Noir Alley

[LornaHansonForbes]

Thank you Miss Wonderly, I had TOTALLY FORGOTTEN the scene with the wife showing up in Cyd's dressing room. 

Boy,that was a plot cul-de-sac if ever there was one.

[misswonderly3]

1 hour ago, jamesjazzguitar said:

It is my understanding most people feel Party Girl is Ray's most beautiful looking film mainly due to how the film was shot in color and the various sets.     

The look of the film is one of the major draws for me (given the flaws others have mentioned).  

Interesting. I, on the other hand, dislike the look of the film, largely because of the use of colour.

Now, I don't always dislike classic colour movies; sometimes it really works. And I agree with Eddie M., that even a noir can be in colour sometimes. It's not so much that "Party Girl" is in colour, it's the kind of colour stock that's used. There's something about that late '50s, early '60s type of colour film stock that is ugly to me, harsh-looking.

Of course, the late '50s hairdos and clothes don't help much either. I'm with Lorna, how come they couldn't have at least tried to make the costumes etc. a little more faithful to the 1930s?

[cinemaspeak59]

I liked Armored Car Robbery (1950).  It was a tight, well-paced crime drama that made good use of its L.A. location.  There was fine acting, and William Talman, with his steely determination and scary face, made for a great villain.  Clocking in at 67 minutes, it never felt under-cooked.

[ElCid]

Finally got around to watching Party Girl.  BORING!  Thank goodness I could fast forward through it.  Course never have found Robert Taylor or Cyd Charise interesting anyway.  My wife said that Taylor played his role the same as he did in Quo Vadis.  He plays everything the same - wooden.  Agreed with her.

As for it being Noir, I just can't see it.  If this is Noir, every crime movie and every movie with bad people is Noir.

As for next week's Roadblock, I read the wikipedia description and it sounds familiar.  Will watch it.

[misswonderly3]

1 minute ago, TheCid said:

Finally got around to watching Party Girl.  BORING!  Thank goodness I could fast forward through it.  Course never have found Robert Taylor or Cyd Charise interesting anyway.  My wife said that Taylor played his role the same as he did in Quo Vadis.  He plays everything the same - wooden.  Agreed with her.

As for it being Noir, I just can't see it.  If this is Noir, every crime movie and every movie with bad people is Noir.

As for next week's Roadblock, I read the wikipedia description and it sounds familiar.  Will watch it.

Oh, you're just mad because there weren't any cool cars in it.?

[ElCid]

4 minutes ago, misswonderly3 said:

Oh, you're just mad because there weren't any cool cars in it.?

It's not always about cars.

[LornaHansonForbes]

It's a shame MGM didn't make PARTY GIRL in 1933 with JOAN CRAWFORD (and get Harlow's permission to use her photograph for the bit at the start.)

[misswonderly3]

6 minutes ago, TheCid said:

It's not always about cars.

Cid baby, shirley you know I was just teasing you. Friendly teasing.

[LornaHansonForbes]

It would've been really interesting if they had tried to do PARTY GIRL as a "black-and-white color" film, and by that I mean: shot in color but with set decorations and costumes done primarily in black, hues of white, silver and gold. With Cyd getting to be the one character who wears color. 

[jamesjazzguitar]

7 minutes ago, LornaHansonForbes said:

It would've been really interesting if they had tried to do PARTY GIRL as a "black-and-white color" film, and by that I mean: shot in color but with set decorations and costumes done primarily in black, hues of white, silver and gold. With Cyd getting to be the one character who wears color. 

Now that is an interesting concept.    I can clearly see having all of Cyd's dance sequences done in color and the rest of the movie as B&W (sort of like how the fashion show in The Women was done).

 

[Vautrin]

4 hours ago, Hibi said:

 

I agree. Very talky and boring. I'd seen it once before. Decided to give it another try and regretted the wasted time. Cyd's numbers could have been cut entirely, but I guess if you have Cyd in the picture she has to dance...

 

Can you believe Paula Zahn is back???? Her show was only off the air 2 months and a new season starting! KILL ME NOW!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Maybe MGM should have just added color to The Asphalt Jungle and left it there.

I will say that Cyd was pretty sexy all around, but that doesn't, by itself, make 

a good movie. Very little to be entertained by in this one. Now at the very beginning

she was a party girl, but that lasted about fifteen minutes. 

Zahn is back and ID's got her. I've seen the promos, but haven't been paying much

attention to the details. So the fingerprints would be an important clue to the killer?

Yes, the fingerprints would be vital to identify the killer.

[Vautrin]

3 hours ago, LornaHansonForbes said:

 

2. Have you heard that Elvis Costello is not doing well? Apparently an aggressive form of cancer. 

I had not heard about Elvis. Ray Charles is waiting and he's not in a good mood. 

Just kiddin'.

[LornaHansonForbes]

i HATE this ensemble.

[cigarjoe]

4 hours ago, LornaHansonForbes said:

Wait, you hate Paula Zahn too? 

 

Who is Paula Zahn? 

[cigarjoe]

4 hours ago, TheCid said:

As for next week's Roadblock, I read the wikipedia description and it sounds familiar.  Will watch it.

It's got a great car chase in the L.A. River.

[speedracer5]

4 hours ago, misswonderly3 said:

Interesting. I, on the other hand, dislike the look of the film, largely because of the use of colour.

Now, I don't always dislike classic colour movies; sometimes it really works. And I agree with Eddie M., that even a noir can be in colour sometimes. It's not so much that "Party Girl" is in colour, it's the kind of colour stock that's used. There's something about that late '50s, early '60s type of colour film stock that is ugly to me, harsh-looking.

Of course, the late '50s hairdos and clothes don't help much either. I'm with Lorna, how come they couldn't have at least tried to make the costumes etc. a little more faithful to the 1930s?

I completely forgot that the movie took place in the 1930s (even though I saw the note at the beginning that provided the timeframe) until they mentioned that Lee J. Cobb was distraught over Jean Harlow's recent marriage.  

Where were the bias cut silk gowns and Art Deco?

[speedracer5]

2 hours ago, LornaHansonForbes said:

i HATE this ensemble.

I wish she'd worn a red trench coat instead of the fur.  She could have gone the Carmen Sandiego route.

[jamesjazzguitar]

46 minutes ago, speedracer5 said:

I wish she'd worn a red trench coat instead of the fur.  She could have gone the Carmen Sandiego route.

Yea,  but where in the world would that get her?

 

[speedracer5]

9 minutes ago, jamesjazzguitar said:

Yea,  but where in the world would that get her?

 

I don't know, maybe she could have stolen the Empire State Building or something! She could then recruit Robert Taylor to be one of her V.I.L.E. henchmen and have him do her bidding.

[Dargo]

On 7/8/2018 at 1:54 PM, misswonderly3 said:

I guess I sounded a little petulant in that "why do I bother?" post. I was just disappointed that no one else seemed interested in the film, even though it is a bona fide noir and was, I think, the first time TCM was airing it. Also, one of the leads is William Talman, who had just been discussed a bit for his role in Armoured Car Robbery.

MissW, let me remind you here that this picture was set in Los Angeles, NOT Toronto or London!

(...and where as a student of the Los Angeles Unified School District, we were taught to spell the word "Armored" withOUT that...well, YOU know!!!)

[Looney]

On 7/8/2018 at 4:25 PM, misswonderly3 said:

So, what did you end up doing, Looney?  Party or pathos?  (But hey, if you decided to stay home, you could have had your own private noir party with "Party Girl". Although in fact, there's not that much partying in the film...)

Whichever you decided to do, hope you had a fun Saturday night !

Looney lived in the best of both worlds.  I went to the party and still made it home in time for the movie.  I did miss Muller's intro, but I was able to pick it up Sunday morning.  The party was dying down around 10:30, I took that as my cue to start the long drive home just in time to catch the movie.  I hit all of the major points of the party and all that remained after 10:30 were those who wanted to stick around getting intoxicated.  I had something better to do, so I made my exit.

It is always interesting to attend this party because the host is a big time autograph hound.  He has hundreds, if not thousands, of autographs and selfies with different Actors, Directors, Musicians, Politicians, and just about anyone who has a claim to fame.  His house is like walking through a pop culture museum.  I think he spends much of the year traveling from my little area in the Midwest to New York and Los Angeles.  I find it fascinating.  I enjoy collecting the occasional autograph and meeting celebrities, but I need the desire to put the effort into the attempt and it would take a lot to get me to approach someone on the street.  I understand personal boundaries.  I don't think he has any criteria other than whether or not he has met the person already.  I get the thrill of the hunt, but I think it would have to be more than just the hunt to inspire me.  Anyway it is an interesting place to go so I thought it was worth attending to see what was new.

Now PARTY GIRL.  I think I agree with everything every member has said about this movie.    I definitely feel it was worth seeing once, but I can't imagine I would ever go out of the way to see it again.  There were parts I liked.  There were parts I didn't like.  There were parts I didn't like the more I thought about them. And yes, there were parts where I just got bored and almost fell asleep.  So I wouldn't say it is bad, but there is little I will likely remember from seeing it. 

[speedracer5]

8 minutes ago, Looney said:

Now PARTY GIRL.  I think I agree with everything every member has said about this movie.    I definitely feel it was worth seeing once, but I can't imagine I would ever go out of the way to see it again.  There were parts I liked.  There were parts I didn't like.  There were parts I didn't like the more I thought about them. And yes, there were parts where I just got bored and almost fell asleep.  So I wouldn't say it is bad, but there is little I will likely remember from seeing it. 

Hey, at least you didn't wake up with a hangover Sunday morning! I call your weekend a WIN-WIN.

[LornaHansonForbes]

11 hours ago, cigarjoe said:

Who is Paula Zahn? 

She was a news caster on, I think ABC News, about 1000 years ago. She was fired for being, as is my understanding from people who have inside knowledge, "the meanest woman in television". Apparently stories about her are just legendary. I had a roommate who worked with her who said she was by far the most nasty person he's ever met.

she hosted e-news for a hot second before she lost that job, now she's on the "investigation discovery channel", which has a lot of fans on these boards- it's kind of a neo noir documentary Channel, it's nothing but 24 hours of husbands killing wives, wives killing husbands, children killing parents, parents killing children, dogs killing cats, neighbors killing each other, Everyone killing all the time.

i like it. 

there's like 27 different shows on the investigation discovery channel, she hosts one of them where she tries to sit there and look empathetic to people telling them their tragic life stories. (And she doesn't do a very good job, which is largely a fault of the Botox.)

[LornaHansonForbes]

11 hours ago, speedracer5 said:

I wish she'd worn a red trench coat instead of the fur.  She could have gone the Carmen Sandiego route.

It looks like something that Ava Gardner would've worn at the airport on the way to Puerto Vallarta in 1975. 

[LornaHansonForbes]

11 hours ago, speedracer5 said:

I completely forgot that the movie took place in the 1930s (even though I saw the note at the beginning that provided the timeframe) until they mentioned that Lee J. Cobb was distraught over Jean Harlow's recent marriage.  

Where were the bias cut silk gowns and Art Deco?

I know, right? 

Seriously, if a woman walked into a room in 1933 dressed and styled like Charisse was in every scene of this movie, she would've been laughed out onto the street. 

Kind of like if someone were to wear an Ed Hardy shirt to a function being held today.