Noirvember

[greennui]

449 to go on tspdt 1000 noirs list!! also look out greennui i am coming for you and i bet i have way more official shorts to watch

I've got 668 to go lol. Currently working myself to 50% watched on the outdated tspdt list: https://letterboxd.com/filmantrop/list/ ... oir-films/ 6 more to watch. You should watch more official shorts!

Rewatched a few ones I barely remembered:¨

The Killing (Kubrick) - Still holds upp. Fantastic bit players all around (Marie Windsor and Elisha Cook jr esp)

The Killers (Siodmak) - I remember not liking this one at the time and I didn't like it now as well, just didn't care about anyone or anything in this film. Ava Gardner had way too little screen time as well.

Dial M for Murder - Ray Milland just does nothing for me, ruins pretty much every film with his non presence.

[rischka]

thx for that slightly more manageable list - i still need 39 films there



roadblock (harold daniels? 1951) tries to set itself up like 'detour' but quickly veers into the dumbest plot i've seen in some time



los angeles river chase couldn't salvage anything here. totally unbelievable character arcs

[rischka]

extreme prejudice (walter hill 1987) western neonoir with a great texas cast







80s duel in the sun + top secret military caper? lifelong friends nick nolte and powers boothe face off in the desert!

this has to be one of hill's best films

[rischka]

still working on this 1000 noirs project! 554 and 555 were both pretty good!

Cause for alarm (garnett 1951) i can't usually stand loretta young for all the reasons seen here but once cornered she was very convincing! and it reminded me i love noir cuz it soothes my anxiety i nearly felt sorry for her



city that never sleeps (auer 1953) chicago version of the naked city (and i liked it better)

Spoiler!

marie windsor gets a terrific death scene in this

the central story is about a cop and family (so cw: copaganda, anti-feminism) but i nearly felt sorry for him too :p it's pulpy as a comic book or like someone else said, an old time radio show. and shot in a way that's fun to watch.

[rischka]

Silmät hämärässä (itkonen 1952) aka eyes in the dark. a writer spins tales of crime and madness about several other characters... almost like the naked city!









flashback structure with water transition got old fast and i don't think it tied together that well, probably more psychological drama than noir but certainly dark

[rischka]

i've gained a couple of icm spots but need 30 to catch the next person... and 50 to catch you greennui. not this year







johnny o'clock (rossen 1947)

love me some smartass dick powell. btw i've heard the same hardboiled joke in two films now: someone says, 'c'mere' and their partner says 'i've been there'

[greennui]

Beyond the Forest (King Vidor, 1949) - Wild Bette Davis performance.

Tension (John Berry, 1949) - Audrey Totter hot as always but my god Richard Basehart what a dull screen presence.

The Girl on the Bridge (Hugo Haas, 1951) - Beverly Michaels actually playing a nice girl in this, mostly a vehicle for Haas to deal with his Holocaust survivor guilt.

While the City Sleeps (Fritz Lang, 1956) - Ida Lupino def top 3 sexy noir voices.

[rischka]

plunder road (cornfield 1957) a very decent heist film i had never heard of before

high wall (bernhardt 1947) not great but a different role for audrey totter as a doctor

the strange affair of uncle harry (siodmak 1945) a gothic thriller with george sanders playing a nice guy! do NOT watch the stupid ending



danger signal (florey 1945) for fans of zachary scott, he's at his MOST zachary scott here

i still have more

[rischka]

rogue cop (rowland 1954) sadly it's not nearly as much fun as 'shield for murder' from the same year. just another cop on the take who is eventually shamed into redemption. i never have liked robert taylor and he plays a big creep here.



and then i watched 'i was a communist for the fbi' (douglas 1951). i had hoped this might be fun as well but instead it was offensively stupid, kinda like dinesh d'souza films. oh well they can't all be winners! another noirvember in the books and i didn't even get to those japanese detective movies

[---]

NOIR REPORT!

i only started on nov 26, the month got away from me \\:

beyond the forest // dir. king vidor, 1949
PRETTY BORING!

criminal court // dir. robert wise, 1946
OK! i am a sucker for courtroom noirs. so, ymmv

heat // dir. michael mann, 1995
NEO-NOIR ALERT!! this was great. nothing transcendental (for me anyway) but that's life i guess

knock on any door // dir. nicholas ray, 1949
consider that nick made FIVE (!) noirs from 1948 to 1950, and they vary from pretty good to the greatest images committed to film. this one is in the middle for me, it's great. also, i want to both be and kiss john derek

moonrise // dir. frank borzage, 1948
flukily this sorta paired with the last one. complete fluke! so that was kinda neat. the problem? it sucks, stupid protestant bullshit. cloyingly infatuated with its own ethical outlooks, myopic and intellectually infantile. fuck turning yourself in man. it is unfortunate b/c halfway through i thought it was great, and also that there was a pretty cool queer reading. then it got on some crime and pun on steroids "killing a horrible person in self-defence will eat away at your soul" bullshit

[greennui]

Will probably get more noir watches done this month than horror ones last month.

[rischka]

hey i watched a pretty good one! guilty bystander (joseph lerner 1950)





gritty action and a host of oddball characters. zachary scott at his most desperate. if it wasn't for that hollywood ending ...

i didn't know this director but flip has a helpful 10yo write up here https://letterboxd.com/fliptrotsky/film ... bystander/

[rischka]

https://www.pastemagazine.com/movies/fi ... f-all-time

#1 is - woman in the window??????????????

in a lonely place didn't make the top 20. come on

[Lencho of the Apes]

come on

It's an okay list for newbies that want to start investigating, but Detour at #73 (or anywhere else but #1)? Come on.

[rischka]

IKR

gonna watch a couple more today, still working on the big 1000 noirs list

[Evelyn Library P.I.]

'Noirs' 100-95 are from the 80s ands 90s

Really don't dig this list, but it inspires me to watch more noirs! Noirvember is a great season...

[flip]

it's like a film noir list made by people who don't like old films

[greennui]

I swear I've seen that exact list before somehow. Def a newbie list.

Might check out some international noir, a little sick of everything American atm...

[rischka]

i managed to smile at some people today ... but only because i've worked in retail

mystery street (sturges 1950)



part of this takes place at harvard - CSI style!



ricardo montalban leads the murder investigation



he mentions there isn't much crime in the portuguese immigrant community he comes from



doesn't stop some blueblood from sneering, 'you haven't been here long, have you?' get em ricardo

[rischka]

nora prentiss (sherman 1947) - sadly not one of those women's empowerment pictures joan crawford used to do



we do see some interesting hats but the film isn't about nora prentiss at all



it's about her cowardly boyfriend who can't leave his wife. lots of dumb plot twists



i'm sorry greennui and everyone else in the world. i tried to warn them

we'll see how they like the prices after trump deports most of the farm and construction workers

i'm done asking evangelicals why jesus wants them to hurt people

[rischka]

the outfit (john flynn 1973) tough talking badass robert duvall won't stop bothering mob boss robert ryan after his brother is killed



this is like point blank w good ol boys. karen black as duvall's long suffering gf and cameos by marie windsor, jane greer and elisha cook jr

[ofrene]

Misericordia is Guiraudie's most noirish work thus far, think of Chabrol a bit

[cinesmith]

I've seen 180 of this 250 list. I'll have to look into which are the 70 films that I've not seen.

[Lencho of the Apes]

Family melodrama/war movie, but noir-adjacent: Address Unknown by William Cameron Menzies (and shot by Rudolph Mate!), 1944, is pretty amazing; the big suspense/action sequences are so over-the-top hyperbolic that they seem like nightmares, totally divorced from any feeling of 'realism'.

Gunman In The Streets (Frank Tuttle, UK, 1950) is also pretty neat -- American noir director, UK crew, aiming to make a French crime-drama. They hit the mark pretty regularly, mostly when Simone SIgnoret is on screen. The British actors looking to channel Gabin/etc vibes, not so dependable.

[rischka]

the unsuspected (curtiz 1947) a fun rewatch - i'd forgotten everything but the killer

[rischka]

ice queen belita in suspense (tuttle 1946) - i think evelyn has talked this one up and she was not wrong. it has a spectre of the rose quality ♥







i couldn't imagine an ice skating noir; this has to be the best of the microgenre

[rischka]

711 ocean drive (newman 1950) - pretty good mob movie w reliable edmond o'brien - highlight is a chase through hoover dam