cigarjoe
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Posts posted by cigarjoe
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A creepy Musical Film Noir, Christopher Walken's song and dance bit was very good.
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3 hours ago, LawrenceA said:
You're probably aware of this, Joe, but Cast a Deadly Spell had a follow-up in 1994's Witch Hunt. Dennis Hopper replaced Fred Ward as Lovecraft, and the cast included Penelope Ann Miller, Eric Bogosian, Julian Sands, and Sheryl Lee Ralph. It's an allegorical take on the commie red scare. I liked the first one more, but Hopper is always worth seeing.
There is an underwater Youtube offering, watched it, didn't have the noir vibe. Supposedly there is a third that they did in the 2000s
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49 minutes ago, Dargo said:
Btw, how did a NYC boy like yourself ever become an Oakland Raider fan, CJ?
(...wait...I suppose I answered that question in my previous post, didn't I)
Easy, hated Howard Cosell, The Jets, and Joe Namath.
Oakland was their arch rival, the rest is history.
In the Raven Stadium Baltimore:
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20 hours ago, Dargo said:
Yep. Starting next season.
I'm sure "Raider Nation" won't change much, though. I'm sure no matter where their team is based, once they don the ol' Silver & Black, they'll still identify themselves with their old glory days when their team could play some of the dumbest and most undisciplined football in the league and still somehow eek-out a win in the last seconds of the game.
(...they'll just never get it that football has changed since those glory days of Alzado, Hendricks, Blanda, et al, and it's been the smarter and more disciplined teams that win games and championships in recent times)
I was watching the Heidi game BTW and when the movie started had to run to the radio and listen to the final minute.
I resemble Dargo's remark.
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Cast A Deadly Spell (1991) Fantasy P.I. Noir
A dash of Noir, and of films Hammett, Sin City, Alien, Gremlins, Big Trouble in Little China, Dick Tracy, Angel Heart, Marlowe, I Walked With A Zombie, and the "Leviathan" Storyline from the old Dark Shadows TV Soap.
Directed by Martin Campbell. Written by Joseph Dougherty. Cinematography by Alexander Gruszynski and Music by Curt Sorbel. An HBO cable TV film.
Its 1948, Los Angeles in a parallel time (another Dark Shadows storyline BTW). Magic is the "new thing," everybody practices it, everyone except Phil. Phil is Harry Philip Lovecraft a City Of Angels P.I. and ex LAPD detective. Phil rents office space from a dance studio instructor and practicing white magic witch Hypolite Kropotkin, this was a running joke (without the magic of course) in James Garner's Marlowe.
Phil is hired by billionaire Amos Hackshaw who thinks his ex-chauffeur Larry Willis stole a book after he was fired. The book is not just any book it's the Necronomicon a textbook of magic its infamous author, Abdul Alhazred the "Mad Arab."
This film is a light amusement. The more Noir/Neo Noir and other popular films you have under your belt the more references/homages to other films and styles you'll notice. It is at times reminiscent of the color pallet of Dick Tracy combined with the magic realism of recreated 1948 studio sets, which are shot with the noir stylistics of Sin City, Hammett, and Angel Heart. For the kids it's got cutsie muppet like gremlins and animated gargoyles. This is a film for the whole family 7/10. Full review with screencaps in Film Noir/Gangster Pages.-
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Cast A Deadly Spell (1991) Fantasy P.I. Noir
A dash of Noir, and of Hammett, Sin City, Alien, Gremlins, Big Trouble in Little China, Dick Tracy, Angel Heart, Marlowe, I Walked With A Zombie, and the "Leviathan" Storyline from the old Dark Shadows TV Soap.
Directed by Martin Campbell. Written by Joseph Dougherty. Cinematography by Alexander Gruszynski and Music by Curt Sorbel. An HBO cable TV film.
Fred Ward (Carny (1980), Miami Blues (1990), ) as Harry Philip Lovecraft (same initials as Howard Phillips Lovecraft author), Julianne Moore (The Hand That Rocks the Cradle (1992), Short Cuts (1993), Boogie Nights (1997), The Big Lebowski (1998)) as Connie Stone, David Warner (Tom Jones (1963), Morgan! (1966), Straw Dogs (1971)), as Amos Hackshaw, Alexandra Powers ( Dead Poets Society (1989)) as Olivia Hackshaw, Clancy Brown (from a billion TV show) as Harry Bordon, Charles Hallahan (The Thing (1982)) as Detective Morris Bradbury, Arnetia Walker (Love Crimes (1992)) as Hypolite Kropotkin, Raymond O'Connor as Tugwell, Peter Allas as Detective Otto Grimaldi, Ken Thorley as Mickey Locksteader, Lee Tergesen as Larry Willis/Lilly Sirwar, Jaime Cardriche as The Zombie, John De Bello as Crooner, and Curt Sobel as the Band Leader.
Fred Ward as Harry Philip Lovecraft 
Julianne Moore as Connie Stone 
David Warner as Amos Hackshaw 
Alexandra Powers as Olivia Hackshaw
Its 1948, Los Angeles in a parallel time (another Dark Shadows storyline BTW). Magic is the "new thing," everybody practices it, everyone except Phil. Phil is Harry Philip Lovecraft a City Of Angels P.I. and ex LAPD detective. Phil rents office space from a dance studio instructor and practicing white magic witch Hypolite Kropotkin, this was a running joke (without the magic of course) in James Garner's Marlowe.
Phil is hired by billionaire Amos Hackshaw who thinks his ex-chauffeur Larry Willis stole a book after he was fired. The book is not just any book it's the Necronomicon a textbook of magic textbook its infamous author, Abdul Alhazred the "Mad Arab."
Hackshaw Mansion Besides the occult Hacksaw's other mission in life is his obsession with protecting the virginity of his 16 year old daughter Olivia who spends her days on horseback hunting unicorns. Harry's first clue sends him to the nightclub of his ex LAPD partner Harry Bordon who is now a bit bent as they say.
Magic is used nonchalantly throughout the film. At Union Station suitcases trail through the air after passengers, waiters pour drinks by levitation, cigarettes are lit without matches, spell are used by hitmen. etc., etc. When Phil questions Harry Bordon, Dunwich nightclub owner, about the new help....
Lovecraft: Hey, what happened to your regular leg breakers?
Harry: Progress.
Tugwell: Zombies don't eat, don't complain...
Harry: ...don't get ideas.
Zombies are not only used for muscle but also as cheap disposable labor. Harry explains to Phil that the zombies are cheap, come six to a box, shipped up direct from Caribbean. They work until they rot.
Phil's femme fatale is Connie played by Julianne Moore. Connie is a redhead **** torch singer. She is Phil's ex gal pal. It's three years before Julianne proved the carpet really matches the drapes in Short Cuts.
Connie: I heard something about you at the club.
Lovecraft: Such as?
Connie: You don't use magic.
Lovecraft: You heard right.
Connie: How do you expect to get out of dumps like this if you don't start playing the game?
Lovecraft: Seems to me we've already had this discussion.
Connie: Everybody uses magic.
Lovecraft: I don't.
Connie: What have you got to show for it? Fly-specked office, a broken-down car and a ugly necktie, that's what all this integrity buys you. Damn it, everybody's got to compromise.
Lovecraft: That's what I keep hearing.
Connie Stone: And what makes you so special?
Lovecraft: What makes me special is that I'm my own man. When I started out, I said there were things I would do and things I wouldn't do. Lot of guys start like that and a lot of them sell out along the way, but the more who fall, the easier it gets. See, look... everybody compromises, everybody cheats, everybody uses magic. So they empty ideals out of their pockets and get on with the job of sticking it to their neighbor before they stick it to them. That's the way it's done. To which I say "nuts." My collar may be a little frayed, maybe I need a shoeshine, but nobody's got a mortgage on my soul. I own it, free and clear.
Hackshaw: You don't believe in magic?
Lovecraft: I believe it, just don't use it.
Hackshaw:Why?
Lovecraft: Personal reasons.
Hackshaw: And they are?
Lovecraft: Personal.
Noirsville
Gargoyle
The Necronomicon
Cthulhu
This film is a light amusement. The more Noir/Neo Noir and other popular films you have under your belt the more references/homages to other films and styles you'll notice. It is at times reminiscent of the color pallet of Dick Tracy combined with the magic realism of 1948 studio sets, which are shot with the noir stylistics of Sin City, Hammett, and Angel Heart. For the kids it's got cutsie muppet like gremlins and animated gargoyles. This is a film for the whole family 7/10. Full review with more screen caps at Noirsville. -
Deadline At Dawn (1946) Ensemble Noir
"If she'd cut off her head she'd be very pretty." (Val Bartelli)"
Directors: Harold Clurman, William Cameron Menzies (uncredited). Written by Clifford Odets (screenplay), based on Cornell Woolrich (as William Irish). Cinematography by Nicholas Musuraca, Music by Hanns Eisler.
The film stars Susan Hayward as taxi dancer June Goffe, Paul Lukas as the cabbie Gus Hoffman, Bill Williams as Seaman Alex Winkler, Joseph Calleia as gangster Val Bartelli, Osa Massen as Helen Robinson, Lola Lane as "V" girl Edna Bartelli, Jerome Cowan as a showbiz producer Lester Brady, Phil Warren as Jerry Robinson, Constance Worth as Nan Raymond and Marvin Miller as Sleepy Parsons.
Seen the film multiple times. Susan Hayward is pretty cute as a taxi dancer turned amateur sleuth. Though based on Woolrich's eponymous novel the film truncates the tale and adds extra characters.
Anyway, I suspect a lot of MPPC finageling because the film could have taken equally a different track quite easily. Either one by the way different from the novel. Joseph Calleia as the gangster is a hoot especially when he gives the header quote. The film also lacks any real New York City location footage, it's all studio sets. Full review with screenshots at Film Noir/Gangster pages. 7/10-
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Deadline At Dawn (1946) Ensemble Noir
"If she'd cut off her head she'd be very pretty." (Val Bartelli)
Directors: Harold Clurman, William Cameron Menzies (uncredited). Written by Clifford Odets (screenplay), based on Cornell Woolrich (as William Irish). Cinematography by Nicholas Musuraca, Music by Hanns Eisler.
The film stars Susan Hayward as taxi dancer June Goffe, Paul Lukas as the cabbie Gus Hoffman, Bill Williams as Seaman Alex Winkler, Joseph Calleia as gangster Val Bartelli, Osa Massen as Helen Robinson, Lola Lane as "V" girl Edna Bartelli, Jerome Cowan as a showbiz producer Lester Brady, Phil Warren as Jerry Robinson, Constance Worth as Nan Raymond and Marvin Miller as Sleepy Parsons.
Seen the film multiple times. Susan Hayward is pretty cute as a taxi dancer turned amateur sleuth. Though based on Woolrich's eponymous novel the film truncates the tale and adds extra characters.
The Film vs the Novel
Reread Cornell Woolrich's Deadline At Dawn recently. Rewatching the film as I type. The book is seriously, completely different from the film in its initial setup.
In the film the Hayward character June is a taxi dancer at a dump called "The Jungle" and the Williams character Alex is a sailor. The deadline in the film is a bus that he has to catch to get to Virginia Beach for Naval training. June gets a connection to Alex because her brother is a tail gunner in the war and she is from Virginia Beach.
The film streamlines the novel. In the film a blind man named Sleepy Parsons goes up a stairway to the apartment of his ex-wife Edna Bartelli to collect some money. When he gets to the door he knocks. No answer. He knocks again. Our first gander at Edna finds her asleep with a fly crawling across her face, a small prelude of things to come or is Edna the equivalent of a ****? You decide.
Though not mentioned outright. It's just hinted at Edna is a sort of "V" girl hooker. She awakes and lets Sleepy in and at first disrespects him a bit, but when she goes to get the money finds that is is gone. She mentions a sailor who was there earlier. Later in the film another john begins to yell at the window for Edna to let him in for a drink and whatever you want to imagine.
Edna Bartelli (Lola Lane)
Sleepy Parsons (Marvin Miller) 
We cut to Alex. He's sort of recovering from a blackout He can't drink without having blackouts. He's sitting in a newsstand drinking coffee and talking to the owner. When Alex gets up to leave to cool off he takes out his handkerchief to wipe his brow, a wad of dough falls out of it to sidewalk. He barely remembers the last place he was at but he is determined to return the money to Edna.
Newspaper nest 
Seaman Alex Winkler (Bill Williams)
On the way to Edna's. Alex gets sidetracked at The Jungle a dime a dance ballroom where he meets June.
The Jungle 
June (Susan Hayward) 
They sort of click. He reminds June of her brother. June takes him to her flop for a sandwich. He tells June he's heading to Virginia Beach to report for duty. He tells June about the money. How he met Edna in an Italian Restaurant/clip joint where he lost all his money to Val, Edna's brother, playing casino.
When the place closes Edna asks Alex to come up and fix her radio. She'll pay him. While he's doing the fixing Edna's doing the flirting, and generally being "disgusting" according to Alex. Here again the code let's each of us imagine what "disgusting" is supposed to mean. He fixes the radio. Wants to get paid. He gets drunk. Edna passes out. Then he blacks out coming back to his senses at the newsstand.
June tells him that she will help him if he goes and visits her mother in Virginia Beach to say howdy. This all takes about 13 minutes of an hour and ten minute film. They take a taxi back to Edna's. Alex goes up with the money but he finds her dead. When June asks him if he did it he tells her he doesn't know.
In the novel the taxi dancer is named Bricky for her red hair. There is no sailor at all, and no deadline to get to Virginia Beach. He is replaced by Quinn a guy coincidentally from Bricky's hometown in Iowa, the proverbial "boy next door." Quinn BTW worked for an electrician in Manhattan until the old man died recently.
On one particular job they did they had to add a new socket in a bathroom wall, while Quinn was cutting through the plaster and lath wall he hit the wooden backside of a safe embedded in the wall only the safe door and frame were of cast iron. Quinn also came into possession of the latch key for the house that accidentally fell into his tool box that he had placed near the small table near the foyer. Weeks go by and he forgets about the key.
When the old man died the shop he ran closed up and Quinn was going broke by the day. He remembered the latch key that he had forgotten about and the safe that would be easy picking. So he waited until the owner left the house, went in and broke through the back of the safe making away with about $2500 in cash. He's now feeling that everyone is watching him. He spends some of the money on food then decides to hide out in the taxi dance ballroom until it closes there he meets Bricky.
He basically confesses to Bricky who falls for him and then Bricky decides that the thing for them to do is to put the money back and catch the 6AM bus to Iowa. That is the deadline in the novel. Also throughout the novel Bricky keeps getting glimpses of the large clock atop the Paramount Building and it's hands moving ever closer to that 6AM deadline. When they get back to the townhouse to put the money back they find the owner shot dead. In the novel Bricky and Quinn act like detectives picking up various clues and following them. They figure out that there was a man and a woman in the room with the dead man and figure out that one of them must be the murderer.
In the film Alex and June find clues some blond hair and a white carnation in Edna's flop and they decide to find the killer.
Going back down to the street they begin to track a killer following various tips and clues and adding various characters making the film more of an ensemble effort. The film differs quite a bit now from the novel though still following the same general story outline though there never is any mention or shot of the clock on the Paramount Building. The film supplies convenient characters to speed up the story.
A New York stapel well into the 70s was Nedick's here changed to Resnick's With only four hours to go before that 6AM deadline they split up to follow the leads Quinn after the man Bricky after the woman, agreeing to rendezvous back at the town house. The novel details the various trails they follow and some of the leads are quite interesting.
For instance in the novel the Bricky character traces a cab taken by a woman to a street corner in lower Manhattan from there she goes into an all night bakery to ask if a blonde woman came in. They tell her that one that lives just down the block did and bought some fresh bread. Bricky starts checking the buildings on the block looking for traces of flour on the door handles and mail boxes.
In the novel the Quinn character follows a dead end lead of a nervous man to a hospital where he discovers he's been following an expectant father. The whole novel pretty much, is Quinn and Bricky vs Manhattan and a bus departure deadline with just minor characters.
The film short cuts all the above by having a building super and his wife sitting on a stoop tell Jane exactly where the woman lives.
Helen Robinson (Osa Massen)
While the wild goose chase that Quinn takes to a hospital waiting room is switched to a cab chase following a nervous man with a sick cat to a pet store. We also are introduced to a slew of characters. Back at Edna's, a friendly cabbie Gus Hoffman, helps the two on their search for the killer. He's like both a dime store philosopher and deus ex machina. His role is even more ludicrous when you get to the final twist.
Noirsville
Gus Hoffman (Paul Lukas) 
Lester Brady (Jerome Cowan) 
Val Bartelli (Joseph Calleia)."If she'd cut off her head she'd be very pretty." 
Constance Worth as Nan Raymond 
Anyway, I suspect a lot of MPPC finageling because the film could have taken equally a different track quite easily. Either one by the way different from the novel. Joseph Calleia as the gangster is a hoot especially when he gives the header quote. The film also lacks any real New York City location footage, it's all studio sets. Full review with more screenshots at Noirsville 7/10-
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I've seen ten of them. Mostly the older titles. I would have added Ulzana's Raid (1971) which was a pretty accurate unglamourized and gritty depiction of U.S. Cavalry/Indian Wars.
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6 minutes ago, TikiSoo said:
Nice description. I only saw this once, in the theater and remember liking it a lot. I went with co-workers and heard an audible groan early on when the lead character spoke to the camera.
I loved Theresa Russell in this and always wondered why she didn't become a bigger star.
Theresa Russell is also very good in Sondra Locke's Neo Noir Impulse (1990) (below)
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9 minutes ago, LawrenceA said:
I recall when that came out on video, some video stores refused to carry it because of the title. So the distributor put out another version with this altered title and cover-box:
I've never watched it, but it has a good cast.
Theresa Russell is very entertaining its barely an "R." The Puritans still among us would probably get an exploded head (a la Mars Attacks) more for the frank talk about sex than any images in the film 😎
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W*h*o*r*e (1991) H*o*o*k*e*r Reality Neo Noir
W*h*o*r*e is Ken Russell's satirical reality check to the fairytale Cinderella fantasy of chick flick Pretty Woman. It's almost a docudrama. The film's screenplay by Ken Russell and Deborah Dalton (Dalton produced a radio series on hookers and prostitution BTW) was based on former part time taxi driver David Hines' famous monologue called Bondage. It was inspired by the conversations he had with real prostitutes while running them around to their various tricks. Bondage was a sort of an amalgamation into a night in the life of a London Kings Cross h*o*o*k*e*r. It was performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and throughout Europe.
Once you get your head around the fact that this isn't a cutesy treatment a la Pretty Woman, The Cheyenne Social Club, Irma la Douce, or The Owl and the Pussycat and more in the serious vein of Pretty Baby and Fellini's The Nights of Cabiria you'll see if for what it is, an unglamourous view of "the life."
Cinematography by Amir Mokri is a bit light on visual style for the most part. but that could be a result of budget restraints. Its subject matter is quite Noir-ish to overcome its lack. Music by Michael Gibbs with some interesting soundtrack selections.
Theresa Russell (Bad Timing (1980), Black Widow (1987), Impulse (1990) as prostitute Liz, Benjamin Moulton (Basic Instinct (1992), Falling Down (1993)) as the pimp as Blake, Antonio Fargas (Shaft (1971), Across 110th Street (1972), Pretty Baby (1978)) as Rasta, Elizabeth Morehead as Katie, Sanjay Chandani as Indian, Jered Barclay as the Dead Trick in Car and Ken Russell himself as the snooty waiter in the French Restaurant..
An intelligent, realistic,and b tongue-in-cheek look at prostitution. Café au lait Neo Noir. Full review with some screencaps in Film Noir/Gangster pages. 7/10.
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W*h*o*r*e (1991) H*o*o*k*e*r Reality Neo Noir
"I must be some use to somebody. I mean, there must be a reason for me, right?"Appropriately W*h*o*r*e begins with streetwalker Liz (Theresa Russell) strutting her stuff, in a Madona-ish get up, at the entrance of a tunnel. It's not subliminal. Hookers. Streetwalkers. Prostitutes. Whores and a tunnel all got something in common, a hole. The typically unrestrained Ken Russell shoves it right in your face. Bravo!
The "tunnel" is a Classic Film Noir iconic location, one of The City Of Angels tunnels of "love." Specifically the 3rd St. Tunnel. It's also one of the few remaining artifacts of Bunker Hill, a long gone scenically sleazy rundown Los Angeles slum dating back to the turn of the last century. It was made up of Queen Anne mansions that were sheet rocked into retiree cribs, with neighborhood bars and businesses, along with residence hotels, and hot sheet flops. It was all attached like a looming **** wart to L.A.'s old downtown by way of Angels Flight and long concrete steps. The area was deemed by the L.A.P.D. as a "high frequency crime area." The Health department of L.A. also called the area a health hazard.
In the 1960s Bunker Hill's houses and businesses were demolished and the area was regraded, dozed down about a hundred feet. The new skyscrapers that sprouted up are Bunker Hill's tombstones only the 2nd and 3rd Street tunnels remain in place. If you go to visit Los Angeles, there is where you go to pay your respects to Bunker Hill. They also saved Angels Flight but moved it half a block South of the 3rd Street and Hill intersection.
Madonna-ish at 3rd Street Tunnel
W*h*o*r*e is Ken Russell's satirical reality check to the fairytale Cinderella fantasy of chick flick Pretty Woman. It's almost a docudrama. The film's screenplay by Ken Russell and Deborah Dalton (Dalton produced a radio series on hookers and prostitution BTW) was based on former part time taxi driver David Hines' famous monologue called Bondage. It was inspired by the conversations he had with real prostitutes while running them around to their various tricks. Bondage was a sort of an amalgamation into a night in the life of a London Kings Cross hooker. It was performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and throughout Europe.
Liz (Theresa Russell)
Once you get your head around the fact that this isn't a cutesy treatment a la Pretty Woman, The Cheyenne Social Club, Irma la Douce, or The Owl and the Pussycat and more in the serious vein of Pretty Baby and Fellini's The Nights of Cabiria you'll see if for what it is, an unglamourous view of "the life."
Liz breaking the fourth wall, gives us an on and off running monologue of the "ins and outs" of her life on the streets. The dangers and the kinks. Flashbacks illustrate the various vignettes, some are humorous others terrifying. Some of these are juxtaposed with the monologues of her pimp Blake played by Benjamin Mouton. He's all for keeping prostitution illegal and himself in business.
breaking the fourth wall
If prostitution was legal and protected the women would be more empowered. Gone would be the pimps, the payoffs, the underworld connections if the women controlled the sex trade.
Blake the pimp (Benjamin Mouton)
Liz throughout the film tells us her sad tale. She goes back to the beginning. How she got married to a cute guy she met in a bar, who, no surprise, turned out to be an alcoholic. He can't stay sober and can't keep a job. She leaves him passed out on the floor, and with her infant son in tow and takes off for her mothers.
Liz finds a job in a greasy spoon diner and sweats out a living as a graveyard shift waitress. All is jake until a customer starts laying twenty dollar bills on the counter. He wants to go on a "date." It's more money than she makes in a week. She goes out on "the date" and finds out that it's pretty easy money.
But with the money comes danger, STDs, commodification of and desensitivity to sex. Liz tells us that she's had more sex partners than she can remember and while she used to enjoy sex she doesn't anymore. She meets up with Blake to takes her to L.A. To be part of his stable of hookers. She also confesses that once she was in, she couldn't escape from the control of her pimp.
The dialog, humorous, gritty, and probably shocking to some ears. It sounds real because it is real and right out of the mouths of David Himes' prostitute cab passengers. Theresa Russell does a wonderful and highly believable job with the material. She plays Liz one of the hookers in the stable of Blake the pimp. She works L.A.'s Main Street downtown and the re-developed steel and glass Bunker Hill.
Noirsville
Jack Nance 
Antonio Fargas as Rasta 
Danny Trejo 
The story of how **** came about was, as related by Ken Russell, that Himes recognizing Russell jumped out of his cab and asked him to write a screenplay. When Russell couldn't get financed in the UK he came to the US for the dough. The prostitutes venue was changed from London to Los Angeles.
Cinematography by Amir Mokri is a bit light on visual style for the most part. but that could be a result of budget restraints. Its subject matter is quite Noir-ish to overcome its lack. Music by Michael Gibbs with some interesting soundtrack selections.
Theresa Russell (Bad Timing (1980), Black Widow (1987), Impulse (1990) as prostitute Liz, Benjamin
Moulton (Basic Instinct (1992), Falling Down (1993)) as the pimp as Blake, Antonio Fargas (Shaft (1971), Across 110th Street (1972), Pretty Baby (1978)) as Rasta, Elizabeth Morehead as Katie, Sanjay Chandani as Indian, Jered Barclay as the Dead Trick in Car and Ken Russell himself as the snooty waiter in the French Restaurant..
Screencaps from an online streaming version. An intelligent, realistic, tongue-in-cheek look at prostitution. Café au lait Neo Noir. Full review with more screencaps at Noirsville . 7/10.-
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An Interesting side note to Eddie's remarks about the premier of the film The Big Clock at the Paramount Theater in NYC is the fact that the theater was located at 1501 Broadway in the Paramount Building which has its own connection to a "big clock," hardboiled novels, and Noir.
The Paramount buildings "Big Clock" above, at one time, could be seen from many points in the city North of Midtown Manhattan. This clock and that fact that it could be seen was the basis for Cornell Woolrich's Deadline At Dawn novel and the character in the novel that Susan Hayward played in the film would keep track of that deadline with the various glimpses she got of the clock as it ticked towards dawn. Beginning with her noting that they only had four hours left to take care of business when she looked at the clock from her Hell's Kitchen tenement apartment window. Then later from Central Park East, etc., etc. Noir's a small world. To bad the 1946 film based on Deadline at Dawn eliminated the "Big Clock" side bar. 😉
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The Big Clock Tonight for Noir Alleys return!!!!
Wrote this back in 2011
The Big Clock (1948) Dir John Farrow, with Ray Milland, Charles Laughton, Maureen O'Sullivan, George Macready, Rita Johnson, Harry Morgan, and Elsa Lanchester an unlikely cast for sure. Great Noir and funny to boot. Looks like it was all shot in the studio not very many location shots, still a 9/10.
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R.I.P. seen some of her films The Night Stalker with Darren McGavin I like a lot.
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9 minutes ago, Sepiatone said:
I'm just wondering why Newman, a very imaginative and creative composer in his own right would "borrow" so heavily from George Gershwin for his arrangement.
Hollywood $$$$ maybe?
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Anybody old enough to know what the opening bars of "Street Scene" for the film Street Scene and also other Fox films, noirs like Where The Sidewalk Ends, Cry Of The City and also used for How To Marry A Millionaire, composed Alfred Newman are supposed to represent?
Street Scene in (1931) It said that the score mirrored the busy and frantic sounds of everyday life in New York's Lower East Side in the 1930s. So its got to be a sound you'd hear in 1930-40s.
I'm thinking some kind of once easily recognisable horn that probably everyone would associate with a big city, something that is not heard any longer in real everyday life. I don't think it would be a regular auto horn but could be wrong. Thinking it's supposed to sound like a klaxon horn (see last video). In that case what everyday 1930-40s object/thing would use a klaxon? Would electric trolleys have had klaxon horns? Any guesses?
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Noir Alert - for those going on Noir withdrawals and have access to On Demand TCM my Noir-dar detects....
Beyond A Reasonable Doubt (1956) A novelist Dana Andrews, aided by his future father-in-law conspires to frame himself for the murder of a burlesque dancer as part of an effort to ban capital punishment. With Joan Fontaine, Sidney Blackmer, Arthur Franz, Barbara Nichols, and Dan Seymour.
Cape Fear (1962) Stalked by a nutcase with Gregory Peck, Robert Mitchum, Polly Bergen, Lori Martin, Martin Balsam, Telly Savalas and Barrie Chase.
Deadline at Dawn (1946) Cornell Woolrich tale with Susan Hayward, Bill Williams, Paul Lucas, Joseph Calleia.
A Kiss Before Dying (1956) with Jeffrey Hunter, Robert Wagner, Joanne Woodward, Mary Astor.
The Strange Love Of Martha Ivers (1946) with Van Heflin, Barbara Stanwyck, Lizabeth Scott, and Kirk Douglas
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Continuing my survey of HBO films...
Perfect Witness (1989) A fairly good crime drama starring Brian Dennehy, Aidan Quinn, Stockard Channing, it rated about 6-7/10
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48 minutes ago, LornaHansonForbes said:
the TV SHOW THIRD ROCK FROM THE SUN which- in spite of having its fans- was THE WORST SHOW ON TV AT THE TIME
Oh come on it was a hoot.
I got a kick out of the running gag about them bringing home pizza, and how "the pizza parlor always got it wrong." The aliens would invariably carry the pizza box under there arms. Also William Shatner as THE BIG GIANT HEAD, and his white trash "Queen of the Universe."
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4 minutes ago, LornaHansonForbes said:
THE ACTOR?
I hate that MARGOT KIDDER had such terrible demons, she was a fascinating actress with a real 1940's LEADING LADY SPIRIT about her.
Yes he also plays a movie mogul.
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Three HBO films over the weekend:
Laguna Heat (1987)
Directed by Simon Langton. written by D.M. Eyr, Pete Hamill, David Burton Morris, and based on a T. Jefferson Parker novel. A decent noir-ish murder mystery starring Harry Hamlin, Jason Robards, Rip Torn, Catherine Hicks, Anne Francis, James Gammon, Jeff Kober, and Dehl Berti. Nice print streaming. 7/10
The Glitter Dome (1984)
Director: Stuart Margolin, Written by Stanley Kallis, based on Joseph Wambaugh's novel. Starring James Garner, Margot Kidder, John Lithgow, John Marley, Stuart Margolin, and Colleen Dewhurst.
Neo Noir-ish film about two LAPD partners disillusioned wisecracking alcoholic, Al Mackey (Garner), and emotionally wimpy Marty Wellborn (Lithgow), are homicide cops in Hollywood hot on the trail of the murderer of a movie mogul who was moonlighting by making child porno pictures. This is a good film with a crappy print, it must also be a copy of a PAL VHS tape since the whole film seems slightly sped up. You really notice Garner sounding a bit to higher pitched than normal. 7/10 maybe more with a decent print.
Third Degree Burn (1989)
Directed by Roger Spottiswoode. An ex Seattle Police Detective Treat Williams working as a PI is supposedly hired by a rich businessman Richard Masur, to find out or not his beautiful wife Virginia Madsen is fooling around behind his back. A decent story with a nice twist. Again another crappy VHS print streaming. Seattle and Tuscon location work. Needs a better print a 6-7/10.
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7 hours ago, EricJ said:
Jake...do you REALLY care that much about this movie, or have Twitter entertainment feeds taken over your soul and will? 😮
The latter.
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I Just Watched...
in General Discussions
Posted
Subway Stories: Tales from the Underground (1997)
Ten stories selected from New Yorker's experiences on the Subway. Some are hilarious others tragic. The film recreated the tales with actors Denis Leary, Bill Irwin, Bonnie Hunt, Rosie Perez. Mercedes Rhule, etc., etc. and directed by well known directors such as Jonathan Demme, Ted Demme, Abel Ferrara, Craig McKay, Julie Dash, and Bob Balaban.
Online Streaming in about 7 parts. 8/10