[jsaliga]

Where the Sidewalk Ends (1950)



While Dana Andrews and Gene Tierney get top billing in this great mystery drama
from 1950, the movie also features the acting talents of a youngish looking Karl Malden
long before his Streets of San Francisco days.  It seems that the studios have finally
figured out that there is a strong enough fanbase for film noir titles to bring them out on
DVD.  Just don't hold your breath waiting for them to come out on Blu Ray.  Warner and Fox
lead the way with a very strong noir series.  Warner has also come through nicely with
affordable boxed sets with about 5 movies for about $29.  Where the Sidewalk Ends has
great dialogue and features darkly atmospheric cinematography that is archetypal of the
genre.  It's a taut 95 minutes of cinema courtesy of the great Otto Preminger.

Got any film noir titles you care to recommend or review?

--Jerome

[jazzcourier]

AH, It all starts off with a wink,a nod,a bright idea,and little bit of lust,a lot of desire- be it flesh or money,or just plain greed and then they prey on the weak or stupid,or both and it always ends very,very bad with blood and sometimes at least one hero,or at least one smarter or faster than the others. The caper,the bank job,  the guys wife,and sometimes it's her idea.The last big score and there's nobody left keeping score.Where the sidewalk ends and there is just no more sidewalk left.The French had it right- "The dark film",another expandable genre-stretching from the gangsters of the 30's to the maniac psycho beatniks of the 60's and stretching into the last bit of the ironic 70's.The heyday -the 40's and 50's,big studios and small studios,big stars and no stars,great books turned into great films and pulp trash spawning trashy celluloid.God would strike me down if i professed undying love for one film noir over another.I love them all and have seen almost all-a project,a misspent life in revival houses,trading vhs copies-copies of copies and finally the almost Papal anointment of the DVD release.Watch them all,love them all-live the fantasy of these twisted lives...we will never walk the island of King Kong,nor will be ever fight the war of the stars,but we will all live the "film noir" to some degree,it is within the grasp of that secret dark place that calls us all to run with the pack.

[Demarche]

Yes, couldn't agree more. I too love "Film Noir", almost as much as reading those classic authors; Chandler, Hammett, McCain,...
But back to the films. Here's a couple of my favs.

• Out of the Past - Robert Mitchum & Kirk Douglas
• Touch of Evil - Orson Welles, Charlton Heston, Janet Leigh
• Key Largo - classic Bogie & Bacall

[jazzcourier]

"Touch of evil" is such a masterpiece.It brings all the elements together AND the constant in the genre...the corrupt cop dealing with losing his power to the younger cop bent on cleaning up the corruption.Visually the film is so far ahead of it's time and Welles used most of his regulars as secondary cast and would play with the script with improvised dialogue to get reactions and keep the scenes fresh with an amazing sense of spontaneity,like when he asks "didn't you bring any sweet rolls or donuts" the guy looks at him like...........ah well...One of the best opening shots of any movie, with the crane shot and the tension of the car bomb...pure originality and genius.I think this was Welles' last great film and the fact that the studio tore the movie up,insisted on a re-edited version,this scarred him for the rest of his career.He soured on Hollywood and went to Europe.As good as "Citizen Kane" is,"Touch" deserves to be held in the same esteem.He took the "film Noir" genre to a new level of technical virtuosity and dramatic hyper-realism.He was not trying to re-create a story,he invented a crazy fairytale in a made up town,with outrageous characters,that could only be a movie.
Most of the film was shot in and around Venice,California. It still looked like that into the early 70's.You could drive down that main street and almost hear the blaring horns of the theme.I bow down in praise to every frame of "Touch of Evil".

[helixgrad]

Try the French film Rififi on Criterion. Also, a great modern noir would be Body Heat. Classic black and white is Double Indemnity. Anything with Richard Widmark gets my attention.

[martyo]

Maltese Falcon
The Big Sleep
Notorious
Shadow of a Doubt
Laura
Sunset Blvd
Angel Face

Modern:
Chinatown
Klute
Postman Always Rings Twice
and the already mentioned Body Heat

[jsaliga]

Fallen Angel (1945)



Here's another film noir entry from the brilliant Otto Preminger.  This time out Dana Andrews plays
a con man drifting through a California town on his way to San Fransciso.  He then sets out to pull
off a con on a wealthy woman to win over a sultry waitress that caught his eye.  Unfortunately a
murder gets in the way.  While the film gets a little mellow dramatic in a few spots it still retains
its overall hard edge.  The movie is graced by the presence of Alice Faye, which is odd to see her
cast in a murder mystery like this after all the poppy musicals and feel-good upbeat films she did in
the 1930s.  Despite her seeming to be a little out of place here she's actually great in her role and
she's so damned gorgeous you just can't take your eyes off of her whenever she is in front of the
camera.  While Fallen Angel isn't as strong as Laura or other films helmed by Otto Preminger,
it is nonetheless a worthy film that deserves to be seen.

--Jerome

[martyo]

Yeah, he directed a good number of Noirs.

[jsaliga]

Out of the Past (1947)



This timeless noir classic stars Robert Mitchum in a great "tough guy" role, Kirk
Douglas in only his second feature film appearance as the moneyed mobster pulling
the strings, and Jane Greer as the scheming femme fatale.  This film sports a
thick web of intrigue with several double and triple crosses.  If you don't pay
attention you may just loose track of who is playing whom for a patsy!  Awesome
film!

--Jerome

[jsaliga]

This Gun for Hire (1942)



This picture starring Alan Ladd, Robert Preston, and Veronica Lake is one of a handful of films that
helped to establish and define the film noir visual style.  It's a masterpiece that shouldn't be missed.

--Jerome

[Randy]

Richard Widmark as the psycho killer who giggles while he pushes a woman in a wheelchair to her death down a flight of stairs is classic. The film was "Kiss of Death."

[jazzcourier]

iF YOU LIKED THE ladd/Lake combo check out "The Blue Dahlia" Raymond Chandler worked on that one and referred to Lake as "Moronica"....not,i might add,as a term of endearment.

[jsaliga]

While I agree that Veronica Lake wasn't an especially great acting talent, Chandler's stinging slam doesn't come as any great surprise.  Some viewed him as a disagreeable blowhard, and he had something of a reputation for being pretty free with his criticism of actors, directors, producers, etc.  He gave Hitchcock a hard time during the production of Strangers on a Train when he yelled "Look at the fat bastard trying to get out of his car!"  The guy was a great pulp novelist who could also write a good sceenplay, but he didn't know squat about filmmaking.

--Jerome

[jsaliga]

The Killing (1956)



While the narrative style of this 1956 film from Stanley Kubrick doesn't really fit the film noir mold,
it is a stunning example of the form in every other way.  The visual style and lighting are perfect. 
The story, about a gang heist gone wrong at a race track, unfolds in a non-linear way that was pretty
innovative for its time.


Elisha Cook as race track cashier/gang member Geroge Peatty and Marie Windsor as his scheming wife in The Killing.

Some of you might recognize Elisha Cook, especially if you are a fan of the original Star Trek TV series.
He played Captain Kirk's lawyer in the episode Court Martial.  He also had roles in numerous feature films
and appeared on several television series.

The Killing is highly recommended to film noir fans and those who enjoy the work of Stanley Kubrick.

--Jerome

[mgalusha]

Great thread, keep 'em coming. I've loved film noir for a long time and some of these I've never seen. Time to load up. 

[jazzcourier]

"The Killing" is a classic,due in part to the collaboration on the script by Kubrick with the great Jim Thompson.Many of his novels have found there way onto the screen,"the Grifters" for one,but the books are seminal works in hard boiled literature and always feature the same twisted,desperate characters bent on cutting the corners and a few throats along the way.Sterling Hayden is particularly good in this film.
    Another actor with that same sort of hard edged anti-hero pathos is Robert Ryan.He had a more diverse career but it was in the Film Noir's where he really lit up,sort of like your father when he got pissed and had a few beers and was full of anybody's foolishness,he dealt with it in a stern,pitiless way-this is the Robert Ryan that carved his personality into classics like "On dangerous ground" from 1952 directed by Nicholas Ray with the great Ida Lupino.This is another of those magical films where good and evil dwell,but sometimes not in the most obvious places.If you like Lupino,she is at her best in "Roadhouse" as a lounge singer on the skids.
Ryan also amazes me in the 1959 Robert Wise directed "Odds against Tomorrow".He is a beast,a racist,a calculated criminal,all set against a stark urban terrain and balanced nicely by a great score by the Modern Jazz Quartet.This is a movie that will hang in your memory for awhile.Gloria Grahame and Shelly Winters co-star as the weaker sex.Grahame was married to Nicholas Ray for a period and suffered a botched plastic surgery that traumatized her and almost ended her career.To my mind she is one of the queens,just watch her with Bogart   in "In a lonely place".Her incomparable,whore with a heart of gold in "The Big Heat" opposite Glenn Ford,suffers the ultimate indignity by having hot coffee thrown in her face by the sadistic Lee Marvin,which prompts her comment later in the film "I guess i will have to go through life sideways" that line seems to define the genre like no other.
      Finally....if you like "The Killing" try "The Killers"-both versions- the 1946 Robert Siodmak directed version has Burt Lancaster as "Swede" opposite the radiant ava Gardner and the 1964 Don "dirty Harry" Siegel has an incredible cast of Lee Marvin,Angie Dickenson,John Cassavettes and Ronald Reagan as the the head crime boss,and yes he is quite good.Both versions have been issued by Criterion in a 2 disc set.The later version has a great car chase featuring the most metal Detroit ever produced,as least lengthwise.

[jsaliga]

Double Indemnity (1944)



This 1944 masterpiece was a film that almost didn't get made.  The story was taken from a novel written by the great James M. Cain that was first published serially in Liberty magazine in 1936, about an insurance salesman who conspires with the wife of an oil company executive to plot and carry out the murder of her husband for the insurance money.  The screenplay was originally written by Raymond Chandler but director Billy Wilder told him it was pure crap after reading it.  They eventually collaborated on the screenplay, but both men truely despised each other.  Wilder reportedly claimed that he couldn't stand to be in the same room with Chandler for more than 15 minutes, and for his part Chandler had a long list of complaints about Wilder.  The next problem was getting Barbara Stanwyck to agree to play the role of Phyllis Dietrichson, whom Wilder had in mind for the part from the beginning.  The larger issue was casting the role of Walter Neff, because none of the more well-known male leads of the time wanted the part.  Even Fred MacMurray had reseverations about it since up until then he appeared mostly in light comedies, musicals, and romances.  Finally, Edward G. Robinson initially didn't want the part of Barton Keyes because it was a supporting role.  Robinson was a top box office draw at the time and he had not taken a supporting part in a film since his breakthrough role in Little Caesar in 1931.  Robinson was concerned that taking the part of Keyes in Double Indemnity might hurt his career.


Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck sizzle in Double Indemnity.

The bad news for film noir fans was that up until recently the best home video release of Double Indemnity was to be found on VHS tape.  Image Entertainment released the movie on a budget DVD, but it was created from a completely trashed print that was virtually unwatchable.  The good news is that Universal has reissued the film freshly transfered from a very nice, though not perfect, print that provides much cleaner video with far superior contrast.  The two-disc legacy edition of Double Indemnity is very much worth the price of admission for that reason alone.  I watched it last night and must say that it was a sight to behold.


Edward G. Robinson turns in a typically great performance as insurance claims manager Barton Keyes.

On the second disc you get the 1973 made-for-TV version of the film, directed by Jack Smight, and starring Richard Crenna as Walter Neff, Samantha Eggar as Phyllis Dietrickson, and Lee J. Cobb as Barton Keyes.  You might want to watch this one when you have absolutely nothing better to do...such as getting audited by the IRS, going to the dentist to get that root canal done that you've been putting off, or having your thumbnails pulled out with a pair of pliers.  It is gawd-awful bad, but that should come as no surprise since many TV movies made in the 1970s measured pretty high on the cheese scale.  Smight, Crenna and Eggar make a mockery of one of the greatest films Hollywood ever produced.


Richard Crenna and Samantha Eggar in the completely forgettable 1973 TV movie version of Double Indemnity.

I highly recommend the Universal Legacy 2 Disc Edition of Double Indemnity.  Buy it for the very nice transfer (of a relatively clean print) to DVD of this great film noir masterpiece.  Universal was obviously fishing for something to add to a second disc so the package could retail for $24.99.

--Jerome

[mgalusha]

Love Double Indemnity. Thanks for the heads up on the new edition, I'll have to add that to the list.

[jazzcourier]

I have never seen this bomb,but i must pay my respects to the  late Jack Smight,who made some good films,"No way to treat a lady" and the "Illustrated man" both with the difficult,but talented Rod Steiger.He also did some big box office bangers like "Airport" and "Midway" and cut his teeth on early TV with Rod Serling and the Twilight Zone gang.I bought his record collection in the late 80's or very early 90's and he was not in the best of health.I spent part of an enjoyable afternoon yaking with him and going through his records.He had some decent records and i am sure i still have some of them in my collection.He lived in a modest house by Beverly Hills standards.He was surprised i knew who he was and had seen his films.Guess he died in the early 90's.He was responsible for one of the greatest live Television broadcasts of all time..."The sound of Jazz" in the late 1950's,broadcast over CBS with Count Basie,Billie Holiday,Thelonious Monk,and an amazing whos who of Jazz greats.He did something nobody else had done,and few had done since which was to  capture the honesty of the Jazz performance in it's pure form.Had he done nothing else in his creative career he would always be remembered for this one hour of live Television.