film-noir

Review: Nightfall

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

I had this on my DVR from a showing on TCM and found the introduction to the movie interesting.  Now legendary noir author David Goodis wrote NIghtfall as a screenplay after his success with the film Dark Passage.  Dark Passage put him in the spotlight and he was in Hollywood putting his writing skills to use.  He wrote a screenplay with this story and nobody wanted it.  He got flustered with the Hollywood machine and turned it into a book.  Roughly 10 years later Stirling Silliphant took the book and made it into this screenplay.  He changed a few scenes and gave the bad guy heavies a little more depth and character.  This gave it another chance in Hollywood and it was made into this movie.

film noir directing great Jacques Tourneur was in the directors chair for this film.  It also stars Aldo Ray and Anne Bancroft as our romantic couple.  Brian Keith and Rudy Bond play our thug like bank robbers and we also have James Gregory as an insurance investigator.

This film starts out with Aldo Ray at a news stand looking at papers from the Chicago area.  Gregory talks to him at the corner waiting for his bus.  Then Ray walks into a bar and meets Anne Bancroft.  They hit it off and have dinner, after dinner our two thugs jump our couple.  Bancroft is sent home and Ray is taken in a car.  From here Ray and the thugs battle it out through out the film and the story is told with a few flashbacks to see how our thugs and our hero come to meet.  Our adventure goes from the classic noir streets of Los Angles to the wilderness of Wyoming.

I am surprised with the talent in this film, from the great writing and directing to some good performances from our cast, that this movie isn’t more talked about.  If you’re a fan of any of the cast or crew or just a classic film noir fan, you should check out this film.  It will be well worth your time.

Re-Watching the Classics: D.O.A.

bryancyr film-noir, Movie , , ,

220px-DOA1950 ” I want to report a murder.”

“Sit down. Where was this murder committed?”

“San Francisco, last night.”

“Who was murdered?”

” I was.”

Maybe the greatest opening dialog in noir history.  D.O.A. is a classic film noir from 1950 directed by Rudolph Maté who was a director and cinematographer for many great noir films through out his career.  Edmond O’Brien plays our protagonist Frank Bigalow who runs across many characters in this film, from a needy girl friend to a blonde at the end of the bar, to shady business men and a few doctors, police and a thug or two. DOA+trio The story is a simple one but an original one. Frank has to get away and goes to San Francisco on a small vacation.  He arrives at his hotel and joins a group of salesmen for a fun night on the town.  He gets a call from his girlfriend/secretary about somebody trying to get a hold of him.  He doesn’t recognize the name and figures it’s nothing.  After his night out he wakes up in the morning not feeling well.  He goes to the doctor and finds he has been poisoned.  There is no cure and he has only a day or two to live.  He uses his time left to hunt down who murdered him and why. This is such an interesting plot device that it has been remade and reworked a number of times.  The film was remade twice, once as Color Me Dead in 1969(I have not seen this) and D.O.A. in 1988(I have seen this, but it has been years, I hope to re-watch it and review it later).  The “I’ve been murdered and only have x amount of time to find the killer” plot has been done in such movies as Crank and to a certain extent in Zift as well. Though this plot has been redone in one form or another many times, this original movie is still the best of the bunch.   This is a film who classic film buffs as well as film noir fans will both find satisfying.  It’s a fun ride and if you think about it, what would you do, if you found out you only have a few days to live?

Review: Twelve Hours to Kill

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

12HOURSTOKILLTCSH

12 Hours to Kill is a B-movie noir from 1960 that caught my eye based on Barbara Eden in a starring role.  This film is based on a mystery serial from The Saturday Evening Post written by Richard Stern.  The film is directed by Edward L. Cahn who looks to be a prolific B-movie director of mostly Sci-Fi and Horror films.  I am not to familiar with his work and don’t recognize most of his films.

Our protagonist is played by Nico Minardos who plays a Greek Immigrant fresh off the boat in New York City.  It looks like Minardos mostly worked in one-off appearances on varies television shows for the next 25 or so years.

The story starts with our hero minding his business in his hotel room late at night looking out the window when he witnesses a gangland slaying.  He goes to the cops and we have two higher-ups listen to his story.  They know they have a leak in the police force so the two keep it secret and send our hero and witness to a small town.  On the train Minardos meets a beautiful women,Barbara Eden, going to the same town.  Somebody leaks the eye witnesses identity to the press and from here we just have characters chasing each other, not knowing who to trust and who not to.

Barbara Eden is the high light of this film, though her character doesn’t ring true.  She plays a women that is helps a total stranger, that she knows is in trouble, with no questions asked and is happy to do it.  Maybe at the end of the 1950’s this single strong happy to help female existed, but to me she seems to go out of her way a little to easy.  She does light up the screen and is very likable, if not believable.

41LhosvmiyL

This film has a few scenes which look brilliant.  I liked the opening scene of the gangland slaying, also the scene where our hero gets off the train and sees the bad guys waiting for him.  The movie does miss the mark elsewhere, for instance I liked some of the hand to hand fighting later in the film, but the editing doesn’t make a lot of sense.  The train scene with the little dog had potential, but doesn’t fit well with the rest of the film and seems drawn out and long.  I don’t have a degree in film and only know what I like, but I honestly feel this film could have went from a below average noir to something a bit better with some stronger editing alone.

This film doesn’t seem to have a very big following and I can understand why.  When looking at reviews on various sites, I found saying like “almost noir-esque suspense/drama” and “pretty much a by the numbers wannabe noir.”  I would say this is definitely a noir, it’s just not a great noir or even a very good one.  This is for noir fans that want to see everything or big fans of Barbara Eden. It is not a total waste but If you are new to noir, I would start somewhere else.

Favorite Tidbit: T.V. greats Gavin MacLeod and Ted Knight both appear in this movie in smaller roles, though they don’t have any scenes together.  They would of course go on to star together in The Mary Tyler Moore Show.

Review: House of Bamboo

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

house-of-bamboo-poster

I’ve seen a few things on how great Samuel Fuller is, and I’ve not really watched or read any of his stuff before.  Hope to read some of his noir fiction soon.  I got a hold of this movie first and gave it a viewing.  Fuller wrote some of the dialog for this film and directed it.  This is actually a remake of the film noir The Street with No Name.  I have not seen Street with No Name but may have to check it out and compare it to this one.  Fuller filmed this film noir in CinemaScope and color, not many film noirs from the classic era where done this way.

This has 2 noir greats in it, Robert Ryan(quickly moving into my 5 favorite noir actors list) and Robert Stack.  We also have a fairly unique setting, this film was filmed and takes place in Tokyo.  We also have some Japanese talent in this film most notably is Shirley Yamaguchi as a kimono girl and Sessue Hayakawa as a police inspector.

Our story starts out with a train heist, a group of masked men rob the train which is protected by the U.S. Military as well as the Japanese.  They kill an Army soldier bringing in the military police to investigate.  Three weeks later we have another robbery, this time a man is shot by police and then shot 3 more times by his own team!  This is to make sure he is dead and can not get caught and talk.  The problem is he didn’t die!  They take the 3 slugs out of him and they match the bullets to the one in our dead soldier.  Even though his cohorts shot him, our suspect will not talk before he does die.  They find a picture of his wife(Yamaguchi), they keep it secret so his fellow criminals do not know about her.  They also found a letter from his friend Eddie who he tells to come to Tokyo for a cut of their new job.  Soon Eddie comes to town(Stack) and finds his friends wife.  He then falls into a crew of Americans pulling heists, run by tough guy Sandy(Ryan).  The story twists and turns from there for an enjoyable film.

This was an interesting movie with some great shots and scenes, very unique being in Japan and filmed in color.  I will definitely be looking for more stuff from Fuller to watch.  This is for any fan of film noir that does not mind it being in color, as well as fans of Fuller, Ryan and Stack.

Favorite Tidbit:  According to Robert Stack, in one scene Fuller told an actor to duck really low by a 50 gallon drum as he passed.  The actor was shocked when a real bullet went by him into the barrel.  Fuller used a sharp shooter for the scene and when the actor complained, Fuller told him the shooter know what he was doing.

Review: I Wake Up Screaming

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

i-wake-up-screaming-lobby-card

I Wake Up Screaming is from 1941 and is based on the book by Steve Fisher, I have not read the book yet but will keep my eye out for a copy.  The films two main stars are Betty Grable and Victor Mature and is Directed by H. Bruce Humberstone.

This film was also released in England under the title Hot Spot.

I_wake_up_screaming

The star who I found most interesting is Carole Landis who plays Vicky.  She was the classic beauty who was trying to get ahead, using her looks and charms to get a career in entertainment, no matter who she hurt.  She is a classic femme fatale for this story. I didn’t know much about her so I did a little research to see why I have not seen her in anything before, at least anything I remember.  Turns out after giving the entertainment business her best shot she committed suicide at the age of 29.  It’s to bad, she seemed to have some talent, maybe her character from this film was a lot like the real life Landis.

Our story starts with Vicki being the center of attention for a lot of men, men who easily fall in love with her.  Vicky lives with her more down to earth sister played by Grable in an apartment.  We find our hero played by Mature under the bright light in the integration room, but he is as cool as a cucumber.  We soon find out he is being questioned for Vicky’s murder.  The story is told with a number of flashbacks as we find out bits and pieces to why Vicky may have been killed.  We also learn about our suspects, including Mature and 2 of his friends as the main suspects.  We soon learn Vicky had more than these three men in her life. Grable soon helps Mature, who is our prime suspect as they weed through the clues.  One of my favorite character actors, Elisha Cook Jr., appears as the phone board operator in the building our sisters live in. I also liked Laird Cregar who played our hardboiled tough guy cop that is out to get our hero.

This film was remade a few years later in 1953 as Vicki.  I have not seen this one yet and hope to watch it soon and compare it to this film.  By all accounts this original film is the superior movie.

This story has some great twists and turns, some good dialog, but what stood out to me is the classic film noir style of black and white filming.  The shadow play is very interesting and visually stimulating.  I enjoyed this one and think any classic film noir fan will enjoy it too.

Review: Don’t Bother to Knock

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

dont-bother-to-knock-poster-2

Don’t Bother to Knock is a film noir from Roy Ward Backer, his first for Hollywood and one of many great noir movies he did.  The movie is based on a book by Charlotte Armstrong.  This movie has superstar Marilyn Monroe as our most interesting character. Noir great Richard Widmark plays a pilot in town on an over night stay at the hotel.  We also get Anne Bancroft in her first film, as the lounge signer Widmark is in love with.

Our story starts with Bancroft sitting at a bar, telling the bartender her troubles with her boyfriend and then the spotlight hits her and she starts singing.  We soon meet her boyfriend, the pilot that comes to town from Chicago played by Widmark.  They’re relationship is on the rocks and Widmark is trying to save it.  We also meet the elevator man played by the great character actor,Elisha Cook Jr., who is taking Monroe up to the 8th floor.  We find out he is her uncle and got her a job babysitting.  Seems like a pretty average day in the Hotel, but things get stranger and stranger as time goes on.

This film is in real-time, so the events happen in the same amount of time as the film length.  This is pretty cool and done very seamlessly.  The whole movie also takes place in a high-end hotel, basically the lounge, 2 rooms and the elevator contain all the scenes.  This gives you a bit of claustrophobia as the suspense grows through out.

Marilyn Monroe was a popular star at this point.  The problem was, she was not know for her acting.  Up to this point she just played her lovable self and people ate it up.  This was her 18th movie and she made this movie to show she could act, and act she did!  This is an amazing performance of a suicidal, mentally disturbed young women, it is not over the top, very real feeling and subtle .  At the time critics loved her performance, and I got to say, I did too.  Unfortunately looking back at her life, this may have been the real Monroe and she was acting as Marilyn Monroe all the other times she was in the spot light.

MonroeDontBotherKnock

This is not as gritty as most film noir but it is just as dark, maybe even more so.  If you are a fan of any of the 3 main stars, especially Monroe you should see this.  I give it an 8 out of 10, a must see film noir.

Re-Watching the Classics: White Heat

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

220px-WhiteHeat

White Heat is a classic and should be watched by any film nut. This is directed by Raoul Walsh who did several noir films.  We have James Cagney at his best as psychopath Cody Jarrett.  Our top billed femme fatale is Virginia Mayo who uses her beauty gets men to do whatever she wants.

White-Heat-1

Well let’s be honest, our protagonists true femme fatale isn’t his beautiful wife, it’s his mom, played by Margaret Wycherly.  He will do anything for her, from robbing trains, to killing cohorts, to going to jail for a crime he didn’t commit.

This story starts with a train robbery, and it does not go as planned.  The heat is on and to get out of it Jarrett admits to a lesser crime that took place up north.  If he did that crime, he couldn’t have done the much worse train robbery.  Jarrett goes to jail, but the police are on to him.  They send Hank Fallon in undercover as the hood by the name of Vic Pardo.  This character is played by Edmond O’Brien, our good guy hero?  Pardo quickly be-friends Jarrett and they soon plan an escape.  In the mean time his wife is siding with his number two-man, Big Ed Somers, played by Steve Cochran.  They conspire to kill Ma Jarrett and soon do.

Will Jarrett and his pals escape prison?  Will he have his revenge on those that took his mom away from him?  Will the gang be able to overcome their differences and pull off another heist?  Will they figure out Pardo is really Fallon?

This movie is a must see for any film noir fan, Cagney fan or movie fan in general.  “Made it, Ma! Top of the world!” maybe only #18 on the top 100 lines in movie history by the American Film Institute, but lets face it, this is the best line in film noir history if not all of film history.

whiteheat

If you have not seen this yet, go do it right now!  Those that have, what did you think of this film?

Favorite Tidbit:  The relationship between Jarrett and his mom are based on real life bank robbers, Ma Baker and her boys.

Review: The Killer is Loose

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

tumblr_nm2k2asKuz1tgm8l7o10_1280

The Killer is Loose is a short but sweet film noir from 1956.  It doesn’t look to be viewed as much as other films with this amount of star power.  This stars noir legend Joseph Cotten and femme fatale great Rhonda Fleming.

the-killertn

This is a tension filled hour and 15 minute movie, with a simple plot that raises the bar with the great performances.

Our story starts with a very smart bank robbery, to smart.  The police force discovers clues showing it is an inside job.  This narrows down the suspect list to one Foggy Poole.  Soon a raid on Poole’s apartment is organized and Poole is not going down without a fight.  When the police break the door down and with the lights off our hero, Detective Sam Wagner played by Cotton jumps in and sees movement, he fires…and kills Poole’s wife by mistake.  Poole goes to trial and is found guilty for the bank job.  He vows revenge on Wagner by promising to taking the life of his wife, Lila, played by Fleming.  A few years go by and Poole escapes prison.  This is where the story takes off, everybody knows Poole will be coming for our hero and his wife, but will he succeed?  What will he do to get revenge on his wife’s killer?

Foggy Poole is a very creepy psychopath played amazingly by Wendell Corey.  Foggy is a killing machine with above average intelligence.  Are we seeing the roots of future serial killers like Hannibal Lecter and Norman Bates?

KIL3

Michael Pate and Alan Hale Jr.(The Skipper from Gilligan’s Island) both play smaller parts as police officers but still stand out.  This film is directed by Budd Boetticher who is more known for his western films, but did very well in this dark crime film.

I really liked this film!  The ending was a little abrupt, and some of the characters make some decisions that don’t exactly make sense.  The story is simple but the tension builds all the way to the end.  Recommended for any Cotton and Fleming fans and if you like Wendell Corey you will love this film.

Review: Shadow on the Wall

bryancyr Book, film-noir, Movie , , , , , , , , ,

thumbnail

Shadow on the Wall is a film noir from 1950 with star Ann Sothern.  Sothern was at the end of her MGM contract and this was the second to last movie she did for them.  She was around 40 and was considered over the hill in those days.  Of course Sothern would prove MGM wrong and go on to success on television and even nominated for an Oscar in her last performance at the age of 78.

This film is based on a story by Hannah Lees and Lawrence Bachmann called Death in the Doll’s House.

3284319

It looks like both the movie and the book are hard to come by.  I was lucky enough to catch the film on TCM.

The story has Zachary Scott playing loving father and husband coming home from 6 weeks on the road working.  He soon discovers his wife is having an affair.  The twist is she is having an affair with her own sister’s fiance!  Scott hints at the affair in front of his sister-in-law played by Sothern and then confronts his wife.  His wife knocks Scott out in the confrontation thinking she has killed her husband.  At this time sister-in-law Sothern comes back to the home, her sister asks for her help thinking her husband is dead.  A fight ensues and Sothern kills her sister, all while the brother-in-law and husband of the dead sister is unconscious.  Scott takes the fall for the murder and Sothern goes free.  The only problem is the young daughter of 6 played by Gigi Perreau may have witnessed the whole thing!  Perreau goes to a children’s hospital for psychiatric help.  Now Sothern has to stop her niece from remembering what really happened.

I know a little confusing but it is a web of an interesting story.  The other interesting part of this noir is our main star and character is actually the killer and we know it the whole time.  We just don’t know if she is going to get away with it or not, and if she does how is she going to do it?  Another murder? or two?

John McIntire and Nancy Davis play great roles as the doctors trying to help the young daughter and also feel Scott is innocent and they are trying to figure out who the guilty party is.  Nancy Davis maybe better known as Nancy Reagan, yes that Nancy Reagan, a role from the future First Lady.

This is a very good film noir with some interesting plot choices. Like the troubled child and our main character being a murderer.  This is worth finding for noir fans as well of fans of Ann Sothern.

image2439

shadow1
Nancy Davis(Nancy Reagan) in Shadow on the Wall

Review: The Gambler and the Lady

bryancyr film-noir, Movie , , , , ,

2006967_original

The Gambler and the Lady is a film noir from 1952 by Hammer Studios in Britain.  Hammer is better known for making horror movies, but they did make quite a few noir films as well.  Dane Clark is an American actor who appeared in a few of these films.

2407.original

Sam Newfield wrote this film and directed part of it.  He was a prolific B movie director with 277 films to his credit.

We start with Clark fleeing from America for a fresh start in Britain.  He has a rags to riches story and soon owns a night club, a race horse, an illegal gambling game, and manages a boxer.  All gained on smart gambling moves, some not exactly legal.  He has one dream though, he wants to be part of the upper crust, rub elbows with the Dukes and Earls of England.  He is also currently dating the dancer from his night club, but that is on the rocks.  He also has to worry about a global illegal gambling gang moving in on his territory.  Clark also falls for the Lady Susan played by Naomi Chance one night in his night club.  All this crisscross into an interesting story that leaves our hero digging himself a deeper and deeper hole.

This is not a classic noir, but is very interesting and fun to watch for noir fans or fans of Dane Clark.