ElCid

No. Ironically Out of the Past is not one of my favorites. Although it is very good and I can understand why so many think of it as the classic Noir movie.

Mine would be The Big Steal (1949) with Jane Greer and William Bendix. His Kind of Woman is probably second, but the ending fight sequence is a little too long for me. Farewell My Lovely ranks up there. Others: Thunder Road; El Dorado; Holiday Affair; Macao; Out of the Past; The Grass is Greener; Cape Fear; The Wonderful Country. The problem is that there are just too many roles that he did so well.

Just watched Strange on the Third Floor. Boring. Had to force myself to watch it. Not very well crafted and too many gimmicks. Not the least of which is the heroine finding Peter Lorre and then him confessing just as he dies. Not my idea of Noir.

Out of the Past is on Tuesday, Sep 18 at 11:15 AM. Actually several good movies on which may not be Noir, but may satisfy your "mystery" needs.

On the 18th, there is also the classic Out of The Past. So a good comparison can be made between Stranager and Out of the Past.

Sep 18, Tuesday, 6:15 AM: The Gay Falcon. First of the Falcon movies(?). Definitely first with George Sanders, Wendy Barrie, Edward S. Brophy. Not the best, but a good one. Incidentally Gay is his first name, as in Gay Lawrence. At 10:00 AM, The Seventh Victim with Tom Conway who later takes over as the Falcon. Conway and Sanders were brothers.

Thanks for concern. Dodged the bullet in northwestern SC. Only got 1/2 inch of rain and some wind, but not enough to knock down trees & power lines. Appears N.C. and eastern S.C. are getting the brunt of the storm. Main concern for eastern NC and SC will be flooding as the rivers begin to rise.

Have seen Angel Face and Where Danger Lives (actually recorded both to DVD). But don't watch either that often. Big fan of Robert Mitchum, but somehow these movies just don't come together for me. Interesting that Faith Domergue (WDL)was another one of Howard Hughes' "protegees." Wonder what backstory Eddie Muller would have on her and Hughes. As for top 5 femme fatales, always have a problem with rankings such as this. Just too many variables to limit it or to even try to rank. Also, if I have ever seen Decoy, I don't remember it. Looked it up and not familiar at all.

Angel Face. I actually recorded it to DVD several years ago, but haven't watched it since. Mitchum and Simmons are good, as are the other cast members. Screenplay is not bad. But somehow it just does not click with me all that much. Watched it primarily for Eddie's intro and outro. The intro got me hooked into watching it again. I liked Eddie's description of Mitchum's acting style and how it was misunderstood and criticized at the time. Forgot the exact expression. Others called it sleep walking through roles or something? We would now term it easy going or laid back or something. It does fit him though and it was a very effective acting manner. Spoiler for Eddie's comments: Jean Simmons wears wigs because she cut her hair off before filming began. Howard Hughes kept harassing her about it so she just cut it off. Also Mitchum slapping Preminger and then telling him to back off his ill-treatment of Simmons. The whole Hughes-Simmons (any woman) scenario is really interesting.

It is on Sat at Midnight and then repeats at 10 AM on Sunday. Same showing both times.

Our local paper used to have a comment feature for its online version. It would not let you type in Dick Cheney. At one time this site would not either, so we will see what happens hear. Who ever heard of Richard Cheney? Not to mention his ties. I have one like ones he wears that my father wore when he was a young sport in the 30's. All of my VCR tapes eventually deteriorated. Also, even a good video tape pales in comparison to a DVD. I have a DVD/VCR recorder and the tapes I used for recording have deteriorated. Since I can record DVD-RW discs I do not DVR. If gets to point where I can't or DVD recorder dies, guess I'll have to learn to DVR-and pay Spectrum for the privilege.

Ada (1961) is on Thursday at 6:00 AM, part of Dean Martin day on Wednesday. This is a fairly good political movie, especially at this time of year. Susan Hayward costars and the movie is about her. Murder on A Honeymoon came on at 9:15 this morning. Probably the best of the Edna Mae Oliver Hildegarde Winters movies.

A lot of what TCM airs are B pictures. As for Noir Alley, I think that Noir and B go together in many cases. Muller is probably trying to show a variety and ones not often shown as regular presentations. There probably are not that many Noir movies to which TCM has access that would be classified as A. Cigarjoe's list shows there has been a good variety and overall quality. A list from before 2018 would probably show several A pictures.

As I understand it, there were only two types of movies - A and B. A was the main feature and the B was the second feature. It was not a grade type thing.

I believe the original discussion on this forum indicated most (if not all) subscribers were willing to pay more. I know I was. But that was never an option. There may have been more to it than just cost. Personally I would have been happy with a printed schedule of upcoming movies, specials, shorts, etc. with just a brief description without anything else. I could live with out the articles, puzzles, and so forth.

When the whole issue of cancelling the print edition came up, I wrote a letter to the CEO of TCM. No response at all which really disappointed me. I don't think current management knows what a book or magazine or newspaper is. As for polling, who would they poll? I imagine the vast majority of TCM viewers are not anywhere on this website. They could do ads on the channel with a number to call, but not sure that would work. Regardless, the printed edition is not coming back. Took me several attempts, but I finally got signed up for the email version. Not very worthwhile. I usually open it to see what the first pages announce, but have never looked at the schedules. Now, I use the schedule provisions of Spectrum on screen guides. Or when I am on this site, I click on the schedule link and check the next couple of days - if I remember to. I refuse to print out the schedule (tried it initially). Wastes way too much paper and ink. One advantage to the printed guide was that I used it to make notes about shows on other networks to watch. First thing in the AM I would turn on the TV and pick up the printed TCM guide. Having previously reviewed it, I had highlighted what I wanted to watch or record. Incidentally, Fox Movie Channel shows older movies from about 3:00 AM till 3:00 PM without commercials. But as Lawrence said, they repeat the heck out of them. Almost like a daily or every other day loop for weeks and then the change it for a while.

I think it was one of those decorating or lighting styles of the period. The light was supposed to bounce off the ceiling instead of being directed downward. In this case, they probably would have lit the floor rather than the room if pointed down. I still see floor lamps where the light is pointed to ceiling.

A couple of Kino Lorber Studio DVD's. Highway Dragnet (1954) with Richard Conte and Joan Bennett. He is wrongly accused of crime and "kidnaps" Bennett and her model to escape using their car. Interesting, but Bennett is not really that good in it, compared to her other performances. Wanda Hendrix is much better. I Walk Alone (1947) with Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas and Lizabeth Scott. All do a very good job and the script and direction is good as well. Classic Film Noir. I'm sure these have been around a while, but KL seems to be releasing a lot of movies in Blu-Ray now and probably reprinting the DVD versions.

Saw this many, many years ago on late night TV (pre-cable). Vaguely remember it, but mostly for Martin Milner in a scene near the end. Malone is saying something about much she has changed or lost and he says we all have. Takes his hat off to show his bald head.

While there were a lot of plot holes in Desperate, it would have taken a three hour movie to cover them. However, it was meant to be a "B" movie of about one hour length. Within those constraints, it did a very good job of having a reasonable plot and lots of action. It actually moved along very well and didn't drag. As noted above, you just have to assume certain things happened. I was very familiar with Raymond Burr as Perry Mason long before I became acquainted with his bad guy roles (thanks to TCM). Have PM on DVD and watch episodes frequently. Sometimes amazed that Burr could do both PM and bad guys so well.

Desperate tonight/tomorrow. Seen it and recall it, but not that well.

A good movie to show during the Memorial Day Marathon, but TCM won't do it. TCM prefers to show blood and guts, glory WW II type movies rather than more analytical ones that show how we got into some wars.

Not sure it is the setting or in comparison to Bogie's as much as just not a very good movie.

Farewell My Lovely and Murder My Sweet were preceded by another movie based on the novel. The Falcon Takes Over (1942).

Have wondered about this for a long time, but guess all three with large roles in one movie would have been too much for Hollywood.