Year: 2015

Review: The Mask of Dimitrios

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The Mask of Dimitrios is a film noir from 1944 with the dynamic noir duo of  Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet. This is the first feature film of director Jean Negulesco. Negulesco was slated to direct the Maltese Falcon in 1941, but was soon replaced by John Huston. He finally got his big break with this film and went on to a great career as a director in Hollywood. He also teamed up with Lorre and Greenstreet for a few more films. This is also the first film of Zachary Scott. This movie is based on the book A Coffin for Dimitrios by Eric Ambler.

Our story starts with a dead body washing up on shore in Turkey. This body is identified to be Dimitrios Makropoulos,a slick criminal that Colonel Haki has taken special interest in. Haki is played by Kurt Katch in this film. Colonel Haki in this film is the same character played by Orson Welles in Journey Into Fear a year earlier. I reviewed Journey Into Fear here:

https://everythingnoir.com/2015/06/26/review-journey-into-fear/

Haki tells Cornelius Leyden, played by Lorre, a time line of Dimitrios’ crimes and past locations. Leyden is an author of detective stories and is intrigued by Dimitrios’ story and decides to further investigate him for a future book. As Leyden starts his investigation at the records office in Greece we soon see Mr. Peters…or is it Mr. Peterson? played by Greenstreet following Leyden. They soon meet on a train as Mr. Peters tells Leyden where to stay at his next stop. This film also uses flashback scenes to tell Dimitrios’ story as Leyden learns more and more about him. The mystery grows as we learn more about Dimitrios’ past. Will we find the connection between Mr. Peters and Dimitrios? Will we find out how Dimitrios died and why? Will Leyden get the story he wants for his next book?

This film has a pretty interesting story and hooks you as you want to learn more. I have to say though, my favorite parts of this film are the scenes of simple conversation between the two leads. Greenstreet and Lorre are two great actors and how they deliver their lines and interact with each other are some of the best I have ever seen. I can see why they where teamed up for 9 films together.

Zachary Scott is also very good as the title character, playing a smart charming criminal and spy.

The Mask of Dinitrios is a film noir I never really heard about until TCM’s Summer of Darkness. I liked the two leads in the Maltese Falcon and other films and was intrigued. This was a big hit when it was released in 1944 and not sure why it is not talked about more these days. This film is amazing and worth seeing for any classic film lover. If you are a fan of any of the three leads, and who isn’t?, you will love this film.

Favorite Tidbit: The character Dimitrios Makropoulos is inspired by Basil Zaharoff, a Greek-born arms dealer who became one of the richest man in the world and was known as “merchant of death” and “mystery man of Europe.”

Taste of Cinema: The 20 Best Neo-Noir Films Of The 1990s

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Terek Puckett has picked his favorite neo-noir films from the 1990’s and it’s a pretty good list. There are a few films from the Far East I have not seen yet and will be putting in my Queue. There are also a few films that did not make the list that most, including myself, feel should be on it. He explains himself in the opening of the article why he didn’t put some of these on the list. Hopefully you will find the list as entertaining as I did and maybe find a film or two that you haven’t seen or even heard of. Here is the link to the full list:

http://www.tasteofcinema.com/2014/the-20-best-neo-noir-films-of-the-1990s/

Review: Nora Prentiss

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OK, after watching this and Woman on the Run, which came out three years later and I reviewed earlier on this site, I’m a huge fan of Ann Sheridan. Nora Prentiss is a classic film noir from 1947 directed by Vincent Sherman.

This is a unique film in the classic film noir period. The first scene is a man covering his face and not wanting to talk to the press. The press is asking if “he really killed him” and similar questions. If it was not for this scene letting us know we are going into some dark noir story in this film, we may not think it was noir film for the first 40 minutes or so. The first part of this film is a love story between Dr. Richard Talbot played by Kent Smith and Nora Prentiss played by Sheridan. They meet when Nora is accidentally hit by a car and is brought to Dr. Talbot for examination.

Nora flirts with the Doctor and has him drive her home. When she finds out he is married, she apologizes for being fresh with him. Of course it is too late as Dr. Talbot is already having feelings for Nora, and you can see why. Sheridan does a great job of having you fall in love with her so you can easily see why Dr. Talbot would. Nora is a lounge singer and soon the Doctor goes to the night club to see her sing. The relationship progresses and Dr. Talbot says he is going to ask for a divorce that night. Talbot goes home and finds a party going on for his daughter’s 16th birthday, which has slipped his mind. We soon see Talbot start to lose his mind. Soon Talbot is seeing a patient, who drops dead in his office. Talbot noticing the striking resemblance between himself and this man and decides to trade places with him. So he fakes his own death, using the patients body and moves from San Francisco to New York with Nora. Nora has no idea this has happened and is happy that her love has decided to go to New York with her. We now see in the second half of this film why it is considered a noir! Will Talbot totally go crazy and hurt Nora? Will Nora figure out what her boyfriend has done to get out of his marriage? Will the dead man’s past come back to haunt our couple?

This is a very good classic film noir with two great performances from our leads. This film doesn’t seem to get the recognition it deserves and I’m not sure why? This is a film that needs to be seen more. Go watch it and then tell a friend or two about it as well. If you like classic film noir or just classic film, this is worth your time.

Review: Kill Me Three Times

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Australia has been making a lot of great neo noir films as of late. Does Kill Me Three Times continue the streak? Kill Me Three Times is directed by Kriv Stenders and written by James McFarland and has a cast from around the world.

This film uses film noir tropes, but doesn’t even attempt to put a new spin on them, for better or for worse. The story starts with our main star, Simon Pegg, down on the ground, looking like he is about to die and says so in classic voice over fashion. This of course reminded me of Sunset Boulevard. The camera rises into the sky to show a house on the beach and we go into a flashback. Pegg’s character is Charlie Wolfe, who is a fixer, private detective, assassin? The one original idea about Wolfe is that he is a professional killer who is a lousy marksman.

Since this film is told in flashbacks and out-of-order it is hard to talk about this film and not give out to many spoilers. It tells a story of a small group of characters who all do not like each other.

Our femme fatale for this film is Teresa Palmer playing Lucy Webb. She is married to a dentist and her brother owns a bar. She manipulates both of them into doing unspeakable things to get what she wants.

Sullivan Stapleton plays Lucy’s husband Nathan. Nathan has a gambling problem and is in debt to a bookie for $250,000 and needs to pay it within a week.

Callan Mulvey plays Lucy’s brother and owner of the bar, Jack Taylor. Jack doesn’t trust his wife and feels she is cheating on him, he maybe right.

Alice Braga plays Jack’s wife who is abused by Jack and in constant fear for her safety. She is looking for a way out-of-town and her marriage.

Luke Hemsworth plays a good guy who owns the local gas station. He is kind of clueless to what is happening around him and it maybe to late before he figures it out.

Bryan Brown plays a local cop who is also a heavy for the bookie Nathan owes money to.

The film is told in three parts, all leads us to why Wolfe is on the ground near death. We have illegal gambling, insurance fraud, murder, theft and double crosses through out the film.

Well I’m sorry to say this is not a great neo noir film from Australia. It’s not a bad film just not on par with some of the other films coming out of Australia lately. It is a shame, because I really liked the cast, Pegg is always entertaining and the two female leads are good. The story was not horrible, but didn’t bring anything new to the party. It does have its entertaining moments but is just missing something to put it over the top. There are worse ways to spend a lazy afternoon if you are looking for something new in the genre to watch, just don’t expect anything special.

1947 Blogathon! Review: Born to Kill

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Born to Kill is a classic film noir from 1947 directed by Robert Wise based on the book Deadlier than the Male by James Gunn.

This was a staring vehicle for Lawrence Tierney who came to prominence in Dillinger a few years earlier. The public ate up Tierney as the bad boy, all the women loved and all the men wanted to be, he’s just a little more bad than most. This also stars Claire Trevor as our femme fatale.

Born to Kill has almost every film noir trope you can think of, a crime of passion, loose women, murder, star-crossed lovers, unreliable characters, a private eye, black mail, friends loyal enough to kill for, crazy circumstances involving our main characters, not many truly good people and more.

This film starts with Helen played by Trevor getting out of court with her divorce finally official. She has been in Reno 6 weeks to get this done and now it is her last night in town. She goes home where she meets two women drinking in her rooming house. Laury Palmer played by Isabel Jewell, who lives next door to the rooming house and Mrs. Kraft played by Esther Howard who owns the rooming house. Palmer mentions she is using one man to make another man jealous as the girl talk continues. They are drinking beer and ask Helen to join them to celebrate her divorce. She declines and goes to the casino for one last night on the town. Helen is at the craps table when she sees Sam, played by Tierney, throwing the dice. We see the instant attraction between the two. Palmer and one of her dates runs into Helen at the craps table and Sam does not look happy. Palmer and her boyfriend go back to her place and run into a furious Sam.

Sam is the boyfriend Palmer is trying to make jealous and boy did she do a good job! Sam murders the two and in his getaway lets Palmer’s dog out. Helen comes along and sees the dog and brings him back to the house to find the two dead bodies. She doesn’t say anything and gets on the train to go back to San Francisco. Sam goes back to his place where his friend, played by Elisha Cook Jr., tells Sam to get on the next train to San Francisco. Soon Sam and Helen get on the train at the same time and our story gets more complex and interesting in San Francisco. We soon meet Helen’s sister played by Audrey Long and a hard-boiled private detective played by Walter Slezak for good measure.

So as you can see from my brief introduction to this movie that a lot of the film relies on a crazy amount of coincidences. That aside this is a very dark film with Sam being a man who women cannot resist and Helen being a woman that will do anything to get what she wants. This film had to really push the limits of what could be in a film in 1947. This is Robert Wise’s first film noir and he went on to make many more great ones. Strange to think of a director who could make such dark films is probably better known for his musicals later in his career.

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This is a very high level film noir and should be checked out by everybody who loves classic film. You could write a book on this film, but I’m going to stop writing now and let you go out and experience this film for yourself.

 

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Article: In The Third Man, Orson Welles is Actually the Femme Fatale

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Here is an interesting article by Stephanie Zacharek at the L.A. Weekly. Though the title catches your attention with an interesting theory, there is a lot of other great insight into one of the all time great films noir. The article talks about some of the other great actors who were considered for the two main parts and why they “settled” for Cotten and Welles.

Check out the full article here:

http://www.laweekly.com/film/in-the-third-man-orson-welles-is-actually-the-femme-fatale-5754481

Review: Renaissance

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Renaissance is an animated sci-fi neo noir made in 2006 using CGI, Motion Capture, and only Black and White with no shades of grey. This film is French and directed by Christian Volckman, but since it is animated it does not have subtitles, but is re-voiced in English. Daniel Craig voices our main character Karas.

This film takes place in a future Paris of 2054 and combines a classic noir look and story in part, with a futuristic sci-fi plot line. The film starts with our hard-boiled detective, Karas having a nightmare of his past. This shows his hard upbringing and his mind state in the present. The film takes us to a flashy club where we meet two sisters. They are an yin yang pairing as one is a hard driven scientist and one is a slacker who just wants to have fun and can careless about work. Our hard-working scientist is kidnapped while leaving the club with no trace. Karas is brought on to the case to find her and she has to be alive. The girl works for a big corporation called Avalon and they work on anti-aging and health products. They are also very powerful. This is where Karas starts his investigation. Was our kidnap victim part of corporate espionage? a victim of circumstance? Did she discover something in the lab she shouldn’t have? Will Karas find her?

This film is more style then substance. It isn’t a bad story, but your senses are drawn to the visual style more than anything.

This is a fun film to watch, think a mix of Sin City and Blade Runner. If this sounds amazing to you, you should check out this film. Though I would recommend both of those films over this one, it is still worth watching.

Book Review: Lamentation by Joe Clifford

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Lamentation by Joe Clifford is a noir book that takes place in New Hampshire. There is currently a big movement of Southern Noir in literature, but who doesn’t like a change of location once in a while? I received a copy of this book for a fair and honest review.

This book came out in late 2014 and is well received by book reviewers everywhere so far. Things won’t change much here, because I also loved this book.

Lamentation is told from the point of view of Jay. Jay is a smart guy who grow up in a small town in New Hampshire and is still there. He works for Tom who does estate sales. He basically moves things from the house of the dead and decides what is trash and what Tom can sell at flea markets and such. It is the middle of the winter and Tom doesn’t have any work for Jay and lays him off until things pick up. Jay has an ex-girlfriend, who he is still in love with, and they have a child together. Jay also has a brother, Chris, who in my opinion is the most interesting character of the book. Chris is also a thorn in Jay’s side. Chris is a homeless drug addict who is full of paranoid conspiracy theories.

When Chris is wanted for questioning in the murder of his business partner, it is in everybody’s best interest if Jay finds him before somebody else does. As Jay knows Chris is not capable of murder, he recruits his best friend and an old high school classmate that is now an investigator for an insurance company, to help him with his own investigation. The book gets more interesting as Jay looks into the murder and how Chris is involved. Small town rumors boil to the surface and Jay learns more about his brother and his town as he goes.

I loved this book! It is well written and has a story with multiple threads of interest that I could not read fast enough to see what it all meant. This does delve into some pretty dark themes and is immensely entertaining. If you are a fan of noir, mystery or crime fiction it is a book I believe you will enjoy. I look forward to reading more books like this from Clifford and wish him a long and lustrous career.