kingrat

Having just seen Cry of the City, I have to include Hope Emerson, who definitely has a jolting impact!

Lawrence, I've only seen the version of Once Upon a Time in the West which was originally released in this country. I understand that there is a director's cut version which is longer and said to be superior. Is this the version you're referring to? I remember liking the film, especially certain elements of it, but finding it long. The longer, more complete version might be more satisfying if now all the parts of the film come together better.

There is, or used to be, a special Criterion release of The Furies which includes the novel by Niven Busch. At least I think it was Criterion. So many scenes from this film remain vividly in my mind, including a scene between Barbara Stanwyck and Judith Anderson (no spoilers) and the beautiful scene between Stanwyck and Gilbert Roland.

Agreed! Giving an elaborate Freudian or PTSD explanation for the Basehart character would only detract from his actions. What we see is all we need to see for this film.

The Lady from Shanghai is a good film to see on the big screen because you get to enjoy the great sequences of the film that way. However, Joe's objections seem valid to me. About Glenn Anders, whom one cannot believe is a high-powered lawyer in a big city (I've met quite a few): many of Welles' films have at least one supporting performance which is hammed up, and it usually involves a weird voice: Dennis Weaver's scenes in Touch of Evil are unwatchable for me; Dorothy Comingore is over the top in Citizen Kane; so is Akim Tamiroff in Mr. Arkadin; so is the actor who plays the elderly Justice Shallow in Chimes at Midnight. Welles clearly likes this kind of performance and encourages it. I love the idea of showing several noir films from 1948. I taped Cry of the City and watched He Walked by Night, which had an outstanding print. The climactic chase through the sewer showed off the artistry of John Alton's cinematography and Anthony Mann's direction (although Alfred Werker gets the directing credit, Mann apparently directed most of the film, and it looks like his work). Richard Basehart doesn't have much dialogue, but he conveys the twisted character of the criminal exceptionally well. Just as Address Unknown doesn't show the development of the Paul Lukas character into becoming a Nazi, He Walked by Night doesn't look for incidents or motivations to explain the Basehart character. Basehart has the good looks of a leading man, but he usually plays offbeat characters.

And I can't believe I forgot The Furies, definitely one of my favorites.

I can't believe I left out Hombre. Definitely one of my favorite westerns. Diane Cilento is so great in this film, and there are lot of other fine performances, too.

Rather than repeat some of the fine films like The Searchers, High Noon, Shane, My Darling Clementine, Stagecoach, and 3:10 to Yuma, I'll pick 15 worthy films not yet mentioned: 1. Day of the Outlaw 2. Ride Lonesome 3. The Naked Spur 4. Warlock 5. The Ox-Bow Incident 6. Man of the West 7. The Big Sky 8. The Big Country 9. Westward the Women 10. Vera Cruz 11. Gunfight at the O.K. Corral 12. The Hanging Tree 13. Silver River 14. Devil's Doorway 15. The Left-Handed Gun

Seeing K.T. Stevens in Address Unknown reminded me that she is perhaps best known for playing Vanessa Prentiss, the veiled lady, on The Young and the Restless back in the 1970s. Vanessa's face had been scarred in a fire, so she wore a veil. This rich and very demanding mother had two sons, Lance (John McCook), who was her favorite, and Lucas (Tom Ligon). She wanted Lance to marry the shy concert pianist Leslie Brooks (Janice Lynde, later Victoria Mallory) and hated it when instead he got involved with Leslie's trampy sister Laurie (Jaime Lyn Bauer). When Vanessa learned she had a fatal illness, she decided to kill herself, framing Laurie for the murder.

For late Monday night, I like Till the End of Time. Solid script and direction, Guy Madison is stunningly handsome, and Robert Mitchum is excellent as the buddy with PTSD.

Mercy, Lorna, that wig on Sarah Miles is too much. And yes, Faye does look younger.

The recent Noir Alley feature, Address Unknown: "And introducing K.T. Stevens"

Yes, he was.

The excellence of Isabel Jewell as the seamstress in the 1930s version of A Tale of Two Cities has been mentioned. Marie Versini, who plays the same role in the 1950s version, is equally outstanding. Blanche Yurka is scary, as usual, as Madame Defarge in the 1930s version, but that may be too large a part for this thread, so I'll mention her smaller role as Gilbert Roland's mother in The Furies. The thought of having her as a mother or mother-in-law is a really scary thought.

Agreed on both counts, Lawrence. J.R. Jones' book on Robert Ryan is highly recommended to fans of this outstanding actor who seems to have been a pretty solid guy in real life, too.

New York in the 70s could be a scary place. I'm thinking of real life now, not just the movies. Fear of getting mugged or worse was a given of daily life. Neil Simon tries to make a comedy out of this in The Prisoner of Second Avenue, but to me it's not actually very funny.

For Tuesday, I want to see Address Unknown, a rarely aired anti-Nazi film. I've heard it mentioned alongside None Shall Escape, which I liked a lot, so I'll give it a try.

Yes, Eddie worked on Tab Hunter Confidential, which is excellent.

1920s: The Cameraman (or just about any other Buster Keaton film) 1930s: Duck Soup or any other Marx Brothers film 1940s: His Girl Friday, or a Preston Sturges film (The Lady Eve, The Palm Beach Story) or Hope/Crosby or Murder He Says 1950s: Some Like It Hot 1960s: The Music Man or A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (these are musical comedies) 1970s: Foul Play 1980s: Life of Brian

If we extend "comedy" to include "romantic comedy," the characters played by John Travolta and Debra Winger in Urban Cowboy behave in such stupid ways that they utterly deserve each other. About those Stooges: in general, men seem to respond more favorably to the Stooges than women do.

Agatha Christie turned Appointment With Death into a play, and in the play she changed the murderer, so the question with any filmed version is whether it will follow the book or the play. I believe the paralytic drug is an invention of the screenwriter for the Suchet version and not in either book or play, though I would have to check to be sure. I vaguely remember Ordeal by Innocence with Faye Dunaway as the murder victim. Faye also starred in a version of Thirteen at Dinner/Lord Edgware Dies.

Gallico also wrote a best-selling novel called Mrs. 'Arris Goes to Paris about a Cockney charwoman who gets the opportunity to go to Paris. IIRC, this became a TV movie starring Angela Lansbury.

(As to why I'm not generally a fan of 1970s films): The short answer would include such things as 1) I dislike the Sepia Sludge look of many 1970s films, in which brown-yellow-green is so dominant a palette than blue and red almost disappear; 2) Almost all of the official classics of the 1970s seem overrated to me, with a few exceptions like Badlands, Chinatown, and Dog Day Afternoon; 3) Many of the official classics are sluggishly paced (Coppola and Cimino are among the offenders here); 4) The sour fondness for downbeat endings is no more realistic than the happy endings of many classic films; 5) Although I admire the craft of Scorsese and his team, I feel no emotional connection to most of his films (Hugo is the major exception). That's probably more than enough for starters. For the discussion of 1968 and 1969 music: 1968 also includes Joni Mitchell's first album Song to a Seagull and 1969 includes her second, Clouds.

I love Touchez pas au grisbi. On first viewing I was expecting more of an action crime film, but the second time through the character study clicked in and the film just worked from beginning to end. Where did you see Un temoin dans la ville (A Witness in the City)? I'd like to see that one.

Although you can't go wrong watching any of the Kurosawa/ Toshiro Mifune films, I'd like to put in a special plug for Stray Dog, especially for lovers of film noir. Cop and criminal are both veterans of the war that Japan just lost. The culture is in crisis. If you notice the variety of music in the film, that's another indication of how the victors are influencing the culture of the vanquished.