cigarjoe

Never seen it.

The 7th Commandment (1961) Bizarre Evangelical Noir A great little "C" Noir Directed by Irvin Berwick, screenplay written by Irvin Berwick and Jack Kevan. What makes The 7th Commandment even more relevant is this year's (2016) Republican presidential race and the competition for the evangelical vote with the candidates vying for the "holier than thou" crown with pious one up-manship. It's definitely a "Weird Noir". Poster & Film Title (two different spellings) The film stars Broadway veteran character actor Kurt Richards billed as Jonathan Kidd, Lyn Statten a New York City actress, Film Noir bit part actor John Harmon (They Made Me a Killer (1946), Fall Guy (1947),Moonrise (1948), Flaxy Martin (1949), The Crooked Way (1949), Southside 1-1000 (1950), along with lots of Crime TV in the '50S ), and Frank Arvidson. Cinematography is by Robert C. Jessup. A 40-ish square john, Ted Mathews (Jonathan Kidd), is rolling the dice on a second shot at life, he has just graduated from night school, The Radburn Extension College of San Francisco. He's giving the valedictorian to his class, he seems to be riding high on entrance ramp to Easy Street. Outside a 53 Chevy convertible drives up out of the dark to the entrance with Terry James (Lyn Statten) a blond bombshell behind the wheel. Man looks like this guys has it all right? Wrong. As one noir pundit put it "the blonder they are on the outside the badder they are on the inside". After primping, re-lipsticking, and checking herself out in the mirror, this hot tomato Terry slides over the bench seat towards the passenger side and assumes a recline pose that displays her obvious charms. Ted Mathews (Jonathan Kidd) Terry (Lyn Statten) displaying her obvious charms With one wink from Terry the former confident Ted looks like a deer in the headlights. He is out classed, and obviously in over his head in lust with Terry, **** stupid, whipped, so to speak. He bops around to the driver's seat and heads to their "special place" at a good clip. During a torrid tonsil hockey session speeding down a two lane with his eyes off the road, Ted and Terry almost have a head on. Both cars swerve off the road and into the tulies. Ted wakes up slumped over the wheel checks on a moaning Terry and then goes off to scope out the other car. He's killed a man The other vehicle has slammed into a tree, it's drivers side door is open, a man is hanging half out with what looks like his head through the windshield and blood running down his arm, he looks permanently chilled. Ted thinks he's killed the man. Ted is first horrified then shell shocked. His screen image wavers stylistically indicating a transformation. Ted goes back to Terry's car and shakes her, she is unresponsive. Ted trance like just walks off into the dark leaving the scene of the accident right into Noirsville. Very entertaining on Six Weird Noirs from Something Weird Videos. 7/10 fuller review here on Film Noir/Gangster board and with more screencaps here: http://noirsville.blogspot.com/2016/02/the-7th-commandment-1961-bizarre.html

The 7th Commandment (1961) Bizarre Evangelical Noir A great little "C" Noir Directed by Irvin Berwick, screenplay written by Irvin Berwick and Jack Kevan. What makes The 7th Commandment even more relevant is this year's (2016) Republican presidential race and the competition for the evangelical vote with the candidates vying for the "holier than thou" crown with pious one up-manship. It's definitely a "Weird Noir". Poster & Film Title (two different spellings) The film stars Broadway veteran character actor Kurt Richards billed as Jonathan Kidd, Lyn Statten a New York City actress, Film Noir bit part actor John Harmon (They Made Me a Killer (1946), Fall Guy (1947), Moonrise (1948), Flaxy Martin (1949), The Crooked Way (1949), Southside 1-1000 (1950), along with lots of Crime TV in the '50S ), and Frank Arvidson. Cinematography is by Robert C. Jessup. A 40-ish square john, Ted Mathews (Jonathan Kidd), is rolling the dice on a second shot at life, he has just graduated from night school, The Radburn Extension College of San Francisco. He's giving the valedictorian to his class, he seems to be riding high on entrance ramp to Easy Street. Outside a 53 Chevy convertible drives up out of the dark to the entrance with Terry James (Lyn Statten) a blond bombshell behind the wheel. Man looks like this guys has it all right? Wrong. As one noir pundit put it "the blonder they are on the outside the badder they are on the inside". After primping, re-lipsticking, and checking herself out in the mirror, this hot tomato Terry slides over the bench seat towards the passenger side and assumes a recline pose that displays her obvious charms. Ted Mathews (Jonathan Kidd) Terry (Lyn Statten) displaying her obvious charms With one wink from Terry the former confident Ted looks like a deer in the headlights. He is out classed, and obviously in over his head in lust with Terry, **** stupid, whipped, so to speak. He bops around to the driver's seat and heads to their "special place" at a good clip. During a torrid tonsil hockey session speeding down a two lane with his eyes off the road, Ted and Terry almost have a head on. Both cars swerve off the road and into the tulies. Ted wakes up slumped over the wheel checks on a moaning Terry and then goes off to scope out the other car. He's killed a man The other vehicle has slammed into a tree, it's drivers side door is open, a man is hanging half out with what looks like his head through the windshield and blood running down his arm, he looks permanently chilled. Ted thinks he's killed the man. Ted is first horrified then shell shocked. His screen image wavers stylistically indicating a transformation. Ted goes back to Terry's car and shakes her, she is unresponsive. Ted trance like just walks off into the dark leaving the scene of the accident. Ted wakes up in an idyllic setting, laying back against a moss covered tree with the sun shining and the birds chirping. He stumbles to his feet and climbs up to an itinerant preachers truck. A crude hand painted plywood sideboard proclaims "Noah's Ark". Noah Turnbull, (Frank Arvidson) is a simple evangelist tent preacher who is sitting on a canvas seat by a campfire having a cup of joe. Ted approaches Noah and is welcomed to join him. When Noah asks Ted's name, Ted hesitates, he doesn't remember, when he asks where he's from he doesn't remember, the accident has given him amnesia. Noah notices that Ted's ring has the initials "TM" so he starts to rattle off names that begin with "T". When Noah says Tad, Ted nods like a bobble head doll. Noah then goes through surnames again getting a reaction when he gets to Morgan, so Ted Matthews becomes Tad Morgan. After Tad threatens to bean Noah's unpaid tent raising helper, with a tree branch. The man had the audacity of asking to be paid, Noah advises Tad to repent his violent reaction, making him recite the Lord's Prayer with him, during the course of which in another stylistic foreshadowing, the teacher Noah is surpassed by his pupil Tad. Apparently getting your bell rung not only gives you amnesia but also turns you, seven years later, into an evangelical faith healer raking in the big bucks. To paraphrase an old Cheech and Chong line Ted used to be **** up on women, now as Tad, he is **** up on the Lord. Noah has now become a sort of business manager/advisor and Tad is the star attraction billed as "The Orpheus Of The Pulpit". We see Tad, after a typical faith healing session, admonishing to his flock that he doesn't want to hear the clinking of coins in the offering baskets he wants to hear the rustle of green leaves, i.e. folding money. We switch channels, so to speak, and seven years later also finds big changes with Ted's ol' gal pal Terry. She is now a sloven floozy shaking up with fellow booze hound Pete (John Harmon) in a fleabag "residence" hotel that looks right out of the Honeymooners. We see her in a bathrobe and nightgown sitting on a couch with her feet up on the kitchen table, staring at the door, she impatiently stabs out her butt in a cup of coffee and exclaims "where is that bum?" Terry the floozy When Pete comes in the door with a bottle of booze wrapped in a newspaper, she asks "what took you so long I've been sitting here for over an hour drinking this cruddy coffee." Pete replies "I got back as soon as I could" Terry: "yea I bet you ran all the way", Pete: "would you knock it off, you said you wanted a bottle, I had to roll a drunk to get enough dough." Terry: "my hero." Terry unwraps the bottle and is about to pour herself a shot she spots Ted's familiar face in an ink ad. She tells Pete that she knows this guy, his name is not Tad Morgan, it's Ted Maxwell. Terry tells Pete that Ted is the bum that ditched her and let her take the 6 month rap for drunk driving. She snags some change from Pete and makes a call to "Tad". Tad says he doesn't know who she is, so Terry decides to head to San Francisco and see for herself. We cut to another of Tad's revivalist-faith healing sessions. As soon as Tad spots Terry in among his congregation he looks as if he's seen a ghost, his memory comes flooding back and he remembers that he killed a man. He just walks off the stage. Tad tells Noah that he knows that he's Ted Maxwell and that he's a sinner, but Noah replies in weird evangelical logic that it must have been God's will, and that he should not give himself up to any authority, i.e. the police. Back in his office Terry tells Ted that he's got a nice racket going. She especially likes the "green leaves" part of his sermon. Ted replies that I suppose you'll tell the police that I killed a man, which surprises Terry because in reality the other driver lived. Terry not missing a beat, tells Ted that she can be saved real nice for a grand, telling him she'll be happy with that. Tad/Ted pays her off glad to get rid of her. I can be saved real nice for a thousand bucks Terry heads home with a new wardrobe and a case of booze for Pete. Terry tells Pete that Ted thinks he killed the other driver and that Ted's gonna be our Santa Claus. They celebrate opening up the case and drinking out of "His" & "Her" bottles. They go on a bender. When they finally sober up and find out that they are out of booze, Pete tells Terry that "you might have to make another trip to the North Pole.... and maybe next time Santa Claus will come across with a couple of grand" Terry laughs and tells him she has a better idea she'll marry him. Pete explodes and smacks her around the kitchen. Terry screams that marriage is like insurance, if Ted finds out that he didn't kill the guy I'll still have my hooks in him, he'll still be our meal ticket. Terry drops a dime on Ted to tell him she needs more money. Ted who has been doctor ordered to take a vacation for his heart condition, says he'll be out of town. Terry tells him that that's OK then he can stop by on his way to his destination. When Ted arrives to write her another check, he becomes Terry's virtual prisoner. She rips up the check and tells him he's staying. It's not long before Terry gets the old fires raging again in Ted's loins, but she holds out, not letting him round the bases until he drinks some booze. Drink some booze, get some sex. Using booze and sex she can regulate Ted into a semiconscious stupor. She hires an off the wagon preacher to perform the marriage ceremony. Terry is holding Ted up for the vows and as soon as they are pronounced man and wife, she lets go and Ted drops to the floor. When the preacher leaves, she drags Ted to the sofa. Pete arrives soon after and he carries Terry over the threshold to the wedding bed while Ted is passed out. The 7th Commandment is broken. The early next morning Terry wakes Ted and tells him she's ready to meet his flock as his new wife the Mrs Reverend Tad Morgan. Ted is stunned, but soon begins to scheme a way out. He almost strangles her at one point, but decides on another plan. He tells her he wants to walk to the station. While crossing the long bridge across a river, Terry stops to rest her feet. She takes off her pumps and sits up on the railing. Terry asks Ted to massage her feet. He does, and then grabbing her feet tosses her into the drink, disregarding the 6th Commandment. Ted then throws her shoes and her tar bar in after her. He then heads back to San Francisco. About to be tossed in the drink Terry actually survives and tries to get revenge. The film has quite a few more entertaining twists and turns as it reaches it's over the top bizarre preachy finale. A nice sound design by S.F. Brownrigg. Available on Something Weirds Six Weird Noirs DVD. 7/10

I read or heard somewhere that they cut off the tip of one of her high heels to achieve that wiggle.

The Two Jakes (1990) the sequel to Chinatown, seemed a little too convoluted and a bit too long. Was on Movies! channel yesterday.

La Grande Bouffe (1973)

Yes it did indeed.

I'm more in the visual camp concerning Noir, most of those I listed have strong visual stylistics that link them to Classic Noir. A thought to throw into the equation of what makes a Noir/Neo Noir is an individual internal factor. It's subjectivity. Noir is in all of us. Think of us all as having an internal tuning fork, these tuning forks are forged by our life experiences which are all unique. When we watch these films their degree of Noir-ness resonates with us differently, so we either "tune" to them or we don't. The amount of "tuning" (I'm appropriating this term from the Neo Noir Dark City (1998)) to certain films will vary between us all also." So I think rather than a definite demarcation line between Noir and Neo Noir it's more like there are films that are right on the cusp between the two, and this internal tuning fork that we all have is going to not only determine the noirness of a film but also whether it fits Classic or Neo side of that cusp.

The beginning of Classic Noir wasn't clean cut either (see list), and I feel the end of it sort of just bled out, B movie production ceased, TV Crime show productions rose with a lot of Hollywood B actors either going to TV or retiring. Independent C productions which I feel are akin to Poverty Row Hollywood kept it sputtering along till 1968.

Speedy (1928) Harold Lloyd comedy, with some great shots of Coney Island.7/10

I would include a few others along with Mitchum Here is a list of some B&W Noirs (there may be a few more) after 1959 some with Noir Icons and most with Noir actors, others are really low budget or in the case of Sam Fuller's post 1960 films populated with a lot of TV actors. 1960 -1968 B&W Noir (at least as I see them, The Money Trap (1965) with Glenn Ford, Rita Hayworth, Ricardo Montalban, may be another but I've only seen clips Psycho (1960) Janet Leigh (Act Of Violence - Touch of Evil) John McIntire Blast Of Silence (1961) v.o. Lionel Stander (Hangmen Also Die! -Call Northside 777 ) Underworld U.S.A. (1961) dir Sam Fuller Something Wild (1961) Ralph Meeker (Kiss Me Deadly) Cape Fear (1962) Robert Mitchum Experiment In Terror (1962) Glenn Ford Satan in High Heels (1962) Meg Myles (The Phenix City Story - New York Confidential ) The Manchurian Candidate (1962) Frank Sinatra (Suddenly - The Man with the Golden Arm ) Shock Corridor (1962) dir Sam Fuller Requiem for a Heavyweight (1962) Anthony Quinn (The Long Wait, The Naked Street) The Naked Kiss (1964) dir Sam Fuller The Pawnbroker (1964) Rod Steiger (The Big Knife -The Harder They Fall - Cry Terror! ) Juano Hernandez (The Breaking Point -Kiss Me Deadly) The Glass Cage (1964) Elisha Cook Jr. Angel's Flight (1965) low budget Brainstorm (1965) Jeffry Hunter (Fourteen Hours) Dana Andrews, Viveca Lindfors, Strother Martin Once A Thief (1965) Jack Palance, Van Heflin Aroused (1966) low budget Mr. Buddwing (1966) Jean Simmons (Angel Face) In Cold Blood (1967) Paul Stewart, Jeff Corey, Charles McGraw The Incident (1967) Thelma Ritter, Jan Sterling, Gary Merrill The Pick-Up (1968) low budget

We all know from the many and varied books written about Film Noir that the often quoted time frame that these films fit into is usually 1941 to 1958 some occasionally stretch to 1959. Who came came up with this initially, and why is it so strictly adhered too? The more Noirs I watch the more I'm questioning this. I'm beginning to come around to a different thought, and that is that Classic American Film Noir stretched from say 1940 to 1968 (1968 being the last general use of B&W film in production) here is the breakdown by year of Black & White Noirs (there may be a few more to add in, in that 1959 to 1968 stretch: 1940 (5) 1941 (11) 1942 (5) 1943 (5) 1944 (18) 1945 (22) 1946 (42) 1947 (53) 1948 (43) 1949 (52) 1950 (57) 1951 (39) 1952 (26) 1953 (21) 1954 (26) 1955 (20) 1956 (19) 1957 (12) 1958 (7) 1959 (7) 1960 (2) 1961 (5) 1962 (6) 1963 (1) 1964 (4) 1965 (3) 1966 (2) 1967 (2) 1968 (1) I'm also thinking now that the Color Film Noirs within this 1940-1968 time frame were the first Neo Noirs so that the two sub genres actually overlap. The catalyst for this new alignment is when I read a quote about Neo Noir that said that if the filmmakers made a conscience decision to film in black and white when color was the norm then it was an artistic decision and not one of necessity for budget purposes, Same the other way if B&W was the norm for low budget B Noirs then it was an artistic decision to film it color. The color film Noir the first 30 years (again there maybe a few more in these early years but they as a whole really up ticked in the 1980s and 1990's): 1945 (1) 1947 (1) 1948 (1) 1953 (2) 1955 (3) 1956 (3) 1958 (1) 1966 (1) 1967 (1) 1969 (1) 1970 (2) 1971 (4) 1972 (1) 1973 (0) 1974 (2)

Curtis Sliwa on Curtis and Kubie (a radio show) always refers to Christie as "Shamu".

Delusion (1991) Christmas In The Desert Neo Noir A low budget spaghetti western-ish Death Valley Neo "B" Noir with lots of twists. A Cineville production, directed by Belgium born Carl Colpaert, written by Carl Colpaert and Kurt Voss. Starring Jim Metzler (River's Edge (1986)), Jennifer Rubin, Kyle Secor (Sleeping with the Enemy (1991)), Jerry Orbach (Cop Hater (1958)), Robert Costanzo, and Tracey Walter. With a budget of supposedly $1,000,000 Delusion is a bare bones Film Soleil Noir. An embezzler gives a ride to two car wreck victims and straight into a Noirsville Twilight Zone. George (Jim Metzler), in full noir mode, in Larry's Airstream drinking straight from the bottle, a pathetic Christmas tree in the b.g. The entire film is dominated by the burnt umber, yellow ochers, and the bleached whites of an immense desert laughingly juxtaposed, whenever we see the barest traces of habitation, with the most minisculely pathetic looking Christmas decorations imaginable. Character actor Tracey Walter is in a nice cameo as the desert rat owner of a Death Valley Junction fly speck-dump. The film has an interesting soundtrack, by Barry Adamson, though in retrospect a soundtrack of Diegetic sounds of say Country-Western Christmas tunes blaring from radio stations would have probably been eerie-er. For an extremely low budget "B" a 10/10 for effort, it may be a future Neo Noir Detour, needs a widescreen DVD restoration/release. The crappy screencaps are from a Sony Pictures Home VHS tape. Full review with more screen caps see Filn Noir -Gangster Board here on TCM or even more :http://noirsville.blogspot.com/2016/02/delusion-1991-christmas-in-desert-noir.html

Delusion (1991) Christmas In The Desert Neo Noir A low budget spaghetti western-ish Death Valley Neo "B" Noir with lots of twists. A Cineville production, directed by Belgium born Carl Colpaert, written by Carl Colpaert and Kurt Voss. Starring Jim Metzler (River's Edge (1986)), Jennifer Rubin, Kyle Secor (Sleeping with the Enemy (1991)), Jerry Orbach (Cop Hater (1958)), Robert Costanzo, and Tracey Walter. With a budget of supposedly $1,000,000 Delusion is a bare bones Film Soleil Noir. George O'Brien (Metzler) is a yuppie executive of some type of LA based computer software company that's been bought out by buy a bigger fish. George is not taking the ensuing events well, and in classic noir fashion, he decides to take a walk on the wild side. O'Brien is a cultured metrosexual, one scene has him and a cohort sitting in a spa/hot tub with mud facials, they calmly discuss embezzling a large sum of cash by faking expenses in the takeover confusion, then crossing the Nevada state line and setting up shop with a new company in Reno. Yuppies George O'Brien (Metzler) rt. It's Christmas time, and O'Brien is soon on his way from smog shrouded LA to Reno with a gift to himself of a half million in the spare tire well of his tres hip silver 1990 Volvo 760. He is cruising across a barren desert on a two lane highway. With all the moola he's carrying in the trunk George is a bit apprehensive, a bit on edge. In his rear view he scopes a red '71 Olds Cutlass weaving erratically across the centerline through the heat waves behind him. It's coming up fast like an interceptor. He breathes a sigh of relief when the Olds barrels on past. A mile or two further on he sees the Olds crest a rise and disappear, but a cloud of yellow dust suddenly boils up against the desert sky. The Desert Chevy and Patti and wrecked Olds Cutlass When George tops the hill he sees the Olds **** up, wheels spinning, and a man and a woman scrambling out of it. Good Samaritan George pulls off the road to offer them help. The woman is all legs, showgirl/escort/femme fatale Patti (Jennifer Rubin) traveling with her pet lizard (which she keeps in a glass jar), and a ****, cornball, Vegas hit man Chevy (Kyle Secor). He's on his way to deliver a holiday whack to his old mentor Larry (Jerry Orbach) at his mob provided silver Airstream desert pothole "safe house" hideaway. It's hinted at that Patti was administering some "road head" to Chevy and that caused the wildly careening Cutlass to veer off the loose gravel shoulder and roll. George offers Patti and Chevy his car phone and a ride into the Noirsville Twilight Zone. George drives Patti and Chevy to a state line truck stop. He figures his good deed is done, he figures wrong, Chevy pulls out an automatic and instructs George to head South, the pavement ends and they lay down a dust contrail across the desert. Hijacked When they blow into Larry's, Chevy tells him that he's got a contract to take out George. George naturally thinks it's because of hot loot in the trunk. Larry happy to see company offers to barbecue some steaks for George's last meal. But it's all BS, the contract was really on Larry and Chevy used George as cover to get his guard down. George is soon digging two graves way out in the desert, he's toast, right? No, Chevy pulls the trigger on George and gets just an audible click. He is out of bullets. A quick thinking Patti, (who has been visibly warming up to George) quickly tosses what's left of Chevy's bullets in the cartridge box out into the sand. Chevy has no choice but to push George off a nearby bluff and leave him to the buzzards. He and Patti head to the Death Valley Junction Motel in the Volvo. Chevy leaves Patti at the room and heads to Vegas to pick up his hit loot from his mob boss. Larry (Jerry Orbach) greets his mob protégé Chevy (Kyle Secor) rt. George is rescued from the dead by a motorcycle mamma scavenger who spots him sticking out like a sore thumb against the drab landscape. She brings him back to Larry's Airstream where he cleans up, grabs Larry's clothes, revolver, and pickup truck and by hitting redial on the phone tracks Chevy and Patti to the motel. George is now in full Noir payback mode. George (in full noir mode) in Larry's Airstream drinking straight from the bottle, a pathetic Christmas tree in the b.g. The entire film is dominated by the burnt umber, yellow ochers, and the bleached whites of an immense desert laughingly juxtaposed, whenever we see the barest traces of habitation, with the most minisculely pathetic looking Christmas decorations imaginable. Character actor Tracey Walter is in a nice cameo as the desert rat owner of a Death Valley Junction fly speck-dump. The film has an interesting soundtrack, by Barry Adamson, though in retrospect a soundtrack of Diegetic sounds of say Country-Western Christmas tunes blaring from radio stations would have probably been eerie-er. For an extremely low budget "B" a 10/10 for effort, it may be a future Neo Noir Detour, needs a widescreen DVD restoration/release. The crappy screencaps are from a Sony Pictures Home VHS tape. Spaghetti Western-ish Showdown Full review with more screen caps here:http://noirsville.blogspot.com/2016/02/delusion-1991-christmas-in-desert-noir.html

I thought the cinematography was great. The film though had some great sequences and some absolutely ridiculous sequences. It's like they tried to stick everything "frontiersman" they could into the story as if the real survival story wasn't enough. No way the character is going to survive a float no less down an ice cold river, that is stretching it way too much for me. He would lose dexterity in under two minutes. "Cold water carries heat away from the body 25 times faster than air of the same temperature and as a result, the body core immediately begins to lose heat to the outside environment. At first, the body tries to generate more heat by shivering, but this is not enough to offset the loss of heat to the water. Within 20 to 30 minutes, depending on water temperature, body core temperature drops to below 35° C (95° F) cognitive functioning and judgement become affected" I read a true account of frontiersman Simon Kenton who during the winter fell in the Ohio or Allegheny, he was barely able to crawl up the bank and get some kindling lit to build a small fire, he stripped naked and used a deer hide to make a small tipi enclosing it around himself and the fire leaving a smoke hole at the top to survive. As soon as he warmed himself up enough he gathered more firewood made the fire bigger and dried his clothes out over night. But then they sure do a 180 when he guts the horse to use its body for protection from the cold, there they make it seem like it's life or death when in reality the water emersion would have been much worse. When he escapes from the indians on the pinto sequence he first shoots a warrior approaching him with a flintlock, then after mounting up and galloping away he shoots a brave off a horse with the same flintlock, never reloaded. When he's catching fish he's got a nice fire going on the bank it takes about a minute or two to cook a fish but he eats it raw. lol. I also scratched my head when at the beginning they abandoned the protection of the keel boat, it could move downstream to civilization it was solid cover to fire from and it had a swivel gun, which is like a small canon. Then every time they head for civilization they head upstream or up river or head into the mountains ****? The indians that find the spot where Hugh's son was killed, didn't see the fresh drag marks in the snow where Hugh left tracks. Cinematography 10/10 story 6/10. Makes me want to see Man In The Wilderness again now too compare. Also for those interested in reality Here is a cross section of the actual country between the High Plains, North of the Missouri River, into the Missouri Breaks, the Missouri River, then across the divide between the Missouri River and the Yellowstone to the Yellowstone River, most of these shots I took this year at the end of October, daytime temps were in the 50s night to the 30s. This is the typical topography. This is Montana. You can see it's quite a bit different than what is depicted in the film, there are barely any mountains and you can easily avoid going through them, in South Dakota where the actual story takes place there are even less mountains. The film is not even close to the truth landscape wise. High Plains: High Plains: Top of the Missouri Breaks where the High Plains "break" down to the Missouri River In the Missouri Breaks: The Missouri River: The Judith Mountains on the high plains South of the Missouri River The divide between the Missouri drainage and the Yellowstone drainage and the only snow encountered on the trip

Experiment In Terror (1962) San Francisco Tail Fin Noir A neat 1962 Suspense-Thriller Noir that fits into that particular period from mid to late 1950's early 1960's that is visually defined on cars by the Space Age design feature the tail fin, and by Googie style signage and architecture. Released by Columbia Pictures, the film was directed by Blake Edwards, Mickey Spillane's 'Mike Hammer!' (TV Movie 1954) Days of Wine And Roses (1962), and written by Mildred and Gordon Gordon and was based on their 1961 novel, Operation Terror. The film stars Glenn Ford (seven classic noir films), Lee Remick (Anatomy of a Murder (1959)), Stefanie Powers, and Ross Martin. Supporting cast Ned Glass, Anita Loo, Patricia Huston, Clifton James, Al Avalon, James Lanphier, and William Sharon. The film is greatly enhanced by the excellent cinematography by Philip H. Lathrop who was assistant camera on Kiss the Blood Off My Hands (1948), camera operator on (The Raging Tide (1951), Touch Of Evil (1958), lensed as cinematographer a couple of critically forgettable Paul Henreid directed films, and a string of TV series, (Rawhide, and the noir-ish, Mr. Lucky, Peter Gunn, and Perry Mason) Sherwood is a cute bank teller who lives on a hill overlooking the city with her 16-year-old sister (Stefanie Powers) in the Twin Peaks section of San Francisco. As we continue to follow her home from a party in Oakland to her house, she is grabbed from behind after she gets out of her car and is assaulted in her dark garage by a man with a raspy wheezing voice. The shot is in an uncomfortable extreme close-up. The Wheezer threatens to either kill her or her sister if she doesn't cooperate in his plan to rob her bank. I can't express enough how much this late Film Noir is an addictive visual treat, it's full of striking compositions, skewed by unsetting camera angles, teeming with bizarre interior sets all added to wonderful San Francisco location shots. The film also has a good score from long time Blake Edwards collaborator Henry Mancini. 9/10 Fuller review in Film Noir & Gangster board.

Experiment In Terror (1962) San Francisco Tail Fin Noir A neat 1962 Suspense-Thriller Noir that fits into that particular period from mid to late 1950's early 1960's that is visually defined on cars by the Space Age design feature the tail fin, and by Googie style signage and architecture. Released by Columbia Pictures, the film was directed by Blake Edwards, Mickey Spillane's 'Mike Hammer!' (TV Movie 1954) Days of Wine And Roses (1962), and written by Mildred and Gordon Gordon and was based on their 1961 novel, Operation Terror. The film stars Glenn Ford (seven classic noir films), Lee Remick (Anatomy of a Murder (1959)), Stefanie Powers, and Ross Martin. Supporting cast Ned Glass, Anita Loo, Patricia Huston, Clifton James, Al Avalon, James Lanphier, and William Sharon. The film is greatly enhanced by the excellent cinematography by Philip H. Lathrop who was assistant camera on Kiss the Blood Off My Hands (1948), camera operator on (The Raging Tide (1951), Touch Of Evil (1958), lensed as cinematographer a couple of critically forgettable Paul Henreid directed films, and a string of TV series, (Rawhide, and the noir-ish, Mr. Lucky, Peter Gunn, and Perry Mason) The film's night time opening title sequence is of Kelly Sherwood (Lee Remick), driving 58 Ford Fairlane Sunliner top down convertible across the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. She is framed against a twinkling San Francisco skyline that features inky blacks pierced by strings of pearl streetlights and moving headlights becomes a harbinger of the noir stylistics to come, breathtaking contrasts, and unsettling camera angles. San Francisco -Oakland Bay Bridge Tailfins Sherwood is a cute bank teller who lives on a hill overlooking the city with her 16-year-old sister (Stefanie Powers) in the Twin Peaks section of San Francisco. As we continue to follow her home from a party in Oakland to her house, she is grabbed from behind after she gets out of her car and is assaulted in her dark garage by a man with a raspy wheezing voice. The shot is in an uncomfortable extreme close-up. The Wheezer threatens to either kill her or her sister if she doesn't cooperate in his plan to rob her bank. The man ratchets up the terror factor by letting Kelly know that he has been stalking them for a while, he even emphasises the point that he even knows intimate things, i.e., her measurements. The way the scene plays out we know that he is fondling her as he calls out her hips, waist, and bust size by her reactions. Wheezer attacks When the man leaves, Kelly not very intimidated, goes into her house and dials up the FBI. She's switch boarded to Agent John 'Rip' Ripley (Glenn Ford) who is just able to get her name before the line goes dead. It's The Wheezer, he assumed that she'd make her call for help and entering her house he's smacked her to the floor and hung up the phone. When Kelly comes to he tells her that she get's to make this one mistake, and she'd better follow his precise instructions from now. The Wheezer leaves again and an increasingly terrorized Kelly is immobilized by fear. Lying in despair by the phone she is startled when it suddenly rings. It's the FBI, Ripley and the bureau has managed to suss out where she lives. Ripley FBI The film balances between being a policer and a suspense thriller that surprisingly keeps Kelly pretty level headed throughout, and doesn't fall into the now greatly over used "saviour becomes lover" trope. Ripley and the G men are all business. They search for similar MO's and chase leads. They even get a small break when one of The Wheezer's gal pals Nancy Ashton (Patricia Huston), who has a mannequin repair business, suspects something is up and nervously visits the FBI with her suspicions. Nancy fibs a bit telling Ripley that it's her friend that's in trouble, she even propositions Ripley for a date but again stressing professionalism Ripley begs off. Nancy later works up some courage and phones Ripley to tell him that she has information and asks him to drop by but Wheezer kills her before Ripley arrives. Ashton mannequin repair A police informant named "Popcorn" (Ned Glass in a nice cameo) who sells tips supplies more pieces to the puzzle telling the FBI that he's overheard phone conversations between a forger and man that fits their MO a man named Red Lynch. Lynch raped and killed a bank teller in Kansas after she would not go along with his scheme. Lynch's profile also shows that he is fond of Chinese females, which sends Ripley and the FBI into Chinatown with mug shots of Lynch. The film even has a somewhat humorous sequence, when The Wheezer gives Kelly instructions to meet at The Gay Nineties Club, the place is packed with customers and also FBI men. As Kelly walks around trying to meet with Wheezer she is looking at various men and in tern attracting their attention while under surveillance . One guy approaches her thinking she is a hooker, and Kelly at first assumes that he is the Wheezer. She walks out of the club with him and to his car, as they drive away, followed by a convoy of FBI cars, he indicates that she should move closer and sit beside him. She balks saying that it's only business, the guy is thinking OK she wants money. When Kelly suddenly realizes he thinks she's a prostitute she bolts from the car and he is surrounded by FBI agents with drawn guns. As the asthmatic schizophrenic killer Red Lynch (Ross Martin), practically steals the show. Martin isn't just a single layer - one note villain, he is eventually revealed as having a normal serious relationship with a Chinese woman named Lisa Soong (Anita Loo), serious to the extent of paying the hospital costs for her son's hip replacement operation. He even visits him at the hospital, bringing him expensive stuffed animals. This normality all proves his Achilles heel. Ross Martin as Lynch Stefanie Powers is perfect as Toby, Kelly's younger sister who is still a bit of an awkward teenager, still that has that little bit of baby fat, but you can see beyond to the beauty that she will become. I can't express enough how much this late Film Noir is an addictive visual treat, it's full of striking compositions, skewed by unsetting camera angles, teeming with bizarre interior sets all added to wonderful San Francisco location shots. The film also has a good score from long time Blake Edwards collaborator Henry Mancini. 9/10 Full review with many more screen caps here: http://noirsville.blogspot.com/2016/02/experiment-in-terror-1962-san-francisco.html

Very sad very touching and very creepy also.

And here I thought you were being serious and opening up a topic on the real deal https://www.flickr.com/photos/misty_bee/sets/72157626699396884/ http://ostrobogulation.com/2011/05/11/memento-mori-victorian-era-postmortem-photography/

Four men rob a bank in Saint-Jean-de-Monts, along the coast. A detective (Alain Delon) tries to catch the team responsible for the robbery, and foil a drug smuggling operation and also hold on to his girlfriend (Catherine Deneuve), whom he shares with a nightclub owner (Richard Crenna), his friend and a prime suspect in the robbery. 7/10

Night Moves (1975) The Deconstructed Detective Night Moves geographically spans from the classic haunts of Hammett, Chandler, and Ross Mcdonald, i.e., California, LA, Hollywood, to the aqua and coral pastels of John D. MacDonald's South Florida and it's Gulf Coast Keys. There is also a short stopover to a New Mexico film location. Directed by Arthur Penn. Written by Alan Sharp, with cinematography by Bruce Surtees. The film stars Gene Hackman, Jennifer Warren, Susan Clark, Edward Binns, Harris Yulin, Kenneth Mars, Janet Ward, Anthony Costello, John Crawford, and it also has some outstanding early career appearances by James Woods and Melanie Griffith. The story reboots the classic hardboiled detective story up to the contemporary 1970's. Harry Moseby (Hackman) runs Moseby Confidential a one man detective agency, a business that seems to putter along on vapors. He drives a 1967 Ford Mustang. Instead of being the usual ex WWI, WWII, Korean or Vietnam Vet, Moseby is an ex Oakland Raider football player, who has apparently invested some of his NFL contract doe into a PI dream. Moseby is a Sam Spade, Philip Marlowe "knight of the streets" wannabe but rather than hard boiled, Harry is soft boiled at best, he is not tough or mean, he's more easygoing and disarming, Harry is also a bit tarnished and maybe bit afraid. He is the hero, competent and dedicated, but even as his personal world dissolves around him he is still as Chandler said "a man of honor—by instinct, by inevitability, without thought of it, and certainly without saying it. He must be the best man in his world and a good enough man for any world." Our tale begins when Harry get's a case referred to him by one of his wife's Ellen's (Susan Clark) clients Nick (Kenneth Mars), a collector of Mayan antiquities. The job is to find and return the wayward daughter of a crumbling Hollywood C-list star, Arlene Iverson (Janet Ward). Iverson is a multiple marriage booze hound, getting a bit thick in the middle and living high on the hog off alimony checks in a hillside house above LA. She's specialized in banging movie stuntmen. She'll remind you of a caricature of a past the end of career Elizabeth Taylor. She comes on to Harry like a **** in heat every time he visits her to get the details of or report his findings on her daughter Delilah "Delly" (Melanie Griffith). Arlene wants her back because Delly has a sizeable trust fund. Harry from information he got from Arlene, confronts Delly's last boyfriend Quentin (James Woods) a movie crew mechanic who informs Harry that Delly left him in New Mexico for a stuntman pilot name of Marv (Anthony Costello). The case is the real deal to Harry, it pays more, it's better than routine divorce cases, and better than working for a large agencies which, he remarks to Ellen, are no better than data collection services. While driving back through Burbank, and feeling good about himself, Harry passes the Magnolia Theatre where his wife and her gay business associate Charles (Ben Archibek) are exiting a film. Harry makes a U-ie parks and is about to call out to Ellen when he witnesses her leave the company of Charles to take up with another man Marty (Harris Yulin). Marty walks with the aid of a cane and he escorts Ellen into a Mercedes. They drive away. Harry jumps back in the Mustang and tails them to Malibu. Seeing Ellen have an affair is like getting kicked in the guts. Harry stakes out Marty's house and confronts him about the affair. Leaving his personal life in tatters Harry copes by diving fully into the missing daughter case. He flies to New Mexico where he meets Delly's father stunt coordinator Joey Ziegler (Edward Binns). While at a bar with Joey, he's introduced to sleazy stuntman Marv (Anthony Costello). When Joey leaves the table momentarily Harry asks Marv about Delly. Marv says she headed for Florida to stay with her step dad Tom Iverson (John Crawford) then he offers his observation of the certain perspective a man gets when he sleeps with both the daughter (Delly) and the mother (Arlene). He snickers. Harry heads to the Florida Gulf Coast to track down Delly at her step dad's grungy off the beaten track guiding, fishing, retail business MidKay Supermarket and The Gulf Shore Cabins. There he meets free-spirited Paula (Jennifer Warren) a slinky, blonde, Southern beach trash, beauty who has among other endeavors has bar tended, waitressed, stripped, etc., etc. She takes him to meet Delly. Delly is introduced to us in homage to much like Brigitte Bardot was iconically introduced in Roger Vadim's And God Created Woman, naked behind a clothesline. Delly is a 16-year-old, very in your face, out of control, round heels nymphomaniac, who gives the impression that she will screw anything with a dick. She constantly teases any man within her reach ready to strip off her clothes at the drop of a hat. As soon as Harry shows up he becomes the object of her constant attention. Delly's step dad Tom Iverson (John Crawford) flies in on a seaplane soon after Harry arrives. When Harry tells him he's there to collect Delly and bring her back to her mother, Tom confides to Harry that she's a handful, and referring to her open sexuality states "there ought to be a law" to which Harry replies "there is." Paula, Delly, and Harry decide to take the glass bottomed boat out for a recreational night dive on the reef. They turn the underwater lights on. Delly strips and jumps in while Paula and Harry watch. While Delly is moving about she discovers the wreck of a small seaplane. When she gets close to the cockpit she sees the body of a deadman, fish are feeding on his head eating his eye sockets, she panics bursting upwards to the surface and screams. Seeing the dead man so disturbs Delly that she's ready to go back to California with Harry. Once back at Arlene's, Delly has a dysfunctional brouhaha with her mother, Quentin, and her mother's new lover in front of Harry as he is trying to leave after collecting his check. Harry has misgivings, wondering if he did the right thing, a few day later his apprehensions prove out when Delly is killed in an accident on a movie set. After meeting with Joey Ziegler and seeing rushes of the crash Harry suspects Quentin was involved. Harry follows Quentin to Florida where in classic noir fashion everything unravels, and in not the way you expect. In the old whodunnits, the detective would logically follow the clues and solve the case. In the hard boiled tales of Hammett and Chandler the detective takes the case shakes things up and sees what falls out. When Harry goes back to Florida he reaches the tipping point into full blown Noirsville. The jazzy soundtrack is by Michael Small, 8/10. If the cinematography had a bit more style using Noir stylistics it would probably be higher, as is it doesn't quite match up to its potential vis a vis the story. Full review with lots of screencaps here http://noirsville.blogspot.com/2016/01/night-moves-1975-deconstructed-detective.htm

Did they ask if you like to drink wine?

Night Moves (1975) geographically spans from the classic haunts of Hammett, Chandler, and Ross Mcdonald, i.e., California, LA, Hollywood, to the aqua and coral pastels of John D. MacDonald's South Florida and it's Gulf Coast Keys. There is also a short stopover to a New Mexico film location. Directed by Arthur Penn. Written by Alan Sharp, with cinematography by Bruce Surtees. The film stars Gene Hackman, Jennifer Warren, Susan Clark, Edward Binns, Harris Yulin, Kenneth Mars, Janet Ward, Anthony Costello, John Crawford, and it also has some outstanding early career appearances by James Woods and Melanie Griffith. The story reboots the classic hardboiled detective story up to the contemporary 1970's. Harry Moseby (Hackman) runs Moseby Confidential a one man detective agency, a business that seems to putter along on vapors. He drives a 1967 Ford Mustang. Instead of being the usual ex WWI, WWII, Korean or Vietnam Vet, Moseby is an ex Oakland Raider football player, who has apparently invested some of his NFL contract doe into a PI dream. Moseby is a Sam Spade, Philip Marlowe "knight of the streets" wannabe but rather than hard boiled, Harry is soft boiled at best, he is not tough or mean, he's more easygoing and disarming, Harry is also a bit tarnished and maybe bit afraid. He is the hero, competent and dedicated, but even as his personal world dissolves around him he is still as Chandler said "a man of honor—by instinct, by inevitability, without thought of it, and certainly without saying it. He must be the best man in his world and a good enough man for any world."

Me, I would have picked Barbara Nichols.