Angelica Jade Bastién has written an interesting article over at Vulture. She looks at neo noir and what is missing from it lately compared to the classic noir period. She gives a very interesting point of view with some great information. Though I don’t agree with everything she has to say, it does make for some interesting reading and discussion. What do you think of her take on noir and neo noir?
http://www.vulture.com/2015/08/noir-has-atrophied-its-not-all-true-detectives-fault.html
Paste has made a list: “The Best Film Noirs of All Time”. This list mixes in classic film noir with more modern neo noir films for an interesting list. I like the films on the list, but may disagree with the order. What do you think of the list? How many of these films have you seen?
http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2015/08/the-100-best-noirs-of-all-time.html?a=1
Angel Face is a classic film noir directed by Otto Preminger from RKO while Howard Hughes was the head of the studio. The story revolves around Robert Mitchum who is an ambulance driver and a young women with issues played by Jean Simmons.
This film starts with Mitchum as an Ambulance driver, on a call at a mansion. The lady of the house had a close call with a gas leak, but seems OK now. Mitchum goes down stairs and talks to Simmons, this is where the infamous slapping scene happens.
Hughes was not happy with Simmons and put her in this film at the end of her contract. He hired Preminger to make her life a living hell. Preminger made Mitchum slap Simmons over and over again to get the right take. Mitchum finally walked over to Preminger and slapped him full force asking if that is the way he wanted it. Simmons later in life still could not watch this film because of the hell she went through making it. The only thing she loved about this film was Mitchum.
In the film Simmons befriends Mitchum and gets him a job as the driver for her Father and Step-Mother. Soon her Step-Mother and Father dies in a horrible car accident. It looks like the car was sabotaged and our couple is the prime suspects.
Simmons plays one of the best femme fatale in noir history in this film and Mitchum is great as always. The ending is one of the bleakest of all time as well. The story is good and over all the film is above average. Well worth your time if you are a fan of film noir or one of the two stars.
Favorite Tidbit: Simmons cut her hair short, knowing Howard Hughes hated his leading ladies having short hair. She thought this would get her out of her contract with RKO. Instead Hughes made her wear a horrible wig through out this film.
A Cry in the Night is a film noir from 1956 directed by Frank Tuttle. The three stars are:
Edmond O’Brien playing a detective and father
Natalie Wood playing O’Brien’s daughter
though the poster says the third star is Brian Donlevy, playing the detective in charge of the case, the real third star of this film is Raymond Burr playing a psychopath.
This story starts out with Wood and her boyfriend, played by Richard Anderson, up at “Lover’s Loop” parked in his car. They are discussing their future together when the boyfriend notices a man in the trees watching them. He goes to investigate and a scuffle ensues. Burr hits the boyfriend with his lunch box. The boyfriend goes down and Wood comes over to see how he is doing. She thinks he is dead and Burr carries her away and steals the car. When the police find the boyfriend, they think he is drunk and throw him in the tank. A doctor at the police headquarters discovers him and brings him into Donlevy’s office to tell his story. When Donlevy finds out Wood is the girl kidnapped, he goes to O’Brien’s house to inform him of the situation. This scene is interesting as O’Brien plays a fun-loving husband and father, drinking a beer and talking to his wife. When he is informed of his daughter’s kidnapping, he instantly turns into a hard-boiled detective.
The story takes place over the course of one night with a pretty straight forward plot. Burr is a pretty interesting character here as a mentally disturbed man who lives with his overbearing mother. Natalie Wood also stands out playing a teenager in trouble, but in the 1950’s she may have been the best at that.
This is a very good film noir worth checking out. It is a hidden gem and if you are a film noir fan you will find it very entertaining.
Favorite Tidbit: This film was from Jaguar Productions, a small movie production company that only lasted a few years. It was established by Alan Ladd. You can hear his voice in the beginning of the film in an uncredited voice over.
Ross MacDonald’s Lew Archer is coming back to the silver screen and Joel and Ethan Coen are involved. This sounds like a match made in noir heaven!
Criminal Love and Other Stories by Mike Monson is a hodge podge of a book. The first third is a collection of short noir tales. Some of these are as short as a few pages long. The stories pack a punch and some would make a great premise for longer stories or even novels. It is amazing how much story Monson can put in just a few pages. Most of the tales take place around Monson’s current home of Modesto, California, but one standout tale for me was “An Evening in Sin City.” This story is about a couple on vacation in Las Vegas. When the wife just wants to stay in the room and watch the same old reality television she would be watching at home, the husband decides to go downstairs and play some craps. When he wins big and catches the eye of a young attractive women who looks like Cher in her youth the story really takes off and doesn’t end the way you would think.
The middle third of the book is some short stories of Monson’s own experiences working at different locations. Some of these are humorous and some insightful and some are just disturbing how big corporations see their employees.
The last third of the book is a few interviews with crime authors. The four authors interviewed are Tyler Dilts, Jason Starr, Jake Hinkson and J.A.(Julie) Kazimer. I have not read any of these four, but look forward to checking out their work based on these interviews. It was interesting to see how different and how similar all of them are.
So the book is very entertaining in a variety of ways. Some may find only one or two section of the book to their liking, but the whole book is worth reading. All Due Respect does it again with another great entry in the noir genre! I haven’t read anything from these guys that I did not like yet. I look forward to reading more from this publisher in the future. Check out their website for all the books they have available.
Michael Mills over at moderntimes.com wrote this short but insightful article on film noir and the femme fatale a few years ago. It is worth a few minutes to read it. With a title like High Heels and Wet Pavement how can you go wrong!
Here is the link to the full article:
Run All Night is another neo-noir staring Liam Neeson, will this be as good as A Walk Among the Tombstones or has Liam Neeson run his course as the over the hill action star? This film was directed by Jaume Collet-Serra who also teamed up with Neeson for Unstoppable and Unknown. Neeson has an outstanding supporting cast with Joel Kinnaman, Common, Ed Harris, Bruce McGill, Genesis Rodriquez, Vincent D’Onofrio, and Nick Nolte in a small uncredited part. This has to be a great film, right?!?!
Neeson plays a burnt out thug, who is down on his luck. He is a close friend with Harris’ character, who is a mob boss. They both have sons and when one son sees the other committee a murder the adventure begins. Kinnaman plays Neeson’s son and the witness to the murder. He has a family with his wife played by Rodriquez and a job as a limo driver. He has estranged himself from his father and is living on the straight and narrow. When Neeson hears about the murder and his son being a witness he sets out to do whatever he can to keep him safe.
This all takes place over the course of one night as for some reason, if they make it to the morning all will be OK. The action is great and some of the scenes are entertaining and the acting is pretty good. This film is just missing something for me to call it a great film. There are worse ways to spend a lazy evening then watching this film, but I can’t call it a “must see” film. If you are a huge fan of Neeson you will enjoy this film. If you have not seen Neeson in a neo noir film but would like to try one, I would say skip this one and watch A Walk Among the Tombstones instead.
Follow Me Quietly might be the freakiest classic film noir of them all! This film was made in 1949 and directed by Richard Fleischer. Noir directing great Anthony Mann helped with the story.
This story is a classic police procedural, centering around Police Lt. Harry Grant played by William Lundigan. Grant is on the case of The Judge, a serial killer who seems to attack his victims when it rains. Dorothy Patrick plays Ann Gorman, a journalist for a dirt rag. Grant is not a fan of the magazine Gorman works for and does not want to work with her. Gorman is charming and Grant finally agrees to help her as long as he is in full control of the article. When Grant can not get a decent lead on The Judge, he brings in a sketch artist to draw what they know. Then a dummy maker is brought in to do a life-size rendition of The Judge to help them identify him.
If you don’t find this kind of creepy, I don’t know what will. There is a scene with the dummy in a rain storm that will make you jump as well.
Jeff Corey is also very good in this film, playing Police Sgt. Art Collins. He is the voice of reason to Grant, as Grant starts to lose his mind with the pressure of the investigation.
This is a very good, short film noir and it is worth watching for all noir fans. It is also worth viewing to see how police procedures have changed and how they have stayed the same over the last 5 decades. Not to mention the freaky dummy is worth the price of admission.
So I recently posted Taste of Cinema’s Top 20 of the 00’s films. Noir author Jedidiah Ayres picked his top 100 Crime Flicks of the 00’s. So if 20 wasn’t enough for you, check out this great list of 100 films!
http://letterboxd.com/jedidiahayres/list/hardboiled-wonderland-100-crime-flick-picks/
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