film-noir

Review: Lured

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Lured is a film noir from 1947 directed by Douglas Sirk.  This is based on the 1939 French film, Personal Column. This has two legendary stars, both not well-known for their noir films.  Lucille Ball known more for her comedy and Boris Karloff for his horror films.  Though Ball shows some humor in this and Karloff plays an insane artist that is scary at times this is not the norm for our stars.

Ball plays Sandra who is a dancer from New York that is stranded in London after the show she was in goes bust.  Her friend goes missing and she goes to Scotland Yard with a personal ad from the news paper that her friend answered shortly before her disappearance.  Charles Coburn plays an Inspector that recruits Ball to work undercover to find the “Poet Killer.”   Ball has many strange run ins answering personal ads trying to find the killer.  We have many suspects including Karloff.  Ball also falls for rich night club owner Robert Fleming played by George Sanders.  We have many red herrings and suspects to choose from and the audience doesn’t know who the serial killer is until near the end of the film.

I got to admit I’ve never been a big Lucille Ball fan. With this movie and The Dark Corner (which I hope to re-watch and review later) I really wish she would have done more films like this.  She was a very talented dramatic actress with enough charisma to hold her own on the big screen.  In this film she plays a beautiful dancer that everybody likes or loves, and you can see why.  Ball plays a witty and smart character as she ranges from being scared to death to falling in love and you totally buy it.

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If you can suspend your reality and get past Scotland Yard recruiting and hiring an American dancer to go undercover based on a 5 minute conversions you should enjoy this film.  If you are hesitating to watch this because you don’t see Ball or Karloff in noir, don’t be.  Very good movie worth a watch.

Review: Highway 301

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What are we suppose to do?  Sit here like mummies?

Why don’t you do something about your face, that should keep you busy for a couple of hours.

This is a great couple lines of dialog from this B-movie from Warner Brothers.

This film is titled after the highway that ran through the three states of Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina.  This gave us the name Tri-State Gang for our group of bank robbers.

When I started watching this, we had the Governors of all three states talking to you about how crime doesn’t pay.  This gave me the impression this was going to be a docudrama type film like G-men, and it was to a certain degree. I felt G-men was a recruiting ad for the F.B.I. and  thought we where in for the same kind of thing here.  Instead it focuses on the criminal gang, and then goes to show you how crime does pay!  It’s like an instructional movie on how to rob a bank at the time and get away with it!  The way crime doesn’t pay in this movie, isn’t the police or F.B.I. catching you it’s your fellow bank robbers and the women who love them that trip them up.

The one thing about this film that kind of shocked me, is the violence this gang uses.  The killing of innocent people and murdering people with big mouths in broad daylight in front of witnesses was surprising to me.  The ending also seemed very violent for a film from 1950.

This film is written and directed by Andrew L. Stone who wrote and directed many film noir’s in his career.  George is our main baddie and is played wonderfully by Steve Cochran.  You hate him the whole movie!

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Gaby Andre plays our second female victim of George and is the only character we feel some sadness for.  Virginia Grey plays another of the girls in the gang who seems to be caught in a web of lies.  Our detective on the case narrates the story of our gang and how he finally caught them.  The detective is played by Edmon Ryan.

The story of this film shows the Tri-State Gang pull off a successful bank robbery and then a not so successful armored car robbery.  We soon meet the ladies that love the gang and one talks a little too much at a night club and things start to unravel for the gang.

This movie has flashes of brilliance and is a good little B-movie noir and worth a view for hardcore noir fans, and we learn “Don’t dance with strangers or talk to anyone with a mustache.”

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Favorite Tidbit:  There looks to be a real Tri-State Gang in the 1930’s, not sure how much of the movie is based on fact, but it looks like 3 of the Gang where eventually sentenced to death.

Review: Whiplash

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“I’m not exactly beautiful, but I am available.  I’m kind to my mother and I make very good spaghetti”.

“Sorry I don’t like spaghetti.”

That is a couple of lines of dialog in Whiplash, and there are a few more gems in this little known noir.

This is directed by Lewis Seiler who looks to have directed quite a few films throughout his career though this is the only one I’ve seen.

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This movie starts out with our hero played by Dane Clark in a boxing bout in New York City and getting beat pretty handily.  He has an inner dialog with himself asking why is he here?  What is he doing?  He just wants to be back home in California on the beach.  In film noir fashion we flashback to a better time in California,with our hero painting a beach scene.  He soon finds out one of his paintings has been sold and he thinks the buyer has been ripped off.  Our hero doesn’t feel he has enough talent for his paintings to be sold.  He hunts down the buyer and soon falls in love with her.  Our buyer is also our femme fatale, Laurie, played by Alexis Smith.  They fall in love and all is great, until Laurie turns up missing and our hero’s only clue is the painting she bought of his is being sent to a doctor in New York City.  Our hero packs up and goes to New York to find his lost love.

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When in New York we discover a plethora of new characters. Including Laurie’s husband, an ex-fighter who is now a promoter played by Zachary Scott.  An alcoholic doctor played by Jeffrey Lynn. We also get some comic relief from fellow artist played by Eve Arden (from Grease fame).

This film has some more of noir’s favorite sport, boxing, we have a love triangle between our hero, our femme fatale and a fallen hero doing anything he can to get back to the top.  This film has not been viewed a lot and maybe a little undervalued.  I found this film to be pretty good.  With only 200 votes on IMDb and a current rating of 6.4 it is a little underrated.

This film will be enjoyed by film noir fans and boxing fans alike.  Worth a viewing if you get a chance.

Review: The Big Clock

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The Big Clock is an amazing noir story with all the best features of noir.  We have a femme fatale, we have a protagonist in a situation way over his head and has to out smart the enemy to get out of danger, we have adultery, murder, a rich and powerful antagonist and a claustrophobic setting that even as a viewer we want to get out of.

The film is based on a book by the same name written by Kenneth Fearing.  There have been two remakes of this film, or two more movies based on this book, depending on how you look at it.  Police Python 357 is a film made in 1976, I have not seen this one.  The other one is No Way Out starring Kevin Costner and Sean Young, I’ve seen this movie but it was so many years ago I would like to re-watch it before I make any comments about it.

John Farrow directed this, he had a storied career as a director with over 49 credits to his name.  Ray Milland plays our hero and was in many film noir movies as well as westerns and horror films.  We will look at more if his films in the future.  He is amazing in this film as our everyday man who hates his job, but is a very successful author and journalist.  He decides he is going to quit his job for two reasons, he is married and wants to go on his honeymoon and his boss has pushed him to his limit. The boss is played by the great Charles Laughton and our hero’s wife is played by Maureen O’Sullivan.  He goes out for a drink to celebrate his new freedom and runs into a beautiful blonde played by Rita Johnson. She makes him miss his meeting time with his wife, and they make the best of it by having a grand old-time.  They go back to her place and things are implied.  We soon find out our mystery blonde is dead.  His old boss and the magazine he used to write for wants him back for one last assignment, find the man who was with the blonde last night!?!?!  This has an amazing set up and the story does not disappoint.  As the trap tightens around our hero the tension grows.

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Harry Morgan, that went on to fame many years later on T.V.’s Dragnet and M*A*S*H, plays an interesting role as the silent henchman.  We also see the Bride of Frankenstein herself, Elsa Lanchester as an eccentric artist.

Favorite tidbit:  Kenneth Fearing wrote this book as revenge on publisher Henry Luce and his “Time” magazine, where Fearing worked for many years for financial reasons. The character Earl Janoth played by Laughton is based on Luce.

This is an amazing movie and should be watched by any noir fan or classic film fan in general.

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Review: In Cold Blood

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In Cold Blood is based on the book by Truman Capote, that is based on the true story of the murder of the Clutter family by Perry Smith and “Dick” Hickock.  Smith is played by Robert Blake, later known for his role as Baretta on the T.V. show by the same name, and maybe more so for being accused for the murder of his second wife.  Hickock is played by Scott Wilson, who I know from The Walking Dead and look forward to watching him on the series Bosch.  I did not recognize him at all, as his older bearded self doesn’t look much like he did in his youth, and his voice isn’t as distinctive yet either.  The two actors looked remarkably like the real life killers that they play.

John Forsythe plays our lead detective on the case, Alvin Dewey.  Forsythe already had a pretty decent T.V. career going when he made this movie, but of course he would go on to great heights as the voice of Charlie on Charlie’s Angels and the prime-time soup Dynasty.

Though this is not a classic film-noir, I guess it is to new for that, it was made in 1967.  Richard Brook wrote this for the screen and directed it.  He used black and white and many shadows, it looks like any good noir made in the 1950’s to me.  It is a neo-noir in date alone in my opinion.  Brooks, kept this as close to the book as possible and as accurate as possible, using some of the same jurors and a lot of the locals for extras.  As well as going to the actual locations to film as many scenes as possible

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The story starts with Perry Smith getting off the bus in Kansas to meet his friend Dick Hickock.  Hickock has a plan for some big money, no witnesses and an escape to Mexico.  The plan doesn’t seem to go well and our duo is on the run, broke and not sure what to do.

The movies Capote and Infamous are both very good movies about Truman Capote and him writing the book “In Cold Blood.”  I have never read the book, but it is one on my long list of “Want to Read.”  This movie makes me want to move it up the list a bit.

Favorite Tidbit:  The character Perry Smith mentions the movie “Treasure of the Sierra Madre” twice, some thought this was written into the script because Smith was played by Robert Blake.  Blake had an uncredited role in the film as a child.  The real reason Smith mentions the movie in the film is because it was the real Perry Smith’s favorite film and he often referred to it.

This movie is for everybody that likes good film.  If you are a noir fan it is a must watch.  Fans of true crime stories should also love it.

Gangsters in Movies from Jorge Luengo Ruiz

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I just found this and thought it was pretty cool.  After seeing this, can you name any great actors that have not played a gangster?

Gangsters in Movies

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AS FAR BACK AS I CAN REMEMBER, I ALWAYS WANTED TO BE A GANGSTER.

Movies than appear:

Little Caesar (Mervyn LeRoy, 1931)
The Public Enemy (William A. Wellman, 1931)
Scarface (Howard Hawks, 1932)
Angels With Dirty Faces (Michael Curtiz, 1938)
On the Waterfront ( Elia Kazan, 1954)
Some Like it Hot (Billy Wilder, 1959)
Bonnie & Cylde (Arthur Penn, 1967)
Get Carter (Mike Hodges, 1971)
The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola, 1972)
Mean Streets (Martin Scorsese, 1973)
Chinatown (Roman Polanski, 1974)
The Godfather II (Francis Ford Coppola, 1974)
The Long Good Friday (John Mackenzie, 1980)
Scarface (Brian de Palma, 1983)
City Heat (Richard Benjamin, 1984)
Cotton Club (Francis Ford Coppola, 1984)
Once Upon a Time in America (Sergio Leone, 1984)
The Untouchables (Brian de Palma, 1987)
Dick Tracy (Warren Beatty, 1990)
The Godfather III (Francis Ford Coppola, 1990)
Goodfellas (Martin Scorsese, 1990)
King of New York (Abel Ferrera, 1990)
Miller’s Crossing (Joel Coen, 1990)
State of Grace (Phil Joanou, 1990)
Bugsy (Barry Levinson, 1991)
Resevoir Dogs (Quentin Tarantino, 1992)
A Bronx Tale (Robert de Niro, 1993)
Carlito’s Way (Brian de Palma, 1993)
True Romance (Tony Scott, 1993)
Pulp Fiction (Quentin Tarantino, 1994)
Casino (Martin Scorsese, 1995)
The Funeral (Abel Ferrara, 1996)
Donnie Brasco (Mike Newell, 1997)
Hoodlum (Bill Duke, 1997)
Jackie Brown (Quentin Tarantino, 1997)
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (Guy Ritchie, 1998)
Analyze This (Harold Ramis, 1999)
Snatch (Guy Ritchie, 2000)
Road to Perdition (Sam Mendes, 2002)
Una Historia de Violencia (David Cronenberg, 2005)
The Departed (Martin Scorsese, 2006)
American Gangster (Ridley Scott, 2007)
Eastern Promises (David Cronenberg, 2007)
Public Enemies (Michael Mann, 2009)
Drive (Nicholas Winding Refn, 2011)
Killing Them Softly (Andrew Dominik, 2012)
Spring Breakers (Harmony Korine, 2012)
Gangster Squad (Ruben Fleischer, 2013)
The Family (Luc Besson, 2013)
The Drop (Michael R. Roskam, 2014)

Review: Killer’s Kiss

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Killer’s Kiss is the second movie directed by Stanley Kubrick, and the last film in which he used his own original script.  He made this film on a shoe string budget while on welfare.  Even though this is a very cheaply made film, we can see Kubrick’s unique eye and his future greatness.  He shot scenes from a back of a truck and from the window of a car to save money on a dolly and shooting permits.  The sound had to be re-dubbed after filming, making some of the voice overs look a little funny.

Some of the scenes that stand out are the boxing match at the beginning of the film, it looked very realistic and reminded me of the Raging Bulls boxing scenes.

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I also liked the thugs in the alley scene, very classic noir style and suspenseful.

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And the mannequin, ax, fight scene is pretty interesting as well as the short waking up from a nightmare scene.

Our story starts out with our protagonist, Davey, in the train station and begins telling his story.  Davey is played by Jamie Smith.  The flashback starts with Davey in an important number one contenders match with an up and coming boxer.  He is beat and goes back to his apartment.  He watches his neighbor the femme fatale Gloria played by Irene Kane.  He hears her scream and looks into her window to see her being assaulted by night club owner Vincent, played by Frank Silvera.  Davey runs to her rescue and our story really takes off.

Irene Kane said “Kubrick convinced me to play the girl by explaining that I was going to be a very important movie star, and I thought that might be better than getting a real job at Dunkin’ Donuts.”  Though she did some T.V. work and a few other movies, she never became an important movie star.  She did do well as a writer, becoming a journalist and co-writing many autobiographies including ones for Rosalind Russell, Alan King, Josephine Baker, and US First Lady Betty Ford.  She wrote under the name Chris Chase.

Though you can see this is an inexpensive film and the plot is fairly simple, the visuals are very interesting and you can see where Kubrick is going from here.  The movie is very short, only being a little over an hour-long.  It is definitely worth your time if you’re a Kubrick fan, noir fan, or even a boxing movie fan.

Re-watching the Classics: The Narrow Margin

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The Narrow Margin is directed by film noir great Richard Fleischer.  Martin Goldsmith and Jack Leonard were nominated for an Academy Award for best writing.  Even though this was an Oscar nominee it is very much a B-movie taking only 13 days to film.  The film stars the queen of the B movie noir Marie Windsor.  The hardboiled detective is played wonderfully by Charles McGraw.  His gravelly voice and great one liners makes for one cool character.

A line from the film as our hero describes what kind of dish our femme fatale is before he meets her: ” Sixty-cent special. Cheap, flashy. Strictly poison under the gravy”

This is also Jacqueline White’s last movie, she got married and moved to Wyoming with her husband after this film.  It was her most successful film.  Hard to say where her career would have gone if she stuck it out a little longer.

The story starts when our femme fatale is being escorted by two L.A. detectives back to L.A. to testify against the mob.  One of our detectives is shot and killed protecting our witness.  Now our hero has to out smart an unknown number of mob hitmen while protecting our femme fatale that he doesn’t really like, on a train with very few places to hide.

Favorite Tidbit:  This film was actually made in 1950 but Howard Hughes who owned the studio at the time heard good things about it and wanted to view it before its release.  He forgot about it while it sat in his projector room for over a year.  The other story of the delay is Hughes liked it so much he wanted to change it from a B-movie to an A-Movie and putting Robert Mitchum and Jane Russell in it.

The Narrow Margin was remade in 1990, I haven’t seen the remake since it came out.  I’ve watched the original many times in the last few years.  I will have to re-look at the remake and compare it to the original at a later date.

This is a classic that should be seen by any film noir fan!  If you haven’t seen it in awhile go watch it right now!