Noir Alley

[ElCid]

Is there a Noir Alley this week-end?  Schedule  shows Midnight Lace at 1:15 AM Sunday and Key Largo at 10 AM.  Witness for the Prosecution is on at 11 PM Saturday.

[JamesJazGuitar]

1 minute ago, ElCid said:

Is there a Noir Alley this week-end?  Schedule  shows Midnight Lace at 1:15 AM Sunday and Key Largo at 10 AM.  Witness for the Prosecution is on at 11 PM Saturday.

No  Noir Alley until News Year Day with Repeat Performance:   a Joan Leslie film set on New Years that Eddie showed last year.

[Fading Fast]

On 12/24/2021 at 1:12 PM, JamesJazGuitar said:

No  Noir Alley until News Year Day with Repeat Performance:   a Joan Leslie film set on New Years that Eddie showed last year.

My comments from last year's showing - I wanted to like it more than I did.

 

Repeat Performance with Joan Leslie, Louis Hayward and Tim Conway

• - Interesting premise, reasonable story, uneven acting

• - The premise: a woman murders her husband on New Year's Eve and gets to live the year over again trying desperately to change the outcome

• - The story: a rising theater star kills her jealous, alcoholic and cheating husband in a fit of rage over his latest affair and, then, gets the do-over

• - The acting: reasonable performance by Leslie as the ingenue murderess, elegant performance by George Sander's lessor-known brother Tim Conway and an almost buffoon-like performance by Hayward whose characterization of a drunk man looked like a parody of a drunk man

• - As noted by the TCM host, the movie has a very "The Twilight Zone" feel

[Thompson]

“ . . . and an almost buffoon like performance by Hayward whose characterization of a drunk man looked like a parody of a drunk man.”  — MKahn22.  That really bugs me too, but I haven’t seen the movie yet so will withhold judgment.  It’s ironic (nobody knows what that word means) that the finest portrayer of an alcoholic is Ray Milland in The Lost Weekend.  Yet he didn’t drink.

[Dargo]

4 hours ago, Thompson said:

“ . . . and an almost buffoon like performance by Hayward whose characterization of a drunk man looked like a parody of a drunk man.”  — MKahn22.  That really bugs me too, but I haven’t seen the movie yet so will withhold judgment.  It’s ironic (nobody knows what that word means) that the finest portrayer of an alcoholic is Ray Milland in The Lost Weekend.  Yet he didn’t drink.

Oh, I dunno Thompson.  Sure, Milland was terrific in The Lost Weekend, but for my money, the actor who could play an inebriated character and/or a dunken alcoholic (such as in the original 1937 A Star is Born for instance) just as well and who did it extemely well and very believably in many a film over his long and distiguished career, would be Fredric March.

I was reminded of this again last night as I watched Design for Living on TCM.

(...but granted, your point about Milland not being a drinker at all and yet still giving the performance that he did in his film and the irony of this is well noted)

 

[JamesJazGuitar]

27 minutes ago, Dargo said:

Oh, I dunno Thompson.  Sure, Milland was terrific in The Lost Weekend, but for my money, the actor who could play an inebriated character and/or a dunken alcoholic (such as in the original 1937 A Star is Born for instance) just as well and who did it extemely well and very believably in many a film over his long and distiguished career, would be Fredric March.

I was reminded of this again last night as I watched Design for Living on TCM.

(...but granted, your point about Milland not being a drinker at all and yet still giving the performance that he did in his film and the irony of this is well noted)

 

I find March a little too obvious as a drunk.     My favorite being-drunk performance is by John Garfield in The Breaking Point (the scene where he is with a gal at a bar and his wife comes to get him).      Another example of Garfield underplaying which is what I'm looking for in any non-comedic being-drunk performance.

(in Design for Living which I saw parts of also last night,  March's perform  was comedic by design (pun intended).

 

[unwatchable]

I never miss Noir Alley but I'll make an exception this time.  Surely, there must be some other film they could air which would have a nod towards New Year's Eve. I saw Repeat Performance last year and have no interest in seeing it again.

[Dargo]

36 minutes ago, JamesJazGuitar said:

I find March a little too obvious as a drunk.     My favorite being-drunk performance is by John Garfield in The Breaking Point (the scene where he is with a gal at a bar and his wife comes to get him).      Another example of Garfield underplaying which is what I'm looking for in any non-comedic being-drunk performance.

(in Design for Living which I saw parts of also last night,  March's perform  was comedic by design (pun intended).

 

Good point about Garfield here, James. Yes, he's very good in that scene in The Breaking Point, alright. However and as you yourself pointed out, the difference here being one played as straight drama and the other played as comedy.

So, how about March in the banquet scene in TBYOOL ? He's not playing it for laughs there, and yet I've always thought he very beliveably plays drunk here while telling off his boss...

[JamesJazGuitar]

1 minute ago, Dargo said:

Good point about Garfield here, James. Yes, he's very good in that scene in The Breaking Point, alright. However and as you yourself pointed out, the difference here being one played as straight drama and the other played as comedy.

So, how about March in the banquet scene in TBYOOL ? He's not playing it for laughs there, and yet I've always thought he very beliveably plays drunk there while telling off his boss...

March is very believable  playing-drunk in TBYOOL so that is a great example.      Not over the top,  not too emotional,   but realistic.

[Dargo]

10 minutes ago, JamesJazGuitar said:

March is very believable  playing-drunk in TBYOOL so that is a great example.      Not over the top,  not too emotional,   but realistic.

Thanks. And so which now brings me to question if you can recall Garfield in another film in which he might've played drunk? Nothing else pops into my head at the moment, anyway. 

Might he have a drunk scene in The Postman Always Rings Twice ? I don't recall right off here. 

(...bottom line though once again being that I can recall March playing drunk in many a film during his career, and yet other than William Powell who almost always did it in comedies, no other lead actor comes to my mind)

[JamesJazGuitar]

54 minutes ago, Dargo said:

Thanks. And so which now brings me to question if you can recall Garfield in another film in which he might've played drunk? Nothing else pops into my head at the moment, anyway. 

Might he have a drunk scene in The Postman Always Rings Twice ? I don't recall right off here. 

(...bottom line though once again being that I can recall March playing drunk in many a film during his career, and yet other than William Powell who almost always did it in comedies, no other lead actor comes to my mind)

Postman would be the only film where I believe he did act like he was drunk,  but he was acting like he was to fool the very drunk husband,  as part of the set-up to murder him.

 

[Thompson]

It is ironic that after looking up the word irony in the dictionary you still don’t know what it means.  That’s a Thompson quote y’all are welcome to steal.  Lost Weekend I guess is considered a noir, but it’s more like a dark documentary of the alcoholic.  Was it I’ll Cry Tomorrow that was the flip side of Lost Weekend?  Yeah,  great performance by Susan Hayward.
Off topic — the absolute worst movie ever made about alcohol addiction is Leaving Las Vegas with Nicholas Cage.  Phew.  
 

[unwatchable]

5 minutes ago, Thompson said:

It is ironic that after looking up the word irony in the dictionary you still don’t know what it means.  That’s a Thompson quote y’all are welcome to steal. 

Consider it heisted

[Dargo]

1 hour ago, Thompson said:

It is ironic that after looking up the word irony in the dictionary you still don’t know what it means.  That’s a Thompson quote y’all are welcome to steal.  
 

Didn't have to look it up, Thompson! Nope, I already knew what "irony" meant.

It's what we used to do to our clothes before Permanent Press came along.

(...and now you're welcome to steal this, although I'll bet Norm Crosby probably beat ya to it years ago) 

[Thompson]

9 minutes ago, Dargo said:

Didn't have to look it up, Thompson! Nope, I already knew that "irony" meant.

It's what we used to do to our clothes before Permanent Press came along.

(...and now you're welcome to steal this, although I'll bet Norm Crosby probably beat ya to it years ago) 

You beat me to it Dargo!  I was going to do a dry cleaner pick up with my pants all irony post.

[TomJH]

"Nobody can calsh me drunk and get away with it. I'm just schmelling my glass, that's all, just schmelling my glash. Ironic eh? I'm only sober one here. Now someone get me a bed. I'm going nappy bye any minute now."

The movies have given us a lot of actors playing it drunk or slightly sloshed but, for my money, Frederic March was in a special class when he did it in The Best Years of Our Lives. Brilliant performance by a great actor.

[Dargo]

14 minutes ago, Thompson said:

You beat me to it Dargo!  I was going to do a dry cleaner pick up with my pants all irony post.

Well then, aren't ya glad I did it for ya and saved you the embarrassment of posting such a corny pun?!! 

(...this IS the sort'a thing I'm noted for around here, ya know) 

[misswonderly3]

On 12/24/2021 at 2:36 PM, mkahn22 said:

My comments from last year's showing - I wanted to like it more than I did.

Repeat Performance with Joan Leslie, Louis Hayward and Tim Conway

• - Interesting premise, reasonable story, uneven acting

• - The premise: a woman murders her husband on New Year's Eve and gets to live the year over again trying desperately to change the outcome

• - The story: a rising theater star kills her jealous, alcoholic and cheating husband in a fit of rage over his latest affair and, then, gets the do-over

• - The acting: reasonable performance by Leslie as the ingenue murderess, elegant performance by George Sander's lessor-known brother Tim Conway and an almost buffoon-like performance by Hayward whose characterization of a drunk man looked like a parody of a drunk man

• - As noted by the TCM host, the movie has a very "The Twilight Zone" feel

Since you critique several of the Repeat Performance  cast members, I'm surprised you didn't mention Richard Basehart.  He's such an under-rated actor; I consider him to be one of the best of his era, and am always interested in seeing anything he was in.  He plays a difficult role in Repeat Performance, but as always with him,  he pulls it off very well.

[Dargo]

10 minutes ago, TomJH said:

"Nobody can calsh me drunk and get away with it. I'm just smelling my glass, that's all, just smelling my glash. Ironic eh? I'm only sober one here. Now someone get me a bed. I'm going nappy bye any minute now."

The movies have given us a lot of actors playing it drunk or slightly sloshed but, for my money, Frederic March was in a special class when he did it in The Best Years of Our Lives. Brilliant performance by a great actor.

And btw, Dana Andrews was no slouch in his drunk scenes in this film either ya know, Tom.

(...although in his case and in regard to Thompson's earlier "Ray Milland irony" thing, Andrews was as you know an alcoholic, although perhaps in 1946 maybe not to the degree he would become later in his life and before his step to sobriety)

 

[JamesJazGuitar]

1 hour ago, unwatchable said:

Consider it heisted

Well since this weeks Noir Alley film is Repeat Performance and that is a repeat of last year,   there isn't much to say about that film that hasn't already been said,  so we need to heist this thread at least for another week or so.

[TomJH]

I believe that Repeat Performance is one of those films that has never had a video or DVD release, thus a lot of its prints in circulation have not looked that good. With the restorations that the Film Noir Foundation has done of Woman on the Run, Cry Danger and, I believe, The Breaking Point, among others, you would hope they might want to restore this film, as well, if they had the money and found the right film elements.

I'm not saying that Repeat Performance is in league with those other three films but it's still pretty good, with a great noir introductory scene.

[TomJH]

5 minutes ago, Dargo said:

And btw, Dana Andrews was no slouch in his drunk scenes in this film either ya know, Tom.

(...although in his case and in regard to Thompson's earlier "Ray Milland irony" thing, Andrews was as you know an alcoholic, although perhaps in 1946 maybe not to the degree he would become later in his life and before his step to sobriety)

 

I don't know when Andrews developed his drinking problem but he was sure starting to look puffy faced in some of his mid '50s films. Yeh, Andrews is great in Best Years, as well.

Speaking of Ray Milland's great performance in The Lost Weekend, he joins Charlton Heston as one of the few actors to win an Academy Award for the only time he was ever nominated.

[Thompson]

9 minutes ago, Dargo said:

Well then, aren't ya glad I did it for ya and saved you the embarrassment of posting such a corny pun?!! 

(...this IS the sort'a thing I'm noted for around here, ya know) 

Malaprop huh?  Jeepers, another new word to look up.  And yes I’m very grateful you saved me the embarrassment.  That was kind of you, Dargo. It’s all ironyied out now .

[Dargo]

6 minutes ago, TomJH said:

I don't know when Andrews developed his drinking problem but he was sure starting to look puffy faced in some of his mid '50s films. Yeh, Andrews is great in Best Years, as well.

Speaking of Ray Milland's great performance in The Lost Weekend, he joins Charlton Heston as one of the few actors to win an Academy Award for the only time he was ever nominated.

So, sort of the opposite of the Glenn Close But No Cigar Syndrome, eh?! 

[JamesJazGuitar]

42 minutes ago, misswonderly3 said:

Since you critque several of the Repeat Performance  cast members, I'm surprised you didn't mention Richard Basehart.  He's such an under-rated actor; I consider him to be one of the best of his era, and am always interested in seeing anything he was in.  He plays a difficult role in Repeat Performance, but as always with him,  he pulls it off very well.

Solid point Miss W, which is why within the post I made my wise crack I included this: and often featured noir actor Richard Basehart.

At first I had "iconic noir actor" but then I wimped out because I believed I would be challenged for using the term "iconic".     I would have stuck to my guns if I knew you had my back (ha ha).          Repeat Performance was his first film performance,  but,  as I'm sure you know,  he was in many other mystery\noir films,  and was solid and memorable in all them,  as either the lead or supporting actor. 

 Cry Wolf,   He Walked by Night,   Tension,  Outside the Wall,  Fourteen Hours,   and The House on Telegraph Hill.

 As a youngster  I only knew him from Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea,  so it took me a while to discover him and his solid film legacy.

Hats off to Richard!