JamesJazGuitar

Same here; I was really into them, so thanks for the info about how to get them via the Internet.

Sophie MacDonald - The Razor's Edge (1946).

Of course not. That is just one of her pet-peeves. Welcome to the site.

Uh, there were in two films together: Run for the Sun (1956) and Against All Odds (1984).

I saw that Sally Field interview and I agree with you: Sally was mistaken. Note that I just finished reading the book (part of my; read all the books I have collected but never read Covid-19 pastime!), and to me the Hatfield's underplaying is similar to how Wilde describes the character. The character is asexual\bisexual and such a film performance commutates that within the limits of the code. E.g. in the book the painter clearly is in love with Dorian.

Note true; I guess you haven't seen Undercurrent (1946), produced by MGM. It stars Hepburn, and two Roberts - Taylor and Mitchum. The films is only OK, mainly because of the misguided casting of Taylor and Mitchum (if their roles were reversed it might have been much better).

Uh, old-school Raymond Burr; as you know he was a very bad and evil boy in many noirs before he took on the Mason role. The DA in A Place In the Sun was one of his few on-the-side-of-the-law roles. Thus if Burr was in Night Must Fall he would have been Montgomery's accomplish.

Mason would have gotten Roz off. (but I agree with your overall point).

I try to avoid the binary classification of if a film is "noir" or not, but instead look at this question in the terms of degrees: what elements in the film say noir to me and, if I was writing a book called Film Noir (where one is limited to how many films one can discuss), does the film have enough of these elements where I would included it in the book. The most basic elements are themes and visuals. Of course each of these elements have sub-elements and so on. As for Born Yesterday: I find there are some noir related themes in the film; political corruption, crime, threats of violence (if not murder), a decent individual who, due to self interest, finds themselves trapped with said criminals and crimes, etc... But since these are done mostly for laughs the use of said themes doesn't make the film "noir" for me. As for the visual; I don't see any noir type visuals in the film; e.g. the use of shadows to create a dark atmosphere. If one is looking for a noir type comedy (or a comedy with noir elements), I recommend Unfaithfully Yours (1948).

You make more and more bogus assumption.

Go to the top right and hover over your username; there will be a drop down; select Profile. From there you can change your avatar photo.

I assume the creator of this thread when mentions "Americans" related to being inspired, that the refences was to potential contributor to the US film industry; I.e. future screen writers, directors, producers,,,,, I assume most of these specific Americans received most of their exposure from college/university film school and their associated clubs. Of course maybe they were just more like me; E.g. my exposure to Japanese films was due to my mom being Japanese, and Italian films due to my wife being Italian. One problem was often the VHS tapes sent to us from these countries from relatives didn't have subtitles!

If one views film noir as having certain themes, as well as a visual style (like I do), instead of a genre, then there have been films from all eras that used said themes, as well as visual style.

Bogart and Lorre and their love of smoking became an issue with Jack Warner while John Huston was directing his first film, The Maltese Falcon. There is an inordinate amount of smoking done by the main actors in this film. According to then-studio employee (and future screenwriter) Stuart Jerome, this resulted in a feud between studio head Jack L. Warner and stars Humphrey Bogart and Peter Lorre. Warner hated to see actors smoking on the screen, fearing it would prompt smokers in the movie audience to step out into the lobby for a cigarette. During filming he told director John Huston that smoking should be kept to a minimum. Bogart and Lorre thought it would be fun to annoy Warner by smoking as often as possible, and got their co-stars, Mary Astor and Sydney Greenstreet, to go along with the joke. During the initial filming of the climactic confrontation, all four actors smoked heavily. After seeing the rushes, Warner furiously called Huston to his office and threatened to fire him from the picture if he didn't tell Bogart and Lorre to knock it off. Realizing their prank had backfired, Bogart and Lorre agreed to stop smoking on camera. However, when the next series of rushes came back, it was obvious that the "lack" of smoking by the actors was taking away from the sinister mood of the scene. Huston went back to Warner and convinced him that the smoking added the right amount of atmospheric tension to the story, arguing that the characters would indeed smoke cigarettes while waiting nervously for the Maltese Falcon to arrive.

They are. No one is messing with the 1939 film.

Interesting info. I assume Reis and Bengal just didn't care getting the effect they wanted, bogus or not. But since the time period (post WWII \ 1945) was a part of the plot that is rather sloppy. Note that Wallace Ford had a busy post-WWII noir period; in 1946 and 1947 he was in 4 noirs for 4 different studios; Black Angel (Universal), Crack Up (RKO), Dead Reckoning (Columbia), and T-Men (Eagle-Lion). Ford continued to be a feature in some fine noir films, e.g. the last two films Garfield made, The Breaking Point, and He Ran All the Way.

I see that this is a blog you have created. Cool!!! Very nice write up on IWUS. I like the term "gateway noir". I always fine your take on noir films interesting. Keep up the good work!

Torrid Zone is my favorite Ann Sheridan film. She really shines here and almost steals the film from Cagney. Clearly she is his equal. There are so many great wise cracking lines that she delivers in a style that was her own. One low-key crack she makes is when the rebel and her are in jail and the repel is about to be placed before a firing squad. He gives Ann his ring and she says: afraid its going to melt? Torrid Zone is an odd mix of adventure, romance and comedy. I say odd because many people are killed, some in rather brutal ways (e.g. George Reeves, Mr. superman, playing a rebel spy), but it is all in fun. The film is a great example of the Warner Bros. studio system and the use of all the fine talent WB had under contract at the time (1940).

Well said; I'm a big fan of IWUS, an early noir film that helped set the stage for future films with similar themes.