Lana Turner is one of film noir’s favorite femme fatales, but she found herself in a real life film noir in 1958.
Karina Longworth has a great article about Turner’s life and the incident in 1958 that changed Turner’s and her daughter’s lives forever. Here is a link to that great article over at Slate.com:
Here is a great short documentary from the old television series, Mysteries and Scandals, covering Turner’s life.
Dog Eat Dog is a novel by Edward Bunker. Bunker is an interesting character. His past involves a criminal career, a horrible childhood, a very high I.Q., becoming an author in prison and acting in some of the most classic neo noir films of the last 40 years. This book was released in 1995 and should be read by any crime fiction fan and especially any fan of noir fiction.
This story is about 3 ex-convicts who have been friends since juvenile hall. Mad Dog lives in Portland with his girlfriend and young daughter. Diesel has been working with a union in Sacramento and does the odd job for the local mob boss from time to time. He has a nice house, a wife and a brand new Mustang. Troy is our third man in this trio. Troy is a smart man that most criminals love. Troy has just got out of prison and is already got a plan in place to make some money.
This journey takes us to the underworld of Los Angeles in the 1990’s. We have drug dealers, crooked lawyers, kidnapping, murder, drug addiction and robbery just to wet your appetite for the dark corners this book goes to.
You can tell Bunker cribs from his own experience in crime for this book. There is a lot of parallels between Troy and Bunker. Bunker also covers some social issues in this book. One thing he covers is the disappearance of the middle class in Los Angeles. Something that continues to happen in many areas of the country today. Another topic is the Three Strike Law that went into effect in California in 1994, a year before this book was released. The law basically states that after your third felony you where going to go to prison for life. This book basically tells us that with this law, we are making people with two strikes willing to do anything not to go back to prison. This maybe a very good point and is something that has been changed in 2012, now it has to be a serious or violent felony for your third strike. I am no lawyer and don’t get into politics much, but for example, in one case a 2 time felon was caught stealing a set of golf clubs. He was sent to prison for life because of the 3 strike rule. Though he is a 3 time felon, and I have no idea what his previous 2 felonies are,(and he did already serve his time for those) life seems a little extreme for stealing golf clubs.
This is an amazing book and I could not put it down. Knowing a little bit about Bunker’s background made me interested in reading him. I was not expecting such a well written book. You will not be disappointed in this book! I highly recommend reading this before the movie is released later this year.
This movie could be amazing or it could be very disappointing. Lets look at the information we have so far. First off the material is second to none for a neo noir film. Second is the talent involved. Paul Schrader wrote the screenplay and is directing. His movie writing credits are some of the best neo noir films in the last 40 years. On the other hand his directing credits have been hit and miss, some are very good and some are unbelievable bad. Our main star, playing Troy is Nicolas Cage, if there is ever an actor in modern film that can be absolutely brilliant in one film and then over act and go totally campy in the next, it is Cage. Schrader promises a return to form for both him and Cage in this picture and I really hope he is right. Here is a link to a couple articles about the upcoming film:
http://deadline.com/tag/dog-eat-dog/
One thing this film has me excited about is Willem Dafoe as Mad Dog. This casting should be worth the price of admission.
The Crimson Kimono is a classic film noir from writer and director Samuel Fuller. Fuller is an interesting artist that tackled some interesting topics and pushed the boundaries with his films and this one is no different.
Glen Corbett and James Shigeta play police detectives. Not only are these two partners, but also best friends. They even live in the same apartment and have fought side by side in the war. Corbett plays white detective Charlie Bancroft while Shigeta is Japanese detective Joe Kojaku. This film was released in 1959 and I don’t know if this is the first buddy cop film with a white police officer and a minority partner, but it has to be one of the earliest.
This film starts out with a stripper being shot and killed in the street. When a painting of the stripper in her dressing room is also shot and the only lead to the case, our two detectives track down the artist. Victoria Shaw plays Chris, the artist of the painting. When both of our detectives fall in love with the lovely Chris and Chris falls in love with Joe Kojaku, the drama starts. Will our heroes be distracted by Chris? Will they solve the murder?
Fuller dives into the Japanese culture in this film with a lot of Japanese martial arts being highlighted as well as a Japanese community parade. The big topic this film tackles is a biracial relationship. I liked how the criminal motives and Joe’s inner struggles parallel each other. The pull of love over friendship as well as Joe trying to figure out what is right and what is wrong for him and those he cares about is well portrayed.
Fuller was a pioneer in many ways in this film, taking themes and subject matter like martial arts, minority cultures and interracial relationships and using them in a story line. Common themes we almost expect in films today, but in 1959 this had to be new to the audience.
I like this film overall, but felt the love triangle was rushed or forced at first. This could be because of editing or budget and time constraints on the film. An interesting film for those looking for for something unique to watch and fans of Fuller.
So I just started reading Edward Bunker’s book Dog Eat Dog and can’t believe how great it is so far. Look for a book review soon. I already knew a bit about Edward Bunker, but found myself looking for a more information on this man. Most will know him from playing Mr. Blue from Reservoir Dogs. He has appeared in many other films, including Heat, Tango and Cash and Straight Time. He is a writer more then an actor and has written a hand full of novels, an autobiography along with many short stories. 2 of his books have been made into movies with a 3rd being made right now.
Charles Waring has written a great retrospective of Bunker’s life over at Crime Time well worth reading. Here is a link to that retrospective:
The Devil All the Time by Donald Ray Pollock is a noir stew spanning over decades and consisting of many tough characters, thrown in a pot and put on boil.
This is Donald Ray Pollock’s first full length novel, published in 2011. He had a short story collection come out in 2008 called Knockemstiff. Knockemstiff is the town in Ohio in which Pollock grew up. Knockemstiff is also one of the locations in The Devil All the Time. Is there a better noir name for a town? Pollock worked as a laborer and truck driver until he turned 50. He then went to Ohio State University’s English program. I guess it is never to late to become a great writer.
The Devil All the Time has many story lines that criss cross each other until the final chapter. The best way to describe this book is by the characters.
Arvin starts out a young boy, growing up in the country. His father Willard is an ex-military religious nut. Arvin’s mother is dying and Willard is not taking it well. The local Sheriff is as corrupt and crooked as they come. The Sheriff’s sister is a prostitute/bartender and is married to a serial killer. They like to make road trips and find hitchhikers to take pictures of and kill. Arvin has a grandmother who has adopted a girl. The girl’s mother has been killed and her father is the main suspect. The father and his crippled friend travel with a circus. We later run into a Pastor who is married to a young women but likes even younger women. You throw all these ingredients in and see what happens.
This book has been described as Hick Lit, Ohio Gothic, Country Noir even Horror. whatever you call it, it is a dark journey worth taking. Lets hope Pollock has many more great stories to tell. If you are a fan of Jim Thompson you will probably fall in love with Donald Ray Pollock too.
Coming off one of the best years in the genre in 2014, 2015 was a bit of a let down. With box office and critical hits Gone Girl and Nightcrawler and a cult classic in the making with surprise hit John Wick along with a crowd sourced funded return of Veronica Mars just to name a few of the highlights at the theater in 2014. 2015 really didn’t see any success at the box office for films in the neo noir genre.
The year started out with a bang, when in January, Paul Thomas Anderson’s Inherent Vice was released. Inherent Vice was a critical success, even if it didn’t do well at the box office and was not well received by the general public, it was my favorite film of the year. Here is my review of that film:
https://everythingnoir.com/2015/06/02/review-inherent-vice/
On the same day as Inherent Vice was released, a film from Australia was released in the States. It stared an always good Ethan Hawke in a sci-fi neo-noir that will make you think. Predestination from the Spierig Brothers is a stylish film worth watching. Here is my full review of that film:
https://everythingnoir.com/2015/02/20/review-predestination/
Though we got a lot of good small budget neo noir films this year, the stand out for me was Glass Chin. Read the full review here:
https://everythingnoir.com/2015/08/24/review-glass-chin/
Though film didn’t have a stellar year, television did! I have not seen it yet(hope to watch it with in the next week) True Detective Season 2 sounds like it was a bit of a let down(season 1 may have been the best television season ever, 2 was bound to be a bit of a let down), other programs stepped it up.
Season 4 of Ray Donovan was the best season yet and Season 2 of Fargo was my favorite series this year.
We also got the Breaking Bad spin-off Better Call Saul that came out in February and seems like a decade ago in a time of great television. Here was a look at Season 1:
https://everythingnoir.com/2015/04/09/review-season-1-of-better-call-saul/
One of my favorite characters was back for a short special, Luther. Here is a look at season 4 of that series:
https://everythingnoir.com/2015/12/29/review-luther-season-4/
Public Morales debuted on TNT, but got poor ratings and was cancelled after season 1. You can see how high the competition is, when this fine series only made it through one season.
https://everythingnoir.com/2015/10/25/review-public-morals-season-1/
Gotham had another great season as well. For sci-fi neo noir fans, check out the Expanse, which as just started on SyFy. There is also a long list of television I have not got to see, but want to soon. Netflix has released Bloodlines, Daredevil and Jessica Jones while Amazon has Bosch just to name a few. It is safe to say, we are in the golden age of television.
Classic film noir fans had a great summer with The Summer of Darkness over on TCM. They also offered a college course on film noir for free. I took the class and found it very informative.
TCM debuted a few newly restored classic films noir this summer, including Woman on the Run and Too Late for Tears. Look for a full review of Too Late for Tears soon and here is a link to the review of Woman on the Run:
https://everythingnoir.com/2015/06/24/review-women-on-the-run/
In Noir literature we had a number of big and small releases. Publishers like Hard Case Crime and All Due Respect continue to release pulp noir books worth checking out. Hard Case Crime continues to re-print the Quarry books which I have fallen in love with. All Due Respect had a couple of releases I loved including Selena by Greg Barth and Love You to a Pulp by CS Dewildt:
https://everythingnoir.com/2015/12/01/book-review-quarrys-list-by-max-allan-collins/
https://everythingnoir.com/2015/12/07/book-review-selena-by-greg-barth/
https://everythingnoir.com/2015/04/19/book-review-love-you-to-a-pulp-by-c-s-dewilt/
We also got the second book by Rob Thomas continuing the multi-media story of Veronica Mars:
There was a number of books that came out this year that I did not get a chance to get to(I’m not the fastest reader in the world). The Cartel by Don Winslow, World Gone By by Dennis Lehane and Where All Light Tends to Go by David Joy just to name a few.
2016 looks to hold many new television shows, movies and books worth watching. Check back to Everythingnoir.com for the latest news and reviews as I will try and keep the noir fan abreast. What was some of your favorite noir works of the last year?
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