cigarjoe
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Posts posted by cigarjoe
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Transitional Noir The Incident (1967) starring Tony Musante, Martin Sheen, Beau Bridges, Brock Peters, Ruby Dee, Ed McMahon, Jack Gilford and with Noir Veterans Thelma Ritter, Jan Sterling and Gary Merrill.
It was almost all pretty much shot guerrilla style with no permits, one of the best subway films.
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What would be a cool invention would be some type of stretch screen TV that would conform to the aspect ratio of a film. Something that would always display the same amount of square inches so there would never be any black bars. lol.
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5 minutes ago, Sepiatone said:
As one who recalls seeing most of the episodes when they were first run (and faithfully plopping my a** in front of the tube when it came on) I always tried to catch any reruns of it over the years. It was then that it came to light the show also featured early work of many who went on to bigger and better things.
There was one episode in which VIC MORROW played a guy trying to become a cop, like his Father before him. Another one in which a very young DUSTIN HOFFMAN could be seen pulling a diner "hold up" which was foiled by a guy pretending to be a beat cop. I've also noticed ROBERT DUVALL and a young WILLIAM SHATNER in some old episodes.
Cool show. It's due for another round of syndication IMHO.
Sepiatone
I bought the series on DVD, I however, enjoyed the 1/2 hour season one episodes with their quirky NYC specific intros, i.e., the sidewalk fishermen who tried to retrieve change that fell through the sewer and subway air shaft grates.
Those first season episodes also had John McIntire as the head detective. The pacing was better in the half hour shows. Once it went to an hour the writers went hog wild with the drama dragging the pacing out with these long expositions of emoting (usually in standard looking blah studio sets), the actors probably loved it, it gave them more screen time to do their stuff, but I didn't cause it devoted less time to the now quite intriguing on location footage of NYC.
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7 hours ago, Princess of Tap said:
Don't you remember Betsy Palmer on "I've Got A Secret" with Gary Moore?
Yes, but barely, she was a real cutie in the film.
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The True Story of Lynn Stuart (1958) Tail Fin Noir
This was the final film of Lewis Seiler. At Warner's Seiler directed quite a few gangster films (his only other Noir was Over-Exposed (1956)). This film was based on the newspaper articles of Pat Michaels concerning what the police fed him as the "official" true story of the woman known as Lynn Stuart who in reality went undercover for 6 years. The film makes it look like a couple weeks. In the real story she was actually involved in mob activities including drug purchases. The screenplay was by John Kneubuhl.
Cinematography was by Filn Noir vet Burnett Guffey (Guffey lensed My Name Is Julia Ross, Night Editor, Framed, Johnny O'Clock, In a Lonely Place, All the King's Men, The Reckless Moment, The Undercover Man, Knock on Any Door, Private Hell 36, Human Desire, The Sniper, Scandal Sheet, and Sirocco).
The film stars Betsy Palmer (The Tin Star (1957) a mostly TV actress but she made a comeback in 1980 to films in Friday the 13th) as Phyllis Carter, also known as Lynn Stuart, Jack Lord (another mainly TV actor Hawaii Five-O)as Willie Down. Barry Atwater as Lt. Jim Hagan, Edmund G. Brown as Himself, and Gavin MacLeod as Turk, and John Anderson as Doc, among others.
The film is a decent watch with nice cinematography, Palmer and Lord are good in their parts. 6/10. Full review with more screencaps in Fim Noir/Gangster pages.
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The True Story of Lynn Stuart (1958) Tail Fin Noir
This was the final film of Lewis Seiler.
At Warner's Seiler directed quite a few gangster films (his only other Noir was Over-Exposed (1956)). This film was based on the newspaper articles of Pat Michaels concerning what the police fed him as the "official" true story of the woman known as Lynn Stuart who in reality went undercover for 6 years. The film makes it look like a couple weeks. In the real story she was actually involved in mob activities including drug purchases. The screenplay was by John Kneubuhl.
Cinematography was by Filn Noir vet Burnett Guffey (Guffey lensed My Name Is Julia Ross, Night Editor, Framed, Johnny O'Clock, In a Lonely Place, All the King's Men, The Reckless Moment, The Undercover Man, Knock on Any Door, Private Hell 36, Human Desire, The Sniper, Scandal Sheet, and Sirocco).
The film stars Betsy Palmer (The Tin Star (1957) a mostly TV actress but she made a comeback in 1980 to films in Friday the 13th) as Phyllis Carter, also known as Lynn Stuart, Jack Lord (another mainly TV actor Hawaii Five-O)as Willie Down. Barry Atwater as Lt. Jim Hagan, Edmund G. Brown as Himself, and Gavin MacLeod as Turk, and John Anderson as Doc, among others.
Lynn Stuart (Betsy Palmer) 
Willie Down (Jack Lord)
The Story
The film is a quasi police procedural so we get a law enforcement prologue by future California Governor Edmund "Pat" Brown. He was the state's Attorney General at the time.
Orange County, California 
A high speed car chase
Orange County. A police car chase. A crash. Two teens are killed. In the wreck we see a box with syringes and packets of heroin. Druggies! Both were high as kites. At the coroners inquest the aunt of one of the boys, Phyllis Carter is upset enough to denounce the weak police efforts to combat illegal drugs.
A tragic end
So Phyllis is so enraged that she volunteers out of the blue to become an undercover narcotics agent for the police, yea sure.
Phyllis consoling her sister
There has got to be more to it that the police have sealed away for ever. Lets with our gritty sleazy noir shaded glasses on go over some of the possibilities.
Maybe it was her husband who sold the teens the heroin or was some other way involved. Maybe Phyllis was one of those part time housewife prostitutes who turned tricks for dress money or extra cash, got busted and this deal with the police was her to stay out of jail, keep that arrest out of the papers and a way out doing jail time. Maybe Phyllis or her husband or both got busted for making stag loops, or got picked up on lewd and lascivious conduct and this was a way to avoid the publicity and shame. Maybe Phyllis' husband was a **** who got arrested and etc., etc., see above.
It's too far fetched as the tale plays out in the film, it may have been swallowed by fifties audiences, but an awful lot of truly bizarre scenarios have come to light in the last sixty years, we're too cynical to believe that official bull **** now.
Meanwhile.....
a tip off to the police
According to the film the Orange County sheriff's office accepts Phyllis' offer after one of their stoolies is gunned down in a phone booth in Tijuana while he's making a tip off.
Santa Ana City Hall
So we are made to believe that now of course they happily reconsider the offer of a mere housewife with no training and a young child at home, as if there were no police women anywhere in Southern California that could do it, yea sure. So they give Phyllis an alias as an ex con Lynn Stuart out of West Virginia who did a stretch of 18 months for bank robbery, and a job in Stan's Drive In, that's a known drug dealer hangout.
A Stan's BTW was also featured in an earlier Film Noir The Crooked Web (1955) with Frank Lovejoy and Mari Blanchard. The Googie style architecture Stan's was a chain of burger joints in the Los Angeles area in the 50's and 60's.
Phyllis is quite a piece of eye candy. While on the job she finally attracts dealer Willie Down (Jack Lord). Phyllis becomes his girlfriend. Yea sure. Again, here you got to ask yourself how she managed to keep the hoods attention without putting out. It's highly implausible that it was a platonic relationship. Especially when you are aware of the fact that the real "undercover" job went on for six **** years.
Phyllis/Lynn meets Willie Downs
Phyllis/Lynn Bowling on a date with Willie
So Phyllis integrates herself into the gang, getting the skinny on the drug operations and tipping off the police to what is going on. In the film the fact that she's married is played down with her husband meekly agreeing to everything she does. The dynamics of her relationship with her husband is never really satisfactory explained. We just have to guess. So I'll noir-ishly guess she possibly told Willie that her husband was either impotent, or a closet fairy. Whatever it was, Willie bought it.
reporting in to the police
Its OK dear Willie's junk ain't anywhere as big as yours..... and besides it's only been five years.
So in the film we get this dramatic build up and then right before a drug run which will be a big police breakthrough, Phyllis husband chokes and wants her to quit. However she can't because Willie shows up unexpectedly and whisks her away. They are going to hijack a drug shipment from a competing mob.
setting up the ambush So they use Phyllis as a decoy. She plays a lady in distress with a broken down car blocking the roadway. It all goes Noirsville when Willie murders the two truck drivers when they get out to help.
Phyllis already distraught by the killings has the drama is turned up to high by the screenwriter adding the sudden sickness (pneumonia) of her only child. (In real life remember she had two) This is accomplished by the improbable "over the radio" bulletin announcing that the police are searching for Phyllis Carter, whose son is very ill.
The big showdown in a nice touch takes place at a motel.
Noirsville
John Anderson as Doc rt. 
In the film it's the death of her nephew that triggers her quest to go undercover, in the "official" real story she sited that it was just her fear that her sons may get addicted when they became teenagers. Sounds a bit too far fetched and you got to wonder what the hell was up with her husband to agree to go along with the whole scenario. Me thinks there was a lot more going on that we don't know about.
Was she a True Crime fanatic? A Police Junkie?, or did the police catch her or her husband or both, doing something he, she, or they shouldn't have been doing, and this was their way out, an "I'll, we'll, do anything, anything, to keep this out of the papers" deal. That scenario seems way more plausible than the "good citizen volunteers to go way, way, above and beyond their public duty to turn in drug dealers" pap. Whatever, back in 1958 the public bought this explanation but looking at it from a 2019 perspective and knowing all the shenanigans that went on in law "enforcement," it sounds way too pat. Watch and see what you think.
The film is a decent watch with nice cinematography, Palmer and Lord are good in their parts. 6/10. Review with more screencaps in Noirsville.
Here is a good example of a story that could very well be remade today into a very sleazy fictional period Neo Noir.-
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29 minutes ago, Marianne said:
I don't have wireless, so Chromecast is out for me. But watching on my laptop does just fine.
Do you have a smart phone? You can cast right to the Chromecast from it. You only need wireless connection to cast from your computer to the Chromecast.
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7 minutes ago, Looney said:
THE TATTOOED STRANGER (1950)
Well let me just say that I think the poster is more interesting than the film
, but the film was okay. I liked the plot, but as misswonderly3 pointed out I would have liked more closure. There is a lot behind this stranger and we never really get to know him. I do feel this plot deserved better than some of the weaker performances, but I am also glad it wasn't overly melodramatic. All and all I am very glad I saw it if only for some of those great shots cigarjoe pointed out. I won't be adding this one to my collection, but it was an interesting exercise.
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In the same vein is a film called Guilty Bystander another cheapie NYC based Noir also but it has Zachary Scott playing a boozing NYPD detective. I seen a really crappy (as in whole minutes go by in what looks like total darkness. lol) multi - generational copy of it.
One classic image that I remember is Scott sleeping one off in a bed surrounded by dead soldiers on the floor of his flee bag flop.
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1 minute ago, Michael Rennie said:
I am sort of interested in Chromecast. I have cheap Roku and Amazon TV sticks, and don't like either. My brother is an IT guy with our public schools. They have Chromecast and Chromebooks everywhere.
My son has an Amazon Fire Stick he thinks it's better (he works for NSA in cyber security), but the Chromecast is fine for me.
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26 minutes ago, Marianne said:
I agree!
But sometimes "convenience" and/or "cheap" (as in "free"!) win out. The Internet Archive is a good resource to consider for both reasons.
But you don't have to, if you are connected to the internet by wireless. Just get a 30-35 dollar chromecast and you can cast from your computer or phone to you big screen TV. It's not rocket science.
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Nice little sequence with the 2nd & 3rd Ave el Coenties Slip "S" curve in The Tattooed Stranger.
However the footage in the film is archival since The curve and the tracks to South Ferry were already scrapped by 1942.
The 3rd Avenue el was still running from City Hall Station spur and Chatham Square Station North until 1955. So all Noirs filmed in NYC usually used the 3rd Ave el (The Dark Corner, The Killer That Stalked New York, Port Of New York, etc. ) or the archival footage like in this film.
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The very first Dean Martin show 16 September 1965. Deano was great on YT, BTW and streamed to the big screen.
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13 minutes ago, speedracer5 said:
Thank you. I'll consider this resource. I am not a fan of watching movies on my computer. My TV does have an internet browser, so I'll have to see how this looks on there.
Get your family a chromecast device ($30-35) then you can cast anything you can watch on your computer to your TV.
There is also a neat site that you can fix the aspect ratio if the streamers aspect is wrong.
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1 minute ago, speedracer5 said:
I like the sound of Shanty Tramp. I endorse these suggestions.
Its good, reviewed here but I watched a terrible copy on a popular streaming site that begins with a Y.
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Three Transitional Film Noir
Aroused (1966)
The Pick-Up (1968)
Shame Shame Everybody Knows Her Name (1969)
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As Alfred Hitchcock used to say Its only a moooovie!
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31 minutes ago, speedracer5 said:
Someday, The Long Long Trailer will be in the theater and my life will be complete. LOL.
Did you happen to catch the recent TCM film (it's title escapes me but it should be on demand) with Lucille Ball in a shorter trailer?
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5 minutes ago, misswonderly3 said:
But I still feel there's something special, something fun, even kind of exciting, about physically going to a theatre and watching an old movie on the big screen, surrounded by other movie lovers. And in this case, not just movie lovers, but noir lovers.
That would definitely be the reason to attend, it would be also nice to sit around have a drink or two and discuss Film Noir.
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Toronto is a 7 1/2 hr drive for me
Don't remember if I've ever seen UNDERTOW 1949
But seen and own some of the rest....
RIDE THE PINK HORSE 1947 own
THE BIG COMBO 1955 own
KISS OF DEATH 1947 own
NIGHTFALL 1956 own
FORCE OF EVIL 1948
FALLEN ANGEL 1945 own
THE LOCKET 1946
JOHNNY O’CLOCK 1947
THE CHASE 1946
TENSION 1949 own
CHRISTMAS HOLIDAY 1944 own
PHANTOM LADY 1944 own
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Kicked off the Porno Chic Era....
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1 hour ago, speedracer5 said:
Are there other films out there in the same vein as Sweet Smell of Success and Odds Against Tomorrow ?
Touch of Evil (1958)
The Lineup (1958)
The Crimson Kimono (1959)
Blast Of Silence (1961)
The Young Savages (1961)
Something Wild (1961)
All Fall Down (1962)
Experiment In Terror (1962)
There are more Non studio B&W noirs that go right up to 68
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.jpg.cefc56cd83b1a627feeb681c662efd87.jpg)
The New York City Subway
in General Discussions
Posted
Just a friendly correction. Grand Central is not a station it is a terminal, no through trains.
There are like you mentioned Grand Central Stations on the "S" the old IRT Times Square Shuttle, and on the 4,5,6, and 7 BTW all old IRT subway lines.
The Pennsylvania Station (what's left of it) is an intercity station with through trains to Boston, Philadelphia and Washington. It also has subway connections the A, C, and E trains at 34th Street–Penn Station station, under Eighth Avenue and the 1, 2, and 3 trains at 34th Street–Penn Station station, under Seventh Avenue.