cigarjoe

The Adam and Eve storyline sucked, it's only redeeming part was when Adam who's been pining away for a mate finally gets this redhead big boobed knockout Eve, and she hates him, if I remember right she was getting turned on by another cast member, it was before Quentin it may have been Maggie's boyfriend. Adam should have went MGTOW, lol. The HP Lovecraft based Leviathan storyline didn't work, too ambitious for the meager sets and it had a bad Barnabas which I think was part of the problem. The Jekyll & Hyde was tedious too. They were just going through the Universal Horror films at one point, I'm surprised they didn't get to The Mummy and The Invisible Man.

If you ever get the DVD set for the soap at the end of each disc are interviews with various actors and personnel. They did the show daily live, they had to learn their lines that same day they received them. Not much time for rehearsals, maybe sitting around a table line reading at best. They were pretty much doing it live, they had to just bull through flubs and wrong lines. Some times they had to adlib. They did have cue cards that's why occasionally they are looking off at something other than who they are talking too. They had a fire once also, you'd think with all the candles they would have had more.

You know what, I was mistakenly thinking of something else some other alkie film, sorry for the confusion.

Maybe like me, he saw it on a Black & White TV in the 60s. It's a depressing film and I've only watched it two times over the years and the last time I noticed it was in color.

Yea, you're right, I remember that now but I don't remember it being a big long story arc.

The original Django 1966 cemetery finale.

When I first watched the soap I was in high school, so I caught most of the show from Barnabas' arrival through the beginning of the Count Petofi 1890s storyline. It was also about the time the series switched from B&W to color. I remember that his dis-disembodied hand showed up first. Quentin (David Selby) was alive. Grayson Hall was playing Magda the gypsy, John Karlen was Quentin's brother Carl, Barnabas got there time traveling doing an E-Ching trance, and he pretended to be again from the English branch of the family . But then I took off for college, and I never saw beyond that until they produced the whole series 2000 plus episodes in a coffin box set. Once we got the set we watched it from the beginning. The first 200 episodes played more like a Film Noir with Gothic Novel like shenanigans. The first supernatural element injected was Rodger's nutty estranged wife who went off to Egypt and gets involved in a Phoenix Cult and disappears off the face of the earth. She shows up at Collinswood to claim back her son David. After that a scam artist friend of Elizabeth Collins' (Joan Bennett) missing husband Jason Mcguire shows up and blackmails Elizabeth (who thinks she killed him Jason buried him in a steamer trunk in the cellar), Jason brings along his weasley friend Willie Loomis (John Karlen) into the story at this point. Willie sees Barnabas' portrait with his jewels and thinks if he can get into the mausoleum he can get to Barnabas' coffin and the jewels will be easy pickins. After Barnabas the different storylines were the origin of Barnabas circa 1797 which brings Angelique the witch into the Collinswood "universe", then we got a riff on Frankenstein with the Adam and Eve storyline, then we get Quentin the ghost who haunts Collinwood and possesses David Collins, this prompts Barnabas to time travel to the 1890s. The we get Count Petofi (Thayer David), then we get this weird Leviathans storyline (based on the works of H. P. Lovecraft) which you'd think would have fit hand in glove with it but it didn't work. Then came a parallel time storyline 1970. Then we get another haunting of Collinwood with Gerad from 1840s who brought the disembodied head of warlock Jhuda Zachary into the the story. The final storyline was a parallel time 1840 storyline where it's back to another ghost story but Jonathan Frid and Lara Parker are just mere mortals. A lot of the main actors aside from Jonathan Frid played a variety of different characters over the course of the show.

So what do you think the subtext status was of Lizabeth Scott in this film, she's thrown out of her boarding house, she shares a connecting room with Heflin at the hotel, the headlines in the paper are pointedly zoomed in on, so, is she a wayward gal, neighboring town round heels, amateur hooker with a heart of gold, or what? When she sets up Heflin, it was all a police ruse, I'd assume, the guy at the restaurant calls her his wife, but Heflin never asks her about it and Scott never volunteers any info. Anybody ever read the short story "Love Lies Bleeding" by playwright John Patrick that the film was based on?

Yea House of Dark Shadows is definitely better, than this Night of Dark Shadows sort of sequel to the first film based series based on the soap. But if you watched any of the series both are lacking to what they were able to accomplish in the soap. Considering what they had to work with they accomplished a lot. I've also read that Night was cut down a bit in length. But the production values were much better obviously than the soap ever could be. However the soap draaaaaaaaaagggggggggggssssssssss out the story lines a tad too much. A mini series would have probably worked best, which they did do later on in the reimagining in 1991, but it wasn't quite the same without the original cast.

Have they ever done the "Dollars" aka "Man With No Name" Sergio Leone films in series?

Windows 10 also & Ditto here too.

They Made me a Fugitive (AKA I Became a Criminal) (1947) Brit Noir Masterpiece WOW!!!, I would almost call this the best UK Noir, but I'd have to watch Night and the City again, and then of course there are probably many others that are off our noirdar screens here in the U.S. Films never watched. Anyway this has two titles not to be confused with the Garfield flick with a similar name. They Made Me a Criminal (1939) This is Visual Art Noir, the team of Brazilian born Cavalcanti and the Czech Cinematographer Otto Heller, and the French born Set Designer Andrew Mazzei produced an excellent looking British Noir on par with the pairings of Siodmak and Franz Planer, Anthony Mann and John Alton, Richard Fleischer and George E. Diskant. The film was written by Noel Langley, based on the novel by Jackson Budd. This film is top notch, the acting is flawless, the addictive cinematography continuously interesting, the final sequences are a maze of dark alleys waterfronts and railroad viaducts, nice job. Its always great to find a Noir off most people's radar. Full review with screencaps in Film Noir/Gangster page I'll be looking to pick this one up when I can 10/10

They Made me a Fugitive (AKA I Became a Criminal) (1947) Brit Noir Masterpiece (originally SLWB - March 08, 2012 revised 10/28/2017) WOW!!!, I would almost call this the best UK Best Noir, but I'd have to watch Night and the City again, and then of course there are probably many others that are off our noirdar screens here in the U.S. Films never watched. Anyway this has two titles not to be confused with the Garfield flick of the same name. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0039895/ This is Visual Art Noir, the team of Brazilian born Cavalcanti and the Czech Cinematographer Otto Heller,and the French born Set Designer Andrew Mazzei produced an excellent Looking British Noir on par with the pairings of Siodmak and Franz Planer, Anthony Mann and John Alton, Richard Fleischer and George E. Diskant. The film was written by Noel Langley, based on the novel by Jackson Budd. The film stars Sally Gray (The Hidden Room (1949)), Trevor Howard (The Third Man (1949), Von Ryan's Express (1965)), and Griffith Jones (The Scarlet Web (1954)).Rene Ray as Cora, Mary Merrall as Aggie, Ballard Berkeley as Inspector Rockliffe, Charles Farrell as Curley, Michael Brennan as Jim, Jack McNaughton as Soapy, Cyril Smith as Bert, John Penrose as Shawney, Eve Ashley as Ellen and Vida Hope as Mrs. Fenshaw Ex RAF fighter pilot Morgan (Howard) is bored with civilian life. He's still trying to wind down he's at a club with Ellen (Ashley). When Morgan is out with his gal Looks up an old pre-war buddy Narcissus "Narcy" (Jones) a slimey grifter. Jones will remind you a the Brit version of Dan Duryea. Narcy's latest scam is a fake undertaking business. He transports contraband instead of corpses. Morgan at first agrees to to the smuggling until he finds out that Narcy is also dealing in narcotics. When he braces Narcy about it and tells him he's out. Narcy reminded him of the coin toss where he agreed to work with Narcy's crew of goons. So Morgan agrees to do one last job. It's a breakin but during the getaway Morgan, the wheel man, runs over a copper with the help of Narcy, who grabbed the wheel steering the getaway car into the officer. The car continues out of control slamming into a lightpole. The rest of the gang scram leaving the unconscious Morgan to take the rap. Morgan is sent to the slammer, but after a visit from Narcy's ex gal pal, Morgan finds out that his squeeze is now playing hide the sausage with Narcy. While out on a work gang Morgan slips off in the fog it's almost a white out. These shots will remind viewers of similar snow landscape sequences in the Cohen Brothers Neo Noir Fargo. Along the long trek back to London, Morgan is shown dealing with various "on the run" situations one of which is receiving the help of a woman who as Morgan puts it is "around the bend," she gives him food clothes and a gun the latter with one condition, that he will put a hole through the head of habitually drunk hubby. Morgan refuses and when he skips out, the woman fills her spouse full of holes. When Morgan gets to London it all goes Noirsville. Noirsville This film is top notch, the acting is flawless, the addictive cinematography continuously interesting, the final sequences are a maze of dark alleys waterfronts and railroad viaducts, nice job. Its always great to find a Noir off most peoples radar. The final denouement atop the funeral parlor below. I'll be looking to pick this one up when I can 10/10

And how about Experimental, and Exploitation to round it out :-)

And the follow up sequence

Greatest Cemetery scene of all time, not scary though.

Dark Of The Sun (1968), The Congo, Diamonds, and Mercenaries it could have fleshed out the characters a tad bit more, but it;s quite watchable. 8/10

Not too often, but they do it, The Thin Man series is another

Try just hitting enter.

Be afraid be very afraid!!!!!!!!!

Mikey And Nicky (1976) Friend Fatale Philadelphia Noir. Lost Neo Noir. Elaine May, despite all the on set controversies hits it out of the ballpark, The film is a Neo Noir gem. Powerful performances by real life long time friends, Cassavetes and Falk, informs the piece, they got chemistry, the friendship depicted is alive with a vitality that's well, authentic. The rest of the cast Ned Beatty, M. Emmet Walsh, Carol Grace, Sanford Meisner, William Hickey, Joyce Van Patten, and Rose Arrick round out an excellent supporting cast. 9/10 Full review with more screencaps in Film Noir/Gangster Thread.

Mikey And Nicky (1976) Friend Fatale Philadelphia Noir. Lost Neo Noir. Let's be blunt. Where the hell has this been hiding all these years? Yea, yea, yea, I know it sounds like a some lame, stupid comedy, and with Peter Falk's name attached you just assume it is. For me the other negative was the costar John Cassavetes. Let me explain. When I was on my Western binge about ten years ago I came across Cassavetes in Saddle The Wind. Man, did this guy grate against the laconic nature of the Western Genre. I mentioned in a review that he comes off like some manic demented Jerry Lewis. He had this hair trigger out of control intensity. In his early films, you can see it in his face, the mechanical wheels turning in his brain. The hellzapoppin' school of acting, lol. It was distracting. Reading his wiki biography, I quote "He studied acting with Don Richardson, using an acting technique based on muscle memory." Was that **** it was? In this film however I discovered a different Cassavetes, age rounded the sharp edges, slowed him down abit. The intensity is still there but now it's just more natural and convincing. Mikey and Nicky is a nice surprize, and a heads up to all aficio-Noir-dos and Noiristas, there are undiscovered Noirs out there, even Silver and Ward's "An Encyclopedic Reference to the American Style Film Noir " misses this one and that's a real head scratcher. It's an extremely well acted, one off, by a notorious hit and miss director that delivers. So what happened? Sabotage. Directed and written by Elaine May. May directed two Oscar nominated performances in The Heartbreak Kid (1972) and later the disastrous box office failure Ishtar (1987). The filming of Mikey And Nicky proved contentious and somewhat prophetic. May ran the film's original $1.8 million budget up to $4.3 million. Paramount sabotaged the films initial release, booking it into theaters for a very limited run guaranteeing a box office bomb. The rights to the film were eventually purchased in 1978 by Julian Schlossberg Peter Falk and Elaine May. In 1986 a new version of the film approved by May was screened at the Museum Of Modern Art in New York City. The cinematography was sort of an ensemble affair (due to onset difficulties) with five cinematographers listed in the credits, Lucien Ballard (Laura (1944), Berlin Express (1948), Don't Bother to Knock (1952), Inferno (1953), The Killing (1956), A Kiss Before Dying(1956)), along with Bernie Abramson, Jack Cooperman, Jerry File, and Victor J. Kemper (The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973)). The music was by John Strauss. The film stars Peter Falk (The Bloody Brood (1959), Murder, Inc. (1960), Wings of Desire(1987)) as Mikey, John Cassavetes (Fourteen Hours (1951), The Night Holds Terror (1955), Crime in the Streets (1956), The Killers (1964), Capone (1975)) as Nicky, Ned Beatty (Deliverance (1972), The Big Easy (1986), The Killer Inside Me (2010)) as Kinney, Rose Arrick as Annie, Carol Grace (Gangster Story (1959)) as Nellie, William Hickey (Something Wild(1961)) as Sid Fine, Sanford Meisner as Dave Resnick, Joyce Van Patten as Jan, M. Emmet Walsh (Midnight Cowboy (1969), Blade Runner (1982), Blood Simple. (1984), White Sands(1992)) as bus driver and Peter R. Scoppa, as the counterman. Once Upon A Single Fatal Night Nicky (Cassavetes) lt. & Mikey (Falk) City of Brotherly Love. Center City neighborhood. Nicky (Cassavetes). Hood. On the lamb. Holed up like a cockroach behind a baseboard. Hotel Royale. Downtown flea bag. Sick. Desperate. Paranoid. Chain-smoking cigarettes. His partner Ed Lipsky a small time bookie has been whacked. They skimmed money from mob boss Resnick (Meisner). He's in a jam. He's next. He knows it. He calls Mikey (Falk). His childhood best buddy. They grew up together, boosted the same candy stores together. Friends for thirty years. Mikey's always around to help. He tells Mikey he's calling from a phone booth. Tells him to bring smokes. Tells Mikey he's at Martell & Grand. Nicky scopes out the intersection from his corner hotel room. Mikey shows up. Looks around puzzled. Nicky drops a booze bottle wrapped in a hotel towel out the window at Mikey's feet. Mikey (outside Nicky's hotel room): Nicky, it's me Mikey from the corner, I came as soon as I got your towel. When Mikey finally gets in the room he see's that Nicky is a wreck. He hasn't eaten. He's got stomach ulcers. He gives him some ulcer medicine. He tells Nicky that he'll run down to the A&P Hot Texas **** Shoppe and get him some half and half for his stomach. The exchange in the shop is a riff on Jack Nicholson's dialog in Five Easy Pieces (1971) Mikey: Give me some milk and some cream and separate coffees to go. Counterman: I just have milk. Mikey: No cream? Counterman: Naaah. not to go. Mikey: What do you put in in the coffee here? You have any cream? Counterman (pulling up a miniature glass cream bottle): In these little bottles here. Mikey: OK gimme fifteen of those little bottles to go, and gimme a couple of cartons of milk. Counterman: Aaah, we can't do that we don't give these bottles to go, if you want coffee to go I put the cream in it right here and give it out of the dispenser right back there. Mikey: OK, give me a carton of cream from the dispenser. Counterman: How many coffees? Mikey: No coffees, just fill up a carton of cream. Counterman: Can't do that I wouldn't know what to charge you. Cream is for the coffee only. Mikey: OK charge me for fifteen coffees and give me the cream. Counterman: Fifteen coffees. Mikey: That's right. (smashing plates as he jumps over the counter): You give me that in thirty seconds or I'll kill you you hear me,? Counterman: OK! Mikey: Cause I'm Crazy! Counterman: OK! Mikey: Now give it to me! Counterman: Yes Sir! Mikey (pushing the counterman out of the way): Now give it to me. Come at me and I'll kill you! Back in Nicky's room Mikey tells him he should get out of town, catch a flight from the airport. Nicky first doesn't want to leave then he yells out that there is no air in here, he opens a window, He says he can't breath and wants to go outside. Nicky grabs his coat and runs out the door and down the stairs to the lobby with Mikey following. At the doorway to the lobby Nicky stops. Nicky: Will you go out there?... first? Mikey: Yes I'll go out first. Nicky: You will go out first? Mikey: Yes I will go out first... but there is nobody there. I'm the only one that know's you're here. Nicky: Then why don't you go out first? Mikey (heading towards the door): I am going out first. Nicky: Wait a minute, would you mind wearing my jacket? Mikey: Eeh? Nicky: Will you wear my jacket? Mikey: What do you think, I'm fingering you? Nicky: No, but you don't believe they're out there and I do. Mikey: So if I'm right why don't you wear my jacket? Mikey: Give it to me. They exchange jackets and overcoats. Mikey: Make sure you put on the coat it's damp outside. You want me to leave this open so that they can see the jacket? Nicky: No, that won't be necessary, why bother there's no one out there anyway, right? Can I have your watch? Mikey: You want to wear my watch? Nicky: I'll be very careful, I just want wear the watch for luck. Mikey: I'll let you wear my watch, will you let me carry your gun? Nicky: What for. Mikey: For luck, look if somebody thinks I'm you and they shoot at me it will be lucky if I could shoot back. They head out the doors and into Noirsville. Out on the streets together, Nicky sets the agenda. They go to The B&O Tavern. They have beers and milk. Mikey makes a call to a motel, he tells Kinney (Beatty) the hit man where he has Nicky. Kinney tells him he'll be there in fifteen minutes. When he hangs up Mickey rattles off flight times to Nicky. Kinney gets stuck in a traffic jam he's forty-five minutes late. When Nicky catches Mikey watching the clock, Nicky gets suspicious. He's not sure he can trust him. He tells Mikey he's leaving. Outside Nicky wants to go to a movie. They hop on a bus. Nicky (riding on a city bus with Mickey): You got a cigarette? Mikey: You're not supposed to smoke on these things. Nicky: Who's gonna stop me? This guy here? Mikey: Hey, hey, take it easy here's a cigarette. It's just one bus driver. Save yourself for a crowd. Lady on the bus: Excuse me... no smoking on the bus. Nicky: Hey shut up, will ya! Lady on the bus: I'm going to tell the bus driver. Nicky: I'm gonna tell your mother. (gives her a raspberry) Lady on the bus: You know I don't want to start up with your element. Nicky: My element, (looking to his lap) let me check it out. It's all right, my element's OK The downtown bus is passing a cemetery. Nicky decides that he wants to visit his mother's grave. The film leaves it ambiguous as to whether Nicky truly knows that he's being set up by Mikey or not but it's another opportunity for some poignant exchanges and intensely profound observations that Nicky makes to Mikey. And the **** back and forth banter they speak in between these exchanges and observations is real. Nicky (in the cemetery as Mikey walks away): Hey Ma, Ma! If anything happens to me Ma, Mikey did it! Mikey: You take that back. Take that back! Nicky: Oh you still here? Mikey: You ****, you take that back! Nicky: Ok I take it back, but if anything happens to me she'll find out anyway. Standing at Nicky's mother's grave. Nicky: Hey Mikey.... Mikey: I'm trying to remember the Kaddish. Nicky: He Mikey.... wouldn't it be great.... I was just trying to say that wouldn't it be great if she was alive? Don't you wish your mother was alive? Mikey: Of course I wish my mother was alive. Nicky: I think that's the reason we're such good friends. Because we remember each other from when we were kids. Things that happened when we were kids that no one else knows about but us in our heads. That's how we know they really happened. Mikey: What are you talking about I really know what happened when I was a kid. Nicky: But nobody else does. I mean everyone we knew when we was kids is dead. Noirsville Suspicions The film continues to depict the last night of atonement for a friendship going through revelations of long harbored grudges, envy, betrayal, melancholy, and regret. Once the two wise guys go their separate ways the film loses a bit of steam. It delves into Nicky's failed marriage and his up and down relationship with his slutty girlfriend. Mikey (with Nicky's existential observations from their cemetery jaunt fresh in his mind) tells his wife belatedly about his past family traumas. Elaine May, despite all the on set controversies hits it out of the ballpark, The film is a Neo Noir gem. Powerful performances by real life long time friends, Cassavetes and Falk, informs the piece, they got chemistry, the friendship depicted is alive with a vitality that's well, authentic. The rest of the cast Ned Beatty, M. Emmet Walsh, Carol Grace, Sanford Meisner, William Hickey, Joyce Van Patten, and Rose Arrick round out an excellent supporting cast. 9/10 Full review with more screencaps here: Noirsville

Yea, I noticed, so much for updating for security....

Looks like some of the emoticons are reduced in size now, must be a work in progress....

Dementia aka (Daughter Of Horror) (1955) Beat Noir Nightmare Directed and written by John Parker (uncredited). Produced by John Parker, Ben Roseman, and Bruno Ve Sota. The cinematography by was by William C. Thompson. Music by George Antheil an avant-garde composer, and Shorty Rogers and his jazz band the Giants in the nightclub sequence. The film stars Adrienne Barrett, Bruno VeSota as Bruno Ve Sota (The Long Wait (1954), Female Jungle (1956), Night Tide (1961)), Richard Barron (Union Station (1950), The Hoodlum (1951)), Lucille Rowland, Ben Roseman (Night Tide (1961)), Angelo Rossitto (Freaks (1932), Requiem for a Heavyweight (1962)) and filmed in Venice, California in 1953. The original production had no dialog. It used music and sound effects. The avant-garde score featured soprano Marni Nixon (who provided voice dubs for actresses in many Hollywood productions). The roots of these types of films can be traced back to Un Chien Andalou (1929). The film is an entertaining prelude of the supernatural, thriller, experimental, noir-ish explosion to come i.e., Vertigo (1958), The Savage Eye (1960) Carnival Of Souls (1962) The Glass Cage(1964), and Seconds (1966), Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955–1962), The Twilight Zone (1959–1964), and One Step Beyond (1959–1961). 7/10 Screencaps with full Review here in Film Noir/Gangster and with more screencaps in Noirsville