Noirvember

[ofrene]

THE END title moment of The Killing is so perfect

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[rischka]

fittingly closing out noirvember by watching the irishman. pesci is fantastic in this

[thoxans]

force of evil (abraham polonsky) morality: the movie. loved the dialogue. dense waves of jargon and lingo that wrap you up in a fog of opacity, paralleling the moral fog of the film. garfield is good, but thomas gomez is really good. interesting progression, in that at the start garfield is all cool and calm and collected as a bad guy; and by the end, after the pendulum has swung, and garfield is on the right side of the law, he's disheveled and broken down. no reward. no happy ending. just matter of factness. after watching it, i felt like going out and buying a winning lottery ticket

pickup on south street (samuel fuller) sam does it again! his pics always feel so rough and tough, and poor jean peters gets the brunt of the abuse this time around. of course, widmark is solid in his role, which is why sam no doubt wanted to cast him in the first place. but the real star here is thelma ritter. her role isn't huge, but it looms over the entire film cuz she simply nails her character. rarely have i so despised those damn commies. also, keeping your beer in a box in the east river seems really cool and economical, if a bit unsanitary

[Silga]

What are your plans for this year's Noirvember?

I plans to watch noirs from Hathaway (Johnny Apollo, The House on 92nd Street, The Dark Corner, Kiss of Death, Call Northside 777, Fourteen Hours, Diplomatic Courier, Niagara), Litvak (Out of the Fog, Blues in the Night, The Long Night) and Dassin (Brute Force, The Naked City, Night and the City).

Might also watch some from Rudolph Maté, John Sturges, Delmer Daves, Mark Robson.

[greennui]

On my watchlist:

The Letter (William Wyler, 1940)
They Made Me a Fugitive (Alberto Cavalcanti, 1947)
The Naked City (Jules Dassin, 1948)
Outrage (Ida Lupino, 1950)
Pickup (Hugo Haas, 1951)
The Thief (Russell Rouse, 1952)
Angel Face (Otto Preminger, 1953)
I, the Jury (Harry Essex, 1953)

+ rewatches:

Nightmare Alley (Edmund Goulding, 1947)
The Third Man (Carol Reed, 1949)
Pickup on South Street (Sam Fuller, 1953)

[flip]

i guess the tspdt "250 quintessential noirs" list no longer exists (they like replaced it with some 1000-film list? with like the most peripheral noir-related films? what use is that? ) but it looks like i've seen 227 out of the 250, so if i can track down any of the last 23, i'll watch those. i've missed out on a few fairly famous noirs, top of my watchlist are dead reckoning, a lady without passport and the window

[thoxans]

as with my halloseen watchlist, i've been hoarding noirs on my dvr for months now, most from tcm's noir alley, where eddie muller gives great (and longer than usual) intros to the films. these include the big heat, cornered, farewell, my lovely, the long goodbye, murder, my sweet, nocturne, underworld, u.s.a., and where the sidewalk ends

[flip]

watched double jeopardy (rg springsteen, 1955), no relation to the 1999 ashley judd/tommy lee jones film as far as i can tell, was engaging at first as it slowly unspooled a ball of plot threads, but it gradually abandoned any ambition it might have had to be intelligent, coherent, or interesting. it ends in a fistfight, it's that kind of movie. can't recommend it, springsteen made better films.

[rischka]

i've got


house of secrets
tension
never take sweets from a stranger
cash on demand

+ escape by night, recommended by lencho! and whatever i can find on youtube



escape by night was really good, how is this not in any 10001 noirs list? seen by 9 people on lbd and 3 on icm. wow

[Lencho of the Apes]

escape by night

I've been watching some no-pedigree British movies once in a while, when the mood strikes, and they're often a good deal better than I expected, with the "quota quickie" stigma attached to so many of their productions.

I have TSLO Martha Ivers, The Stranger, Cry Of The City and Kansas City Confidential on my drive, along with a couple other early-fifties UK crime dramas --if I get the urge, or surrender to the groupthink, that's where I'll go.

[Silga]

Started this month with J. Lee Thompson's debut film Murder Without Crime (1950), based on Thompson's West End play Double Error (1935) written when he was only 18.

Outstanding performances by Dennis Price and Derek Farr carry the film along with an intimate cinematography that captures every twitch in characters' faces.

Great debut by Thompson. 7/10

[greennui]

An opportune time to disappear into the world of noir for a few weeks, what with the impending Trump victory and all.

The Mistress (Rudolf Jugert, 1952) - Käutner penned script about Average Joe trucker Hans Albers getting mixed up in illicit activity in the early days of the autobahn. Even as a trucker, Albers wears a get-up that makes him look like a sea captain. Unfortunately, it didn't really have enough interesting elements during it's long runtime to create a lasting impression on me.

I, the Jury (Harry Essex, 1953) - It's impossible to talk about this film without first mentioning the performance of "Biff Elliot" in the lead role. It was the most insufferable performance I've ever seen in a film noir, full stop. He was basically in every scene as well, sucking out all the oxygen. The other actors had virtually nothing to play off of. So, yeah, a terrible film but the bizarreness of it all had me going, 'hey, this isn't that bad' a few times. Elisha Cook Jr. popped up briefly as a guy that's really into bees, which is top notch film noir stuff in itself. He later appeared dressed as santa claus, for some reason. Anyway, felt weird that this was a 3D picture and not a cheap, B quickie, perhaps it was for the fighting in that 'Blade Runner staircase noir location' or whatever it's called now again.

Yield to the Night (J. Lee Thompson, 1956) - Not sure if I've ever seen a noir with a female protagonist recounting her story from jail. Diana Dors was outstanding in this and looked so cute all dressed down, reminded me a little of Jayne Mansfield in The Burglar, way prettier when not all blonded and glamored up. An excellent depiction of plodding death row wait, first good new discovery of the month.

[greennui]

Btw, I uploaded this Hungarian film noir short to youtube and also added it to letterboxd more than a year ago and so far no one's watched it, so I thought I'd give it a share on here at least. The moody music stuck with me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6txO7chrTw

[greennui]

The Naked City (Jules Dassin, 1948) - A smug, condenscending slog. You get the impression that the people involved were taking credit for inventing the city symphony. Lots of people with their own stories live in New York, you don't say?

Pickup (Hugo Haas, 1951) - I just loved everything that came out of Beverly Michaels' mouth, she could have walked into a 70's John Waters film and felt right at home.

[thoxans]

the long goodbye (robert altman) pretty much as good as people have been saying all along. while i do have trouble with gould as marlowe, i know that's the point. the film is jazz. it just might take a little while to get into its groove. woulda been cool to see altman do more of these genre deconstruction films like this one and mccabe & mrs. miller

laura (otto preminger) damn, otto. you da master at constructing and pacing a narrative. haven't seen much from his filmog, but did the dude ever make a messy movie?

the big heat (fritz lang) pretty good. maybe not as great as it reputation purports imo. a bit of a slow burn for the first 30min, but gets brutal after that. even at 90min though, still somehow felt slightly overlong. but that's ok cuz i was crushing on gloria grahame big time, even after mean ol' lee marvin gave her that bad boo-boo

out of time (carl franklin) coulda been sooo good! like, if you combined the great parts of this, with the great parts of devil in a blue dress (even though they're vastly different films, with little to nothing in common, aside from cast and crew), and left out all the bland and formulaic stuff, you'd have a straight up neonoir masterpiece. as is, i think it's still a nice little mainstream gem. expected nothing, but was pleasantly surprised even before the inciting incident. coulda used a bit more meanness, maybe a little more acidic glee ala mcnaughton's wild things, but i'd rec this one, even if only based on the fact that it seems like the type of movie that'd get lost in the cultural consciousness, and end up as one of those flicks that they play only in censored versions in the middle of the day on a commercial tv channel. it deserves better than that

[Roscoe]

laura (otto preminger) damn, otto. you da master at constructing and pacing a narrative. haven't seen much from his filmog, but did the dude ever make a messy movie?

SKIDOO.

[Evelyn Library P.I.]

The Naked City (Jules Dassin, 1948) - A smug, condenscending slog. You get the impression that the people involved were taking credit for inventing the city symphony. Lots of people with their own stories live in New York, you don't say?

Agree with this 100%

[rischka]

yeah i agree with that too. don't care much for dassin beyond rififi and night and the city. watched the amazing audrey totter in tension.

https://twitter.com/rbgscfz/status/1324 ... 67456?s=20

[flip]

i think brute force is also good dassin (i'd go as far as to say it's his best film from the seven i've seen, though scandalously i haven't seen rififi), agree with everyone above about the naked city

[thoxans]

dassin is an interesting figure. technically proficient behind the camera, but rarely had interesting enough material to work his camera around. probably why rififi is maybe his best work, as it revolves so much around the technical and procedural. brute force and night and the city, as mentioned, are also quite good, as is nazi agent for those who haven't seen it

[...]

Yeah, don't sell Dassin short. Some of his material was pretty iffy to be sure, but he drew the more out of it than anyone would have reason to expect. Night and the City is an excellent "noir". It defines some of the major themes of the quasi-genre better than almost any other movie, which places it on the opposing pole of the genre from, say, Out of the Past's more ambiguous aesthetic. Dassin has a number of other solid films too, or at least some where his take on the material lends them a different totality than quoting the dialogue or plot one would serve. I'm particularly taken with 10:30 PM Summer in that regard, with it's marvelous opening sequence, among other things. I've seen 12 of his movies and hope to catch up to more sometime, especially Uptight, his updated take on The Informer set in the Black community post MLK co-written by Ruby Dee.

(I should add that none of that is to say Dassin hasn't made bad movies or that some of the ideology on display in some of them isn't, um, questionable at best. Circle of Two would provide ample evidence of both problems for example. Though it also could be said that a lot of the problematic elements are pretty standard fare for movies and genres like noirs.)

[greennui]

Nightmare Alley (Edmund Goulding, 1947) - Rewatch. Don't think my assessment has changed that much, love the carny parts, the rest not as much but it's still good. Def one of the sexiest noir casts ever as well (Tyrone Power, Joan Blondell, Helen Walker, Coleen Gray).

Also watched two films that aren't noirs but have been tagged as being one at some places, Daughter of Darkness (Lance Comfort, 1948) and Outrage (Ida Lupino, 1950). The former started off really well, with an interesting view in the way it showed how the female outcast's inherent sensuality affected the men and women of the small town. It didn't really follow up on that strong beginning though I thought. The latter film was a brave and difficult one that deserves more attention but def no noir.

[MrCarmady]

Night and the City is probably my all time favourite noir, I was gonna suggest Dassin for a poll, actually. Shame about The Naked City, I was looking forward to that one.

[thoxans]

i wouldn't say the naked city is bad, it's just kinda bland, and has one of those god awful '40s/'50s narrators constantly providing unnecessary expository voiceover

[nrh]

out of curiosity checked james agee's 48 reviews and after praising the photography dismisses naked city as mawkish and naive. but more importantly he reviews a movie called bill and coo where all the roles are played by birds? how have i never heard of this before?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvdpUrhhcrY

[rischka]

wut

[Silga]

Jeopardy (John Sturges, 1953) 5/10

John Sturges can certainly do better. Barbara Stanwyck is always confident in her performances, that's just her talent, but the story is too thin and predictable.






The Dark Past (Rudolph Maté, 1948) 6/10

I know many have deemed this film as dated, but I don't really mind the presentation here. And while I like William Holden a lot, I admire Lee J. Cobb even more. He is one of the most talented character actors from his generation. Though I have to say I prefer another noir from Maté - Union Station (1950), also starring William Holden.

[flip]

The Dark Past (Rudolph Maté, 1948) 6/10

I know many have deemed this film as dated, but I don't really mind the presentation here. And while I like William Holden a lot, I admire Lee J. Cobb even more. He is one of the most talented character actors from his generation. Though I have to say I prefer another noir from Maté - Union Station (1950), also starring William Holden.

union station is awesome, one of the great noirs in my opinion. i also think very well of the dark past, though i seem to be in a small minority with that opinion.

[Silga]

The Dark Past (Rudolph Maté, 1948) 6/10

I know many have deemed this film as dated, but I don't really mind the presentation here. And while I like William Holden a lot, I admire Lee J. Cobb even more. He is one of the most talented character actors from his generation. Though I have to say I prefer another noir from Maté - Union Station (1950), also starring William Holden.

union station is awesome, one of the great noirs in my opinion. i also think very well of the dark past, though i seem to be in a small minority with that opinion.

I also plan to watch another from Maté - D.O.A. (1949). Seems to be the most popular of the noirs he directed.

[flip]

FBI Girl (William Berke, 1951) - docu-noir with pointless voiceover, but with an interesting emphasis on investigative procedure. Raymond Burr plays his usual sociopath-on-valium, and Audrey Totter is as good as always. When the pacing lags in the middle, it becomes hard to ignore all the absurd narrative contrivances, but the closing set piece feels at least a decade ahead of its time. Liked this overall. 7/10