cigarjoe
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Posts posted by cigarjoe
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Garner in Hour Of The Gun, Yullin in Doc, and Russell in Tombstone
Quaid in Wyatt Earp and Kilmer in Tombstone
I'd like to see Walter Huston in Law and Order (1932) where it's loosely based on Earp.
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Rage (1966) Directed by Gilberto Gazcón, it stars Glenn Ford, Stella Stevens, David Reynoso and Armando Silvestre, an interesting Mexican film about a doctor who gets bit by a rabid dog, drags a bit at times, but Stella provides a lot of eye candy, 6.5/10
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Like I stated earlier in here...
I call the PEOPLE who use Twitter constantly "Twits", but suggested the activity be referred to as "Offalizing".
Sepiatone
yea, that why I said "yea how about Twits"
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Twilight Of Honor (1963) What if "Anatomy Of A Murder" had went Noirsville?
Twilight of Honor is a courtroom drama along the lines of Anatomy of a Murder (1959). Otto Preminger's film deals with a service man (Ben Gazzara) accused of killing a popular backwoods Michigan resort owner who the defense (James Stewart) claims allegedly rapped his wife (Lee Remick). The state prosecutors (George C. Scott and Brooks West) are determined to impinge the reputation of the service man's wife, claiming that her revealing attire (she went around "bare legged") and intense sexuality signified her as a woman of loose morals. The fact that both the service man and his wife were heavy boozers also enters into the equation.What makes Twilight Of Honor different from Anatomy Of A Murder and tips the film directly into Noirsville is the use, by director Boris Sagal, of vivid and extremely lurid true and false story flashbacks of the sleazy details of the Ben-Laura-Mae-Cole Clinton relationship that lead up to the death of Cole Clinton.Full review here in Film Noir/Gangster genre board and with more screencaps here: http://noirsville.blogspot.com/2017/03/twilight-of-honor-1963-what-if-anatomy.html
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Twilight Of Honor (1963) What if "Anatomy Of A Murder" had went Noirsville?
"Any man whose wife turns him in is better off dead."
Directed by Boris Sagal (Mike Hammer TV Series (1958–1959), Johnny Staccato TV Series (1959), Mr. Lucky TV Series (1959–1960), Peter Gunn TV Series (1958–1961), The Twilight Zone TV Series (1959–1964), Alfred Hitchcock Presents TV Series (1955–1962)). The screenplay was written by Henry Denker based on the novel by Al Dewlen. The excellent cinematography was by Philip H. Lathrop whose credits include camera operator on (The Raging Tide (1951), Touch of Evil (1958), Hammett (1982)), and as cinematographer for (Mr. Lucky TV Series (1959–1960), Peter Gunn TV Series (1958–1961), Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961), Experiment in Terror (1962), Lonely Are the Brave (1962), Days of Wine and Roses (1962), The Americanization of Emily (1964), Point Blank (1967)). Music was by Johnny Green (They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969)).
The film stars Richard Chamberlain as David Mitchell, Nick Adams (Rebel Without a Cause (1955), I Died a Thousand Times (1955), Hell Is for Heroes (1962)) as Ben Brown, Claude Rains (Moontide (1942), Casablanca (1942), Angel on My Shoulder (1946), Deception (1946), The Unsuspected (1947), Rope of Sand (1949), Where Danger Lives (1950)) as Art Harper, James Gregory (The Naked City (1948), Nightfall (1956), The Big Caper (1957), The Manchurian Candidate (1962)) as Norris Bixby, Joey Heatherton (My Blood Runs Cold (1965)) as Laura Mae Brown, Pat Buttram as Cole Clinton, Joan Blackman as Susan Harper, Jeanette Nolan (The Big Heat (1953), Psycho (1960)) as Amy Clinton, Edgar Stehli (Boomerang! (1947)) as Judge James Tucker, Bert Freed (Black Hand (1950), Where the Sidewalk Ends (1950), 711 Ocean Drive (1950), No Way Out (1950), Detective Story (1951), Why Must I Die? (1960)) as Sheriff B.L. 'Buck' Wheeler, and Linda Evans as Alice Clinton.
Twilight of Honor is a courtroom drama along the lines of Anatomy of a Murder (1959). Otto Preminger's film deals with a service man (Ben Gazzara) accused of killing a popular backwoods Michigan resort owner who the defense (James Stewart) claims allegedly rapped his wife (Lee Remick). The state prosecutors (George C. Scott and Brooks West) are determined to impinge the reputation of the service man's wife, claiming that her revealing attire (she went around "bare legged") and intense sexuality signified her as a woman of loose morals. The fact that both the service man and his wife were heavy boozers also enters into the equation.Twilight of Honor begins with the Big Sky, a plane, a twin engine job, like the one in "Sky King" tracks across it. It's a Western Neo Noir. We see with eyes used to reading Western codes what looks like a lynch mob. It is, just updated to the 20th Century. A cut to the aircraft and the sheriff is dragging USAF vet Ben Brown (Adams) out of the plane like a dog on a chain. He's wanted for the murder and robbery of a rich and beloved native New Mexican scion, Cole Clinton (Buttram). Brown is brought into Clinton's Durango County seat hometown for arraignment before a grand jury. That lynch mob atmosphere is duplicated with another angry crowd at the courthouse. David Mitchell (Chamberlain) a local attorney is appointed by Judge Tucker (Stehli) to defend Brown. Norris Bixby (Gregory) the state's special prosecutor has ambitions. He wants to use the case to run for governor. Mitchell's old friend and law associate Art Harper (Rains) is a renowned retired attorney. He encourages the seemingly in over his head, and very discouraged Mitchell to agree to take on the case. Mitchell hasn't tried a case in three years. Harper with some sort of heart condition will act as Mitchell's mentor.
At the county jail Mitchell meets Ben's cheap, shapely, slutty, round-heels wife Laura-Mae (Heatherton). Laura-Mae ratted out her own husband Ben. Mitchell also find out that after his arrest Ben signed a confession. When Mitchell questions Ben about his confession he tells him that it was made under coercion and that the document he signed left out parts of his original statement.
When Mitchell and Harper conduct a research of New Mexico’s criminal code, they discover No. 12-24 which provides that a husband is innocent if he kills another man whom he discovers in the act of adultery with his wife.
Mitchell and Harper's monumental task now, is to convince a jury that is made up of friends, business associates, club members, and acquaintances that their favorite son Cole Clinton was a lecherous adulterer.
What makes Twilight Of Honor different from Anatomy Of A Murder and tips the film directly into Noirsville is the use, by director Boris Sagal, of vivid and extremely lurid true and false story flashbacks of the sleazy details of the Ben-Laura-Mae-Cole Clinton relationship that lead up to the death of Cole Clinton.
Noirsville
Richard Chamberlain in one of his first major roles does an adequate job as David Mitchell he's no Jimmy Stewart, he actually pull it off. Claude Rains in one of his last screen appearances is effective and touching as Art Harper, though he's relegated more to the background. James Gregory is doing his big blowhard schtick to perfection and Jeanette Nolan as the conniving widow are both convincing in their supporting roles. Arch Johnson is nicely slimey as the Palomino Bar bartender, and Pat Buttram is in the movie role of a lifetime as the sleazy rancher Cole Clinton trolling watering holes for young ****. Other early 60s TV staples are glimpsed in minor roles, Gene Coogan, Chubby Johnson, Burt Mustin, and Henry Beckman. The two standouts for me are Nick Adams, and in her big screen debut Joey Heatherton.
Nick Adams was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, he plays, docile, bewildered, desperate, defeated, demoralized, betrayed, dumb, calculating and vicious, however I've read that many of his most intense scenes were cut from the final released version, and he subsequently lost to actor Melvyn Douglas for his role in Hud (1963). They should have left his parts in. They probably sacrificed his screen time to beef up the Chamberlain/ He could have been a contender but sadly life gave him a one way ticket to Palookaville.Joey Heatherton's first role as a dramatic actress came in 1960 when she guest starred on TV's Route 66, in Twilight of Honor as Femme Fatale Laura-Mae Brown she displayed an eye catching and incredibly sizzling aura of sleazy eroticism. She sort of had a shooting star career, she either peaked just a bit too soon, or Hollywood didn't know how to take advantage of her, too bad. She was a bonafide sex symbol and had mainly a television career appearing in countless variety shows. If the film had been made five years later after the demise of the Motion Picture Production Code, one can guess what heights she would have achieved in this, she had it.
Don't get me wrong, Anatomy Of A Murder is the better film, but Twilight Of Honor is the Noir-er one. It only makes me speculate how much better (from a Noir point of view, of course) both films may have been had former had flashbacks of Laura Manion's (Lee Remick) encounter with Barney, and the later had a more accomplished late Classic Film Noir actor in the lead. Better yet the film would have been even more up to date if it was told from the Browns POV from the get go. This film needed more Adams, Heatherton, Buttram, New Mexico, West Texas, and less everyone else.
The soundtrack was adequate nothing special, however all the sequences showing Laura-Mae dancing at the juke box would have been much better if they had used actual hits from the time, i.e., Blue Velvet/Bobby Vinton, Sugar Shack/Jimmy Gilmer And The Fireballs, The Lion Sleeps Tonight/The Tokens, etc., etc., rather than the elevator type music that was used. Screencaps are from the Warner's Archive Collection DVD 7/10.
Full review with more screencaps here: http://noirsville.blogspot.com/2017/03/twilight-of-honor-1963-what-if-anatomy.html
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In fact, lately I'm kind of surprised nobody has as yet seems to have coined a word for when some people continually use that whole Twitter thing to express their opinions in a juvenile manner and often devoid of the proper use of English grammar, syntax and/or spelling.
Yea how about Twits ?
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Not sure about Audrey Totter, Gloria Grahame and Marie Windsor as "Femme Fatales."
Watch...
Totter - Tension (1949)
Grahame - Sudden Fear (1952), Human Desire (1954)
Windsor - Hell's Half Acre (1954), The Killing (1956)
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Least favorite The Yellow Canary (1963) directed by Buzz Kulik, with Pat Boone, Barbara Eden, Jesse White, Jack Klugman, kidnap caper written by Rod Serling on a very crappy Youtube. May have been better with a better print.
Favorite Girl Of The Night (1960) Anne Francis as a NYC all girl.
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Have never seen or heard of this film. Who released it? WIsh it would pop up on TCM.
It's on the Warner Brothers Archive
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Girl Of The Night (1960) New York Call Girl Noir
Surprisingly good Psychological Woman's Neo Noir with an Oscar worthy performance by Anne Francis. Based on the book "The Call Girl: A Social and Analytic Study" by Dr. Harold Greenwald it was a doctoral dissertation on the psychology of prostitutes. Published in 1958.
Directed by Joseph Cates (Who Killed Teddy Bear (1965)), the screenplay was written by Ted Berkman (Murder on Diamond Row (1937), The Green Cockatoo (1937), Short Cut to Hell (1957)) and Raphael Blau (Edge of Fury (1958)). The films cinematography was by Joseph C. Brun (Walk East on Beacon! (1952), Edge of the City (1957), Odds Against Tomorrow (1959), Who Killed Teddy Bear (1965)), and the music was by Sol Kaplan (Trapped (1949), 711 Ocean Drive (1950), The House on Telegraph Hill (1951), Niagara (1953) and, The Burglar (1957)).
The film stars Anne Francis (Rogue Cop (1954), Bad Day at Black Rock (1955), Forbidden Planet (1956), The Satan Bug (1965), ) as Bobbie, Lloyd Nolan (veteran of & Classic Noir) as Dr. Mitchell, Kay Medford (The Undercover Man (1949), Guilty Bystander (1950), A Face in the Crowd (1957), BUtterfield 8 (1960)) as Rowena Claiborne, John Kerr as Larry Taylor, Arthur Storch as Jason Franklin, Jr., James Broderick as Dan Bolton, and Eileen Fulton as Lisa.
Bobbie and Dr. Mitchell (Nolan) Girl Of The Night tells the story of Robin "Bobbie" Williams (Francis) a relatively "low mileage" call girl. When we first view her she is running terrified through the streets of Manhattan. A taxi cab picks her up and the driver takes her to her address. In the same building there is the office of Dr. Mitchell, who agrees to take a look at her, even though he is a psychologist. She tells Mitchell that she is a prostitute.Dr. Mitchell is intrigued by all this and asks Bobbie if she'll agree to regular sessions on the couch... get your minds out of the gutter. Bobbie accepts the offer and we begin to hear and see her story in both audio and visual flashbacks.
Bobbie's sugar daddy "finesse pimp" is her "boyfriend" Larry (Kerr). He was supposed to watch out for weirdo S&M johns, but instead of accompanying Bobbie to the job decided to sit in cocktail bar and chat up a potential new "stable" gal named Lisa (Fulton).
Rowena Claiborne (Medford) sort of the Madam of the call girl operation schedules the various tricks. Bobbie and new turnout Lisa are sent on a "date" with two business men of of whom is the out of town client of the other. When the out of town client leans a bit too heavily on new girl Lisa, he finds out that the girls are hookers. He begins to torment Lisa. She freaks out and accidentally backs away and over a balcony falling quite a few stories to her death.
Bobbie is stunned when Larry gets angry with her for letting Lisa screwing up "date." He roughs her up and she decides to leave the biz. She gets a job as a file clerk and with Dr. Mitchell's help begins to lead a normal life.The film employs numerous sessions of questions and answers with Dr.Mitchell to reveal to the audience how a broken childhood, an absentee father, and being violated on a regular basis with a delivery boy who paid her off in candy, contributed to her present situation. Through all his help Bobbie begins to understand that her attraction to Larry is motivated by disgust and hatred. By giving Larry the money she makes, she sees him as lower than herself on the human trash heap.
It's all in all a pretty interesting film with quite a bit of insight into the sex worker business. The film is exceptional when you remember it was produced when the Motion Picture Code was still enforced. Anne Francis really gives an Oscar worthy performance. Lloyd Nolan plays the analyst to perfection. John Kerr as Bobbie's manipulating, suave, alcoholic pimp is equally good he reminds me of Steve Franken who played Chatsworth Osborne, Jr. in "The Many Loves Of Dobie Gillis" (1959–1963). Kay Medford who deals with life's unpredictabilities by staying heavily "on the sauce", she is equally convincing as the crumbling madam coasting on the down side of life.
Dark, uncomfortable, and at times noirish you can see why Girl of the Night disappeared from the cultural consciousness in the uptight 50s early 60s it was a bit ahead of it's time, then but the same film would need to be a bit more exploitive for today's audiences. It deserves way more recognition. Screencaps are from the Warner's Archive collection. A Café au lait Noir 7-8/10.Full review with more screencaps here: http://noirsville.blogspot.com/2017/03/girl-of-night-1960-new-york-call-girl.html
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Girl Of The Night (1960) New York Call Girl NoirSurprisingly good Psychological Woman's Neo Noir with an Oscar worthy performance by Anne Francis. Based on the book "The Call Girl: A Social and Analytic Study" by Dr. Harold Greenwald it was a doctoral dissertation on the psychology of prostitutes. Published in 1958.The film stars Anne Francis (Rogue Cop (1954), Bad Day at Black Rock (1955), Forbidden Planet (1956), The Satan Bug (1965), ) as Bobbie, Lloyd Nolan (veteran of & Classic Noir) as Dr. Mitchell, Kay Medford (The Undercover Man (1949), Guilty Bystander (1950), A Face in the Crowd (1957), BUtterfield 8 (1960)) as Rowena Claiborne, John Kerr as Larry Taylor, Arthur Storch as Jason Franklin, Jr., James Broderick as Dan Bolton, and Eileen Fulton as Lisa.It's all in all a pretty interesting film with quite a bit of insight into the sex worker business. The film is exceptional when you remember it was produced when the Motion Picture Code was still enforced. Anne Francis really gives an Oscar worthy performance. Lloyd Nolan plays the analyst to perfection. John Kerr as Bobbie's manipulating, suave, alcoholic pimp is equally good he reminds me of Steve Franken who played Chatsworth Osborne, Jr. in "The Many Loves Of Dobie Gillis" (1959–1963). Kay Medford who deals with life's unpredictabilities by staying heavily "on the sauce", she is equally convincing as the crumbling madam coasting on the down side of life.Dark, uncomfortable, and at times noirish you can see why Girl of the Night disappeared from the cultural consciousness in the uptight 50s early 60s it was a bit ahead of it's time, then but the same film would need to be a bit more exploitive for today's audiences. It deserves way more recognition. Screencaps are from the Warner's Archive collection. A Café au lait Noir 7-8/10.Full review with screencaps in Film Noir/Gangster pages and with even more screencaps here: http://noirsville.blogspot.com/2017/03/girl-of-night-1960-new-york-call-girl.html
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Why Must I Die? (1960) Forgotten Noir
C noir Directed by Roy Del Ruth (Red Light (1949)), Screenplay was written by Richard Bernstein, Herbert G. Luft ( The Naked Kiss (1964)) and George Waters. Cinematography was by Ernest Haller (Blues in the Night (1941), Mildred Pierce (1945), Deception (1946), The Unfaithful (1947), The Come On (1956), Plunder Road (1957), The 3rd Voice (1960), What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)). Music was by Richard LaSalle.The film stars Terry Moore (Mighty Joe Young (1949), Gambling House (1950), Shack Out on 101 (1955)), as Lois King, Debra Paget (Cry of the City (1948), House of Strangers (1949), Fourteen Hours (1951)), as Dottie Manson, Bert Freed (Boomerang! (1947), Black Hand (1950), 711 Ocean Drive (1950), No Way Out (1950), Where the Sidewalk Ends (1950), Detective Story (1951), Twilight of Honor (1963)) as Adler, Juli Reding (Vice Raid (1960), Tormented (1960)) as Mitzi, Lionel Ames as Eddie Rainey, Phil Harvey (Touch of Evil (1958)) as Kenny Randall, Fred Sherman as 'Red' King, and Sid Melton (White Heat (1949), Hi-Jacked (1950)) as Morrie Waltzer.Why Must I Die? is low rent, and chuckle inducing at times. During the robbery Dottie and Eddie communicate with walkie-talkies as big as fireplace logs. Terry Moore is functionally somewhat believable as Lori, and she signs a few forgettable numbers, but Debra Paget's "mad ****" Dottie has a bigger pair than partner in crime Eddie. She is way way over the top. Dottie blows the nightclub safe in stilettos and capri pants, then tells Eddie over the walkie-talkie "so long sucker", and hysterically, with the money in her greedy little hands, sprints off away from the getaway car and dumbstruck Eddie.Eddie, puts the pedal to the metal and tries to run her over, but crashes into a back alley wall. Later, Dottie, has burned through the take from The Cockatoo. Desperate she holds up a liquor store. During the robbery she panics and shoots a blind newsboy in the back, who innocently walked in to deliver the papers. When the clerk asks why , she tells him that "he can talk, he can yell copper, can't he."The rest of the cast is adequate. Noir vet Freed is good as Adler and Juli Reding's Mitzi provides more eye candy than either of the leads.This film is mildly entertaining, if not taken too seriously, but it's not a must watch. It does have nice surprise ending, I'll give it that much. 6/10Full review In Film Noir/Gangster thread and with more screencaps here: http://noirsville.blogspot.com/2017/03/why-must-i-die-1960-forgotten-noir.html
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Why Must I Die? (1960) Forgotten Noir
C noir Directed by Roy Del Ruth (Red Light (1949)), Screenplay was written by Richard Bernstein, Herbert G. Luft ( The Naked Kiss (1964)) and George Waters. Cinematography was by Ernest Haller (Blues in the Night (1941), Mildred Pierce (1945), Deception (1946), The Unfaithful (1947), The Come On (1956), Plunder Road (1957), The 3rd Voice (1960), What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)). Music was by Richard LaSalle.
The film stars Terry Moore (Mighty Joe Young (1949), Gambling House (1950), Shack Out on 101 (1955)), as Lois King, Debra Paget (Cry of the City (1948), House of Strangers (1949), Fourteen Hours (1951)), as Dottie Manson, Bert Freed (Boomerang! (1947), Black Hand (1950), 711 Ocean Drive (1950), No Way Out (1950), Where the Sidewalk Ends (1950), Detective Story (1951), Twilight of Honor (1963)) as Adler, Juli Reding (Vice Raid (1960), Tormented (1960)) as Mitzi, Lionel Ames as Eddie Rainey, Phil Harvey (Touch of Evil (1958)) as Kenny Randall, Fred Sherman as 'Red' King, and Sid Melton (White Heat (1949), Hi-Jacked (1950)) as Morrie Waltzer.
Lori King (Moore)
Lori King is a torch singer at The Cockatoo nightclub. She has been so popular that she has been signed on for another month. Originally from the Midwest she keeps her past under wraps. Her father Red (Sherman) is a con serving time, but he's soon to be released. She's trying to make a new life for herself. Her boss, Kenny Randall, (Harvey) has the hots for Lori.
Enter Eddie Rainey (Ames), the ex partner of her father. He tells Lori that he's going to tell the prison authorities enough dirt on Red to extend his sentence to life, if she doesn't help Eddie and his female accomplice, safe cracker Dottie Manson (Paget), rob The Cockatoo's wall safe.
Dottie (Paget) Lori is also worried about what Randall will think about her shady past. All Lori has to do is give Eddie the key to the front door. Their plan is to send the nightwatchman a thermos of drugged coffee as a "gift" from Lori. Once he's knocked out Dottie will let herself into the club and blow the safe. Eddie will act as the lookout.
When Randall goes, after hours, to the club on the night of the planned heist he interrupts Dottie emptying the safe. She guns him down in his office with the gun she got from Lori's apartment and scoots. Lori who was trying to contact Randall also heads for the club. She discovers Randall, and her gun. The watchman comes to and stumbles upon Lori bending over Randall with the gun in her hand.
The police put Lori on the hot seat, she tells them what happened, but since they can't find either Eddie or Dottie, they pin the murder on her. In the meantime Dottie double crosses Eddie and takes off with all the loot. Eddie is destitute and living in a dump with a floozie Mitzi (Reding) on Bunker Hill.
Lori is tried and convicted and sentenced to death row at a prison in Noirsville awaiting the electric chair.
Noirsville
Mitzi (Reding)
Why Must I Die? is low rent, and chuckle inducing at times. During the robbery Dottie and Eddie communicate with walkie-talkies as big as fireplace logs. Terry Moore is functionally somewhat believable as Lori, and she signs a few forgettable numbers, but Debra Paget's "mad ****" Dottie has a bigger pair than partner in crime Eddie. She is way way over the top. Dottie blows the nightclub safe in stilettos and capri pants, then tells Eddie over the walkie-talkie "so long sucker", and hysterically, with the money in her greedy little hands, sprints off away from the getaway car and dumbstruck Eddie.
Eddie, puts the pedal to the metal and tries to run her over, but crashes into a back alley wall. Later, Dottie, has burned through the take from The Cockatoo. Desperate she holds up a liquor store. During the robbery she panics and shoots a blind newsboy in the back, who innocently walked in to deliver the papers. When the clerk asks why , she tells him that "he can talk, he can yell copper, can't he."
The rest of the cast is adequate. Noir vet Freed is good as Adler and Juli Reding's Mitzi provides more eye candy than either of the leads.
This film is mildly entertaining, if not taken too seriously, but it's not a must watch. It does have nice surprise ending, I'll give it that much. 6/10Full review with more screencaps here: http://noirsville.blogspot.com/2017/03/why-must-i-die-1960-forgotten-noir.html
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This is not a reprise of the man with no name character.
I didn't literally mean he was a reprise of the Man With No Name character. What I meant was that Eastwood true to form would break down and kick a$$ as his many characters in films through the years have also save for Gran Torino which was a true break.
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Source--archive.org. Search "Jogadora Infernal". Film has Portuguese(?) subtitles.Hey film lover 293, what's the best way to search archive. org.Do you put a film title and year in the search box, see if there are any results, then try again with all the films international titles to see if it's there under it's foreign title? Or do you search by Genre?What I'm getting at is that is there any separate list of films in it, for example a search for Westers shows media type "movies" with 3,158,891 results I know they never made 3,158,891 Westerns. Or do you always go by title.When I put Heller In Pink Tights in the search box I get:(All results shown)Your search did not match any items in the Archive. Suggestions:Try different keywordsTry a more general searchI put in Jogadora Infernal it comes up, so I'm assuming you have a film you are interested in and then just keep trying it with it's various international titles correct?
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Not even in my top 50!
Agree, about Unforgiven.
Do this little test, imagine replacing Eastwood's character with another actor, and see how it holds up. With Eastwood half the production is carried by the cachet of the Man With No Name/Dirty Harry personna built up over his career, we know no matter how much pig poop he lays in that at some point the Man With No Name will appear.
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My Top Ten Favorite Westerns
Once Upon a Time in the West
The Wild Bunch
The Assassination of Jesse James By the Coward Robert Ford
Unforgiven
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
The Magnificent Seven
The Searchers
The Long Riders
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
The Outlaw Josey Wales
Runner-ups: Red River, Stagecoach, Tombstone, Little Big Man and Ride the High Country
Top Twelve
Once Upon a Time in The WestThe Good The Bad And The UglyThe Wild BunchThe SearchersHombreMcCabe & Mrs. MillerThe Tall TMan Of The WestThe Ox Bow IncidentUlzana’s RaidHigh NoonRide Lonesome -
Purple Noon (1960) directed by René Clément - adaptation of Highsmith's Tom Ripley, murder and mayhem in Rome and Naples, with Alain Delon, Maurice Ronet, and Marie Laforêt, good film 8/10
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Two winters ago in middle the night of the coldest day of the year -17, the power went out. The house is over 100 years old, has a wood stove and an oil burner furnace that heats water for baseboard style radiators. The cooking stove and hot water and dryer are propane. Of course the oil burner didn't run, must have been out for 5 hours before we woke up and realized it. The wood stove kept the part of the house warm, but some of the hot water heating lines froze up.
Had to buy an attachment for the propane tank, the kind that you use for a gas grill. The attachment looks like two side by side burners that resemble speakers with screens about 5 inches in diameter, it screws on to the handle on the tank. You turn on the gas and either light one or both of the burners, it works pretty good as a portable emergency heat source. I put it in the partial basement and let it heat up all the lines to thaw things out.
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misswonderly3, A good friend of mine put together his thoughts on this very subject..."Detour (Ulmer, 1945) is rightly considered one of the greatest of films noir. It contains the essential elements of noir: bizarre circumstances, a feckless hero crossing from light into darkness, a femme fatale. The film was also made quickly and for little money, lending an appropriate air of crudeness to the proceedings. This crudeness serves to camouflage, if some are to be believed, a work of considerable sophistication.QuoteMost critics of Detour have taken Al’s story at face value: He was unlucky in love; he lost the good girl and was savaged by the bad girl; he was an innocent who looked guilty even to himself. But the critic Andrew Britton argues a more intriguing theory in Ian Cameron’s Book of Film Noir. He emphasizes that the narration is addressed directly to us. We’re not hearing what happened, but what Al Roberts wants us to believe happened. It’s a “spurious but flattering account,” he writes, pointing out that Sue the singer hardly fits Al’s description of her, that Al is less in love than in need of her paycheck, and that his cover-up of Haskell’s death is a rationalization for any easy theft. (Ebert 134-136).Even before Britton’s clever reading, others had questioned Al’s veracity:Quote. . . . Roberts believes that fate controls these circumstances, and that is why he is so afraid. No matter what he does to try to escape his predicament, fate reaches out and produces another fantastic turn of events that makes things even worse.The existential answer to this mythic dilemma is a realization that one is not simply a pawn in the hands of mysterious, evil forces. Ulmer subtly implies that Roberts ironically controls his own fate by emphasizing the close relationship between his fear and the freakish chain of events that reinforces it. He expects the worst and the worst occurs. Roberts maintains that he only expects the worst because he knows some exterior fate has “put the finger on me,” but how does he know this? It seems just as reasonable to assume that this is just his way of tyrannizing himself. (Selby 29)Apparently, the author of the Detour entry in Film Noir: An Encyclopedic Reference to the American Style had his doubts about Roberts also. Glenn Erickson expands on ideas found there:QuoteCritic Blake Lucas correctly pegged Al’s detour from the straight and narrow path as the road he really wants to take. Unlike other noir antagonists who struggle in dark corners, Al’s destiny has a definite self-willed quality.Al makes two crippling decisions, choices proving that character determines his fate, not the ‘mysterious force’ he whines about at the film’s end. He’s convinced that his vagrant status will prejudice the law against him, but Haskell’s accidental death isn’t all that mysterious. The dead man’s pills should prove that he had an existing heart condition. Al makes the accident appear to be a crime and takes Haskell’s identity, thus guaranteeing a murder charge if he’s caught. These are the acts of a masochist. So thoroughly does Roberts frame himself, the only explanation is that he secretly wants to be a criminal. (Erickson in Silver and Ursini, 27).As we have seen, there is another explanation possible: Roberts, a social deviant, is relating an ex post facto rationalization for his criminal acts. But let’s return to Erickson.QuoteLater on Al laments the fact that he can’t hook up with Sue “with a thing like that hanging over my head.” In actuality, that happened as soon as he left his ID on Haskell’s body. Roberts is really that kind of complicated man who professes to have strong goals yet all the while purposely engineers his own failure. In real life these maladjusted types want attention, or for someone else to step in and relieve them of their responsibilities. It’s the urge that keeps a potential high-class musician like Al playing piano in a dive: he can curse his cruel fate while avoiding the feared struggle for success in the competitive world. This allows him to trumpet his superiority while cursing the system that he claims has victimized him. (Erickson in Silver and Ursini 28).Most critics taking this line do so by demonstrating inconsistencies between the narration and what appears on screen. But as Selby points out, we are not merely dealing with an unreliable narrator. "Such speculations are certainly being encouraged by the film’s ending, where Roberts only imagines his final capture. Through this clever twist, Ulmer forces the viewer to make his own judgment about Roberts’ real fate, which in turn forces him to admit how great his identification has become." (Selby 29)On this view, it is not only the narration we may question in the final moments, but the visuals as well. Selby doesn’t push this understanding far enough, however. If the final images are coming from the narrator’s imagination, why not the entire film? Why trust anything we see when the whole is being mediated through Roberts’ perspective?In fact, the plot sounds like a yarn told in the exercise yard by an inmate who has worked it up to demonstrate the injustice of his sentence. He’s innocent, a victim of “fate” and circumstances. Maybe the film is just Roberts’ first run-through before the cops pick him up, a rehearsal to make sure he’s got his facts “straight.”Detour is, at least for some, a film about being conned. For others, Detour will remain what it purports to be, a true testament of a man driven by circumstances to crime. But then there are always those willing to pay out to panhandlers and snake oil dealers, those who take any tale at face value, however outlandish, those who will not scruple even to accept the words of French critics with a fancy name for a group of films. Detour is for them too."Dave JenkinsWorks Cited: Ebert's The Great Movies/Selby's Dark City: The Film Noir/Silver and Ursini's Film Noir Reader 4
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Angel Heart (1987) Neo Noir Masterpiece
"There's just enough religion in the world to make them hate one another but not enough to make them love."It's been a good half dozen years since I last screened Angel Heart and I was amazed at how incredibly rich the cinematography was and sumptuous the set decoration. The film is striking in how well it recreates in a Classic Film Noir like milieu both Manhattan and New Orleans circa 1955.Directed brilliantly by Alan Parker (Midnight Express (1978), Mississippi Burning (1988)), the screenplay was written by Alan Parker and was based on William Hjortsberg's novel of the same name. The striking cinematography was by Michael Seresin (Come See the Paradise (1990)). The Production Design was by Brian Morris (Pink Floyd: The Wall (1982)). The Art Direction was by Armin Ganz and Kristi Zea Goodfellas (1990), The Silence of the Lambs (1991)). The set decoration was by Robert J. Franco (Night and the City (1992)) and Leslie A. Pope (After Hours (1985), Matewan (1987), Ironweed (1987), Catch Me If You Can (2002)). The excellent film score for Angel Heart was produced and composed by South African composer Trevor Jones (Sea of Love (1989), Dark City (1998)), with saxophone solos by British jazz musician Courtney Pine. The soundtrack also features several great blues and R&B performances, including "Honeyman Blues" by Bessie Smith, and "Soul on Fire" by LaVern Baker. Brownie McGhee performed the songs "The Right Key, but the Wrong Keyhole" and "Rainy Rainy Day". Also featured is Dr. John's Zu Zu Mamou' The sound editing was by Eddy Joseph.
The film stars Mickey Rourke (Body Heat (1981), Diner (1982), Barfly (1987), White Sands (1992), Sin City (2005), Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (2014)) as Harry Angel, Robert De Niro (The Godfather: Part II (1974), Taxi Driver (1976), Once Upon a Time in America (1984), Goodfellas (1990), Casino (1995), Cop Land (1997), Jackie Brown (1997), ) as Louis Cyphre, Lisa Bonet as Epiphany Proudfoot, Charlotte Rampling (The Night Porter (1974), Farewell, My Lovely (1975), The Verdict (1982)) as Margaret Krusemark, Stocker Fontelieu (Obsession (1976), Pretty Baby (1978), ) as Ethan Krusemark, Brownie McGhee (A Face in the Crowd (1957)) as Toots Sweet, Michael Higgins (Terror in the City (1964), Wanda (1970)) as Dr. Albert Fowler, Elizabeth Whitcraft (Goodfellas (1990)) as Connie, Charles Gordone as Spider Simpson and Dann Florek as Herman Winesap.
Harold Angel,(Rourke) PI
Angel Heart is essentially a PI flick, but this PI has one foot in reality and one foot in the supernatural. It's all right there up front for the audience. An attorney, Herman Winesap (Florek) calls a Second Avenue based private detective Harold R. Angel (Rourke) on a missing persons case. Winesap's client is Louis Cypher (De Niro), otherwise known as Lucifer, Mephistopheles, Beelzebub, Satan, Old Scratch,The Devil. Angel goes to the address of a Black pentecostal church up in Harlem to meet them and hear the details of the case.
Louis Cypher (DeNiro)John Liebling was a crooner at the beginning of his career. Liebling was deep into VooDoo witchcraft with his fortune teller gal pal Margaret Krusemark. It was Liebling and Krusemark who summoned up Cypher. Cypher offered a contract, it's the usual "deal with the Devil", I give you fame and fortune you, quid pro quo, give me your soul. Liebling agrees, changes his name to Johnny Favorite, cuts a few grooves, and breaks into the big time with a few hit records.Pearl Harbor gets bombed, Johnny gets drafted, gets sent on a USO tour and gets wounded. He's shell shocked, has amnesia, and he's facially wounded enough to have to have had reconstructive surgery. He's supposed to be living in a sanitarium up in Poughkeepsie. However, when Cypher and Winesap are in the vicinity they go to check on Liebling and find out that he's not there. Cypher offers Angel $5,000 dollars to find Liebling/Favorite.Even though we all know about Cypher (during their meeting though, all of the above is represented as a straight business contract nothing is mentioned about Liebling's soul), Angel, who keeps announcing that he's "from Brooklyn" has got to be one of the dumbest Brooklyn PI's to ever walk the planet. It's either that or like your typical New Yorker he's just gonna think that Cypher is just one eccentric nut job in a city full of them, and he's not gonna believe what all his intuitions are telling him.
Angel drives up to Poughkeepsie and does some sleuthing. Chatting up a nurse who shows some attraction to him, he gets her to show him Liebling's file. He was released in 1943, a backdated transfer record has recently been added by a physician named Albert Fowler, (eagle eye Angel notices the discrepancy because it was signed with a ballpoint pen).Angel looks up Fowler in the phone book, drives to his house, breaks in, and does a toss. In the refrigerator he sees a shelf stocked with morphine, the doc is a junkie. When Fowler returns Angel braces him about Liebling. Fowler tells him Liebling was released to a man and his daughter with the last name of Kelly and that they were going to take him back home down South. He tells him that he can go cold turkey for a while until his memory gets better. We see Angel drag Fowler up to a bedroom and lock him in.
At the click of the key lock the screen goes dark, then we see the shadow of a slowly turning fan, the fan slowly stops and then begins to turn in the opposite direction. This visual "fan" trope is repeated again and again in various forms during the course of the film. Another visual trope is various dark shadowy corridors where gates slide open or shafts with descending elevators that cascade light upon dark walls. Still another is of a woman shrouded all in black.Angel is hanging out in a diner, an ashtray at his side is filled with butts he's been there a few hours. When Angel goes back to Fowler's he grabs a ampule of morphine and runs upstairs to the bedroom. Upon unlocking the door Angel finds Fowler with his brains blown out.Angel reports back to Cypher, he tells him what Fowler confessed to and that later Fowler killed himself. Angel indicates to Cypher that he wants no part of death and is done with the investigation. Cypher counters that he will pay someone else five G's to find him. Angel is from Brooklyn and five G's is five G's, he accepts the case.From Angel's journalist gal pal Connie, he gets the lead that Johnny Liebling/Favorite's old bandleader Spider Simpson ( Gordone) is up in an old folks home in Harlem.From Spider he gets two names Toots Sweet (McGhee) a blues guitar player who went back to New Orleans, and a fortune teller in Coney Island named Madam Zora who was Johnny's girlfriend. A trip to Coney Island discovers that Madam Zora was in reality Margaret Krusemark (Rampling) a wealthy Louisiana socialite.After again reporting to Cypher Angel heads South on the Southern Crescent arriving in New Orleans and Noirsville.Noirsville
Harold Angel plays it throughout like your classic wise cracking hard boiled detective, but unexplained flashbacks and dreams continually haunt him, he's a bit at times on the bewildered side. He's also feeling that a noose is tightening around his neck as he suspects that Johnny Liebling is following him around, murdering his contacts, and leaving clues framing him to the police authorities.*If you've never seen this film it's best to stop reading here, spoilers ahead.*It's not revealed until the end that Cypher, deviously, has all along been having Angel search for himself. Glen Gray's 1937 song "Girl of My Dreams" is a recurring song performed by the unseen character Johnny Favorite and it becomes a haunting leitmotif for Harold/Johnny.The trope of the shadowy corridors are passages to the memories of his past before the possession of his identity and soul by Johnny Liebling. These hallways and mazes are revealed as slowly reopening.When Angel finally confronts Kelly/Krusemark in a bayou gumbo hut he admits that he and Margaret were the ones who helped Favorite leave the hospital. He also explains that before all this happened Liebling/Favorite was a high priest, a VooDoo magician who sold his soul to Satan in exchange for stardom. Liebling, though, thought he could beat the Devil. He had discovered an ancient rite where he could hide his identity from Satan. In 1943 Liebling and the Krusemarks kidnapped a young soldier and performed the satanic ritual in a Times Square Hotel, slicing him open and devouring his still beating heart. Liebling/Favorite was next supposed to drop out of sight and the resurface as Harold Angel the soldier he murdered. Liebling though was then himself drafted, gets a head injury, and sent home and eventually up to Poughkeepsie as a head case. Hoping to jump start Liebling's memory the Krusemarks hijacked Johnny back to Times Square where they loose him in the New Years Eve crowd. Instead of resurfacing as Johnny in possession of Harold Angel's body and soul, it's Harold who emerges in somewhat control Johnny's body but with a new face.The other two visual tropes, the shrouded woman that Harold/Johnny tries to approach is probably meant to symbolize FATE. The shots of revolving fans that slowly stop and then revolve in the opposite direction symbolizes Satan rewinding Harold/Johnny's actions. Where Harold thought he was just interrogated his leads, Johnny under the influence of Satan's guiding hand was murdering them, covering his tracks and indeed framing Harold. This rewinding is echoed by Harold, when he is making his tape recorder report to Cypher, he rewinds and records over his statements to change/withhold some information.Supernatural and fantasy based Noir have been around since the beginning. During the Classic Film Noir Era films like Alias Nick Beal (1949), 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).Mickey Rourke's performance is both intense and mesmerizing. It's Mickey's movie all the way, he won a Jupiter Award for Best International Actor for this performance and for A Prayer for the Dying (1987). Robert DeNiro's Cypher is both humorously playful and seriously foreboding. Lisa Bonet torches the screen and her child star roots with her sensual portrayal as Epiphany Proudfoot. Charlotte Rampling, and the rest of the talented cast are all excellent.Kudo's to production designer Brian Morris and the set decorating team who did an exemplary job recreating both New York and New Orleans dressing and cladding every single storefront and draining all primary colors within sight of the camera to get the films distinctive monochromatic look. It's a Noir visual treat. Screencaps are from the Artisan DVD. 10/10Full review with more and some NSFW screencaps here: http://noirsville.blogspot.com/2017/03/angel-heart-1987-neo-noir-masterpiece.html
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Angel Heart (1987)
Supernatural and fantasy based Noir have been around since the beginning. During the Classic Film Noir Era films like Alias Nick Beal (1949), 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).Mickey Rourke's performance is both intense and mesmerizing. It's Mickey's movie all the way, he won a Jupiter Award for Best International Actor for this performance and for A Prayer for the Dying (1987). Robert DeNiro's Cypher is both humorously playful and seriously foreboding. Lisa Bonet torches the screen and her child star roots with her sensual portrayal as Epiphany Proudfoot. Charlotte Rampling, and the rest of the talented cast are all excellent.Kudo's to production designer Brian Morris and the set decorating team who did an exemplary job recreating both New York and New Orleans dressing and cladding every single storefront and draining all primary colors within sight of the camera to get the films distinctive monochromatic look. It's a Noir visual treat. Viewed on the Artisan DVD. 10/10Full review with screencaps (some NSFW) here: http://noirsville.blogspot.com/2017/03/angel-heart-1987-neo-noir-masterpiece.html-
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The time slot may not be ideal but there are recording devices out there, folks.
The Roberts Mitchum & Ryan are the Gods of Noir. I adore both of them.
There used to be that option, but I recall that there was a thread saying some type of blocking device prevented recording the films to disk from DVrs, you can watch but not save them.
I Just Watched...
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