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Noir Alley


Barton_Keyes
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AMC is running a marathon of Breaking Bad episodes.  Missed the ones last week but picked it up this morning at 9 cdt.  All day and night marathon.  The commercials will grate and seem like forever, but the show is really good, really smart, it’s a real watcher.  For the last 90 minutes the channel “is not available.”  The marathon is scheduled to run until late at night tonight.  Does anyone else have this problem with AMC on cable TV?

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14 minutes ago, JamesJazGuitar said:

Next week on Noir Alley is The Pitfall (1948);   This is a good film with Dick Powell,  Liz Scott,  Raymond Burr and Jane Wyatt and directed by Andre de Toth.

Pitfall (1948) and Raymond Burr | Christina Wehner

I'm with you, very good noir and one of Scott's best performances. 

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2 hours ago, Katie_G said:

Pitfall is indeed very good, and I love Liz Scott in just about anything.   If anyone misses it  or has problems with TCM's clunky videos, PBS online streams it commercial-free.

You like Liz Scott?   Wow,  how would one know that? (wink).    

Yea,   Liz plays an interesting character in Pitfall.    Not bad,  but not good either;  E.g.  she knows the items her boyfriend gave her,  like that boat,  were stolen.    She also ends  up being a femme fatale to married man Dick Powell,   but in minor way since I believe she does sincerely care for him  but is also using him for protection against the really bad-boy in the film Burr  (as well as her ex-boyfriend).

Spoiler Alert:

I really like how the ending doesn't telegraph what type of punishment Scott will face for her actions (or lack of action).     Charged for murder of Burr?   Manslaughter for the death of her ex-boyfriend by Powell?     I think it was great this wasn't spelled out because she was not-bad\not-good and how people like that are treated by the justice system can get ugly.   (and thus  the ugly ending for Scott screaming from a jail cell).

 

 

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I don't mind  a month's  vacation from Eduardo and his increasingly tiresome noir shtick.  I  don't mind 31 days of Oscar that

much. I rewatch  some of  the old timers I haven't seen in years and watch some of the newer films I've never  seen. 

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15 minutes ago, Vautrin said:

I don't mind  a month's  vacation from Eduardo and his increasingly tiresome noir shtick.

Who do you think might do a better job of giving us lesser-known details about the films aired on Noir Alley?

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26 minutes ago, Vautrin said:

I don't mind  a month's  vacation from Eduardo and his increasingly tiresome noir shtick.  I  don't mind 31 days of Oscar that

much. I rewatch  some of  the old timers I haven't seen in years and watch some of the newer films I've never  seen. 

Aww, I like Eddie. Yes, the whole shtick is rather corny, but that's the point, I think. It's cute and something that sets him apart from the other hosts.

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When someone gives you a present, you don't grouse about the wrapping paper.  Muller is a walking encyclopedia of film noir knowledge. For example- Lizabeth Scott, mentioned on this page- Muller knew her personally. His jokes may be corny, but at least they qualify as jokes, and that puts him one up on Ben Mankiwiecz. It's painful to watch someone who is genuinely unfunny try to crack jokes.

Eddie, we love ya, babe! Don't go nowhere!

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1 hour ago, unwatchable said:

Who do you think might do a better job of giving us lesser-known details about the films aired on Noir Alley?

I doubt that Eddie is  the only person who has an expansive knowledge of noir. Other people have written books on the subject.

Now whether they would do well on TV is another thing, but I'm guessing some could do a good job.  Eddie just happened to

be  good  at pr with his czar of noir thing. Once one person is recognized as the expert they crowd  out everyone else. Martha

Stewart was not the only person  who knew about cooking and  making  cutsie Christmas decorations from used condoms,

but once she was in the spotlight everyone else sort of faded away.  Thus, Eddie  is  the Martha Stewart of noir. 🤠

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53 minutes ago, coffeebits said:

Aww, I like Eddie. Yes, the whole shtick is rather corny, but that's the point, I think. It's cute and something that sets him apart from the other hosts.

He's okay. I just like to  provide a little balance to the Eddie  worship. But  his retro suits are pretty boring. 

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10 minutes ago, Vautrin said:

Thus, Eddie  is  the Martha Stewart of noir. 🤠

He's the founder of the Film Noir Foundation, an organization which has been instrumental in restoring films, but please do feel free to be cute about it. I notice you failed to offer up any specific names.

I have been critical of Muller, for his obsession with HUAC and his inability to comment on any film which has even the slightest connection with that committee, without mentioning the "witch hunt", so, it's not worship when I praise him. I'm merely giving credit where credit is due.

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33 minutes ago, Vautrin said:

He's okay. I just like to  provide a little balance to the Eddie  worship. But  his retro suits are pretty boring. 

You hit the nail on the head, Vautrin. The handkerchief and all that is a little too much, not that Ben Mankiewicz doesn’t look stupid with his cowboy boots.  But I guess you forgive that, these are movie critics, not actors.

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You never know, Eddie might have switched up that outfit, might be wearing a hat, tilted just so, smoking a cigarette and dressed in black and white.  That would be cool.  

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2 hours ago, unwatchable said:

He's the founder of the Film Noir Foundation, an organization which has been instrumental in restoring films, but please do feel free to be cute about it. I notice you failed to offer up any specific names.

I have been critical of Muller, for his obsession with HUAC and his inability to comment on any film which has even the slightest connection with that committee, without mentioning the "witch hunt", so, it's not worship when I praise him. I'm merely giving credit where credit is due.

Yes, he's always ready to trot out a reference to the FNF. Not that they  don't do  good  work, but we get it. All one has  to do is go to Amazon

and there  are at least half  a dozen authors  of  books about film noir, including  more than one Encyclopedia  of Noir title. 

HUAC  did  play a prominent part in the film history of the 1940s, which was also the heyday of film noir, so there is an obvious connection between

the  two. I always got a kick out of  Bertolt Brecht's  testimony before HUAC. Bertie led these dopey pols on a merry chase.

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2 hours ago, Thompson said:

You hit the nail on the head, Vautrin. The handkerchief and all that is a little too much, not that Ben Mankiewicz doesn’t look stupid with his cowboy boots.  But I guess you forgive that, these are movie critics, not actors.

Or GQ models. At  least Eddie doesn't do the show in a trench coat and fedora with a cig dangling from his mouth.

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1 hour ago, unwatchable said:

Have it your way, Vautrin. Too bad about the wrapping paper. What a gyp. You deserve better.

I'm more interested  in the gift. The wrapping  paper is  secondary. The hosts are okay, but the film is the main thing. 

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Most of the films shown on Noir Alley, I've seen many times. I'm sure the same is true for a lot of members here.  The bumpers on the films- what we refer to as the intros/outros- some of the stuff Muller tells us, I've never before heard.  I record Noir Alley each time it airs, but not infrequently, I'll watch just the bumpers. And you might want to consider that without Eddie Muller, there may not be a Noir Alley. Oh, the films would still get aired, most of them, anyway, but the consistent featuring of films noir might not be occurring, and if I'm not mistaken, the old TCM Darkness After Dawn was just the films, no commentary.  You don't know what you've got 'til it's gone.

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Yes, I've  seen many of the Noir Alley movies before, though every once in a while one I haven't seen before will show up. Some  of  the

things he talks  about I've heard before, other things  not. Some of them  are interesting, some of them are fairly ho-hum. But  if his

commentaries disappeared tomorrow and only the movies were shown, I wouldn't miss it that much. 

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