Eddie Mueller, Noir Host

[TopBilled]

Oh no!  Don't get me wrong!  I was just saying, as TomJH said better, we shouldn't try to speak for the audience at large.  For myself film noir every Friday night would be right up my dark rainy alley.

What some people are not realizing is that the Friday Night Spotlights have often (though not always) been genre driven. Matthew Broderick hosted one on screwball comedies; there was one last summer on swashbucklers; there was another one earlier this year on the roadshow musicals; and now we've had the Summer of Darkness focus on noir for two months.

 

But if you look at the schedules post-August (after SUTS) it looks like they are no longer calling it a Friday Night Spotlight and that there will be other special programming, like the retrospective on women filmmakers-- which a person could argue is a genre unto itself.

[mrroberts]

While he seems just a tad dry, if given time I'm sure he'd loosen up as "TV host" just as Ben M has. "Hosting" is a particular kind of "role" and as an audience, we have definite expectations of how a "host" should behave. 

 

But I agree...the empty set is just awful. A living room set, late night diner set, barroom set, ANYthing would have looked better and been more natural feeling than empty space.

 

Heck, if TCM could have afforded it, different sets could have illustrated his points; set in a bedroom Mueller could have discussed how beds were shown in movies as an "unwritten code for sex" and the like.

Any host doing intros for a noir film should just go film it in a dimly  lit back alley, trash cans lying around, a drunk passed out leaning against a wall (if its blood stained with some bullet holes even better),  police/ambulance sirens wailing in the background, etc, etc.

[TomJH]

Any host doing intros for a noir film should just go film it in a dimly  lit back alley, trash cans lying around, a drunk passed out leaning against a wall (if its blood stained with some bullet holes even better),  police/ambulance sirens wailing in the background, etc, etc.

. . . And just before the film starts the last sight we should have of that film noir host as he looks at the camera is of that drunk gaining his feet behind him and moving in on him from behind with a broken bottle. Then, truly, we will be in the right frame of mind for a noir.

 

After the film ends, when we see the host again he will be bandaged up in a hospital room, with the doctor telling us that the host will be alright and back with us in a week's time to introduce another noir classic.

 

Each week there should be some kind of variation on this, with the host in some kind of potential danger. Heck, after a while, viewers may even become more interested in what is going to happen to the film noir host during the intros than in the film itself.

 

Eddie Muller has been great at playing the cool, calm in control host of these presentations. But this will give him the opportunity to display a few acting chops, perhaps, as he is constantly placed in danger, and the viewers get to yell out things like, "Look out, Eddie! Behind you!"

[DownGoesFrazier]

The question DGF asked was: Incidentally, is there ANY film in which ALL the characters have as unattractive personalities as does GILDA?.

 

I answered,  Too Late for Tears,  and I still feel that way.    I view the husband Alan as an unattractive personality because of his inability to plot a course and stick to that course.    He didn't have to convince Jane.  All he had to do was turnover the money to the police.   Instead he was just too weak to tell her NO so he lead her on.      

 

PS:  I would add The Maltese Falcon as another film where all the main characters have an unattractive personality.   (the only likeable person is Tom the cop).        Regardless it is still one of my favorite films.

A wimp is a wimp, but is not "unattractive" per se.

[DownGoesFrazier]

I completely agree. 

 

But I wouldn't take a poll on this board if I were you.

I'll leave that to Rich, the consummate pollster.

[piltdownman]

When I think of the great LA locations they could have used!  Really a great opportunity wasted. The Formosa immediately 

comes to mind.

 

ANYTHING would be better than this cavernous Warehouse of Logos. Shoot it in front of the Frolic Room or at a table in Musso and Franks or in a million different extant LA locations, or, to make it easier, just rent a "New York Street" on one of the lots for a day.

 

This really gets back to TCM abandoning live action shooting in their opens, closes and interstitials.  I'm quite sure it's just a bottom line issue;  the accountants ask "Why do we have to shoot it? Can't you just animate it or something?" It has left us with a less textured and interesting looking network...

[CaveGirl]

What a plethora of fascinating reveals of the noir psyche, all resulting from my teensy weensy little prod.
Having given up my bad girl noir days of lying and cheating, I can finally reveal the truth of my intent, to see what really gives in the vaste wasteland of pale that now subsists as noir.

I see the sycophants, I see the hopefuls, I see the die-hards, I see the self-serving victims and I see the true noir aficianados...not afraid to buck the crowd, in many of the posts. Don't hate me for being bad, just hate me as I can take it. Now that is the kind of female host from the rabble that you should get to sire the post, but don't look at me as I am currently incarcerated.
 

I purposely misspelled a certain person's name, so that the censors or faithful fannage would not alight in unison to block my post. One doesn't have to go far to remember the host's name is Muller, just like Maude of sweet candy fame. I was also pleased to see that the most tame girlie contingent [the Virginia Huston imitators] came out in full force to praise and give adulation to their potential suitor.

Only a few posters were astute enough to get it in the subtext, like someone named EdgeCliffe who I would like to meet in some dark alley someday, but of course packing some heat just in case.
 

Perhaps my displeasure at the hosting vapidity is due to the fact that I often find the truly knowledgeable and most avid fan of any subject matter, be it gandy dancers, palimpsests or film noir, is one with no agenda or things to promote, like books or other paraphernalia. Just my view, but if others are so pleased so be it but one must remember that saying a host is knowledgeable about the subject is relative to the defender's own level of knowledge.
 

So kill me, for not being part of the majority, but that's what noir is all about...right? A lone woman going against the grain and the vicissitudes of life, looking for that one great heist or take or time of her life. I'm looking for the great, the utmost, the ginchiest as Kookie would say. Vanilla is not what noir is all about, and contrary to what a Mister Tom thinks, no "fedora", nor "five" or four "o'clock shadow" could repair that or cure my noir angst...or even a trench coat, though I do think trench mouth might be appropriate.

Now...back to my lonely cell. Thanks to all who posted such succinct comments.

[DownGoesFrazier]

What a plethora of fascinating reveals of the noir psyche, all resulting from my teensy weensy little prod.

Having given up my bad girl noir days of lying and cheating, I can finally reveal the truth of my intent, to see what really gives in the vaste wasteland of pale that now subsists as noir.

 

I see the sycophants, I see the hopefuls, I see the die-hards, I see the self-serving victims and I see the true noir aficianados...not afraid to buck the crowd, in many of the posts. Don't hate me for being bad, just hate me as I can take it. Now that is the kind of female host from the rabble that you should get to sire the post, but don't look at me as I am currently incarcerated.

 

I purposely misspelled a certain person's name, so that the censors or faithful fannage would not alight in unison to block my post. One doesn't have to go far to remember the host's name is Muller, just like Maude of sweet candy fame. I was also pleased to see that the most tame girlie contingent [the Virginia Huston imitators] came out in full force to praise and give adulation to their potential suitor.

 

Only a few posters were astute enough to get it in the subtext, like someone named EdgeCliffe who I would like to meet in some dark alley someday, but of course packing some heat just in case.

 

Perhaps my displeasure at the hosting vapidity is due to the fact that I often find the truly knowledgeable and most avid fan of any subject matter, be it gandy dancers, palimpsests or film noir, is one with no agenda or things to promote, like books or other paraphernalia. Just my view, but if others are so pleased so be it but one must remember that saying a host is knowledgeable about the subject is relative to the defender's own level of knowledge.

 

So kill me, for not being part of the majority, but that's what noir is all about...right? A lone woman going against the grain and the vicissitudes of life, looking for that one great heist or take or time of her life. I'm looking for the great, the utmost, the ginchiest as Kookie would say. Vanilla is not what noir is all about, and contrary to what a Mister Tom thinks, no "fedora", nor "five" or four "o'clock shadow" could repair that or cure my noir angst...or even a trench coat, though I do think trench mouth might be appropriate.

 

Now...back to my lonely cell. Thanks to all who posted such succinct comments.

Wow.

[Hibi]

Wow.

 

 

Your opposite!

[primosprimos]

What a plethora of fascinating reveals of the noir psyche, all resulting from my teensy weensy little prod.

Having given up my bad girl noir days of lying and cheating, I can finally reveal the truth of my intent, to see what really gives in the vaste wasteland of pale that now subsists as noir.

 

I see the sycophants, I see the hopefuls, I see the die-hards, I see the self-serving victims and I see the true noir aficianados...not afraid to buck the crowd, in many of the posts. Don't hate me for being bad, just hate me as I can take it. Now that is the kind of female host from the rabble that you should get to sire the post, but don't look at me as I am currently incarcerated.

 

I purposely misspelled a certain person's name, so that the censors or faithful fannage would not alight in unison to block my post. One doesn't have to go far to remember the host's name is Muller, just like Maude of sweet candy fame. I was also pleased to see that the most tame girlie contingent [the Virginia Huston imitators] came out in full force to praise and give adulation to their potential suitor.

 

Only a few posters were astute enough to get it in the subtext, like someone named EdgeCliffe who I would like to meet in some dark alley someday, but of course packing some heat just in case.

 

Perhaps my displeasure at the hosting vapidity is due to the fact that I often find the truly knowledgeable and most avid fan of any subject matter, be it gandy dancers, palimpsests or film noir, is one with no agenda or things to promote, like books or other paraphernalia. Just my view, but if others are so pleased so be it but one must remember that saying a host is knowledgeable about the subject is relative to the defender's own level of knowledge.

 

So kill me, for not being part of the majority, but that's what noir is all about...right? A lone woman going against the grain and the vicissitudes of life, looking for that one great heist or take or time of her life. I'm looking for the great, the utmost, the ginchiest as Kookie would say. Vanilla is not what noir is all about, and contrary to what a Mister Tom thinks, no "fedora", nor "five" or four "o'clock shadow" could repair that or cure my noir angst...or even a trench coat, though I do think trench mouth might be appropriate.

 

Now...back to my lonely cell. Thanks to all who posted such succinct comments.

No prob, Eddie M. still outshines RO by light years. 

 

He'd make a great co-host with Ben M.

[Movie Collector OH]

Your opposite!

 

I guess that's the long and short of it.

[Hibi]

I guess that's the long and short of it.

 

 

LOL!

[Dargo]

Just wanna say here that despite Eddie's awkward hand moments that CaveGirl brought up in her original posting, I think he's been doing a pretty good job in his wraparounds, and think his "lack of facial expression" and a somewhat "monotonous" delivery works well in the case of his presenting these array of Film Noir movies, and almost makes it seem as if he would have fit right into these films which most often depict people acting and emoting as if they have something to hide and in a very similar manner as Eddie speaks.

 

HOWEVER, the idea that Eddie Muller could EVER replace "Uncle" Bob Osborne and could be just as good as Bob while, say, introducing some Shirley Temple flick OR say some big lavish Technicolor musical, makes me almost laugh out loud at such a thought!

 

And regarding another thought that CaveGirl brought up initially, and one which I believe was her REAL reason and intention for this thread..the idea that some sultry femme fatale-type should be doing these wraparounds instead of Eddie..well, regarding THAT, I could easily envision a friend to TCM, one Rose McGowan, doing these Noir intros and perhaps while dressed in 1940's style clothing.

 

(...she always kind'a reminded me of Jane Greer, anyway)

[CaveGirl]

Thank you, Dargo!

 

This pretty much says it all about what makes Muller an appropriate host for film noir, and pardon me if I do chuckle a bit at its backhanded complimentary style:

 

" his monotonous delivery works well"

Buster Keaton might have been a good choice also.

 

But you got my point, get a femme fatale, as females are more deadly as hosts and it is a killer topic.

[Movie Collector OH]

Maybe they should invite NCIS actor Michael Weatherly on as a guest host sometime.  He appears to be a genuine film buff, plenty of movie quotes and plots get written into the TV script just for him.

[misswonderly3]

      ....PS:  I would add The Maltese Falcon as another film where all the main characters have an unattractive personality.   (the only likeable person is Tom the cop).        Regardless it is still one of my favorite films.

 

Who the hell is Tom the cop?  Oh.....Ward Bond? You think he's likable?

 

I love all the characters in the 1941 Maltese Falcon (except maybe for Tom the cop.)  Gutman and his merry band are all hilarious.

How come you always want movie characters to be moral? Morality in characters has a direct correlation to dullness.

[AndyM108]

Who the hell is Tom the cop?  Oh.....Ward Bond? You think he's likable?

 

I love all the characters in the 1941 Maltese Falcon (except maybe for Tom the cop.)  Gutman and his merry band are all hilarious.

How come you always want movie characters to be moral? Morality in characters has a direct correlation to dullness.

 

Which may be why I've always found Gary Cooper and Gregory Peck to be among the dullest actors imaginable.

[LornaHansonForbes]

Which may be why I've always found Gary Cooper and Gregory Peck to be among the dullest actors imaginable.

 

There's a naturalistic nature to Cooper's acting, so I give him a pass (although I understand why some don't care for him, and I have seen a couple of awful performances from him early in his career.)

 

But when it comes to Eldred, you and me are simpatico.

[DownGoesFrazier]

Just wanna say here that despite Eddie's awkward hand moments that CaveGirl brought up in her original posting, I think he's been doing a pretty good job in his wraparounds, and think his "lack of facial expression" and a somewhat "monotonous" delivery works well in the case of his presenting these array of Film Noir movies, and almost makes it seem as if he would have fit right into these films which most often depict people acting and emoting as if they have something to hide and in a very similar manner as Eddie speaks.

 

HOWEVER, the idea that Eddie Muller could EVER replace "Uncle" Bob Osborne and could be just as good as Bob while, say, introducing some Shirley Temple flick OR say some big lavish Technicolor musical, makes me almost laugh out loud at such a thought!

 

And regarding another thought that CaveGirl brought up initially, and one which I believe was her REAL reason and intention for this thread..the idea that some sultry femme fatale-type should be doing these wraparounds instead of Eddie..well, regarding THAT, I could easily envision a friend to TCM, one Rose McGowan, doing these Noir intros and perhaps while dressed in 1940's style clothing.

 

(...she always kind'a reminded me of Jane Greer, anyway)

He would fit in  even better if you could see that he was carrying a gun on his person.

[DownGoesFrazier]

Your opposite!

I haven't been in  a cave in years.

[Hibi]

I haven't been in  a cave in years.

 

 

Really?

[MovieMadness]

Maybe he needs a few tattoos, those seem to be the noir of today. Skulls, dragons, swords, a nose ring, partly shaved head. And leather, lots of leather.

[Hibi]

Maybe he needs a few tattoos, those seem to be the noir of today. Skulls, dragons, swords, a nose ring, partly shaved head. And leather, lots of leather.

 

 

Perfect!

[CaveGirl]

No, no, no!!!

 

A gun is not what TCM's current noir host needs, unless; well, no we won't go there.

 

I've dated a guy who was a detective and was packing his underarm gun holster when we'd go out to dinner. Had quite a few real brushes with the dark side, not just from reading books or pretending to be a G-man.

 

Now he actually would be a good candidate for noir hosting chores, but he's under the witness protection plan right now.

 

No gun, or tattoos, or skulls, or leather will help in this case for what a noir host needs if he is to be rivetting as a presenter on the TCM noir files.

 

It's the attitude. The attitude of the current host is soporific. Why would I want to see the host of a noir festival be one of the guys who would be taken in by the dame. Would I want Kent Smith or Tom Drake to be more than a fall guy in the bigger scheme of things, and have to listen to what he has to say also. Blahsville!

 

Of course not. This is why a woman host for any future TCM ventures into the wet, dark streets of Dashiell Hammett or Cornell Woolrich tales, would the the host with the most appeal.

 

I might accept a man as host, if he at least be someone like George Sanders or Ralph Meeker who would not be easy fodder for the Claire Trevors of the world.

 

Would I listen to the ravings of an inmate of an asylum, if I were interested in learning about the theme of insanity.

 

Would I pay attention about traffic rules, from a guy who got hit by a chick in a Ferrari as he waved to her. 
 

No. Rhetorical questions but still true. 

All males who find noir women fascinating and would be easily taken in by them, need not give any more opinions on this topic. 

 

 

I'd kneel down in penance for my bad behaviour here, but it might bag my stockings.

 

 

[JamesJazGuitar]

I think another 'wow' is necessary.