Noir Alley

[Dargo]

3 hours ago, LawrenceA said:

It used to be on just Sunday mornings at 10 AM Eastern time. Many people complained about the early hour, as people like to sleep in, or attend church services. And others felt that Noir just works better when viewed at night. So they added the Saturdays at midnight Eastern time showings.

Yeah, and besides, it also used to conflict with my watching CBS Sunday Morning out here in the west.

(...been hooked on that program since the late Charles Kuralt hosted it)

[Dargo]

16 minutes ago, Hepburn Fan said:

I enjoyed his "On The Road" specials. Getting paid to travel in an RV. Only in America.

Ya know who has picked up Kuralt's mantle in regard to traveling across America and finding uplifting human interest stories to report on now days don't you, HF?

CBS's Steve Hartman.

(...those stories of his are almost guaranteed to make one a little misty-eyed, and just as Kuralt's often did back in the day)

[speedracer5]

3 hours ago, LawrenceA said:

It used to be on just Sunday mornings at 10 AM Eastern time. Many people complained about the early hour, as people like to sleep in, or attend church services. And others felt that Noir just works better when viewed at night. So they added the Saturdays at midnight Eastern time showings.

I like that they added the Saturday showing.  It now airs at 9pm Saturdays, a respectable noir time.  Even though I always DVR it, getting up at 7:00am Sunday morning to watch noir is ridiculous.  Lol. 

[Hibi]

On 9/9/2018 at 5:07 PM, cigarjoe said:

Eddie mentioned that critics site plot holes and implausibilities, but I look at Desperate as a simple visual Noir,  a sort of Graphic Novel/Comic Book Noir, and nobody ever reads comic books for a complex story or the dialog. 

I found Desperate to be a C movie. Just didnt qualify as a B. Felt like someone dashed off the script overnight. About halfway through I realized I'd seen it before. Aside from the dark scenes with Burr in the beginning and his scene at the end, really a bottom of the barrel story/release (though well acted).......

[Hibi]

I HATED the Sunday morning timeslot. Never up that early, and wouldnt watch it then if I was! So I always recorded it to watch at NIGHT. Now that it's on at midnight (eastern-perfect time for noirs) I never miss it!

[Vautrin]

Wasn't it discovered after Kuralt's death that he had been shacking up with some babe while

he was out "on the road?" I OAML when I read about that. You've got to watch out for these

quiet, sensitive types. 

[Hibi]

What is OAML? (LOL) My lunch?

[ElCid]

4 hours ago, Hibi said:

I found Desperate to be a C movie. Just didnt qualify as a B. Felt like someone dashed off the script overnight. About halfway through I realized I'd seen it before. Aside from the dark scenes with Burr in the beginning and his scene at the end, really a bottom of the barrel story/release (though well acted).......

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.

[Hibi]

1 minute ago, TheCid said:

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 know. But saying Desperate was a B to me was lavish praise! LOL.

[Vautrin]

2 hours ago, Hibi said:

What is OAML? (LOL) My lunch?

I hope not. They won't allow the acronym for laughing my you know what off here.

Sad. 

[laffite]

Is it curious that they would air B pictures? Noir Alley is only one film a week. Or do they think that doing too many war horses would rub the wrong way with some. oh no not that again? I feel doing some of the biggies would be great since Noir Alley has a nice following. A fresh discussion of a well-known film would be fine, hey let's kick it around again.

[JamesJazGuitar]

1 hour ago, laffite said:

Is it curious that they would air B pictures? Noir Alley is only one film a week. Or do they think that doing too many war horses would rub the wrong way with some. oh no not that again? I feel doing some of the biggies would be great since Noir Alley has a nice following. A fresh discussion of a well-known film would be fine, hey let's kick it around again.

To many fans of noir the B pictures are some of the best noir film.    Also,   hasn't Eddie shown some of the 'war horses' since Noir Alley started?    

Does anyone have a list of all the films Noir Alley has shown to date?

 

[cigarjoe]

Here is a list of Noir Alley 2018 so far, I believe the ones with an asterisks are longer features and may be considered "A" features.

March

03.04.2018 The Big Heat*
03.11.2018 Stranger on the Third Floor
03.18.2018 Crossfire*
03.25.2018 No Questions Asked

April

04.08.2018 Suddenly
04.15.2018 Mystery Street
04.22.2018 Cry Danger
04.29.2018 Hollow Triumph

May

05.06.2018 The Narrow Margin
05.13.2018 Caged
05.20.2018 Crime Wave
05.27.2018 The Clay Pigeon

June

06.03.2018 The Letter*
06.10.2018 Conflict
06.17.2018 Pitfall
06.24.2018 The Man Who Cheated Himself

July

07.01.2018 Armored Car Robbery
07.08.2018 Party Girl*
07.15.2018 Roadblock
07.22.2018 Dark Passage
07.29.2018 Scene of the Crime

September

09.02.2018 The Locket
09.09.2018 Desperate

[ElCid]

12 hours ago, laffite said:

Is it curious that they would air B pictures? Noir Alley is only one film a week. Or do they think that doing too many war horses would rub the wrong way with some. oh no not that again? I feel doing some of the biggies would be great since Noir Alley has a nice following. A fresh discussion of a well-known film would be fine, hey let's kick it around again.

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.

[Hibi]

15 hours ago, Vautrin said:

I hope not. They won't allow the acronym for laughing my you know what off here.

Sad. 

LOL! I get it now........

[Hibi]

1 hour ago, cigarjoe said:

Here is a list of Noir Alley 2018 so far, I believe the ones with an asterisks are longer features and may be considered "A" features.

March

03.04.2018 The Big Heat*
03.11.2018 Stranger on the Third Floor
03.18.2018 Crossfire*
03.25.2018 No Questions Asked

April

04.08.2018 Suddenly
04.15.2018 Mystery Street
04.22.2018 Cry Danger
04.29.2018 Hollow Triumph

May

05.06.2018 The Narrow Margin
05.13.2018 Caged
05.20.2018 Crime Wave
05.27.2018 The Clay Pigeon

June

06.03.2018 The Letter*
06.10.2018 Conflict
06.17.2018 Pitfall
06.24.2018 The Man Who Cheated Himself

July

07.01.2018 Armored Car Robbery
07.08.2018 Party Girl*
07.15.2018 Roadblock
07.22.2018 Dark Passage
07.29.2018 Scene of the Crime

September

09.02.2018 The Locket
09.09.2018 Desperate

I'd say Dark Passage and The Locket were As

[LornaHansonForbes]

21 hours ago, Hibi said:

I found Desperate to be a C movie. Just didnt qualify as a B. Felt like someone dashed off the script overnight. About halfway through I realized I'd seen it before. Aside from the dark scenes with Burr in the beginning and his scene at the end, really a bottom of the barrel story/release (though well acted).......

I missed it Sunday, but it showed up OnDemand and I watched a fair amount of it...it was all right, but I predominantly remember lead actor STEVE BRODIE from THE GIANT SPIDER INVASION, THE WILD WORLD OF BATWOMAN, and FRANKENSTEIN ISLAND- all of which have been done by MST or Rifftrax and all three of which are SO so so bad that it's impossible for me to take him seriously even in legit stuff.

[Hibi]

1 minute ago, LornaHansonForbes said:

I missed it Sunday, but it showed up OnDemand and I watched a fair amount of it...it was all right, but I predominantly remember lead actor STEVE BRODIE from THE GIANT SPIDER INVASION, THE WILD WORLD OF BATWOMAN, and FRANKENSTEIN ISLAND- all of which have been done by MST or Rifftrax and all three of which are SO so so bad that it's impossible for me to take him seriously even in legit stuff.

LOL. Happy to say I missed all of those..........

[LornaHansonForbes]

4 minutes ago, Hibi said:

LOL. Happy to say I missed all of those..........

GIANT SPIDER INVASION (1975) also features BARBARA HALE and her real life husband. FRANKENSTEIN ISLAND costars a visibly WASTED CAMERON MITCHELL.

As MST/RIFFTRAX experiments, they're fine, but as movies they are bad even for bad movies.

[misswonderly3]

22 hours ago, Hepburn Fan said:

 

.... If you always DVR it, then the time shouldn't matter. So, out here in the West, 7 AM Sunday is crazy. Out in the East, maybe Midnight is too.

My point: TCM has East/West on the Watch TCM app. Is it cost prohibitive to have a West Coast feed for TCM? My second point: It seems foolish/silly to have Film Noir on twice. Third and final point: Way too much smoke on the Film Noir site.

Hmm, don't agree with that  - " it seems foolish /silly to have Film Noir on twice".  Actually, I love it that they give you two chances to watch these films; and sometimes they're pretty rare, so more than one airing is a good thing. I don't always have the chance to watch Noir Alley on Saturday night. I agree, it's the best time for it, Sunday morning does not seem very noir-ish. Still, as I said, it's nice to have two opportunities to see whatever Eddie's showing that week.

Also, I do not record movies ( for boring reasons I won't go into here), so "real time" is the only time I can watch this stuff. Watching something on tv as it's actually being aired, as opposed to recording it, seems to be becoming more and more uncommon these days. I hope I'll always be able to do it.

By the way, what did you mean, "Way too much smoke on the Film Noir site."  ???

[misswonderly3]

17 hours ago, TheCid said:

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.

Cid, I'm guessing that Hibi just meant she thought Desperate wasn't that good; maybe not even of "B" calibre, so she called it "C". I don't think she meant that there's literally a "C" rating.

Although, "that said", I liked the film. But I also like Hibi, and she's welcome to deem it a "C" film if that's how she feels about it.

[Hibi]

35 minutes ago, LornaHansonForbes said:

GIANT SPIDER INVASION (1975) also features BARBARA HALE and her real life husband. FRANKENSTEIN ISLAND costars a visibly WASTED CAMERON MITCHELL.

As MST/RIFFTRAX experiments, they're fine, but as movies they are bad even for bad movies.

I'll take your word for it. LOL. I think I may have seen Spider Invasion now that you mention Hale.......I think it was on MST 3000.

[Hibi]

17 minutes ago, misswonderly3 said:

Cid, I'm guessing that Hibi just meant she thought Desperate wasn't that good; maybe not even of "B" calibre, so she called it "C". I don't think she meant that there's literally a "C" rating.

Although, "that said", I liked the film. But I also like Hibi, and she's welcome to deem it a "C" film if that's how she feels about it.

Yes, that's what I meant!

[misswonderly3]

4 hours ago, Hepburn Fan said:

Well, I do notice now, it should be Noir Alley and not Film Noir. I realize smoking was a part of TV and movies way back. To use cigarette smoke today as a positive on the Noir Alley site seems wrong. Chances are I should feel the same way about the booze too. I'm talking about the Noir Alley link on the TCM site.

 

Ok, I will do my very best to be diplomatic about this.

Whenever people express concern about the amount of smoking  - and drinking, for that matter - depicted in old movies, I get frustrated. This is for two reasons:

1. It shows a lack of recognition, of understanding, that back then  people smoked and drank a lot more than they do now. Yes, I know, I'm aware that much of that cigarette smoking was because the tobacco companies back then openly lobbied the film industry to promote their products. But it doesn't matter to me; whatever the reason, be it a  heinous ulteriour motive to get ordinary people to smoke more, or just a reflection of the times, or a bit of both, I don't care. I actually kind of enjoy seeing them lighting up; often it's used as a bit of business, or to show a character is stressed; sometimes it's actually used as a romantic gesture, as in Paul Henreid lighting two cigarettes in "Now Voyager".  And then there's Sterling Hayden's police detective in "Crime Wave", who's actually trying to quit and chews on toothpicks to soothe his craving.

Whatever the reason - and sometimes there's none at all, it's just there as part of the mise-en-scene - I don't mind one bit. That was then, this is now. There are a great many things that have changed in our culture since the days those old noirs were made, recognizing how bad smoking is for us is one of them. Just "go with it".

2. At the risk of offending not only you but possibly other readers here, I would say there's a lot of self-righteous indignation going on these days about all kinds of things in movies. We have to recognize that films were not made then, nor are they now, to delineate morality or proper, healthier ways of  living (whatever that might be). I love it when the characters walk into someone's apartment and immediately light up and pour out some whiskey ! ( It always seems to be whiskey, for some reason. Either that, or champagne cocktails, if it's in a nightclub...) It's kind of fun. Plus, I can enjoy those "vices" vicariously, without inhaling nicotine or imbibing alcohol myself.

Honestly, why should we care if movies back then showed people drinking, smoking, or doing anything else for that matter that's not acceptable today ?  (Ok, I won't touch racism or sexism, that's a whole different dog biscuit. But even then I can see that stuff in old films and just recognize that these movies are decades old, people were unenlightened then. It doesn't stop me from enjoying the movie.)

[Vautrin]

8 hours ago, Hibi said:

LOL! I get it now........

I guess they want to protect the millions of ten year olds who are on the site who

already know what it stands for.