C.Bogle Posted September 12, 2010 Share Posted September 12, 2010 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DownGoesFrazier Posted September 13, 2010 Share Posted September 13, 2010 I hereby christen you the Chris Berman of the noir threads. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C.Bogle Posted September 13, 2010 Share Posted September 13, 2010 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!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DownGoesFrazier Posted September 14, 2010 Share Posted September 14, 2010 I especially liked the Steelers in the heyday of Franco (American) Harris. (Incidentally, the ladies are probably wondering what we are talking about.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
misswonderly3 Posted September 14, 2010 Share Posted September 14, 2010 Sports stuff? Incidentally, I've heard that the "Phillies" are doing quite well this year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sewannie Posted September 14, 2010 Share Posted September 14, 2010 *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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C.Bogle Posted September 14, 2010 Share Posted September 14, 2010 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DownGoesFrazier Posted September 14, 2010 Share Posted September 14, 2010 deleted Edited by: finance on Sep 14, 2010 4:28 PM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DownGoesFrazier Posted September 14, 2010 Share Posted September 14, 2010 In other words, he, in announcer parlance, is a "vertical", rather than a "horizontal" runner. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C.Bogle Posted September 15, 2010 Share Posted September 15, 2010 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DownGoesFrazier Posted September 15, 2010 Share Posted September 15, 2010 You seem to want to combine noir and sports.........OK, how about THE SET-UP? Any others? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChiO Posted September 15, 2010 Share Posted September 15, 2010 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) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C.Bogle Posted September 15, 2010 Share Posted September 15, 2010 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DownGoesFrazier Posted September 15, 2010 Share Posted September 15, 2010 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DownGoesFrazier Posted September 15, 2010 Share Posted September 15, 2010 There are. though, several badminton noirs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LoveFilmNoir Posted September 15, 2010 Author Share Posted September 15, 2010 > {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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DownGoesFrazier Posted September 15, 2010 Share Posted September 15, 2010 I believe that Mitchum gets the male cake, closely followed by Robert Ryan. For supporting roles, it may be Elisha Cook, Jr. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LoveFilmNoir Posted September 15, 2010 Author Share Posted September 15, 2010 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... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DownGoesFrazier Posted September 15, 2010 Share Posted September 15, 2010 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LoveFilmNoir Posted September 15, 2010 Author Share Posted September 15, 2010 > {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? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
misswonderly3 Posted September 15, 2010 Share Posted September 15, 2010 What about Gloria Graham? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesJazGuitar Posted September 15, 2010 Share Posted September 15, 2010 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LoveFilmNoir Posted September 16, 2010 Author Share Posted September 16, 2010 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? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
misswonderly3 Posted September 16, 2010 Share Posted September 16, 2010 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C.Bogle Posted September 16, 2010 Share Posted September 16, 2010 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." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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