Stranger on the 3rd Floor

[misswonderly3]

Exacatly.

 

 

(Now that we've got that settled, my ego or pride or something is demanding me to point out that I really don't think I make all that many mistakes. Maybe we can move on, otherwise I'll be biting my fingernails every time I post now.)

 

Edited by: misswonderly on Jul 17, 2010 10:13 AM

[redriver]

If my father was still alive, he'd love that picture of Ava. And I thought we had nothing in common!

[misswonderly3]

red, baby, I always thought we had lots in common -except for your admiration of Ava Gardner ! As you may be aware, I'm not her biggest fan. I think the attraction to Ava is a "guy thing".

 

Interesting what you said about how it actually rarely rains in L.A., when so many movies show it raining there so much.

 

Just to stay on topic, I'm going to try and post a still from *Stranger on the Third Floor*

 

Just look at those shadows, that twisting staircase. Peter Lorre's back

ward glance. How noir can you get?

 

Edited by: misswonderly on Jul 17, 2010 12:43 PM

[redriver]

Tell a man Ava Gardner is not a good actress, the response will likely be, "And..."

[misswonderly3]

I know, I know, Ava keeps coming up in this forum. I still don't get it. But that's ok, you guys do.

[jamesjazzguitar]

Well you posted that latest picture. (and I thank you for that!).

 

I'm thinking of re-posting it under Sexy Noir gals since that is where it belongs.

[misswonderly3]

If you scroll down a little, you'll see the reason why I posted it. It was a kind of joke.

[jamesjazzguitar]

No reason to explain, why. Like I posted before, I thanked you for it so feel free to post another one! I only mention sexy noir gals since there Ava was a major topic of discussion also. Of course I don't believe Ava is on an island. Most likely the picture was taken at a beach in Southern California.

[C.Bogle]

=250 width =500>

 

Coming to a thesis near you, a new (maybe) noir subgenre, Ur Noir. Noir from a trip

in the way wayback machine.

 

Nice photo of Ava. Looks like she's trying to make a couple of points.

[misswonderly3]

What is that? Looks like some silent German expressionist thing. Of course, silent German expressionist films are one of the antecedents of noir, so we're still on topic. (But I don't see Ava anywhere in that pic.)

[DownGoesFrazier]

.....or else do all your posting at 3AM, so you have at least four hours to edit your posts before anyone sees them.

[misswonderly3]

I always thought everybody took at least 4 hours to edit their posts. We all have the time to do that, don't we?

um...maybe I should just give up and hire a tutor. Or a "ghost writer" to re-write my posts. Instead of a "ghost writer" I'd have a "post writer". Because if you figure it would take me four hours to edit them, I must be far less literate than I fondly limagined.

 

So -back to this genre: I can think of only one noir (from the "classic" era, anyway) that has a writer as the main character. Can anyone name who this is, and what film it is? And are there any others?

 

Edited by: misswonderly on Jul 18, 2010 6:01 PM

 

...now I'm exhausted

[C.Bogle]

It's from one of the great grand daddies of them all, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. I

haven't seen it in ages. I wonder if it's one of those boring classics that everyone has

to see, but it turns out to be a dud. It's been so long I really don't remember. I was

referring to your photo of Ava's **** on the stump pose. Not the most flattering of

shots, IMO. Hello lady, you're sitting on a darn tree stump!

 

I can think of a couple of noirs with writers as the main characters: Sunset Boulevard,

he may not be much of one, but he is a writer. Laura with gossip columnist Waldo

Lydecker, who could forget him. And one I almost forgot, Cornel Wilde as the purple

proser in that Technicolor freak show Leave Her to Heaven. I'm sure there are others.

[ValentineXavier]

> {quote:title=misswonderly wrote:}{quote}

> So -back to this genre: I can think of only one noir (from the "classic" era, anyway) that has a writer as the main character. Can anyone name who this is, and what film it is? And are there any others?

 

I can think of two - *In a Lonely Place*, where Bogart plays screen writer Dixon Steele, and *The Third Man*, where Joseph Cotton plays writer Holly Martins. I'd bet there are more. I have a vague recollection of of a film where a detective novel writer plays detective, that was probably a noir, but I can't recall more than that at the moment.

[ChiO]

*The Mask of Dimitrios*

*Beyond a Reasonable Doubt*

*While the City Sleeps*

*Sweet Smell of Success*

*Shock Corridor*

*Chicago Confidential*

*Call Northside 777*

*Stranger on the Third Floor*

[misswonderly3]

Wow, there are a lot of noir films with writers as the main characters. What was I thinking? Thanks,

ChiO.

The one I had in mind was, *In a Lonely Place* , with Humphrey Bogart as the talented screenwriter with "anger issues". But there are so many more. So many, it almost makes me think this might be a kind of sub-theme of some noir movies. Some of the ones people listed are so obvious, I can't believe I didn't think of them; I think it's partly because I was thinking of "writers" as novelists, screenwriters, etc. But of course reporters and journalists are writers, and they're all over the place in noir .

 

And, yeah, back to the nominal topic of this thread: of course, as you point out, the main character in *Stranger on the Third Floor* is a writer, a reporter.

Anyone want to explore this further?

[DownGoesFrazier]

I guess someone who punches out at least one person a day could be said to have anger issues.

[misswonderly3]

finance baby, just because I put quotation marks around something doesn't mean I disagree with it.

There's no question that Dixon Steele had huge anger problems, that his irrational rage that sometimes emerged is what makes this film a tragedy. I sometimes put quotation marks around a phrase that I consider to be trendy or jargon-y, just because I'm too lazy I guess to stop and think of a better term .

[DownGoesFrazier]

I'm not disagreeing with you. I'm just reinforcing your point..... Somehow, "finance, baby" doesn't sound right. What's the expression for two words that don't go together?

 

Edited by: finance on Jul 19, 2010 10:19 AM

[LoveFilmNoir]

> {quote:title=ChiO wrote:}{quote}

> *The Mask of Dimitrios*

> *Beyond a Reasonable Doubt*

> *While the City Sleeps*

> *Sweet Smell of Success*

> *Shock Corridor*

> *Chicago Confidential*

> *Call Northside 777*

> *Stranger on the Third Floor*

 

Great list. I'd also add *Scandal Sheet* to your list.

[DownGoesFrazier]

Waldo Lydecker (Clifton Webb) could be said to be the main character of LAURA .Was he just a radio commentator, or did he also write a column?

[LoveFilmNoir]

> {quote:title=finance wrote:}{quote}

> Waldo Lydecker (Clifton Webb) could be said to be the main character of LAURA .Was he just a radio commentator, or did he also write a column?

 

I should know this seeing as how I watched the film just last week. Gone are the days of me watching a film and discussing and dissecting it in depth in a paper....now I watch for my keeks. I am drawing blanks right now because after I watched *Laura*, I watched *Vicki*, and in that noir, there was a press agent getting the title character's name in popular columns.

[misswonderly3]

"oxymoron" ?

 

LoveFilmNoir, I believe Waldo Lydecker also wrote columns for a major newspaper. So he would definitely count as a character in film noir who is a writer.

[C.Bogle]

With all the time he spent in his bathtub with his little rubber ducky, I hope that

Waldo wasn't a (from home) radio commentator. Hello everybody, this is Waldo

Lydecker, broadcasting from my bathtub in my apartment in the Collingswood.

And now for news from Broadway and Hollywood.

 

Whenever I watch Laura, I can't help but think of the old high school triangle of

the football captain, the head cheerleader, and the wimpy nerd, now grown up.

You know the nerd is going to lose every time. Now, down from the penthouse

back to the 3rd floor.

[DownGoesFrazier]

deleted

 

Edited by: finance on Jul 19, 2010 3:08 PM