JamesJazGuitar
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Posts posted by JamesJazGuitar
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Sophie MacDonald - The Razor's Edge (1946).
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18 hours ago, mabelnormand1930 said:
TikiSoo I'm new here and was unaware someone had already mentioned Sal Mineo. Is there a rule saying you can't post about someone twice?
Of course not. That is just one of her pet-peeves.
Welcome to the site.
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20 hours ago, Aritosthenes said:
Madam Jane Greer & Richard Widmark ..
Uh, there were in two films together: Run for the Sun (1956) and Against All Odds (1984).
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2 hours ago, AndreaDoria said:
I'm looking forward to "The Picture of Dorian Gray" at six. I remember when Sally Field was the guest, she said she thought Hurd Hatfield's rather wooden performance was awful, but I kind of like it that way, and I absolutely love Angela Lansbury in this. Dorian's treatment of her is one of the most emotionally brutal things I've ever seen.
"Pillow Talk" will be a nice refreshment afterwards. Tony Randall and Doris in the diner? Hilarious.
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.
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18 hours ago, Thompson said:
Katherine Hepburn was never in a film noir thank goodness.
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).
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1 hour ago, LornaHansonForbes said:
I was going SUPER OLD SCHOOL and thinking of RAYMOND BURR'S AGRESSIVE SHOW-BOATING DISTRICT ATTORNEY in A PLACE IN THE SUN,L predating his switch to the Defense as PERRY MASON.
i can understand the confusion though.
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.
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12 minutes ago, LornaHansonForbes said:
also,l SPOILERS, although at this point, I THINK we all know the ending to NIGHT MUST FALL...
a right-regular MADAME DeFARGE she is
does anyone want to talk about how, let's face it, SENSIBLE SHOES and MR. MOTO GLASSES aside, ROZ RUSSELL is pretty obviously guilty of aiding and abetting, maybe even a lesser manslaughter plea?
I mean SHE LIES ABOUT THE HATBOX TO THE POLICE and then SHE LEAVES THE (admittedly hateful) OLD LADY ALONE WITH THE KILLER overnight WHEN YOU KNOW SHE KNOWS he's a KILLER.
She wants it to happen.
I'm tellin you, ROZ was lucky RAYMOND BURR didn't show up at the end of this or she would've FRIED.
Mason would have gotten Roz off. (but I agree with your overall point).
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2 hours ago, The Great Gildersleeve said:
Ok, I was fuzzy on genre vs theme. So, say Born Yesterday has a genre that looks noir, but it isn’t because of the theme?
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).
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53 minutes ago, TomJH said:
Who the hell wants to be in a film class in which the "teacher" cuts off the ending of a film because it doesn't meet his approval? Isn't it up to the students to discuss the ending and decide for themselves?
You make more and more bogus assumption.
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On 4/19/2021 at 2:50 PM, The Great Gildersleeve said:
How do I change my picture? Avatar?
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.
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1 hour ago, txfilmfan said:
Also college/university film clubs.
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!
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1 hour ago, slaytonf said:
Looks like all movies from all times are film noir.
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.
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5 hours ago, Thompson said:
It’s fairly easy to spot an actor / actress who is not a smoker. Bogart is the king because he can roll them just right too. Bette Davis certainly ranks way up there. Peter Lorre is a good smoker.
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.
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13 hours ago, hamradio said:
Should leave this classic alone, tackle something that haven't been done before.
They are. No one is messing with the 1939 film.
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18 hours ago, cigarjoe said:
Agree, the film has some nice cinematography, however the train wreck premise that the whole tale revolves around was bogus and pretty much all baloney. Hollywood license.
Both the director Irving Reis and one of the screenwriters Ben Bengal were born and raised in New York City. They knew better and apparently didn't speak up or didn't really care, and any New Yorker who commutes by train will know immediately the glaring mistake. The New York Central RR from 1906, The Pennsylvania RR and Long Island RR from 1910 , and the New Haven RR from 1907 on were all electrified. So the train wreck that Pat O'Brien thinks he experienced and when he hears the train at the end when he's in that apartment along upper Park Ave. should not have had a steam locomotive sound, lol. All the trains coming into and out of New York City would, aside from an electrical hum and the clickety-clack be almost silent save for a blast from an air horn.
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.
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3 hours ago, cigarjoe said:
I look at it as a "gateway" noir, I Wake Up Screaming 😎
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!
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1 hour ago, Dommy said:
Torrid Zone when Helen Vinson says to James Cagney that he stood down to her level and Ann Sheridan replies that's still 3 floors above you.
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).
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1 hour ago, cinemaspeak59 said:
I Wake Up Screaming (1941) is very stylized. Victor Mature conveys vulnerability and doubt that cut against the confident, macho facade. Laird Cregar I found to be well cast. There was a vagueness to his character, even his sexuality. His fellow police officers knew he was deeply troubled. Betty Grable, famous for her work in Technicolor musicals, also looks great in black & white. Her character was still the same: the wholesome, uncomplicated girl-next-door. This type of screen persona can be cloying, but Grable makes it endearing. 20th Century Fox made some great noirs, and this is one of them. Even the overuse of the “Over the Rainbow” score doesn’t take away from the film.
Well said; I'm a big fan of IWUS, an early noir film that helped set the stage for future films with similar themes.
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Night Must Fall (1937). Robert Montgomery's best performance.
in General Discussions
Posted
Same here; I was really into them, so thanks for the info about how to get them via the Internet.