cigarjoe
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Posts posted by cigarjoe
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Drum (1976)Directed by Steve Carver, based on the Kyle Onstott novel the cinematography was by Lucien Ballard and the music was by Charlie Smalls. The film was released by United Artists and is a sequel to the film Mandingo (which I've never seen either), released in 1975. The film stars Warren Oates, Isela Vega, Pam Grier, Ken Norton, Yaphet Kotto.Drum (Norton) has been born to a white prostitute (Vega), who raises him with her black lesbian lover. Drum grows up as whorehouse servant but is forced to bare-knuckle-box another slave Blaise (Kotto) for the entertainment of a white effeminate/gay slaveholder, a Frenchman named Bernard DeMarigny (Colicos). DeMarigny wants to sleep with Drum, but his advances are rejected and during the ensuing scuffle Drum's "mammy" is shot.Drum and his friend Blaise are eventually sold to plantation owner Hammond Maxwell (Oates) and are both taken to his plantation to work. Regine (Grier) is purchased by Maxwell as well and is taken to the plantation for his own personal desires as a bedwench. He also purchases a white **** Augusta Chauvel (Lewis) to be his housekeeper,/fianceMaxwells plantation is a stud farm he doesn't grow cotton he breeds slaves. The film is a hoot. Maxwell's got an out of control daughter Sophie (Smith) with raging hormones who likes to run around the "farm" making the male slaves let her unbutton their breeches and "play" with their snakes. Sophie also tries to force Blaise to sleep with her, and after being rejected, tells her father that Blaise has raped her. Blaise is put in chains and Maxwell decides that he must be nutted for the alleged rape. Blaise is chained up in the barn and while helpless Sophie comes in lifts her hoop skirts and flashes Blaise, but Maxwell see's her do it, so he not quite as inclined to really believe Sophie.Meanwhile, a dinner party has been arranged to celebrate the engagement of Maxwell and Chauvel. Casual round the dining table dinner conversations includes the best way to castrate a slave.Drum frees his friend Blaise from his chains and it all ends up turning into a slave revolt led by Blaise, with the slaves burning down the out buildings. During the storming of the main house fighting Drum grabs hold of DeMarigny's johnson & balls and rips them off by the roots, that method wasn't mentioned in the dinner conversation.
Maxwell and Chauvel are all saved by Drum. In appreciation for saving his family and also knowing that if Drum stays the prevailing sentiment of the white slaveholders would demand that he kill him, Maxwell sets Drum free and tells him to run into the night.A much better written and choreographed ending than somewhat similar Django Unchained, it's a better film. 9/10 The whole cast is excellent, entertaining and well made, check it out currently on Youtube while you can.A classic worthy of TCM
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A Thunder Of Drums (1961) Finally was able to catch up with this film today, enjoyed it. I bought the cast, a mix of new and up and coming new talent and some old Western Genre hands. I like Richard Boone a lot, but there's not a whole lot of his Western films that I can point to and admire. The Tall T, his small bit part in The Alamo, Rio Conchos, and his menace oozing Cicero Grimes in Hombre, and now this one. I'll go a 7/10, some great Western landscapes also.
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A Thunder Of Drums (1961) Finally was able to catch up with this film today, enjoyed it. I bought the cast, a mix of new and up and coming new talent and some old Western Genre hands. I like Richard Boone a lot, but there's not a whole lot of his Western films that I can point to and admire. The Tall T, his small bit part in The Alamo, Rio Conchos, and his menace oozing Cicero Grimes in Hombre, and now this one. I'll go a 7/10, some great Western landscapes also.
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My favorite is an American version of the genre, a New York Noir Kitchen Sink from 1961 Something Wild starring Ralph Meeker and Carroll Baker.
More here: http://noirsville.blogspot.com/2016/04/something-wild-1961-new-york-kitchen.html
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The Beast of Yucca Flats (1961) Directed by Coleman Francis starring Tor Johnson as Joseph Javorsky / The Beast. A very cheapo production, what did it take a few hours of a rented airplane, a handful of extras, two or three cars, a couple of houses, a filling station, and the landscapes just North of Los Angeles. Lots of narration, say 80 - 90%, a lot was shot MOS rather than actual sound recording.
The nuclear scarred Beast carrying around a woman like a Raggedy Anne doll under his arm across the desolate countryside is my personal take away iconography of this film.
I liked the obvious out of left field (most likely post MPPC) cheesecake insert at the beginning, they probably wanted to spike up the box office with a bit of exploitation in a later re-release, and then later the in comparison rather tame original one with the deputy's wife at their house. It's one of the quirks of these low budget productions, i.e. squeeze as much bucks out of their product as possible. Quite a few films in this early 60s -70s time frame were re cut with exploitative insertions, some B&W films even with Color insertions, some with and some without the original directors input.
Again, what makes these low budget films worthwhile, to quote V. Vale & Andrea Juno in Incredibly Strange Films, is the "unfettered creativity. Often the films are eccentric-even extreme-presentations by individuals freely expressing their imaginations..." To quote Picasso "Ah, good taste! What a dreadful thing! Taste is the enemy of creativeness."
I give it about a 5/10.
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I enjoyed that one for the sheer insanity of it. It could only have been made during the Depression.
It was bizarro America depicted in that one.
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The Violent Years (1956) Juvenile Delinquent Noir
Like Jail Bait (1954) This film fits the JD exploitation, "C-Z" Noirs popular with the Beach/Surfer/Horror/SiFi movie demographic of the late 50s early 60s.Directed by William Morgan, written by Ed Wood, and cinematography by William C. Thompson. Music by Manuel FranciscoThe film stars Jean Moorhead as Paula Parkins, Barbara Weeks as Jane Parkins, Arthur Millan as Carl Parkins, Theresa Hancock as Georgia, Glen Corbett as Barney Stetson, Joanne Cangi as Geraldine, Gloria Farr as Phyllis, Lee Constant as Sheila, I. Stanford Jolley as Judge Clara, Timothy Farrell as Lt. Holmes. F. Chan McClure as Det. Artman, Bruno Metsa as Manny, and Harry Keaton as the Doctor.Paula Parkins (Moorhead) rich brat. A female Eddie Haskell. Devious daughter of newspaper editor father and a high profile blueblood mother. As soon as mater leaves for some charity event Paula is on the phone organizing her posse, her bullet bra wearing girl gang, Georgia (Hancock), Geraldine (Cangi), and Phyllis (Farr). For kicks the gang knocks over filling stations. The gang's M.O. is driving up to a full service gas station in an very conspicuous black four door 1954 Caddy series 62 sedan, pulling a gat on the attendant and emptying the cash drawer.The Violent Years is an interesting example of a film that's achieved cult status as an Exploitation Juvie Noir, 6/10. Screencaps are from a Youtube stream. Full review with more screencaps here in Film Noir/Gangster
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The Violent Years (1956) Juvenile Delinquent Noir
Like Jail Bait (1954) This film fits the JD exploitation, "C-Z" Noirs popular with the Beach/Surfer/Horror/SiFi movie demographic of the late 50s early 60s.
Directed by William Morgan, written by Ed Wood, and cinematography by William C. Thompson. Music by Manuel Francisco
The film stars Jean Moorhead as Paula Parkins, Barbara Weeks as Jane Parkins, Arthur Millan as Carl Parkins, Theresa Hancock as Georgia, Glen Corbett as Barney Stetson, Joanne Cangi as Geraldine, Gloria Farr as Phyllis, Lee Constant as Sheila, I. Stanford Jolley as Judge Clara, Timothy Farrell as Lt. Holmes.
F. Chan McClure as Det. Artman, Bruno Metsa as Manny, and Harry Keaton as the Doctor.
Paula Parkins (Moorhead) rich brat. A female Eddie Haskell. Devious daughter of newspaper editor father and a high profile blueblood mother. As soon as mater leaves for some charity event Paula is on the phone organizing her posse, her bullet bra wearing girl gang, Georgia (Hancock), Geraldine (Cangi), and Phyllis (Farr).
Paula Parkins (Moorhead) For kicks the gang knocks over filling stations. The gang's M.O. is driving up to a full service gas station in an very conspicuous black four door 1954 Caddy series 62 sedan, pulling a gat on the attendant and emptying the cash drawer.
For more thrills they also terrorize a lovers' lane couple smooching in a 1955 Ford Fairlane Sunliner convertible. They take all their jewelry and money. They strip the woman of her cashmere sweater. Tie her up with her own ripped up in strips skirt and toss her partially clothed in a slip in the back seat of her convertible.
For the almost back seat romeo they have other ideas. They pull him off into the woods and begin to remove his clothing. We cut to a shot of a leering Paula taking off her sweater. The film cuts away, after all it's 1956. We find out through a newspaper headline that they "assaulted" the unfortunate guy. The fact that later Paula has "a bun in the oven" leaves no doubt what the gals did and, thanks to the MPPC, anything else your wildest imagination can come up with, with him.
Paula getting readyPaula finds out from her father, after she feigns innocent curiosity, that the cops are going to stakeout all gas stations that stay open after 10PM with a cop disguised as a gas jockey or mechanic. So Paula tells her crew that filling stations are out.
The gals have an enabler Sheila (Constant) a female fence, who tells the girls that there is a group of people interested in having the girls knock over a school. A what? ****? This is never explained, probably a commie plot, but it doesn't really matter because if you are still watching at this point you're sticking it through for the outrageous ridiculousness of it all. A watchman spots the gals breaking in. While the gals are horrendously trashing a classroom, lol, i.e. ripping the blotter on a desk, erasing tomorrows lesson from the blackboard, throwing a globe through a window, the cops show up driving their 1956 Ford Mainlines, and the girls start immediately shooting. A cop and two of the girls Phyllis and Geraldine are killed, but Paula and Georgia get away driving the Caddy through a hail of bullets.
Detective: These aren't kids. These are morons!
Lt. Holmes (Farrell) far left
The film ends with a long moralizing monologue by the judge to Paula's parents, who sentences their grandchild, Paula's illegitimate daughter (yes Paula dies in childbirth) to life in a state institution rather than let them adopt her.
Again, this film is another example of Classic Noir unraveling. Crime stories were syphoning off to TV. Major Studio B production stopped, and as the Motion Picture Production Code weakened, independent poverty row and low budget film creators were taking more artistic liberties. So those Film Noir that went too far over the line depicting violence started getting classified as Horror, Thriller (even though they were just say, showing the effects of a gunshot wound, or dealing with weird serial killers, maniacs, and psychotics, etc.). Those that went too far depicting sexual, drug, torture, juvenile delinquency, etc., storylines and situations were being lumped into or classed as various Exploitation flicks, (even though they are relatively tame comparably to today's films). The the noir-ish films that dealt with everything else, except Crime, concerning the human condition were labeled Dramas and Suspense. Those that tried new techniques, lenses, etc., were labeled Experimental. Some films are so so bad in all aspects that they acquire the "so bad it's good" Cult status.
The Violent Years is an interesting example of a film that's achieved cult status as an Exploitation Juvie Noir, 6/10. Screencaps are from a Youtube stream. Full review with more screencaps here: https://noirsville.blogspot.com/2017/10/the-violent-years-1956-juvenile.html -
Least GABRIEL OVER THE WHITE HOUSE(1933) what a propaganda film, one sequence has a lIne up of mobsters shot on Governor's Island NY by firing squad with the Statue Of Liberty as a backdrop. And Walter Huston gets insufferable to watch.
Most Ride in the Whirlwind (1966), first viewing, can't believe I'd never caught this before, I did see Hellman's The Shooting which I didn't think much of it so I probably shied away from seeking this out. It's way better with some decent cinematography. 7/10
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Noir AlleyVerified account @NoirAlley 14h14 hours ago
Join us next week on #NoirAlley for Anthony Mann's SIDE STREET ('50) starring Farley Granger and Cathy O'Donnell
This one's got a pretty cool car chase in lower Manhattan shot from above, very impressive.
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Ride in the Whirlwind (1966), first viewing, can't believe I'd never caught this before, I did see Hellman's The Shooting which I didn't think much of it so I probably shied away from seeking this out. It's way better with some decent cinematography. 7/10An Acid Western sub genre. Lump it in with The Shooting (1966), El Topo (1971), McCabe & Mrs Miller (1971), The Hired Hand (1971), Kid Blue (1973) Rancho Deluxe (1975), all the way to China 9, Liberty 37 (1978) and you could call Jim Jarmusch's 1996's film Dead Man a modern outlier along with Renegade (Blueberry) (2004).There may be a few more.
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Ride in the Whirlwind (1966), first viewing, can't believe I'd never caught this before, I did see Hellman's The Shooting which I didn't think much of it so I probably shied away from seeking this out. It's way better with some decent cinematography. 7/10
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I was excited about getting to see Le cercle rouge on TCM. Too excited, for this was a serious disappointment. If this is how the film is supposed to look, then I think Henri Decae's cinematography wrecks the film. Most of the scenes look so unnecessarily dark that I could be watching almost any dramatic show on TV these days. It would be a reasonable assumption that the "Prince of Darkness" himself, Gordon Willis, used Decae's work in Le cercle rouge (1970) as the basis for his similar work in Klute (1971) (I loathe the cinematography of Klute) and the dark interiors (which I dislike) of The Godfather. Decae has two very fine moments in the film: the criminals in a darkened room pulling on their white plastic gloves (this is brilliant) and Yves Montand making his way up the staircase in a black-and-white interior.
The big heist scene in Le cercle rouge is clearly based on similar scenes in The Asphalt Jungle and Rififi, and the comparison is simply brutal. Imagine Rififi in color, but you can't see much of what's going on, and you'll have a good idea of what Le cercle rouge is like. If Rififi and The Asphalt Jungle get 10 out of 10 for suspense, Le cercle rouge is about 4 out of 10 for suspense for its big heist sequence. As for the final shootout, it occurs in total darkness, and we only learn the fate of the characters because someone else reports it to us.
Melville gets remarkably little out of a great cast that includes Alain Delon, Yves Montand, Andre Bourvil, and Gian Maria Volonte. This isn't the kind of film that concentrates on character or even plot, but most directors would have made their presence count for more. I have liked the other Melville films I've seen, and I usually love Henri Decae's work (Purple Noon, to name only one). Decae dominates the director the way Gordon Willis dominates Alan J. Pakula in Klute, and Decae's approach in Le cercle rouge contradicts the style he brought to the early New Wave films he photographed.
You need a new TV. I just watched and it looked fine.
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Before The Devil Knows You're Dead (2007) New York Noir
Dysfunctional family noir.Directed by the legendary Sidney Lumet (12 Angry Men (1957), The Fugitive Kind (1960), The Pawnbroker (1964), Fail-Safe (1964), Serpico (1973), Dog Day Afternoon (1975), The Verdict (1982)). He was one of the busiest directors of the post studio era. This was his last feature film before his death in 2011.The cinematography was by Ron Fortunato and the music was by Carter Burwell (Fargo (1996), Miller's Crossing (1990), Barton Fink (1991)).Everything a Noir should be. It's about slimeballs. It's about losers. It's about family. It's about infidelity. It's about desperation. It's about dead ends and about broken dreams. A get rich quick scheme. A simple story of a robbery that's gone horribly, horribly, wrong. It's about Murphy's Law.The story is told nicely in individual flashbacks that sort of rewind, overlap, and take off from different character's points of view. The acting from all the principals is intense. Charles Hanson, played by Albert Finney is at first devastated, then resigned and finally desperate as he goes on a quiet vendetta when the police seem to be blowing him off. Philip Seymour Hoffman's Andy is tragic, he gives a tour de force going very convincingly the full range of human emotions. Watch for Michael Shannon as Dex the scummy brother in law of dead Bobby who puts the touch on Hank to cover the loss of Bobby for his sister and her daughter. Hell, he doesn't want to be stuck with taking care of her.Excellent last film for Lumet, excellent family Neo Noir, like a train wreck that you can't stop watching. 9/10 Review with more screencaps here in Film Noir/Gangster page and with more here: https://noirsville.blogspot.com/2017/10/before-devil-knows-youre-dead-2007-new.html
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Before The Devil Knows You're Dead (2007) New York Noir
Dysfunctional family noir.
Directed by the legendary Sidney Lumet (12 Angry Men (1957), The Fugitive Kind (1960), The Pawnbroker (1964), Fail-Safe (1964), Serpico (1973), Dog Day Afternoon (1975), The Verdict (1982)). He was one of the busiest directors of the post studio era. This was his last feature film before his death in 2011.
The cinematography was by Ron Fortunato and the music was by Carter Burwell (Fargo (1996), Miller's Crossing (1990), Barton Fink (1991)).
The film stars Philip Seymour Hoffman (Boogie Nights (1997), The Big Lebowski (1998), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Red Dragon(2002)), as Andy Hanson, Ethan Hawke (Gattaca (1997)) as Hank Hanson,
Marisa Tomei (My Cousin Vinny (1992), The Wrestler (2008)) as Gina Hanson, Albert Finney (Tom Jones (1963), Gumshoe (1971), Miller's Crossing (1990)) as Charles Hanson, Rosemary Harris (The Boys from Brazil (1978)) as Nanette Hanson, Brían F. O'Byrne (Million Dollar Baby (2004)) as Bobby Lasorda, Aleksa Palladino (Boardwalk Empire TV Series (2010–2014)) as Chris Lasorda, Michael Shannon (Vanilla Sky (2001), The Missing Person (2009), Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (2009), The Iceman (2012), Boardwalk Empire TV Series (2010–2014)) as Dex, Leonardo Cimino (Mad Dog Coll (1961), The Young Savages(1961), Naked City TV Series (1958–1963), Moonstruck (1987)), as William, and Amy Ryan (The Missing Person (2009) as Martha Hanson.
Everything a Noir should be. It's about slimeballs. It's about losers. It's about family. It's about infidelity. It's about desperation. It's about dead ends and about broken dreams. A get rich quick scheme. A simple story of a robbery that's gone horribly, horribly, wrong. It's about Murphy's Law.
Andy (Hoffman)
Hank (Hawke)
Charles (Finney)
Andy Hanson, Manhattanite, corporate real estate stooge, embezzler, drug addict, silver tongued devil. Dreaming of Rio on other people's money. Hank Hanson, basement dwelling screw off, the weak kid brother with the good looks. Mom and Dad likes him best. But he's a deadbeat dad three months behind on his alimony. His wife thinks he's a bum, his own daughter thinks he's a loser, harsh. He's even screwing Andy's wife Gina, skeezy, it's a brother tag team, so of course given this dish, Gina is another piece of work.
Andy, getting desperate as his big bubble world is crumbling around him, geezes up a job that's pure CAKE. The stickup of their parents Mom & Pop jewelry store in a Westchester Mall.
Andy Hanson: We don't want Tiffany's. We want a Mom and Pop operation, in a busy place, on a Saturday when the week's takes go in the safe. We both worked there. We know the safe combinations. We know the burglar alarm signals. We know where everything is. I figure, between the week's take, the jewelry and the cases, the vault, there's a $500,000 haul. I figure probably six. The old dumb old lady that works there, she's alone till noon. She's not going to be a problem.
Hank Hanson: Andy...
Andy Hanson: Yeah?
Andy Hanson: That's mom and dad's store.
Andy Hanson: That's what I said. A Mom and Pop operation.
We go in on Saturday morning just when old lady what's her name, Doris opens to door. Wave a gun in her face. Scare the **** out of her. Empty the cash register, the safe, the displays, and scram. The insurance covers the loss and damages. Nobody loses.. I will take the swag to a fence down in the city that Dad once knew in the Diamond District. $500,000 in diamonds/jewels nets $120,000 and we are flush.
But Andy wants Hank to do it alone. He tells Hank, no, no little brother, I was up there recently and may get recognized. Oily Andy drops a couple grand of embezzled money under desperately broke Hank's nose as bait. Operating money. All that moola goes to Hank's head but Hank can't do it stag. He doesn't have the gonads. He visits an acquaintance, an ex con, buss boy, petty thief named Bobby Lasorda, he convinces him to do the actual robbery, Hank will drive the rental getaway car.
Saturday morning. So what could go wrong. Bobby goes in, and scares the **** out of the old lady. Only the old Lady ain't Doris it's Nannette, Hank and Andy's mom, which Hank would have seen if he had balls enough to do it himself. For Bobby, though, you seen one old lady you've seen them all, and he goes on with the plan. Empties the cash register and the safe, dumping trays of diamonds into a sack. Nannette however, is no Doris, when Bobby has his back to her breaking the glass counter tops she grabs a gun out of a drawer and blasts him. Bobby shoots back hitting Nannette. Bobby slides and stumbles for the door and Nannette from the floor squeezes off another shot sending Bobby through the plate glass door. He comes to rest lying very dead among the shards. Hank **** his pants and peels out of the parking lot and down the rabbit hole to Noirsville.
Noirsville
The story is told nicely in individual flashbacks that sort of rewind, overlap, and take off from different character's points of view. The acting from all the principals is intense. Charles Hanson, played by Albert Finney is at first devastated, then resigned and finally desperate as he goes on a quiet vendetta when the police seem to be blowing him off. Philip Seymour Hoffman's Andy is tragic, he gives a tour de force going very convincingly the full range of human emotions. Watch for Michael Shannon as Dex the scummy brother in law of dead Bobby who puts the touch on Hank to cover the loss of Bobby for his sister and her daughter. Hell, he doesn't want to be stuck with taking care of her.
Excellent last film for Lumet, excellent family Neo Noir, like a train wreck that you can't stop watching. 9/10 Review with more screencaps here: https://noirsville.blogspot.com/2017/10/before-devil-knows-youre-dead-2007-new.html-
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Joe, did you see this on DVD or on a website? Thanks for the heads up. I'd seen some excellent French noirs like Voici le temps des assassins and Dedee d'Anvers on a website which is now blocked.
Youtube, kingrat, I wish it was on a DVD, judging from this one there are probably more good ones we've never seen.
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Thanks for the heads up.
Not exactly for WHO'S THAT GIRL?, but since I didn't recall seeing that movie on the October schedule when I checked it when he it was first available, I figured that some of TBAs on the schedule had been filled in.
I am pleased to see that Martin Scorsese's AFTER HOURS is scheduled to be shown before WHO'S THAT GIRL?
It appears there's a Griffin Dunne double feature that evening.
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Who's That Girl is a 30 year old movie. To put that in perspective, that would be like TCM showing A Hard Day's Night or Roustabout the year the channel started. Those would have been 30 year old films in 1994, and they featured pop stars of their time. I'm sure there would have been much wailing and gnashing of teeth (acting as TCM Chicken Littles seems to have been a favored pastime for some around here), but the channel has continued regardless. As the channel ages, it has to change. Greatest Generation nostalgia made way for more Boomer nostalgia, and now Generation X is having a nostalgia season.
Now, I'm not comparing quality, as that is often subjective. I saw Who's That Girl on HBO sometime in the late 1980's. I don't really remember any of it, to be honest, but I don't recall caring for it, and I've never been fond of Madonna, either on screen or on the radio. But as I pointed out in another thread, every movie is special to someone, somewhere. No doubt there are a few people who absolutely love Who's That Girl for whatever reason. It may take them back to times of their youth, much as the insipid Beach movies do for many a Boomer.
So in short, it's no big deal. As we move through time, "newer" films are getting older, and the nostalgia continues to creep forward. I see this only as a sign of that, and not of the imminent "AMC-ization" of TCM.
However, scheduling Who's That Girl for TCM Underground I do have a problem with, as that flick is in no way underground.
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In the past I have confidently defended TCM's fidelity to it's purpose. In the face of rash, and irrational charges of TCM drifting from classic movies, imminent AMC-ization, and pandering for bucks, I and other stable, reasonable minds, have maintained TCM's continuity. But, now. . . .I'm not so sure. Scrolling down the list of movies for the coming month, as is my employment for day one, to discover prizes in the schedule, I run across--oh, I shudder to name it--Who's That Girl? (1987), with. . .ough. . . Madonna. It looks like it's in the Underground series, but even so, did they have to go that far underground? It's so disappointing, and in a month with some nice highlights, like some Eisenstein moves, and Melville's Le Circle Rouge (1970), and THX1138 (1971). Now, I fear. . . .
**** *** ********!
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Jusqu'au dernier (1957) A good French Film Noir, Raymond Pellegrin (Fernand Bastia) is released from prison after a six month sentence. He goes into hiding at a traveling carnival where his sister Marcella is a fortune teller. The reason he is laying low is because he has double crossed his gang keeping a portion of the loot from a robbery just before he got pinched. Fernand gets a job being a carny barker, there he falls in love with Gina (Jeanne Moreau) but this gets another carney Quedchi jealous.
Fredo Riccioni (Paul Meurisse the headmaster from Les Diaboliques), the boss of the gang that pulled the robbery job eventually manages to trace Fernand back to the carnival.
There are only a pitiful handful of French Film Noir readily available here, there should be more.
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R.I.P. Tom
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I think Possessed is one of Joan's best performances. I like what Eddie said about Joan's career at its peak from Mildred Pierce to the early-mid 1950's (I am paraphrasing). I agree that a case can be made for her winning the Oscar instead of Loretta Young that year.
I do think she was having an intimate affair with David in Possessed. She wouldn't have gotten that freaked out about David breaking it off if they hadn't been intimate. It is a pretty sad thing when you are in an intimate relationship with someone and really dig them and then they reveal they kind of feel "meh" about you afterwards. Yes, she probably had some mental struggles to begin with but I kinda don't blame her for going off the rails when David, who doesn't want any commitment or so he says, falls head over heels for Joan's stepdaughter. OUCH!
I felt sorry for Raymond Massey's character. He's playing a decent guy who clearly loves Joan and wants to help her. I've said before about Van Heflin: he is just so good in everything.
Maybe she was dead in bed?
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Now you got me thinking; who is the most beautiful women of noir? Jane Greer was very beautiful in Out of the Past but she wasn't really in many noirs. Gloria Grahame - most sexy but not the most beautiful. I guess it would be Ava, but was she in enough noirs to quality?
For most beautiful women of Noirs I go with Gloria Grahame, Marie Windsor, Gardner, Gene Tierney, Rhonda Fleming, Linda Darnell, Susan Hayward and Ida Lupino.
I Just Watched...
in General Discussions
Posted
I've never seen it, Drum was refreshingly not PC.