MURDER! CRIME! MYSTERY! an entire day of american film noir!

american film noir of the 40s and 50s is one of my favorite genres of film. everyone wears suits, derbys, and there is always a murder most foul or a heist to full off. these are great movies to flip on and get lost in an america that is long gone. TCM and FXM recently show six classic film noirs i have never seen and were all included on they shoot pictures list of top 250 film noirs ever made. i am going to watch all of them and blog it.

the first thing on the bill for today is 'the street with no name,' a 1948 fox production starring noir stalwarts mark stevens and richard widmark. the sheer appearance of richard widmark in anything is going to make for an interesting film. he is apparently a bad guy in this one and sees like he is in kiss me deadly mode. this is one of those, 'ripped from the pages' films with a lot of vocal narration over the first part of the film and a note indicating its real nature. much like phenix city story and kansas city confidential, these films pride themselves on a set up of lots of names and intercut scenes of police work. the feel is to make it like a newsreel eventually leading into the action of the plot. in terms of film noir, im really not a fan of these types of real life noir. the editing is a bit too jumpy and the dizzying amount of names, faces, details, makes the plot profoundly difficult for long periods of time. with this in particular, i have faith in william kneighly as a director (his film pandora and the flying dutchman is a masterpiece) and his directorial style is valliant but in the end, this is a sub-par noir. finally, widmark comes into the scene. he could have been bogart if he had the right agent. he commanded the screen like few did. he makes a medicore film worth watching. as i watch this, he slapped a woman a couple times. widmark did clearly girl slapping well though the best use of physical abuse towards in a film noir still belongs to pick-up on south street. ***** ****** sure did know how to take a slap right to the kisser. actually, i changed my mind, this is a pretty decent film. gotta love widmark

next up; richard thorpe's the unknown man with walter pidgeon and ann harding. the movie begins with a first person narration introducing you to the plot. its about a attorney that may have acquited a murderer. gettin' excited. i like the feel of this one. this one clearly has a low budget and the direction is decidedly lazy. while thorpe was a capable director, he clearly is "less than meets the eye." when it comes to noir, siodmak, fuller, and ulmer all had their distinct styles but a lot of noir directors had a very similar mise en scene. at least the lighting and shadows in the unknown man is quite well done. there was just a great OH SNAP moment...where the killer reveals himself by including a detail where only the killer and the lawyer would have known. and now he ended up dead. oooooh!

Scandal Sheet, directed by phil karlson and written by sam fuller. yup, right off the bat, this off has the gritty dialogue of fuller. there is a newspaper editor who has been implicated in a murder and the paper's star reporter investigates. this one also stars donna reed (who was a huge star even before her eponymous show) and broderick crawford fresh off his brilliant performance in all the king's men. there is a really great pivotal scene that takes place in a lonely hearts club, which were places where single people went to find spouses. for some reason, this seemed like a good idea...to force lonely people to meet other lonely people and one couple is given a free wedding at the end of the dance. yes, i firmly believe true love can form at a forced social event over the course of a few hours. -- fast forward an hour. i realize ive seen this movie before. sometimes when one watches a dizzying amount of the same kind of movie, the names escape me. however, it was the looming and panicked performance of broderick crawford that jogged my memory. i cant help but remember now how different this performance was from all the kings men. also, i remember john derek's great nice acting.

ok, halftime. quick bikeride out to go to whole foods, pick up some yogurt and kombucha. head over to the north andover sheep sheering festival, get locked out of my house, kick in third kitchen window dangling from drainpipe and climb into the house.

RIGHT.

the fourth film of the day is eyes in the night, a film about a blind detective. so far there is ann harding (again), donna reed (again!), and a dog (named friday). its directed by fred zinnamin who would late achieve huge success with from here to eternity and a man for all seasons (and some would say a nuns story as well). this is exceptionally low budget and the camera work is excessively shocking and lazy. this guy would win an oscar? these pans are attrocious and even for a noir, the acting is pretty bad. lets see how it progresses. until im going to go back to drinking kombucha. i just did some quick research and this was only his second or third full length film. before this, he was mainly doing hokey shorts in the "crime does not pay" series. he made a decent noir some years later with act of violence but eyes in the night is clearly a director who hadnt hit his stride. also, the dog is the best actor in this by far. he opened a door handle with his mouth. WIN

penutlimate film in this marathon! its armored car robbery and clocking in at a tight 65 minutes, one of the shortest full length features ill ever watch. so far, this movie RULES. four guys rob an armored car (DUH) and a chase ensues. this has everything so far, a car non starting and tension ensuing. a perfect plan slowly unravelling and a host of a bush league actors from the 40s and 50s (charles macgraw!). directed oddly enough by richard fleischer, who went onto direct such shlocky and largely medicore big budgeters fantastic voyage and doctor doolittle, the filmmaking is very capable. maybe he should have stuck with noir, as his follow up to this, the narrow margin, is a great movie. yeah, cool flick.

LAST ONE! DESTINATION MURDER! ok, this was a crazy idea in retrospect. every actor is starting to look the same. so far today, ive seen a million white dude in hats and suits, a few choice dames, one black person, and one dog (who had a bigger role than said black person). im a big fan of this genre but it definitely does remind you how far cinema has come in terms of integration of not just white people. alright, nevermind that. we got the usual stuff. murder, off to a cop to find the killer on barely any clues. meh. im going to post this and try to live with the fact that i watched six film noirs today.

RECENT WATCHING 2nd Half of September

ive been busy and would like to blog a few of these things, especially in some of sort of film noir round up, but meh...here is a recap of my recent watching i dont feel like expounding on full time

MAN'S CASTLE - a suprisingly well done exercise in early sound film (1933) directed by early american master frank borzage and starring a young spencer tracey and loretta young, two stars who will obvious do much better. this early work is a nice indication of things to come for all

MONA LISA - the breakthrough film by famed irish director neil jordan (the crying game), this one stars bob hoskins, robbie coltrane, and a particular bad ass turn by michael caine. its a noir-ey, twisty crime film that is filled intrigue and whatnot. hoskins in crime movies is pretty much always a must watch

CARL TH DREYER: MY METIER - a criterion doc on the life and unique style of the great danish direcor carl theodor dreyer (passion of joan of arc, ordet). very surprisingly, this was very poorly done and not terribly informative. dreyer was a fascinating personality and this doesnt do him justice.

COUP DE TORCHON - i was shocked i enjoyed this film. i normally find french post new waver bernard tavarnier's to be incredibly boring but this one was exciting and sorta felt like claude chabrol instead. a young and oft naked isabelle huppert stars in this thriller of a serial killer/moralist living french occupied algeria prior to the breakout of the war.

A COLT IS MY PASSPORT - one of the films in the newly released Nikkatsu Noir collection from Eclipse; this is a tarantino esque noodle western from the 60s (...japan). not much of a cohesive or interesting plot, but this had great music and some cool camera work

GENERAL IDI AMIN DADA - a 90 minute interview with general idi amin and a profoundly interesting look into a charismatic and completely insane director. i can honestly see how the people of uganda were so taken with him. he is so swarthy and well spoken cannibal!

THE NAKED AND THE DEAD - this is a gritty war movie from the late 50s that seemed like it would be pretty ahead of its time. however, now it just looks like every 'war is heck' overlong films from the 50s. by no means bad but by no means interesting

RANCHO NOTORIOUS - fritz lang's worst film. i cant even remember if i wrote about this already. lets just say that germans probably the best choice to direct pleasant western flix

THE LONG NIGHT - now this is one hell of a film noir! starring henry fonda and directed by the great anatole litvak, this dark tale tells in flashback the events that led to the murder of a magician (wonderfully played the always entertaining vincent price). dare i say this is "smoldering?" an absolute must watch for noir fans!

SCANDAL SHEET - '...she didnt get married, she got murdered.' yup,, another smoldering film noir from the 50s. though not as good as THE LONG NIGHT, this is still a pretty entertaining flick. broderick crawford plays a tough as nails newspaper editor with something to hide and john derek is the rookie with a nose for the truth. OOOH! directed by phil karlson who also did...

THE PHENIX CITY STORY - ive been wanting to see this one for a while but was very disappointed with the true crime feel of the film. that genre is really hard to pull off and unless its in the ultra auteur hands of sam fuller to jules dassin, it just comes off as boring. and this unfortunately is really dull.

THE HUMAN CONDITION TRILOGY - will blog about this VERY VERY soon..

cinema subversive

movies tell a story and try to get their point across in an efficient and timely manner. we watch them to learn, feel, or experience an emotion felt by the onscreen forces. some films are more powerful than others and go to extremes to get their message through with varying degrees of success. i am going to compare 2 movies that cannot be any more different: EDEN LAKE (2007), another entry into the ever expanding torture porn genre though this one is english so a warm welcome to the UK into the fray! the other film is ONE FOOT IN HEAVEN (1941), a religious melodrama starring fredric march. neither of these films are terribly remarkable or memorable but each have an interesting brand of subversion worth analyzing in light detail.

EDIT: torture porn refers to a genre of film that combines torture and horror in such a gory detail that it could be called porngraphy. the prime example of this type of film is eli roth's hostel.

eden lake concerns an attractive young english couple who go to place called 'eden lake' (come on, there is no way a place named eden lake but be anything other than horriffic. there is no screamville or terror lake FFS?) for a weekend of romance and an attempted marriage proposal. through a series of wacky mishaps, they end up on the shitlist of a local gang of teenagers led by a total lunatic. what follows is violence, capture, torture, escape, torture, blood, etc. what separated this from other attractive couples in trouble movies that came before it? well, if you saw funny games not much but if you didnt...

::SPOILERS::

the guy (oh btw michael fassbender plays him) dies at the hands of the kids and the girl (didnt catch her name) tries to escape and ends up accidently in the house of the kids parents who at that point didnt know what their chitlins were up to. one of the kids dies and the parents take revenge on the girl after the kids make up a story. like funny games, there is no payoff and retribution for any of the characters. evil wins and that is the end of it. there isnt a glossy victory and justice is not served. and for that reason, the film is intentionally unsatisfying. also like funny games, the director suggests that the audience is watching to see people getting tortured, maimed, but eventually win against the bad guys. by making the ending so bleak, he is saying, 'you wanted torture. well, here is an implausible but unsatisfying ending ya sick fucks'

why subversive? because its giving the viewer an anti-torture porn movie in the shade of torture porn. get it? its a statement against violence that uses violence and takes away any glamour associated with the genre. pretty young girls are killed by ugly foul mouthed teens who get away with it. sub-v-sive? i think so.

the other film, ONE FOOT IN HEAVEN is subversive and obvious in nature. this is a big giant screaming film that smacks you in the smack and begs you to join the christian faith. plot is simple: a doctor to be is touched by the hand of god, leaves practice, and becomes a minister all in the course of an afternoon. his new wife of course joins him without a peep (ahhh olde time housewives). what follows is one hour and fifty minutes of how awesome christians are. the husband and wife never have quarrels or even interesting discussions like nick and nora in the thin man movies. this movies paints the christian religion as a be all and end all problem solver. the only person in town who doesnt go to church is the dentist who is an atheist but is quickly turned around by a miraculous sentence. i understand at the time it was made that people needed religion to turn to when the war loomed on the horizon though this was made before pearl harbor but i would have expected more from director irving rapper who did the outstanding now, voyager (with bette davis). this is a film that could have treated with dignity and respect (fred niblo's ben hur from 1925 did a great job!) perhaps they could have showed religion as something more than the ultimate placater. this is a film without conflict which is a shame. my father in law who is a minister thought this was ridiculous as well

why am i making such a big deal out of this movie and why did i even watch it in the first place? it was the new york times top 1000 films of all time and there is absolutely no reason this should be on there. however, i watched and noted it for its subversive material and got a blog entry out of it so there ya go. seriously, at this point the only reason im still on the new york times best of 1000 is to finish in its ridiculous mediocrity.

a day dedicated to movies

every month or so, i stay in all day and watch movies. the sources are netflix and my DVR and each film is unrelated to the other. its a day i can relax. my wife is at work and i can go through an entire day without speaking. in short, its one of my favorite ways to spend a weekend. i even manage to work in some exercise when i head to my home gym and bike for 90 minutes and do 30 minutes on my rowing machine; two exercises that are perfectly conducive to dense foreign films. im going to live blog these days that are so sacred to me.

MY NEIGHBORS THE YAMADAS

i was considering adding this to my animationcentric post from yesterday but since it was a piece of movie day, ill open with it. anyway, this is a release from the fabled studio ghibli; internationally known as the company that releases films by hiyao miyazaki, considered by many to the greatest director of animated films of all time. this isnt miyazaki but isao takahata, the other jewel in studio ghibli's crown. he made grave of the fireflies, maybe the most depressing movie ive ever seen. my neighbors wasnt depressing at all, but a unique pastiche of skits about a middle class japanese family. if everyone's family is crazy, then this is the normal familial experience. it is equal parts humourous and sweet and decidedly human. not takahata's best but an amusing watch nontheless

MY WINNIPEG

this is sort of related to yamadas. it is a part documentary/part surrealist drama on guy maddin's childhood and memory reflection on winnipeg, manitoba the city of his youth. starring ann savage (from the legendary film noir detour) as his mother, its a wierd and entrancing trip around what many people thinkto be a boring canadian city. yeah, winnipeg probably still is boring but with maddin's camera, it looks fascinating. maddin has perfectly made a profoundly unique style over his last 8 or so films. it is usually B&W with choppy fade ins and vague and mysterious title cards. the style is not dissimilar from abstract expressionism but also has a vague noirish feel to it. this is a fascinating and intelligent watch, much like maddin's other work (brand upon the brain, cowards bend the knee, saddest music in the world).

THE STRANGE WOMAN

this is sort of related to my winnipeg is a wierd kind of way. ann sheridan, the star of winnipeg was the star of detour directed by edgar ulman, who directed this film! woo! this wasnt as good as detour or my winnipeg. i thought this was on theyshootpicture.com's 250 essential noir films. it wasnt. this is a dull melodrama redeemed only for the puncturing gaze of hedy lemarr. NEXT.

BOB LE FLAMBEUR

note: this has nothing to do with the last 3 movies i watched thematically, stylistically, or actor wise

i have seen this a couple times before and i like to give it a watch every time it pops up on sundance or TCM. its not my favorite film from jean pierre melville, but its a great one nontheless. this is a french noir from the 50s and one of the first films to transition from noir to new wave. melville walked this line on the cutting edge of film. he films were dated in some ways in that they transported the audience to a paris of the 40s with gangsters in cool hats. what made his films cutting edge but the style and the early techniques of the new wave. bonus: isabelle corey is in this movie who is one of the most beautiful french actresses ever to grace the screen.

A GIRL CUT IN TWO

this is a recent effort from the prolific french filmmaker claude chabrol. he started in 1959 and has 77 IMDB credits to his name. among them are some bonafide classics (le ceremonie, les cousins, this man must die, the butcher) but most of them are boring pretentious french films and this one falls squarely in the latter category. i didnt really watch it for chabrol though. i watched it for the otherworldly beauty of ludivine sagnier. sorry isabelle corey, but ludivine is THE MOST beautiful woman ever to grace the french (or maybe the world's) cinema. it wasnt terrible and had some good bits of drama but overall, a meh effort.

DAMNATION

now this is type of boring prententious foreign film i can really sink my artsy teeth into. bela tarr, the director of this film usually films in B&W, uses long takes involving slow tracking shots across barren landscapes. his masterpiece is satan's tango, a seriously depressing 5 hour experiment though his wreckmeister harmonies is also pretty damn good. damnation isnt my "favorite" film of his ive seen but its pretty good. there are some great tracking inside dance halls which tends to be a reoccuring theme in his films. after watching this 2 hour loosely plotted film with oh so many tracking shots of rainy muddy landscapes, i can only help but feel that hungary is not a place i would want to visit anytime soon. EDIT: the prefab people is really an underrated bela tarr masterpiece.

BRUNO

i literally cried at the end of the movie from laughing. i havent cried from laughter in a really long time. this was a seriously funny movie. it is way over the top gay (duh) and a bit offensive but isnt that why we love it? of course. the more offensive the better though it wasnt as bad as borat (i know. sad). there are some cringe moments but again, borat had more. i didnt think id enjoy this movie as much i did. i also never thought id see a male urethra open up and sing. sometimes, we surprise ourselves. it was a good night.

::QUICK BREAK::

i went from talking about hungarian art cinema to open male urethras singing in about 4 sentences. for those of you who are still reading, recognize my random genius!!

::back to blog::

L'INNOCENTE

im running out of steam here. its been a long day and i wrote a lot of words not many of which make sense. maybe i shouldnt use this format anymore. maybe i shouldnt blog EVERY movie i see or attempt to write intelligent things (or even things) for EVERY movie. after all, i occasionally have nothing to say...like this one. this movie is famed director luchino visconti's last film. it was alright...which is pretty much how i feel about most of his movies. i only really loved death in venice and found of his other works pretty boring. at least his films are nice to look at. alright, thats it. no more blogginess

a woman's face and nora prentiss: scaldering film noir of the 40s

i made up the word 'scaldering.' its an amalgam of smoldering and scalding.

that out of the way, i saw a couple 1940s film noirs recently. NORA PRENTISS and A WOMAN'S FACE. Both of them are ever so smoldering! in nora, the dame is ann sheridan and the other one, it is none other than joan crawford.

plot of nora prentiss: mild mannered doctor falls for mysterious singer, people end up dead
plot of woman's face: disfigured woman falls for doctor (or doctor's friend), gets hired as a nanny, people end up dead

i love noir. so much mystery and intrigue.

joan crawford was really not a very attractive woman but she was a hell of an actress and would have made a great transvestite. ann sheridan is awesome. detour!

both of the films i consider pretty much run of the mill 40s noir cinema. a bit dull and hammy at times but overall, enjoyable watches. there were a couple great scenes. in woman's face, there is a particularly harrowing scene involving a boy climbing around a moving coal mine ski lift sorta thing. and in nora, well...um...there are a couple gratuitous musical numbers. i know how noirs will randomly throw in a song ever now and again; usually perfectly matching the plot! funny how that works out.

i think that is actually all im going to say. um...im tired. writing mumblecore over and over again took all my blogjuice out of me.

::shutting down::

good film noir. so refreshing.

i love a good film noir. perhaps its because of the acting and the feel of the 40s (high pants fast talking etc). maybe its the sirens; gene tierney, ida lupino, or nina foch (yeah, she wasnt a star really but she is in the film in reviewing now)

MY NAME IS JULIA ROSS was recently shown on TCM as part of bob's picks; a collection of films specifically recommend by TCM legend and film historian robert osborne. before i go any further i want to talk about robert osborne and his delivery on his channel.

flow of movies on TCM

intro by osbourne

movie

outtro

simple. effective.

if he REALLY loved the film, he will begin his outtro with a simple and succinct, 'great movie.' then he will say something sad and depressing about one of the stars, director, or the movie itself before carelessly segueing into the next movie theyre showing

example:

judy holliday never got that big second chance that she was hoping for because she painfully died from breast cancer several years after the blastlisting...UP NEXT don knotts in the apple dumpling gang

come on bob, try to tie em together a little more. granted, he does occasionally pimp other similar films that TCM shows.

john wayne, john ford, and agnes moorehead all ended up dying from the cancer they developed as a result of shooting on this set...AND YOU CAN SEE all of their movies on TCM

back to review part.

right, my name is julia ross was directed by joseph h lewis, one of the more prominent film noir directors whose guncrazy is easily one of the greatest noirs ever made and one of the best films ever period. he was big on exploring psyche of his characters and does it well in movies like the big combo and the lady without a passport. not my name is julia ross though; that was just a simple and effective noir. girl gets suckered into being kidnapped by a creepy family and hijinks ensue. dame may whitty was in this! and she plays a villian!

this was about 65 minutes long and uses every minute of it effectively. not a second wasted! there are some great noir-ey twists and turns and whispers. all i can say is 'great movie.'

dame may whitty died soon after this film was made. we can only assume it was painful. UP NEXT on mise en meh, the cabbage patch kids movie.