[Forgotten Westerns!]

A few, sort of forgotten Westerns that I really like that have a Spaghetti Western picaresque feel to them are 

 

Viva Villa (1934)

 

Perhaps the touchstone grand-daddy of "Zapata" Westerns was MGM's 1934 "Viva Villa" (Black & White) starring Wallace Beery, directed by Jack Conway & Howard Hawks. Its a fictionalized account of Pancho Villa's life, but it does hit some of the major plot points of the real life Villa, however it doesn't even mention Villa's invasion and bank robbery of Columbus, New Mexico and the subsequent unsuccessful pursuit by General John Pershing into Mexico. Its shot partially in Mexico and in actuality only about 15 years after the events portrayed. This film in parts has a very SW feel to it.

 

A little sample from the beginning:

 

A decree is posted on a tree a priest reads it to the peons, their land is being taken over by the local Don, the peons ask the priest what can they do, the priest says "pray".

 

A boy watches his peon father get whipped to death for questioning the take over of the peons land by a wealthy Don. In a dark alley the boy stabs the whip man in the back and scrambles up into the hills. Thirty some odd years later he rides down as badit chief Pancho Villa.

 

The following scene is indicative of the tone of the film.

We see a courtroom, on a bench six peon prisoners,  one is picking his nose, lol, his finger must be up to the second knuckle, lol.   

 

Into the courtroom enters Don Pablo he goes up to the judge and gives him a mirror and with a wink & a nod tells him to look at the back which must hold a risque' image, (signifying the decadence of the aristocracy no doubt, lol). The Judge thanks the Don and proceeds to say that we don't need to clutter up the day with a trial these men are guilty. The six are then strung up on a gallows outside.

 

We see a shot of peons looking at the dead men whose feet swing in the foreground, we then hear shots and cut to a bandit army overthrowing the town.  Pancho Villa rides up bandoleer over one shoulder (Beery resembles the real Villa, contemporary describers of Berry have described him as looking like an overstuffed laundry bag, lol), and we get a close up of Berry as he looks at the dead men and growls "cut them down".

 

We cut back to the courtroom, in burst Villa's men and his right hand man Sierra (Leo Carrillo who's character is probably based on the butcher Fierro) takes a bead on Don Miguel, and shoots him as he stands huddled with the rest of the officials on the dias. Sierra then shoots down Don Pablo. Villa runs into the courtroom and yells out "Sierra, you wait!"

 

Pancho turns back towards the outside he yells "bring them in". We see peons caring the hanged men into the courtroom. Villa, "put on the bench", cut to Villa standing alongside the bodies sitting on the bench "straighten them up"

 

Villa looks admiringly over the dead men, he smiles then shakes his head as he turns to the officials, "now everybody shut up," he first gestures lovingly to the dead men, then with an angry look at the officials  states "we're going to have a trial".

Judge, runs up to a railing "I'm a government official and I demand to be heard"

Pancho, "well, ah fine, you go head and talk....., there is the jury" gesturing to the dead men.

Judge, "I was only doing my duty..."

Pancho interrupts "DUTY!,"  Pancho turns and he talks to the jury, "jury, did you hear, he was just doing his duty" he chuckles.

Judge "these men were sent to me by Don Miguel for the crimes they committed."

Pancho "crimes what crimes?"

Another official hands Pancho a piece of paper saying "they are wrote out in full".

Pancho exaggerates opening the paper looking at it turning it over, and showing it to the jury, he chuckles again and shrugs "sorry I ... I do not read," he hands the paper to the judge, "perhaps you should read it to the jury they have ears same as you have but..."  and his voice changes into a growl, "perhaps they DON"T HEAR SO GOOD NOW!, so read LOUD, LOUD!"

Judge, "but this is outrageous, I demand Justice, Justice!"

 

BANG the judge is shot in the back by Sierra.

 

Pancho sarcastically, "Sierra now why didn't you let him finish," Pancho gestures to the jury, "now you spoiled the trial."

Sierra, "I do not like, it take too long."

Pancho, "Well then we'll hurry, now this is the law of Pancho Villa's court, TWO FOR ONE, understand, for every peon killed I will kill two major domos or the best that I can find".

 

Sierra starts to go for his gun, Pancho stops him, "one moment Sierra.." Pancho turns to the jury "any objections from the jury?" he elaborately gestures as he walks along the jury line bending toward them and  cupping his hand to his ear, straining to hear, "no?", he turns back and shrugs his shoulders to Sierra "no objections from the jury". Pancho points his thumb over his shoulder as he orders Sierra "you finish", then Villa walks out of the frame as Sierra and his men execute the rest of the officials.

 

Anytime Beery is on, its a scream, just hilarious, his portrayal of Villa is as memorable and as lovable as Eli Wallach's Tuco. Beery portrayed the lovable rascal/rogue, in most of his films and its a pitty that a lot of his work is unavailable or hard to find. He should have won an oscar for this role. Another sad factor is most all of his work was in B&W, so you may catch one of his performances occasionally on cable on TMC, if you are lucky.

 

It has a side story with an American reporter Johnny Skyes (Stuart Erwin(obviously base on real American Reporter Reed)) that is also humorous in the way Villa and the reporter interact. Fay Wray makes an appearance as a possible love interest that goes fatally wrong which culminates in a major plot point Other love interests plots are kept to a minimum thankfully, and there is a running gag on all the women Pancho has married (one in every town and village) in order to get in the sack with them.

 

Its a typical Hollywood vehicle with a twist but its a hoot. The fact that it was a western about Villa freed it somewhat from the typical manifest destiny theme and Hollywood melodramatic moralizing.

 

The Texas Rangers (1936)

 

 "The Texas Rangers" directed by King Vidor so I watched this film tonight. I wasn't sure what to expect but was pleasantly surprised. It has a nice picaresque start to it.  

 

Jack Oakie a great comedian and character actor who has all but been forgotten plays Henry B. 'Wahoo' Jones and we see him driving a stagecoach against a backdrop of Texas prairie.  After he has a funny bit of conversation with his shotgun rider the stage is held up by Jim Hawkins played by Fred MacMurray and Sam 'Polka Dot' McGee played by Lloyd Nolan who is equally great in this film.  

 

The stage hold up is very picaresque with Oakie providing most of the humor, there is a sequence where he is crying crocodile tears when the bandits ask for his watch and he tells then that it was a memento from his father, a fade to black reveals, in the next scene around a campfire, that Whaoo, Hawkins, and McGee are all in cahoots and they split the loot and Oakie gets his watch back. After a short interval a voice calls out of the dark that they are surrounded and to get their hands up, and Hawkins kicks out the campfire and we get another fade to black with shots ringing out. 

 

We next cut to Wahoo again driving a stage for what we expect is a repeat of the con. This time however the shotgun is a Texas Ranger and at a water stop another comedic display from Wahoo warns Hawkins minus a missing McGee who is planning to rob the stage not to attempt the con.  The two outlaws decide that since the Rangers are a tough outfit to go up against maybe they should join them for wages rather than fight them. They get an assignment to track down cattle rustlers and discover their old partner in crime McGee driving a stolen heard with some Mexican vaqueros and they decide that they can con the Rangers using their inside information on money shipments with McGee doing the dirty work.

 

Anyway a love interest and a kid that they rescue from marauding Indians gums up the works and basically Wahoo & Hawkins get "religion".

 

As I started watching this as soon as I heard the name Wahoo a switch clicked and I realised that I saw a remake of this that was called "The Streets Of Laredo" (1949) with William Holden, and William Bendix as "Reuben Whaoo Jones" with a Brooklyn accent. That remake palled in comparison to "The Texas Rangers" the unrepentant bad guy in Laredo sucked compared to Loyd Nolan. 

 

Also making a cameo is George "Gabby" Hays as a judge, all in all "The Texas Rangers" in Black & white and even with the predictable Hays Code redemptive moral ending is superior to the remake. Worth a look if you are interested.

 

20 Mule Team (1940)

 

Director: Richard Thorpe with Stars: Wallace Beery, Leo Carrillo, Marjorie Rambeau, Douglas Fowley, Noah Beery Jr., Berton Churchill, Arthur Hohl, Clem Bevans, a surprisingly great little Western the back and  forth between Skinner Bill (Beery) and Paiute Pete (Carrillo) is priceless, and you get great Death Valley locations needs a DVD release 8/10

 

["Fallen Angel"]

You guys really ought to get the DVD of this and listen to the cometary it's very enlightening especially concerning, The subject of rayban's commentary 

[I Just Watched...]

Thanks for the write-up on "Private Property" cigarjoe!  I saw this last week on TCM, and while the plot was on the creepy side for me, I stuck with it.  Kate Manx could definitely have passed for Barbara Eden's sister, and Corey Allen was excellent in portraying a range of emotions that's common in people with troubled minds.  The camera shot of her trying to hide in the swimming pool during the film's climax was pretty cool.  It seems like the film didn't wreck Warren Oates' career though.  The guy got plenty of work for the rest of the decade and into the 70's.

 

I really liked Oates in "Dillinger", which followed "Private Property" last week.  His no-nonsense portrayal of the the infamous gangster was sharp, and the supporting cast of Ben Johnson, Michelle Phillips, Steve Kanaly, and Richard Dreyfus were all good.  I think some of the 'shoot-out' scenes were a bit over the top and greatly embellished (made me think the siege at The Alamo took less time).  I wasn't too crazy about the art-deco look to the graphics used in this movie.  On a big screen it might have been alright to see where and when scenes were set and who played which part, as well as the epilogue for three of the film's characters.  On a smaller screen for home viewing, it was tough to make out the print sometimes, unless you were right next to the screen.  Another takeaway from "Dillinger" was how much Ben Johnson and Barry Corbin (Maurice from the TV show "Northern Exposure") sound alike!

 

What is really surprising is for all the complaining about how many times TCM shows North By Northwest, or fill in the  _______, when something new is premiered apparently no body seems to have watched it or at least none of the posters here on the board did (maybe they DVR-ed it). 

[Recently watched Noir]

Private Property (1960) Psychological California Smog Noir

 

Private Property was long thought lost. It is a lurid psychological noir thriller, based on a sleazy pulp fiction type premise.

It is the first feature written and directed by Leslie Stevens (writer and director of The Outer Limits TV series (1963-1964). The cinematography was by Ted D. McCord (The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948), Flamingo Road (1949), The Damned Don't Cry (1950), The Breaking Point (1950) and, I Died a Thousand Times (1955)). The films music was by Pete Rugolo (whose credits range from Richard Diamond, Private Detective TV Series (1957–1960), to This World, Then the Fireworks (1997)).

The film revolves around two down and out creepy and twisted drifters, hitchhiking their way to The Sunset Strip. The two become sexually obsessed over a hawt "California Girl" blond housewife driving a white corvette who casually stops for directions at a Pacific Coast Highway Veltex filling station near Malibu. (BTW the Veltex Gas is going for 8 cents a gallon in 1960).

Duke and Boots with "The Rock" in the background Boots (Oates)
Duke (Allen) One of these losers is a smart sociopath, a sexual predator called Duke, played by Corey Allen (The Night of the Hunter (1955), Rebel Without a Cause (1955), The Shadow on the Window (1957), The Big Caper (1957)). The other is the sexually dysfunctional dimmer bulb Boots, a mama's boy, played by Warren Oates (The Rise and Fall of Legs Diamond (1960), The Outer Limits TV Series (1963–1965), In the Heat of the Night (1967), Dillinger (1973), Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (1974)).

Ann (Manx) The blond housewife Ann is played by Kate Manx the then wife of the director. She's sort of a mix of Stella Stevens and Barbara Eden. Another stock film noir veteran Jerome Cowan (The Maltese Falcon (1941), Moontide (1942), Street of Chance (1942), Deadline at Dawn (1946), The Unfaithful (1947), Night Has a Thousand Eyes (1948), Scene of the Crime (1949)) plays a schlub salesman Ed who stops for gas at the filling station. Robert Wark plays Roger, Ann's husband and Jules Maitland plays the filling station owner.


Ed (Cowan) We first spot Duke and Boots when they are climbing up a small bluff from a foggy beach onto the blacktop.  “The Rock” a distinct road cut into the California Coast Range at the edge of Malibu rises as a hazy backdrop. Waves ominously break against the shore. The two either spent the night sleeping on the beach or where taking a midday dip. They cross the traffic to the Veltex station and bum some pop and cigarettes from the attendant (Maitland).

When Boots tells Duke about a wall calendar he saw in the station with a scantily clad girl wearing just a cowboy hat, Duke asks him if he's getting ready for a woman yet. Boots whines that Duke always steals the girl he wants, the last one being that redhead in the orange grove, so Duke promises to get him a woman, but not after questioning his manhood with the taunt "what are you waiting for a rich sugar daddy?"

An appliance salesman from Sacramento, Ed Hogate, drives up in his '54 Buick Skylark for gas. Boots and Duke begin to wash his windows and pump him for a ride into The City Of Angels. While so engaged with Ed, Ann drives up. Ann is curvaceous and cute. Duke asks Boots if she'll do for a woman. Boots says yes. Duke and Boots convince Ed to not only give them a ride but to tail Ann as she drives towards her home. When Ed wants to end the game and make his turn for Wilshire Blvd., Duke and Boots convince him to keep following the blond. They do this by threatening him with a switchblade that Boots pulls out of his pocket.

 

The boys get Ed to drop them off up the street, just after Ann pulls into her driveway. The two next break into the vacant house next door. From a second floor window the two begin to spy on Ann's comings and goings. The two voyeurs peep down on her when she skinny dips in her pool or sunbathes out on her patio.

 

Duke begins a plan to seduce Ann pretending to be an on the skids landscaper, who lives in his truck while looking for work. He shows up at her door whenever her husband leaves on his various business trips.

Duke slowly wears Ann's defences down by preying on her sympathies. Working in Duke's favor is the fact that her workaholic husband fails to appreciate her "ribbons and her bows". He shuns her advances, as she tries to get him to pay more attention to her sexual needs. This makes her ripe for plucking. Ann's frustrations in the film are semiotically depicted, at one point while speaking to her husband she strokes a burning (phallic) candlestick, later aroused by Duke she repeats the deed with the round stem of a plant. Other images also repeat, her husband's doffed tie she places around her neck as later she does the same with Dukes's belt. Is she subconsciously signifying that she is property?

Dukes plan is to get her hopelessly defenceless, sexually aroused, and liquored up enough to take her next door to empty house drop her on a mattress and let Boots rape her. At 79 min Private Property speeds along quickly down the highway to Noirsville.

Noirsville

 

 

Corey Allen's silver tongued devil Duke, is easily convincing as a womanizer, but you don't have to wonder why he never gained traction after this performance, the film opened without Code approval, was condemned by the Legion Of Decency and got slim to none distribution. Warren Oates underplays the malleable simple minded sexual neophyte Boots. Oates specialized most of his career in playing hopeless lowlifes doomed to wallow in eternal misery, always getting the poop end of the stick. Kate Manx excels as Ann with her portrayal ranging from "I Dream Of Jeannie" perky to that of sweet quiet desperation for the attention of her husband. Again one wonders how her career may have went if the film had had a regular release. Four years later she committed suicide, a waste.

So, does the title refer to trophy wife Ann, the house and pool, or the whole gaudy tinseltown world that only the others, the "elites" can inhabit?

Images are digital camera caps of the newly restored Cinelicious Pictures from a TCM premiere. 7/10

 

Full review with more caps here: http://noirsville.blogspot.com/2017/01/private-property-1960-psychological.html

[I Just Watched...]

Private Property (1960) Psychological California Smog Noir

The film revolves around two down and out creepy and twisted drifters, hitchhiking their way to The Sunset Strip. The two become sexually obsessed over a hawt "California Girl" blond housewife driving a white corvette who casually stops for directions at a Pacific Coast Highway Veltex filling station near Malibu. (BTW the Veltex Gas is going for 8 cents a gallon in 1960). 

 

Corey Allen's silver tongued devil Duke, is easily convincing as a womanizer, but you don't have to wonder why he never gained traction after this performance, the film opened without Code approval, was condemned by the Legion Of Decency and got slim to none distribution. Warren Oates underplays the malleable simple minded sexual neophyte Boots. Oates specialized most of his career in playing hopeless lowlifes doomed to wallow in eternal misery, always getting the *beep* end of the stick. Kate Manx excels as Ann with her portrayal ranging from "I Dream Of Jeannie" perky to that of sweet quiet desperation for the attention of her husband. Again one wonders how her career may have went if the film had had a regular release. Four years later she committed suicide, a waste. 

 

So, does the title refer to trophy wife Ann, the house and pool, or the whole gaudy tinseltown world that only the others, the "elites" can inhabit? 7/10 

 

Full review with digital camera images caps of the newly restored Cinelicious Pictures from a TCM premiere here: http://noirsville.blogspot.com/2017/01/private-property-1960-psychological.html

[I Just Watched...]

The 1980 movie UNION CITY has a plot that folks who like 'Diabolique' might enjoy.  "Union City" stars Dennis Lipscomb, Debbie Harry and Sam McMurray.  Think Pat Benatar is in it, too.  I've seen it once and wouldn't mind seeing it again sometime. 

It's based on a Cornell Woolrich story, who BTY had many of his stories turned into Film Noir.

 

Street of Chance (1942) (novel The Black Curtain)

Phantom Lady (1944) (novel) directed by Robert Siodmak.

Deadline at Dawn (1946) (novel)

Black Angel (1946) (novel)

The Chase (1946) (novel The Black Path of Fear)

Fall Guy (1947) (story Cocaine)

The Guilty (1947) (story He Looked Like Murder)

Fear in the Night (1947) (story Nightmare)

I Wouldn't Be in Your Shoes (1948) (story)

Night Has a Thousand Eyes (1948) (novel)

The Window (1949) (story The Boy Cried Murder)

No Man of Her Own (1950) (novel I Married a Dead Man)

Rear Window (1954) (story It Had to Be Murder) directed by Alfred Hitchcock

Obsession (1954) (story Silent as the Grave)

Nightmare (1956) (story)

[I Just Watched...]

Les Diaboliques (Diabolique) (1955)

 

 

A 1955 French psychological noir thriller directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot (Quai des Orfèvres (1947), Le salaire de la peur (The Wages of Fear ) (1953), ), starring Simone Signoret (Gunman in the Streets (1950), Casque d'Or (1952), Is Paris Burning? (1966), Army of Shadows (1969)), Véra Clouzot (Le salaire de la peur (The Wages of Fear) (1953)), Paul Meurisse (Sergil chez les filles (1952), Army of Shadows (1969), Le Deuxieme Souffle (1966)) and Charles Vanel (The Wages of Fear (1953), To Catch a Thief (1955)).  

 

Vera Clouzot, is a delight as the pious, frail, nervous, stepped on one to many times, wife. Simone Signoret seems almost butch in comparison. She is a big full figured woman and she towers over Christina both physically and mentally. There have been some critiques that state that Nicole may have lesbian designs on Christina, I got the same faint vibe. Paul Meurisse comes off like a French Jack Webb, and Charles Vanel's Inspector Fichet I hear is the original prototype of Colombo.

 

One of the best French Noir, screencaps are from the Criterion DVD. 10/10

 

Full review with more screencaps here: http://noirsville.blogspot.com/2017/01/les-diaboliques-diabolique-1955.html

 

[Recently watched Noir]

Les Diaboliques (Diabolique) (1955)

 

A 1955 French psychological noir thriller directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot (Quai des Orfèvres (1947), Le salaire de la peur (The Wages of Fear ) (1953), ), starring Simone Signoret (Gunman in the Streets (1950), Casque d'Or (1952), Is Paris Burning? (1966), Army of Shadows (1969)), Véra Clouzot (Le salaire de la peur (The Wages of Fear) (1953)), Paul Meurisse (Sergil chez les filles (1952), Army of Shadows (1969), Le Deuxieme Souffle (1966)) and Charles Vanel (The Wages of Fear (1953), To Catch a Thief (1955)).  

The film was based on the novel Celle qui n'était plus (She Who Was No More) by Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac. The screenplay was by Henri-Georges Clouzot, Jérôme Géronimi, René Masson and Frédéric Grende.

Cinematography was by Armand Thirard (Quai des Orfèvres (1947), Le salaire de la peur (1953)), and music was by Georges Van Parys (Casque d'Or (1952)).

Nichole (Simone Signoret) 
Michel (Paul Meurisse)
Christina (Vera Clouzot)
 Inspector Fichet (Charles Vanel)

 

A cheap boarding school near Paris is run by tightwad headmaster Michel Delassalle (Meurisse). The school is owned by Delassalle's sickly wife Christina, who is also a teacher. Christina has a heart condition which prevents her from performing her wifely duties, so Michel has taken to banging the blonde Nicole Horner (Signoret), another teacher at the school. The prospect of Nicole becoming Michel's mistress has no effect between the two women since Michel is verbally abusive to both of them and woman beater to boot. They both despise him.

Nichole concocts a plan to off Michel. Christina, is indecisive at first, but after more rounds of abuse from Michel agrees to the plan. Threatening divorce, Christina leaves the school, drives with
Nichole to Nichole's hometown Niort and stays at her apartment. This lures Michel away from the school in pursuit of his meal ticket. Using a sedative mixed into a bottle of Johnnie Walker scotch she gets Michel to drink it. Michel passes out. Nichole and Christina carry him into the bathroom and drown him in the bath tub. Hiding his body in a large wicker basket Nichole and Christina drive back to the school and dump Michel into a disused swimming pool. They figure that once the body floats up to the top it will look like an accident.

Of course the body never floats to the top and everything goes exquisitely Noirsville.

 

Noirsville

  

 

 

 

 

Vera Clouzot, is a delight as the pious, frail, nervous, stepped on one to many times, wife. Simone Signoret seems almost butch in comparison. She is a big full figured woman and she towers over Christina both physically and mentally. There have been some critiques that state that Nicole may have lesbian designs on Christina, I got the same faint vibe. Paul Meurisse comes off like a French Jack Webb, and Charles Vanel's Inspector Fichet I hear is the original prototype of Colombo.

One of the best French Noir, screencaps are from the Criterion DVD. 10/10

 

Full review with more screencaps here: http://noirsville.blogspot.com/2017/01/les-diaboliques-diabolique-1955.html

[I Just Watched...]

Jackie (2016) another background noise film while working on the PC, looked up every once in awhile, nothing interesting to me or impressive. meh/10

 

[I Just Watched...]

The Green Slime (1968) Totally ridiculous but a lot of fun, saw on the big screen as a kid. 6/10

[I Just Watched...]

Fences (2016) Directed by Denzel Washington starring Denzel Washington, Viola Davis, Stephen Henderson, Jim Bono, Jovan Adepo, Russell Hornsby, Mykelti Williamson, and Saniyya Sidney. Another SAG Screener. This one is a good powerful drama sort of a The Honeymooners meets A Streetcar Named Desire. 9/10

 

Winter's Bone (2010) This one is sort of The Beverly Hillbillies Break Bad. Mountain folk, their standoffishness, their distrust of strangers, and problems with the law. It almost captures the hillfolk and their world pretty well, I say almost because I've had contact with these suckers on a regular basis, in the real hill country there's a lot of missing and rotting teeth in even the twenty year olds. 7/10

 

The Nice Guys (2016) Comedy 1970s Los Angeles, a mismatched pair one private eye one strong arm thug investigate a missing girl and the mysterious death of a porn star, not great but not very good either. 6/10

 

["The Killers"]

One more thing. Did any other film of the genre have a better opening?

 

 

Agree it's classic.

[I Just Watched...]

The Conversation (1974) Surveillance Noir

 

 

The film is about a Surveillance P. I., Harry Caul (Hackman) an electronics nerd who incrementally becomes paranoid, alienated, and obsessed. Caul is "tops" in his field on the West Coast, a thorough and meticulous, snoop. His headquarters is in a chain link cage in the corner of an empty warehouse floor, at the edge of the rail freight yards of San Francisco. His workbench holds an array of audio equipment. He makes his office calls from various random payphones.

 

Hackman gives a great performance as the wound a bit too tight, idiosyncratic loner. The cast comprising Caul's peers are equally eccentric and nerdy. The rest of the players are more peripheral with only Harrison Ford standing out as an ominous flunkie of the nameless "director." The soundtrack is excellent. Screencaps are from the 2010 DVD. 9/10 Full review here in Film Noir/ Gangster board and with more screencaps here: http://http://noirsville.blogspot.com/2017/01/the-conversation-1974-surveillance-noir.html

 

[Recently watched Noir]

The Conversation (1974) Surveillance Noir

 

Produced and directed by Francis Ford Coppola (The Godfather (1972), The Godfather: Part II (1974), The Cotton Club (1984)). Cinematography by Bill Butler (Hickey & Boggs (1972)) and Haskell Wexler (Stakeout on Dope Street (1958), The Savage Eye (1960), In the Heat of the Night (1967), Mulholland Falls (1996)). Music was by David Shire (Farewell, My Lovely (1975)).

The film stars Gene Hackman (Naked City  TV Series (1958–1963), Night Moves (1975)) as Harry Caul, John Cazale (The Godfather (1972)) as Stan, Allen Garfield (The Cotton Club (1984)) as William P. "Bernie" Moran, Cindy Williams as Ann Frederic Forrest (Hammett (1982), The Two Jakes (1990)), as Mark, Harrison Ford (Blade Runner (1982)) as Martin Stett, Elizabeth MacRae (Naked City  TV Series (1958–1963), Route 66 (1960–1964), as Meredith, and Teri Garr (After Hours (1985)) as Amy Fredericks.

The film is about a Surveillance P. I., Harry Caul (Hackman) an electronics nerd who incrementally becomes paranoid, alienated, and obsessed. Caul is "tops" in his field on the West Coast, a thorough and meticulous, snoop. His headquarters is in a chain link cage in the corner of an empty warehouse floor, at the edge of the rail freight yards of San Francisco. His workbench holds an array of audio equipment. He makes his office calls from various random payphones.

 

His standoffishness is manifest in the lack of details in his barren relationship with his girlfriend Amy (Garr). Harry has told her nothing of his past, he remains a stranger. When he calls on her, he sneaks to her flop door, putting his key quietly into the lock then flinging open the door as if to catch her doing something. He's a friendless, secretive, overly cautious schlub who wears a cheap plastic raincoat on sunny days, has installed four separate locks on his flat door, and gets anxious flashbacks to the young couple his work has put in jeopardy during a momentary power interruption on a streetcar. His only two release/retreats seem to be the confessional at his church and his saxophone, which he plays to the accompaniment of Duke Ellington's Sophisticated Lady spinning on his turntable.

Anne (Williams) and Mark (Forrest)

 

Caul (Hackman) lt. Stan (Caszal) rt.
During a big and intricately involved high tech eavesdropping surveillance job on a target couple Ann (Williams) and Mark (Forrest) in Union Square, San Francisco, Caul neglects the first rule of surveillance and begins to get personally involved. His past nagging guilt about previous assignments begins to gnaw on his conscience. As he works on the recordings and transcripts he begins to ponder if this job going to physically hurt or possibly kill the couple under surveillance as happened to others in another job in a similar situation.

Caul's paranoid condition amplifies, he's miffed when his landlord leaves a bottle of wine in his "Fortress of Solitude" apartment, chagrined that his bank has sent him a birthday card, and then later he freaks out after his ominous client "the director" contacts him through his henchman Martin Stett (Ford) who calls him on his private phone that he's never given out the number to.

Caul begins to slowly lose his mind as he descends into Noirsville.... do we see actual events or his guilty by association hallucinations.

Noirsville

 

 

 

 

 

Hackman gives a great performance as the wound a bit too tight, idiosyncratic loner. The cast comprising Caul's peers are equally eccentric and nerdy. The rest of the players are more peripheral with only Harrison Ford standing out as an ominous flunkie of the nameless "director." The soundtrack is excellent. Screencaps are from the 2010 DVD. 9/10 Review with more screencaps here: http://noirsville.blogspot.com/2017/01/the-conversation-1974-surveillance-noir.html

[I Just Watched...]

Hey- The chauffeur killed himself.

Well sort of, lol.

 

In the '78 version, the chauffeur is love crazy over Camilla (Sternwoods younger daughter). He may be drunk or he may also be high on something. Joe Brody goes to Geiger's to see if he'll take on a partner. He observes first Camilla walking into Geiger's and after he drives around the block sees the chauffeur (who apparently followed Camilla) entering Geiger's house from the rear entrance.

 

Brody waits about ten minutes and then walks down to Geigers.

 

The chauffeur kills Geiger while he is in the process of photographing Camilla Sternwood, he steals the camera magazine with the negative roll and runs out the rear entrance and takes off in the 1958 Bentley S1 (all this happens while Marlowe is coming in the front). Brody tails him. The chauffeur tries to elude him, but he loses control of the Bentley and skids into a phone box. Brody drives up and steals the negatives from the dazed chauffeur by clobbering him over the head with the camera magazine. (This explains the gash on the chauffeur's body when later it's fished out of the drink.)

 

The chauffeur apparently distraught over killing Geiger, crashing Sternwoods Bentley and losing the negatives commits suicide by driving off a pier.

[I Just Watched...]

Is this version at least coherent?

Yes, no loose ends.

[I Just Watched...]

Never saw it.  Does it have that double entendre laced "racehorse" discussion that the Bogart/Bacall had in the original?

 

 

Sepiatone

No, that was all added by the studio to take advantage of the Bogart/Bacall chemistry, there was no love story, this film follows the novel pretty closely, except for time period and location.

 

Double entendre! This film from 1978 dosen't need any stinkin' double entendre 

[I Just Watched...]

I watched it on the TCM website, under "Watch TCM," then "Movies on Demand."

Ok found it also on Sling TV on the TCM channel in the on demand list just click and you can watch.

[I Just Watched...]

The Big Sleep (1978) Café au lait Noir (White Coffee)

 

 

"What did it matter where you lay once you were dead? In a stagnant lake or in a marble tower on the top of a high hill? You were dead, you were sleeping the big sleep, you were not bothered by things like that."

 

1978's The Big Sleep is best watched cold turkey. If you have never read Raymond Chandler's novel, and didn't know that the original tale took place in 1939, in Southern California, nor ever seen Hollywood's Bogart/Bacall 1945 Film Noir interpretation, you may find this version quite enjoyable.

 

It took me about three viewings to really warm to the film, to forget where and when it was supposed to take place and just enjoy it for what it is, another Chandler novel adapted to the screen is always a bonus. I like it a bit better than it's companion 70's update take on Marlowe, Altman's The Long Goodbye (1973) with mumbling Elliott Gould. 7/10

 

Fuller review here in Film Noir/Gangster thread and full rebiew with more screencaps (some NSFW) from the ITV Studios DVD here:  http://noirsville.blogspot.com/2017/01/the-big-sleep-1978-cafe-au-lait.html

[Recently watched Noir]

The Big Sleep (1978) Café au lait Noir (White Coffee)

 

 

"What did it matter where you lay once you were dead? In a stagnant lake or in a marble tower on the top of a high hill? You were dead, you were sleeping the big sleep, you were not bothered by things like that."

 

1978's The Big Sleep is best watched cold turkey. If you have never read Raymond Chandler's novel, and didn't know that the original tale took place in 1939, in Southern California, nor ever seen Hollywood's Bogart/Bacall 1945 Film Noir interpretation, you may find this version quite enjoyable.

 

Comparatively, Chandler's The Big Sleep (1945) with Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall was retooled to take advantage of the chemistry that arced across the screen between Bogart and Bacall, the studio added a love story angle and the accompanying dialog.

 

The Big Sleep (1978) with Robert Mitchum in the Philip Marlowe role, doesn't have that Bacall/Bogart love story, it follows the novel more closely with it's original dialog, and isn't hampered by the Hayes Code. It's biggest complication is the whole story is shifted to The United Kingdom and updated to the present 1978. Instead of ramshackle, decrepit and shabby it wallows in old world opulence. Marlowe drives a '71 BMW instead of a 1930's Marmon.

 

All this modifying and Anglify-ing is interesting considering that Chandler was sort of modified and Anglicized himself, born in 1888 in Chicago, Illinois, he spent a few years in Nebraska living along the Missouri River with relatives and then moved with his mother at the age of 12 in 1900 after his father abandoned them to a borough of London in the UK. He flipped back again ending up in the States, moving first to San Francisco, then Los Angeles.

 

So I'll repeat, if you don't know that the original story was supposed to be all taking place in 1939 and was supposed to be in Los Angeles you'll actually find it a pretty good film, the story updates pretty much flawlessly. Marlowe in this version, is an ex US soldier who stayed on in the UK after WWII to open a Commercial and Civil Investigations Agency and all the supporting cast is actually top notch. I can guess that being an English Production, with mostly English actors and with a modest budget in mind it was far easier to update the story to the present and change the local. But what makes all this an even bigger shame was Mitchum played a top notch Marlowe three years earlier in Farewell My Lovely (1975) a remake of 1944's Murder My Sweet. the '75 film kept the story to the year 1941, and it was also not hampered by either the Hayes code nor by the unofficial PC "code" that seems prevalent today . If they would have just followed the previous film there could have possibly been a whole series of Marlowe films that would have been true to Chandler's novels in the correct time period, i.e., The High Window 1942, The Lady in the Lake 1943, The Little Sister 1949, and The Long Good-bye (1953).

 

 

The film stylistically lets you know right from the get-go credit sequence you're not in sunny SoCal. It's diffuse light, sunless and somber, a gloomy cloudy day. And it's all a bit off (at least to this Yank). A POV from the cockpit of a 1971 BMW 2500. We are cruising down the blacktop and taking an exit from what looks like an "M" designated high speed motorway, the highway markings are strange, you are driving on the right and exiting on the left, and you continue downshifting through various grades of road, through intersections, including a circle till we steer into the driveway of a country estate.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mitchum is great throughout, most of the cast is fine in their parts. Aside from Jimmy Stewart's figiting, Candy Clark is a bit too over the top she plays Camilla more like a 13 year old who has just discovered she has boobs rather than a tantalizing seductress. I enjoyed all of the vehicular action sequences with Mitchum tooling around the countryside and negotiating the narrow London streets in his BMW, it's a nice touch. The film has it's own bit of style, it's noir lite, café au lait, it's more jolly ol' England than foggy bleak London, but it's a fun ride.

 

It took me about three viewings to really warm to the film, to forget where and when it was supposed to take place and just enjoy it for what it is, another Chandler novel adapted to the screen is always a bonus. I like it a bit better than it's companion 70's update take on Marlowe, Altman's The Long Goodbye (1973) with mumbling Elliott Gould. 7/10

 

Fuller review with more screencaps (some NSFW) from the ITV Studios DVD here:  http://noirsville.blogspot.com/2017/01/the-big-sleep-1978-cafe-au-lait.html

[I Just Watched...]

The Hypnotic Eye (1960)

 

Weird, entertaining thriller starring Jacques Bergerac as a handsome but weird hypnotist and Allison Hayes as his sexy but weird assistant. Weird music score by Marlin Skiles.

 

A bevy of beautiful babes do weird things to themselves, and a detective (weirdly played by some guy I never heard of) investigates. He is assisted by a police psychiatrist, who is also weird. This doctor plays the piano in a kimono and has a picture of Freud hanging in his office. Now I love mathematics, but I never had a picture of Isaac Newton hanging in my office – but then again, Newton was weird.

 

There is a weird scene with some beatniks, one of whom recites a weird poem, while a few others play some weird music. In the climax, Bergerac does some weird stuff with the audience.

 

Weirdest line of the film:  “If you like my beautiful face so much, you may have it!”

 

 

 

Oddly, I did not find this weird at all:

Where did you see this BTW?

[I Just Watched...]

"Attack of the Crab Monsters" (1957)--Starring Richard Garland, Pamela Duncan, and Russell Johnson.  Directed by Roger Corman.

 

  There are several interesting ideas in this sci-fi/horror movie, nuclear blasts causing aberrations of nature just to name one.  Too bad Corman did this movie on next to no budget, because he decided to show the monsters--to less than frightening effect.

 

The plot--A group of scientists are dropped off on an island that received radiation from the Hiroshima bomb in WW II.  They are there to study any effects radiation may have had on the island, and to try to find out what happened to an earlier group of scientists, who disappeared without explanation.  

 

I saw this on archive.org, which has a British print of the film, one that says " Associated British Pathe is distributing this film".  The print and sound is the clearest I've ever seen or heard for this movie--beats the **** out of any print of AotCM on YouTube.  The movies' good and Bad ideas are very clear.

 

Scripts' ideas are undone by budget limitations and the Bad idea to show the monsters.  It's more interesting to think what could have been done.  2/4.  

 

Source--archive.org.  Search "AoftCrbMs1957".

I always liked this one it was creepy to me as a kid.

[I Just Watched...]

I watched Manchester by the Sea. Sad, quiet, thoughtful, beautifully acted and directed. A little bit melodramatic, but that's ok. Casey Affleck is brilliant.

 

For the most part, I didn't think the women in the film came across too well, as characters.

Watched it a few days ago, a watchable dysfunctional family melodrama, starring Casey Affleck and Ben O'Brien, a 7/10, but nothing I'd ever watch again.

[Where are the Christmas movies?]

Well I watched Christmas Story yesterdayand it brought up a question.  A long time ago I saw a version of this that was slightly different.  For example, in the scene where the mom breaks the leg lamp, Jean Shepherd narrates "The old man went out to get some glue.  He got Iron Glue, the kind they use to repair exploded locomotives."  That line is nowhere to be heard in the version that runs on TBS, nor on the DVD I got.  IMDb mentions another deleted scene involving Flash Gordon, and the Wikipedia entry is of no help.  Does anyone else remember the line about "Iron Glue"?

 

Are you sure you "saw" a version of A Christmas Story and not "heard" a version of A Christmas Story? Jean Shepherd would narrate various parts of what eventually became A Christmas Story on his WOR radio New York City, New York. He performed entirely without scripts using just outlines. His show lasted 45 minutes and you'd get a whole show in detail about the for instance what you are asking about, the Leg Lamp, another whole show about putting the tongue on the flagpole, another about His old man and his fights with the furnace, another about the Bumpas hound dogs and the time they broke into the house and stole the turkey dinner. 

 

He easily could have added that detail about iron glue in the radio show, heck it may even be in one of Shepherd's books if you ever read one.

[Recently watched Noir]

Road Movie (1974) Road Noir

 

Via, The Road, La Strada, the ancient conduit of Civilization. Updated to circa 1974. The place, Arena Diner Truck Stop, meadowlands ****, halfway between Newark and Jersey City, New Jersey.

Road Movie, a Neo Noir no one has heard of, was directed by Joseph Strick (one of the directors of The Savage Eye (1959), and director of The Big Break (1953),Tropic of Cancer (1970)). Strick was a Braddock Pennsylvania native, who has had a successful career primarily as a documentary filmmaker. The Savage Eye which won 1960 BAFTA Flaherty Documentary Award is often considered to be part of the cinema vérité movement of the 1950s and 1960s.

The film was credited as being written by Judith Rascoe (Who'll Stop the Rain (1978)), and by Joseph Strick (story). Cinematography by was by Don Lenzer (Woodstock (1970), Street Scenes (1970)). The excellent melange of blues and country music was by Stanley Myers (The Deer Hunter (1978).

The film stars Regina Baff (Escape from Alcatraz (1979)), Robert Drivas (Cool Hand Luke (1967), Route 66 (TV Series)), Barry Bostwick (The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)), David Bauer (Dark of the Sun (1968), Diamonds Are Forever (1971)), David Challis, Rodney Cleghorn, Beatrice Colen, Rik Colitti, Eileen Dietz, Laura Esterman and the great American road.

 

Janice (Baff) is a ****. Started young.A born ****. Teeny Bopper with hot pants. Arcade photo booth. Janice nude under her coat. Taking nudie shots of her pink canoe. Prints sell to perves. Caught! Taken to the office. Owner threats to call the cops. Janice tells him "I got one good reason why we shouldn't go to the cops" and she opened her coat giving the owner an eye full and Janice does it with the creep, does it all right in the office. A new career launched.

 

Road Movie has an opening credit sequence that beautifully captures vignettes along the transient mileposts in the lives of modern teamsters. The film begins with a tearied eye Janice. She's arguing in a car with a john or her pimp. He kicks her out at the Arena Diner Truckstop. He tells her she'll have to work trucks. A highway hooker.

dumped at the diner

 

Rolling out of the lot in their Peterbilt with a reefer load of beef, are veteran driver Gill (Robert Drivas) jaded, divorced, woman beater, and Hank (Barry Bostwick) greenhorn trying to follow in his trucker father's wheel tracks, two independent truckers. Gill spots Janice and tells her they are headed to Chicago. Janice says a hundred, Gill counters fifty.

 

 

Revenge for Janice is monkeying around with the reefer unit on the truck, losing the refrigeration means they got to dump their load for a loss at the nearest meat locker in Pittsburgh. Janice tells them she can get them a load through her mob connections. Of course the road ahead spiral curves into downtown Noirsville.

Noirsville 

 

 

 

 

Road Movie is a great primer on independent truckers, on all the crapola they steer around and all the hoops they drive through. It's also a depressing 1974 ride through the decaying industrial neighborhoods and the sign polluted retail strips of American cities. We get drive bys of the strip mines of coal country, the refineries, junk strewn lots, auto salvage graveyards, chain link fences netting windrows of trash and desperate roadside attractions. The film evokes both the Classic Noirs Detour (1945) and The Hitch-Hiker (1953).

 

Regina Baff's Femme Fatale Janice is a spunky piece of work. She is audacious, bitter, destitute, hair triggered and self sufficient. Baff really displays her acting chops as she's degraded, beat up, pushed around, bares her straight razor claw during a mugging, offers her body to highway weigh station officers, and shows her dogged ferocity when Gill finally casts her off. Baff's Janice is the soul mate to Ann Savage's Vera.

 

Robert Drivas' rough edged Gill has the "life's a **** and then you die" mantra of a life on autopilot, he wants to own nothing to nobody. Barry Bostwick's gentle Hank is the romantic, a dreamer, the down homeboy trying to follow a dream. Both are convincing.

 

Road Movie is a nice Noir slice of the 70's, the cinematography, music, the sound design, even the diegetic sound of holy roller radio preachers shucking bleeding heart of Jesus statues that actually squirt blood, while the ephemera of cast off americana kitsch constantly rolls past our view is both depressingly bleak and amusingly entertaining. Screenshots are from the Image Entertainment DVD. 7/10.

 

Fuller review with more ( and some NSFW)screenshots here http://noirsville.blogspot.com/2016/12/road-movie-1974-road-noir.html