Year: 2015

Review: The Prowler

bryancyr film-noir, Movie , , , , ,

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The Prowler from 1951 is a classic film noir from director Joseph Losey. This was one of Losey’s last Hollywood productions before fleeing to Britain due to being accused of Communist activity. I touched on this a bit more in my review of Time Without Pity here:

https://everythingnoir.com/2015/11/28/review-time-without-pity/

Dalton Trumbo was one of the writers on this film as well. Trumbo had his own problems with The Special Committee on Un-American Activities. This is the subject of a new film starring Bryan Cranston, a film I look forward to seeing as soon as I can.

The Prowler stars Van Heflin as a beat cop and Evelyn Keyes as a bored housewife. The movie starts with a prowler spooking Keyes’ Susan. Heflin’s Webb and his partner answer the call to investigate. Both Susan and Webb are from Indiana and have a common history, but neither seems to know the other. This is the start of, us as the audience, not trusting one or both of our characters. I have to say both actors play their roles well, we cannot get a read on either of these characters at first. Is Susan using Webb to get away from her husband? Does she know who Webb is and has always been in love with him, going all the way back to growing up in Indiana? Is she a calculating femme fatale? Webb is a cop that wishes he had Susan and her husband’s money and lifestyle. He hates being a cop and wants to get out of the job to make his mark somehow. Is he using Susan for her money? How far will he go to get it?

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This film will take you on a roller coaster ride of good luck to bad timing to our character’s just digging a deeper hole all the way to the end.

James Ellroy loves this film and introduced it at screening like this”In 1951, Joseph Losey and Dalton Trumbo struck a masterpiece of sexual creepiness, institutional corruption and suffocating, ugly passion. You will need antidepressants, booze, drugs and bleak anonymous sex after you see this movie and—believe me—you are in the perfect city to find that! The great Dalton Trumbo wrote it, the great Joseph Losey directed it, Evelyn Keyes and Van Heflin in The Prowler.” I seen this on TCM and in the opening credits Ellroy was thanked for his help in getting this film restored.

This is a very good noir that every film noir fan should see. Enjoy the ride all the way to the bitter end.

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Favorite Tidbit: Even though Dalton Trumbo was already on the Blacklist at this point, he wrote the story under the pseudonym, Hugo Butler. He is also the voice on the radio (Susan’s Husband) through out the film.

Review: A Hard Day or Kkeut-kka-ji-gan-da

bryancyr Asian Noir, Movie, Neo-Noir , , ,

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A Hard Day is a neo-noir from South Korea written and directed by Seong-hoon Kim. This was released in 2014, but just recently got a DVD release here in the States.

This film stars Sun-kyun Lee as a dirty cop who is on a downward spiral and luck is not on his side. The film opens with him driving at night in the rain. He gets a phone call from his partners who tells them he will be there with the key soon. This key is to a drawer containing evidence the Internal Affairs Division is trying to get to. He next gets a call from his sister wondering where he is. He is supposed to be attending his Mother’s funeral. Trapped between two places he needs to be, he swerves to miss a dog in the road, but hits a man out of nowhere. The man is dead, so Lee puts the body in his trunk and continues on. Now he hits a D.U.I. stop and knowing he will not pass a Breathalyzer test, pulls out his credentials as a police detective.

This all happens in the first 15 minutes of the film and his luck doesn’t seem to get better as the film progresses.

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Kim’s last film was a comedy and this film has some comic moments, but it is not over the top and keeps the noir feel through out. It is a great study of character, as the film starts with the absolute worst person as our hero and as the film progresses we start to cheer for this man and hope he can get out of this endless conflict. The film has a very claustrophobic feel and will lift your heart rate through out.

If you love Asian Cinema or are looking for something new to watch on DVD, this is a good choice.

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Favorite Tidbit: This film was released to little fan fair in Korea and didn’t do that well it’s first week at the box office. Because of good word of mouth the film caught on and became a big hit, staying number 2 at the box office for 4 weeks. Hollywood blockbusters X-Men: Days of Future Past and Edge of Tomorrow where the only films to bet it. It went on to win numerous awards and nominations.

Book Review: Selena by Greg Barth

bryancyr Book, Noir , , , ,

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Selena, written by Greg Barth is another fun pulp noir from the publisher All Due Respect. When I started reading this book, I didn’t know if Barth was a genius who understood damaged young women, or a writer making a strong but flawed female character. Is Selena an unreliable narrator? Could a character be this damaged yet this strong? Was Barth just writing some sick twisted male fantasy of a woman? I didn’t know and still don’t, all I know is I couldn’t put down the book and had to force myself to, or it was going to be a sleepless work night.

This book is split into three parts and each part has a different feel. The first part is a brutal revenge noir, the second is a country noir, and the third is a survival noir. All three parts are told in the first person by Selena herself with the exception of the third part which bounces from first person to third person and back.

Selena is an interesting character that has gone through a lot. She is a stripper, prostitute, alcoholic who occasionally partakes in drugs and was an abused child. Her Mother died when she was young and she has been struggling ever since. The book opens with Selena waking up from a one night stand and when she steals some cash and a CD, things get dark fast. Something is on the CD, but she doesn’t know it. She is attacked at the strip club she works at and is brutally beaten and raped. When she recovers and sets out to get even, we are lead on a violent journey where one act of revenge escalates to another, until we are in an all out war.

Selena is about as damaged a character I have ever read. As I was reading this, I couldn’t get past thinking if this character was based on any possible truth. After a few hundred pages I stopped analyzing Selena and just sat back and enjoyed the ride she took me on. After all this is pulp fiction, it doesn’t have to be based on any kind of reality.

I will warn you, this is a very brutal and violent book. If you are squeamish, this may not be the book for you. If you like your sex, drugs and violence brutal and bloody, you will enjoy Selena. Thanks to All Due Respect and Greg Barth for another dark pulpy entertaining book and can’t wait to tackle the recently released sequel Diesel Therapy soon.

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Both books are available over at http://allduerespectbooks.com/

News: William McIlvanney: Godfather of Tartan Noir dies aged 79

bryancyr Book, News, Noir , ,

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Sad news coming out of Glasgow, Scotland today, December 5th, 2015. William McIlvanney has passed away at the age of 79. Known as the godfather of Tartan Noir, McIlvanney was a force in Scottish literature. Read the full news article over at The Guardian here:

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/dec/05/william-mcilvanney-not-just-godfather-of-tartan-noir-but-lion-of-literature

Article: Fritz Lang Top 10 Films

bryancyr article, film-noir, Movie

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Today is December 5th, Fritz Lang’s birthday. Fritz Lang is one of the most innovative and influential directors in history. He has made some of the best pre-film noir era movies as well as some of the greatest film’s noir. In celebration of his birthday we are looking at two top ten lists. Both of these look at his entire career and vary a great deal.

The first is from B.F.I.:

http://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/news-bfi/lists/fritz-lang-10-essential-films

The second is from Taste of Cinema:

http://www.tasteofcinema.com/2014/10-essential-fritz-lang-films-you-need-to-watch/

Happy 125th Birthday Fritz Lang! What is your favorite Fritz Lang films?

 

Review: The Woman on Pier 13

bryancyr film-noir, Movie, Uncategorized , , , , , , , ,

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The Woman on Pier 13 is a film noir released in 1950. In 1949 it was released in Los Angles and San Francisco under the title I Married a Communist to a poor reception, hence the name change before its more wide release.

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This film was directed by Robert Stevenson, who directed a number of lesser known film noir through out his early career before finding a home at Disney and directing some of their classic live action film.

The film stars one of noir’s greats, Robert Ryan as Brad Collins, who has just got married to Nan, played by Laraine Day. While on their honeymoon they run into Christine, played by Janis Carter. Christine is a bit of a femme fatale for this story and has a past with Brad when they both lived back in New Jersey. We soon learn both were part of the Communist Party back in New Jersey and Christine still is. With Brad now a big wig with the dock workers, the Party wants to use him to their advantage.

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Will Brad be able to break his ties to the “Party?” Will Christine bring him back into the fold?

John Agar plays Nan’s brother and is involved with the union, Thomas Gomez plays a higher up in the Communist Party, and look for William Talman as hired muscle for the Party in one of his earliest film roles. My surprise standout for this film is Janis Carter who starts out as a classic femme fatale and grows more of a heart as the film goes on.

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This film was a very good noir worth watching if you can see beyond the propaganda against the Communist Party. This film portrays the Party more like a heartless Mafia organization then a political party. Some might find the way the Communists are viewed as a nice time capsule to how afraid American’s where of the Reds.  Robert Ryan is great as always in his role as a man that made a mistake in his youth and has to pay for his past sins.

If you are a fan of Robert Ryan and other small budget film noir for R.K.O. you will find this one just as entertaining.

Article: ‘The Nice Guys’: First Image Reveals Ryan Gosling & Russell Crowe in Shane Black’s Noir Thriller

bryancyr article, Movie, Neo-Noir, News , , ,

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People Magazine has released a picture from the new Shane Black movie. I’m a big fan of Black’s work with him writing and directing one of my favorites, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. He is also the writer of Lethal Weapon and The Last Boy Scout. So when Black describes this new film, The Nice Guys, as a“spiritual sequel” to Kiss Kiss Bang Bang I get pretty excited. Read the full article over at Collider about this film staring  Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe here:

http://collider.com/the-nice-guys-ryan-gosling-russell-crowe-shane-black/

Who else is excited to see this film?

 

Article:7 Neo-Noir Films Worth Watching

bryancyr article, Best of Lists, Movie, Neo-Noir ,

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Jeff Rindskopf has made a nice little list of neo-noir films over at CheatSheet.com. This is a great little list and if you are only going to pick 7 films these are all good choices. It is more of a beginner’s list, if you will or a great place to start for new fans of the genre. Check it out and see what you think:

http://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/7-neo-noir-films-worth-watching.html/?a=viewall

 

 

 

Book Review: Quarry’s List by Max Allan Collins

bryancyr Book , , , ,

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Quarry is coming to Cinemax in the form of a new television series! Because of this, Hard Case Crime is re-issuing all the classic books by Max Allan Collins. These books are from the 1970’s and follow the exploits of Quarry, a Vet who has returned from Vietnam, but some of Vietnam has stayed with him. Not able to get a regular job, Quarry has become a professional hitman.

This book, the second in the series, takes place 4 or 5 month after the events of the first book. Because of those events Quarry is relaxing at his lake house when two professional hitmen come to his house to kill Quarry. Quarry of course survives, but he needs to find out who sent these killers and why. An old partner of Quarry’s is the only lead he has.

This book has a beautiful blond, is she a femme fatale? We also get one of Quarry’s ex-partners that is an entertaining character, I hope he shows up in future books. There is also a mob lawyer who seems to have a piece to the puzzle Quarry is trying to solve. This is another fun book in this enjoyable series. A series worth checking out for any noir fiction fan.

I highly recommend you read Quarry, the first book in this series, before you read this one. This is a direct sequel to that book and knowing the events of the first book will make this book that much more enjoyable. Here is my review of Quarry:

https://everythingnoir.com/2015/11/21/book-review-quarry/

I must say, I am loving this series so far and look forward to continuing to read the books and also looking forward to the new T.V. series coming soon.

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Favorite Tidbit: The new edition of this book by Hard Case Crime has an afterword by Collins where he talks about when these books where first printed, the publisher picked the titles.  Quarry was titled The Broker and this book was titled The Broker’s Wife(the title is a bit of a spoiler). He never liked these titles and re-named them with the titles they go by today on subsequent printings.

 

Review: The Connection or La French

bryancyr french noir, Movie, Neo-Noir, Uncategorized , , , , , ,

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You ever wonder what happened in in France while Popeye Doyle in New York was taking care of the events depicted in The French Connection? Well it has been a few decades since that classic film, but the concept is intriguing.

The Connection is a film from France, directed by Cédric Jimenez, made in 2014. The film is based on the true story of the heroin trade in the 1970’s and early 1980’s.

The movie revolves around two men on opposite sides of the law. Jean Dujardin plays Pierre Michel, a police magistrate hell bent on taking down the drug trade in Marseilles. Michel bends the laws a bit to get the job done and has to balance family and work throughout the film.

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Our second man this film revolves around is Gaëtan ‘Tany’ Zampa played by Gilles Lellouche. This is the man Michel is trying to bring down. He is the head of the drug cartel and rules with an iron fist. When Michel will bend a rule or break a law to get ahead in this film, our criminal Zampa uses the law and manipulates the police force to keep himself out of prison and in power.
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We also get a plethora of characters from drug dealers, chemists, cops and gang members. The look at France in the 1970’s with the similarities and differences between a Disco era America are fun as well.

The film would make for an interesting double feature with The French Connection. Read my look at the original classic here:

https://everythingnoir.com/2015/04/11/re-watching-the-classics-the-french-connection-2/

This film has a very different tone and feel then The French Connection, but tackles the same historic events, just from a total different perspective. This film is worth seeking out for fans of true-crime, history, French cinema and noir.

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