cigarjoe
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Posts posted by cigarjoe
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9 minutes ago, LawrenceA said:
Berserk (1967) - 4/10
Look at that mugg!
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14 minutes ago, laffite said:
I just googled bouffant hairdos. They evoke a sort of 40s look, some of them anyway. Was that the Golden Age of the Bouffant (I wonder?). I don't know so much about this sort of thing but they can look quite wonderful so long as they are not so grossly exaggerated as some indubitably are. I know they are quite passe-ay but I wish there was more of it in our current day. And gone for some time to come, I imagine. The various increments of the continuing Lib movements decree the severe and professional look. Cuteness and charm, the soft feminism of sugar and spice and everything nice is out ... definitely out.
Whats the diff between Bouffant and Beehive? Beehive was late 50s early 60s, I reckon, from personal observations.
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Just finished Jim Thompson's WILD TOWN, and next up on the stack was Charles Williams' A TOUCH OF DEATH. The only other book of William's I've read so far has been HELL HATH NO FURY
Films made from Charles Williams novels
- All the Way – The 3rd Voice (1960)
- Nothing in Her Way – Peau de banane, a.k.a. Banana Peel (1963)
- The Big Bite – Le Gros coup (1964)
- Aground – L' Arme à gauche, a.k.a. The Dictator's Guns (1965)
- The Wrong Venus – Don't Just Stand There! (1968)
- Dead Calm – The Deep (1970; unfinished); Dead Calm (1989)
- The Diamond Bikini – Fantasia chez les ploucs, a.k.a. Fantasia Among the Squares (1971)
- Talk of the Town (uncredited) – The pilot episode of Cannon (1971)
- The Sailcloth Shroud – The Man Who Would Not Die, a.k.a. Target in the Sun (1975)
- The Long Saturday Night – Vivement dimanche!, a.k.a. Confidentially Yours (1983)
- Man on the Run – Mieux vaut courir (1989)
- Hill Girl – La Fille des collines (1990)
- Hell Hath No Fury – The Hot Spot (1990)
His other novels in chronological order...
Hill Girl (1951; Gold Medal 141)
Big City Girl (1951; Gold Medal 163)
River Girl (a.k.a. The Catfish Tangle) (1951; Gold Medal G207)
Hell Hath No Fury (a.k.a. The Hot Spot) (1953; Gold Medal 286)
Nothing in Her Way (1953; Gold Medal 340)
Go Home, Stranger (1954; Gold Medal 371)
A Touch of Death (a.k.a. Mix Yourself a Redhead; based on 1953 novella And Share Alike) (1954; Gold Medal 434)
Scorpion Reef (a.k.a. Gulf Coast Girl; based on novella Flight to Nowhere) (1955; Macmillan hc [reprint: Dell 898])
The Big Bite (1956; Dell A114)
The Diamond Bikini (1956; Gold Medal s607)
Girl Out Back (a.k.a. Operator; based on 1957 novella titled either Operator or Operation) (1958; Dell B114)
Talk of the Town (a.k.a. Stain of Suspicion; also condensed under that title) (1958; Dell A164)
All the Way (a.k.a. The Concrete Flamingo) (1958; Dell A165)
Man on the Run (a.k.a. Man in Motion) (1958; Gold Medal 822)
Uncle Sagamore and His Girls (1959; Gold Medal s908)
The Sailcloth Shroud (1960; Viking hc [reprint: Dell D410])
Aground (1960; Viking hc)
The Long Saturday Night (a.k.a. Confidentially Yours; Finally, Sunday!) (1962; Gold Medal s1200)
Dead Calm (based on an earlier novella Pacific Honeymoon[15]) (1963; Viking hc)
The Wrong Venus (a.k.a. Don't Just Stand There) (1966; New American Library hc)
And The Deep Blue Sea (1971; Signet pb)
Man on a Leash (1973; Putnam hc) -
Looking For Mr. Goodbar (1977) Date Noir
Written and Directed by Richard Brooks.Brooks (directed Classic Film Noir (Deadline - U.S.A. (1952), Transitional Noir In Cold Blood (1967), and was screenwriter of notably The Killers (1946) (un-credited though), Brute Force (1947), Crossfire (1947), Key Largo (1948), Mystery Street (1950), Storm Warning (1951), Deadline - U.S.A. (1952), and In Cold Blood (1967)).
Brook's screenplay was based on the novel by Judith Rossner which in turn was based on an article she wrote about the real life murder of Roseann Quinn. The piece was intended for a special woman's issue of Esquire magazine. However the Esquire editors got cold feet for possible legal ramifications and decided not to publish. Rossner then used the material she researched in her novel.
Cinematography was by William A. Fraker (Bullitt (1968), Coonskin (1975), The Killer Inside Me (1976)), music was by Artie Kane.
The film Stars Diane Keaton as Theresa Dunn, Tuesday Weld as Katherine Dunn, William Atherton as James, Richard Kiley as Mr. Dunn, Richard Gere as Tony, Alan Feinstein as Martin, Tom Berenger as Gary, Priscilla Pointer as Mrs. Dunn, Alexander Courtney as Arthur, Joel Fabiani as Barney, Julius Harris as Black Cat, Richard Bright as George, LeVar Burton as Cap Jackson, Brian Dennehy as Surgeon, Richard Venture as Doctor, and Elizabeth Cheshire as Young Theresa.
Brooks paints a cautionary tale, multiple casual hook-ups can get your rear in a jam. In the code days women were either Madonnas or whores, in our post code world and in the real world BTW they can be both. Keaton and Weld are both excellent.
The only two critiques I've heard of the film are one, Brooks use of Theresa's confusing daydream sequences disrupting the flow of the story, and the initial decision to discard the part the real victim Rosanne Quinn played in her own demise. In the film Theresa Dunn is shown as basically picking her partners on whims or attraction.
In the true story Roseann Ouinn was shown to possibly be a bit of either a thrill seeking masochist. But questions remain. Was she picking her partners because they displayed damaged egos that she could manipulate, or maybe was it a warped extension of her help giver profession that she channeled into the realm of sexual help? Or was she just kinked that particular way and was looking for rough sex and trouble, and maybe that, was her antidote to being the overly sugary sweet, well loved teacher. Who knows. She just picked the wrong guy, once. Screen caps are from an online screener. 7/10
Full review with screencaps in Film Noir/Gangster pages.
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Looking For Mr. Goodbar (1977) Date Noir
Written and Directed by Richard Brooks.
Brooks (directed Classic Film Noir (Deadline - U.S.A. (1952), Transitional Noir In Cold Blood (1967), and was screenwriter of notably The Killers (1946) (un-credited though), Brute Force (1947), Crossfire (1947), Key Largo (1948), Mystery Street (1950), Storm Warning(1951), Deadline - U.S.A. (1952), and In Cold Blood(1967)).
Brook's screenplay was based on the novel by Judith Rossner which in turn was based on an article she wrote about the real life murder of Roseann Quinn. The piece was intended for a special woman's issue of Esquire magazine. However the Esquire editors got cold feet for possible legal ramifications and decided not to publish. Rossner then used the material she researched in her novel.
Cinematography was by William A. Fraker (Bullitt (1968), Coonskin (1975), The Killer Inside Me (1976)), music was by Artie Kane.
The film Stars Diane Keaton as Theresa Dunn, Tuesday Weld as Katherine Dunn, William Atherton as James, Richard Kiley as Mr. Dunn, Richard Gere as Tony, Alan Feinstein as Martin, Tom Berenger as Gary, Priscilla Pointer as Mrs. Dunn, Alexander Courtney as Arthur, Joel Fabiani as Barney, Julius Harris as Black Cat, Richard Bright as George, LeVar Burton as Cap Jackson, Brian Dennehy as Surgeon, Richard Venture as Doctor, and Elizabeth Cheshire as Young Theresa.
Diane Keaton as Theresa Dunn 
Tuesday Weld as Katherine Dunn 
Richard Kiley as Mr. Dunn and Priscilla Pointer as Mrs. Dunn 
Alan Feinstein as Martin 
Richard Gere as Tony 
William Atherton as James
The film's credit sequence is a nice Noir-ish Black & White montage of the singles scene.
Tom Berenger as Gary
Story
Theresa Dunn is a young Irish/Polish, former Catholic school girl growing up in a big city. Right there are two clues that anyone familiar with Catholic school girls knows, sort of instinctively, how this is going to play out. It's either going to be A Nun's Story or Girl Gone Wild.
The real story happened in New York, this film never states the city it does show a glimpse of the Chicago el, and some Chicago neighborhoods but then also shows what looks like your typical L.A. strip. The strip of course is always strategically filmed at night. So it's any big city USA.Back to the film. Theresa now a college senior and pretty much off her religious and parental leash is out in the real world. She has a crush on Martin her English professor. She works in his campus office after class as a sort of secretary. Is he a sort of a benign serial sexual predator, who just takes advantage of gullible naive females who are experimenting with their sexuality, or is he a genuine falling in love with falling in love type of guy with willing females who are helped on their way to becoming well adjusted women. Both parties benefit from the relationships. Theresa looses her virginity to Martin.
Anyway they have a hot steamy affair.Meanwhile during the depiction of their affair, we get a glimpse of Theresa's past and home life. She had scoliosis as a child. Had an operation, and spent a whole year in a full body cast, and as a result is a bit self conscious about her scars.
Young Theresa - Elizabeth Cheshire Theresa has one sister Brigid who is a baby factory, another Katherine is the "perfect" beauty. Katherine is a jet setter stewardess.
Katherine, while home for Christmas, confesses to Theresa that's she's been living with a man in New York and another in Chicago. The current problem is that she's one month pregnant and doesn't know who the father is. She tell's Theresa that she's going to get an abortion down in "the islands."
When Katherine gets back she announces to her family that she is engaged to a Jewish man she met on her resent trip. Her family is not approving. Vivre la révolution sexuelle!
Martin breaks off the relationship with Theresa. She graduates. Takes a job teaching deaf children. She's good at it. Theresa starts to feel too corralled by her overly strict parents rules. Katherine convinces her to move out of her folks home and into an apartment in her building. Free to do as she pleases Katherine starts hitting the singles bars.
Teaching the Deaf
Tony and Theresa At one of the watering holes she meets Tony, today we'd classify him with having ADHD (Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder), he acts like a nut job. Theresa inexplicably says that's for me.
Theresa is intrigued enough with Tony's antics to invite him up to her apartment, she sleeps with him, takes cocaine with him, and pops a Quaalude when he leaves. She's late for school the next day when she oversleeps. When she begins to hit the single bars again she finds that Tony has disappeared from the club scene. Was he just a one night stand?
Theresa next meets through a student at her school, a welfare case worker named James. He's an Irish Catholic boy. They being to date. He gets her family's good seal of approval. He appears stable and looks like husband material. Their dates end up in heavy petting make-out sessions that leave Theresa unfulfilled and unsatisfied.
James represents the traditional family values corner. He wants to just court her and put off having sex until their wedding night. Theresa is comparatively, light-years ahead of all that noise. Theresa doesn't commit. It frustrates James. Theresa meanwhile is still shopping around, hitting the singles clubs during their relationship. James now obsessed with Theresa is becoming her stalker.
Meanwhile sister Katherine and hubby are becoming quite the swingers often having all night weed and booze parties watching porno stag loops followed by group sex. They try and entice Theresa to join in.
Theresa becomes a regular "round heels" having sex with practically everyone she takes a fancy to. In the film it's either again a Theresa daydream fantasy or its actually hinted at that Theresa is accepting money for sexual favors, basically becoming a sort of amateur recreational hooker. It's not clear and this one along with other sudden daydream episodes is one of the minor quibbles people have with the film.
Tony reappears during one of these trysts that Theresa is having in her apartment. He jimmy's the lock on Theresa's door and runs off the "john." Tony becomes a control freak and starts to stalk and harass Theresa to the extent that he even shows up at the school for the deaf. The brother of one of Theresa's students roughs Tony up. Theresa fearing revenge, imagines Tony ratting her out to the police, she heads home and flushes all her drugs down the toilet.
Another New Years Eve. Theresa is out trolling the bars. She got a New Years resolution to change her life after one last fling. She spies an attractive stranger named Gary she approaches him as he's playing pinball.
Gary is a "sexually confused" ex con, in other words a weirdo. Is he gay, is he straight, is he Bi? Gary has recently been a boy toy for old queens living off their "gifts." Gary, somewhat equally attracted to Theresa tells her that he's got a pregnant wife living in Florida. They split for Theresa's pad and there it goes Noirsville.
Noirsville
Brooks paints a cautionary tale, multiple casual hook-ups can get your *a*s*s* in a jam. In the code days women were either Madonnas or whores, in our post code world they can be both. Keaton and Weld are both excellent.
The only two critiques I've heard of the film are one, Brooks use of Theresa's confusing daydream sequences disrupting the flow of the story, and the initial decision to discard the part the real victim Rosanne Quinn played in her own demise. In the film Theresa Dunn is shown as basically picking her partners on whims or attraction.
In the true story Roseann Ouinn was shown to possibly be a bit of either a thrill seeking masochist. But questions remain. Was she picking her partners because they displayed damaged egos that she could manipulate, or maybe was it a warped extension of her help giver profession that she channeled into the realm of the sexual help? Or was she just kinked that particular way and was looking for rough sex and trouble, and maybe that, was her antidote to being the overly sugary sweet, well loved teacher. Who knows. She just picked the wrong guy, once. Screen caps are from an online screener. 7/10 Full review with more screencaps in Noirsville. -
6 minutes ago, TheCid said:
Always found it interesting how easily cars find a parking place on very crowded streets in the movies and on TV. Usually right in front of where they are going.
Movie magic
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8 minutes ago, TheCid said:
Per Muller, they shot exteriors in NYC for two weeks.
Yea the scenes down at the old Fulton Fish Market and in DUMBO. You can always tell the Manhattan street scenes are sets for the lack of parked vehicles. It seems as if in Noir Hollywood Manhattan there is always a place to park. 😎
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Too bad The People Against O'Hara wasn't shot in NYC as originally planned. What passes for The Westside Highway or The FDR Drive is obviously one of the L.A. River bridges.
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On 7/11/2019 at 5:39 PM, LornaHansonForbes said:
WILD TOWN was, for me, a very satisfying mystery- and is a rare THOMPSON novel with a non-ambiguous, almost conventional murder-mystery style ending which i liked; and LOU FORD may be THOMPSON'S greatest creation (I especially enjoy how he is two characters- a deliberately ignorant-sounding, folksy Texas lawman when he's dealing with the rubes and an ice-pick smart college boy without any accent or colloqualisms when the "real" him is talking to someone who isn't a hick.
THE ENDING OF THE GETAWAY is such a SADISTIC BUMMER, all the moreso because THE BOOK has the best first thirty pages of any book he EVER wrote. in fact, if THOMPSON HAd just left it a short story about the heist and the sniper and the doublecross, it'd been GREAT.
I remember you or someone else mentioning THE FILM VERSION OF THE KILL-OFF, i'll check for it. the book itself is like a companion piece to WILD TOWn in that it is also a pretty conventionally told murder mystery a la CHRISTIE...only the resolution in it is not satisfying. At all. it's rather like a spec script for MURDER SHE WROTE.
and spoiler in re THE CRIMINAL- which is a short novel he wrote...
you never find out who the killer is at all.
So here is a complete list of Jim Thompson's major Works:
Now and on Earth (1942)*
Heed the Thunder (aka Sins of the Fathers) (1946)*
Nothing More Than Murder (1949)*
The Killer Inside Me (1952)**
Cropper's Cabin (1952)*
Recoil (1953)*
The Alcoholics (1953)
Savage Night (1953)*
Bad Boy (1953)
The Criminal (1953)
The Nothing Man (1954)*
The Golden Gizmo (1954)
Roughneck (1954)
A Swell-Looking Babe (1954)*
A Hell of a Woman (1954)**
After Dark, My Sweet (1955)*
The Kill-Off (1957)*
Wild Town (1957)**
The Getaway (1958)**
The Transgressors (1961)*
The Grifters (1963) *
Pop. 1280 (1964) **
Texas By the Tail (1965)*
South of Heaven (1967)*
Nothing But a Man (1970)*
Child of Rage (1972)
King Blood (1973)*
Fireworks: The Lost Writings of Jim Thompson (1988) *
The Rip-Off (1989)You've red the black asterisk'ed above I've read the red ones, looks like we need to read....
The Alcoholics (1953)
Bad Boy (1953)
The Criminal (1953)
The Golden Gizmo (1954)
Roughneck (1954)
Child of Rage (1972)
The Rip-Off (1989)-
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7 hours ago, slaytonf said:
Thanks for your reference. I see it's available for viewing on YouTube, with subtitles. I wonder if you know of any movies featuring art created for that movie, as opposed to works by real artists?
The murals in 3 Women (1977).
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I rechecked the list I also own 38 of the titles.
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5 hours ago, kingrat said:
Gunman's Walk is a solid three stars out of four western. I'd love for TCM to highlight the Fifties Western one month, and this would be one of the films to choose. Tab Hunter loved working with Van Heflin, who plays his father; Allan Glaser discussed this at some length. Hunter gives a strong performance as the deranged son who tries to live up to and exceed his father's image. James Darren as the sensitive younger brother plays the part Hunter would have played a few years earlier.
I'd never seen this one before I'd give it maybe 2.5 out of 4 stars.
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10 hours ago, LawrenceA said:
I deleted them. I hope this will assuage everyone's dismay.
What's a jif?
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"I never figured him for being a wrong guy."
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5 minutes ago, LawrenceA said:
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Nice list.
I've seen most of them except these
From The Terrace, 2010, Nothing In Common, Sneakers, Remains Of The Day, Shadowlands, Switchback, Wonder Boys, Thirteen Days, Heist, Good Night and Good Luck, Love Actually, The Constant Gardener, The Bourne Ultimatum, Michael Clayton, Star Trek, The Ghost Writer, The Martian
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1 minute ago, TomJH said:
It would be wonderful if Denzel Washington agreed to make a followup as an older Easy Rawlins.
That could easily be done since the series actually evolves through the decades from the 40's.
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7 hours ago, TomJH said:
Devil in a Blue Dress is an atmospheric neo noir, set in post-war L.A., different from others inasmuch as it's told from a black perspective.
Whats a real same is that they only made Devil In A Blue Dress when they also have
Charcoal Joe
Rose Gold
Little Green
Blonde Faith
Cinnamon Kiss
Little Scarlet
Six Easy Pieces
Bad Boy Brawly Brown
A Little Yellow Dog
Black Betty
Gone Fishin’
White Butterfly
A Red Death
All excellent Easy Rawlins L.A. detective books written by Walter Mosely.
...And check out another Mosely Neo Noir called Fearless (1995) starring Giancarlo Esposito (Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul) Bill Nunn, and Cynda Williams, its very humorous.
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20 hours ago, RoyCronin said:
The Two Jakes: whatever happened to Madeline Stowe?
Did she and Linda Fiorentino run away together to some neo-noir Actress rehab center?
Shes in two other good Neo Noirs Blink and China Moon
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21 hours ago, Dargo said:
Oh yeah, I remember sitting through The Two Jakes when it was first released, CI.
And also remember thinking about half way through it that director Nicholson should have gotten himself somebody in the editing both, and evidently somebody other than himself, who knew and understood the idea of "Pacing" and the proper "flow" a movie should have.
(...and thought it a real same that his otherwise well-photographed, well-acted and nicely recreated world of postwar L.A. suffered from this)
I remember thinking besides all the above that Nicholson's V.O. narrations went on and on and on, He should have trimmed that down too.
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1 hour ago, rayban said:
Wasn't the famous book by Bel Kaufman a series of school memos?
Yea something like that. I haven't read it for a long time.
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13 hours ago, NickAndNora34 said:
UP THE DOWN STAIRCASE (1967) *Score: 6/10*
Starring: Sandy Dennis, Patrick Bedford, Eileen Heckart, Ruth White, Jean Stapleton, Florence Stanley, Roy Poole, Sorrell Booke.
This film follows young and naive English teacher, Sylvia Barrett at her new job at an urban New York high school. Sylvia is essentially thrown into her new job, and the other jaded teachers find it amusing how happy she is to hold a position at the school. Her main goal is to reach at least one of her students, and to maybe teach how important and beneficial education can be.
That was my high school, real name was Rhodes School, that the author of the novel Bel Kaufman taught at for a time. It was only a year or two after she's left that I started going there.
The school was located in two connected buildings (former residences) on West 54th street just off 5th Ave. They overlooked the Museum of Modern Art's courtyard. One building had the "Up" staircase the other the "Down" staircase. It was of course frowned upon to go up the down staircase especially when the class change bell rang.
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4 hours ago, kingrat said:
Five Miles to Midnight and Return from the Ashes,
I have seen and liked the first I just haven't reviewed it or put it on the list. I haven't seen Return From The Ashes.
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5 minutes ago, CinemaInternational said:
1995's Devil and a Blue Dress
Agree I reviewed it but neglected to add it to the list my bad. I saw City Hall also and agree that it is flawed but I didn't review it.
TCM and Other Sources for Classic Film
in General Discussions
Posted
They really should show his 1967 performance in The Incident with Thelma Ritter, Jan Sterling, Beau Bridges, Brock Peters, Tony Musante, Charley Scheen, Ruby Dee, Jack Gilford, and Ed McMahon.