Film-Noir Discussion/DVD Review Thread

[drinkanddestroy]

Red lite is probably his Best Noir, BTW.

His best noir could have been Double Indemnity if he hadn’t been such an IDIOT!

[drinkanddestroy]

Today will be the final show of Noir Alley. The selection is, perhaps appropriately, Tomorrow Is Another Day.

[cigar joe]

Today will be the final show of Noir Alley. The selection is, perhaps appropriately, Tomorrow Is Another Day.

It's also the first Noir I've ever seen where a character wears Levis.

[T.H.]

For a second there I thought the series was ending for good. It's just on hiatus until March 10th.

https://twitter.com/NoirAlley/status/957655270259388422 

[drinkanddestroy]

For a second there I thought the series was ending for good. It's just on hiatus until March 10th.

https://twitter.com/NoirAlley/status/957655270259388422 

March 4th, 10 a.m., The Big Heat 

[morrison-dylan-fan]

This arrived here while I was AWOL for 2 weeks...

Thanks for the great pic XHC.I was hoping to pick the set up this Easter,but it has suddenly gone oop, (it is not even on Arrow's site anymore)with the cheapest on Amazon being £90. Looking on eBay,I've been very lucky & have just picked it up for £45 (with free post!)

[XhcnoirX]

Thanks for the great pic XHC.I was hoping to pick the set up this Easter,but it has suddenly gone oop, (it is not even on Arrow's site anymore)with the cheapest on Amazon being £90. Looking on eBay,I've been very lucky & have just picked it up for £45 (with free post!)

It was limited to 2000 copies, so I'm not surprised it's now OOP, it's a great set! And 45GBP is quite cheap, congrats

[XhcnoirX]

Unexpected but very exciting news: Criterion will release Frank Borzage's Moonrise (1948) this May... Great news, I love this noir. Day one for me.

https://www.criterion.com/films/28550-moonrise

[drinkanddestroy]

TCM Noir Alley will now air (the same movie) twice each weekend: midnight Saturday night ET, in addition to the existing 10 AM ET Sunday time slot. (No difference for me because I use DVR anyway)

[XhcnoirX]

The Strange Mrs. Crane (1948): Marjorie Lord is the wife of Pierre Watkin who's running for governor. Her life is seemingly perfect, but Watkin doesn't know she used to be, and maybe still is?, a con artist who seduced men for their money. When her former partner in crime, Robert Shayne, comes back into her life, he wants some of the money she now has access to. Half to be precise, or else he'll tell Watkin about her past. Lord can't let him do that, and she kills him. The police arrest his gf tho, Ruth Brady. In a twist of fate, Lord is assigned jury duty on Brady's trial, who faces the death penalty...

The plot of this movie is reminiscent of 1948's Blonde Ice, but Marjorie Lord ('The Argyle Secrets') never comes across as cold-hearted as Leslie Brooks. It's a bit of a shame, as Lord does well at the start of this movie as the socialite lady. But she's not quite convincing enough as a conniving femme fatale. Still, she does a nice job, and I enjoyed watching her. Robert Shayne ('Three Strangers', 'Mr. Skeffington') is also quite decent as the con artist who went to prison, bounced back, and now wants a piece of his ex-partner's pie. The rest of the cast are what you'd expect from low-budget B movies like this one, adequate but forgettable.

Even tho he's credited as Sherman Scott in this movie, it was prolific B-director Sam Newfield ('The Lady Confesses', 'Mask Of The Dragon') that directed this noir. If anything, his experience at making these sorts of low-budget movies that had to be done as quickly as possible, helps this movie. There is no room for filler, it moves at a rapid pace, fitting a decently plotted story into an hour runtime, but things never feel too rushed. And the movie has a nicely ironic ending. I do wish more time was spent on the lighting, DoP Jack Greenhalgh ('Fingerpints Don't Lie', 'F.B.I. Girl') doesn't do much lighting wise aside from a few scenes inside dark apartments. But for these types of quick programmers, this one's quite decent and enjoyable. 6+/10

[XhcnoirX]

Strange Fascination (1952): Hugo Haas is a famous European piano virtuoso who's brought to the States by wealthy widow Mona Barrie. Haas goes on a concert tour where he meets dancer Cleo Moore, and they end up getting married. As Haas struggles to break thorugh in the States, he also struggles to keep both Moore and Barrie happy. But Barrie isn't crazy about Haas's marriage and cuts off her financial support. And when Moore is also thinking about going back to her old dance partner, Haas gets desperate and thinks about collecting the insurance on his hands, somehow...

This was director, writer, actor and producer Hugo Haas ('Pickup') and Cleo Moore's ('On Dangerous Ground') first of 7 collaborations. Moore is far less of a femme fatale in this one than their subsequent movies, but Haas plays essentially the same role as in most of the other ones (ditto in his movies with Beverly Michaels), a 'simple' man who gets involved with the wrong woman and ends up in a downward spiral. Noone can accuse Haas of having too much talent as a writer, director or actor, but as with the title of this movie, he's strangely fascinating to watch. In some close-up's it almost as if you can see him thinking about how to portray emotions. In any case, and for whatever reason, with Haas I don't mind it, I find him very likeable somehow.

Haas's movies are almost invariably low budget affairs, but he does a nice job here with limited means, with a surprising high amount of sets. And experienced DoP Paul Ivano ('The Shanghai Gesture', 'Black Angel') also added a bit of noir aesthetic to this movie, unfortunately not a lot tho. But this is not one of Haas's best efforts, also because Moore's character is nowhere near the sultry and sleazy characters she would portray in her later movies under Haas. It's a decent noir-ish melodrama, but no need to go out of your way to see this one. 6/10

[drinkanddestroy]

updated TCM Noir Alley schedule is posted – each movie will show Saturday at midnight ET  (9 p.m. PT) and then 10 AM Sunday morning ET (7 a.m. PT) http://noiralley.tcm.com/images/pages/schedule/TCM-00125_NoirAlley-Schedule.pdf

MARCH 2018

11 - Stranger on the Third Floor (1940)
18 - Crossfire (1947)
25  - No Questions Asked (1951)

APRIL
8  - Suddenly  (1954)
15  - Mystery Street  (1950)
22 - Cry Danger (1951)
29 - Hollow Triumph (1948)


MAY
6 - The Narrow Margin (1952)
13  - Caged (1950)
20 - Crime Wave (1954)
27 - The Clay Pigeon (1949)


JUNE

3 - The Letter (1940)
10 - Conflict (1945)
17 - Pitfall (1948)
24 - The Man Who Cheated Himself (1951)


JULY
1 - Armored Car Robbery (1950)
8 - Party Girl (1958)
15 - Roadblock (1951)
22 - Dark Passage (1947)
29 - Scene of the Crime (1949)



AUGUST - HIATUS for "Summer Under the Stars" Programming


SEPTEMBER

2 - The Locket (1946)
9 - Desperate (1947)
16 - Angel Face (1946)
23  - The Stranger (1946)
30  - The Gangster (1947)


OCTOBER
7 - Odds Against Tomorrow (1959)
14 - The Damned Don’t Cry (1950)
21 - The Hunted (1948)
28 - Follow Me Quietly (1949)


NOVEMBER
04 - The Sniper (1952)
11 - The Threat (1949)
25 - The Killing (1956)


DECEMBER
2 - Crack-Up (1946)
9 - Too Late For Tears (1949)
16 - Talk About a Stranger (1952)
23  - Beware, My Lovely (1952)
30  - Double Indemnity (1944)

JANUARY 2019
6 - His Kind of Woman (1951)
13 - Lured (1947)
20 - Murder My Sweet (1944)

[dave jenkins]

Great noir photography. Too bad it doesn't have a better story but, oh well, I'll probably have to get this anyway.
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film3/blu-ray_reviews56/moonrise_blu-ray.htm

[cigar joe]

Great noir photography. Too bad it doesn't have a better story but, oh well, I'll probably have to get this anyway.
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film3/blu-ray_reviews56/moonrise_blu-ray.htm

I found the story to be a bit lacking also.

[XhcnoirX]

Great noir photography. Too bad it doesn't have a better story but, oh well, I'll probably have to get this anyway.
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film3/blu-ray_reviews56/moonrise_blu-ray.htm

I love this movie to bits, and I'll definitely get this blu-ray. I was quietly hoping Criterion would add more stuff to this release since its initial announcement tho... Eddie Muller has it at the #10 spot in his top 25 noirs (http://eddiemuller.com/top25noir.html), surely he'd be willing to do a commentary or something? I know we're spoiled these days with boutique labels doing stacked releases left & right and I'm stoked we're even getting this at all, but still... Anyways, first world problems