Amanda Fortini over at Elle makes a case for the femme fatale. This is a very interesting take on the femme fatale, coming from a women in today’s world. She looks at the femme fatale from the classic films noir as well as the ones she grew up watching in the 1990’s. This is worth reading and you can read the full essay over at Elle here:
Mike Fleming Jr over at Deadline is reporting a new film in the works with George Clooney directing a Coen Brothers’ noir set in the 1950’s. Read the full news report below:
Joan Crawford in her Oscar Winning role as Mildred Pierce in the now classic film noir is celebrating its 70th Anniversary! Check out the full article over at Vanity.com below:
http://variety.com/2015/film/news/joan-crawford-mildred-pierce-70th-anniversary-1201619298/
Cause for Alarm! is a classic film noir from 1951. This film is directed by Tay Garnett, who returned to his noir roots 5 years after The Postman Always Rings Twice. Though these are two very different films and Postman always gets the attention from noir fans, this film holds up on its own.
This film revolves around Loretta Young’s Character, Ellen. Ellen’s husband, George, played by Barry Sullivan is very ill and is bed ridden. This film starts out with Ellen doing housework and with a classic noir voice over, Ellen starts to tell the story of the worst day of her life. The film flashes back to when Ellen worked for Dr. Ranney Grahame, played by Bruce Cowling and meets the Doctors good friend George. This flashback has a bit of romantic comedy feel to it, but as we return to the main story, things start to get very dark. We find George is having some strange thoughts about his old friend, Dr. Grahame and his wife. Is George right or is he imagining things in his sickened state? Is his Wife and Doctor trying to kill him?
I really enjoyed this film, but feel most non-film noir fans will not. Though this has some comedy elements in it, especially the flashback scenes, it is a very claustrophobic film with pending disaster at every corner. That being said it definitely has a feel of a modern situation comedy. In fact this film was cribbed from for an episode of Three’s Company. I feel a remake of this film would be very difficult to do in today’s cinema with the same sense of frustration and pending doom. This film is also unique in taking the traditional noir back streets of the big city out of the story and slapping it into suburban America.
Favorite Tidbit: Loretta Young has a great performance in this film, and she worked really hard to earn the role. Her husband, Tom Lewis, was the producer of this film and wanted Judy Garland for the role. Young wanted the role so bad, that she got a lawyer who told Lewis, he was discriminated against Young because she was his wife. He folded and finally hired his wife for the role.
After Dark, My Sweet is a film from 1990, based on the Jim Thompson book of the same name from 1955. I have read a number of Thompson’s books, but have not got around to this one yet. I was interested in watching this film because it was based on Thompson’s work.
This film is directed by James Foley. Foley seems to be the go to neo-noir director of smaller budget films over the last 30 years or so. He even has directed some neo-noir style television shows in his long career.
This film starts with Jason Patrick wandering around in the desert. Patrick plays Kevin ‘kid’ Collins an ex-boxer with some mental issues. This story is told in the first person from Collins’ perspective and lets just say he is an unreliable narrator, a trademark of Jim Thompson’s books. He soon finds himself in a bar when femme fatale Fay Anderson, played by Rachel Ward, walks into the bar. Collins tries to strike up a conversation with Fay, but when Fay doesn’t seem interested the bartender comes to her aid. Collins knocks out the bartender and takes off, knowing he will soon be in trouble if he stays. When Fay sees Collins’ skill with his fists, she chases him down and brings him home. Collins soon meets Uncle Bud played by Bruce Dern. Uncle Bud has a plan for some quick money and wants Collins’ help and the double crosses soon start. Who can Collins trust…or even believe, including himself.
From what I understand, this movie stays pretty true to the book, this means we get plenty of 1950’s noir dialog. I enjoyed the dialog quite a bit, but this may be lost on today’s film fans. The story is hard to follow since the narrator is untrustworthy, it is difficult to figure out what he has imagined and what is real. The story is interesting and original if nothing else. I enjoyed the film and think neo-noir fans will enjoy it too, especially fans of these kind of films from the late 80’s and early 90’s.
Scene of the Crime is a classic film noir from 1949. I watched this a few years ago and recently re-watched it when I caught it on television. This film is directed by Roy Rowland who had made a few B-movie films noir over his career.
This story is a fairly simple one, the first scene shows a couple kissing and a man talking to a store clerk. The man talking to the clerk is shot and killed by a killer with a twisted hand and a marked up face. Our hero Mike Conovan played by Van Johnson is soon on the case. He is happily married to Gloria, played by Arlene Dahl,but as he gets deeper into this case, it starts to strain their relationship. It doesn’t help that Mike is getting close to showgirl Lili played by Gloria De Haven. As the case continues, Mike looses informants and friends, but continues to dig for the truth. Will he like what he finds?
Van Johnson’s voice, attitude and size make him the perfect hardboiled detective with a heart of gold. The cinematography is spot on with some amazing shots on the street, even though they look to be on a sound stage. This is a good film noir worth checking out for film noir fans. It is an enjoyable little film, with a bit of a twist ending.
Here is a film I have never heard of, but since it has recently been released on DVD I will be looking for a copy soon. This is Alain Delon’s first American film and also stars Ann-Margret making for an interesting duo. Here is a full review of the newly released DVD over at ctnews.com:
‘Thief’ lost Alain Dolon Ann-Margret Film Noir
After reading Joe Meyers’ review of the DVD, I did a little more research on this film and see it also stars noir greats Van Heflin and Jack Palance. Sounds like a film I need to see soon! Who has already seen this film? What are your thoughts?
To some people this television series may sound very familiar. This series has been remade for an American audience starring Diane Kruger. That is how I found out about this series, I was watching the first few episodes of the American version and looking at information about it, when I seen it was a remake. I honestly liked this concept, but could not get into the series and gave up on it. The story was interesting but not well executed, so I decide to go to the original, and I’m glad I did!
This series, along with The Killing, also remade in America, are the beginnings of a movement of Nordic Noir on television. This season one story starts out with a dead body found on a bridge that crosses the border between Sweden and Denmark. The body is placed perfectly on the borderline of the two countries. When Saga played by Sofia Helin responds to the crime scene, she clashes with Denmark detective Martin played by Kim Bodnia. When the victim is identified as a Swedish citizen, Saga takes over the case with Martin’s blessing. The body is soon discovered to actually be two bodies an upper half from Sweden and a lower half belonging to a prostitute from Denmark, Martin is brought back onto the case. As the murderer soon evolves into more of a terrorist trying to get a message across, Saga and Martin work together to solve the case.
Though this series has some great supporting characters and all of them are important to the overall story, this series concentrates on these main two characters, both on the job and off.
Saga is a very original character. She is honest to a fault and plays by the rules and those rules do not bend at all. She may even overshare too much at times. She is strange and brilliant at the same time. She is socially awkward and this makes her unliked at work. She lives by herself and has no family left. She is also beautiful, drives a Porsche, and wears leather pants, this gives her a superhero feel to a certain extent.
Martin is a likable guy and lives for his family. He has a strong, professional wife and lives in a great looking house. They have a couple young kids as well as Martin’s young adult son from another marriage living with them. Martin has been married 3 times now and really wants this marriage to work. He is a bit jaded from being on the police force for so long and comes across as our hardboiled detective for this story. He drives an old Chrysler Minivan and is a blue-collar hard-working cop, who tends to bend the rules if he feels it is for the greater good.
You maybe saying this is just another buddy cop thing with two opposites forced to work together and becoming best friends in the process. Yes there is that element to this show, but that is a minor piece in a much bigger puzzle. Yes, we also have the trope of a genius serial killer playing a cat and mouse game with the police, but there is something special here and I highly recommend the first season of this series. I will be continuing on to Season 2 as soon as the DVD’s arrive and look forward to following these characters for another 10 episodes.
The Garment Jungle is a classic film noir from 1957 mostly directed by Robert Aldrich, who did not get a credit for his work, and was completed by Vincent Sherman. This was also Sherman’s first directing credit in 5 years do to his name being on the gray list.
The stand out performance from Lee J. Cobb here is not surprising. He plays the owner of a garment manufacturer in the garment district in New York. Though this film came out the same year as Cobb’s most famous performance in 12 Angry Men, I could not help but notice some similarities to his performance in Thieves’ Highway. In both films he plays a man in charger and tries to keep the working man down. He is way more corrupt in Thieves’ Highway, and in The Garment Jungle he turns a blind eye to what is going on. Both films take a look at workers rights. Here is my review of Thieves’ Highway:
https://everythingnoir.com/2015/08/23/review-thieves-highway/
These two films would make an interesting double feature, looking at a similar problem in two different industries on opposite coasts.
This film starts out with an argument between two partners, Cobb and his partner are discussing what the workers should be paid. Cobb is against the union and his partner is for it. His partner walks away and gets in the elevator. The elevator fails and his partner falls to his death. Cobb’s son, played by Kerwin Mathews, comes back to town and wants to work with his father. When a confrontation between a union organizer, played by Robert Loggia and Cobb happens in front of Mathews on the factory floor, it gets Mathews thinking. Mathews goes to Loggia where he meets the union organizer’s beautiful wife played by Gia Scala. The three work together to break the mob, which is behind trying to keep the company union free and hired by Cobb for protection. The situation escalates and soon turns violent. Will the mob break the union or will the union break the mob? Will Cobb finally look at employees rights or will he continue to support the mob? Who will survive and who will die in this war between the two?
Richard Boone plays the mob boss Cobb has partnered with and Wesley Addy plays the head thug for the mob. Both are great in their evil ways.
Besides Cobb’s performance, Robert Loggia’s performance is well worth checking out. The dynamic between him and his wife are very interesting. Even though he is a good man trying to do what is right, he has his dark side. I really got a vibe that he beats his wife even though he was madly in love with her.
His wife played by Gia Scala is also very good in this. Scala had a short career and looks to have had a hard life with bouts of depression and turned to drugs. This eventually ended her life at a very young age.
The Garment Jungle is a good classic film noir worth checking out. It is an interesting time capsule of the union movement in the 1950’s. It is especially interesting to look at the clothing industry then and compare it to how it works now.
Rob Sheffield over at Rolling Stone has an article on the upcoming season of Fargo. From the sound of it we are in for a great season and will not have the sophomore jinx many say we got with True Detective. Yet another television series I am looking forward to and we only have to wait until Monday, October 12th for this one to start.
http://www.rollingstone.com/tv/features/fargo-how-the-midwestern-noir-just-got-even-better-20151005Rolling Stones: ‘Fargo’: How the Midwestern Noir Just Got Even Better
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