Ténèbres à la lumière...

as author eddie muller stint ends over there on tcm...stay tune for a "Noir Writer Contest" coming in july...Thanks, for tuning-in all month long...too !

noreply@blogger.com (Ténèbres à la lumière...) — Fri, 28 Jun 2013 05:30:00 +0000

[pictured: writer Raymond Chandler...The author Of "The Big Sleep" and "Farewell, My Lovely" as I plan to look at Noir Writers in the Future too !]
http://filmnoire.ning.com/

Eddie Muller on Cornell Wool-rich and Raymond Chandler and ...

Alfred Hitchcock may be the "Master of Suspense," but in my book he shares the title with Cornell Woolrich. An astoundingly prolific writer, Woolrich (who often used the pen name William Irish) has probably had more stories adapted to film, in more languages, than any other author. The reason is simple: He created tales with inventive spine-tingling premises and predicaments and wrote them in a completely camera-ready style.

In the early 1940s Hollywood studios began buying almost everything Woolrich produced, principally the novels in his "Black" series: The Black Curtain, Black Alibi, Black Angel, The Black Path of Fear--which became Street of Chance (1942), The Leopard Man (1943), Black Angel (1946) and The Chase (1946). In addition, the forties' films noirs Phantom Lady (1944), Deadline at Dawn (1946), Night Has a Thousand Eyes (1948), and No Man of Her Own (1950) were all based on Woolrich novels. Not to mention a slew of dark Poverty Row potboilers such as The Guilty (1947), I Wouldn't Be in Your Shoes (1948) and Fall Guy (1947).

All this success meant virtually nothing to the lonely, reclusive and repressed author, who lived most of his life in a Manhattan hotel suite he shared with his mother. Even as his stories were being adapted all over the globe by some of the world's greatest filmmakers, Woolrich continued to pound out pulp stories for the few remaining mystery magazines in the business, living the life of a reclusive hermit, rarely venturing out into a world he found utterly terrifying.

He and Hitchcock crossed paths, creatively not literally, only twice: Rear Window (1954) was based on Woolrich's short story "It Had to Be Murder, and "Four O'Clock," one of the few episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents directed by the Master himself, was also based on a Woolrich story. While Hitchcock undoubtedly deserves the mantle "Master of Suspense," he also had teams of writers and literally hundreds of creative collaborators helping bring his visions to life. Woolrich had nothing but a Remington portable typewriter and reams of paper from the local stationery store, on which he relentlessly banged out fear-soaked stories of innocent people trapped in life-and-death circumstances. That's all he needed to create some of the darkest and most nerve-wracking stories ever told.

[pictured: author Eddie Muller and TCM Host Robert Osbourne]

Eddie Muller on Raymond Chandler

It's the rare writer whose depiction of a city, in prose, becomes the world's accepted vision of the place. That's how it is with Raymond Chandler and Los Angeles. His descriptions of the vast neon wasteland, as rendered in the dyspeptic dialogues of detective Philip Marlowe--are now considered the definitive mid-twentieth century vision of the city. In addition, Chandler has inspired more people to become crime fiction writers than any other author in the genre. Which is especially astounding when you consider that he didn't write particularly coherent or compelling plots, and that besides Marlowe himself there are few memorable characters in his books.

But as prose stylist, Chandler was unmatched. His gift for rendering mood and setting, without ever slackening the narrative pace, was extraordinary. And his flair for the colorful, sarcastic simile ("...as inconspicuous as a tarantula on a slice of angel food cake.") is what separated him from his colleagues--and put the hook in all those wanna-be crime writers.

Hollywood and Chandler were a poor pairing, even though some good films came from the tenuous alliance. A snooty, curmudgeonly alcoholic, Chandler never fit in, and despite earning an Oscar® nomination for his only original script, The Blue Dahlia (1946), he never really figured out how to write an effective screenplay. (His first draft of Lady in the Lake (1947), based on his novel, is an unwieldy mess, fit only for the eyes of Chandler aficionados--as MGM agreed, hiring Steve Fisher to wrangle it into shape.)

Despite all that, his contribution to the genre can't be overstated: He gave American crime fiction its most distinctive voice.

Eddie Muller have decided to show:The Leopard Man (1943, novel), Deadline at Dawn (1946, novel). Murder, My Sweet (1944, novel [Farewell, My Lovely]), The Big Sleep (1946, novel).

For More Information Just Follow The Link To TCM ...Here Goes The Entire Schedule...

Friday Night Spotlight in June...Noir Writers

By Eddie Muller~

[NOTE:See The Slide-show in the Footer...For Novel Covers... Thanks,]

Friday Night Spot-light all Month Long on TCM...as author Eddie Muller, look at novelist Jonathan Latimer and James M.Cain...[as I look at Noir Writers too ! ]

noreply@blogger.com (Ténèbres à la lumière...) — Thu, 20 Jun 2013 09:44:00 +0000

[pictured: writer James M. Cain...The author Of "The Postman Always Ring Twice and "Double Indemnity." as I plan to look at Noir Writers in the Future too !]
http://filmnoire.ning.com/

Eddie Muller on Jonathan Latimer and James M. Cain...

Jonathan Latimer is not as well known as the other writers in this month's Spotlight, but he was a better screenwriter than any of them, having produced some of the best-scripted noir films of the 1940s.

Latimer worked as a crime reporter in Chicago in the 1930s, covering the exploits of Al Capone and Bugs Moran. Clearly inspired by the work of Hammett and Cain, he began crafting his own crime fiction--a series of novels featuring an often drunk wiseguy detective named Bill Crane. Following Hammett's lead with The Thin Man, Latimer injected a streak of mordant humor into novels such as Murder in the Madhouse, Headed for a Hearse, and The Dead Don't Care. In 1941 he wrote his hard-boiled masterpiece, Solomon's Vineyard, which was packed with so much violence and kinky sex it was banned for decades in the United States. The unexpurgated version wasn't available in the U. S. until more than forty years after it was originally published in England.

In the late 1930s Hollywood bought several of Latimer's books, turning them into B-programmers. In no time, Latimer was working for the studios himself, writing scripts for the Lone Wolf mystery serial and showing his comedic flair in one of the "Topper" sequels. With his adaptation of The Glass Key in 1942, Latimer paid a debt to his mentor by producing one of the best adaptations of Dashiell Hammett's work.

One of Latimer's staunchest supporters was producer Joan Harrison, who hired him to write the screenplays for several projects she produced at RKO. Harrison had been Alfred Hitchcock's personal assistant in England before writing such Hitchcock classics as Rebecca (1940) and Foreign Correspondent (1940). On her own, Harrison became one of the essential producers of film noir. She hired Latimer to write a pair of original screenplays based on unpublished stories, and both--Nocturne (1946) and They Won't Believe Me (1947)--display Latimer's gift for clever plots, unique scenes, and colorful characters.

He quickly became the go-to screenwriter for A-list crime pictures such as The Big Clock (1948), Night Has a Thousand Eyes (1948), and Alias Nick Beal (1949), all directed by John Farrow at Paramount. In all, Latimer would write ten pictures directed by Farrow, before leaving features to become one of the main writers of the Perry Mason television series.

[pictured: author Eddie Muller and TCM Host Robert Osbourne]

Eddie Muller on James M. Cain

If there's a single author who could be called the architect of Dark City, it's James M. Cain. Unlike Hammett and Chandler, he didn't write about detectives, and unlike Cornell Woolrich, he wasn't interested in how fate tortures the innocent. Cain spun tales of average people who commit horrible crimes to get what they want--a fairly good working definition of "noir."

He was an Eastern newspaperman, who after a brief stint as managing editor of The New Yorker moved to Hollywood in the early thirties to try his hand at screenwriting. He earned good dough as a script doctor, but never sold a single original screenplay. Before packing it in and moving back east, Cain created a brutal, desperate, and sex-filled manuscript called Bar-B-Q--which was, essentially, a cheap and tawdry kiss-off to his literary ambitions. Published in 1934 under the title The Postman Always Rings Twice, the book became a sensation, forever changing Cain's fortunes as a novelist, and eventually the course of film history, as well.

Movie interest was immediate, but Hollywood's chief censor, Joseph Breen, vowed that Postman would never be delivered to American movie screens. Regardless, MGM bought the rights for $25,000, only to leave it on the shelf for more than a decade due to the restrictions of the Production Code. Cain's breakout in the movies wouldn't come for almost another ten years.

Billy Wilder read Double Indemnity--Cain's blatant knockoff of his own Postman--in early 1943 and immediately became obsessed with bringing this tale of infidelity, murder, and retribution to the screen, in an A-list production with big-name stars. His usual writing partner, blue-blooded Charles Brackett, found the story so sordid he refused to collaborate. In a stroke of genius, Wilder hired detective novelist Raymond Chandler to help adapt Cain's story. Although Wilder and Chandler despised each other, their handling of this once untouchable material was the spark that ignited the film noir movement in Hollywood, both artistically and financially. The film was a box office bonanza. It was nominated for seven Academy Awards. Suddenly studios were scrambling for similarly sexy and sinister scenarios.

Cain had pretty good luck with movie adaptations--Double Indemnity (1944), Mildred Pierce (1945), and The Postman Always Rings Twice (finally adapted in 1946 following the box office success of the two others) are all regarded as classics. His best novel (in my opinion), Serenade (1937) was on the slate at Warner Bros. for years--a Jerry Wald production, with Anne Sheridan to star and either Michael Curtis or Vincent Sherman directing--but when it was finally made in 1956, with Mario Lanza, it was a disaster. All of Cain's provocative sexual dynamics had been drained out. It's a great book, still waiting to be given its proper screen treatment.
Eddie Muller have decided to show: They Won't Believe Me (1947, screenplay), Nocturne (1946, screenplay).Double Indemnity (1944, novel), The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946, novel).

For More Information Just Follow The Link To TCM ...Here Goes The Entire Schedule...

Friday Night Spotlight in June...Noir Writers

By Eddie Muller~

[NOTE:See The Slide-show in the Footer...For Novel Covers... Thanks,]

Friday Night Spot-light all Month Long on TCM...as author Eddie Muller, look at Dashiell Hammett...and Noir Writers...

noreply@blogger.com (Ténèbres à la lumière...) — Fri, 07 Jun 2013 09:01:00 +0000

Eddie Muller on Dashiell Hammett...

"Anyone who has written a crime/mystery story since 1930, anywhere in the world, owes a debt to Dashiell Hammett. Raymond Chandler, certainly. But also bestselling contemporary writers such as James Ellroy, Michael Connelly, Laura Lippman, Elmore Leonard and Sara Paretsky. All of us, really. Hammett's influential stories and novels set the structural template for almost every derivation of modern crime story. He also set the tone and tempo: the tough, terse, as-it-happens pace, the jaundiced and cynical attitude--always peppering the pages with bitter humor.

He only finished five novels, but they echo throughout the history of crime fiction: gangland sagas (Red Harvest), family intrigues (The Dain Curse), hardboiled detection (The Maltese Falcon), political thrillers (The Glass Key), and blithe, murderous farce (The Thin Man)--all originated with Hammett.

What made his work special, why it remains vital more than eighty years after it was first published, is that Hammett brought the real world into mystery fiction. Or, as Chandler put it so well, "He gave crime back to the people who committed it for a reason"--distinct from the armchair detectives for whom the genre was merely a puzzle-solving amusement. Sure, Hammett knew how to goose a story along with melodramatics, and he ramped up the sex and violence to sate the cravings of the pulp readers who were his biggest fans, but behind this low-brow product was a high-minded intellectual: insatiably curious, extraordinarily well-read, socially conscious, a serious-minded craftsman. He played at being indifferent, but knew he was changing the game.

He also was an alcoholic, a womanizer, and inveterate gambler. And a good husband and father. He was a patriot and a Communist. He absorbed a world of contradictions and had the keenness of intellect and the storytelling intuition to transform it all into prose that is still emulated today, if rarely equaled.

Oh, and one last thing. If you watch me hosting the Hammett tribute on June 7 and think I'm mispronouncing his name: I'm not. It's Dash-EEL, not DASH-ill, as it's been mispronounced for decades. His full name is Samuel Dashiell Hammett, the middle name honoring his mother's family, whose lineage stretched back to the Huguenots of 17th century France. If you've named your son or daughter after him, don't worry--you can pronounce it anyway you want. But for the record, he pronounced it Dash-EEL.

I've chosen to show: The Maltese Falcon (1931, novel), City Streets (1931, original story), After the Thin Man (1936, original story), The Glass Key (1942, novel). "

For More Information Just Follow The Link To TCM ...Here Goes The Entire Schedule...

Friday Night Spotlight in June...Noir Writers

By Eddie Muller~

[NOTE:See The Slide-show in the Footer...For Novel Covers... Thanks,]

something about a stamp... and looking at actor ty`rone power and patricia neal in the 1952 cold war noir

noreply@blogger.com (Ténèbres à la lumière...) — Sat, 01 Jun 2013 09:29:00 +0000

Actor Ty`rone Power and Hildegarde Neff in the 1952 "Diplomatic Courier"

Writing credits: Peter Cheyney (novel), Liam O'Brien (writer), Casey Robinson (writer)
Cast:
Tyrone Power ... Mike Kells
Patricia Neal ... Joan Ross
Stephen McNally ... Col. Mark Cagle
Hildegard Knef ... Janine Betki (as Hildegarde Neff)
Karl Malden ... Sgt. Ernie Guelvada
James Millican ... Sam F. Carew
Stefan Schnabel ... Rasumny Platov
Herbert Berghof ... Arnov
Arthur Blake ... Max Ralli
Helene Stanley ... Airline stewardess

"This is one of the best of the post-war intrigue/suspense flicks."

"This is one of the best of the post-war intrigue/suspense flicks. What all of these have in common is the gritty black-and-white look of cities that haven't recovered from the war, usually in ruins, to varying degrees.

(Think The Third Man, The Search, Berlin Express)

(Think The Third Man, The Search, Berlin Express) There are no ruins in Diplomatic Courier, but you still get that shadowy, melancholy, sinister, exotic atmosphere that marks the genre.

Others, who pick apart the "accuracy" or logic of certain parts...

Follow The Link Below To Find Out How I'am...
Paying Hommage To actor Ty`rone Power...

of Diplomatic Courier are pedantic prigs who don't know how to watch a movie.

Others, who pick apart the "accuracy" or logic of certain parts of Diplomatic Courier are pedantic prigs who don't know how to watch a movie. Sure, there are a few lapses, but in such a fast-paced movie, with so many plot points, it's amazing that the story holds together so well. This is due, I think, to Henry Hathaway, one of the great line directors of the studio system. Add the cinematography of the great Lucien Ballard, and you have a handsome production.

As for the cast, who cares if Bogart would have been better? Tyrone Power is, well, Tyrone Power. No, he's no Bogart, but who doesn't enjoy just watching him? And he is one of the great action film stars.

And we have Patricia Neal, at her most beautiful and vampish,

in that mink coat for Ty Power to nestle his face in.

I think the Power-Neal thing is essential because it serves as a light-hearted counterpoint...

And we have Patricia Neal, at her most beautiful and vampish, in that mink coat for Ty Power to nestle his face in. I think the Power-Neal thing is essential because it serves as a light-hearted counterpoint to the severe, portentous relationship of Power-Neff.

And speaking of Hildegard Neff, I agree with a previous reviewer, that this film showcases the talent and beauty of one of the finest actresses that Hollywood ever trashed."

TO FIND OUT MORE INFORMATION ABOUT ACTOR TY`RONE POWER'S STAMP JUST FOLLOW THE LINK BELOW...AND IN ORDER TO WATCH TY`RONE POWER IN THE 1952 "COLD WAR" FILM NOIR "DIPLOMATIC COURIER..." TOO !

[Pictured actor Ty`rone Power in an example stamp created and copy-righted by ~clp~Thanks, for granting me permission to use your beautiful creations.]Paying Hommage To The King Of 20th Century Fox...Ty`rone Edmund Power,Jr...]

THANKS!

Paying Hommage To Actor Ty`rone Power...As We Help Him Get A Stamp in his Honour Too...

here's looking at you, kid...as my writer andy, remember every detail...the germans wore grey, you wore blue...Humphrey Bogart to Ingrid Bergman

noreply@blogger.com (Ténèbres à la lumière...) — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 09:05:00 +0000

Casablanca (1942)"I remember every detail. The Germans wore grey, you wore blue."

*** According To writer andrew katsis, "This review may contain spoilers" ***

"Casablanca..."

Ah, 'Casablanca.' What other film can evoke such powerful feelings of nostalgia, can exemplify so completely the golden period of Hollywood film-making? The year was 1942, and the world found itself in the midst of the bloodiest conflict in modern history. Unlike anything our generation could possibly imagine, citizens were faced with an incredible uncertainty about their future. The Nazis marched across Europe, an astonishing, seemingly-unstoppable enemy, and the United States watched with bated breath from across the Atlantic.

Casablanca

Most Hollywood productions responded to such ambiguity with fully-fledged, unabashed patriotism, and war-time filmmakers became obsessed with validating audiences' beliefs that the Allied forces would inevitably win out against Germany, and, indeed, many often concluded their pictures with unnecessary epilogues in which we've apparently already won.
Such propaganda, while no doubt ensuring commercial success from war-weary cinema-goers, has regularly tarnished and outdated even the most otherwise-impressive contemporary WWII pictures, as the directors' willingness to simulate a happy ending strikes distinctly false from an era in which the overwhelming atmosphere was that of uncertainty and insecurity (see: Billy Wilder's" "Five Graves to Cairo..." " (1943).

This is not to say that 'Casablanca (1942)' is not a work of American patriotism; indeed, it might just be the greatest example. The film owes its enduring legacy to how seamlessly director Michael Curtiz, and his troupe of writers and actors, was able to encapsulate the sentiment of the time in which the picture was made.

louie, this look like the beginning Of a beautiful...friend-ship

[The Story ends with Rick and Renault strolling resolute into the thick mist, their futures obscured by the fog of uncertainty that hovers before their faces.]

What will the next few turbulent years have in store for these heroes? Will they be overwhelmed by the enemy, or continue their noble fight for freedom? Following Operation Torch, the 1942 Allied invasion of North Africa, there were plans to film one of those dreaded propagandistic epilogues, showing Rick, Renault and a detachment of Free French soldiers on a ship. Owing to Claude Rains' fortuitous unavailability for filming, the original ending was left intact, and producer David O. Selznick was never more correct than when he concluded "it would be a terrible mistake to change the ending."
___________________________________________________

Of all the gin joints, in all Of the worlds she walks in mine...

When 'Casablanca' was first conceived, the filmmakers apparently had little idea they were about to produce one of cinema's best-loved pictures. A prime example of the studio-bound exotica that was popular at the time, and obviously a war-time off-shoot of Howard Hawks' Colombian aviation adventure 'Only Angels Have Wings (1939)' – perhaps also John Cromwell's 'Algiers (1938),' which I unfortunately haven't seen – the film reproduced the stuffy, humid climate and seedy, corrupt personalities of Morocco on the Warner Bros. sets, which ironically communicate more romantic charm than the real location could ever have provided.

Here's to happier times...

The film was shot by veteran cinematographer Arthur Edeson, who had previously worked on the wonderfully-atmospheric 'All Quiet on the Western Front (1930),' 'Frankenstein (1931)' and 'The Maltese Falcon (1941).' His perfectly-framed photography suggests a mixture of stuffy melodrama, glamorous adventure and shadowy noir, though, interestingly, he avoids the sordidness of the latter style's successors, despite the wealth of suitably-seedy characters to be found in Casablanca.

Oh! Richard where ever they put me or where ever you...

Framed through Edeson's lens, it seems that even the most squalid and repulsive of personalities can take on a curious facade of nobility.

A letter Of good-bye...Dear Richard...

I love you, but Rick pays me...

No less than six people had a hand in the film's justly-celebrated screenplay. The story was based on a then-unproduced play by Murray Burnett and Joan Alison, "Everybody Comes to Rick" and was adapted for the screen by Julius and Philip Epstein and Howard Koch, with uncredited input by Casey Robinson.

The Epstein twins were initially keen to give the film a few comedic elements; this would, no doubt, have made for entertaining viewing, not unlike a Howard Hawks picture, but might have detracted from the story's core themes of love, loyalty, regret, moral responsibility and self-sacrifice.

Bogie, plane watching and dreaming...

Koch had perhaps a clearer understanding of the director's preferences – another wonderful film from Curtiz, 'Angels with Dirty Faces (1938),' also poses a vital moral dilemma – and chose to focus largely on the politics and melodrama of Burnett and Alison's play.

That so many conflicting artistic ideas somehow melded together, not only into a cohesive narrative, but also into history's greatest screenplay, is a miracle to be credited only to the cinema gods, particularly in view of the fact that Curtiz commenced filming with an incomplete script that was updated daily.

play it Sam, for old time-sake...

Perhaps another possible explanation for the film's unlikely legacy lies with the distinguished cast, borrowed from all over Europe. Humphrey Bogart, Dooley Wilson and Joy Page were the sole American "imports," and assorted supporting talents were plundered from the United Kingdom (Claude Rains, Sydney Greenstreet), Sweden (Ingrid Bergman),

victor laslo...There is no passport from "Casablanca..."

Austria (Paul Henreid), Hungary (Peter Lorre) and even Germany (Conrad Veidt).

The Noble Bogart...

Bogart, who had been typecast throughout the 1930s as a lowlife gangster, had been given the opportunity to show some humanity in Raoul Walsh' film noir 'High Sierra (1941),' but it was 'Casablanca' that proved his first genuinely romantic role, and, with several notable exceptions, the remainder of his acting career would comprise of similarly-noble yet flawed heroes.

Ingrid Sparkling with compassion and sadness...

Bergman, despite having a rather passive role, was never more enchanting than as Ilsa Lund, and, photographed with a softening gauze filter and catch lights, positively sparkles with gentle compassion and a tragic sadness.

Perhaps it's just the romantic in me, but 'Casablanca' represents one of Hollywood's most unforgettable accomplishments. Even as the film draws to a majestic close, and two men forge a lifelong friendship in the fog-ridden uncertainty of War, we immediately feel like asking Sam to play it again… just for old time's sake.

Bogart News..."Casablanca" won an Oscar@ for Best Picture in 1942..."Coming Up: Next Month...Bogie's Film Festival From May 02-May 05, 2013...

In order to find more information just follow the link...
Humphrey Bogart's Film Festival in May...05/02-05/05 2013
to watch scenes from “Casablanca” just follow the link to:

darkness-to-light"Casablanca..."

...and to find out more about: The Festivaland The Locationand Bogie's merchandise: posters and t-shirtsand The manand most importantly, The Reason...The [wonderful] Films just visit Bogie's website. [The image[s] Of Bogie are courtesy Of the Humphrey Bogart @estate] Thank-you,

Gary Tooze...Compare "Casablanca" dvds...
Gary Tooze...look at "Casablanca" on blu-ray...

the dark Corner...[1946] mark steven as brad galt ...i m backed up in a dark corner... and i don't know who hitting me...

noreply@blogger.com (Ténèbres à la lumière...) — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 15:53:00 +0000

[pictured: actress Lucille Ball in The Dark Corner...]

The Dark Corner (1946) Directed by Henry Hathaway

| English | 01:35:10 |Subtitles: Dutch, English, French & Spanish (.srt)
Genre: Crime / Drama / Film Noir

Mark Stevens as Brad Galt,

This grade-A example of "film noir" stars Mark Stevens as Brad Galt, an embittered ex-convict who returns to the private detective business upon his release.

Sour and surly, Galt behaves himself only when he's around his faithful and adoring secretary Kathleen (top-billed Lucille Ball).

Tony Jardine (Kurt Krueger) to the left Of Webb

When Galt's crooked former partner Tony Jardine (Kurt Krueger) inaugurates an affair with socialite Mari Cathcart (Cathy Downs),

Clifton Webb with a portrait Of "Mari..."

actress Cathy Downs as Mari Cathcart...

Cathcart's waspish art-collector husband (Clifton Webb) arranges Jardine's murder, carefully pinning the blame on Galt. On the lam from the cops, Galt must rely on Kathleen to help gather enough evidence to prove his innocence.

Bendix as "White Suit..."

Best scene: Cathcart's abrupt but chillingly casual murder of his partner-in-crime (William Bendix).

Clifton Webb and William Bendix

The deliberate lack of background music serves to enhance the gloomy atmosphere of The Dark Corner.

Clifton Webb and Mark Steven with Back against the viewer

[In Order To Read Gary Tooze's Review Of "The Dark Corner" Just Follow The Link To:dvdbeaver.com/Tooze ..."The Dark Corner" Is The 6th Film On The Play-list...]

THE DARK CORNER from Tim Hall on Vimeo.
After Effects kinetic typography inspired by an excellent film noir starring Lucille Ball.

The word according to my writer andrew katsis... andy Get "dizzy" as he takes a look at james stewart in hitchcock's 1958...

noreply@blogger.com (Ténèbres à la lumière...) — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 10:24:00 +0000

THE TITLE FROM HITCH'S "VERTIGO"

"Give me your hand. Give me your hand,"
According to Andrew
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
[editor's note: In Order To read [Gary] Tooze's Comparison Just Follow The Link:dvdbeaver.com/film/dvdcompare/vertigo... ]

ACTOR JAMES SEWART DANGLES...

John "Scottie" Ferguson has a fear of falling. As the detective dangles precariously from the unstable guttering of a tall building, he impulsively looks downwards to glimpse the distant ground seemingly rushing towards him, all the while paradoxically shifting further and further downwards to maximize his inevitable plummet.

This optical effect, sometimes known as a "contra-zoom,"

This optical effect, sometimes known as a "contra-zoom," "trombone zoom" or even the "Vertigo effect," was invented by Irmin Roberts, a Paramount second-unit cameraman, and Alfred's Hitchcock's use of the technique is pivotal to the success of 'Vertigo (1958),' the director's final collaboration with James Stewart. Human eyes interpret the relative dimensions of objects using a combination of size and perspective signals, and the simultaneous forward zoom / reverse track, which alters perspective while maintaining object size, instantly perplexes our eyesight, triggering sensory confusion and successfully mimicking the dizzying sensation of acrophobia.
[editor's note: Just follow the link to learn:
How To Recreate Hitchcock's Famous Vertigo Effect... ]

It may not be an incredibly subtle means of communicating Scottie's vertigo, but it's effective, and, particularly in the film's second half, Hitchcock employs a seamless combination of subtle and blatant film-making techniques to polish his landmark thriller.

BARBARA BEL-GEDDES

Just a few nights ago, I was fortunate enough to attend a double-bill cinema screening of Alfred Hitchcock's classic thrillers 'Rear Window (1954)' and 'Vertigo (1958),' both starring James Stewart and both among the finest pictures in the director's distinguished repertoire.

B. BEL-GEDDES AND J.STEWART

Both films deal quite substantially with the notion of voyeurism, a topic further explored in Hitchcock's crowning masterpiece, 'Psycho (1960).' 'Rear Window' was the greater crowd-pleaser among the two, replete with gleefully-dark dialogue and a delicious murder mystery glimpsed through the rear window of Stewart's cluttered apartment.

FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE ARGOSY

book-store just follow this link to: http://www.footstepsinthefog.com/ 'Vertigo' succeeds on distinctly-different terms: though rather lumbering and morose in comparison, the film is easily the Hitchcock's most intense thriller, with little of the playfully-black humour to be found in most of the director's acknowledged classics.

THE ARGOSY BOOKSTORE

This being my second viewing, it was interesting to note a film divided into two rather-incompatible halves, one a leisurely, borderline-supernatural ghost story, and the other a vivid exploration of loss and obsession. It's a curious combination, but it's also an altogether fascinating one.

The film's opening half concerns acrophobia detective Scottie Ferguson (James Stewart), who has retired from the police force after his disability caused the death of a colleague.

AN OLD COLLEAGUE

An old colleague, Gavin Elster (Tom Helmore), hires Scottie is sur-veil his wife Madelaine (Kim Novak),

actress KIM NOVAK

whom he tentatively suspects of having been inhabited by the spirit of a tragic-afflicted ancestress.
Hitchcock confidently strings together a series of surveillance episodes,

UNDER SURVEILLANCE

...as Scottie tails Madelaine across San Francisco, observing her fixation with her nineteenth-century counterpart, culminating in an attempted suicide at the base of the Golden Gate Bridge.

AN ATTEMPTED SUICIDE AND


THE GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE

SCOTTY SAVES MADELEINE FROM DROWNING...

SCOTTY

These sequences move at an unhurried pace, usually with extended periods of silence, underscored by Bernard Hermann's eerie soundtrack.

DID YOU SAVE ME?

However, to one with prior knowledge of the story's eventual conclusion, these comprehensive episodes of observation seem rather superfluous, a deception that exists as a trifling footnote to the film's primary concerns, of obsession and doomed passion.

MADELAINE

In any case, Scottie soon finds himself falling in love with Madelaine, and, when she is tragically wrenched from his grasp, his own grip on reality begins to falter.

IS THIS MADELAINE?

The film's second half, following Madelaine's apparent suicide, marks a crucial turning-point in both the story and our perception of the major characters.
James Stewart, long considered the "everyday man" with his shy and polite demeanor, suddenly descends into darkened territory, emerging from his cocoon of self-pitying isolation only after attaining a streak of relief from the face of a passing stranger, Judy Barton (Kim Novak again).

THE TRANSFORMATION...

In a wretched bid to recapture the passion of his lost love, Scottie forcefully alters Judy's appearance to reconstruct Madelaine's image...

RE-EMERGING "GHOST..."

...and, in one of Hitchcock's all-time most powerful moments, the pair embrace in a hotel room, the camera spinning deliriously about them as their surroundings modify to momentarily evoke the memory of Scottie and Madelaine's final, blissful kiss.

EMBRACING

However, in choosing to construct a superficial duplicate of his love, Scottie has effectively thwarted any romantic future, and, when it is revealed that Judy and Madelaine were the very same person – the fabrication of an elaborate murder plot –

NO, SCOTTY!

he comes to realize that, not only had he initially "fallen" for an illusion, but his own self-made illusion was equally un-viable, if not more so.

Rounding out the Baker Dozen Of Amnesia Films...W.Powell, H.Lamarr,B.Rathbone and C.Trevor...

noreply@blogger.com (Ténèbres à la lumière...) — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 17:10:00 +0000

Crossroads is a 1942 proto-noir mystery film directed by Jack Conway, starring William Powell, Hedy Lamarr, Claire Trevor and Basil Rathbone. Powell plays a diplomat whose amnesia about his past comes back to trouble him.
[editor's note: You can also watch the film in its entirety on the playlist below...Thanks,]

Synopsis:

In 1935, French Diplomat David Talbot (William Powell) and his bride Lucienne (Hedy Lamarr) are enjoying their third month of marriage in Paris when Talbot is confronted by extortionist Carlos Le Duc (Vladimir Sokoloff) who demands money in exchange for not turning him in to the police.

During a trial of the extortionist, whose defense is that he was seeking a repayment of debt by a former criminal comrade, Talbot is accused of being that notorious criminal. Henri Sarrou (Basil Rathbone) testifies that he is not.

Talbot claims that amnesia prevents him from knowing the truth and his story is backed up by a psychologist, Dr. Tessier (Felix Bressart). Le Duc is convicted.

Sarrou then visits Talbot at his home where we learn that Sarrou deliberately testified falsely to set up his blackmail scheme.

He demands a million francs, half the loot from an alleged scheme he and Talbot (in his forgotten criminal phase) carried out.
Talbot subsequently struggles to discover the truth about his past, while keeping Sarrou at bay and his wife in the dark.

Cast

William Powell as David Talbot
Hedy Lamarr as Lucienne Talbot
Claire Trevor as Michelle Allaine
Basil Rathbone as Henri Sarrou
Margaret Wycherly as Madame Pelletier
Felix Bressart as Dr. Andre Tessier
Sig Ruman as Dr. Alex Dubroc
H.B. Warner as the Prosecuting Attorney
Philip Merivale as the Commissaire
Vladimir Sokoloff as Carlos Le Duc

Production notes

Production Dates: 19 Feb-late Mar 1942; addl seq late Apr 1942
Working titles of the film were The Man Who Lost His Way, 'Til You Return and The Man from Martinique.
Crossroads was based on the screenplay for a 1938 French film, Carrefour, directed by Curtis Bernhardt and written by John Kafka, who is given an original story credit on the M-G-M film.
As Kafka had written a number of Hollywood films during the 1940s, some of which were produced at M-G-M, it is unclear whether he contributed directly to Crossroads or was credited solely for his work on Carrefour. The French picture was also the basis for the 1940 British film Dead Man's Shoes, directed by Thomas Bentley and starring Leslie Banks.
Crossroads was adapted for a Lux Radio Theatre broadcast on March 29, 1943, starring Jean Pierre Aumont and Lana Turner.
Crossroads was the first of two films to co-star Hedy Lamarr and William Powell. The second was the 1943 film The Heavenly Body
In order to read Gary Tooze's review Of the film just follow the link to:
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film3/dvd_reviews51/crossroads.htm

9.3.13 looking at 3 post world war II film noir and returning vets with amnesia...No#3..."The Crooked Way..."

noreply@blogger.com (Ténèbres à la lumière...) — Sat, 09 Mar 2013 10:16:00 +0000

The Crooked Way (1949) Directed by Robert Florey

| English | 01:26:01 |
Subtitles: Spanish
Genre: Crime / Drama / Film Noir

Postwar films were festooned with amnesiac ex-GIs who found themselves mixed up with crime.

In The Crooked Way, John Payne plays memory-deficient veteran Eddie Rice, who runs afoul of mobster Vince Alexander (Sonny Tufts) and police inspector Lt. Williams (Rhys Williams).

Both the crooks and the cops seem to have good reason to despise Rice, and he'd like to find out why. He won't get any help from his wife Nina (Ellen Drew), however, since she is as hostile towards Rice as everyone else.

Gradually, Rice puts the pieces together and discovers that he's far better off not remembering his former self. Film noir habitues Percy Helton, John Doucette and Greta Grandstedt are eminently suited to their minor roles.

[editor's note: If you would like to watch the film in its entirety, just follow this link to:http://filmnoire.ning.com/video/full-film-the-crooked-way-robert-florey-1949-john-payne-ellen Or you can watch the film on the Slide-show it's film No# 6... Thanks,]

[editor's note: If you would like to read Gary Tooze's review Of "The Crooked Way" just follow the link below:

Gary Tooze, review "The Crooked Way..." Over There at... http://www.dvdbeaver.com/ ]

The Crooked Way (1949) is a black-and-white film noir directed by Robert Florey. The film was based on a radio play No Blade Too Sharp and features John Payne, Sonny Tufts, Ellen Drew, and others. The film, with a similar plot (a war hero loses his memory stateside) to another film noir Somewhere in the Night, was shot by noted cameraman John Alton.^[1]

Plot

After sustaining a head wound in combat, decorated World War II veteran Eddie Rice (John Payne) is treated at a San Francisco military hospital for a permanent form of amnesia. This leaves him with no knowledge of his life, family and friends prior to his enlistment, a void that the army intelligence unit was unable to fill as they couldn't find any information about him, other than the fact he enlisted in Los Angeles. Doctors tell him that no medical cure exists for his case, but that if he returns to Los Angeles he might run into people who know him and could help him fill in the blanks. Rice follows this advice and he promptly runs into people who recognize him. However, he is recognized not as Eddie Rice, but as Eddie Riccardi, a dangerous gangster gone missing, whose past behavior generates mistrust among the police and all those who knew him in the past. Furthermore, ruthless crime boss Vince Alexander (Sonny Tufts), who was betrayed by Eddie before he left the town, is now out for revenge.

Cast

John Payne as Eddie Rice aka Eddie Riccardi
Sonny Tufts as Vince Alexander
Ellen Drew as Nina Martin
Rhys Williams as Lieutenant Joe Williams
Percy Helton as Petey
John Doucette as Sgt. Barrett
Charles Evans as Captain Anderson
Greta Granstedt as Hazel Downs
Raymond Largay as Arthur Stacey, M.D.
Harry Bronson as Danny
Hal Baylor as Coke
Don Haggerty as Hood
Jack Overman as Hood
Crane Whitley as Doctor Kemble / Off-Screen Narrator
John Harmon as Kelly
Garry Owen as Man from Green Acres Mortuary

Critical reception

Film critic Dennis Schwartz discussed the noir aspects of the film, and wrote, "A minor film noir, originally made for radio. Its motif, about how someone can attempt to change his dismal past after getting amnesia, is a purely noir theme...Nina and Eddie desperately want to fit into postwar American society despite their prior misdeeds. The camerawork of probably the best film noir cinematographer ever, John Alton, captures the dark streetlife of LA. What leaves a lasting impression is the warehouse shoot-out, as we see these antisocial types trapped like rats. The darkness of Vince's past and current life is contrasted with the John Payne character who has a second chance to redeem himself, something noir characters think is impossible to ever get. That is the happy ending, but its optimism is muted. There's always the possibility he will revert back to his old self. It all seems credible, even though we know that this story is a highly improbable one. Throughout the film, John Payne has the look of someone who has just come out of a laundry washing machine and by the film's end is being hung out to dry."^[2]

looking at 3 post world war II film noir and returning vets with amnesia...No#2...''The Clay Pigeon..."

noreply@blogger.com (Ténèbres à la lumière...) — Sat, 09 Mar 2013 09:33:00 +0000

The Clay Pigeon (1949) Directed by Richard Fleischer| 1-English/2-Spanish | 01:00:18 |
Genre: Crime / Drama / Film Noir
Awakening from a coma in a naval hospital, Jim is astonished to learn that he's been accused of murder. Not quite certain of his own guilt or innocence, he escapes from the hospital in search of his best friend, another ex-POW named Ted Niles (Richard Quine).

En route, he is forced to kidnap Martha Gregory (Barbara Hale, Williams' real-life wife), the widow
of the murdered man.

Martha despises Jim at first, but is won over to his side when it becomes obvious that someone has set Jim up as a fall guy.

Clay Pigeon was the first RKO film produced under the new Howard Hughes regime.

[editor's note: In order to read Gary Tooze's review Of the 1949 film noir just follow the link to: Gary Tooze over there at dvdbeaver...Review the 1949 Film Noir "The Clay Pigeon..." ]

Tony D'Ambra...Also Review "The Clay Pigeon..."

In a review that is the length Of a Commercial...

In order to watch the film in its entirety just follow this link to:http://filmnoire.ning.com/video/full-film-the-clay-pigeon-1949-richard-fleischer Or visit the slide-show below and look for the 5th film...Thanks,

Plot

Jim Fletcher (Williams), a former inmate in a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp, awakes from a coma at a naval hospital, only to be told he's been accused of murder. Fletcher is not quite certain of his guilt so he escapes from the hospital in search of his best friend, another ex-POW.

Cast

Bill Williams as Jim Fletcher
Barbara Hale as Martha Gregory
Richard Quine as Ted Niles
Richard Loo as Ken Tokoyama aka The Weasel
Frank Fenton as Lt. Cmdr. Prentice
Frank Wilcox as Navy Hospital Doctor
Marya Marco as Mrs. Helen Minoto (as Mary Marco)
Robert Bray as Gunsel Blake
Martha Hyer as Miss Harwick, Wheeler's Receptionist
Harold Landon as Blind Veteran
James Craven as John Wheeler
Grandon Rhodes as Naval Intelligence Agent Clark

Critical reception

Time Out film reviews wrote of the film, "Directed by Fleischer with tight, spare energy, although the implausible script and bland leading performances (with Hale as the dead friend's wife, initially hostile but soon losing her heart) make it much inferior to The Narrow Margin.^[2]

John Hodiak in Mankiewicz's "Somewhere in the Night..."

noreply@blogger.com (Ténèbres à la lumière...) — Sat, 02 Mar 2013 12:44:00 +0000

Somewhere In The Night (1946) Directed by Joseph Mankiewicz
| English | 01:43:45 |

                  Subtitles: English & French Genre: Crime / Drama / Film Noir

                                   Release Information:
                                   Studio: 20th Century Fox Home Video

                                   Aspect Ratio:
                                   Original Aspect Ratio 1.33:1
                                   Edition Details:

                                               • Commentary by author Eddie Muller [The Czar Of film noir]
                                                  • Theatrical trailer

                                             DVD Release Date: September 6th, 2005
                                             Keep Case
                                             Chapters:28

Film noir aficionados -- and just plain fans of good older films -- will relish Somewhere in the Night, a classic of the genre whose very title promises high contrast black-and-white photography, a hero plopped into a world in which lies and truths are difficult to identify and plenty of danger and suspense.

It's all there, along with other familiar noir trappings like the femme fatale and questions of identity. So none of the basic ingredients of the plot is especially original -- and sometimes that plot gets a trifle confusing and/or a bit incredible -- but it's told with such style and assurance that it comes across as fresh and engrossing.

Credit Joseph L. Mankiewicz, who not only contributed to the screenplay (which bears signs of his witty style in much of the dialogue) but also directed, his first time as a director from start to finish on a project. Mankiewicz's work is remarkably assured here.

Aside from the opening sequences, there's little here that is visually inventive in terms of his storytelling, but it has a directness and clarity that is admirable. Besides, cinematographer Norbert F. Brodin is on hand to supply gorgeous, evocative, dramatic photography that makes any directorial tricks unnecessary.

In the lead role, John Hodiak is surprisingly good and the supporting cast is uniformly strong.

Synopsis

The film tells the tale of a man called George Taylor (John Hodiak), who returns home to the US from fighting in World War II. He is suffering from amnesia, and tries to track down his old identity, following a trail left behind by the mysterious Mr Larry Cravat. He ends up stumbling into a murder mystery involving Nazi loot. The complicated storyline is typical of film noir.

Cast

John Hodiak as George W. Taylor
Nancy Guild as Christy Smith
Lloyd Nolan as Police Lt. Donald Kendall
Richard Conte as Mel Phillips
Josephine Hutchinson as Elizabeth Conroy
Fritz Kortner as Anzelmo aka Dr. Oracle
Sheldon Leonard as Sam
Whit Bissell as John the Bartender
Harry Morgan as Bath attendant
Lou Nova as Hubert
Margo Woode as Phyllis

Production notes

Twentieth Century-Fox purchased Marvin Borowsky's original, unpublished story "The Lonely Journey" and his accompanying screenplay in December 1944 for $11,000. Somewhere in the Night was Nancy Guild's first film.

Production Dates: 21 Nov 1945–24 Jan 1946. A radio version of the film, starring John Hodiak and Lynn Bari, was broadcast on Lux Radio Theatre on March 3, 1947.

In order to watch John Hodiak and the uniformly strong supporting cast just follow the link to:
The 1946 Film noir "Somewhere in the Night..." and to read more about the film on dvd just visit Gary Tooze over there at...Tooze, looks at "Somewhere in the Night..."
[Editor's Note: You can also watch "Somewhere in the Night" on the Slide-show below it's the 3rd film on the slide-show...Thanks,]

actress Peggy Cummins, Noir City 11 and Gun Crazy Memorabilia...

noreply@blogger.com (Ténèbres à la lumière...) — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 10:36:00 +0000

Gun Crazy (1950) is a film noir feature film starring Peggy Cummins and John Dall in a story about the crime-spree of a gun-toting husband and wife. The film was directed by Joseph H. Lewis, and produced by Frank King and Maurice King.

The screenplay by blacklisted writer Dalton Trumbo -- credited to Millard Kaufman because of the blacklist and by MacKinlay Kantor -- was based upon a short story by Kantor published in 1940 in The Saturday Evening Post. Gun Crazy was selected for the National Film Registry, and is also known as Deadly Is the Female.^[1]

Bart Tare (Dall) has a lifelong fixation with guns—they make him feel good inside. At the age of 14, he is sent to reform school by a sympathetic Judge Willoughby (Morris Carnovsky) for stealing a pistol from a hardware store, despite the testimony of his friends Dave (Nedrick Young) and Clyde (Harry Lewis), his older sister Ruby and others that he would never kill any living creature.

After reform school and a stint in the Army, Bart returns home. He, Dave and Clyde go to a traveling carnival.

There he meets a kindred spirit in sharpshooter Annie Laurie Starr (Cummins). She gets him a job with the carnival.

However, their attraction to each other inflames the jealousy of Packett (Berry Kroeger), who wants Laurie-for himself, and they both get fired.

The couple get married and embark on a happy honeymoon. She warns him beforehand that she is "bad, but will try to be good". When their money runs out though, Laurie gives her husband a stark choice: join her in a career of crime or she will leave him. They hold up stores and gas stations, but the money they steal does not last long. Finally, she persuades him to take on one last big robbery so they can flee the country and live in peace and comfort. They get jobs at a meat processing plant and make detailed plans.

They get away with a lot of money, but Laurie has an uncontrollable homicidal streak that comes out when she is frightened. During the robbery, she kills her office manager and a security guard. Afterward, they are supposed to split up for a couple of months, but neither can bear to be away from the other that long.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is brought in, and the fugitives become the targets of an intense manhunt. In California, Bart arranges for passage to Mexico, but the authorities track them down by the serial numbers from bills from the plant. They are forced to flee, leaving all their loot behind.
With no place else to go, they go to Ruby.

Bart's old friends, now a reporter and the local sheriff, plead with him to give himself and Laurie up. Instead, they flee into the mountains where Bart used to go camping in the summer. They are surrounded, and Dave and Clyde approach them to try to save their lives. When Bart sees Laurie preparing to gun them down, he shoots her and in turn is killed by the police.

You can visit Film Noir Lives Here To Check-out
"Gun Crazy" Memorabilia... [Remember To Tap The Posters [items] In Order To View The Memorabilia Up-Close and On a personal level...Thanks,]
You can also watch the 1950 film noir here with Spanish Sub-titles http://filmnoire.ning.com/ and here without subtitles: http://filmnoire.ning.com

Peggy Cummins as Annie Laurie Starr
John Dall as Bart Tare
Berry Kroeger as Packett
Morris Carnovsky as Judge Willoughby
Anabel Shaw as Ruby Tare
Harry Lewis as Sheriff Clyde Boston
Nedrick Young as Dave Allister
Trevor Bardette as Sheriff Boston, who apprehends the teenage Bart
Mickey Little as Bart Tare at age 7
Russ Tamblyn as Bart Tare at age 14
Paul Frison as Clyde Boston at age 14
David Bair as Dave Allister at age 7
Stanley Prager as Bluey-Bluey
Virginia Farmer as Miss Wynn
Anne O'Neal as Miss Augustine Sifert, Laurie's supervisor and first victim at the plant
Frances Irvin as Danceland Singer
Robert Osterloh as Hampton Policeman
Shimen Ruskin as Cab Driver
Harry Hayden as Mr. Mallenberg, the plant manager

Marilyn Ferdinand from over there at ferdyonfilms... Interview actress Peggy Cummins Here:http://www.fandor.com/

For More Information about Noir City Just Follow This Link here:Keeping It Reel-Noir City at The Castro Theatre... The Most Popular Film Noir Festival...Ends 02/03/2013

Critical response

Critic and author Eddie Muller wrote, "Joseph H. Lewis's direction is propulsive, possessed of a confident, vigorous simplicity that all the frantic editing and visual pyrotechnics of the filmmaking progeny never quite surpassed."^[4]

Sam Adams, critic for the Philadelphia City Paper, wrote, "The codes of the time prevented Lewis from being explicit about the extent to which their fast-blooming romance is fueled by their mutual love of weaponry (Arthur Penn would rip off the covers in Bonnie and Clyde, which owes Gun Crazy a substantial debt), but when Cummins' six-gun dangles provocatively as she gasses up their jalopy, it's clear what really fills their collective tank."^[5]

The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 96% of critics gave the film a positive review, based on twenty seven reviews.^[6]

My writer Andrew Katsis...Takes a look at Capra's Christmas film "It's A Wonderful Life..." as I ask...Why is this film considered a film noir?

noreply@blogger.com (Ténèbres à la lumière...) — Mon, 24 Dec 2012 11:38:00 +0000

It's a Wonderful Life is a 1946 Hollywood Christmas drama film produced and directed by Frank

Is Frank Capra's film and based on the short story "The Greatest Gift" written by Philip Van Doren Stern.

[PLEASE STOP TO LISTEN TO CLUTE AND EDWARDS' PODCAST AND THEIR THOUGHTS ABOUT THE COLORIZED VERSION TOO...]
Clute and Edwards' podcast...Out of the Past: Investigating Film Noir...Episode 13: It's a Wonderful Life
According To Andrew...This review may contain spoilers ***

Why is it that I get a little teary every time I watch 'It's A Wonderful Life (1946)?' The title says it all, I suppose. Despite the film's reputation as a holiday classic, Capra's film succeeds because it doesn't forget about the other eleven months of the year – it truly is about life, and what makes it wonderful.
Even the most understated moments have a tendency to expose me as a romantic: in one of my favourite scenes, George Bailey (James Stewart) offers the Moon to his sweetheart, Mary (Donna Reed). Yet Capra doesn't patronise the audience with a string of happy moments.

George, at first, seems like the unluckiest person in town, a man whose big dreams never came to fruition, for reasons entirely outside his control. It is Capra's miracle that George, and the audience, ultimately realise that life's greatest wonders are not necessarily those that we had anticipated – friends we never expected to make, a girl with whom we never expected to fall in love…

On a snowy Christmas Eve, George Bailey stands on a bridge in his home town of Bedford Falls, contemplating suicide. Throughout his life-time, George's grand dreams of exploration and excitement have been repeatedly stifled by tragedy and obligation, and now he sees no future except in death.

[editor's note: The screen shot above is from the TCM colorized version which you can watch here in its entirety...HERE: CAPRA'S "IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE..."] Joseph, [The Head Angel...] watching from Heaven, sends down guardian angel Clarence ((Henry Travers), who tries to convince George that life is something to be treasured. 'It's a Wonderful Life' was adapted from Philip Van Doren Stern's short story "The Greatest Gift," and carries shades of Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" (indeed, Lionel Barrymore was chosen for the role of Mr. Potter based on his much-lauded radio portrayals of Scrooge from 1934).

James Stewart, who had served in the U.S. Airforce during WWII, brings a painful weariness to the role of beleaguered family-man George Bailey, and the warm, soulful eyes of Donna Reed – as George's wife Mary – are enough to remind any man that life is, indeed, wonderful.
'It's A Wonderful Life' differs from 'You Can't Take It With You (1938)' and 'Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)' in that the film's central immoral character does not undergo a change of heart (though, admittedly, Jim Taylor in the latter film does remain a rigid villain, even when Senator Paine reveals a human streak).

Mr. Potter (Lionel Barrymore) is one of cinema's most formidable villains, a heaving bulk of a man, confined to a wheelchair, who desires money and power for the sake of money and power. In the swelling emotion of Capra's final act, it's easy to forget that Potter goes unpunished for his moral crimes.

Here, Capra deals in blacks and whites. George Bailey is a good man; Mr Potter is a bad man. The director's own unique brand of "Capra-corn" required that the audience's sympathies never be confused, so that they can commit themselves to a character who is destined for a happy ending. After having watched 'You Can't Take It With You,' Barrymore's role- reversing characterization is stunning.

[editor's note: You can also watch the film in which it was intended in glorious Black and White...HERE:FRANK CAPRA'S "IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE..."
[Footnote:
1. "It's a Wonderful Life" is unique in that it is a Film blanc with a self-contained Film-noir episode. The horror vision of Bedford Falls turned into the degenerate Pottersville is like an alternate-universe in a time travel science fiction story.

What Savant Of dvdtalk... hasn't heard pointed out elsewhere is that this must have been Capra's statement against the violent, amoral 40s thrillers he so vociferously condemned in his autobiography, films like "Kiss_of_Death_"where grandmothers in wheelchairs are pushed to their deaths down stairways.

"Kiss of Death" and its ilk, of course, would eventually come to be known as Film Noir ...Read more about Films Blanc in a related Savant article. Return Text © Copyright 1998 Glenn Erickson.]
1. It's a Wonderful Life is unique in that it is a Film Blanc with a self-contained Film Noir episode. The horror vision of Bedford Falls turned into the degenerate Pottersville is like an alternate-universe in a time travel science fiction story.
Read more about Films Blanc in a related Savant article...[Here at: Savant Of dvdtalk... Return Text © Copyright 1998 Glenn Erickson.]

Director Andre De Toth's 1948 "Pitfall" Starring D.Powell, L.Scott and R.Burr to screen this evening at the NW-Film Festival...

noreply@blogger.com (Ténèbres à la lumière...) — Mon, 17 Sep 2012 19:42:00 +0000

PITFALL

DIRECTOR: ANDRE DE TOTH
US, 1948

86 minutes

IMDB: 7.3/10

Director: André De Toth

Cast:	Dick Powell, Lizabeth Scott, Jane Wyatt, Raymond Burr, John Litel, Byron Barr, Jimmy Hunt, Ann Doran, Selmer Jackson, Margaret Wells

Based on Jay Dratler's novel The Pitfall, André de Toth's gripping film is a classic L.A. noir in the tradition of Detour, and shows the spiraling, epic consequences resulting from one fateful decision.
John Forbes (Dick Powell) is a family man who’s tired of the nine-to-five humdrum of his job as an insurance company executive. Life gets a little more exciting for him when he calls upon lusty femme fatale Mona Stevens (Lizabeth Scott) whose thug boyfriend has been bilking the insurance company.

When Forbes sends a private investigator (Raymond Burr) to find out if Stevens is in on the con, the PI ends up falling for her too, creating a noirific love triangle that can only result in murder. No one takes the high road in this noir classic. (86 mins.) For More Information Follow This Link To:http://www.nwfilm.org/screenings/
In order to watch the film in its entirety just follow this link To:http://filmnoire.ning.com/video/re-posting-of-pitfall-1948

Portland Explores Its Dangerous Desires...Film Noir Classics...with a screening Of "The Hunted" and author Eddie Muller, [The Czar Of Noir] in attendance.

noreply@blogger.com (Ténèbres à la lumière...) — Sat, 15 Sep 2012 18:59:00 +0000

[Pictured Maria Belita Gladys Olive Lyne Jepson-Turner (25 October 1923 – 18 December 2005), known professionally as Belita, was a British Olympic figure skater, dancer and film actress.
Born at Nether Wallop, Hampshire, she skated (as Belita Jepson-Turner) for Great Britain in the 1936
Winter Olympics where she was placed 16th in the Ladies' singles competition, then her career turned towards Hollywood. She had classical Russian ballet training which carried over into her skating, and she was considered far superior to others skating at that time. As a young ballerina she was partner to Anton Dolin, appearing with the Dolin-Markova Ballet.]

THE HUNTED

DIRECTOR: JACK BERNHARD
US, 1948
GUEST PRESENTER—“Steve Fisher’s original screenplay for this bargain-basement B-film offers a clever twist on the typical femme fatale. Laura Mead (Belita) has served her time for robbery and still claims her innocence. She returns to the city where her former cop lover (Preston Foster) sent her up. Was she guilty—or was he just jealous? Is she back for a fresh start—or revenge? A strange, hypnotic noir from Poverty Row director Jack Bernhard (DECOY), resurrected in a new 35mm print by the Film Noir Foundation!”—Seattle International Film Festival (88 mins.)

She appeared in films including Never Let Me Go (1953), with Clark Gable and The Cherry Orchard, opposite Charles Laughton. She made several highly profitable productions for Monogram Pictures, including Silver Skates (1943), Lady, Let's Dance (1944) and Suspense (1946).

In 1946 Belita married Joel McGinnis; they divorced in 1956. She remarried, Irish actor James Berwick, né James Kenny (1929–2000). In 1956 she retired from skating and three years later gave up show business altogether. She appeared briefly on the ice at Madison Square Garden in New York City in 1981 in a short production based on "Solitude" by Duke Ellington.
She retired to live in Montpeyroux, France, where she died in 2005, aged 82.

...With Eddie Muller in attendance to discuss the legacy Of film noir.
To find out more information about the screening Of Bernhard "The Hunted" just follow the link to:
http://www.nwfilm.org/screenings/43/440/#2606

[editor's note: Unfortunately, I wasn't able to locate enough source material [a video clip, window cards, 3 sheet posters, pristine screen captures, Of the 1948 film noir "The Hunted."

Therefore, I plan to take a look at the actress known only as Belita, and link back to information about actress Belita...Here:author eddie muller discuss ice skater belita... http://www.filmnoirfoundation.org/belita.pdf
and Here: I plan to look at 2 video featuring actress Belita, skating from the the 1946 film noir "Suspense," a poster from Imp-award, and 8 lobby cards upclose over there on my Ning: http://filmnoire.ning.com/forum/topics/this-week-2-rare-posters-and

I must add that Thanks, to author Eddie Muller, and to all Of his staff over their at The Film Noir Foundation......patron(s) [this evening] will be able to view this film which isn't available on dvd in 35mm [as it's original intended to be viewed and in a pristine state as it's intended to be view....Hopefully, this classic "B" film noir will soon be available on dvd...Thanks, to E.M.and his wonderful staff tireless work toward saving rare film noir.
Thanks,]

Portland Explores Its Dangerous Desires... Darkness is coming to Portland, Oregon this evening

noreply@blogger.com (Ténèbres à la lumière...) — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 23:24:00 +0000

Dangerous Desires: Film Noir Classics...Kicking Off with a screening Of "The Prowler" and author Eddie Muller, [The Czar Of Noir] in attendance.

The Northwest Film Center presents a grand retrospective of vintage 35mm noir films! Featuring rarely seen gems beautifully restored and preserved in all their celluloid glory by the Film Noir Foundation, along with traditional noir favorites, this series promises a cinematically sinister foray into the dark heart of post-war America. The usual suspects are all here: crooked cops, thugs for hire, double-crossing dames, and more—come take a walk with us on the seedy side of the street. Author, film historian, and president of the Film Noir Foundation Eddie Muller will be in attendance opening weekend to discuss the enduring legacy of film noir.

THE PROWLER

DIRECTOR: JOSEPH LOSEY
US, 1951
GUEST PRESENTER—A tawdry tale of obsession and murder, Joseph Losey’s THE PROWLER tells the story of a crooked LAPD rookie (Van Heflin) who decides to win over the lonely housewife{Evelyn Keyes) he’s been stalking by knocking off her husband.

An intensely paranoid tailspin of a romance that skewers middle-class decorum, THE PROWLER is a haunting portrait of the American dream wrapped in a tabloid melodrama.

Featuring assistant direction by Robert Aldrich (KISS ME DEADLY) and written by the blacklisted Dalton Trumbo, this 35mm print, restored by the Film Noir Foundation, is not to be missed. (92 mins.)

With Eddie Muller in attendance.
The Prowler is a gripping, taut thriller in the film noir vein that packs a big punch while also delivering a social message about wealth, greed and ambition.

Holding a dark mirror up to the American dream, Prowler presents a picture of a "pure" American male, a man who drinks good wholesome milk and wears the uniform of law and order but who inside is obsessed with "making it" in the world.

For this man, "making it" is on a modest scale -- owning a hotel near Las Vegas. But his determination to obtain this goal compels him to murder, indicting the forces of American society that place such importance on measuring a man by his material means.

All this is done in the context of a tightly constructed, beautifully laid out thriller that has echoes of Double Indemnity but still has its own distinct flavor and character.

Working from a chilling screenplay by Dalton Trumbo, Hugo Butler and Hans Wilhelm, director Joseph Losey does a masterful job of piling on tension and atmosphere, working with cinematographer Arthur C. Miller to create a film that constantly draws the viewer in.

Best of all, however, are the star performances of Van Heflin and Evelyn Keyes. Neither is playing an especially sympathetic character, but they make them totally engrossing and compelling.

It's first rate acting from both, and deserving of more acclaim.

editor's note: for more information about The Portland Oregon Film noir Festival just follow this link:nwfilmcenter...
and here to Darkness To Light: http://filmnoire.ning.com/
and to watch a scene from Losey's 1951"The Prowler..." just follow this link:http://filmnoire.ning.com/video/

The word according to my writer, Andrew Katsis, as I look at Legendary [Film noir Icon] Robert Mitchum, in "Out Of The Past"...and

noreply@blogger.com (Ténèbres à la lumière...) — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 07:14:00 +0000

...The Memorabilia Associated with the Classic film noir "Out Of The Past..." Memorabilia...Upclose and Personal... (1947) Directed by Jacques Tourneur...
[Editor's Note: In order to view all Of the memorabilia up-close and personal just follow the link above to my Ning...Tks,]

Genre: Crime / Drama / Film Noir

"It was the bottom of the barrel, and I was scraping it."
"Out of the Past is so perfect a film noir that it is considered practically a textbook example of the genre. In his first starring role (it had previously been offered to John Garfield and Dick Powell), Robert Mitchum plays Jeff Bailey, the friendly but secretive proprietor of a mountain-village gas station.

As Jeff's worshipful deaf-mute attendant (Dick Moore) looks on in curious fascination, an unsavory character named Joe (Paul Valentine) pulls up to the station, obviously looking for the owner. Jeff is all too aware of Joe's identity; he's been dreading this moment for quite some time, knowing full well that it will mean the end of his semi-idyllic existence, not to mention his engagement to local girl Ann (Virginia Huston).

In a lengthy flashback, the audience is apprised of the reasons behind Jeff's discomfort - and thus begins a tale of treachery, betrayal and intrigue that extends into the present day and turns Jeff's life upside down."

Writer Andrew Katsis, look at actor and actress...

*** This review may contain spoilers ***
Jacques Tourneur's 'Out of the Past (1947)' has all the required ingredients for the archetypal film-noir: a bold and charismatic hero, wearied by a lifetime of violence and corruption, but reluctantly hauled back into his old world by a past he can't escape; a seductive femme fatale, a seemingly-innocent, pretty enchantress whose loyalty can never be counted upon; a sleazy and vengeful gambler, who's silently holding all the cards that will determine our hero's fate. Daniel Mainwaring's dark and tragic narrative {credited under the pseudonym Geoffrey Homes} combines a linear storyline with reminiscing flashbacks, the latter narrated in a tired, laconic tone of voice by Robert Mitchum {who, after frightening roles in 'The Night of the Hunter (1955)' and 'Cape Fear (1962),' finally convinces me that he can effectively play a hero}. Complete with bleak, shadowy cinematography by Nicholas Musuraca, and no shortage of double- and triple-crossings, 'Out of the Past' – along with Billy Wilder's masterpiece 'Double Indemnity (1944)' – remains one of the purest examples of the film noir style.

If Jeff Bailey (Robert Mitchum) thought he could escape his old enemies by purchasing an old gas station in a small American town, then he was sorely mistaken.

A previous employer, Whit Sterling (Kirk Douglas), a seedy and sly gangster, has sent for him, and, more than likely, the meeting has something to do with...

Kathie (Jane Greer), the beautiful seductress with whom Bailey {back when he was called Jeff Markham} fell in love when he was supposed to be capturing her.

Bailey is a smooth, shrewd operator, and recognizes that plans have been drawn against him, but he responds to the situation as one whose judgement should never be doubted. The romance described early in the film, as Bailey recounts his doomed love story to local innocent girlfriend, Anne (Virginia Huston), is deceptively touching, and, despite the clear framing device around which the story is structured, I was completely fooled into sympathizing with Kathie, only to be left feeling foolish and hollow as her initial betrayal is revealed.

In the United Kingdom, Tourneur's film was released under the title 'Build My Gallows High,' also the name of the novel from which the screenplay was adapted.

There are enough sharp, bitterly-ironic snippets of dialogue for me to spend all day listing them, but lines such as "Baby, I don't care," "…if I have to, I'll die last" and "you dirty double-crossing rat!" are pure noir, and serve as an excellent introduction to the style of American film-making that was most prominent from 1941-1958 {basically from John Huston's 'The Maltese Falcon' to Orson Welles' 'Touch of Evil'}. The story comes to a successfully downbeat conclusion, with each of the three main characters meeting a messy and tragic end in a suitably Shakespearian fashion. Though Jeff Bailey was ostensibly our story's hero, he had already committed enough sins by the film's beginning to avoid a happy ending, and his fate was effectively sealed from the moment he chose to revisit his past employer, despite obviously having little choice in the matter. Such is film noir.
[editor's note: In order to watch Mitchum, Greer and Douglas in the film that Andrew, have discussed in a rich black just follow this link to my Ning "Out Of The Past..." Now, To Discuss...

...THE HISTORY Of THE LOBBY CARDS...
[Pictured: The "Jewel in the Crown" the title card from the film "Out Of The Past..." Starring actor Robert Mitchum, Kirk Douglas and Jane Greer]

In the days before multiplexes, movie theaters generally only had one screen and one movie. To boost ticket sales, studios printed paper advertisements of their films to entice potential audience members.

One of the more collectible forms of these ads was the lobby card, a small piece of card stock that theaters posted in their lobbies to promote a featured film. In a sense, the lobby card was the small relative of the movie poster.

The first lobby cards, introduced around 1910, measured eight by 10 inches and were printed in black and white. Eventually, with advances in heliotype and photogelatin techniques, these cards had three colors (blue, yellow, and pink). Other cards were hand-colored using a stencil.

The eight- by 10-inch cards quickly gave way to 11- by 14-inch cards, which became known as the “standard” size. In the 1920s, a “jumbo” size was introduced which measured 14 by 17 inches. Finally, the “mini” size was introduced in the 1930s as a rebirth of the eight by 10 size (another version was printed on eight- by 14-inch stock).

Jumbo cards were printed on their own, not as part of a series, but mini and standard lobby cards generally came in sets of eight, though sets of nine, 12, and even 16 or more were not uncommon.

The first card in these sets was almost always the title card, which included an attention-grabbing image alongside the film’s title, slogan, and main acting credits. As a notable exception, Paramount never printed title cards.

Following the title card [The Jewel in the Crown] were several “scene” cards, which featured still shots from the film. The first two or three scene cards generally promoted the major stars;

[editor's note:I'm Unsure If The Original lobby cards have"dead card..." Because I Was Fortunate To Only Locate 6 Lobby Cards From The Original Set Of Lobby Cards ]
the two or three after that usually showed minor actors...This set Of lobby cards showed two minor actors alone...[Paul Valentine and Dicky Moore...]

The last card or two in the set are known today as “dead cards,” a phrase coined by movie-art collectors because these cards are generally the least desirable in the set. These cards depict extras or scenery from the film.

[editor's note: The lobby card with the bleue border are the re-issued lobby cards...I prefer the original lobby cards...Because they are darker, and look like the cover from a Chandler, Cain, or Woolrich novel...I also like the fact, that Mitchum is in the background...Hovering over Kathy, as she represent his past...that he was trying to escape.]
All of these cards were numbered in the order they were supposed to appear in the series. Before the 1960s, a card’s identifying number could be found in the corner of the artwork. In the ’60s, the number was moved to the bottom border of the card.

[Editor's Note: The Lobby Cards on the left are re-issued lobby cards from the 1947 film noir "Out of the Past" (RKO, R-1953).Lobby Card Set of 8 (11" X 14"). Robert Mitchum's past catches up to him in the form of mobster Kirk Douglas, who summons him to do one more job. This reissue lobby card set has a number of memorable scenes from the film, featuring Mitchum, Douglas, Jane Greer and Rhonda Fleming. Other than the slightest of corner bends on a couple of cards, this set is mint. Many consider the reissue set to have better images than the original release set and it certainly has better border art. Near Mint/Mint. [THIS SET Of RE-ISSUED LOBBY CARDS SOLD FOR $1,265.00]

Collectors generally prize lobby cards based on the order they appeared in a set—title cards are considered the most valuable, followed by those with major actors, those with minor actors, and finally the dead cards. Collectors generally only bother with dead cards when they are trying to complete a full set.

Eddie Muller's and The FNF Noir City Chicago 4 (7th and Final Night) by Daniel J. Kelley

noreply@blogger.com (Ténèbres à la lumière...) — Fri, 24 Aug 2012 19:49:00 +0000

As the song said, "I'd rather have the blues than what I got..."

Noir City Chicago 4 went out not with a whimper, but a bang.

[pictured: Ralph Meeker in "Kiss Me Deadly..."]

The final double feature was explosive and apocalyptic. Ralph Meeker played Mike Hammer in "Kiss Me Deadly." Robert Aldrich directed from a screenplay by Buzz Bezzerides that turned Mickey Spillane's novel upside down. Even the opening credits rolled in reverse order. The movie included some fine location shooting in the former Bunker Hill neighborhood, including some footage of the Angel's Flight commuter train. It's good to know that it was possible to purchase popcorn from a street vendor at 2:15 a.m. in old Los Angeles. Percy Helton made his lone appearance of the festival as a greedy morgue attendant.

[pictured: actor James Cagney and Edmund O' Brien in "White Heat..."]

From a suitcase bomb hidden in athletic club locker, the festival concluded with James Cagney's definitive gangster performance in Raoul Walsh's "White Heat." Edmond O'Brien, Virginia Mayo, Steve Cochran, Fred Clark and Margaret Wycherly were also included in the superb cast. I am biased as this film features one of my favorite Cagney performances.

The Chicago Noir City Festival seems to be gaining momentum. The audiences were quite good at all of the screenings that I attended. For myself, the best in show selection was "The Phantom Lady." The Cornel Woolrich triple feature was a hoot, but I might also commend the double bill of "Shakedown" and "Undertow." As for the most malicious femme fatale, Constance Dowling, who played the blackmailer Mavis Marlowe in "The Black Angel" is the hands down winner.

"Made it, Ma! Top of the World!"

To Check Out The Memorabilia From Noir City 4 in Chicago Just Follow the Link:
http://filmnoire.ning.com/profiles/blogs/film-festival-returns-southport-boulevard-of-broken-dreams-eddie

Coming Up: Another Film Noir Festival in SEPTEMBER [in Portland, Oregon,,,and Yes, author Eddie Muller, plan to be there too!... just follow the link for additional information...Tks,
http://filmnoire.ning.com/profiles/blogs/portland-explores-its-dangerous-desires-darkness-is-coming-to

The Word According to Dan...Alan Ladd was the main attraction in tonight's double feature. Although Ladd had already appeared in a few motion pictures"This Gun for Hire" was his breakthrough role...

noreply@blogger.com (Ténèbres à la lumière...) — Fri, 24 Aug 2012 08:13:00 +0000

[pictured: actor Alan Ladd and actress Betty Field in "The Great Gatsby..."}]
Alan Ladd was the main attraction in tonight's double feature. Although Ladd had already appeared in a few motion pictures, "This Gun for Hire" was his breakthrough role. Released in 1942, "This Gun for Hire" was the first movie to team Ladd and Veronica Lake. For the remainder of the decade, Ladd and Lake would be two of Paramount's most bankable performers. Laird Cregar and Mark Lawrence also appeared in the cast.

[pictured: The Duo Acting Team Of Ladd [as in Alan] and Lake [as in Veronica] along for the ride actor Robert Preston]

Apparently, at the pinnacle of his popularity, Alan Ladd had enough star power at Paramount to push for the studio to remake "The Great Gatsby." One can immediately understand why Ladd wanted the role, but recreating the celebrated novel on the silver screen proved to be an exceedingly difficult task. The 1949 production, directed by Elliott Nugent, was a moderate box office success that has been largely ignored since its initial release. Legal disputes over the ownership rights kept the film out of circulation for decades.

This adaptation added a brief prologue in which Gatsby's career as rum runner is emphasized. The two biggest questions that some audience members struggled with after the screening were: Did the film successfully adapt one of the great American novels and did the addition of Prohibition Era footage of Alan Ladd blasting his rivals make the film sufficiently dark to qualify as a bona fide film noir? I think that most of the audience was entertained by the movie, but not completely satisfied on both counts.

During a post screening discussion, a considerable amount of time was spent analyzing the performance of Betty Field as Daisy Buchanan. Her casting and overall performance was problematic, but I am inclined to agree with Foster Hirsch as I too believe that the director and screenwriter shared the responsibility for her performance. Field delivered her lines, responded to cues and hit her marks, but the film never really develops her as a full character. It is unclear as to why Gatsby finds her so appealing and idealizes her so much as compared to any other of the attractive and well dressed women that he has met. The flashback to the wartime romance between Gatsby and Daisy seems too perfunctory. The directorial choice was also a curious one. After a brief stint as an actor, Nugent entered into a directorial career in which he specialized in comedies. "The Great Gatsby" seems to be a real anomaly in terms of his credits. While the Cyril Hume and Richard Maibaum screenplay compresses many ideas from the book into a concise ninety minute running time, much of the action seems like something out of a wax works tableaux rather than a moving picture. In a few of its details, the film is not faithful to the novel (Nick and Jordan go their separate ways after Gatsby's death in the book), but overall most of the plot survives intact.

[In Order To View Memorabilia From "The Great Gatsby" Up-Close an[d] on a personal level just follow the link To:
http://filmnoire.ning.com/profiles/blogs/film-festival-returns-southport-boulevard-of-broken-dreams-eddie ]

Professor Hirsch asked for the audience members to raise their hands to indicate whether or not they considered the film appropriate to include in a film noir festival? The majority voted in the negative, but it was a split decision of sorts. In response to other questions, the same audience also indicated that the film was not a completely successful adaptation of the F. Scott Fitzgerald novel, but the film was still worth screening and watching nonetheless. Six of one, half a dozen of the other. Vox populi, vox Dei. Ed Begley, Elisha Cooke, Jr., andJack Lambert all appear in the film as gangsters, but their roles are little more than cameo appearances.

[Day 5 Of Noir City 4...] The eternal debate continues. . . Noir stained? Noir tinged? Noir or not noir? by Daniel J. Kelley, my on-spot- Chicago reporter

noreply@blogger.com (Ténèbres à la lumière...) — Fri, 24 Aug 2012 04:31:00 +0000

The eternal debate continues. . . Noir stained? Noir tinged? Noir or not noir? Several times during the current Noir City Chicago 4 festival theater patrons have posed these questions. The films being given the third degree treatment were "Three Strangers," "The Face Behind the Mask," and "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue." Tonight, the film being scrutinized was "Caught." Foster Hirsch polled the audience after the screening and I believe that a majority of the audience raised their hands to indicate that the film was not sufficiently noir. Yes, the film contained many elements associated with the film noir genre, but it seemed to be somewhat lacking. Hirsch stated his opinion that the absence of an actual crime may have been a deal breaker for him. Robert Ryan is maniacal multimillionaire, which is all well and good, but does being a control freak of a husband go far enough? Barbara Bel Geddes certainly deserved a divorce on grounds of mental cruelty, but for my money this Max Ophuls' production is more of a melodrama. In the interest of full disclosure, I was late to this screening, but I had seen the picture in its entirety on video cassette many years ago. Tonight, I only revisited the final two reels.

"On Dangerous Ground" was more conventional in its depiction of police detective who is about to blow his stack after years of dealing with the dregs of society. After brutalizing another criminal suspect, Robert Ryan is reassigned to help with an upstate manhunt for a murderer. This film departed from the usual film noir path, however, in that Ryan's character is offered an opportunity for redemption after meeting Ida Lupino. This is a great film from director Nicholas Ray who was working from a screenplay from Buzz Bezzerides. Tomorrow, the infernal question will be joined again when "The Great Gatsby" will be screened. Is this Alan Ladd version of the F. Scott Fitzgerald sufficiently dark? Some of us recall Associate Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart when the question arises: Is it noir? I know it when I see it. [editor's note: To view memorabilia from the films just follow this link: Thanks,] Film Festival Returns South-port Boulevard Of Broken Dreams...Eddie Muller's Noir City 4 return to Chicago

The Brothers' Tierney...One in Pevney's [obscure] "Shakedown" and Scott Brady in "Under-tow"...The Fourth night of Noir City 4 in Chicago by Daniel J. Kelley...[These are the rushes from the previous evening(s)]

noreply@blogger.com (Ténèbres à la lumière...) — Tue, 21 Aug 2012 13:45:00 +0000

Tonight's menu featured the Brothers Tierney. Big bad Lawrence Tierney acted in Joseph Pevney's "Shakedown" while his estranged kid brother "Scott Brady" (Kenneth Gerard Tierney) starred in William Castle's "Undertow." The latter film was partly shot on location in Chicago.

[pictured Scott Brady in "Under-Tow" with Dorothy Hart (?) or is it Peggy Dow(?) ]

Alan K. Rode completed his hosting duties on Sunday and tonight another Director of the Film Noir Foundation, Professor Foster Hirsch of Brooklyn College, introduced the films on the double feature bill. Both men are the authors of valuable film studies books that belong in the library of every film noir student:
Hirsch produced the seminal " The Dark-Side- Of The Screen: -Film-Noir..."and most recently authored a full length biography of wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_Preminger; Rode wrote the biography of the iconic noir tough guy Charles-McGraw-Biography Of a Tough Guy...and is currently engaged in writing the biography of wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Curtiz, a director who worked in an almost every movie genre imaginable, including several highly regarded film noir pictures ("The Unsuspected" and "The Breaking Point").

Hirsch noted that both of tonight's features were intended to exhibited as "B" films or second features. As such, the two movies were shot economically and were densely plotted -- audience were supposed to being paying attention to plot points. There are no wasted scenes. Every frame of film tells a story. "Shakedown," which was Pevney's movie debut as a director, checked in at eighty minutes. "Undertow" was even briefer. Its running time was a mere seventy-one minutes in length. Nevertheless, both movies did not lack for action. The key difference as compared to modern films was a matter of rapid pacing.

[pictured Howard Duff and Brian Donlevy in the 1950 "Shakedown..."]
Howard Duff's character was described as "a ruthless opportunist" by one of his newspaper colleagues in "Shakedown." As he hustles to establish his credentials as a big city news photographer, he is appeared to sacrifice his integrity in pursuit of a fast buck and to stage photographs to get ahead. He even goes so far as to try to play both sides against the middle in a war between two rival gangsters played by Brian Donlevy and Lawrence Tierney. Before William Castle achieved notoriety as an exploitation film maker specializing in low budget horror films that relied upon assorted gimmicks, he was a competent "B" director of crime dramas and mysteries. He worked on some well regarded lesser film titles such as the King Brothers' production of "When Strangers Marry" at Monogram Pictures and he collaborated on "The Whistler" series at Columbia. He even worked with Orson Welles on "The Lady from Shanghai."

[Here goes screen-shots [dvdrips] from the 1949 [obscure] "Undertow..." Starring Scott Brady, Bruce Bennett, Dorothy Hart, and Peggy Dow...]

One audience member opined that "Undertow" featured some of the best location shooting that he had seen in a film set in Chicago. While several city landmarks were clearly identifiable, I wondered if it was simply a case of other films screened at the previous Noir City Chicago festivals emphasizing the city's slums as opposed to its tourist attractions? Midway Airport, Buckingham Fountain, the Adler Planetarium, the Shedd Aquarium and the Palmer House are all on display in "Undertow." It was amusing to see that it was permissible to park automobiles on Lake Shore Drive six years ago. Both films were produced at Universal-International and some of the same cast and crew members were employed on both productions.

One of the habits that I have had to cultivate as a film noir fan is studying the credits. Learning the names of the cinematographers, the directors and writers has proven to be an invaluable tool in terms of seeking out other worthwhile films from the classic period. For example, Martin Goldsmith, who is best known for "Detour," was one of the writers credited with creating "Shakedown." I don't know if the ill will between Lawrence Tierney and Scott Brady had its origins in a family feud or not. Maybe Larry was jealous that his younger brother occasionally got cast as a heroic figure rather than being typed as a villainous heavy or a bad ass. Both films were well attended. This was something of an accomplishment for a Monday night.

"Slaughter On 10th Ave."[The Poor-man "On The Waterfront?"}] and 99 River Street...The Third night of Noir City 4 in Chicago by Daniel J. Kelley...[These are the rushes from the previous evening(s)]

noreply@blogger.com (Ténèbres à la lumière...) — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 17:03:00 +0000

"Today, I was reminded of the Second City Television episode in which Bobby Bitman and Lola Heatherton starred in "On the Waterfront Again."
I attended the matinee showing of "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue" which host Alan K. Rode described as the stepchild of "On the Waterfront." The producer of this well made feature was the exploitation film maker, Albert Zugsmith, who is perhaps better known for producing "High School Confidential" or scissoring "Touch of Evil" in the editing room and printing the credits over the impressive opening of the final feature film that Orson Welles directed in Hollywood.

According to Rode, most of the credit for the success of the film belongs to its director Arnold Laven. When interviewed by Alan K. Rode, Laven was asked to explain the significance of the movie's title, the director replied, "Nothing."

Apparently, Zugsmith or Universal owned the rights to a Richard Rodgers musical composition of the same name and insisted that it be used in the film. So that is the "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue."

Although Arnold Laven is best known for his television production work, he also directed the superb, down and dirty noir, "Without Warning." While the waterfront movie contains some second unit location shooting footage from New York, "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue" was primarily filmed in California.

Laven added some realism to the picture by leaving the studio to film some shipping yard and dock sequences along the Pacific coast. The film had a factual basis in that it was adapted from a book chronicling one of the few successful prosecutions of shipyard related murder involving the racketeers controlling the longshoremens' unions.

The cast included Richard Egan, Jan Sterling, Sam Levene, Dan Duryea and Walter Matthau.

[editor's note: I was unable to locate source material for the 1957 film noir "Slaughter On 10th Avenue..." [For instance, posters,lobby cards,window cards, 1 -Sheet, or 3-Sheet posters...] However, I was fortunate enough to locate a nice copy Of the film in its entirety over there on you-tube...Now, with that being said, you better view the film immediately, before the poster Of the video or you-tube remove it due to Copy-right infringement by following the link below to my Ning. Tks,]
http://filmnoire.ning.com/video/slaughter-on-tenth-avenue-1957-full-film

Phil Karlson's "99 River Street" was the second feature. I really have always enjoyed this film and it was a great pleasure to see it screened in a theater. This is one of John Payne's best film noir roles. The supporting cast of Evelyn Keyes, Peggy Castle, Brad Dexter, Frank Faylen, Jack Lambert and the ultimate scene stealer, himself, Jay Adler, make this a memorable film that gets better with each successive viewing.

Thus far, the audiences have been enthusiastic and the ticket sales have been quite good overall. This is my fourth such festival and I was able to recognize many repeat customers in the audience from prior years.
One of the nicest things about Noir City Chicago is that, when time permits, the Film Noir Foundation hosts have been approachable and patient in terms of answering questions and holding conversations with theater patrons. The Music Box, which opened its doors in the late Twenties, has always been a neighborhood theater, but it does have a fairly large lobby area that allows people an opportunity to do a bit of casual socializing. I am not certain that such intimacy would be possible in Los Angeles or San Francisco where the audiences are oftentimes much larger.
More to come.

[editor's note: To view memorabilia from the films just follow this link: Thanks,] Film Festival Returns South-port Boulevard Of Broken Dreams...Eddie Muller's Noir City 4 return to Chicago

A Woolrich Triple Threat...The second night of Noir City 4 in Chicago by Daniel J. Kelley...[These are the rushes from the previous evening(s)]

noreply@blogger.com (Ténèbres à la lumière...) — Sun, 19 Aug 2012 20:56:00 +0000

The second night of Noir City Chicago 4 (it is always night in the Noir City even if you attend a matinee) featured three screen adaptations of pulp fiction from the dark imagination of Cornell Woolrich. I was familiar with "The Black Angel" and "The Window," the show stopper for me was "The Phantom Lady." Once again, a Robert Siodmak production did not disappoint. I have known of the film solely on account of its reputation, but, apart from viewing a few clips online, I had never seen the movie in its entirety until last night.

[pictured actress Ella Raines, in Woolrich's "The Phantom Lady..."]
The importance of the Film Noir Foundation's mission was underscored in a demonstrable manner given the mediocre quality of the print. While the reels projected were serviceable, the copy was in no way pristine. Woody Bredell's cinematography was first rate. This was 100 proof noir I could only imagine how sharp it would have looked if it had been fully restored and remastered.

The second film "The Window" had been preserved by the Film Noir Foundation and the improved quality of the print was appreciable. I have always been mystified that "The Phantom Lady" has not been readily available for home entertainment consumers for quite a few years. As far as I know, it has never been issued on a commercial DVD and the last VHS releases had have sold out twenty-five years ago. Maybe the available of custom ordered DVDs on demand will remedy this omission. "The Phantom Lady" was a Universal film and that company (which also owns a sizeable portion of the Paramount film library) has not always been as ambitious in terms of marketing its films for the home entertainment market.

Ella Raines was an unconventional beauty whose talents were sadly underutilized during her brief Hollywood career. She appeared in some good films, including a few more noir features, but after about a decade her acting prospects declined considerably. While everyone is familiar with the wild drumming sequence with Elisha Cooke, Jr., Raines, disguised as a "hep kitten" helps sell the on screen simulated on screen sex set to erotic music.

In order to cozy up to Cooke's character while in search of information to clear her employer (Alan Curtis) of a murder charge, Raines transformed herself into a wild jazz baby. Universal was something of a middle tier studio in the Hollywood firmament. It is a testimonial to the quality of the "Phantom Lady" that Siodmak was able to fashion such an engaging film using a stock company of character actors and few, if any, big name stars. Doris Lloyd, Harry Cording, Fay Helm (best remembered as the initial victim of a severed jugular in "The Wolf-man"), Thomas Gomez and others carry the picture. I have watched too many old movies: I was able to recognize the offscreen voice of Samuel Hinds as the courtroom judge.
The basic themes of "The Phantom Lady" and "The Black Angel" are similar. In each movie, a woman seeks exculpatory evidence to rescue the man that she loves from a death sentence. The key differences in the two plots relate to how the story unfolds and the climax plays out, but the initial premises are virtually identical. The trial scenes in both movies are almost interchangeable in that in both cases innocent men are sentenced to death for crimes that they did not commit. "The Black Angel" is noteworthy for Dan Duryea's lead performance and Constance Dowling playing one of the most beautiful and vicious femme fatales.

[pictured child star Bobby Driscoll in Woolrich's "The Boy Who Cried Murder..."]
"The Window" is a unique film in that it is told from the perspective of a child who witnesses a murder. The tragic Bobby Driscoll earned an Academy Award for his performance in the adaptation of Woolrich's "The Boy Who Cried Murder." Alan K. Rode was able to supply the audience with some specific details of the production acquired from his telephone conversation with Barbara Hale earlier in the day. Despite the sweaty summertime setting of the film, the actress recalled that much of the New York City location shooting was actually done in November and the cast was frequently quite cold. More to come.

[editor's note: To view memorabilia from the films just follow this link: Thanks,] Film Festival Returns South-port Boulevard Of Broken Dreams...Eddie Muller's Noir City 4 return to Chicago

Noir City Chicago: Opening Night by Daniel J. Kelly...Coming Up: Day No# 2...Peter Lorre will be featured in one of tomorrow's films also. Saturday's program consists of three adaptations of Cornell Woolrich's fiction...

noreply@blogger.com (Ténèbres à la lumière...) — Sat, 18 Aug 2012 23:41:00 +0000

The Noir City Chicago 4 festival began at the Music Box Theater tonight. The two films screened were "Three Strangers" and "The Face Behind the Mask." There was a sizeable audience on hand for the start of the week long festival program.

Alan K. Rode acted as the Master of Ceremonies. The audience was treated to a theater organ recital before the first feature and there was a noir quiz during the intermission. Ten lucky winners received copies of film noir DVDs from the Warner Archives.

The highlight of the evening was the presentation of "Three Strangers." This curious 1946 film was restored by the Film Noir Foundation. The original story was developed by John Huston sometime during the Thirties before he established himself as a director. After the success of "The Maltese Falcon," Huston entertained the thought of reviving "Three Strangers" and reassembling the same cast on the picture. The scenario languished, however, and by the time it was finally produced by Warner Brothers, Howard Koch contributed to the revised script (credited to Huston and Koch) and Jean Negulesco had replaced Huston as the director. Neither Mary Astor or Humphrey Bogart appeared in the picture, but Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet did. What made the movie unusual is that Lorre played a character quite unlike his usual typecast roles. Geraldine Fitzgerald played the femme fatale.

The story was set in London in 1938 and it concerned three individuals who made a fateful wish before a Chinese idol concerning a shared sweepstakes ticket. I was amazed at the number of supporting players from the Sherlock Holmes pictures that were employed on the film. I counted seven such actors. It was interesting to see that Huston named the prize race horse in the movie "Corn Cracker." A horse with the exact same name was also mentioned in "The Asphalt Jungle."

The second movie was Robert Florey's "The Face Behind the Mask" which also featured Lorre. This was a low budget quickie from Columbia that was shot in less than two full weeks. Alan K. Rode made a comment in his introduction that coincided with my own thinking, namely, had this same script been produced a decade earlier one could easily envision Lon Chaney playing the lead role. Having been horribly disfigured in a hotel fire, a kindly immigrant watchmaker is no longer able to support himself and is constantly shunned by people on account of his ugliness. The only friend that the unfortunate man is able to make is a petty criminal. Soon afterwards, the two men stage a series of daring crimes that astonish the police.

In order to save funds for plastic surgery, Janos Szaby (Lorre) partnered with a bigger gang that committed larger crimes. His loneliness is temporarily relieved by a chance encounter with a blind woman played by Evelyn Keyes. Franz Planer was the cinematographer on this "B" film and the production looks much better than you might expect. When this film was sold to local television outlets during the Fifties, it was packaged as one of the horror films in the "Shock Theater" collection. It is not truly a horror film. It is a crime drama that smacks of noir.

Peter Lorre will be featured in one of tomorrow's films also. Saturday's program consists of three adaptations of Cornell Woolrich's fiction. [editor's note: To view memorabilia from the film just follow this link: Thanks,] Film Festival Returns South-port Boulevard Of Broken Dreams...Eddie Muller's Noir City 4 return to Chicago

NOIR CITY: CHICAGO returns to the Music Box, August 17th-23rd

noreply@blogger.com (Ténèbres à la lumière...) — Fri, 17 Aug 2012 03:22:00 +0000

Friday 17 - Thursday 23 August 2012 NOIR CITY: CHICAGO returns to the Music Box, August 17th-23rd! Join us for the 4th sensational edition of NOIR CITY: CHICAGO as the Music Box teams up with the Film Noir Foundation for a festival that combines extraordinary rarities with revivals of recognized classics— all presented on the big screen in glorious 35mm prints!

The Film Noir Foundation has been at the forefront of the noir revival, cracking studio vaults to resurrect long-neglected examples of America’s most revered genre, funding restorations and preservations, ensuring that these hard-bitten yet sleekly sexy cinematic offerings remain available in their original form for generations to come.

In order to see the posters up-close and personal just follow the link below:NOIRCITY 4...BEGINS TOMORROW at THE MUSIC-BOX

Pricing Single Feature Tickets

$10, available online & at the box office
Double Feature Tickets
Purchase tickets to any two films in Noir City
$12, available online & at the box office
Noir City Festival Pass
The Festival Pass can be used for admission into any and all films in Noir City. That’s up to 15 films!
$50.00, available online & at the box office, while supplies last

Ténèbres à la lumière...

as author eddie muller stint ends over there on tcm...stay tune for a "Noir Writer Contest" coming in july...Thanks, for tuning-in all month long...too !

Eddie Muller on Cornell Wool-rich and Raymond Chandler and ...

Eddie Muller on Raymond Chandler

Friday Night Spot-light all Month Long on TCM...as author Eddie Muller, look at novelist Jonathan Latimer and James M.Cain...[as I look at Noir Writers too ! ]

Eddie Muller on Jonathan Latimer and James M. Cain...

Eddie Muller on James M. Cain

Friday Night Spot-light all Month Long on TCM...as author Eddie Muller, look at Dashiell Hammett...and Noir Writers...

Eddie Muller on Dashiell Hammett...

something about a stamp... and looking at actor ty`rone power and patricia neal in the 1952 cold war noir

here's looking at you, kid...as my writer andy, remember every detail...the germans wore grey, you wore blue...Humphrey Bogart to Ingrid Bergman

the dark Corner...[1946] mark steven as brad galt ...i m backed up in a dark corner... and i don't know who hitting me...

The word according to my writer andrew katsis... andy Get "dizzy" as he takes a look at james stewart in hitchcock's 1958...

Rounding out the Baker Dozen Of Amnesia Films...W.Powell, H.Lamarr,B.Rathbone and C.Trevor...

Synopsis:

Cast

Production notes

9.3.13 looking at 3 post world war II film noir and returning vets with amnesia...No#3..."The Crooked Way..."

Plot

Cast

Critical reception

looking at 3 post world war II film noir and returning vets with amnesia...No#2...''The Clay Pigeon..."

Plot

Cast

Critical reception

John Hodiak in Mankiewicz's "Somewhere in the Night..."

Synopsis

Cast

Production notes

actress Peggy Cummins, Noir City 11 and Gun Crazy Memorabilia...

Marilyn Ferdinand from over there at ferdyonfilms... Interview actress Peggy Cummins Here:http://www.fandor.com/

For More Information about Noir City Just Follow This Link here:Keeping It Reel-Noir City at The Castro Theatre... The Most Popular Film Noir Festival...Ends 02/03/2013

Critical response

My writer Andrew Katsis...Takes a look at Capra's Christmas film "It's A Wonderful Life..." as I ask...Why is this film considered a film noir?

Director Andre De Toth's 1948 "Pitfall" Starring D.Powell, L.Scott and R.Burr to screen this evening at the NW-Film Festival...

Portland Explores Its Dangerous Desires...Film Noir Classics...with a screening Of "The Hunted" and author Eddie Muller, [The Czar Of Noir] in attendance.

Portland Explores Its Dangerous Desires... Darkness is coming to Portland, Oregon this evening

The word according to my writer, Andrew Katsis, as I look at Legendary [Film noir Icon] Robert Mitchum, in "Out Of The Past"...and

Eddie Muller's and The FNF Noir City Chicago 4 (7th and Final Night) by Daniel J. Kelley

The Word According to Dan...Alan Ladd was the main attraction in tonight's double feature. Although Ladd had already appeared in a few motion pictures"This Gun for Hire" was his breakthrough role...

[Day 5 Of Noir City 4...] The eternal debate continues. . . Noir stained? Noir tinged? Noir or not noir? by Daniel J. Kelley, my on-spot- Chicago reporter

The Brothers' Tierney...One in Pevney's [obscure] "Shakedown" and Scott Brady in "Under-tow"...The Fourth night of Noir City 4 in Chicago by Daniel J. Kelley...[These are the rushes from the previous evening(s)]

"Slaughter On 10th Ave."[The Poor-man "On The Waterfront?"}] and 99 River Street...The Third night of Noir City 4 in Chicago by Daniel J. Kelley...[These are the rushes from the previous evening(s)]

A Woolrich Triple Threat...The second night of Noir City 4 in Chicago by Daniel J. Kelley...[These are the rushes from the previous evening(s)]

Noir City Chicago: Opening Night by Daniel J. Kelly...Coming Up: Day No# 2...Peter Lorre will be featured in one of tomorrow's films also. Saturday's program consists of three adaptations of Cornell Woolrich's fiction...

NOIR CITY: CHICAGO returns to the Music Box, August 17th-23rd

In order to see the posters up-close and personal just follow the link below:NOIRCITY 4...BEGINS TOMORROW at THE MUSIC-BOX

Pricing Single Feature Tickets

Films included To Be Screened at the:Music-Box ...NOIR CITY 4... Films To Screened