Film noir runneth over on the schedule lately

[C.Bogle]

White Heat, a gangster pic or a film noir? I could go either way, and either way

it's a great movie. I think one of the best noir-like moments in the film is when

Steve Cochran and Virginia (Hold the) Mayo are in the old dark house waiting for

the possibility of Cody to take his revenge on the person who rubbed out dear old

Ma. Even without the Technicolor, Virginia is looking pretty good (as usual).

 

If Tierney were still vertical I'd make two things plain to him: I'm not going to be

Mr. Pink and if he doesn't like the lining in my new jacket he can eat some lead.

Yeah, you heard me right chrome dome.

[DownGoesFrazier]

I hereby christen you the Chris Berman of the noir threads.

[C.Bogle]

Ouch. Okay, let's take one more look. There's Cody, there's the chicken leg in his

hand, watch it, here comes the gun out, right... now. Bang, bang. Old Cody ventilating

the trunk of the car. Wow. Top of the...quick switch, Steelers without Big Ben, overtime

against the Falcons, here's Rashard Mendenhall on a roll and he's going to go...all...The..WAY!!

[DownGoesFrazier]

I especially liked the Steelers in the heyday of Franco (American) Harris. (Incidentally, the ladies are probably wondering what we are talking about.)

[misswonderly3]

Sports stuff? Incidentally, I've heard that the "Phillies" are doing quite well this year.

[sewannie]

*I especially liked the Steelers in the heyday of Franco (American) Harris. (Incidentally, the ladies are probably wondering what we are talking about.)*

 

Ladies can be sports fans too. On that note, the Steelers pleasantly surprised me by beating the Falcons without Ben.

 

Sarah

[C.Bogle]

It sure was a long time between all those great Steelers' teams with Franco,

Swann ,Bradshaw, Stallworth, Mean Joe, et al. before they won the Super Bowl

again. One down, three to go. I'm a Mets' fan and they're out of it this year, which,

in a way, is better than seeing them screw it up during the last month. I can't

stand the Braves, so I'll go for the Phillies. Having the wild card makes the

race between the Braves and Phillies a little less exciting, but it will still be

fun to watch. Okay, back to the shadows and those ambiguous figures who

dwell there.

 

 

Now if only ol' Walter had sold sporting goods instead of insurance, might have had a

early sports noir.

 

-Mr. Neff, are you trying to go off sides with me?

-Life's a gridiron, Mrs. Dietrichson.

-Well, right now, you're back on your own five yard line.

-Don't worry, I'm gonna make a big gain, baby.

-And I'm going to throw up a big block. Mr. Neff.

-I wonder if it's just a feint.

-I wonder if you really wonder.

-And while you're wondering if I'm wondering, I'm heading

for your end zone.

-Oh really. And how do you think you're going to get in?

-Straight down the line, baby. Straight down the line.

[DownGoesFrazier]

deleted

 

Edited by: finance on Sep 14, 2010 4:28 PM

[DownGoesFrazier]

In other words, he, in announcer parlance, is a "vertical", rather than a "horizontal" runner.

[C.Bogle]

That's one way to put it. Fast Walter Neff was a great open field runner until he met

that dame with the anklet. Never the same after that. Ended up on crutches I heard.

[DownGoesFrazier]

You seem to want to combine noir and sports.........OK, how about THE SET-UP? Any others?

[ChiO]

Some that come to mind:

 

*Body and Soul* - boxing

*The Harder They Fall* - boxing

*Night and the City* - wrestling

*The Killers* (Siegel) - car racing

*The Hustler* - pool

*The Killing* - horse racing

*The Basketball Fix* - basketball (duh!)

 

Edited by: ChiO on Sep 15, 2010 1:27 PM (to add a couple I should've thought of before)

[C.Bogle]

That was only half serious, as every once in a while new attempts at noir combos

pop up. The Killing and horse racing has already been mentioned, and Swede

in The Killers was a boxer. Farley Granger was a tennis player in Strangers on

a Train and I'm sure there are a few others. Boxing is probably the sport most

associated with the sleazy, shadowy world of noir. It's hard to imagine a noir that

includes volleyball as a plot device.

[DownGoesFrazier]

I was thinking of the other 2 boxing movies on your list , but questioned whether they are usually classified as noir. I guess so. CHAMPION also has noir characteristics.

[DownGoesFrazier]

There are. though, several badminton noirs.

[LoveFilmNoir]

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

> There are. though, several badminton noirs.

 

LOL!!

 

Sports is such a good back drop for noir. Even on crime dramas on TV episodes revolving around pro or college sports (think "Law and Order" and it's spin offs) are usually pretty good.

 

I know we go on and on in this thread with random talk, but I just wanted to say that as I go over noirs I have seen and have yet to see, Joan Bennett is in many of them....is it possible that she is actress with the biggest contribution to the noir genre? (still trying to figure out which male gets the cake). I am determining this by how many of her credits are considered noir. I might even take her total film credits (not including made for TV) and figure out what percentage of her career is film noir.

[DownGoesFrazier]

I believe that Mitchum gets the male cake, closely followed by Robert Ryan. For supporting roles, it may be Elisha Cook, Jr.

[LoveFilmNoir]

Hey finance,

 

I just counted seven for Joan that are "confirmed" noir but now for some reason, it doesn't seem like that many. Let's get a count going for Mitchum & Ryan. I won't count someone like Elisha Cook, Jr. just yet since he was all over the place.

 

I counted 7 for Joan:

1941 Man Hunt

1944 The Woman in the Window

1945 Scarlet Street

1947 The Woman on the Beach

1948 Secret Beyond the Door...

1948 Hollow Triumph (THE SCAR)

1949 The Reckless Moment

 

81 film credits (according to TCM) - 5 made for TV films = 76 credits

7 noirs/76 total credits = 0.0921 of her career is noir...so about 9%

 

I wonder who's made more noirs and has a higher percentage of noir making up their film career...

[DownGoesFrazier]

I did a tentative count for Mitchum and Ryan out of the noir encyclopedia a few days ago. I came up with about 15 for Mitchum and 12 for Ryan. These are very difficult numbers, because it depends on what films you consider to be noirs.

 

Edited by: finance on Sep 15, 2010 3:29 PM

[LoveFilmNoir]

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

> I did a tentative count for Mitchum and Ryan out of the noir encyclopedia for Mitchum and Ryan a few days ago. I came up with about 15 for Mitchum and 12 for Ryan. These are very difficult numbers, because it depends on what films you consider to be noirs.

 

That is impressive. I expected them to definitely have over 10 noir credits and I see I was right. Just for the sake of making things easier and eliminating debate, for this particular calculation, I would call noir films from the classic noir dates.

 

I am still trying to come up with the actress....Gene Tierney has 6, 7 if you count "Personal Affair" as a British noir....it certainly has the elements but some may consider it a suspense/mystery.

 

There has to be an actress with at least 10 noirs under her belt, right?

[misswonderly3]

What about Gloria Graham?

[jamesjazzguitar]

Can people indicate what source they are using for 'confirmed' noirs. Like I said with my post about Ryan and Mitchum, I'm using Film Noir by Ward Silver (but mine is a first edition so maybe they added more movies in later editions?).

 

My edition only list 4 noirs for Joan Bennet: Hollow Triumph, The Reckless Moment, Scarlet Street, and Woman in the Window. To me Man Hunt isn't a noir but then again the book Film Noir defines a noir as an american art form so that leaves out British films by definition.

 

Tierney only has 5 noirs: Laura, Leave Her to Heaven, Night and the City, Shanghai Gesture, and Where The Sidewalk Ends.

 

The women with the most (7 films) are Grahame, Lupino and Stanwyck.

 

Again, I'm not saying the above is correct, I just providing the info as defined by a specific source.

[LoveFilmNoir]

jamesjazzguitar -

 

I am not near my few books on noir, but i do keep a few lists of noir I have gotten from books, interviews, websites etc. on my computer to reference. Now that I think about it, I really can't use the term "confirmed" because once again, the definition of film noir will come into play when certain titles are mentioned. For example, Fox released DAISY KENYON as a noir, but it ain't no film noir! (nobody is murdered!!)

 

Tierney was in Otto Preminger's 1949 WHIRLPOOL which is classified as a noir even in it's official DVD release.

 

Can you list the noirs of the ladies you mentioned?

[misswonderly3]

So, without looking anything up, wouldn't you guys say Gloria Graham has to be right up there? And I would have thought Claire Trevor made a lot of noirs, too.

 

 

Don't forget, folks: Tomorrow, Thursday night, September 16, at 8:00, TCM is showing

UNDERWORLD USA. I saw this once, and never forgot it. A very notable latter-day film noir.

Sam Fuller directs. If you're busy that night, try and record it.

 

Edited by: misswonderly on Sep 15, 2010 9:02 PM

[C.Bogle]

It wasn't until that night that I realized a shuttlecock can smell like honeysuckle.

 

It's mostly harmless, but confirmed is kind of an odd term to apply in this case.

It sounds like a group of experts meets and then renders their opinion as to whether

a film is a noir or not. "By a vote of 8 to 2 we have definitely confirmed that Touch of Evil

is indeed a film noir. All decisions are final."