cmovieviewer

Due to a cable system issue I missed recording Noir Alley this week, and there was no On Demand listing later to bail me out - boo! However, after visiting the Noir Alley Facebook page I discovered that there is now a Noir Alley web site - noirally.tcm.com - and you can watch Eddie’s intros for several of the films there - yay! (Look under the “Video Archive” tab. No after-movie clips are included, though.) So I was able to catch the intro for High Wall there this week. Thank you TCM for fully supporting Noir Alley! (movie spoilers ahead) How bleak must things have been in post-war America that the more cynical noir stories seem to have resonated with audiences? Since I am now watching the Noir Alley films on a regular basis, I am somewhat surprised that I find myself depressed by the more negative aspects of many of the stories. In High Wall, for example, we see: - a District Attorney who is hell-bent on convicting a mentally damaged suspect while he’s still healthy enough to stand trial - another scene of a suspect alone in the middle of a group of interrogators trying to convince him to confess - a court-appointed lawyer who is mostly interested in selling the defendant’s story to the tabloids - a psychiatric review board who claims that the patient’s son is in the next room so they can see how he will react Is there any connection between the bleakness of these films and the fact that many of the screenwriters ended up on the Hollywood Black List? Robert Taylor is one of my favorite actors and Audrey Totter is really great in the film - she almost single-handedly pulled me through much of the movie. Poor Herbert Marshall in another slimy villain role. Overall High Wall is well-crafted (do all noir movies have great cinematography?) and I enjoyed seeing how they wrapped things up in the end.

Has anyone received the July issue of Now Playing yet? I'm getting worried that mine was lost in the mail...

I really don't know much about specific trains, but the French film La Bête Humaine (1938) with Jean Gabin shows the operation of the trains in great detail as well as several amazing train yard shots. Another obvious one is The Train (1964) with Burt Lancaster. Both of these films gave me the impression that the filmmakers really did their homework on the operation and maintenance of trains and both had wonderful cinematography as well.

Thanks TomJH for the detailed write up of He Ran All the Way. Since we learned that Shelley Winters was the actress that Robert Osborne famously corrected on the details of her Oscar nominations, other memory failings wouldn’t surprise me. I’m happy to say that TCM posted the film to the On Demand section for my cable service this evening, so I was able to see Eddie’s wrap-up with John Garfield’s daughter Julie, where she confirmed the difficulties in working with Shelley Winters that you mentioned. Since I think the ending of the film works very well as-is, I'm glad they stuck to their vision.

Really enjoyed He Ran All the Way. Did an excellent job of maintaining the suspense throughout, and was both thrilling and tragic. Story did a beautiful job of revealing the complexities of an individual, both the good and the bad, and how one's environment can shape what they become. Garfield's character reminded me a little of the In Cold Blood murderer that Robert Blake portrayed in his famous role. You realize that they're a bad person but your heart breaks at their situation in life. My recording failed for some reason so I have not seen the wrap-up comments yet, but in the intro I appreciated seeing John Garfield's daughter as another fine guest for the Noir Alley series. Hope TCM will post the movie to On Demand so I can catch the ending comments as well.

Photos from the Los Angeles bat-signal ceremony: http://13thdimension.com/photos-l-a-s-batsignal-tribute-to-adam-west/

Did anyone watch Hour of Glory (1949) (aka The Small Back Room) on TCM late Wednesday evening? (spoilers ahead!) I’m not sure I completely understand the dynamic between the main character, Sammy Rice, and his girlfriend Susan. It was clear that Sammy had a chronic pain issue which he could only address through drugs (‘dope’) or drinking. The drinking would only temporarily make him not care about the pain, whereas the drugs had serious psychological side-effects, as was so eloquently demonstrated later on in the film. Susan was well aware of his condition, and at times it seemed like she was encouraging him to take the drugs instead of drinking? They also had a bottle of some type of alcohol that they were supposed to be saving for “V-day.” But Sammy goes on a bender and breaks open the special bottle. Then at the end of the film Susan replaces the bottle with a new one and for the last line of the film says “Have a drink, Sammy” as Sammy realizes that she has come back to him and repaired all the damage he did to the room while drunk. I interpreted this ending to mean that this was sort of a Victory Day for them because Sammy had finally stood up to take control of the science research group and they had restored their relationship, but I’m not sure if I really got everything. There was another scene that I found curious - Susan holds up a newspaper in front of the fireplace, and for a moment you can see all the light from the fire coming through the newspaper. But the newspaper catches on fire so Susan has to throw the paper into the fireplace. Not sure what she was trying to do with the paper in the first place? Powell-Pressburger films are always top class but I was somewhat puzzled at times during this one.

South Sea Sinner looks awesome! But why is Shelley Winters part of The Riddler's gang? (Sorry, with Adam West's passing it was an obvious joke.)

Here is a sample link for the 'Edith Head' mystery books that were mentioned on Sunday's Noir Alley: https://www.amazon.com/gp/bookseries/B01FMJVAS4/ref=dp_st_0765381850 They also have kindle versions if you like digital. I could not find them in the TCM Shop, so I hope the moderators don't mind the semi-plug here. Here's the same bio on the authors from goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/14055036.Renee_Patrick The Keenans were a nice addition to Sunday's show.

Sorry but I too am recording Noir Alley to watch later. One reason is so that I can postpone the possible spoilers in the intros until after I watch the film. Not to mention that I’m not disciplined enough to sit in front of the TV at the same time every Sunday. Sundays are usually a busy day for new shows, so it takes me a day or two to get back to the TCM movie. some spoilers ahead I love the way Phantom Lady looks and the director clearly threw everything he had into it, but the plot holes such as the one misswonderly mentioned kept me from enjoying the film as much as I would have liked. Once they had interviewed multiple witnesses who were consistent in denying that the woman existed, it should have been obvious to everyone that if the accused was telling the truth, the next question to ask is who would benefit by discrediting him, but no one seemed interested in following up on that. Scott Henderson must have had one of the worst defense lawyers ever. I think I’ve seen this in multiple Noir movies now where the police try to ‘sweat’ the suspect. I love the pre-Miranda rights days where the cops and their goons feel free to lean on someone indefinitely assuming they will eventually crack. Do they ever even get the option to talk to a lawyer? I first noticed Ella Raines from a TCM showing of the B picture The Second Face (1950) and was hooked. In Impact (1949), Ella plays another role where she is helping to solve the crime, and it’s one of my favorites. I never expected Eddie to have guests on to talk about fashion in Noir, but the discussion was interesting and fun.

Thanks again for your comments, misswonderly. Enjoy them as always. I was a little surprised at the ending too because I didn't really feel like we had seen anything during the film to convince us that Jeff deserved that fate. I was also disappointed with 'the lie' by The Kid to Anne at the end. How could he really know what Jeff's ultimate plan was anyway? Haven't seen anyone mention yet how great it was for Eddie to host Robert Mitchum's son during the wrappers! Nice behind the scenes perspective on the actor and the movie. Really appreciate Eddie and TCM making it happen.

In the DVD special features I mentioned, there's an interview with Marni Nixon where she implies that the Loverly song was unique in having a version recorded by Audrey. I believe the process they ended up using for the movie was to record the audio for the song first before shooting the scene, so the actors would essentially lip sync to this audio while filming. Marni points out how Loverly was much more difficult for her because she had to 'loop in' her voice for the song after the scene with Audrey was shot. So unfortunately there may not be any other recorded songs where we could hear Audrey's version. I think this also helps explain Audrey's initial disappointment with how things worked out, since they had gone through the process of 'live recording' her voice on at least one of the final songs before changing things up.

I could be wrong here but based on what was promised for the e-mail version of the monthly schedule, I'm assuming there will be a new format coming that we haven't seen yet. This format may be better or worse for actual printing than using the revised monthly schedule that we are now seeing on the web site. It may look more like the magazine format, for example, but that is merely conjecture at this point. Of course, for those that want to use the web schedule and are able to work out a way to deal with it, then they will be ahead of the game. (The obvious differences are that the web version is released several more months in advance and is continuously updated as things change.) Just wanted to give my 2 cents on the question that TheCid raised below.

There's a portion of the extras on a DVD of My Fair Lady where they reconstructed the Wouldn't It Be Loverly scene sung with Audrey's own voice. Although it's not the perfection that is Marni Nixon, it sounds wonderful to me precisely because it isn't perfect - you feel Audrey's character as she played it in the rest of the movie coming through in the song. Of course, Audrey could not cover all of the songs to the highest standards, so I can understand using Marni's voice consistently throughout. But for this one song, at least, you can understand why Audrey would be crushed that they didn't use her voice.

Just checked and it seems that the monthly schedule looks good - proper banner with correct dates and SOTM photo of Audrey.

It's not working for me either from the menu. There is one at the direct link though: http://www.tcm.com/schedule/june2017.html Hopefully it's just some glitch with the month changeover and will be fixed soon.

Concerning Eddie Muller's comments on Barbara Stanwyck for Crime of Passion - I think to be fair, Eddie did not say that Barbara Stanwyck had not made any horror films. What he said was (and I quote) "Stanwyck refused to turn to horror movies to keep herself on the big screen." Eddie was specifically talking about the end of Stanwyck's major movie career and how she then turned to television roles, including The Big Valley series. To me this is more a statement about what types of film roles she was being offered once she reached her 50s, and it is a stretch to conclude from this statement that Eddie has not done his homework on the details of Stanwyck's career. I would also say that during these intros Eddie only has a few minutes to discuss topics of interest, so he is unable to go into too much detail in the time allowed. One thing I appreciate about Noir Alley is that Eddie is taking something like 3-4 minutes each for pre- and post- comments, which is longer than the typical TCM wrappers, but it is still not enough time to cover anything in great depth. During the Crime of Passion wrappers, Eddie talked about other noir films that Stanwyck had made (including Double Indemnity), the role of a female protagonist in film noir, and some similar aspects of Raymond Burr's career, for example. I'm sure that Eddie could say much more about Stanwyck's career if that was his sole purpose, but ultimately there's a film that we want to get to. I do agree that the TCM wrappers should always be factually accurate, but I don't think that's an issue in this case.

Not sure anyone else cares about this much but... I had noticed this past week that the TCM schedule for Tuesday the 23rd included the film Act of Violence (1948) that misswonderly mentions below. This is the film that was originally scheduled to be shown as part of the Noir Alley series back on March 19, but was replaced at that time due to the weekend tribute to Robert Osborne. (The very first scene shown in the Noir Alley intro of the guy crossing the city street at night is taken from this movie.) I was hoping that perhaps TCM would include the Eddie Muller material for viewing this week, but unfortunately no such luck. The film is also listed for July 6, but this is also a non-Noir Alley time so I assume there will be no intro for this showing either. I guess I can only hope that TCM will be able to reschedule the film sometime in the future for another 'official' Noir Alley presentation.

Although I wasn't wowed by Crime of Passion so much, I did appreciate Eddie's tribute to Barbara Stanwyck by listing some of her many contributions to Noir and describing her transition to television in the 60s in The Big Valley series, explaining that Ms. Stanwyck was unwilling to continue her big-screen career via the horror genre as many of her contemporaries did. (Coincidentally, I see that several examples of these 'senior horror' films are scheduled on TCM tonight.)

Very good comments, misswonderly. Agree completely. I also did not buy the way Lt. Doyle connected the murder weapon with the crime. Since it was established that nobody at the police station had recognized that one of the guns was missing, it doesn't make sense for Doyle to suspect that one of those weapons could have been used in another crime the same day at a different location. (Unless he has a photographic memory for bullet pictures.) Perhaps I missed something. As a fan of all of the actors involved, it was most disappointing.

Firefox recently disabled the use of Java in the Firefox browser, not Javascript. Javascript is used by almost all websites to dynamically control the look of web pages, and if it is disabled, that would explain why the TCM schedule is not working properly. To check your Javascript settings, follow the instructions on the following web site (this web site does work without javascript). http://www.wikihow.com/Disable-JavaScript (These instructions are how to check and turn off Javascript in Firefox. To turn on Javascript, change 'false' setting to 'true' instead.) Hope this works for you to fix your problem.

Glad you enjoyed the movie, another great Lubitsch film. Sorry I can't help with the account question - I haven't noticed suspect activity recently (other than usual spam floods). Perhaps the moderators cleaned it up?

Hoping that Barton or perhaps a TCM moderator would be so kind as to answer a question for me: The Noir Alley presentation of Act of Violence (1948) originally scheduled for March 19 was preempted by the tribute to Robert Osborne. I see that the movie is also scheduled for May 23 and July 6 (times that are not part of the regular Noir Alley Sunday morning window). Is there any chance that TCM will show the Noir Alley wrappers on either of these dates? Or perhaps schedule Act of Violence again for another 'official' Noir Alley Sunday morning time? Thanks in advance (I also apologize if this has been answered before).

I have to say again how much I’m enjoying the Noir Alley series, and I can’t contain myself from posting a few comments (spoilers ahead!). Sorry I’m running out of superlatives. - The Set-Up (1949) (Apr 16) The real-time aspect of the movie was amazing, including the fight choreography of the individual rounds, a mini Raging Bull. There is an awesome tracking shot at the beginning where the camera moves from outside the arena to across the street and through the upper floor apartment window. Really sets the stage for everything to come. Would love to see how Robert Wise did it. - Brute Force (1947) (Apr 23) Incredible cinematography right from the start showing the prison layout, gates, and guard tower. Was this a real prison? Reminded me of Orange is the New Black by showing scenes of life outside the prison that led each character to their incarceration and what they dreamed to return to. Amazingly violent ending. - He Walked By Night (1948) (Apr 30) Richard Basehart was crazy good as the perfect-storm smart, crafty, ruthless villain with inside knowledge of police procedures. (Basehart was also good in the previous Noir Alley selection Tension.) The noir cinematography, especially in the final scenes in the sewers was a standout. Similar to and possibly even better than The Third Man (have to watch that again to compare.) I postpone watching Eddie Muller’s comments til the end so I appreciated him clearing up the motivation behind the killer’s actions which had not been emphasized in the film. - Shield for Murder (1954) (May 7) For me this was the first relatively weak entry in the series. I knew it was off when I saw a boom mic go by in the first minute of the film. The typical noir dialogue also bordered on the Naked Gun / Police Squad variety at times. The screenplay was supposedly by the same author (John C. Higgins) as He Walked By Night so I’m not sure what happened. The comment that Eddie made about needing a spritzer for Edmund O’Brien’s sweaty brow cracked me up. Would love to hear any other comments on the Noir Alley films.

From the link that Barton provided in his original announcement, I think the last printed issue will be dated August 2017, so there are a few more issues to be printed and mailed yet. Just my own guess, but since the printed issues will continue through the August date, TCM would not have to switch over to the e-mail version until the September 2017 schedule would normally be provided sometime early in August. Of course, TCM can start with months earlier than that if they want to.