cigarjoe
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Posts posted by cigarjoe
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My usual source is Spencer Selby's Dark City (1984), He lists a total of 490 Film Noir and about 90 more "Off Genre and Other Film Noir", here is the breakdown (I was wrong O'Brien is tied with Burr with 13 Noirs (but again there are some films that may be debatable and also most Noir lists stop at 1958 or 1959 but there are a few noirs beyond 1960):
Humphrey Bogart (15)
The Big Sleep
Conflict
Dark Passage
Dead Reckoning
The Desperate Hours
The Enforcer
The Harder They Fall
High Sierra
In A Lonely Place
Key Largo
Knock On Any Door
The Maltese Falcon
Sirocco
They Drive By Night
The Two Mrs. Carrolls
Richard Conte (14)
The Blue Gardinia
Call Northside 777
Cry Of The City
Highway Dragnet
Hollywood Story
House Of Strangers
New York Confidential
The Raging Tide
The Sleeping City
Somewhere In The Night
The Spider
Thieves Highway
Under The Gun
Whirlpool
Raymond Burr (13)
Abandoned
Affair In Havana
The Blue Gardinia
Crime Of Passion
A Cry In The Night
Desperate
His Kind Of Woman
The Pitfall
A Place In The Sun
Please Murder Me
Raw Deal
Red Light
Ruthless
Edmund O'Brien (13)
Backfire
Between Midnight and Dawn
A Cry In The Night
A Double Life
The Hitch-Hiker
Man In The Dark
711 Ocean Drive
Shield For Murder
The Turning Point
Two Of A Kind
The Web
White Heat
The 3rd Voice
The rest
Elisha Cook Jr. (12)
Zachery Scott (12)
Barry Sullivan (12)
Edward G. Robinson (11)
Robert Ryan (11)
Howard Duff (10)
Dan Duryea (10)
Charles McGraw (10)
George Sanders (10)
Henry Morgan (9)
George Raft (9)
Wallace Ford (9)
Thomas Gomez (9)
Arthur Kennedy (8)
John Garfield (8)
Robert Mitchum (8)
Sterling Hayden (8)
Richard Widmark (8)
William Bendix (8)
Lee J. Cobb (8)
Joseph Cotten (8)
Broderick Crawford (8)
John Hodiak (8)
John McIntire (8)
Steve Cochran (7)
William Conrad (7)
Dane Clark (7)
Alan Ladd (7)
Steven McNally (7)
Lloyd Nolan (7)
Peter Lorry (7)
Howard daSilva (7)
Ted de Corsia (7)
Sydney Greenstreet (7)
Glen Ford (7)
Paul Stewart (7)
Albert Decker (7)
Regis Toomey (7)
Ed Begley (7)
John Hoyt (7)
Note Dana Andrews, Dick Powell, Burt Lancaster, Richard Basehart, Leo G. Carroll, Brian Donlevy, John Ireland, Frank Lovejoy, Victor Mature, Thomas Mitchell, Vincent Price, Art Smith, William Tallman, and quite a few others have 6 or less
(Edited to flush out the 6 Noir list and give more info on Selby's book).
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If the whole film was as good as the last half hour, it might have been a classic. As it is, film is worth a watch for lovers of 50's spectacles and bad films. 2.5/4.
Source--TCM.
I liked the sand glass like method of moving the slabs of rock to seal the tomb. As a kid watching for the first time,I got a kick out of, what looks like ostrich eggs that they break in order to release the sand.
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Besides The Killers, D.O.A., 711 Ocean Drive, White Heat, and The Hitch-Hiker, Edmund O'Brien is also good in The Third Voice, Backfire, Man in the Dark, Shield for Murder, and OK in Between Midnight and Dawn and A Cry in the Night. I Haven't seen or don't remember seeing The Web, An Act of Murder, or a Double life, but I may have one of them..
Of all the males stars in Film Noir, the top three with the most films are Bogart, Conte, and if I remember right O'brien. He also did a noir TV series called Johnny Midnight (1960), where he plays a theater owner/detective.
He's also good in some Westerns, Rio Conchos, and The Wild Bunch, besides the aforementioned The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.
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Last night I caught two I haven't seen before.
TAXI! and THE CATERED AFFAIR back to back.. Well, I didn't get to see "Affair" all the way through as I fell asleep a little past halfway. Not that I found it boring, but both the combination of my being my wife's primary caregiver, and my own problems with not getting more than four or five hours sleefairfp each night due to a variety of reasons causes me to drift/drop off in the middle of a lot of stuff I try to watch.
Sepiatone
One interesting, almost archival, sequence (for a native New Yorker) in A Catered Affair happens right at the beginning, as Borgnine is driving back to the taxi barn he passes a demolition crew that is dismantling the 3rd Avenue el, service in Manhattan was phased out in the early 1950s. below Canal Street and closed completely on May 12, 1955.
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"My Best Fiend" (1999)--Directed by Werner Herzog.
Documentary about Herzog and Klaus Kinski working relationships on the five films they did together. As an actor, Kinski caught Werner's eye in a 1950's film he did with Maximilian Schell. The first film they did was "Aguirre, the Wrath of God" (1972). The tales Herzog tells of the shooting, the scars of the extras, the rant Kinski went on that's left in the film, all of those had me convinced I was watching a talented madman.
Kinski apparently had a well of rage inside him that anything could set off. Relations between Herzog and Kinski deteriorated so that both made plans to murder the other. The Indian extras in "Fitzcarraldo" (1982) offered to kill Kinski for Herzog.
The wonder is that the two made five fine films together. An eye opener. 3/4.
Source--YouTube, "Mein liebster feind", in 2 parts. Has English subtitles.
Kinsky first caught my eye in Sergio Leone's For a Few Dollars More playing "Wild" the hunchback a member of El Indio's (Gian Maria Volonte's) gang, he's in a few memorable sequences in that film . He also plays the wacked out bomb chucking priest (he makes the sign of the cross before he throws) who is the brother of El Chuncho (Gian Maria Volonte) a Mexican revolutionary in Damiano Damiani's A Bullet For The General. Both are very good films.
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Dick Tracy (1990) Crayola Comic Pulp Noir (a rewatch)
Director: Warren Beatty, Cinematography: Vittorio Storaro, Writers: Chester Gould (characters), Jim Cash, and Jack Epps Jr.Chester Gould's comic strip Dick Tracy brought to life in Pulp Noir a pastiche of comic strip/graphic novel, Poetic Realism, Pulp Fiction, and Film Noir.Beatty and Vittorio Storaro along with Art Direction by Harold Michelson, Set Decoration by Rick Simpson, the Buena Vista Visual Effects Group and Costume Design by Milena Canonero create an enjoyable fantasy world of late 30's early 40's Chicago in a pallet limited to the six main colors that the original comic strip appeared in: red, blue, yellow, green, orange, purple, plus black and white.Beatty's Tracy is a nice "good guy", always doing the right thing, tough and seemingly incorruptible, but as played by Beatty he is human, tempted determinedly by his femme fatale wanna be, Breathless Mahoney (Madonna). Glenne Headly plays Tess his long time sweetheart, the "good" girl. Charlie Korsmo plays tough street urchin "Kid", who is taken under Tracy's wing.Some of the best sequences are of Breathless practically showing everything she's got while trying to work her womanly charms on a stoic Tracy.Dick Tracy: No grief for Lips?Breathless Mahoney: I'm wearing black underwear.Dick Tracy: You know, it's legal for me to take you down to the station and sweat it out of you under the lights.Breathless Mahoney: I sweat a lot better in the dark.Later Breathless trying to seduce Tracy it a dress slit crotch high:Breathless: What's a girl gotta do to get arrested in this town?Dick Tracy: That dress is a step in the right directionBreathless: Aren't you gonna frisk me?Madonna's Breathless is stunning, she plays Lip's Manlis' girlfriend/torch singer working his club, when Manlis is whacked she becomes the property of Big Boy Caprice mob boss. Caprice (Pacino) is not only an over the top mobster but a closet choreographer and in a hilarious segment he joins Breathless and the chorines on stage trying to spice up their new number.The diegetic music is great, the songs sung by Madonna by Sondheim, and the soundtrack music by Danny Elfman not really that memorable, maybe they will grow on me with repeated viewings. A fun film 7/10-
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Dick Tracy (1990) Crayola Comic Pulp Noir (on a rewatch)
(SLWB July 11, 2013)+Director: Warren Beatty, Cinematography: Vittorio Storaro, Writers: Chester Gould (characters), Jim Cash, and Jack Epps Jr.Stars: Warren Beatty (Dick Tracy), Charlie Korsmo (The Kid), Madonna (Breathless Mahoney), Glenne Headly (Tess Trueheart), and Al Pacino (Big Boy Caprise) with huge supporting cast includding William Forsythe (Flattop) Seymour Cassel (Sam Catchem) Charles Durning (Chief Brandon) Mandy Patinkin (88 Keys) Paul Sorvino (Lips Manlis) R.G. Armstrong (Pruneface) Dustin Hoffman (Mumbles) Kathy Bates (Mrs. Green) Dick Van Dyke (D.A. Fletcher) Henry Silva (Influence) James Caan (Spaldoni) Michael J. Pollard ( Bug Bailey) Henry Jones (Night Clerk) Estelle Parsons (Mrs. Trueheart) John Schuck (Reporter) and Noir vets Henry Jones (Night Clerk) Ian Wolfe (Forger) Mike Mazurki (Old Man at Hotel).Chester Gould's comic strip Dick Tracy brought to life in Pulp Noir a pastiche of comic strip/graphic novel, Poetic Realism, Pulp Fiction, and Film Noir.Beatty and Vittorio Storaro along with Art Direction by Harold Michelson, Set Decoration by Rick Simpson, the Buena Vista Visual Effects Group and Costume Design by Milena Canonero create an enjoyable fantasy world of late 30's early 40's Chicago in a pallet limited to the six main colors that the original comic strip appeared in: red, blue, yellow, green, orange, purple, plus black and white.
Beatty's Tracy is a nice "good guy", always doing the right thing, tough and seemingly incorruptible, but as played by Beatty he is human, tempted determinedly by his femme fatale wanna be, Breathless Mahoney (Madonna). Glenne Headly plays Tess his long time sweetheart, the "good" girl. Charlie Korsmo plays tough street urchin "Kid", who is taken under Tracy's wing.Tess & Dick
Tracy (Beatty) and Tess (Hedley)
The Kid
The Kid (Charlie Korsmo)
Some of the best sequences are of Breathless practically showing everything she's got while trying to work her womanly charms on a stoic Tracy.
Breathless Mahoney
Dick Tracy: No grief for Lips?
Breathless Mahoney: I'm wearing black underwear.
Dick Tracy: You know, it's legal for me to take you down to the station and sweat it out of you under the lights.
Breathless Mahoney: I sweat a lot better in the dark.
Breathless trying to seduce Tracy it a dress slit crotch high:
Breathless: What's a girl got to do to get arrested in this town?
Dick Tracy: That dress is a step in the right direction
Breathless: Aren't you gonna frisk me?
Big Boy Caprice (Al Pacino)Madonna's Breathless is stunning, she plays is Lip's Manliss' girlfriend/torch singer working his club, when Manlis is whacked she becomes the property of Big Boy Caprice mob boss. Caprice (Pacino) is not only an over the top mobster but a closet choreographer and in a hilarious segment he joins Breathless and the chorines on stage trying to spice up their new number.
Noirsville
The diegetic music is great, the songs sung by Madonna by Sondheim, and the soundtrack music by Danny Elfman not really that memorable, maybe they will grow on me with repeated viewings.
Full review with more screencaps here: http://noirsville.blogspot.com/2015/08/dick-tracy-1990-crayola-comic-pulp-noir.html
A fun film 7/10
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I rated those as 2/10 (F), 3/10 (D-), 3/10 (D-), and 3/10 (D-), respectively, so not really. There were a few moments of inspired trash in P.P.S. and Run Swinger Run, but I wouldn't go out of my for them, unless you have a taste for bad movies.
Pretty much what I've heard too. Mahon was obviously in it for the quick bucks.
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That's wild about Barry Mahon's World War Two record. I've known of him for years thanks to his sleazy film efforts, and wouldn't have imagined him being the inspiration for the "Cooler King". I've seen The Beast That Killed Women, Prostitutes Protective Society, Run Swinger Run!, and Sex Club International, all thanks to Something Weird video.
BTW, Any of them worth a look-see?
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The Sex Killer (1967) Nut Job NoirAnother Grindhouse Sexploitation entry in what we should call the "Transitory Noir" canon when Classic Noir unshackled from the Motion Picture Production Code was unravelling and sans restraints was morphing into Neo Noir. Blame Hitchcock, Psycho (1960), cracked the door open for some Noir to deviate into a psycho-sexual taboo direction, what before had been hinted at or cloaked in subtext was now openly becoming exploited.Unique gritty time capsules for the 1960's New York City's Mid Town Time Square/42nd Street area and lower Manhattan's Greenwich Village area. Just like Los Angeles' Bunker Hill and Downtown Broadway functioned in 1940s and 50s Classic Noir so does Times Square, Greenwich Village, and Harlem function in these New York City based, amorphous, Transitory Noirs.The film "stars" and we use the term loosely, (info from IMDb) Bob Meyer as Tony (uncredited), Bob Oran as Tony's Boss (uncredited), Rita Bennett as Sunbather (uncredited), Helena Clayton (uncredited), Uta Erickson as Hooker (uncredited), and Sharon Kent as the Blonde on Couch (uncredited), from their performances all pretty much amateurs. The rest of the cast are probably just real people doing their everyday jobs.The story holds both faint similarities to the works of Peckinpah, and Lynch and cinematic memories to Kubrick. Screencaps are from the Something Weird Video. Archivally interesting and culturally entertaining, an oddity of a time past. Remember though, it's still a grainy sexploitaion film with a depraved story at heart. There is T&A, but comparable to what passes in R-rated films today and no slasher/gore. A 6 but a New Yorker + one for 7/10 and that is being sentimentally generous. For full review see Film Noir /Gangster, for review with more screencaps paste Noirsville the Film Noir, in your browser.
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The Sex Killer (1967) Nut Job Noir
Another Grindhouse Sexploitation entry in what we should call the "Transitory Noir" canon when Classic Noir unshackled from the Motion Picture Production Code was unravelling and sans restraints was morphing into Neo Noir. Blame Hitchcock, Psycho (1960), cracked the door open for some Noir to deviate into a psycho-sexual taboo direction, what before had been hinted at or cloaked in subtext was now openly becoming exploited.
"FILM NOIR HAD AN INEVITABLE TRAJECTORY…
THE ECCENTRIC & OFTEN GUTSY STYLE OF FILM NOIR HAD NO WHERE ELSE TO GO… BUT TO REACH FOR EVEN MORE OFF-BEAT, DEVIANT– ENDLESSLY RISKY & TABOO ORIENTED SET OF NARRATIVES FOUND IN THE SUBVERSIVE AND EXPLOITATIVE CULT FILMS OF THE MID TO LATE 50s through the 60s and into the early 70s!" (The Last Drive In)
The Sex Killer aka The Girl Killer was directed by Barry Mahon. Barry Mahon who (believe it or not) was a distinguished fighter pilot during WWII. He was shot down and imprisoned in Stalag Luft III where Mahon worked on the same escape tunnels made famous by the movie The Great Escape (1963). It has been said that the part played by Steve McQueen in that film was in fact partially based upon Mahon. He's mainly known for legitimately producing a couple of Errol Flynn and Gina Lollobrigida pictures Crossed Swords (1954), Cuban Rebel Girls (1959), as well as four children's films, but mostly for the quickie, low budget, mostly bad, sexploitation features.
With 70 director credits to his name roughly 85% are trashy sexploitation features and shorts some quite hilariously titled i.e., Fanny Hill Meets Dr. Erotico (1969), Fanny Hill Meets the Red Baron (1968), A Good Time with a Bad Girl (1967), Run Swinger Run! (1967), Fanny Hill Meets Lady Chatterly (1967), The Art School for Nudists (1965), Nudes on Tiger Reef (1965), The Girl with the Magic Box (1965). Out of this substantial oeuvre of essentially, what even most devotees of sexploitation deem cheap celluloid crap, it's not particularly surprising that at least one would get enough of all the elements and ingredients right to make a Transitory Noir. That two of them, The Sex Killer and the previously reviewed Hot Skin and Cold Cash (1965), did is remarkable. What tips both these two features into a "thumb's up" inclusion into the Noirsville universe is the noir-ish, neo-realistic nature of the uncredited cinematography, combined with the unique also uncredited storyline for Hot Skin and Cold Cash, and in the case of The Sex Killer its particular bizarre, again uncredited, storyline.
The films are also unique gritty time capsules for the 1960's New York City's Mid Town Time Square/42nd Street area and lower Manhattan's Greenwich Village area. Just like Los Angeles' Bunker Hill and Downtown Broadway functioned in Classic 1940s and 50s Classic Noir so does Times Square, Greenwich Village, and Harlem function in these New York City based, amorphous, Transitory Noirs.
The film "stars" and we use the term loosely, (info from IMDb) Bob Meyer as Tony (uncredited), Bob Oran as Tony's Boss (uncredited), Rita Bennett as Sunbather (uncredited), Helena Clayton (uncredited), Uta Erickson as Hooker (uncredited), and Sharon Kent as the Blonde on Couch (uncredited), from their performances all pretty much amateurs. The rest of the cast are probably just real people doing their everyday jobs.
Like Norman Bates in Psycho, Tony (Meyer) is a loner with issues. Tony's standoff-ish. Tony is a peeping Tom. Tony is also a bonafide, sexually dysfunctional, a dangerous sicko, a whack job. He works on the Hell's Kitchen side of Times Square among " the naked mannequins with their Cheshire grins," in a Mannequin Factory (shades of Kubrick's Killer's Kiss (1955), Experiment in Terror (1962), and Aroused (1966).We first meet Tony in one of those ubiquitous forever "Going Out Of Business," merchandise stores in the 60s-70s pre disneyfied Times Square. He's buying a pair of binoculars. Back at work he tells his fellow questioning workers that he's going to use them for "bird watching" up in Central Park, they don't believe him.
Tony Tony (Meyer), that look is guaranteed to get you women....
Heading home to "bird watch"I guess working around a lot of busty naked female mannequins has been giving Tony a bit of an angle on his dangle, if you start off as a mannequin fetishist, it's gonna be all downhill from there.
After he clocks out he puts his newly hatched peeping tom plan into action. He heads downtown to a new "Now Renting" apartment tower near where he lives. The fact that it just opened assures that most of the apartments are still empty and that he probably won't be noticed. He still wisely goes down the buildings driveway and in through a service entrance and from the basement, up to the roof. He's hunting for "birds' alright, topless sunbathers scattered on the various "tar beaches" that surround the West Village tower. For those of you wondering unfamiliar with the term, "tar beach" is what New Yorker's call the roofs of their walk up apartment houses.
Bingo!!!
Who says seploitation is just uncultured junk? The gal on the left is actually sporting some Haute couture, she's wearing Rudi Gernreich's sensational monokini, the first topless bathing suit, it was initially published in Women's Wear Daily on June 4, 1964.
Tony's wildly successful first attempt at voyeurism jump starts his other compulsions. His libio shifts from park into first gear, he now needs not only to, passively watch, but also to actively possess, but he's still not quite ready for a real "live" woman. Back at the job Tony starts getting overly friendly with some of the mannequins.The Mannequin Factory (Tony's budding romance")
"Hi honey wanna go on a date?"
During the day Tony is getting excited and turned on as he moves mannequins around. He hatches a simple plan to "borrow" one of the gals from storage and taker her home. Now, hey, Tony is just a mental case he's not stupid. He knows he can't sneak a whole mannequin out of the shop so for his woman, he'll settle for a head and ****. Hey, Tony's trying, just look at it like practice, doesn't The Red Cross have "Annie." Of course he gets caught by the boss at the door who asks he what the hell does he think he is doing? He takes the mannequin away and tells Tony to go home.
Shot out of the saddle without ever getting out of the barn Tony is now frustrated. Tony is desperate. Tony is pathetic. Walking down the sidewalk it's love at first sight, he passes a sort of whatnot/antique shop window display. Beckoning him, with a come hither look, is a "cute" mannequin head sitting on a chair. She's making "eyes" at him. "are you looking at me, are you looking at me!, What, You think I'm sexy,.. are you calling me sexy?" He slips into the shop, looks around a bit sees nobody around watching and snags her right out of the window. Holding her gently, caressingly, under his arm he whisks her to a bar down the street.Tony orders a drink, and it looks like he chats up the head.
Hey baby, how about a drink? I think you got a real nice mouth.
Of course Tony attracts a couple of looks from the patrons and the bartender. One thing you learn being a native New Yorker, being born and raised around a lot of people you learn young the important art of getting along with your fellow travelers in this World of ours. Everybody's got their own personal kinks, none of us are perfect. You see someone acting weird but harmless you usually don't want to but in. It's live and let live.
Done with the small talk Tony makes his move.
He baby let's go to my place
Tony leaves the bar date in arm. What follows is a great neo realist guerilla shot sequence, a piece of visual history, an archive of a typical subway ride downtown on the old BMT 7th Avenue line in 1967. And, you damn well know, that with the low budgets of these sexploitation films had to work with, that it's shot without permits, an excellent candid time capsule of the 60s.
NYC Subway circa 1967
It won't be long now honey
Above a token booth, the bank of the original heavy token accepting wooden turnstiles, on the wall in the b.g. one of the varied "You don't have to be Jewish to love Levy's Real Jewish rye" bread advertizing campaign posters that were plastered all over Manhattan. That poster had the Navajo.
So Tony heads downtown, the film is edited a bit out of sequence however. Apparently he got on at 42nd street Times Square Station, and went downtown, then apparently got off at 14th. Where above he's shown waiting for a train. But in the next sequence below we are back to the downtown train pulling into the 42nd Street station. When Tony finally leaves the train for his neighborhood he's shown riding an Astoria bound QT train that's heading uptown. The only New Yorker explanation I can give you is that perhaps he was on a downtown express, had to go past his local stop to the next express stop, then double back on a local. This strategy can sometimes be quicker than riding a pokey local through every stop all the way downtown, and Tony's in a hurry to score.
Tony gets back home with his date, to his spartan apartment. His only decorations are a few pin ups tacked on the wall above his bed, Lovingly Tony lays the head gently down on his bed. What Tony does with the head after that is left to our wildest imaginations. So see, it still works just like in the old Classic Noir days of the Motion Picture Production Code, it's just that the cultural yardsticks have changed.Successfully stealing the head only accelerates Tony's deviant behavior. He shifts it into second gear. He gets up the courage to approach a hooker. He knows how to chat them females up now. Tony talks her into coming up to his I guess we can call it the "love shack." Getting there, she of course, asks for money up front, unfortunately he doesn't have enough. What he's got isn't even good enough for a ****. She tells him it's only worth a peek at her goods.
I only have $10
Back at his peeping tower perch Tony is now in third gear, actively looking for victims. Tony is in effect window shopping. He starts to track down the women to the addresses of buildings they are sunbathing on and then he goes about waiting and then he stalks them. He's even carelessly taken to randomly peeking in street level windows to see what he can see.
In High gear now Tony's deviancy turns deadly. First targets from peeping, and now just randomly following women to their offices or home. He pulls them into whatever is handy, i.e., the ladies room or breaks into the women's apartments, strangles them and then (always off camera) has sex with their bodies, like warm mannequins. Tony is a necrophiliac wing nut.
Of course with Tony really going of the deep end and taking more and more chances he inevitably hops on the crazy train express to Noirsville.Again, the film is about a 6/10, it's no technical masterpiece there are peeping tom sequences where the camera angles change inexplicably, and one sequence completely out of left field, it's just an insert voyeuristic peek at a woman in her apartment, though I'm not even sure if it's one of the sunbathers. Maybe the creative "team" though the film needed a bit of a jolt at this juncture. Who knows, it may have been left over footage from another Mahon opus, snicker.
For me originally a native New Yorker, it gets another point for the neo realist captures. The smoggy Manhattan depicted is the city I spend my late teens and early twenties in, that's my Times Square. It was my high school backyard. I went to school between 6th and 5th Avenue on 54th Street, it was one long block over to 7th Ave., then five short blocks down to the North fringe of Times Square. The mid 60's Times Square, where just casually walking down the street you'd see women wearing see-through tops, clusters of Hookers gravitating around 47th street, or encounter a myriad of grifters, Sabrett hot dog and pretzel vendors, shoe shiners, and people wound just a bit too tight.
The Metropole, across from a big Playland Arcade, afforded a nice free peek at topless dancers inside to sidewalk gawkers. Around the corner South of Playland between 7th and Broadway on 47th St., there was a Burlesque supply store with an a large audacious display window. There were still active Dime a Dance Joints around with genuine taxi dancers, one was the Majestic Ballroom above the Playland in the triangle block bordered by Broadway and 7th and 47th and 48th. The Follies Burlesque was above the Howard Johnson's further South in competition with the numerous "Live Nude Girls" peep shows and adult bookstores. All this among the the the legitimate Broadway theaters, the Movie Palaces and 42nd St. grindhouses.
Added to the above, the candid cinema verite like "Vanishing/Forgotten New York" subway and the West Village sequences are just surprise bonuses. It's interesting to note, to a subway geek, that the complete conversion from the original incandescent to fluorescent lighting in the subway stations had not been completed.
The story holds both faint similarities to the works of Peckinpah, and Lynch and cinematic memories to Kubrick. Screencaps are from the Something Weird Video. Archivally interesting and culturally entertaining, an oddity of a time past. Remember though, it's still a grainy sexploitaion film with a depraved story at heart. When it comes to these Times Square centered films there is always the distinct possibility that one of my friends or even I may have been candidly caught on film. A 6-7/10 and that's being sentimentally generous. Full review with more screencaps at Noirsville the Film Noir.-
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Well yah, I mean, of course, that's a men's room standard. Right next to the prophylactic machines and cologne samples.
I guess you've been around.
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COLLATERAL (2004) This afternoon on TNT. A suspense thriller, starring JAMIE FOXX and TOM CRUISE about a professional hit man(Cruise) who highjacks a taxi cab and forces the driver(Foxx) to take him around to all his "assignments" and also seems to put Foxx in a situation that could get him killed or at least be taken for an acomplice.
This is the movie which several critics thought Foxx deserved his Academy award for rather than the following year's RAY. And it's easy to see why in this Michael Mann directed flick. He puts in an excellent performance, and although I know there's not a whole lot of love for him here, Cruise too, does a fine job as the cold, business-like hit man. It's when Foxx discovers his woman, an attorney with the Justice department(Jada Pinkett Smith), is one of Cruise's targets, he takes major steps in trying to save her and put an end to his troubles with Cruise, who isn't as lucky on the L train as he was in "Risky Business"
Sepiatone
A pretty good neo noir also. For me the real Neo Noirs are the ones that strongly embrace the visual stylistics of Noir, the shadows, the Dutch angles, depth of field, high and low angles, etc., etc. along with a good noir-ish plot. So far from 1960 to the present I have about 100 films that I've seen that I consider Neo Noir, the rest are just Crime films. I thought Collateral had sufficient enough style to be included.
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Hard Eight (1996) Reno Neo Noir
A Christmas NoirWritten and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson (Boogie Nights (1997), There Will Be Blood (2007)). The cinematography was by Robert Elswit (The River Wild(1994), Boogie Nights (1997), There Will Be Blood(2007)) and the great music was by Jon Brion and Michael Penn.The film stars Philip Baker Hall (Zabriskie Point (1970), Kiss of Death (1995) Hit Me (1996)), John C. Reilly (The River Wild (1994), Gangs of New York (2002) ), Gwyneth Paltrow (The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), and Samuel L. Jackson (Sea of Love (1989), Goodfellas(1990), White Sands (1992), True Romance (1993), Pulp Fiction (1994), Jackie Brown (1997) The Hateful Eight (2015)), with small supporting appearances by Robert Ridgely, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Melora Walters.Sydney (Hall). Hard guy. An ex gangster. Maybe it's just the Christmas season or maybe Sydney is seeking perhaps a personal redemption. He's in some Mojave desert pitstop trying hard to weasel some wings.All the principals are superb. Hall portrays the tough love pseudo father figure in a solemn, standoffish way, you know he doesn't suffer fools normally but his humanity is leaking out of his exterior shell and he does his best for the two dimwits he has chosen to help. Riley is the loveable idiot, taking every wrong direction when he has a choice. His soul mate Paltrow plays the equally dense, a marriage made in a mental hospital. Soon after the ceremony John turns around and Clementine is gone off with a trick. Jackson as the not quite smart enough Mr. Cool, shows his chops here.It's a Reno of noisy ding, ding, ding, casino hotels with bad lounge acts, dive motels, and small dumpy vinyl greasy spoons, all with the barest hints of Christmas, i.e., faint elevator music yuletide carol's on autopilot, or a pathetically stingy string of lights on a front porch. Bravo 9/10. Full review with more screencaps here in Film Noir/Gangster page and at Noirsville here: http://noirsville.blogspot.com/2017/08/hard-eight-1996-reno-neo-noir.html
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Hard Eight (1996) Reno Neo Noir
A Christmas Noir
Written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson (Boogie Nights (1997), There Will Be Blood (2007)). The cinematography was by Robert Elswit (The River Wild(1994), Boogie Nights (1997), There Will Be Blood(2007)) and the great music was by Jon Brion and Michael Penn.
The film stars Philip Baker Hall (Zabriskie Point (1970), Kiss of Death (1995) Hit Me (1996)), John C. Reilly (The River Wild (1994), Gangs of New York (2002) ), Gwyneth Paltrow (The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), and Samuel L. Jackson (Sea of Love (1989), Goodfellas(1990), White Sands (1992), True Romance (1993), Pulp Fiction (1994), Jackie Brown (1997) The Hateful Eight (2015)), with small supporting appearances by Robert Ridgely, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Melora Walters.
Sydney (Hall). Hard guy. An ex gangster. Maybe it's just the Christmas season or maybe Sydney is seeking perhaps a personal redemption. He's in some Mojave desert pitstop trying hard to weasel some wings.
Sydney (Hall) John (Reilly). ****. Loser. Down and out. Transient at Jack's. Went from Los Angeles to Vegas to, get this, try and win the six grand he needs to bury his mother. Sydney "finds" John and offers him a cigarette and a cup of joe. Sydney we find out later has an Atlantic City connection to John. At the booth Sydney offers to give John fifty bucks. He asks John what he'd do with the fifty, Johns says he'll eat. Sydney answers and then what? Sydney tells him that with the fifty dollars I'll take you to Vegas and show you how to survive. John wonders what's the catch, but he agrees to let Sydney show him and they drive back to Vegas.
John
Two years later. Christmas time. John and Sydney have been up in Reno now a couple of low rollers working the casino circuits. John is getting by on his own thanks to Sydney. John has also fallen in love with a cocktail waitress/B-girl/amateur hooker named Clementine (Paltrow). John also has made a new friend name of Jimmy (Jackson), he is a hard drinking, suave, cocky, casino security man who moonlights as "player."
Clementine (Paltrow)Sydney wants the best for John, treats him like a son. Sydney becomes interested in Clementine when he sees that John is head over heels for her. Questioning Clementine, Sydney finds out that she is also expected to be friendly to the customers.
Sydney: [at the cocktail lounge] Tell me something. Are you required to flirt, to behave as you do toward that table of men over there? Maybe... it's some part of your job?
Clementine: Uh, they don't say to do it.
Sydney: But if you don't?
Clementine: Well, then I get questioned, like: "Why were so rude to them?", and, I mean, I can't talk back. I can't tell them to **** off and leave me alone.
Sydney: As a rule?
Clementine: I'd also lose the tip.
Jimmy (Jackson)Tailing her after work he finds out that she's hooking on the side. That night, Sydney confronts Clementine and takes her up to his room. Clementine suspects that he wants to play hide the sausage, but he only wants to set her up with John.
The next day Sydney sends Clementine and John out to the mall to buy her some clothes.
That night, Sydney receives a frantic call from John. John asks Sydney for help, and John won't tell him why, he just asks him to come to a motel room. Sydney gets to the room. ****. He finds out that John and Clementine are not the sharpest tools in the shed. They have taken a trick of Clementine's hostage. He **** Clementine and didn't pay her. They've knocked him out and are holding him for ransom. They called his wife and demanded $300.
Sydney: You know the first thing they should've taught you at hooker school? You get the money up front!
I want my three hundred dollars Sydney, can't believe it. Then to top it all off John tells Sydney that he married Clementine. When Sydney asks who knows that they are there, John finally tells him that Jimmy brought him the gun. Sydney takes charge tells John and Clementine to get out of town, go on a honeymoon. The head out to Niagara Falls.
Everything goes Noirsville when Jimmy blackmails Sydney with the knowledge that Sydney shot John's father in the face back in Jersey.Jimmy: What I mean - what I believe... is that you killed his father... like the stories I heard go. Now, if somebody killed my father... I would feel the need to do something. The stories I heard - you know, stories get around - is that you used to be a hard-****. You were a hard-**** and you took his dad out, Sydney. So you think - what? You can just walk through this life... without being punished for it? ****, man. I know all those guys you know. Floyd Gondolli, Jimmy Gator, Mumbles O'Malley. They like to sit around in Clifton's and talk, talk, talk. They love to tell stories. You can sit there and look at me sideways all you want. You probably think I'm some kind of **** or something... but I'm not a killer... like you. You walk around like you're Mr. Cool, Mr. Wisdom... but you're not. You're just some old hood. The other night in the bar, you asking me a question... like do I do parking lot security? Well, the answer is no! I'm trusted security inside the casino. I'm trusted with security, and I don't **** it up.
Sydney: Good that you have such a sturdy sense of responsibility.
Jimmy: Don't! Don't! Don't ****' do that! You understand? I can see right through that ****! You look at me as some idiot, huh? I know you do. I know you. You old guys, you old hoods... you think you're so ****' above it... so high and mighty. What am I to you? Some loser? Not with a gun in my hand. Not with the facts I know. Bottom line, Sydney. No matter how hard you try... you're not his father.
Jimmy's is also, for all his coolness and hip threads, another dumb ****, and yes also another loser. In his above monolog we can highlight the section of it that will be his famous last words, that being, "but I'm not a killer... like you." Bingo!
Noirsville
All the principals are superb. Hall portrays the tough love pseudo father figure in a solemn, standoffish way, you know he doesn't suffer fools normally but his humanity is leaking out of his exterior shell and he does his best for the two dimwits he has chosen to help. Riley is the loveable idiot, taking every wrong direction when he has a choice. His soul mate Paltrow plays the equally dense, a marriage made in a mental hospital. Soon after the ceremony John turns around and Clementine is gone off with a trick. Jackson as the not quite smart enough Mr. Cool, shows his chops here. There is an excellent transition of a tune that is originally called Sydney's Theme. It happens when Sydney is waiting on the return of Jimmy.
Jimmy is high rolling it at the crap table. He bets a hard eight and makes it. Mr Cool now gets a hooker in tow and brings her back to the apartment. Opening the door they grope in the dark. Jimmy begins to ask the woman to "see your p***y." She lays back on the couch spreading her legs wide while Jimmy flips the switch on the light. She is showing Jimmy everything she's got. And at that moment Sydney's Theme transitions into what I call the White **** Blues for Jimmy.
It's a Reno of noisy ding, ding, ding, casino hotels with bad lounge acts, dive motels, and small dumpy vinyl greasy spoons, all with the barest hints of Christmas, i.e., faint elevator music yuletide carol's on autopilot, or a pathetically stingy string of lights on a front porch. Bravo 9/10. Full review with more screencaps here. http://noirsville.blogspot.com/2017/08/hard-eight-1996-reno-neo-noir.html-
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Have you seen Lindfors in Adventures of Don Juan, cigarjoe? She plays the Queen of Spain who has never known love. Along comes Don Juan (Errol Flynn) who falls for her. At first seeming austere and coolly remote, Lindfors makes her character's gradual transformation into a woman of warmth and even passion interesting and credible, not just a predictable script cliche. The actress brings a majestic beauty and intelligence to her role, as well as vulnerability. The fact that she and Flynn had a potent screen chemistry makes their scenes together (few as they are) work all the better.
To be honest, I haven't seen Viveca Lindors (who makes me think of Ingrid Bergman, to a degree) really impress me in anything else, but she's very good in Don Juan, a film that TCM shows quite frequently.
Never seen it, I'm going by her noirs Backfire (1950) Dark City (1950), and Brainstorm (1965)
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Three women:
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A couple more
Franchot Tone
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Last Exit To Brooklyn (1989) Entertaining up to a point, but something is off, I don't think at that time the particular characters focused on would have been so accepting of gays as depicted and then that is then handled unevenly, if you have seen it you'll probably know what I'm referring to. 7/10
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Date With Death (1959) New Mexico Noir
The second Hollywood movie filmed in "psychorama," a process using subliminal information through film by flashing images on the screen so quickly that they cannot be perceived by the conscious mind. The subliminal communication was by Precon the Precon psychologist was Dr. Robert E. Corrigan, and the Precon engineer was Mr. Hal C. Becker.Directed by Harold Daniels (Roadblock (1951), written by Robert C. Dennis (Crime Against Joe(1956), The Man Is Armed (1956), Mike Hammer TV Series (1958–1959), Alfred Hitchcock Presents TV Series (1955–1962). The cinematography was by Carl E. Guthrie (Flaxy Martin (1949), Backfire (1950), Caged (1950), Undercover Girl (1950), Highway 301 (1950), The Tattered Dress (1957), Hell Bound (1957) the appropriately sleazy music was by Darrell Calker.This film is an interesting watch if you can find it. The shakedown sequence with the two goons slowly cutting off the buttons on tobacconist's daughters tight sweater, and then right through her bra must have been quite daring for 1959, ditto the shower sequence with Liz Renay (at the time a gal pal of Los Angeles gangster Mickey Cohen). Mohr is believable, Renay and most of the major principals are adequate, the rest of the cast though seem like amateurs, probably the actual townsfolk of Roswell, New Mexico. This could use a restoration, what I had to watch left much to be desired. 6/10Full review with more screencaps here in Film Noir/Gangster thread and with even more screencaps here: https://noirsville.blogspot.com/2017/08/date-with-death-1959-new-mexico-noir.html
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Date With Death (1959) New Mexico Noir
The second Hollywood movie filmed in "psychorama," a process using subliminal information through film by flashing images on the screen so quickly that they cannot be perceived by the conscious mind. The subliminal communication was by Precon the Precon psychologist was Dr. Robert E. Corrigan, and the Precon engineer was Mr. Hal C. Becker.
Directed by Harold Daniels (Roadblock (1951), written by Robert C. Dennis (Crime Against Joe(1956), The Man Is Armed (1956), Mike Hammer TV Series (1958–1959), Alfred Hitchcock Presents TV Series (1955–1962). The cinematography was by Carl E. Guthrie (Flaxy Martin (1949), Backfire (1950), Caged (1950), Undercover Girl (1950), Highway 301 (1950), The Tattered Dress (1957), Hell Bound (1957) the appropriately sleazy music was by Darrell Calker.
The film stars Gerald Mohr (Lady of Burlesque(1943), Gilda (1946), Undercover Girl (1950), Hunt the Man Down (1950), Detective Story (1951), The Sniper (1952), ) as Mike Mason / Louis Deverman, Liz Renay
(The Naked and the Dead (1958), The Thrill Killers (1964)) as Paula Warren, Robert Clarke (Desperate (1947), Mike Hammer TV Series (1958–1959)) as Joe Emmanuel, Stephanie Farnay as Edie Dale. Harry Lauter (Moonrise (1948), Roadblock (1951), The Big Heat (1953), Crime Wave (1953), The Crooked Web (1955), The Case Against Brooklyn (1958)) as Lt. George Caddell, Ed Erwin as Det. Lt. Art Joslin, Lew Markman as Nicky Potter - Chief Thug, Ray Dearhorn as Sam the Jailer, Kenne Duncan as Andrews the Freight-Train Watchman.
taking the siding
A Santa Fe freight drag bound for L.A.takes siding out in the middle of nowhere, New Mexico. We see a hobo Mason (Mohr) smoking his pipe leaning against an open boxcar door. Mason had a used car lot in New York City and went flat broke so he's bumming his way to L.A. and a new start.
Mike Mason (Mohr)
A railroad brakeman walks along the top of the cars spotting Mason and another 'bo now sitting in the open doorway. The brakeman has words with the men, when he kicks Mason, Mason belts him and jumps off the car just as a passing freight roars by.Mason now on foot is seen walking towards a dirt road rail crossing. At the road Mason looks at desolation in both directions. He flips a coin and goes to the right. after a few miles he spots a 54 Pontiac pulled off in the brush. He slips on his jacket, sticks his pipe in his pocket making it look as if he has a gun.
He approaches the car, spots a woman's initialed scarf, draped out of the window next to a hanging sport coat blocking a view of the back seat. It looks as if there may be some hanky-panky going on. Mohr announces "sorry to interrupt your party, I wanted a ride into the next town." He gets no response, going to the window he sees a man slumped in the front seat. Mason shakes the man thinking he's just passed out drunk. He's not, he's dead, shot through the heart.
He searches the man and finds a NYPD police detective badge his name is Louis Deverman. Next we see Mason driving the Pontiac dressed in the sport coat that was hanging in the back window, shaving with an electric shaver plugged into the cigarette lighter, and speeding down the two lane fast enough to attract two motorcycle cops. They pull him over see his driver's license assume he's Deverman then escort him into the town of Mindon.
At the courthouse he's sworn in as the new police chief, then shown around the department by the acting chief Lt. George Caddell (Lauter).
At the jail he meets Paula Warren (Renay) the jail keeper calls her a transient, she's sitting in a cell awaiting a court date for attempting to defraud a hotel manager and simple assault. Paula tells him that she hit him with a lamp "it was self defence." Mason/Deverman tells the jailer to let her out.
Then he takes her to the hotel and tells the manager to drop the charges and give her back her room or he'll start hounding him about code violations. Mindon is rife with corruption, we see a tobacconist shook down by two thugs that threaten his daughter. Half the businesses in town pay protection to a racketeer named Joe Emanuel (Clarke) who runs his operations out of the Country Club. Mason/Deverman quickly finds himself in the middle of the corruption scandal and the investigation of the murder of a dead man found outside town, i.e. the real Deverman. Mason/Deverman heads out to the Country Club to confront Emanuel.
He sees Paula auditioning for the floor show just before he meets with Emanuel. He suspects that Emanuel had the real Deverman killed and Emanuel all but confirms it. Mason/Deverman makes a deal telling Emanuel that since he's chief of police he can name his successor. Emanuel says he'll think about it.
After giving Paula a ride back to the hotel she invites him up to her room. While she takes a shower, Mason spots a scarf just like the one in the back of the murder car, while at the same time Lt. George Caddell finds out that Mason is an imposter. Everything goes twistedly Noirsville.
Noirsville
Paula Warren (Renay)
This film is an interesting watch if you can find it. The shakedown sequence with the two goons slowly cutting off the buttons on tobacconist's daughters tight sweater, and then right through her bra must have been quite daring for 1959, ditto the shower sequence with Liz Renay (at the time a gal pal of Los Angeles gangster Mickey Cohen). Mohr is believable, Renay and most of the major principals are adequate, the rest of the cast though seem like amateurs, probably the actual townsfolk of Roswell, New Mexico. This could use a restoration, what I had to watch left much to be desired. 6/10
Full review with more screencaps here: https://noirsville.blogspot.com/2017/08/date-with-death-1959-new-mexico-noir.html
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The Mad Bomber (1973) Trash Noir
Too bad they couldn't figure out a title. The Mad Bomber aka Geronimo, aka The Police Connection, or for that matter had acquired a better suited leading man.Directed by "Creature Feature director Bert I. Gordon (The Cyclops (1957), Attack of the Puppet People (1958), Tormented (1960), Empire of the Ants (1977)), Written by Bert I. Gordon (screenplay), Marc Behm (story). Cinematography by Bert I. Gordon, and music by Michel Mention.Two of the film's leads were better known as staple TV actors. Vince Edwards (Rogue Cop (1954), The Night Holds Terror (1955), The Killing (1956), Murder by Contract (1958), City of Fear (1959), but better known for Ben Casey TV Series (1961–1966)) as Geronimo Minelli, Chuck Connors (Naked Alibi (1954), Soylent Green(1973) known to all as Lucas McCain from The Rifleman TV Series (1958–1963)) as William Dorn, Neville Brand (Port of New York (1949), D.O.A. (1950), Where the Sidewalk Ends (1950), Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye (1950), Kansas City Confidential (1952), Riot in Cell Block 11 (1954), Cry Terror! (1958)) as George Fromley, Hank Brandt as Blake, Christina Hart as Fromley's victim, Faith Quabius as Martha, Ilona Wilson as Mrs. Fromley, Nancy Honnold as Anne Dorn, Ted Gehring as Police Chief Marc C. Forester, Jeff Burton as Sgt. Gribble, Dee Carroll as Miss Roman and Paula Mitchell as Shelly the Stripper.The film has an eclectic mix of sounds and music, we get a frenetic multiple tickings from an opening bomb making sequence when Dorn selects a cheap windup alarm clock from a cabinet full of them. In another scene with Dorn he listens to Joni Mitchell/Joan Baez/Buffy Sainte-Marie/Judy Collins, etc., etc., "flower power" type, mind numbing, music recorded by his dead daughter which triggers haunting flashbacks while he electric tapes dynamite bundles together. In other slots we get gogo bar dance tunes and a Funkadelic police sting sequence.The film has got some memorable sequences and to be expected goes out with a bang. Trash Noir lite 8/10 Full review at Noirsville.
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Alias Nick Beal I'm surprised this isn't been on more often. I thought it was quite good and Ray Milland's best performance after Lost Weekend. Very atmospheric with excellent performances; a noir fantasy. Thomas Mitchell is always good and he's a the co-lead here whereas he's usually in strong supporting roles. Has he had a SUTS?
A few supernatural and fantasy based Noir have been around since the beginning. Repeat Performance (1947), The Amazing Mr. X (1948), Fear in the Night (1947), The Night Has a Thousand Eyes (1948), Nightmare (1956), covered roughly the same territory, there are probably a few more. You can possibly even include It's a Wonderful Life (1946) for the Noir-ish sequence and Val Lewton's The Seventh Victim (1943). Angel Heart (1987) and also David Lynch's Lost Highway (1997) practically covers the same type of territory but with the latter without the Judeo-Christian iconography.
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Bone Tomahawk (2015) American cop out western film directed, written and co-scored by S. Craig Zahler, and stars Kurt Russell, Patrick Wilson, Matthew Fox, Richard Jenkins, Lili Simmons, David Arquette, Sid Haig, and Sean Young.
It's called a Horror Western about a tribe of troglodytes that kidnap a couple of townsfolk and the posse that goes out to retrieve them.
The funny thing is this didn't have to be about "troglodytes," if you read enough history, journals, and letters of the early frontier and the West you'd know that nothing that went down in this film was very far off from what the Native American tribes actually did to other tribes and to European colonists. I'm actually of the opinion that it could be that the PC powers that be would never greenlight a film that showed Native Americans as they actually were.In recent years especially with films like Dances With Wolves the general impression exuded is that with the Native Americans it was all "Peace Love Dove", one with nature like hippies or hobbits, sadly not so.In this film just take away the strange voice calls and call them Iroquois, Ottawa, Hurons, Blackfeet, Apache, Yaqui, get the idea.8/10-
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I Just Watched...
in General Discussions
Posted
Rio Bravo huh, Maybe he (Hawks) should have cast it differently. John Wayne as Pharaoh Khufu, Jennifer Jones as Princess Nellifer, Ward Bond as Treneh, The Captain of the Guard, Walter Brennan as architect Vashtar, Ricky Nelson as Senta, Vashtar's Son he could sing "My Staff, My Camel, and Me. "