Film noir: your favourites

Raymond Chandler, who scripted it and changed the story a great deal, wrote to Cain that the dialogue in the book wouldn't play onscreen as written, putting his finger, in my opinion, on why "Postman" had been somewhat two-dimensional: the film had been too faithful.

I was amused to find out that the 1946 Postman was already the third adaptation, one of them being a foundation-stone of Italian Neo-realism.

Fred MacMurray playing SATAN in 'the Apartment' is even weirder.

'Gilda' to thread!

I got Sam Fuller's Pickup on South Street today. Looks noiry.

the big sleep
the third man
strangers on a train

outside of the definition i have to include

rififi
le cercle rouge
chinatown (my favorite noir, period.)
the long goodbye

I especially recommend the Anthony Mann triple-threat of T-Men, Raw Deal, and He Walked By Night

French - Bob le Flambeur
Band of Outsiders

I think the first noir was "Stranger on the Third Floor," 1940, RKO.

A drink? You know, it’s the daily grind that drives me to drink. Tragedy I take straight.

Guilty Bystander (1950) currently on Criterion, is not a great movie, but has enough great bits to recommend it. Zachary Scott is a washed up ex-cop turned to booze, Mary Boland (in her final screen role) is a blowsy flophouse owner, and her dumpy joint, along with seedy bars, waterfront warehouses, and the New York subway, is much better photographed than movies this low-budget generally are. It was thought to be a lost film until its recent restoration, and it looks perfectly shadowy and sleazy.

i really liked Deadline at Dawn from the current "Blackout Noir" collection. it's definitely a noir but has more mystery elements and humor than in your typical noir. it was written by Odets and does lots of wandering off to focus on some tangential character for a minute and has some incredibly florid dialogue (including maybe the first filmed use of "what's the diff" as an abbreviation for "what's the difference"). the ostensible lead character is a doofus but he fades into the background as the ensemble grows, and Susan Hayward and Paul Lukas are both great. overall kinda goofy but it worked for me

Been doing a lot of the 50's French stuff. Diaboliques feels very formative for that genre. They also do a lot of village noirs.

Village Noir should be a Criterion Channel programming theme one of these Noirvembers.

I absolutely love Deadline at Dawn. So happy it’s back for a rewatch.

watched “sweet smell of success” recently - so good

Witness to Murder (1954) is fun. Not great, but the cinematography is extra-noiry, and I’ll watch pretty much anything Stanwyck.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9Btx0ApKXU

George Sanders too, it seems.

Oh, the cinematographer is John Alton!

Will limit my spam to this thread and the podcasts one: I started a podcast with a friend going through the Série Noire, the French crime book series that put the term "noir" on the map. First ep is on a Lemmy Caution adventure! It's on the usual platforms, also at https://sites.libsyn.com/622545/1-poison-ivy-by-peter-cheyney-spine-1

Wrapping up Criterion’s 80s remakes vs. originals series. Out of the Past is one of the best noirs of all time but Against All Odds is such total shit I’m wondering if I can make it through the last 30 minutes. What happened to Hollywood in the 80s? What happened to the moviegoing public?

I've recently been diving more and more into noir and older hard-boiled and crime stuff and this thread is a treasure. I saw The Killing for the first time last night at a theater and loved it. Watched a few Melville films at same theater over the past few weeks. Attended Noir City last winter and already excited about next year.

If anyone is prioritizing noirs that leave the Criterion Channel after tomorrow I highly recommend Jacques Tourneur's Nightfall, which I might even prefer to Out of the Past.

Is it leaving tomorrow? Thought it might be, but sometimes hard to tell.

Oh yeah, I see it now on the Leaving list. Better finish watching it.

Recently watched Anne Bancroft's film debut, Don't Bother to Knock, because of the Marilyn Monroe centennial and have seen a bunch of Jacques Tourneur films, but never this one, which Chris Fujiwara used for the title of his book, so I guess I need to give it a shot.

Knock on Any Door was also photographed by Burnett Guffey, whose name I had never noticed but who has an eye-popping list of credits.

Ha, undistinguished music on that one is by George Antheil. #onethread

Heh, Aldo Ray's onetime wife Jeff Donnell is in Jacques Tourneur's Easy Living.

Thanks in large part to The Golden Girls, I'm sure, I'd long considered Aldo Ray a joke, but I genuinely love his performance in Nightfall.

I could never figure out who he was or what he looked like. I was getting interference from Fernando Rey of Luis Buñuel's films and The French Connection and Alejandro Rey of The Flying Nun. As of right this second I think I've got all three straight.

Not the first time I've seen the original Postman Always Rings Twice, but probably the first time in 20+ years. Way too earnest next to Double Indemnity, but Lana Turner is good and Hume Cronyn's great--a slimy lawyer years ahead of his time. And now I know where The Taking of Pelham One Two Three stole gesundheit from.

I've never found Turner that beautiful in The Postman Always Rings Twice...
― clemenza, Sunday, May 13, 2012 7:58 PM (fourteen years ago)

I was so much older then.

What do we think of the '81 version? It's grown on me.

Lousy. So damn heavy! Lange is well-cast, Nicholson too old and stylized.

Looks great (thanks Sven Nykvist) but yes Jack too old and Nicholson-y to be the irresistible hunk. Also hate the revised ending.

I went to see a weird Q&A of that with Rafelson at the Cinematheque in Madrid.

The look, the atmosphere—the languid pace worked for me on my latest viewing—and Lange’s Tennessee Williams heroine performance are what I like, yes.

I’ve never read the source novel, though I should.

I saw it right when it came out; I was 20 or so, taking film at university, and it felt like a big deal. Didn't like it even then, when I was very much predisposed to; I saw it a second time at some point, but that was a long time ago too.

My parents rented it once, I think I stuck around for it a little because I had been told it was somewhat similar to the Bogart movies my dad had introduced me to. It did not prove to be that, so thumbs down from pre pubescent Daniel_Rf.

Recently watched Anne Bancroft's film debut, Don't Bother to Knock, because of the Marilyn Monroe centennial

What did you think? I've never seen the movie, but the original novel - Charlotte Armstrong's Mischief - is great. I have it in a Library of America anthology, Women Crime Writers.

I went in expecting that it was going to be bad, based on the fact that it was in the small theater and on the dismissive review below– which was printed and handed out the screening!– but it was much stronger than that and I was pleasantly surprised.
https://www.tcm.com/articles/413026/dont-bother-to-knock

Interesting to see Marilyn as a brunette and in a b&w noir role to complement her performance in Niagara. I spoke to the head curator later and he was singing the praises of the director Roy Ward Baker. The rest of the cast is fine and the cinematographer is the usually reliable Lucien Ballard, also notable as one of Merle Oberon's husbands.

Marilyn's character is kind of melting down mentally in a distress more severe than Sugar Kane's and which might seem in some ways to resemble real-life offscreen behavior although so much ink has been spilled over this topic maybe I shouldn't go there and add to it

Now I am somewhat curious about the book and interested in reading it or at least checking it out of the library

The book is one of those noir novels that's genuinely frightening, like Nightmare Alley or Jim Thompson's A Hell Of A Woman.

Wow

Feel like I also want to think about reading the David Goodis novel Nightfall is based on, which conveniently has the same title.

Dont bother to knock - the movie is freaky as hell

Wikipedia entry is full of contemporary reviews dinging it, which is its own sort of amusement: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don%27t_Bother_to_Knock

Barbara Leaming sez:

These problems notwithstanding, Marilyn’s first starring role turned out to be not so bad after all. The consensus at the studio was that she was pretty enough, and that somehow all the frenzy on the set had fed into the unstable character Marilyn portrayed. Zanuck, pleased with Marilyn’s performance, decided to look around for another dramatic role for her. Meanwhile, she was given minor assignments in Edmund Goulding’s We’re Not Married, Henry Koster’s O. Henry’s Full House, and Howard Hawks’s Monkey Business.

Just watched Don't Bother to Knock specifically because of this thread, I thought it was pretty good if not quite top tier, it sort of needed a bit more plot progression or something. MM was good, fuck those snooty reviewers on the Wikipedia page saying she couldn't act, of course she could.

Went ahead and finally watched Against All Odds before it leaves Criterion at the end of the month. A total snooze; not even Bridges can wake it up. Beyond Dolores Claiborne (a solid Stephen King adaptation, if nothing more), I cannot fathom Taylor Hackford's reputation.

I haven't watched it since 2004, but Ray is one of the better music biopics.

Seen An Officer and a Gentleman lately? Deadly.

"This Gun for Hire is great, really liking Alan Ladd"

Yeah really good.

Veronica Lake was terrific too, didn't user her looks as much as her brains.

Veronica Lake was fly as hell

word

Rewatched DOA (1949) last night for maybe the third time. I love the first half of the movie, Edmond O’Brien being a jerk to his devoted girlfriend and going off for a wild weekend. The jazz club scene is amazing. Then the second half turns all convoluted and full of rapid fire info dumps and I don’t much care whodunnit anymore.