cigarjoe
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Give 'em Hell Malone (2009) Hyper Hammer
Another great Neo Noir flick that's either written off most lists, or just never made the radar screens of most noiristas and aficio-noirdos. This one I'd heard negative comments about, particularly how it resembles a first person shooter game.What Give em Hell Malone does is grab you, whether you are into these games or not, with this opening sequence that indeed inserts you a video game-ish scenario, and what it effectively does, is quicken the tempo of Noir. It gets you up to the speed of Mark Hosack's hard boiled dialog, homaging both Chandler, Hammett, and the better parts of Mickey Spillane. It's tongue in cheek picaresque, and a lot of fun.This film is a great boiling stew of the Classic Hard Boiled Detective, Sergio Leone, Quentin Tarantino, David Lynch, and the Coen Brothers with some homage to true crime. It's so stylish and knowing that it gives a fresh look particularly to the hard boiled detective and noir.This film is a real hoot. It's oozing updated hard boiled style, with a tablespoon of Kill Bill from Tarantino, a pinch of Mulholland Drive from Lynch, a bite of Point Blank from Boorman, a cup of Blood Simple from the Coen Brothers, a ladle of Fistfull Of Dollars from Leone, a wallop of The Lady From Shanghai from Welles, the graphic scribble of Sin City from Miller, Rodriguez, and even some of Dick Tracy from Chester Gould, the film borrows from all. Screencaps from the January 26, 2010 DVD. Full review in Film Noir/Gangster thread and with more screencaps here: https://noirsville.blogspot.com/2017/07/give-em-hell-malone-2009-hyper-hammer.html
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Give 'em Hell Malone (2009) Hyper Hammer
Another great Neo Noir flick that's either written off most lists, or just never made the radar screens of most noiristas and aficio-noirdos. This one I'd heard negative comments about, particularly how it resembles a first person shooter game.
What Give em Hell Malone does is grab you, whether you are into these games or not, with this opening sequence that indeed inserts you a video game-ish scenario, and what it effectively does, is quicken the tempo of Noir. It gets you up to the speed of Mark Hosack's hard boiled dialog, homaging both Chandler, Hammett, and the better parts of Mickey Spillane. It's tongue in cheek picaresque, and a lot of fun.
This film is a great boiling stew of the Classic Hard Boiled Detective, Sergio Leone, Quentin Tarantino, David Lynch, and the Coen Brothers with some homage to true crime. It's so stylish and knowing that it gives a fresh look particularly to the hard boiled detective and noir.
I'ts almost like what a Fistfull Of Dollars does to the Western, this has the blueprint on how to tweak the old school Hard Boiled Detective.Similar to Miller's Sin City, Give 'em Hell Malone takes place in an unspecified time in what star Thomas Jane calls a Noiriverse, Noirsville by another name. It manages to do this with the help of Inland Empire railroad hub, Spokane, Washington, a city that still has a lot of 30s, 40s, 50s, and 60s era buildings, grit, and atmosphere. The anti-hero Malone (Jane) strides through bodies like the Man With No Name through the Rojo and Baxter's, making Mike Hammer-esque wisecracks in voice over, nice! It can also boast of a decent convoluted story, many memorable characters, and an ominous, black, exhaust rumbling, souped up, 51 Merc that, compared to 2000s era vehicles looks like a small tank.
And this is another big **** to critics in 2009, this film delivers, especially if you are tuned to noir. If you have been wading through the lists of some of reviewers, and those "hop on the band wagon" shills of basically, what I call, softcore-ish compilations of what they think are Neo Noirs, and are looking for a Noir Fix, this film is mainlining it.
Malone (Thomas Jane) Directed stylishly by Russell Mulcahy (Highlander, Resident Evil: Extinction, Razorback) and a bunch of other stuff I've never seen or heard of, but from the merits of this I will check out next years In Like Flynn (filming)). Good noirish cinematography by Jonathan Hall, and music by David C. Williams, again with both I've not really seen nor heard of anything else they've done.
Evelyn (Elsa Pataky) The film stars Thomas Jane (Boogie Nights (1997), Magnolia (1999), The Punisher (2004),
Dark Country (2009)) as gruff ex P.I. Malone, Ving Rhames (Miami Vice TV series (1984–1990), Pulp Fiction (1994), Kiss of Death (1995) Dark Blue (2002)) as hired gun Boulder, Elsa Pataky as Femme Fatale Evelyn, French Stewart (3rd Rock from the Sun TV Series (1996–2001), Leaving Las Vegas (1995)) as Frankie the Crooner, Leland Orser (Se7en (1995), Baby Face Nelson (1996), Taken (2008)) as Murphy, Chris Yen (Adventures of Johnny Tao (2007)) as Mauler, Gregory Harrison (Razorback (1984)) as mob king Whitmore, Eileen Ryan (The Twilight Zone TV Series (1959–1964), The Detectives TV Series (1959–1962), Magnolia (1999)) as Mother Gloria and David Andriole (Barb Wire (1996), Freeway (1996)) as Pencil Stache.
Matchstick ( Gregory Harrison) Malone. Tough. Wisecracker with a Bogart growl. Hard Drinker. Ex-Private Eye. Now Gun For Hire. Hired through his sort of appointment maker Murphy by a dame named Evelyn to retrieve a metal briefcase from a mob headquarter building. A mob territorial war is going on between two factions when Malone arrives.. Playing both ends against the middle he decimates both sides equally. He gets both wounded and the case but knows it was a setup. He just don't know the why yet.
He heads to his mother Gloria's nursing home for assistance. Gloria is a hard drinking ex nurse. She digs out Malone's bullet. While there he breaks open the briefcase and finds it stuffed with newspapers and a small blue elephant that Malone dubbs "the meaning of love." This cryptic appellation stirs up the interest of a number of underworld figures who are trying to figure out what it is in Noirsville that is worth so much in dead men.
Noirsville
'51 Merc
Thomas Jane is highly entertaining as mercenary Malone. His quick paced gravelly voice overs punctuate the action, he grumbles wisecracks like gunshots. Jane and equally hard boiled costar Pataky spit sexual banter like two alley cats. It's reminiscent of Bogart and Bacall's banter in The Big Sleep but more believable.
All the bad guys in the film are fearful of Malone, there are varying stories of the brutal demise of Malone's family (Shown in Black & White flashbacks) and how the experience warped Malone into a cold blooded killing machine.
Pataky is the pieces sharp tongued femme fatale. At times Pataky's foreign inflections of English breaks through, but after all she's supposed to be a European prostitute. In this respect she reminds me of classic femme fatales Faith Domergue, Viveca Lindfors, and Peggy Cummins.
Ving Rhames is Malone's ex partner, Rhames is the heavy, he is imposing. Gregory Harrison the Mob King "goes Capone" on Malone's ****. Chris Yen plays a Crazy 88 type of sadistic assassin Mauler. Doug Hutchison, reminiscent a bit of a combination of Klaus Kinski and Jack Nance, is a bit over the top as wacko pyromaniac Matchstick.
A big shout out to French Stewart as bad lounge act Frankie the Crooner, part of his act is singing Lou Reed's "Good Night Ladies" at dive bars and old folks homes. His other gig is supplying visas for money or sex, to illegal alien prostitutes for Harrison. Stewart kind of reminds me of classic Film Noir bit player Edmond Ryan. Other memorable performances are David Andriole as Pencil Stash, and Eileen Ryan as Ma Gloria.
This film is a real hoot. It's oozing updated hard boiled style, with a tablespoon of Kill Bill from Tarantino, a pinch of Mulholland Drive from Lynch, a bite of Point Blank from Boorman, a cup of Blood Simple from the Coen Brothers, a ladle of Fistfull Of Dollars from Leone, a wallop of The Lady From Shanghai from Welles, the graphic scribble of Sin City from Miller, Rodriguez, and even some of Dick Tracy from Chester Gould, the film borrows from all. Screencaps from the January 26, 2010 DVD. Full review with more screencaps here: https://noirsville.blogspot.com/2017/07/give-em-hell-malone-2009-hyper-hammer.html -
All Fall Down (1962) Tis The Season To Be Dysfunctional
Director John Frankenheimer's (The Young Savages (1961), The Manchurian Candidate(1962), Seconds (1966)) second feature All Fall Down is about the seriously dysfunctional Willart family of Cleveland, Ohio and their satellite of influence the 30 year old virgin Echo O'Brien."Family love is messy, clinging, and of an annoying and repetitive pattern… like bad wallpaper." Friedrich NietzscheThe film was based on the novel of the same name by James Leo Herlihy whose mentor was Tennessee Williams, and who would gain fame later from his novel Midnight Cowboy. The screenplay by William Inge (Picnic (1955), Bus Stop (1956), Splendor in the Grass (1961)) deviates quite a bit from the beginning scenarios of the novel.All the major cast put in strong performances, Warren Beatty (Splendor in the Grass (1961),Bonnie and Clyde (1967), McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971), Bugsy (1991)) plays the films twisted narcissistic going with the flow, bad boy, in a "what me worry?" fashion. Eva Marie Saint (On the Waterfront (1954), North by Northwest (1959), ), projects a fragile beauty, refinement and vulnerableness with body movements and facial expressions. Angela Lansbury really corners the market on portraying an overbearing character in a very low key fashion. Karl Malden (Boomerang! (1947), Kiss of Death (1947), Where the Sidewalk Ends (1950), A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), The Sellout (1952), On the Waterfront (1954), Baby Doll (1956)) puts in a good passive supporting performance. Brandon deWilde fits the role of the kid brother perfectly, he blends in with the cast and is very believable.The bit part players are also quite entertaining, Evans Evans (Bonnie and Clyde (1967)) as the young naive hooker, Madame Spivy (The Fugitive Kind (1960), The Manchurian Candidate(1962), Requiem for a Heavyweight (1962), ) is totally believable as the bull dyke bar owner, Constance Ford (A Summer Place (1959)) as the h*o*r*n*y yacht wife, and Barbara Baxley (The Savage Eye (1960) No Way to Treat a Lady (1968)) as the desperate schoolteacher. Also watch for the two deputies in Bonita Key, and the three bums who visit the Willart House on Christmas Eve.The whole Bonita Key sequence is a wonderful time capsule of Key West, Florida circa 1960s, check it out. Screencaps are from the Warner's on demand DVD. 7/10Fuller review with more screencaps in Film Noir/Gangster thread and full review here: http://noirsville.blogspot.com/2017/07/all-fall-down-1962-tis-season-to-be.html
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All Fall Down (1962) Tis The Season To Be Dysfunctional
The streetcar named Film Noir went off the Crime Genre rails early, basically right at the onset of it's second coming. The Lost Weekend for example, reviewed here a few weeks ago delved into addiction and human frailties, not crime, Noir in its original 1930's use meant any films with subject matter considered immoral and demoralizing.
Director John Frankenheimer's (The Young Savages (1961), The Manchurian Candidate(1962), Seconds (1966)) second feature All Fall Down is about the seriously dysfunctional Willart family of Cleveland, Ohio and their satellite of influence the 30 year old virgin Echo O'Brien.
"Family love is messy, clinging, and of an annoying and repetitive pattern… like bad wallpaper." Friedrich Nietzsche
The film was based on the novel of the same name by James Leo Herlihy whose mentor was Tennessee Williams, and who would gain fame later from his novel Midnight Cowboy. The screenplay by William Inge (Picnic (1955), Bus Stop (1956), Splendor in the Grass (1961)) deviates quite a bit from the beginning scenarios of the novel.
The Overseas Highway, A1A , Florida Keys Regardless though, it's no surprise how intriguingly well gay writers can write about dysfunction. Inge infuses the screenplay with a nagging, overbearing, suffocating, psychopathic mother Annabell Willart (Angela Lansbury) whose devotion, bordering on worship of her seriously **** up, hyper chick magnet son, Berry-Berry (Warren Beatty), hints at incest. Berry-Berry has serious mother issues.
Annabell reigns over the first floor of the house and spends her evenings enthusiastically listening to Guess That Song (Name That Tune) on the radio. All this drives Ralph Willart (Karl Malden) Annabelle's long suffering husband, a closet socialist, real estate broker, to spend his evenings in the shelter of his cosy basement domane in an easy chair with the company of a good bottle of booze and a jigsaw puzzle.
Clinton Willart (Brandon De Wilde), Berry-Berry's younger brother is sort of the audio equivalent of a peeping tom, i.e., an "eavesdropping eddie." He is compulsively listening in on his parents arguments, his mother's phone calls, and on other people's conversations. These he meticulously all writes down in his ever present notebook. Clinton also idolizes his older brother. When Bernice's daughter come to visit, Clinton is in love at the first sight of Echo."You don't actually see her quiver you just feel it. She's all alive and quivering."
Enter the fifth wheel in this tableau, Echo O'Brien (Eva Marie Saint), the gorgeous, practically old maid daughter of Annabelle's best friend Bernice. In Herlihy's novel Bernice is an obese wheelchair bound clairvoyant who is also interested in phrenology, which, combined with a long taxing relationship she had with an alcoholic (who finally shuts his own lights out by sucking a carbon monoxide cocktail in a garage), offers some explanation of Echo's lack of beaus. There is also a sequence later in the film where she is very upset and we see her open up a bottle and take a spoonful on the contents, is she a closet opioid addict? It's never explained in the film. We'd have to go to the source.
So what we, the viewers/interpreters, of all these films based on these dark "noir" works of Herlihy, Williams, and Inge, are dealing with are at least three layers of obfuscation. The first is what the writer put in the original works, the stories or plays, these men are writing straight male and female characters through gay tinted glasses, or gay characters written as straight characters to pass stringent societal norms, so some of their protagonists and antagonists are in a way, seemingly to me anyway, either overly burlesqued, seriously twisted, or just a tad off base. The second are the changes made, by screenwriters or the authors themselves, in their original works, i.e., expositional scenarios jettisoned, plot points cut or streamlined etc., etc., so the film scripts would be green lighted by the studios. The third layer would be the additional changes made during filming, or changes demanded so that the films would get the approval of the Motion Picture Production Code.
I'm not really familiar enough with any of the authors mentioned above to comment too much on the first layer, or movie savvy enough on the third, but Bosley Crowther's original NY Times review alludes to the second in his review of All Fall Down.
"there is one fatal flaw in the arrangement of elements in this film that makes it implausible, unnatural and extremely hard to take. It is the essential arrangement that everyone in the story is madly in love with a disgusting young man who is virtually a cretin."
The scenes that make me think of Crowther's review are the first meets between Berry-Berry and Mrs. Mandel (Constance Ford) the wealthy yacht owner and the one with the schoolteacher played by (Barbara Baxley) they seem to play out like gay pickups where almost, just over long, knowing glances alone and minimal conversation, Berry-Berry picks up both women. It just seems a tad off, and very decadent, or just maybe I've never met that desperate a woman.
Examples of the second in this film are the missing dream sequences in the novel that reveal the psychology of Clinton. There are also major changes made in the whole Bonita Key sequence. In the the scenario of the novel, Berry-Berry wires Ralph asking for $200 to buy into a shrimping business and Clinton decides to travel by bus to join his brother. When Clinton gets to Key Bonita he finds Berry-Berry has checked out and left town. Instead of leaving town Clinton goes to the Festival Night Club where he meets a **** named Shirley. Shirley in the novel is an important figure in Clinton's life as it is with her that he loses his virginity and becomes a man. In the film version of Tennessee Williams' Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, Brick's actual relationship to Scooter is greatly obscured and his problems explained away as alcoholism, that makes Maggie The Cat's dedicated devotion to him all the more perplexing. In A Streetcar Named Desire, Blanche causes her young husband to commit suicide. after discovering him with an older man, this in turn turns her into an alcoholic roundheels who screws everyone in town. Williams' Suddenly Last Summer, The Fugitive Kind and Inge's Picnic have equally salacious undertones. All these shifts in perspective and obscuring of genders renders these films into dark, sometimes creepy, and as sleazy as your imagination will take them, Noirs.
Anyway in the film version the entire tale is told from Clinton's point of view. Clinton is sent down by bus to Key Bonita (Key West) Florida, with the $200 dollars Berry-Berry asked for, to start a shrimping business. When Clinton arrives at the dilapidated Tin Pot Arms looking for Berry-Berry, the desk clerk tells him he's not there, he's in jail, but also points him to a dive called the Festival Bar at the end of the pier. Tells him to ask for Hedy and that maybe she'll tell him why he's where he is.
At the Festival Bar there is a stripper doing her bumps and grinds to audience of prostitutes, sailors, and a very bored house band. A blond hooker casts off from the bar, launches herself towards Clinton and ties up to him at his table trying to score a trick. The scarily dyke-ish bar owner/bartender (Madame Spivy) buts in to throw the underage Clinton out of the bar.
A nice composition, Clinton looking at stripper, Hedy looking at Clinton,
bartender looking at Clinton
Hedy tells Clinton that Berry-Berry threw her across a room and into a TV. She shows him the stitches in her scalp. The Bar Owner throws Clinton out of the bar.
Hedy follows Clinton out and tells him to tell Berry-Berry that he can come back to her anytime he wants to.
This is the first inkling we get of Berry-Berry's violent misogynist behaviors and the masochistic women he attracts, the second incident is when he decks a schoolteacher (Barbara Baxley) in Louisville.
bad boy, our first view The $200 goes to make bail for Berry-Berry, who's told to get out of town and the two of them start hitching their way out of Florida. Their first ride is in a convertible with two women. One yells out "get in stud" and they argue over who saw Berry-Berry first.
At another dive bar Berry-Berry, like a gigolo, gets picked up to do stud service for Mrs. Mandel (Constance Ford) on a yachting jaunt to Bermuda, but not before he gets her to give Clinton a $50 dollar bill for bus fare home to Cleveland.
So Clinton returns home. Meets Echo, develops a serious crush, and spends Christmas Eve with three stew bums his tipsy father brings home, and a mother who's hoping for a miracle, that Berry-Berry will be home for Christmas.
In the spring Berry-Berry is practically running a whorehouse at the nearby Happy Valley Orchard, he supplies the owner with secondhand broads and booze, in exchange for room and board. When Berry-Berry finally meets Echo, he too is immediately smitten and Echo is in turn equally attracted. Anabelle gets jealous.She starts nagging Berry-Berry about settling down and jobs. Berry-Berry and Echo make love, a couple of months later she gets pregnant, and everything skids off the road into Noirsville.
Noirsville
opioids? triple Echo
decking the schoolmarm
Directed with style by John Frankenheimer (The Young Savages (1961), The Manchurian Candidate (1962), The Train (1964), Ronin (1998)), Music by Alex North (A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), The Rose Tattoo (1955), The Misfits (1961), Goodfellas (1990)), Cinematography by Lionel Lindon (The Blue Dahlia (1946), The Turning Point (1952), I Want to Live! (1958), The Manchurian Candidate (1962)).
All the major cast put in strong performances, Warren Beatty (Splendor in the Grass (1961),Bonnie and Clyde (1967), McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971), Bugsy (1991)) plays the films twisted narcissistic going with the flow, bad boy, in a "what me worry?" fashion. Eva Marie Saint (On the Waterfront (1954), North by Northwest (1959), ), projects a fragile beauty, refinement and vulnerableness with body movements and facial expressions. Angela Lansbury really corners the market on portraying an overbearing character in a very low key fashion. Karl Malden (Boomerang! (1947), Kiss of Death (1947), Where the Sidewalk Ends (1950), A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), The Sellout (1952), On the Waterfront (1954), Baby Doll (1956)) puts in a good passive supporting performance. Brandon deWilde fits the role of the kid brother perfectly, he blends in with the cast and is very believable.
The bit part players are also quite entertaining, Evans Evans (Bonnie and Clyde (1967)) as the young naive hooker, Madame Spivy (The Fugitive Kind (1960), The Manchurian Candidate(1962), Requiem for a Heavyweight (1962), ) is totally believable as the bull dyke bar owner, Constance Ford (A Summer Place (1959)) as the **** yacht wife, and Barbara Baxley (The Savage Eye (1960) No Way to Treat a Lady (1968)) as the desperate schoolteacher. Also watch for the two deputies in Bonita Key, and the three bums who visit the Willart House on Christmas Eve.
The whole Bonita Key sequence is a wonderful time capsule of Key West, Florida circa 1960s, check it out. Screencaps are from the Warner's on demand DVD. 7/10Full review with more screencaps here: http://noirsville.blogspot.com/2017/07/all-fall-down-1962-tis-season-to-be.html
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Stateline Motel (1973) Eli Wallach and Fabio Testi pull off a jewel robbery in Montreal, then split up to meet later in Vermont. Has a great car chase at the beginning through the streets of Montreal reminiscent of Bullitt and The Seven Ups. Has a sort of slow middle, at the motel of the title, but a nice twist at the end. Also stars Ursula Undress, I mean Adress.
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Just watched the silent "The White Sister" with a young Ronald Coleman and Lillian Gish. Really splendid move. However, as I was dozing off, I suddenly realized that one of the main musical themes seemed very familiar. Was it just me, or does the
(here by modern composer Garth Neustadter, at around 1:40) sound a lot like Herrmann's "?Is it recommended as a film to doze off to?
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Oh, I see! I misunderstood. So the lawyer is the one who set up Angela with Doc. Makes sense, except...what are the odds that she would have even wanted to go with Doc? If he'd been some young, good-looking fellow with money, sure. But what on earth did Doc have to offer her? The lawyer must have done some VERY smooth talking in order to get her to go with Doc.
For that matter what did the lawyer have to offer besides being a sugar daddy?
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If you liked Farley Granger and Cathy O'Donnell in the Noir Alley film They Live By Night (1948), you might want to check out Side Street (1950) in which they also appear together. Side Street is currently scheduled to be shown on TCM this coming Friday at 11:30 am Eastern time.
I have not yet seen Side Street but it has positive reviews on IMDB -
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0042960/
Per the listing, Side Street is directed by Anthony Mann, who was responsible for several fine Westerns with Jimmy Stewart, among others.
It's a guilty pleasure favorite of mine. It's got a great car chase through lower Manhattan that's worth a viewing alone.
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Fake news, documentaries, movies, boobs - what's next?
Fake Presidents?
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Haven't they shown This is Spinal Tap before?
Yes that have
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The Late Show (1977) The Screwball L.A. Detective
A surprisingly good Neo Noir bookend to the Classic Hardboiled Detective."If you took the whole country and stood it on edge, all the loose nuts would roll to California."Frank Lloyd Wright's Continental Tilt TheoryDirected and cleverly written by Robert Benton (Bad Company (1972), Still of the Night (1982), Nadine (1987), Billy Bathgate (1991)). Cinematography was by Charles Rosher Jr. (Pretty Maids All in a Row (1971), 3 Women (1977), The Onion Field (1979)), and some excellent moody music by Kenneth Wannberg.Art Carney's performance in this and in 1974's Harry and Tonto are eye openers. Just like his comedy partner Jackie Gleason (Requiem For a Heavyweight & The Hustler), he shows his acting chops. He is excellent as Ira the street smart, quick thinking, but a bit rusty and age battered PI. He brings strength to the role and personifies Raymond Chandler's man "who is neither tarnished nor afraid. He is the hero; he is everything. He must be a complete man and a common man and yet an unusual man. He must be, to use a rather weathered phrase, a man of honor—by instinct, by inevitability, without thought of it, and certainly without saying it."Lily Tomlin shines as the eccentric free spirit, too cool Margo. But she's not dumb, she's quick to pick up that Ira and Charlie are always making her come up with the scratch, when they all got a stake in the reward.Margo: You know what I had to go through to hassle up this dough? I laid off four ounces of pure red Colombian for $15 an ounce. I mean, it's disgusting. Some freak over on Pico thinks I'm Santa Claus, I swear to God. $15 an ounce... $15 an ounce. This grass was so great, I can't tell you. There was so much resin in it, it made your lips stick together.Tomlin's non stop seemingly free association chatterbox palaver is quite humorous, it wouldn't be hard to believe that some of it is ad libbed.Margo (hanging up the phone and addressing Ira and Charlie): Aaaah, Pit City, I mean Pit City. Not only did I still not get my cat back, thanks to you, not only did I almost get mowed down here tonight, not only did I sit here in the livingroom with yellow socks (Charlie) and perjure myself in front of practically the whole Los Angeles Police Department, but on top of that I promised this singer I managed that I would be there tonight for a very important audition, and of course you can probably tell I am not there, and on top of that I got my period.Bill Macy is great as the slightly hipper, slightly bent, oldster Charlie. He looks like a seedy used car salesman and drives a two tone 1954 Cadillac Eldorado convertible.Eugene Roche's Birdwell is a nice piece of work. He's a sort of a big marshmallow. A muppet version of a tough guy. Roche infuses the character with an oddly idiosyncratic compulsive sales pitches, always trying to close a deal on the hot merchandise he has.The rest of the cast are spot on in their portrayals. Considine as the low IQ mod-ish heavy Lamar, and Ruth Nelson is almost homaging Katie Johnson's old lady Wilberforce from The Ladykillers. Joanna Cassidy is the eye candy of the film. If I had a wish I would have had just a tad bit more of noir vet Howard Duff. It's also great to see the low rent characters getting around by either walking riding on public transportation or driving a few 10 year old junkers , Margo's '64 Dodge A-100 van, and Lamar's '68 Toyota Corona.Café au lait Noir 7/10. Review with some screencaps in Film Noir/Gangster page and with more screencaps here: http://noirsville.blogspot.com/2017/07/the-late-show-1977-screwball-la.html-
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The Late Show (1977) The Screwball L.A. Detective
A surprisingly good Neo Noir bookend to the Classic Hardboiled Detective.
"If you took the whole country and stood it on edge, all the loose nuts would roll to California."
Frank Lloyd Wright's Continental Tilt Theory
Directed and cleverly written by Robert Benton (Bad Company (1972), Still of the Night (1982), Nadine (1987), Billy Bathgate (1991)). Cinematography was by Charles Rosher Jr. (Pretty Maids All in a Row (1971), 3 Women (1977), The Onion Field (1979)), and some excellent moody music by Kenneth Wannberg.
Ira Wells (Art Carney) The film stars the great Art Carney (The Honeymooners TV Series (1955–1956), The Jackie Gleason Show TV Series (1952–1959), The Twilight Zone TV Series (1959–1964), Harry and Tonto (1974), Going in Style (1979)) as semi-retired P.I. Ira Wells.
Margo (Lily Tomlin) Lily Tomlin (Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In TV Series (1967–1973), Nashville (1975), I Heart Huckabees (2004)) as free spirit Margo Sterling, Bill Macy (N.Y.P.D. TV Series (1967–1969), The New Mike Hammer TV Series (1984–1989), Analyze This (1999) as agent/bartender Charlie Hatter, Eugene Roche (Naked City TV Series (1958–1963), Route 66 TV Series (1960-
1964), Slaughterhouse-Five (1972)) as fence Ron Birdwell, Joanna Cassidy (The Outfit (1973), The Laughing Policeman (1973), Blade Runner (1982), Lonely Hearts (1991), Too Late (2015), as Laura Birdwell, John Considine (The Detectives TV Series (1959–1962), The Twilight Zone TV Series (1959–1964), The Outer Limits TV Series (1963–1965), The F.B.I. TV Series (1965–1974), The Rockford Files TV Series (1974–1980)) as sadistic goon Jeff Lamar, (A Tree Grows In Brooklyn (1945) as Mrs. Schmidt, the quaint landlady, and Classic Noir veteran Howard Duff (Brute Force (1947), The Naked City (1948), Johnny Stool Pigeon (1949), Shakedown (1950), Private Hell 36 (1954), While the City Sleeps (1956)) as Ira's old partner Harry Regan.
Harry Regan (Howard Duff) 
Charlie (Bill Macy)
The Late Show is about an out of date gumshoe, small time losers and two bit hustlers in a smoggy, seedy, quick buck, wasteland, L.A. The Big Orange, La La Land. Ira Wells (Carney) is a washed up 59 year old, honest, old school, hard boiled detective with a bum leg, poor eyesight, and an ulcer. After 31 years in the business he's on the big slide to nowheresville. Ira used to be one of the best in game. He has outlived his milieu. He gets around Tinseltown by public transportation. Ira is a loner. Ira's days are reduced to typing up his memoirs, reading the racing forms, chain drinking alka seltzers, watching TV, taking occasional cases between bouts in a VA hospital, while living and working out of a cheap boarding house. One night his ex-partner Harry Regan (Duff) shows up with a .45 slug in his belly. Ira gets some cryptic deathbed mutterings about "a lot of dough", out of Harry before he kicks the bucket.
At Harry's funeral Ira runs into a former associate, sleazeball Charlie Hatter (Macy), a film/theatrical agent/part time bartender, scam artist and useful flunky. Charlie has a dolly named Maro Sterling in tow who has a cat (Winston) that's been stolen and held for ransom by Brian Hemphill.
Hemphill is a punk who arranges the transportation of stolen goods for a guy named Birdwell. He splits the money with Margo who uses her van. Margo kept the last $500 payment so Hemphill stole her cat. Margo is a slightly wound too tight one time actress, part time dress designer, transporter of stolen goods, talent manager and pot dealer. Margo wants to hire Ira to find her cat. Ira is at first insulted that Charlie is trying to stick him with such a chicken ****, penny ante, job, and wants to blow them both off. Margo showing Ira pictures of Winston pleads frantically for her cat.
Margo Sperling: This little kitty is just a little honey bun. Give this little cat a break!
Later at the shoeshine stand at Charlie's office building Ira gets the skinny from Charlie that Reagan was working for Margo when he stumbled upon a much bigger swindell. At Iras boarding house Margo tells her story while Charlie fills in the details. Harry Regan while looking for Winston stumbled onto the perpetrators of Whiting Case a murder robbery with a big insurance reward for a stolen stamp collection.
Margo: Well, OK, as long as we are going to be working together. Umm you see Brian had this creepy friend, and far be for me to go around passing judgement on people, but Ray Escobar is truly pittsville, and he had some kind of arrangement see a deal going with this guy named Birdwell.
Charlie: Ronny Birdwell?
Margo: Yea
Charlie: He's a fence, new since your day got a setup on Sunset Place.
Ira: Check around the street Charlie, see what you can pick up on Escobar.
Charlie: Can do.
Ira: One more thing, doll, about my fee... My fee. I get paid $25 a day, plus expenses.
Margo Sperling: What's he talking about?
Charlie: Listen, sweetheart, you're talking to Ira Wells.
Ira: Not some low-rent gumshoe. I'm the best, and I get paid like the best.
The facts Ira picks up from Margo leads him to Ron Birdwell (Eugene Roche) who lives in a Sunset Place mansion/warehouse filled with stolen goods instead of furniture. Lamar (John Considine) Birdwell's goon roughs up the unsuspecting Ira when he rings the doorbell. When Birdwell finds out that Ira knows less than he does he sends him on his way, with a stolen shirt, after telling Ira Hemphill's real name Hampton.
Ira and Margo next go to Escobar's apartment, there they find, along with Laura Birdwell (Joanna Cassidy) hiding in the shower, Escobar dead and stuffed in the fridge, a one way ticket to Noirsville.
Noirsville
The films highlight is the totally believable way Robert Benton juxtaposed the Hard Boiled 40s & 50s relics Ira and Charlie with the denizens of the Age of Aquarius 70s. The two fossils Ira and to a lesser extent Charlie have a hard time making sense of "enlightened" Margo's tangential mumbo jumbo psycho-babble ramblings.
Ira (to Charlie and Margo): .... if you two clowns would simmer down and tell me what's going on I'd appreciate it.
Margo: OK, you wanted to take a meeting with Brian right? So He called me and I'm listening to him very carefully because I've know him a long time, and Brian's not very evolved in fact he's rather de-evolved, and I was talking to him and I'm very sensitive to the vibrations he's giving out because I know what kind of karma he has....
Ira (to Charlie): What the hell is she talking about?
The film also has a nicely convoluted plot that ranks right up there with the film versions of the works of Chandler and Hammett.
Art Carney's performance in this and in 1974's Harry and Tonto are eye openers. Just like his comedy partner Jackie Gleason (Requiem For a Heavyweight & The Hustler), he shows his acting chops. He is excellent as Ira the street smart, quick thinking, but a bit rusty and age battered PI. He brings strength to the role and personifies Raymond Chandler's man "who is neither tarnished nor afraid. He is the hero; he is everything. He must be a complete man and a common man and yet an unusual man. He must be, to use a rather weathered phrase, a man of honor—by instinct, by inevitability, without thought of it, and certainly without saying it."
Lily Tomlin shines as the eccentric free spirit, too cool Margo. But she's not dumb, she's quick to pick up that Ira and Charlie are always making her come up with the scratch, when they all got a stake in the reward.
Margo: You know what I had to go through to hassle up this dough? I laid off four ounces of pure red Colombian for $15 an ounce. I mean, it's disgusting. Some freak over on Pico thinks I'm Santa Claus, I swear to God. $15 an ounce... $15 an ounce. This grass was so great, I can't tell you. There was so much resin in it, it made your lips stick together.
Tomlin's non stop seemingly free association chatterbox palaver is quite humorous, it wouldn't be hard to believe that some of it is ad libbed.
Margo (hanging up the phone and addressing Ira and Charlie): Aaaah, Pit City, I mean Pit City. Not only did I still not get my cat back, thanks to you, not only did I almost get mowed down here tonight, not only did I sit here in the livingroom with yellow socks (Charlie) and perjure myself in front of practically the whole Los Angeles Police Department, but on top of that I promised this singer I managed that I would be there tonight for a very important audition, and of course you can probably tell I am not there, and on top of that I got my period.
Bill Macy is great as the slightly hipper, slightly bent, oldster Charlie. He looks like a seedy used car salesman and drives a two tone 1954 Cadillac Eldorado convertible.
Eugene Roche's Birdwell is a nice piece of work. He's a sort of a big marshmallow. A muppet version of a tough guy. Roche infuses the character with an oddly idiosyncratic compulsive sales pitches, always trying to close a deal on the hot merchandise he has.
The rest of the cast are spot on in their portrayals. Considine as the low IQ mod-ish heavy Lamar, and Ruth Nelson is almost homaging Katie Johnson's old lady Wilberforce from The Ladykillers. Joanna Cassidy is the eye candy of the film. If I had a wish I would have had just a tad bit more of noir vet Howard Duff. It's also great to see the low rent characters getting around by either walking riding on public transportation or driving a few 10 year old junkers , Margo's '64 Dodge A-100 van, and Lamar's '68 Toyota Corona.
Screencaps are from the Warner Archive Collection DVD. Café au lait Noir 7/10. Review with more screencaps here: http://noirsville.blogspot.com/2017/07/the-late-show-1977-screwball-la.html -
Lawman like Matt Dillon are portrayed as some kind of a hero in white, old sheriffs were criminals or gunman wearing a badge.
Like Little Bill Daggett in UNFORGIVEN?
Apples and Oranges, Gunsmoke is more traditional Unforgiven is revisionist.
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...except that how many of them even knew Angela very well? The lawyer was new to the group. It would be different if they were all long-time friends, but they weren't in this case.
Why would they have to know her very well, they could all just go by the lawyer's recommendation.
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Night Tide (1961) Fringe Noir/Quasi Noir
Night Tide is a thriller written and directed by Curtis Harrington (What's the Matter with Helen? (1971), Whoever Slew Auntie Roo? (1972)) and shot in the noir style. Cinematography was by Vilis Lapenieks (The Little Shop of Horrors (1960), Fallguy (1962), and Floyd Crosby (High Noon (1952), Man in the Dark (1953), Shack Out on 101 (1955), I Mobster (1959)). Music was by David Raksin (Laura (1944), Fallen Angel (1945), Force of Evil (1948), Whirlpool (1950), The Big Combo (1955)).The film is shot in the Noir style and is a good example of how at the end of the Classic Noir and Motion Picture Production Code era combined with the switch of B unit Film Production into TV Productions, the Noir style began to slowly diffuse/fuse into genres other than pure Crime, though here there is a Crime element linked to sort of a bogus Fantasy/Occult con, in this respect it's similar to Nightmare Alley (1947), and The Amazing Mr. X (1948). Screencaps are from Youtube 6/10. Full review with more screencaps here :http://noirsville.blogspot.com/2017/06/night-tide-1961-fringe-noirquasi-noir.html
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Night Tide (1961) Fringe Noir/Quasi Noir
Night Tide is one of those fringe/quasi noirs. As the Motion Picture Production Code weakened and B unit productions ceased at the major studios independent poverty row and low budget film creators were allowed more artistic freedom.
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, etc., 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. What was happening is Classic Noir was beginning to morph into Neo Noir.
Night Tide is a thriller written and directed by Curtis Harrington (What's the Matter with Helen? (1971), Whoever Slew Auntie Roo? (1972)) and shot in the noir style. Cinematography was by Vilis Lapenieks (The Little Shop of Horrors (1960), Fallguy (1962), and Floyd Crosby (High Noon (1952), Man in the Dark (1953), Shack Out on 101 (1955), I Mobster (1959)). Music was by David Raksin (Laura (1944), Fallen Angel (1945), Force of Evil (1948), Whirlpool (1950), The Big Combo (1955)).
The film stars Dennis Hopper (Naked City TV Series (1958–1963), River's Edge (1986), Blue Velvet (1986), Red Rock West (1993), True Romance (1993)) as Johnny, Linda Lawson (Mike Hammer TV Series (1958–1959), Peter Gunn TV Series (1958–1961), 77 Sunset Strip
TV Series (1958–1964)) as Mora, Marjorie Cameron as Madame Romanovitch, Luana Anders as Ellen Sands, (Reform School Girl (1957), Dementia 13 (1963), The Two Jakes (1990)), Gavin Muir (Nightmare (1942), Chicago Deadline (1949)) as Captain Murdock, and Marjorie Eaton as Madame Romanovitch.
A sailor on shore leave, Johnny Drake (Dennis Hopper) meets Mora (Linda Lawson) in the Blue Grotto a waterfront jazz club. Mora is a mermaid at an amusement pier sideshow. Captain Murdock is the sideshow's owner and barker.
Mora and Johnny hit it off, but all the denizens of the amusement pier wonder if Johnny will be the next victim of Mora's curse. It seems that all her previous boyfriends die. Mora believes that she is a descendant of the Sirens mythic ocean creatures who lure men to their deaths.
As Mora and Johnny's relationship grows stronger Mora is afraid that on the night of the full moon she will kill Johnny. During a diving trip with Johnny on the day of the full moon Mora cuts Johnny's air line so that he must surface, while she drowns herself. By sacrificing herself Johnny will live.
When Johnny visits the Mermaid sideshow the next night he sees Mora's lifeless body in the tank. A deranged Captain Murdock confronts Johnny with a gun. It was a jealous Murdock who was killing Mora's suiters and who convinced her that she was an actual mermaid.
Noirsville
The film is shot in the Noir style and again, is a good example of how at the end of the Classic Noir and Motion Picture Production Code era combined with the switch of B unit Film Production into TV Productions, the Noir style began to slowly diffuse/fuse into genres other than pure Crime, though here there is a Crime element linked to sort of a bogus Fantasy/Occult con, in this respect it's similar to Nightmare Alley (1947), and The Amazing Mr. X (1948). Screencaps are from Youtube 6/10. More screencaps here :http://noirsville.blogspot.com/2017/06/night-tide-1961-fringe-noirquasi-noir.html -
I watched this film again tonight, and I'm convinced that it was completely unnecessary for Angela to have gone out with Doc. The date isn't actually shown in the film (Doc only talks about it), but I just don't see what Angela would have wanted with a penniless older guy just out of jail. The lawyer was different. He was keeping her. Doc had nothing to offer. I still don't see how she even met Doc. It's the only unnecessary part in an otherwise perfect movie.
Angela and the "big banana-head" would have made a cute couple.
That cop would have kept her in line. Now I haven't watched it in a while, so this may be way off base, but maybe the gang used Angela as some sort of bait to get Doc to go along with the plan.
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Battle Taxi (1955) with Sterling Hayden, Arthur Franz, Marshall Thompson.
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The most recent offering to be aired on "Noir Alley" was High Wall.
yanceycravat, since you're clearly an Eddie Muller fan - and therefore, presumably, a noir fan - did you see this film? If so, let us know what you thought of it.
ps...Come to think of it, if anyone has seen High Wall, on "Noir Alley" or any other time, let us know what you thought of it.
Me, I love Audrey Trotter.
I actually watched it this week, that sequence where Taylor is on the run with the dead girl at his side was great,
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The Deserter (The Devil's Backbone) (1971) Just watched the Pan & Scan Youtube version, it was actually very good and I wonder why it was never in serious rotation on US TV, reminded me of a lesser The Professionals with a surprisingly great cast. Bekim Fehmiu, Richard Crenna, Chuck Connors, Ricardo Montalban, Ian Bannen, Brandon De Wilde, Slim Pickens, Woody Strode, Albert Salmi, John Huston, and Patrick Wayne.
I'd like to see it with a better widescreen print. Taking place during the Apache Indian campaigns there wasn't anything anachronistic that I noticed and the Natives were quite convincing, nice locations also. The OST wasn't much. Worth checking out. 8/10-
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Color of a Brisk and Leaping Day
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Agree Eddie is great, now he needs to bring on author James Ellroy as a guest, their duo commentaries on some of the Noir DVDs particularly Crime Wave were a hoot.
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Broken City (2013) Dir. by Allen Hughes starring Mark Wahlberg, Russell Crowe, Catherine Zeta-Jones, noir-ish story of an ex cop who is hired by NYC Mayor to spy on his cheating wife, though it's actually about a more convoluted scenario than that. Some nice cinematography of the city but story has some plot problems. 6/10
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"Teeth" (2007) strange and painful to watch. Ow, ow, ow.
A comedy? Not to a guy.
The real thing.....
7/10
That cop would have kept her in line. 
I Just Watched...
in General Discussions
Posted
And Yojimbo borrowed from Hammett's "Red Harvest"