cigarjoe
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Posts posted by cigarjoe
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5 minutes ago, TheCid said:
Mitchum's Farewell My Lovely was excellent movie. By far the best version ever. I wonder if Big Sleep had to be moved to England and done as a current 1978 scenario to get financing or support over there?
Probably, otherwise it makes no sense to do so. It's similar to Spillane's The Girl Hunters (1963) some establishing shots around NYC but the rest obviously the UK and not NYC, and probably for the financing too.
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15 minutes ago, TheCid said:
All this talk about The Big Sleep (1978) resulted in my pulling it out and watching it. Actually, it was better this time than when I watched it before. Maybe because I just enjoyed the movie and did not subconsciously try to compare it to Bogart version.
Hard to believe that the Candy Clark in Sleep is same one in American Graffiti five years earlier.
That's the way you got to do it, just put the Bogart/Bacall version out of your head. I just wish they would have done it as a period piece like Farewell My Lovely (1975).
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Phoenix (1998) Bad Cops
Directed by Danny Cannon. Written by Eddie Richey. The film stars Ray Liotta, Anthony LaPaglia, Daniel Baldwin, and Jeremy Piven.
Sort of a Quentin Tarantino film wannabe. Instead discussing how a Big Mac with Cheese is called a Le Royale with cheese, there is a running joke about the film King Kong and about the wall on the island they find him on. It has some interesting moments and some truly dumb ones. Watchable. 6/10
Source: Netflix DVD
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37 minutes ago, LawrenceA said:
It's 3 hours long. Lynch had just discovered digital cameras, so he made this independently, with no oversight from corporate types that may have tried to "dilute his vision". I described it at the time as the most David Lynch David Lynch movie. I've never spoken to anyone who liked it, except for me, and I completely understand why everyone else hates it.
I didn't like the European setting as much as the usual American ones. When I first heard it was called The Inland Empire, I thought it was going to be about the Inland Washington, Northern Idaho, North Central Oregon area.
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41 minutes ago, TheCid said:
Are you saying the Mitchum version of The Big Sleep is closer to the book?
Yea pretty much if you ignore the time update to the then present and location switch to the UK. The scenario goes that Marlowe joined up and then stayed on in the UK after WWII, and started a London based PI service. American Gen. Sternwood married an English woman sired two daughters the younger one Candy Clark was sent to the US to live with her aunts and for her education after the mother died, if I remember right. That explains the one "English daughter and the one American one.
Other than that it does follow the book better, has no Marlowe-Sternwood romance, isn't hampered by the MPPC, and makes more sense.
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"Good taste is the enemy of creativity" (Pablo Picasso) and I'm sure that worrying about offending someone is likewise.
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1 hour ago, sewhite2000 said:
How much is Jimmy Stewart in it? Just one scene, like the guy in the Bogie version?
Yea, one scene just as General Sternwood in the greenhouse.
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39 minutes ago, Hibi said:
Yes, it did make it easier to follow, but I thought the film was a total misfire.
For me I read Chandler's novel before I ever saw the Bogart/Bacall version, so I was disappointed with the film not following the novel. Now I'd would have preferred that Mitchum's The Big Sleep would have been a period piece like the earlier Farewell My Lovely, but it is what it is. If you've never read novel or seen the Bogart version, you might just buy the story as they did it.
And who knows, that with out the Code they just may have been able to follow the novel as they did in 1978, and it would have been possibly a contemporary film a year of two after the novel was published say 1940-41. Just like the 1931 Maltese Falcon was more risque than the Bogart Version.
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1 hour ago, GGGGerald said:
Not only did I enjoy this version, it helped me to understand the prior version which was so censored, it was difficult to follow.
exactomundo!
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2 hours ago, Hibi said:
Candy Clark's scenes were edited though.
Then you missed the whole thing. 🤠
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2 hours ago, sewhite2000 said:
I am really unsure what I'm saying that you've felt the need to "correct" me twice. We are having some kind of "failure to communicate", to steal a line from another Newman film. All I'm trying to say is the novel The Drowning Pool was written in 1950, so the filmmakers could have chosen to set the movie adaptation in 1950 if they wanted to.
I agree, it's not like Mitchum's The Big Sleep which updated Marlowe to 1978. I'm just saying that the character was an active PI from 1950 to 1976, so you could set the character within those bookend years.
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Watched many times before but finally did a review a few days ago and posted it in Film Noir/Gangster for Nightmare Alley.
A heads up for TomJH and speedracer5 in case either of you have not finished reading the novel, the review has the novels version of the Grindel - Dorrie apparition appearance. 😎
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And then he basically crawled into a bottle of Pabst Blue Ribbon halfway through "Blue Velvet", and se t all of his films in roadhouse bars after that, like the end-credits to every episode of the Twin Peaks reboot...Y'know, I could actually SEE Lynch doing a remake of the Patrick Swayze movie, it might work.
I'd rather watch a Lynch film/Mini Series than any superhero crapola. I'd rather go to a roadhouse dive bar than watch any superhero crapola
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On 5/30/2019 at 10:21 PM, sewhite2000 said:
This is a tiny point of contention, but I believe Drowning Pool was based on a novel from 1950, so even though the author was still contemporary, they could have thought about making that particular adaptation a period piece (although they'd already set Harper in modern times).
No, not the author, the character Archer (name changed to Harper in the film) was contemporary to when the film was made, the last Archer/Harper book was The Blue Hammer published 1976.
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Noirsville Nightmare Alley review posted on Film Noir/Gangster Pages, here.
*A heads up for speedracer5 & TomJH it does have Gresham's novel original demise of Stanton's spook racket in the review.
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Nightmare Alley (1947) Carney/Spook Racket Noir Masterpiece
"How can a guy sink so low?He reached too high..."
Another Classic Film Noir that's today highly regarded.
Nightmare Alley is based on the 1946 novel of the same title, written by William Lindsay Gresham. Gresham has stated that the genesis of Nightmare Alley started with his early fascination with the sideshow attractions he found at Coney Island. And later with stories he swapped with a former sideshow employee, Joseph Daniel "Doc" Halliday, during the Spanish Civil War. He wrote the novel while working as a true crime editor for Fawcett Publications most likely Daring Detective or Dynamic Detective. Gresham also penned a nonfiction book about carnies entitled Monster Midway.
A movie rights dispute had kept this masterpiece out of the public eye for quite awhile. It was finally resolved back in the early 2000s and was brought out on DVD in Fox Home Entertainment's Film Noir DVD series.
A real "Debbie Downer" of a film that was released just after the end of WWII. Possibly the general public was craving mindless sugar coated pap after the long dreary war years.
Directed by Edmund Goulding and written by Jules Furthman. The films exquisite cinematography was by Lee Garmes (Scarface (1932), Shanghai Express (1932), Caught(1949) among others).
Nightmare Alley is one of a handful of Films Noir based in part on carnivals or have extended scenes occuring in amusement parks and other attractions, others are Girl On The Run, Strangers on a Train, Man in The Dark, Shanghai Express, Ministry of Fear, and Gun Crazy. There are probably more, I even remember a good French Noir, its title escapes me, that has a fiery end at a gypsy type trailer at a Paris street carnival.
Carnivals popup overnight on the edge of nice little towns like toadstools on a lawn....
Nightmare Alley in a way has a circular story line. Stanton "Stan" Carlisle (Tyrone Power) is a barker at a traveling carnival who loves the life of a carny. He works gathering up a crowd of rubes for Mademoiselle Zeena, a sideshow mentalist attraction. Zeena works with her alkie husband Pete. They were once in the big time.
Stan Carlisle (Tyrone Power) 
Zeena (Joan Blondell) 
Pete (Ian Keith) 
They had a headlining vaudeville act and traveled the country. Zeena and Pete had a secret code that they used between them Pete was able to pass relevant info to Zeena. However Zeena was quite the beauty and attracted men. Zeena's flirting with them drove Pete to hit the bottle hard. The act deteriorated due to Pete's alcoholism to what it was now, a sort of simple switcheroo.
Stan collected the audiences questions which they wrote on note paper. The pieces of note paper that Stan collected were then placed in a bowl with an open bottom This hole fed them to Pete sitting under the table where Zeena performed. To the audience it appeared that the collected notes were still in the bowl which Stan then set a fire with wood alcohol. Pete would read the notes and write the questions on a chalkboard. When Zeena looked down at her crystal ball she could see what Pete had written on the chalkboard. The info would astound the audience.
At an incident where a county sheriff is about to close down the carnival Stan beautifully cons the sheriff by quoting scripture and giving the sheriff a cold reading. Stan talks him into letting the show go on.
Molly: You ought to have heard Stan spout the gospel to that old hypocrite. It was like being in Sunday school.
Zeena Krumbein: You must have been raised pretty religious.
Stanton Carlisle: Yeah, in a county orphanage.
Molly: Didn't you have any folks?
Stanton Carlisle: If I did, they weren't much interested.
Zeena Krumbein: Where'd you learn all this gospel?
Stanton Carlisle: In the orphanage. That's what they used to give us on Sunday after beating us black-and-blue all week. Then when I ran away, they threw me in the reform school. But that's where I got wise to myself. I let the chaplain save me, and got a parole in no time. Boy, how I went for salvation! Comes in kind of handy when you're in a jam. Many's a judge I've talked right out of his shirt.
Stan begins to get chummy with Zeena and Pete. Zeena tells him about their stories of past glories and she also reveals that there are many showbiz acts still wanting to buy the code. Zeena is sort of holding on to it as Zeena and Pete's piggy bank. After Stan accidentally gives Pete a bottle of wood alcohol and he drinks it and dies, Zeena to keep her act going starts teaching Stan the code.
Molly (Coleen Gray) While all this has been going on Stan has been romancing Molly (Coleen Gray) the electric girl. When the two become an item the carnies find out about it they force them to marry.
Stan and Molly leave the carnival and use the code to start their own act, "the Great Stanton." Molly works the crowd while Stan plays the mentalist. They are a hit working Chicago nightclubs.
It all starts to go Noirsville when Stan gets conned by a bigger con psychologist Lilith Ritter (Helen Walker) into working the Spook Racket.
Lilith Ritter (Helen Walker) 
Stanton Carlisle: "The Spook Racket, I was made for it!"
Lilith has made secret recordings of all of her sessions and has a treasure trove of personal information on many wealthy patients that can be used by Stan in pretending to communicate with their dearly departed. The big fish, Ezra Grindle, is guilt ridden over the death of his college sweetheart Dorrie.
She died of complications during a back alley abortion that Grindle wanted her to have. Stan plays on that guilt by bringing the spirit of Dorrie to Grindle in a series of seances. When the final seance goes bad unexpectedly it sends Stan and Molly on the run.
Dorrie Noirsville
Electra/Molly () 
Ezra Grindle (Taylor Holmes) 
Tyrone Power played against type. I wonder if audiences reacted back then the same way as my friends and I did when, as kids, we watched arch Western villain Lee Van Cleef emerge as the good guy in Leone's For A Few Dollars More, or gasped when we saw Henry Fonda as a child killer in Once Upon A Time In The West.
It's fascinating to watch Power's evangelistic like performance, he's in top form, and you marvel at how there is not much difference in the lingo, speech cadences, and **** between the two (siratulists and evangelists). There must be a reason "con" is a part of the word congregation. Power sells his part with zeal.
The Legion of Decency and Motion Picture Production Code combating objectionable content in motion pictures of course mandated that a horrendous avengement will be the inevitable repercussion for those who would mockingly attempt to play God, however notice that quack psychologist Lilith Ritter gets away scot free. Just like in today's world some televangelists, doctors, and now billionaires if they belong to one particular tribe seem to be above the law.
Joan Blondell as carny mentalist Zeena Krumbein is convincing as the reflective sideshow performer and caretaker for Ian Keith her drunkard once top billed headliner husband. Keith's performance is also quite compelling. Coleen Gray as Molly, plays a waifish sideshow attraction billed as "Electra," who Stan woos on the side while cosying up to Zeena. Mike Mazurki is strongman act Bruno, he runs around sporting a blond pompadour and a leopard skin costume. Helen Walker is phoney psychiatrist Lilith Ritter she plays Ritter cold and heartless. Taylor Holmes plays a wealthy industrialist Ezra Grindel who is duped into thinking he's communicating with a long lost love from beyond the grave.
It's interesting to note that the novel is quite vividly lurid and a bit salacious.
<spoilers>
For example in the film Stan convinces Molly to impersonate Ezra's lost love Dorrie. They do this in a darkened grove on Ezra's estate. Stan is with Ezra. They are gazing down two parallel rows of trees towards a distant fountain. Molly appears wearing a glowing costume of turn of the century clothing complete with floradora hat and a parasol. Ezra is beside himself with joy. When Molly gets closer to Ezra, he begins to lose control spouting religious phrases that makes her feel sacrilegious and it freaks Molly out. She breaks character, and tells Stan that she can't do it. Outraged, Ezra grabs at Stan. Stan punches him and Molly and Stan escape.
In the novel....
First edition 1946 l book jacket 
1949 paperback cover
it goes down like this.....
When night had come there was a tap on the door and Carlisle entered carrying in both hands a votive candle in a cup of red ruby glass. "lets go to the chapel."
Grindle had never seen that room before.... the entire room was hung in folds of dark drapery. If there were any windows they were covered.
The clergyman led his disciple to the divian; taking his hand he pressed him back against the cushions. "You are at peace. Rest, rest."
Grindle felt foggy and vague. The bowl of jasmine tea which he had been given for supper had seemed bitter. Now his head was swimming lightly and reality retreated to arm's length.....
Carlisle was chanting something which sounded like Sanskrit, then a brief prayer in English which reminded Grindle of the marriage service; but somehow the words refused to fit together in his mind.....
They waited.
From far away, from hundreds of miles it seemed came the sound of wind, a great rushing wind or the beating of giant wings. Then it died and there arose the soft tinkling notes of a sitar.....
Ghostly music began again. From the curtains before the alcove a light flashed, then a sinuous coil of glowing vapor poured from between them, lying in a pool of mist close to the floor. It swelled and seemed to foam from the cabinet in a cascade....
The pool of luminous matter began to take form. It swayed as a cocoon might sway from a moth's emerging. It became a cocoon holding something dark in it's center. Then it split and drew back toward the cabinet, revealing the form of a girl, lying on a bed of light, but illuminated only by the stuff around her. She was naked, her head resting on one bent arm.
Grindle sank to his knees. "Dorrie-Dorrie-"
She opened her eyes, sat up and then rose, modestly drawing a film of glowing mist over her body. The old man groped forward awkwardly, reaching up to her. As he drew near, the luminous cloud fell back and vanished. The girl stood white and tall, in the flicker of the votive candle across the room, and as she gazed down at him her hair fell over her face.
"Dorrie-my pet-my honey love-my bride..."
He picked her up in his arms, overjoyed at the complete materialization, at the lifelike smoothness of her body-she was so heartbreakingly earthly.
Inside the cabinet the Re. Carlisle was busy packing yards of luminous-painted China silk back into the hem of the curtains. Once he put his eye to the opening and his lips drew back over his teeth. Why did people look so filthy and ridiculous to anyone watching? Christ!
The second time in his life he had seen it. Filth.
The bride and bridegroom were motionless now.
It was up to Molly to break away and get back to the cabinet. Stan turned the switch and the rhythmic, pounding heartbeat filled the room, growing louder. He tossed one end of the luminous silk through the curtains.
The quiet forms on the divan stirred, and Stan could see the big man burrowing his face between Molly's breasts. "no-Dorrie-my own, my precious-I can't let you go! Take me with you, Dorrie-I don't want earth life without you..."
She struggled out of his arms; but the bridegroom seized her around the waste, rubbing his forehead against her belly.
Stan grabbed the aluminum trumpet. "Ezra-my beloved disciple-have courage. he must return to us. The force is growing weaker. In the city-"
No! Dorrie-I must-I-once more..."
This time another voice answered him. It was not a spiritual voice. It was the voice of a panicky showgirl who has more than she can handle. "Hey, quit it, for God's sake! Stan! Stan! Stan!
Oh the dumb ****!
The Rev. Carlisle tore the curtains apart. Molly was twisting and kicking; the old man was like one possessed. In his pent-up soul the dam had broken, and the sedative Stan had loaded into his tea had worn off.
Grindle clutch the squirming girl until she was jerked from his hands.
"Stan! For God's sake get me out of here! Get me out!"
Grindle stood paralyzed. For in the dim flickering light he saw the face of his spiritual mentor, the Rev. Stanton Carlisle, it was snarling. Then a fist came up and landed on the chin of the spirit bride. She dropped to the floor, knees gaping obscenely.
Now the hideous face was shouting at Grindle himself. "You goddamned hypocrite! Forgiveness? All you wanted was a girl!" Knuckles smashed his cheekbone and Grindle bounced back on the divian.
Screencaps are from a TCM streamer. 10/10 Full review with more screencaps at Noirsville
McGraw Final Carnival Owner: Wait. I just happened to think of something. I might have a job you can take a crack at. Course it isn't much and I'm not begging you to take it, but it's a job.
Stanton Carlisle: That's all I want.
McGraw Final Carnival Owner: And we'll keep you in coffee and cake. Bottle every day, place to sleep it off in. What do you say? Anyway, it's only temporary, just until we can get a real geek.
Stanton Carlisle Geek?
McGraw Final Carnival Owner: You know what a geek is, don't you?
Stanton Carlisle Yeah. Sure, I... I know what a geek is.
McGraw Final Carnival Owner: Do you think you can handle it?
Stanton Carlisle: Mister, I was made for it.
"I was made for it! -
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20 minutes ago, misswonderly3 said:
i don't know about that, Hoganman. Not to be disagreeable, but all three of the movies you name are about Mafia gangsters. There was no Mafia involvement in Asphalt Jungle.
I see the two films (and also The Sopranos) as being stories about the Mafia in American, the lifestyle, the values, the power plays. Asphalt Jungle had a much smaller story (albeit a really good one) - just about some guys, not even really connected to each other (unlike the characters in The Godfather, Goodfellas, and The Sopranos) until "Cobby" brings them together, under the leadership of "Doc" (Sam Jaffe). In fact, I don't think any of them were even Italian (well, Italian-American.)
It's a classic "heist" movie- much different from Scorsese's Mafia stories and the great TV series from David Chase.
Agree. It's like a pickup baseball team.
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22 hours ago, LornaHansonForbes said:
I might just have to pay the three bucks to rent it on Amazon prime.
Cheaper that going to a cineplex to watch crap.....
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33 minutes ago, Looney said:
chiefly why do people like Dix so much. Why Gus sticks his neck out for him so much? Why does Riedenschneider take such a liking to Dix? My point is that what we learn about Dix is that he bullies and robs people just to get enough money to gamble. Nothing seem particularly intelligent about him. What is there redeeming about him?
I think because he comes off as a square shooter among thieves, he's not going to "bone" his friends, basically there is some "honor among thieves."
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32 minutes ago, Looney said:
The house looking part is just the back of the nightclub.
That's sort of what I remembered about it.
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1 hour ago, LawrenceA said:
Lorna (1964) - 6/10
Influential exploitation from director Russ Meyer. Lorna (Lorna Maitland) is married to nice but dull salt miner Jim (James Rucker). He's never satisfied her sexually, and she's grown bored in their marriage and meager existence. One day an escaped convict (Mark Bradley) rapes her, giving her a sexual thrill, so she invites him home. Things get worse from there. Also featuring Hal Hopper, Doc Scortt, Althea Currier, Fred Owens, Frank Bolger, and James Griffith as "The Man of God". This perfect example of grindhouse fare taps into the rural appeal genre, the nudie market and the nascent "roughie" subgenre. The movie begins with a rape and vicious beating which is never brought to justice. The closest we get is the culprit apologizing to a different character for being such a slimeball. Lorna Maitland appears nude a few times, always quickly and positively chaste by the standards of a just a few years later. James Griffith, who also wrote the script as well as playing the fire-and-brimstone preacher, was a longtime character actor with over 200 screen credits. He also wrote the later Russ Meyer flick Motorpsycho, as well as the westerns Shalako and Catlow.
Source: internet
It's also quite noir-ish I gave it a 6/10 also, check out the screen caps at Noirsville Lorna.
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On 5/31/2019 at 9:18 AM, TikiSoo said:
So much negativity around Eddie Muller
What negativity?
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1 hour ago, LawrenceA said:
Kiss Me, Stupid (1964) - 6/10
Sex comedy from writer-director Billy Wilder. Dean Martin stars as Dino, a Vegas singer and comedian who heads to Hollywood to make his next picture. His ends up in the small town of Climax where his car "breaks down", leading him to stay at the home of local piano teacher and aspiring songwriter Orville (Ray Walston), who hopes to get Dino buy some of his songs. The only problem is that Dino wants a woman for the night, and the insanely jealous Orville is afraid he'll target Orville's wife Zelda (Felicia Farr). So Orville arranges for the real Zelda to be gone, and hires local cocktail waitress Polly (Kim Novak) to pose as her and take the brunt of Dino's charge. Also featuring Cliff Osmond, Barbara Pepper, Skip Ward, John Fiedler, Howard McNear, Henry Gibson, and Mel Blanc.
This was highly controversial upon release, condemned by the Catholic Legion of Decency, and lambasted in the press as smutty and prurient. Even Barbara Stanwyck made public condemnations of the film. Now of course it doesn't come across as anything more than a typical primetime sitcom, and even tame by those standards. I wasn't too fond of Walston, although I learned that he was a late replacement for Peter Sellers, who suffered a series of heart attacks after filming began. In fact, the main cast was originally supposed to be Frank Sinatra, Marilyn Monroe, and Shirley MacLaine in the Martin, Farr, and Novak roles, respectively. Dean Martin's exaggerated spoof of his own persona seems to have been a forerunner of later "meta" self-parodies like Being John Malkovich, Topher Grace in the Ocean's movies, or the entirety of This Is the End.
Source: TCM
I consider it a very Noir-ish comedy, Wilder and cinematographer Joseph LaShelle are almost spoofing the Noir stylistics, pay attention to all the Venetian blind shadows when Orville is going through his jealousy hysterics. Doing the finishing touches on a piece for Noirsville about it. I'll publish the link when it's done. 😎
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David Lynch Receiving Honorary Oscar
in General Discussions
Posted
I read that also somewhere. I'd never heard of it of course being familiar with the other, and I supposed seeing as how Lynch was born in Missoula, MT., and moved around said Inland Empire of the North between the Cascades and The Rockies with his family, I thought that, that was where it would be set.