Dr. Eldon Tyrell (Joe Turkel), to see if he can change the four year length of their fail-safe, genetically modified, lifespans. The replicants are Nexus-6 generation, ("more human than human" Tyrell Corp motto), top of the line skinjobs, besides Leon, the others are two pleasure models Zhora (Joanna Cassidy), and Pris (Daryl Hannah), and the leader, a combat model called Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer). Bryant arranges for Deckard to go and administer the Voight-Kampff test to a Nexus-6. He meets both Dr. Eldon Tyrell and Rachael (Sean Young) his secretary. Tyrell tells Deckard to give the test to Rachael. After over 100 one hundred questions Deckard figures out that Rachael is a replicant who believes she is human. Once she is dismissed from the room, Tyrell confides to Deckard that she is a Nexus-6 experiment who has been given false memories including photographs, to provide a sort of psychological/emotional "buffer." Deckard returns to his apartment where he finds the door unlocked and Rachael waiting. She desperately tries to prove her humanity by showing him a picture of herself and her mother. Deckard tells her that Tyrell implanted her memories, memories that were appropriated from one of his nieces, they are fake. In tears Rachael she leaves his apartment. Batty and Leon, track down a replicant eye manufacturer and from him they get the name and address of J. F. Sebastian (William Sanderson), a lonely biogenetic designer who works closely with Tyrell. Batty sends Pris to the location and she manages to waifish-ly flirt her way into Sebastian's heart and headquarters in the rundown Bradbury building in old downtown L.A. Sebastian in his spare time manufactures genetic oddities, "toys" which he calls his friends and his apartments are littered with them. Deckard, with Gaff, search Leon's room at the Yukon, Deckard finds photographs and a snake scale. He grabs the evidence and begins his sleuthing. The scale is from a bioengineered snake, from that he traces who it was sold to which takes him to Taffey Lewis' Chinatown dive strip club. When Deckard confronts Zhora she attacks him and flees. Deckard shoots her down in the street. We see Rachael in the distance across the crowd. She has witnessed it all. After getting congratulated from Bryant, Deckard is surprisingly told he still has four Nexus-6 skinjobs to retire. Rachael has escaped from the Tyrell Corporation. After Bryant and the cops all leave, Deckard is ambushed by Leon, who has also been watching the proceedings. Deckard loses his gun in his battle with Leon, and as he is about to kill Deckard gets shot in the head by Rachael who picked up Deckard's gun. Deckard and Rachael then go back to his apartment, there Rachael and Deckard begin to get intimate. Pris, after a few days of getting in Sebastian's good graces is united again with Batty. He tells Pris that the others have been killed. Sebastian is sympathetic to their plight because he also, does not have long to live. Sebastian tells them that he suffers from the "Methuselah Syndrome," a premature aging disorder. Batty using Sebastian is able to breach Tyrell's penthouse. Batty confronts his maker and demands more lifespan. Tyrell: [Tyrell explains why he can't do it] The facts of life... to make an alteration in the evolvement of an organic life system is fatal. A coding sequence cannot be revised once it's been established. Batty: Why not? Tyrell: Because by the second day of incubation, any cells that have undergone reversion mutation give rise to revertant colonies, like rats leaving a sinking ship; then the ship... sinks. Batty: What about EMS-3 recombination? Tyrell: We've already tried it - ethyl, methane, sulfinate as an alkylating agent and potent mutagen; it created a virus so lethal the subject was dead before it even left the table. Batty: Then a repressor protein, that would block the operating cells. Tyrell: Wouldn't obstruct replication; but it does give rise to an error in replication, so that the newly formed DNA strand carries with it a mutation - and you've got a virus again... but this, all of this is academic. You were made as well as we could make you. Batty: But not to last. Tyrell: The light that burns twice as bright burns half as long - and you have burned so very, very brightly, Roy. Look at you: you're the Prodigal Son; you're quite a prize! Batty: I've done... questionable things. Tyrell: Also extraordinary things; revel in your time. Batty: Nothing the God of biomechanics wouldn't let you into heaven for. When it's apparent that Tyrell can not do anything Batty crushes his skull with his bare hands, and Sebastian makes a run for the elevator, but he's never seen again in the film, Batty has killed him also. Noirsville Rachael (Sean Young) Directed brilliantly by Ridley Scott (Alien (1979), Gladiator (2000), Hannibal (2001), Black Hawk Down (2001)), who, except for Alien and Gladiator has never, in my opinion, directed anything to match this total imagination immersional experience since. The beautiful cinematography was by Jordan Cronenweth (The Nickel Ride (1974)). The absolutely stunning, intricately detailed Production Design was by Lawrence G. Paull and the Art Direction by David L. Snyder. Special effects are by Douglas Trumbull, Richard Yuricich, and David Dryer. The excellent soundtrack was by Vangelis. The film stars Harrison Ford whose Neo Noir creds include (The Conversation (1974), also The Fugitive (1993)), he and the entire cast should have been in more, similar fare. I haven't seen Presumed Innocent (1990) which may be another Neo Noir. Ford is basically playing a retro, slightly disheveled, hard boiled detective. Rutger Hauer (The Hitcher (1986), Sin City(2005)) as Roy Batty leader of the skinjobs is appropriately cold blooded. Sean Young (Dune (1984), A Kiss Before Dying (1991)) plays Rachael. Rachael reminds me a bit of Joan Crawford with her extreme shoulder pads and hair in a 1940s styled pompadour with rolled bangs, there is also a hint of Victorian Gothic emphasized when she's out of the office wearing ridiculously large Edmund Gorey-ish overcoats with high collars. Edward James Olmos is Gaff the weird and creepy cop flunky. M. Emmet Walsh (Midnight Cowboy (1969), Mikey and Nicky (1976), Blood Simple (1984), White Sands (1992)) is the good ol' boy L.A.P.D. Inspector. Walsh is a good, memorable, character actor, he is another who, if we were still under the studio system and if they would have been cranking out Neo Noirs with the same dedication that they did for Classic Noirs, would absolutely have been a Neo Noir staple. Daryl Hannah (Kill Bill: Vol. 1 and Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2003)) as Pris, William Sanderson (Death Hunt (1981)) plays J. F. Sebastian, Sanderson would have been a natural for the parts that usually went to Elisha Cook Jr. during the Classic Film Noir Era. Brion James (The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981), The Fifth Element (1997), Brown's Requiem (1998)) plays skinjob Leon Kowalski. Joe Turkel is the only member of the cast who was a Classic Film Noir veteran appearing in (City Across the River (1949), Johnny Stool Pigeon (1949), Southside 1-1000 (1950), The Glass Wall (1953), The Human Jungle (1954), The Naked Street (1955), The Killing (1956), The Case Against Brooklyn (1958)) He plays the oily replicant tycoon Dr. Eldon Tyrell. Joanna Cassidy as Zhora Salome, one of the sex worker replicants was in The Laughing Policeman (1973), and the very recent Neo Noir Too Late (2015)). Hy Pyke plays Taffey Lewis the Chinatown strip club owner, and James Hong (The Satan Bug (1965), Chinatown (1974), Big Trouble in Little China (1986), Black Widow (1987)), plays Hannibal Chew the replicant eye manufacturer. Bob Okasaki (House of Bamboo (1955), The Crimson Kimono (1959)), is noodle shop counterman. Is Deckard a replicant? I don't think so, and what the film is trying to say will be debated. Replicants with artificial memories, will still develop real memories in their short lifespans and possibly Batty comes to the realization that in saving and telling Deckard what he has seen is a way of achieving a little bit of immortality. Batty: I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate. All those moments will be lost in time... like tears in rain... Time to die. A visually atmospheric masterpiece. 10/10 Full review with more screencaps here: Noirsville

Hilary Brooke and Tom Conway in Confidence Girl (1952) It starts off as a typical police procedural with a brief introductory spiel by a Los Angeles police official warning against the confidence game, then proceeds to tell the case of Mary Webb (Brooke) and her association with Roger Kingsley (Conway). This was one intricately plotted film that starts off with a nice twist following Webb and her associates through various cons, culminating in an elaborate phony mentalist night club act. Hillary Brooke looks great and does a convincing turn as Webb, Tom Conway (George Sander’s brother) is her equal, believeabe. I've been familiar with Brooke from when I was a kid she was a regular, the blond bombshell that all the guys in Patterson on the Abbott & Costello TV show, were crazy about. Didn't realize she was a home girl (Astoria, NY) until I saw her bio. She shines. Very similar to The Sting, but in my opinion even better for the 50s location sequences James Garner and Lou Gossett are pretty good in Skin Game (1971). This film is probably the closest Garner ever gets in a film, that I've seen, to him reprising his Maverick persona when he his still young enough to pull it off, (he does so somewhat also, in the two Support Your Local... films with his cool wisecracking deliveries) but here he is actually playing a character Quincy Drew, who is a con man in the best Maverick Brothers tradition. The story circa (1857) deals with two con men Drew and Jason O'Rourke (Lou Gossett) a native of New Jersey, who we later discover met in a jail in Pennsylvania when O'Rourke was thrown into a cell next to Drew who was doing time for telling fortunes, its hilarious seeing Garner in a turban and fortune telling garb. They hit it off, and devise various different cons that they try out as a team until they hit on what they call the "Skin Game". This con consists of Garner riding into various Western border state towns Kansas, Missouri, etc., feigning poverty and as a result has to sell his best slave at an impromptu auction in the saloon, hotel, etc., etc. Susan Clark, plays a shady lady/picpocket/con woman who targets the guys taking their money who eventually becomes Garners love interest. Ed Asner here, is in his villain period and he does a pretty good job as a slave catcher operating in the border area who eventually catches on to the con game. Gossett does a great job along with Garner & Clark.

Yea that one was a bit of a disappointment, Jack s*u*c*K*s as a director, and he way overdoes the V.O. too.

Johnny Cool (1963) Henry Silva, Elisabeth Montgomery with a large cast of cameo performances, gangster flick good up until meh end 7/10

I don't care that much for Jessica Lange, either, to tell you the truth.

Sorry, but I'll have to disagree with you, I do like Garfield, and Totter, But don't care for Lana Turner, never did. Cecil Kellaway does not remotely look or act Greek, I grew up in Astoria, Queens, New York City's "Little Athens," I grew up with Greeks, he looks more like an English Gentleman.

Well for me Playboy was also pretty cool, when first discovered, but it became pretty tame once I started going to high school in Manhattan on 54th Street. It was located in a couple of brownstones that overlooked the courtyard of the Museum of Modern Art. An open campus type of school, so if you had say classes from 8 to 10 AM and then the next at 3 PM you didn't have to stay in school. You could hop a subway for a long lunch down in Chinatown or hang out in nearby Times Square. It was only a few long blocks West and a handful South to the Northern end of Times Square, and in the 1960's you could see just about everything you were curious about, and it was all there right right in front of you, live and in the flesh. They didn't call it Live Nude Girls for nothing, ;-). The Metropole Cafe had blackened windows except for a circular Peephole at approximately 5' high, if you were tall enough you got an eye full of the topless dancers (the Metropole was featured in one of Jack Lemons films, I don't remember which one). Every block had adult bookstores, theaters and peepshows, tucked in between the perpetual "going out of business stores." In the peeps you either went into a booth and paid twenty-five cents to watch a film or a panel slid up and there on a revolving stage was a "model." There still were a few of more traditional type burlesque houses scattered about, but my local was the "Follies Burlesk" since it was North of 42nd Street. The only difference between the 40s & 50s style was they didn't stop at a G-string and pasties anymore, they went all the way. There also plenty of Playlands filled with amusement games, and still some Taxi Dancer joints still hanging on. Below is one of the Playlands with the Majestic Ballroom a Taxi Dancing join located in what was the old Latin Quater And not to mention that there were a lot of women in see through tops parading around like it was all natural. It was a learning experience, and I still read Playboy for the jokes and articles. ;-)