cigarjoe
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Le Samouraï (1967) Death In Paris Has A Price
A grey Paris flop. The hired gun lays on his back. A mattress without sheets. Pale reflected light from the windows makes trapezoids on the ceiling. He's sucking a tar bar. A birdcage sits upon a table. When he exhales, the stream rises diagonally upwards quickly, then as it cools and loses momentum, it begins to settle back down, spreading out into a visible floating layer. Cutting the room in two.
"There is no greater solitude than that of the samurai unless it is that of the tiger in the jungle... Perhaps..."
— Bushido (Book of the Samurai)
So begins Jean-Pierre Melville's Le Samouraï
When the time is right Jef Costello (Alain Delon) arises. He leaves the bed fully dressed. At the mirror by the door he puts on a trenchcoat, places a fedora upon his head, adjusts the brim meticulously, then walks out the door.
Jef (Alain Delon)
Out in the rain. On the street he watches. When a Citrone is parked he waits. When the owner leaves, he pounces. He gets in the car, removes a ring of master keys from his pocket, and begins to methodically test the ignition one key at a time. The fifth key starts the car. He drives to a deserted street, and into an open garage. He pays a man to change the plates and to give him a revolver.Jef goes about thoroughly setting up alibi's. He visits a prostitute girlfriend Jane (Nathalie Delon), he explains what he wants, but she tells him she has a client arriving at 2:00 AM so he adjusts his story and tells her he was there that night between 7:15 and 1:45 AM. Next, he heads to a hotel with an all night poker game and establishes a fake alibi with them, he will be there at 2:00 AM. Now it's time for work.
He drives to Marty's, a nightclub. He leaves the Citrone running. He walks in, heads to the men's room. He puts on gloves. He walks up to the private office. He confronts the owner and kills him. Walking calmly out of the office he confronts "La pianiste" (Cathy Rosier). He passes her and heads out of the club.
Jumping in the Citrone he drives first to a bridge where he tosses the gun into the Seine, then to Jane's apartment, arriving there just before 2:00 AM. He waits in the lobby for next Jane's client. When he walks in Jef walks out passing in in the lobby entrance and making sure the guy sees him leave. Jeff drives the Citrone to a quiet street and parks it. He hails a cab and heads to the hotel poker game, sitting down to play just past 2:00 AM.
"La pianiste" (Cathy Rosier) The police conduct a wide sweep for the killer, hauling in as many likely suspects as they can including Jef. The detective inspector in charge (Roger Fradet) gets Jef's statement, they haul in Jane and her client and both confirm his alibi, but the inspector is not convinced. Jef is placed in a line up. Marty's nightclub employees are the witnesses. Even though "La pianiste" saw him clearly, she tells the police that he's not the man though he does fit the description. Something is way off there, and Jef knows it. Only two of the rest of the employees think it's Jef, the rest do not. Jef is released.
When Jef goes to collect the rest of his fee he's double crossed. Reacting quickly he just gets nicked in the arm and the contact gets away. Back at his one room dive, he doctors the wound, and plans a revenge that will take him to Noirsville.
Noirsville
Le Samouraï is a film designed to emphasize the alienated mundaneness, of Jeff's meticulous spartan way of life. This builds the tension slowly towards flash points of swift release. Director Jean-Pierre Melville, like Sergio Leone and the Hollywood Western, holds a certain loving reverence to American Film Noir and Gangster Films, the "romance of the fedora." After Bob le Flambeur, Melville got to actually film Two Men In Manhattan on location in New York City and he made the most of it. In his sixth gangster epic, Le Samouraï Melville uses the enclosure of an everyday Paris of working man neighborhoods, suburban commuter train stations, nightclubs, industrial ghettos and The Metro, to weave the existential tale of the paid assassin on his last job. The music was by François de Roubaix, and the excellent cinematography by Henri Decaë (Elevator to the Gallows (1958), Purple Noon (1960), ). Screencaps are from the Criterion DVD 9/10. Full review at Noirsville-
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Today's film The Window, is along with The Fallen Idol the perfect introductory "Kid's Noir's." A good way to introduce the genre to youngsters.
Also you those Noiristas and Aficio-Noirdos interested a lot of the NYC locations (except of course for 3rd Avenue el) are still there.
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The Naked Kiss (1964) Kinky Neo Noir On The Cheap
A la Sam Fuller. My favorite Fuller Noir is Pickup On South Street, a 10/10, a Classic Twentieth Century Fox Noir. A film with the full complement of veteran motion picture studio artists, set designers, art directors, contract players, and with Richard Widmark, Jean Peters, and Thelma Ritter at the top of their game, quality actors. It looks like a quality production, a piece of cinematic ART.The Naked Kiss has none of this. It stars Constance Towers, Anthony Eisley, Michael Dante, Virginia Grey, Patsy Kelly, and Marie Devereux. I don't blame you if you ask who? The studio was poverty row Allied Artists, and they must have rented Samuel Goldwyn Studios back lot and the Columbia/Warner Bros. Ranch, but they forgot to rent the extras, the cars, the atmosphere and most importantly the studio personnel with the knowhow to make it work.
An uneven, visually ugly film with a weird score, an absurd plot, told in a warped style. Pure trash. A kinky curiosity to rubberneck, about a 6/10. Full review with screencaps here in Film Noir/Gangster and more in Noirsville
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The Naked Kiss (1964) Kinky Neo Noir On The Cheap
CHEAP,
TAWDRY,
RIDICULOUS.
STYLISTIC,
MELODRAMATIC,
CRAP,
NOIR!
A la Sam Fuller. My favorite Fuller Noir is Pickup On South Street, a 10/10, a Classic Twentieth Century Fox Noir. A film with the full complement of veteran motion picture studio artists, set designers, art directors, contract players, and with Richard Widmark, Jean Peters, and Thelma Ritter at the top of their game, quality actors. It looks like a quality production, a piece of cinematic ART.
The Naked Kiss has none of this. It stars Constance Towers, Anthony Eisley, Michael Dante, Virginia Grey, Patsy Kelly, and Marie Devereux. I don't blame you if you ask who? The studio was poverty row Allied Artists, and they must have rented Samuel Goldwyn Studios back lot and the Columbia/Warner Bros. Ranch, but they forgot to rent the extras, the cars, the atmosphere and most importantly the studio personnel with the knowhow to make it work.
Fake Town
At least in The Man With The Golden Arm, another backlot bound film that I reviewed recently, director Preminger had the doe to cast bigger name stars and was able to clutter up the backlot. When you have Sinatra, Novak, and McGavin, you are going to pay attention to them. This film, with no outstanding actors to distract, looks like a cheapo TV film of the week. There is an opening aerial shot of downtown Grantville. It's of a brownstone type city block with an angle, but it looks instantly phony, i.e., glass storefront windows with venetian blinds, blinds hiding the fact that there is probably nothing behind the glass. And hardly a pedestrian, no parking meters, hydrants, street signs, no parked cars, no traffic. Doesn't look like any real small town, it just screams backlot. Back in the Golden Age of Hollywood, they knew how to disguise the shots with the right angles and blocking. Pickup On South Street wasn't New York City but they filmed the 20th Century Fox Studios backlot in a very convincing way, no? Here Grantville USA looks phoney.
Fake Street, fake buildings (notice the plug for "Shock Corridor")
By the early fifties lighter portable cameras allowed lots of film noir to go to actual locations. Nothing looks better than the real thing, and by the '60s going back and using studio sets without the personnel who knew how to film them and pull it off, was a disaster. Another noticeable Noir of this time period with the same problems is The Money Trap, it uses a back lot and location work and the differences between the two are glaring.
Kelly (Constance Towers) What keeps all the negatives in play is the incredibly bizarre story. The film is like a macabre train wreck, that you got to keep watching. It's opening hook has a frenzied prostitute Kelly (Constance Towers), beating the living **** out of her pimp with a shoe. She is downright crazy eye, dick shriveling scary. While they struggle Kelly loses her wig revealing a cue ball head, nice touch Sam.
Knocking her pimp senseless, she grabs the money, dons her wig, and scoots. She goes freelancing. Three years later Kelly gets off the bus in Grantville ready to peddle her **** in a new market, but she runs straight off at the get go into the Captain of Grantville Police Griff. Griff was waiting for the bus with a punk kid he was running out of town. Griff has her number. Griff propositions Kelly and gets the first "crack" at her.After they are done playing hide the sausage, in Griff's apartment, no less, Griff tells her that his town is clean. It's gonna stay clean. He doesn't want her turning tricks in Grantville. But he also tells her that there's a Madam, named Candy, runs a whorehouse in the town across the river, she can go there join the stable of local talent.He tells her to tell Candy that Griff sent her with his "seal of approval." Griff's got to go out on shift but tells Kelly she can hang there for the night. When Kelly wakes up she takes a long appraising look at herself in the mirror and decides to go straight.
Kelly: I saw a broken down piece of machinery. Nothing but the buck, the bed and the bottle for the rest of my life. That's what I saw.
Kelly finds a boarding house, a nice affable landlady, gets the room and looks for a job. Now here is where the film sort of goes off the rails. Nevermind that Kelly, as played by Towers, is not in any way shape or form believable as a hooker, just like she wasn't believable as a stripper in Shock Corridor.
She gives off a wound a bit too tight, absolutely **** nuts aura on one hand, and on the other, you sense the stuck up attitude of an actress (a hoity toity graduate BTY of the Juilliard School of Music and the American Academy of the Dramatic Arts) who wants you to know that she's better than this part, and is slumming in this particular piece of trash, playing a mere prostitute. So she enhances/inflates the part. Kelly is into classical music and quotes Goethe, fer chrissakes, a high society hooker in a fly speck Mayberry.
I don't know if that all makes sense, but the fairy godmother like shift from **** to handicapped childrens nurse is completely off the wall. Besides, how the hell does she get a nursing job without any education or license? The film glosses that over with some BS, not ever going to fly in the real world, lines of dialog. After she does get the job, Griff keeps hounding her anyway thinking she's screwing the Docs and up to no good.
Another chuckle inducing sequence is Candy's whorehouse, across the river from Grantville in another state that must be called Candyland. Candy's girls are called Bon Bon's and the whorehouse looks like a cheap roadhouse nightclub with the gals in sort of cigarette girl outfits with trays, but instead of cigarettes they sell "candy," only the "candy" is really sex.
Continuing further into bizarro world, we get long cringeworthy sequences with Kelly in nurse costume and with the handicapped children dressed up as pirates altogether singing like the Vienna Girls & Boys Choir (Towers Juilliard School of Music degree put to use here).
Into this mix comes the town's most eligible bachelor Grant (Michael Dante). He and Kelly hit it off after a somewhat rough start and become a definite item.
It all looks as if it's going to be a Cinderella type story ending until Kelly drops by Grant's mansion one day unexpectedly early, and catches him molesting a little girl. Woah! It's, as Kelly explains somewhat cryptically, the "Naked Kiss" of the title, so the audience can let their imaginations run wild as to what exactly is being kissed. The girl runs out the front door and Kelly confronts the apprehensive Grant, who babbles.....J.L. Grant: Now you know why I can never marry a normal woman. That's why I love you. You understand my sickness. You been conditioned to people like me. You live in my world, and it will be an EXCITING world! [Now on his knees] My darling... our marriage... will be a paradise... because we're BOTH abnormal.
"My darling... our marriage... will be a paradise... because we're BOTH abnormal." At this point Kelly grabs the telephone receiver and in one vicious blow crushes Grants skull killing him deader than a doornail. Griff does not believe the town's namesake was a pedophile and Kelly is arrested. It all goes melodramaticly Noirsville.
Noirsville
An uneven, visually ugly film with a weird score, an absurd plot, told in a warped style. Pure trash. A kinky curiosity to rubberneck, about a 6/10. Full review with screencaps here Noirsville -
Just now, TomJH said:
One more thing about Slightly Scarlet, Cigarjoe. It may well be Arlene Dahl's finest moment in the movies.
Agree
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WHO SHOULD PLAY TRUMP IN A FILM BIOPIC?
How about a static elephant T*U*R*D??????
(with crony flies buzzing around it)
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10 hours ago, JakeHolman said:
Been here a long time. Seen a lot of old hands gone. Excellent posters gone...the truth is the board has been going through major change the last few years. It's not the same it was 10 yrs. ago...look for more...
You got to also factor in that a lot of them are just dying off.
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Slightly Scarlet (1956) Pulp Cover Noir
WOW! It's Pulp Cover Noir, it's one of those films designed to be in direct competition with TV, an RKO film shot in Color in "Superscope" a 2:1 aspect ratio. Something to get 'em out of their easy chairs and La-Z-Boys and down to the theater.
Slightly Scarlet is an interesting film. the film has a weird juxtaposition of color, light & shadow. Its this Lynchesque look that is sort of indescribable, unless you've seen it, the the set designer, flamingly went overboard, (even in the extremely noirish segments) and filled the screen with a pallet of colors, it's like "Seven Brides For Seven Brothers" meets "Blue Velvet, except where Blue Velvet and Niagara used color, the colors were somewhat muted, in this film they basically run riot. It's as if somebody asked, "hey can we get another shade of blue between that prussian blue and teal shadow?" There's a shot in a mansion with a number of suits crowded around a TV set, in a Black & White film they'd all all look gray, in Slightly Scarlet none of them are wearing the same shade of color. It's pretty impressive Cinematographer John Alton created some movie magic. The film even recalls somewhat the bold primary color pallet of Warren Beatty's comic book film "Dick Tracy."
The director was Allan Dwan, Cinematographer John Alton Writers: James M. Cain (novel "Loves Lovely Counterfeit"), Robert Blees (screenplay), Stars: John Payne, Rhonda Fleming, Arlene Dahl and Ted De Corsia. Again here a an unexpected diamond in the rough, a color Noir that slightly surpasses "Niagara," that has got a Lynchesque feel to it.
If this film has one major weakness it's the score which is a bit too bland, it needed something a bit over the top to compliment everything else. The DVD has some nice special features, a good commentary by writer and James M. Cain enthusiast Max Collins, a James M. Cain bio, a collection of stills from the film, and trailers from other James M. Cain based films. 8/10 Full review with screencaps here in Film Noir/ Gangster
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Slightly Scarlet (1956) Pulp Cover Noir
WOW! It's Pulp Cover Noir, it's one of those films designed to be in direct competition with TV, an RKO film shot in Color in "Superscope" a 2:1 aspect ratio. Something to get 'em out of their easy chairs and La-Z-Boys and down to the theater.
The Color Film Noirs that were produced between the 1940-1967-68 time frame ('67 was the last year for Major Studio Black & White Film production, I throw 68 in there to cover a few Exploitation films post '67) were actually the first Neo Noirs (let's call these first phase neos or proto neos) so that the two sub genres/styles Classic Film Noir and Neo Noir actually overlap. But until the Motion Picture Production Code weakened in the mid to late 1950s the only significant difference between Noir and Neo Noir was basically the use of color film.
Post say 1955 the Neo Noirs (second phase neos) both Color and Black & White began to drift away from the Code and away from predominantly crime centric stories into more previously taboo "dark" subject matter and employing various salacious visual depictions not possible before.Slightly Scarlet is an interesting film. First, the film is based on James M. Cain's "Love's Lovely Counterfeit." Cain had a penchant for writing about criminals, lost souls, disenfranchised individuals who will take any chances. When he was eighteen, he worked six months for a gas company in Baltimore. After work he used to hang around the whorehouses in the red light district on Josephine Street. He used to lounge around in the parlor, joke around with the girls, and he he used to listen a lot. I'm sure he got an ear full and developed a flair for the hard boiled lingo, and the hard luck, desperate, convoluted sleazy situations. He was described by his ex wives as being morose, sarcastic, insulting, moody, melancholy and grim, and yet he portrayed his losers with compassion, and believability.
"I make no conscious effort to be tough, or hard-boiled, or grim, or any of the things I am usually called. I merely try to write as the character would write, and I never forget that the average man, from the fields, the streets, the bars, the offices, and even the gutters of his country, has acquired a vividness of speech that goes beyond anything I could invent, and that if I stick to this heritage, this logos of the American countryside, I shall attain a maximum of effectiveness with very little effort."
James M. Cain's Preface to Double Indemnity
Second, the film has a weird juxtaposition of color, light & shadow. Its this Lynchesque look that is sort of indescribable, unless you've seen it, the the set designer, flamingly went overboard, (even in the extremely noirish segments) and filled the screen with a pallet of colors, it's like "Seven Brides For Seven Brothers" meets "Blue Velvet, except where Blue Velvet and Niagara used color, the colors were somewhat muted, in this film they basically run riot. It's as if somebody asked, "hey can we get another shade of blue between that prussian blue and teal shadow?" There's a shot in a mansion with a number of suits crowded around a TV set, in a Black & White film they'd all all look gray, in Slightly Scarlet none of them are wearing the same shade of color. It's pretty impressive Cinematographer John Alton created some movie magic. The film even recalls somewhat the bold primary color pallet of Warren Beatty's comic book film "Dick Tracy."
June Lyons (Rhonda Fleming)
Third, it has Rhonda Fleming and Arlene Dahl playing two gorgeous, smoldering, redhead sisters one "good" the other BAAAAAAAD. I say "good" in quotations because Fleming plays June, she's hinted at as obviously the mistress/secretary of the reformer mayoral candidate. She's living quite lavishly for a secretary (even having a maid) in a perfect "Leave It To Beaver" suburbia with kept woman undertones.
Dorothy Lyons (Arlene Dahl)
A pretty revealing nightgown there Rhonda
Dahl plays over the top kid sister Dorothy just of of prison for a kleptomania relapse, she's also a bit of a nymphomaniac but one excusable flaw in the screenplay is that this is not hinted at sooner. It's supposedly a big improvement over Cain's novel where the Dorothy character arrives much later. For the film I can understand that for the fifties the revelation of her tendencies must have been quite extraordinary, but looking back through the prism of time, realistically she should have been shown more open about it, as it is, its hinted at symbolically, i.e. in one scene Dahl flicks a lighter flame under the palm of Payne's hand, in another she playfully brandishes a speargun in a third she's using a back scratcher but not on her back.
Regardless both actresses are stunning in their beauty and provide quite a bit of eye candy throughout the film and you wonder how each will upstage the other next. Another plus, their costumes, their body language, and the backdrops provide a living pulp fiction magazine/paperback book cover shot extravaganza.
June: I gave you everything I could.
Dorothy: Because you felt guilty, you had a bad conscience, you know how it started. That charm bracelet, the one moma gave to you. I had to have it. So I stole it. I liked taking it. I liked the sensation It was fun. So it was you June, you! And all the things you bought me they pay off a lot of years don't they.
June: A lot of years, what do you think I've been through a lot of years. Holding my breath every time I saw a cop pass by the house. Trying to fix things, and square things, and pay things off all because my sister didn't have any more morals than an alley cat. Oh you're a fine one to tell me how I should live my life. If I didn't earn money who'd get you out of trouble. And who would pay off those wonderful friends of yours that you seem to attract like garbage does flies.Fourth, Payne and De Corsia wonderfully reprise (for me anyway, since I've seen their other outings first) some of their roles in other Noir films so they bring that cinematic memory factor into their characters, some of De Corsia's lines recall William Conrad's in "The Killers", all in all giving that slipping into a comfortable pair of old shoes feel to the film which adds to the mix making Slightly Scarlet what it is.
The story line is that crime boss Solly Casper does not want the reformer Jansen winning the upcoming election against his man Robbins for mayor. He sends his operative Ben Grace out to get dirt on Jansen, Ben concentrates on Jansen's secretary June Lyons, figuring eventually he'll snap some compromising photos of the two.
When we first see June, Ben and Dorothy, Dorothy is just getting a medical release out of prison. Ben is there taking photos. He follows up with a visit to a cop he knows Detective Lt. Dave Dietz, to get Dorothy's criminal record. He then heads over to Solly's place to make his report.
Solly Casper (Ted De Corsia) What kind of secretary is she? Solly Casper: You must have a file this thick on Jansen and his girlfriend.
Ben Grace: I got a file Solly.
Solly Casper: Heh, heh, and I'll knock the boyfriend right out of the box. I told you there was a way to get to anybody. And the way to get to a reformer is to prove that he is not a lily white angel himself.
Ben Grace: That figures.
Solly Casper: Well what do we use genius, pictures of 'em, tapes, checks he wrote?
Ben Grace: I got a file on Jansen's girlfriend, all it proves is that she's clean as a whistle.
Solly Casper: You've been working on 'em a week.
Ben Grace: She's clean, she's clean, I can't help it if Jansen's too smart to leave any tracks.
Solly Casper: Oh, this is great... this is fine news to get Tuesday night a week before election. You know what happens to bright boys, like you, and us if Jensen gets in? You can take all your fancy gimmicks and your camera rifle and st.... A dame's a dame, there's bound to be something you can nail her on.
Ben Grace: I couldn't get one picture on June Lyon.
Solly Casper: You mean you didn't even get a picture of her coming out of his house at two in the morning... what kind of secretary is she?
When the newspaper editor Marlowe makes an endorsement on TV for Jansen, Solly decides on a plan to pay him a visit, and try an get him to retract it. Ben tells him he's not going along. Ben tells Solly that a smart operator doesn't have to get rough. Solly calls in his crew and smacks Ben in front of them.
Ben then decides to play both ends against the middle. Ben schemes out in advance of the confrontation, and plants a tape recorder in the room they are going to brace Marlowe in. Ben records Solly inadvertently, killing Marlowe by giving him a heart attack. Solly slightly **** that Marlowe got out so easy, tells his muscle bound henchman Lenhardt (Buddy Baer) to "give him some air." They open the window and sit Marlowe on the sill. Solly then says "give him a lot of air" and flings him out the window. Then turning to his henchmen says "come on let's see if we can beat him down."When they leave Ben retrieves the recorder microphone. He pays a visit to June, tells her that he can help Jansen and plays the tape. She at first doesn't know how to handle the dirt, she thinks it's a trick. Ben brings up Dorothy's incarceration, She tells him to leave, he pulls out a picture of Dorothy, indicating that that information could hurt Jansen. June slaps his face and tells him that she doesn't like blackmail, and that she and her sister want him out. Dorothy who has been listening on the patio enters the room.
Dorothy: Somebody talking about me? I'd much rather do the talking for myself.
June: Good-bye Mr. Grace.
Dorothy: Hello Mr. Grace meet June's little sister Dorothy.
Ben Grace: Hello Miss Lyons.
Dorothy: Oh please call me Dor, won't you, a frank and open door.
He gets the tape to Jensen, and Solly is forced to leave for Mexico. Ben takes over Sollys operations, and Jansen's girlfriend June.
June finds herself attracted to bad boy Ben rather than Frank Jensen, and the two become an item. Ben tells her that now that Jansen's elected mayor to tell him to make Dietz Chief of Police as a sort of thank-you. With Dietz chief Ben tells him to go after the grifters and prostitution, all be wants are 30 nice clean gambling locations around the city where suckers can bet.
John Alton's color Noirsville
Dorothy's got a big itch 
Ben Grace (John Payne)
Later when June is lured to the beach house instead Ben she meets Solly and Dorothy.
June: Leave her alone Casper can't you see she's sick.
Solly: Sick that's a terrible way to talk about a cute kid. Come here honey. Sick I think she nothing but laughs.
Dorothy: He doesn't think I'm sick.
Solly: So you're that smart girl Jenson always had on the side. I got a real good reason to kill you. I got you to thank for Mexico, you and Ben. Back up smart girl.
Dorothy: Are you really going to give it to her?
June: Run Dorothy run.
Dorothy: Why should I honey bunch?
Solly: Yea why should she? The boys will be here about nine and we'll have ourselves a barrel of laughs. Then I'm taking little Dorothy and flying down to Mexico with her. We'll be flying like bats, upside down and every which way.
The director was Allan Dwan, Cinematographer John Alton Writers: James M. Cain (novel "Loves Lovely Counterfeit"), Robert Blees (screenplay), Stars: John Payne, Rhonda Fleming, Arlene Dahl and Ted De Corsia. Again here a an unexpected diamond in the rough, a color Noir that slightly surpasses "Niagara," that has got a Lynchesque feel to it.
"We'll be flying like bats, upside down and every which way."
If this film has one major weakness it's the score which is a bit too bland, it needed something a bit over the top to compliment everything else. The DVD has some nice special features, a good commentary by writer and James M. Cain enthusiast Max Collins, a James M. Cain bio, a collection of stills from the film, and trailers from other James M. Cain based films. 8/10 Full review with more screencaps here: Noirsville -
13 hours ago, TheCid said:
For Split Second I was particularly impressed with the information re: Paul Kelly who actually served time in San Quentin for manslaughter. Liked the parts about the explosions being a tourist draw for Las Vegas.
Incidentally, Las Vegas Story which was referenced is a very good movie of the period.
Also of interest was all the soldiers being marched to various locations as test dummies. Many (most?) of whom developed cancer and other diseases due to radiation poisoning.
If you get a chance check out the Neo Noir Mulholland Falls, Its opening title montage references the tourists watching the atomic tests around a pool, the plot involves the test dummie soldiers and the coverup of the results, and the film was supposed to end with an atomic blast. Review with screencaps in Film Noir/Gangster pages and here in Noirsville
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21 hours ago, NickAndNora34 said:
I personally have come to the conclusion that profanity has been used more and more as the years go by. I mean, the Hays code in movies obviously prevented the use of profanity, along with other touchy subjects such as nudity and what they deemed to be inappropriate dialogue/situations in film. If you look at something like "Pulp Fiction", for example, the language is veery strong. I think with newer generations, there came a stronger sense of open-mindedness. I know that a lot of people my age don't mind the use of profanity in the so-called "comedy" films these days (some of them are funny, others are trying too hard and simply use profanity as a method of comedy).
Actually is was around a lot more than you'd think way before the the Hays Code:
MUSIC; There Once Was a Record of Smut ...
By JODY ROSEN
Published: July 8, 2007
IN 1997 Bruce Young, a collector of memorabilia from the early phonograph era, placed a newly acquired 100-year-old wax cylinder record on his Edison Standard Model D player and heard a surprising sound: a young man saying filthy words. It was a 2 minute 25 second poetic recitation, suggestively titled ''The Virtues of Raw Oysters,'' written in the voice of a sexually voracious woman. ''I never had it but twice in my life/Make me, just for tonight, your dear little wife,'' went one of the few lines suitable for newspaper quotation on a recording laced with curse words and hair-raising sexual slang.''My wife and I just stared at each other in disbelief,'' Mr. Young said, recalling that first listening session. ''We were just amazed that that kind of language -- what you think of as very naughty late-20th-century schoolyard talk -- would exist in the 1800s.'' Mr. Young realized that he had stumbled on one of the earliest examples of audio indecency: a 19th-century record worthy of a parental advisory sticker.
Today it has one. ''The Virtues of Raw Oysters'' is one of 43 profane monologues, skits and other spoken-word curios on ''Actionable Offenses: Indecent Phonograph Recordings from the 1890s,'' the newest release from Archeophone, a small label devoted to early sound recordings.
The album provides a new vantage point on sound recording history and offers some contemporary lessons as well. The zeal with which phonograph pioneers took to indecent material is a reminder that, from the Victrola to the Internet, smut peddlers have always been among the earliest and savviest adapters of new technologies.
These days there is a seemingly permanent culture war over pop profanity. Episodes like the recent controversies surrounding offensive speech by shock jocks and rappers are invariably viewed as evidence of America's moral decline. But ''Actionable Offenses'' shows that the good old days were not all that squeaky clean: that the brash, bawdy forebears of Don Imus and Snoop Dogg flourished in an age of horseless carriages and whalebone corsets. Continued... full article at link below
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I haven't read Hardboiled Hollywood the book below is great for Bunker Hill and it;s streets filled in for San Francisco, Reno, and others.
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News Flash!!!!!!!!!!!!
FYI - The majority of all Italian films back in the 50s-60s were shot MOS (without sound) they are all dubbed. Even those for local consumption. It was cheaper for them to do it that way and record all sound back in the studio.
Think about all the Italian Westerns, they had international casts. On set each actor said his lines in his native tongue so for say Leone's For A Few Dollars More, Eastwood and Lee Van Cleef spoke English, GianMaria Volonte, Luigi Pistilli, Mario Brega, etc., etc., spoke Italian, Klaus Kinski, Joseph Egger, and Mara Krupp, spoke German, Aldo Sambrell spoke Spanish, Panos Papadopulos Greek. They had a tape recorder to keep track of what was spoken in each language.
After the film was in the can they had a blacklisted American actor Mickey Knox do his magic for the American release. His work began after the movie was done shooting. For the film The Good The Bad And The Ugly, "I had to find out the right dialogue not only in terms of moving the story along, but also to fit the lips," he told writer Cenk Kiral in a 1998 interview. "It's not an easy thing to do. As a matter of fact, it took me six weeks to write, what they say, 'the lip-synch script.' Normally I would have done it in seven to 10 days for a normal movie. But, that wasn't a normal movie."
Each language print had its own lip-synch script,
So each actor would come back, Eastwood and Van Cleef would come back to NYC to loop their lines, so their lip syncs usually matched. Other English voice actors would dub the rest of the English Language release.
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The Man With The Golden Arm (1956) Junkie Noir
Originally it was going to be a John Garfield film. He acquired the rights in 1949 to the novel but couldn't get approval from the MPPC. Garfield died in 1952 the film was bought from his estate by director Otto Preminger. Preminger set up his own company to handle distribution.
This film has a strange look. It's a throwback to the 1940s. It's shot completely on the RKO lot and looks it. Perhaps it was to cut down on costs. You get the same overall feeling when watching 1982's Hammett (a alcoholic's dream-like San Francisco). The studio set gives the film a off look, a throwback look, a cheap look, it reminded me of a typical TV teleplay, especially since quite a few noir by 1956 were opening up, were using imaginative on location work. It's supposed to be Chicago but it oozes backlot. This detracts a bit from it's effectiveness. Using real ghetto Chicago neighborhoods as Call Northside 777 (1948) did, greatly enhanced its realism and grittiness. As is you are watching an uninteresting film, visually unexciting, just one step up from a filmed stage play.
The novel, by Nelson Algren, was substantially changed in the screenplay. Instead of Frankie Machine (Frank Sinatra) being hooked on morphine from a WWII wound, in the film he is a heroin junkie. The film starts with Frankie's return from the prison hospital. He was sent up for dealing for a pusher named Louie (Darren McGavin). Frankies other "job" was dealing cards for an illegal poker game run by Louie & dive bar owner Schwiefka (Robert Strauss).
Club Safari and Molly-O (Kim NovaK)
and Louie (Darren McGavin)Frankie (Frank Sinatra)
Getting off the bus carrying a drum, Frankie passes Schwiefka's bar and looks in the window. Louie is tormenting a one armed alkie floor sweeper with a glass of booze. Louie makes him dance. Frankie runs into his friend, the beak nosed Sparrow (Arnold Strang). Sparrow's racket is stealing dogs, then turning them back to the owners for a reward. While catching up, Frankie tells Sparrow about a drum gig he's going to audition for.Leaving the bar Frankie schleps down the street to his apartment house and his wheelchair bound shrewish wife Zosh (Eleanor Parker). She is pushy, overly possessive, and a conniver, the Femme Fatale of the piece. Frankie tells her that he's clean. He's got the monkey off his back. In the hospital he learned that if he keeps busy, keeps practicing his drumming, he won't be tempted to geeze. But, when he sets up the drum to practice Zosh either keeps interrupting, or tells him the pounding gives her a headache. It takes about five minutes of nagging to push Frankie off the rails. He heads out the door looking for Louie and the needle.
Frankie needing an outlet turns to an old flame Molly O (Kim Novak), who works as a hostess at a strip joint, and asks her if he can set up his drum at her flop. She agrees but all the pressure from Zosh and Louie have Frankie hooked again. Dealing cards in a two day long poker game for Louie and Schwiefka results in a beat Frankie muffing his big band audition.
When Louie looking for Frankie walks into the apartment he discovers that Zosh can walk and has been faking her disability to make Frankie feel guilty. Zosh in a panic pushes him off the stairway landing and he falls a couple of stories to his death. When the police arrive they suspect Frankie had a fight with his pusher, and Zosh lets them believe so. It all goes Noirsville.
Noirsville
Initially the film was denied a Code seal, but Loews theater chain and others refused to ban the film, especially with the declining theater attendance due to TV. Theaters needed something that you could not get on TV. Taboo subjects i.e., drug abuse, kidnapping, miscegenation, abortion, prostitution, and eventually nudity were allowed with the decline of MPAA enforcement. However the film looks remarkably tame almost a quaint curiosity piece, by today's standards.
Both Frank Sinatra and Marlon Brando were given the script for the part of Frankie. Sinatra researched the part spending time at rehab clinic watching geezers going cold turkey. He also learned to play drums. If he got the part through mob connections I wouldn't be surprised. The rest of the cast are good, Eleanor Parker (Caged (1950), Detective Story (1951), Darren McGavin (The Case Against Brooklyn (1958), Mike Hammer TV Series (1958–1959)), Kim Novak (Pushover (1954), 5 Against the House (1955), Vertigo (1958)), Robert Strauss (Stalag 17 (1953)), I Mobster (1959), Emile Meyer (Riot in Cell Block 11 (1954), Shield for Murder(1954), Sweet Smell of Success (1957), The Lineup (1958)), Arnold Stang and Doro Merande vie for the biggest schnozzola in the film, they have a scene together that resembles two toucans having a sword fight.
The Man With The Golden Arm was nominated for three Academy Awards: Sinatra for Best Actor in a Leading Role, for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White and for Best Music (Elmer Bernstein). Sinatra garnered best actor awards by the BAFTAs and The New York Film Critics. 7/10 Full review with more screencaps here: Noirsville
The much Noir-er storyline of the novel:
(From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
Often referring to his drug habit as the "thirty-five-pound monkey on his back", Frankie initially tries to keep Sparrow and the others in the dark about it. He sends Sparrow away whenever he visits "Nifty Louie" Fomorowski, his supplier. One night, while fighting in a back stairwell, Frankie inadvertently kills Nifty Louie. He and Sparrow attempt to cover up his role in the murder.
Nifty Louie owed money to politically connected men, and finding his killer becomes a priority for the police department. Sparrow is held for questioning by the police, and he is moved from station to station to circumvent Habeas corpus requirements. Eventually he breaks down and reveals what he knows, and Frankie is forced to flee.
While on the run, Frankie manages to find Molly at a strip club near Lake Street. He hides in her apartment and beats his addiction, but in the end the authorities learn where he is hiding. He barely manages to escape and gets shot in the foot, leaving Molly behind. He flees to a flophouse, but without any hope of reuniting with Molly or staying free, he hangs himself in his room on April Fools' Day, 1948. -
The Man with the Golden Arm (1955) Junkie Noir
Originally it was going to be a John Garfield film. He acquired the rights in 1949 to the novel but couldn't get approval from the MPPC. Garfield died in 1952 the film was bought from his estate by director Otto Preminger. Preminger set up his own company to handle distribution.
This film has a strange look. It's a throwback to the 1940s. It's shot completely on the RKO lot and looks it. Perhaps it was to cut down on costs. You get the same overall feeling when watching 1982's Hammett (a alcoholic's dream-like San Francisco). The studio set gives the film a off look, a throwback look, a cheap look, it reminded me of a typical TV teleplay, especially since quite a few noir by 1956 were opening up, were using imaginative on location work. It's supposed to be Chicago but it oozes backlot. This detracts a bit from it's effectiveness. Using real ghetto Chicago neighborhoods as Call Northside 777 (1948) did, greatly enhanced its realism and grittiness. As is you are watching an uninteresting film, visually unexciting, just one step up from a filmed stage play.
The novel, by Nelson Algren, was substantially changed in the screenplay. Instead of Frankie Machine (Frank Sinatra) being hooked on morphine from a WWII wound, in the film he is a heroin junkie.
The Man With The Golden Arm was nominated for three Academy Awards: Sinatra for Best Actor in a Leading Role, for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White and for Best Music (Elmer Bernstein). Sinatra garnered best actor awards by the BAFTAs and The New York Film Critics. 7/10 Full review with screencaps here: Noirsville
The much Noir-er storyline of the novel:
(From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
Often referring to his drug habit as the "thirty-five-pound monkey on his back", Frankie initially tries to keep Sparrow and the others in the dark about it. He sends Sparrow away whenever he visits "Nifty Louie" Fomorowski, his supplier. One night, while fighting in a back stairwell, Frankie inadvertently kills Nifty Louie. He and Sparrow attempt to cover up his role in the murder.
Nifty Louie owed money to politically connected men, and finding his killer becomes a priority for the police department. Sparrow is held for questioning by the police, and he is moved from station to station to circumvent Habeas corpus requirements. Eventually he breaks down and reveals what he knows, and Frankie is forced to flee.
While on the run, Frankie manages to find Molly at a strip club near Lake Street. He hides in her apartment and beats his addiction, but in the end the authorities learn where he is hiding. He barely manages to escape and gets shot in the foot, leaving Molly behind. He flees to a flophouse, but without any hope of reuniting with Molly or staying free, he hangs himself in his room on April Fools' Day, 1948.
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38 minutes ago, LawrenceA said:
Or you could take a break from reading them. Yeah, I think that's your best bet, since I have 6 more newer ones before I start up the 1933 titles.
The man is on a mission
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9 hours ago, hamradio said:
Seen that film only once and still remember after 34 years one film critic revue...should return to the gutter where it came from.
Probably Michael Medved he's quite the blue nose, would be my guess.
Anybody who loves Noir/Neo Noir, should see it, I was blown away by the cinematography, it's a visual treat.
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The Seduction of Mimi (Mimì metallurgico ferito nell'onore) (1972) 7/10, a hoot to watch again, haven't seen it for quite a while. Giancarlo Giannini and Mariangela Melato, Director Lina Wertmuller.
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1 minute ago, LawrenceA said:
Wings Hauser garnered a bit of attention for Vice Squad, and it led to his steady B-movie career throughout the 80's. I saw Vice Squad on home video back in 83 or 84, and liked it, but haven't seen it since. I'd like to revisit it.
Like I mentioned, once I moved out to Western Montana at the beginning of the 1970's I was out at nights chasing women, hanging out in flyspeck towns and off the grid. I didn't watch TV or see a whole lot of films between 74-75 and the late 80s. over a decade. The Anchor Bay DVD is pristine, if you can find it.
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Vice Squad (1982) City Of Angels - Grindhouse - "B" Neo Noir
They were some of the best. Classical Film Noir that were low budget affairs featuring no name actors produced by "Poverty Row" studios.
Here is a great 1982 version of the above. Directed masterfully by Gary Sherman a Documentary, Horror, Zombie film director. The executive producers of the film were Frank Capra Jr. Sandy Howard and AVCO Embassy President Robert Rehme and Brian E. Frankish, producer, and Frank Hildebrand, associate producer. The two companies listed in the credits were, Dynamic and Hemdale.
Some trivia from IMDb:
"Controversial in depiction of its subject matter, this movie obviously had its detractors regarding this and its content. However, Director Martin Scorsese, director of Taxi Driver (1976) and Mean Streets (1973), came out and defended this movie. Apparently, Dawn Steel and Scorsese were at a Paramount dinner function when a disagreement allegedly broke out between them. Scorsese apparently said that the Academy didn't have the guts to nominate the best movie of the year. That picture was this film."
Cast for the most part with a bunch TV actors from the 1970s. A disclaimer here: I didn't watch much TV at all in the 70s, I was off the grid, out chasing women around the **** tonks of Montana, so these actors are all are pretty much off my radar. However all the players do a great job.
What the film does have is a cornucopia of,
A T M O S P H E R E.
This film is another visual noir lovers wet dream. A sleazy, gritty, vintage 1981 nocturne Hollywood and downtown L.A., glowing with a silvery sheen from street lamps, the incandescent gold of blinking chase lights, and multicolored flashing neon. All this is reflected in both storefront windows and wet city boulevards awash in bleeding colors. In a word it's
N O I R S V I L L E !
The Noir stylistics are provided in spades by cinematographer John Alcott who worked with Stanley Kubrick, his credits include (2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), A Clockwork Orange(1971), Barry Lyndon (1975), and The Shining (1980)).
As a Neo Noir, the film is gorgeous to look at. It ups the game a notch. The camera in John Alcott's hands creates magic, as in Barry Lyndon practically every frame is a work of Noir art. It's a gritty, slimy, sleazy, dose of reality, you can almost smell the **** in the alleys. There is one cool sequence in particular that quotes the visual candlelit interiors look of Barry Lyndon. Princess has a John who wants her to dress as a bride for his own funeral, She descends a staircase, lit solely by candelabras, accompanied by the wedding march. This film demands to be seen for its visuals alone. Gary Sherman's informed research of both the workings of vice squad and the sleazy street nightlife give the film a high degree of gravitas.
A quality film on a shoestring budget, up there with the best crime thrillers ever made. Nowadays it's practically forgotten (except in Grindhouse and Exploitation circles), I think, for two reasons, number one because of it's lack of "A" list actors. If it had starred say Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Clint Eastwood, Robert Duvall, Harrison Ford, or Jack Nicholson, and Jane Fonda, Valerie Perrine, Karen Black, or Goldie Hawn, it may have stayed on the registers. The other contributing factor to its obscurity is of course, it's deviant adult, not for prime time, broadcast TV movie of the week, subject matter. It however, most likely did play on cable. Though for a film about hookers, I have to stress it has very little sexploitation nudity, a shame, that would have just been an added bonus. Screencaps are from the OOP Anchor Bay DVD, a definite keeper, bravo. 8/10 Full review with some screencaps here in Film Noir/Gangster and with a cornucopia of screenshots at Noirsville
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Vice Squad (1982) City Of Angels - Grindhouse - "B" Neo Noir
They were some of the best.
Classical Film Noir that were low budget affairs featuring no name actors produced by "Poverty Row" studios.
Here is a great 1982 version of the above. Directed masterfully by Gary Sherman a Documentary, Horror, Zombie film director.
The executive producers of the film were Frank Capra Jr. Sandy Howard and AVCO Embassy President Robert Rehme and Brian E. Frankish, producer, and Frank Hildebrand, associate producer. The two companies listed in the credits were, Dynamic and Hemdale.
Princess (Season Hubley) Some trivia from IMDb:
Controversial in depiction of its subject matter, this movie obviously had its detractors regarding this and its content. However, Director Martin Scorsese, director of Taxi Driver (1976) and Mean Streets (1973), came out and defended this movie. Apparently, Dawn Steel and Scorsese were at a Paramount dinner function when a disagreement allegedly broke out between them. Scorsese apparently said that the Academy didn't have the guts to nominate the best movie of the year. That picture was this film.
More trivia from Birth.Movies.Death.com
AVCO Embassy President Bob Rehme... put Sherman in touch with his contacts in the department and, instead of simply allowing him to research beat procedure, a local Commander enrolled the filmmaker in an accelerated Police Academy course. Sherman spent his nights riding shotgun in a two-man vice car, where he made arrests, interviewed suspects, spoke with numerous streetwalkers, and then went home and put it all into the screenplay. There were even role playing scenarios, where the cops would arrest Sherman, lock him up in county, interrogate him, and allow the artist to see their world from the other side of a jail cell’s bars. His partner through all this – a now retired Sargent named Doug Nelson – became a technical consultant on Vice Squad, inspecting takes from the sidelines and letting Sherman know “yeah, that’s real” or “yeah, that’s ****”. This is how the finished film so thoroughly owns its level of sleazy authenticity – Sherman was observing the lives of these clandestine midnight marauders from street level.
Cast for the most part with a bunch TV actors from the 1970s. A disclaimer here: I didn't watch much TV at all in the 70s, I was off the grid, out chasing women around the **** tonks of Montana, so these actors are all are pretty much off my radar. However all the players do a great job.
The film stars Season Hubley as Princess the itty bitty titty "Mommy" hooker, she was in Hardcore (1979). I guess she played the guide, (a hooker/porn actress) that helped George C. Scott look for his wayward daughter in the deviant porno-world. I remember the film alright but not specifically her. Gary Swanson (The Bone Collector (1999) is Vice Detective Sergeant Tom Walsh the male lead, he's was in nothing outstandingly remarkable that I remember, aside from this film. Wings Hauser (an actor known at the time for TV's The Young And The Restless), has been around since 1966 and I honestly didn't know who the hell he was either), plays the psychotic rockabilly "Cowboy" pimp Ramrod. Pepe Serna is Detective Pete Mendez (him I know from the original The Killer Inside Me (1976), Beverly Todd (The Bucket List (2007)) is Detective Louise Williams. Maurice Emanuel (Drum (1976) is Detective Edwards, Stack Pierce (Psychic Killer (1975) A Rage in Harlem (1991)), is Roscoe. Jonathan Haze (Dementia(1955), Stakeout On Dope Street (1958)) is the toe sucker. Lydia Lei the femme fatale in Hammett (1982) is a hooker named Coco, Ark Wong is a funny martial arts grandpa and Joseph Di Giroloma is Detective Kowalski. A good cast of character actors play in excellent vignettes, hustlers, junkies, disco patrons, gogo dancers, pimps, winos, drag queens, bar patrons, Johns, night people, fags, bikers, leather fetish punks, freaks and various flamboyant weirdos.
The film was written by Sandy Howard, Kenneth Peters, Robert Vincent O'Neill, and the (uncredited) director Gary Sherman. The films IMDb page info has nobody credited for music. But there is a soundtracks credit, i.e., the title theme "Neon Slime," with Lyrics by Simon Stokes, Music by Joe Renzetti and Performed by Wings Hauser.
What the film does have is a cornucopia of,
A T M O S P H E R E.
This film is another visual noir lovers wet dream. A sleazy, gritty, vintage 1981 nocturne Hollywood and downtown L.A., glowing with a silvery sheen from street lamps, the incandescent gold of blinking chase lights, and multicolored flashing neon. All this is reflected in both storefront windows and wet city boulevards awash in bleeding colors. In a word it's
N O I R S V I L L E !
The Noir stylistics are provided in spades by cinematographer John Alcott who worked with Stanley Kubrick, his credits include (2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), A Clockwork Orange(1971), Barry Lyndon (1975), and The Shining (1980)).
One Night In Hollyweird
Hollywood Center Motel. Ho' Boulevard. A hooker Ginger (Nina Blackwood) is hiding from her sadistic pimp Ramrod. She calls Princess (Hubley) the "Mommy" hooker for advice. Princes tells her to stay put and don't let Ramrod (Hauser) in if he shows.Princess has a young daughter who she ships off to her mother in San Diego before she goes on the prowl. She uses the ladies room at the bus station as her changing room. She transforms from mild mannered housewife into a glitter flecked, chic, fashion model-ish, lady of the night.
"what'll fifty dollars get me?"
There is no moralizing here, no messaging, Princess is a bit kinked, it's a job, she makes a lot of money, and she likes what she does.
Princess: Hey honey you just out cruising?
John in Mercedes: Sort of.... what'll fifty dollars get me.
Princess:Well a, a whole lot of pleasure... half and half, straight, head...
John in Mercedes: Have you ever golden showered, it doesn't hurt or anything...
Princess:Sorry lover I just went to the restroom.
John in Mercedes:I have a six pack and a hundred dollars....
Princess:You also got yourself a date with Princess Running Water.
Working the other side of the law is LAPD Hollywood Division Detective Sgt. Walsh (Swanson) his "**** posse" is working Sunset and Hollywood Boulevards, rounding up the streetwalkers, trannys, homos, etc., etc.
After making a bust, Walsh and his partner Edwards (Emanuel) get a call to County Medical. Ginger is in emergency, we know that she's been viciously beaten with a "pimp stick," and vaginally mutilated by sadistic Ramrod, but Ginger dies before she can actually name Ramrod.
When Princess gets pulled in, in a drug bust, Walsh has her brought over to the morgue. He wants to make a deal, he wants Ramrod. He tells Princess that when the judge sees her rap sheet she won't get out of the slammer until her daughter is out on the streets pulling tricks. Princess ain't buying it.
Princess: Twentyfour hours after he's in he's out. The (expletive) jail you're operating there is a hotel with a revolving door.
Walsh: I don't need no (expletive) bimbo telling me what's wrong with the system.
For emphasis, he flips the sheet off the nearest corpse and she see's it's her friend Ginger. Walsh sticks her face down to get a good look. Princess agrees to carry a recorder in her handbag and sets out to get Ramrod. She finds him at The Balled Eagle, a pimp bar and goes back with him to his apartment. When Ramrod tells her that "you just turn a few tricks for me and give me the money, I'll take care of everything you need honey." The police move in and arrest him.Princess her good deed done takes off into the night to turn more tricks on the main stem. While escorting Ramrod to bookings in their unmarked car, he manages to overcome Kowalski and causes Menendez to crash and flip the cruiser, he escapes the wreck, and runs off into the night. Ramrod is now obviously obsessed to find Princess.
Now, Princess' life is in jeopardy. Now, Walsh puts out an all points bulletin for either Princess or Ramrod. The rest of the film follows the three through the tinseltown night. Ramrod on his search to track down Princess using his underworld connections. Princess, oblivious to the danger she's in, trolling the concrete stroll for more tricks, and Walsh and his squad on their comb of the streets for whoever they can get to first.
Tinseltown
As a Neo Noir, the film is gorgeous to look at. It ups the game a notch. The camera in John Alcott's hands creates magic, as in Barry Lyndon practically every frame is a work of Noir art. It's a gritty, slimy, sleazy, dose of reality, you can almost smell the **** in the alleys. There is one cool sequence in particular that quotes the visual candlelit interiors look of Barry Lyndon. Princess has a John who wants her to dress as a bride for his own funeral, She descends a staircase, lit solely by candelabras, accompanied by the wedding march. This film demands to be seen for its visuals alone. Gary Sherman's informed research of both the workings of vice squad and the sleazy street nightlife give the film a high degree of gravitas.
A quality film on a shoestring budget, up there with the best crime thrillers ever made. Nowadays it's practically forgotten (except in Grindhouse and Exploitation circles), I think, for two reasons, number one because of it's lack of "A" list actors. If it had starred say Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Clint Eastwood, Robert Duvall, Harrison Ford, or Jack Nicholson, and Jane Fonda, Valerie Perrine, Karen Black, or Goldie Hawn, it may have stayed on the registers. The other contributing factor to its obscurity is of course, it's deviant adult, not for prime time, broadcast TV movie of the week, subject matter. It however, most likely did play on cable. Though for a film about hookers, I have to stress it has very little sexploitation nudity, a shame, that would have just been an added bonus. Screencaps are from the OOP Anchor Bay DVD, a definite keeper, bravo. 8/10 Full review with more screencaps here: Noirsville-
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Thank's for remembering it was Roger Davis.
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This was even alluded too in Brit Noir I became A Criminal (1947), Narcy (Griffith Jones) is arguing with his fellow crooks about their dislike of his decision to bring Clem (Trevor Howard) an RAF vet into the gang. His line after telling the gang he's in he berates them with "I can't believe what England is coming too."
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I Just Watched...
in General Discussions
Posted
Le Samouraï (1967) Death In Paris Has A Price
Le Samouraï is a film designed to emphasize the alienated mundaneness, of hitman Jeff's meticulous spartan way of life. This builds the tension slowly towards flash points of swift release. Director Jean-Pierre Melville, like Sergio Leone and the Hollywood Western, holds a certain loving reverence to American Film Noir and Gangster Films, the "romance of the fedora." After Bob le Flambeur, Melville got to actually film Two Men In Manhattan on location in New York City and he made the most of it. In his sixth gangster epic, Le Samouraï Melville uses the enclosure of an everyday Paris of working man neighborhoods, suburban commuter train stations, nightclubs, industrial ghettos and The Metro, to weave the existential tale of the paid assassin on his last job. The music was by François de Roubaix, and the excellent cinematography by Henri Decaë (Elevator to the Gallows (1958), Purple Noon (1960), ). Full review at with some screencaps from the Criterion DVD in film Noir/Gangster section and with even more at Noirsville 9/10.