Film-Noir Discussion/DVD Review Thread

[Leone Admirer]

I've been in Paris over the weekend, The George V hotel to be exact  and need to catch up with my NYT's so thanks for the tip. Here's the link to the official site Joe so you can see all the DVD's (some have the trailers on the site)

http://www.foxhome.com/filmnoir/

Hope this helps 

[cigar joe]

LA If you had to list the top Nois you've seen what would be their ranking?

[Leone Admirer]

my top noirs? Hmm ok lets try this lot

1. The Big Sleep
2. The Maltese Falcon
3. Detour
4. Laura
5. Pickup on South Street
6. Sunset Boulevard
7. D.O.A
8. Murder My Sweet
9. Gun Crazy
10. The Set Up
11. This Gun For Hire
12. Possesed
13. In A Lonely Place
14. Dead Reckoning (Both excellent Bogie Noirs)
15. Out Of The Past
16. Scarlett Street
17. Asphalt Jungle
18. Siodmarks The Killers
19. Night And They City
20. Kiss Me Deadly
21. A Touch Of Evil.

There are so many other noirs that I love but these are the top twenty that I would recomend to anyone who wanted to experience, more or for the first time, noir. I recomend the Warners Noir boxsets that are at a very resonable price as well as getting all the fox noirs.  The next series has been announced and will include the films Fallen Angel, House on Telegraph Hill and No Way Out. Also you may want to look at modern re-intepretations of noir if you havent already such as the neo noir Chinatown, tech noir like Blade Runner and as James Cameron likes to insist Terminator or the ultra noir Sin City.

[Leone Admirer]

A Film Noir I would love to have on DVD is Lady In The Lake, a film completely shot in POV directed by Robert Montgomery.

[cigar joe]

Ok great, I have seen

1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 15, 17, 20, 21, so I have a few to look forward to 

[titoli]

I'd have to reflect and have a list ready to make my choice. But, going by memory alone I would like to rememeber Richards' Farewell My Lovely, which has the best ever Marlowe in Mitchum (who is, I admit, my all time favourite actor). I think more of Bogart as Spade and, as good as he is, I could never visualize him as Chandler's PI )Chandler himself saw Cary Grant as ideal Marlowe). I also like Powell's Marlowe and Garner's (unfortunately the movie he starred in was not among the best ones, though not as bad as High Window). Gould, of course, can easily be totally rejected from purists (and he was, with the movie). But still the Altman's movie is a work that reminds me of the '70's like few other ones and Gould is one of the reasons I like so much the movie itself.

[Leone Admirer]

I watched a great noir last night, Somewhere In The Night. Directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz the film tells the tale of a man (John Hodiak) who wakes up in a military hopsital at the end of the war with amnesia. He finds a wallet with the name George Taylor and he accepts that as his name. When discharged, he discovers that he lives in a hotel in LA and he returns there. On arrival he finds a case with a letter, the letter tells him that his pal Larry Cravat has left a deposit of money for him in a bank. Taylor tries to find out who Cravat is so he can no more about himself and he stumbles upon a beautiful night club singer (the stunning Nancy Guild (rhymes with wild) ) and her kind hearted boss (played by the excellent Richard Conte). He soon finds himself plunged into intrgiue, mystery, dangerous femme fatales and murder. All that a noir needs.  Also starring is the great Lloyd Nolan as an humerous detective.
   Whilst the film isn't flaw proof it is an very good noir and though you may guess some of the plot twists, it still manages to throw more at you. The film is number 08 of the Fox Film Noir Collection.

[cigar joe]

Thanks for the heads up

[cigar joe]

Watched Sunset Boulevard last night, for the first time in years, forgot hoe great Gloria Swanson's nice over the top creepy performance was, lol.  I didn't even recognise Jack Webb until the end credits, the whole film was great, an excellent noir.

That was followed by Mr. Skeffington with Betty Davis who affected an annoying & grating voice that she must have though was appropriate for the part, almost like chalk scratching a blackboard.

[Leone Admirer]

Sunset Boulevard is a fantastic movie. Both Swanson and Holden are almost mesmerising in their roles. I love the moonlight set walk also, imagine how cool that would be to actually do that.

[Two Kinds of ...]

For me, Noirs are hard to rank... there are so  many that I consider distinct and perfect.

[grandpa_chum]

I think Key Largo is very underrated, probably my favorite Noir along with touch of evil... even noir fans rarely mention it among the best.

[Two Kinds of ...]

Key Largo is excellent.   Force of Evil doesn't get mentioned as much as it probably should.

[Leone Admirer]

Which reminds me, look out for a two disc release of Key Largo coming out on R1 DVD this year from Warners. Also I believe there is going to be a 2 disc Maltese Falcon coming out round about the same time too. I can't wait for the next three Fox Noirs too.

[Two Kinds of ...]

which 3 are they?