Film-Noir Discussion/DVD Review Thread

[titoli]

L.A. Confidential (1997) - I had missed this because of Kevin Spacey on the movie poster and on the cover of the dvd. Until I read the review of Howard Hughes in his Crime Movies. So today I bought  the dvd and found that I was wrong. Spacey has a smaller part than the three leads but he comes off absolutely as the best of the lot (Crowe, another actor I don't particularly like, is good as he has only to be his usual unexpressive self). I hadn't liked it a bit in another couple of movies I had seen it in, but that was the movies fault. This is the best thriller I have seen  since Goodfellas. 9\10

[titoli]

D.O.A. (1949) - Half ot the time one doesn't know what's going on and when you know it it's a let down. Still this is one of the faster-paced movies I know, with O'Brien always, literally, on the run. The italian distributor found smartly a good italian title fitting the original acronym : Two hours more (Due ore ancora). 7\10.

[dave jenkins]

D.O.A. (1949) - Half ot the time one doesn't know what's going on and when you know it it's a let down. Still this is one of the faster-paced movies I know, with O'Brien always, literally, on the run. The italian distributor found smartly a good italian title fitting the original acronym : Two hours more (Due ore ancora). 7\10.

Great ending though, what?

[dave jenkins]

Fistful-of-noir:

Johnny O'Clock (1947) - 5/10. I usually like Dick Powell in tough-guy mode, but he comes off rather lame here. He's supposed to be a gambler . . . but he doesn't gamble. What does he do, exactly? It takes a while before we find out. It has something to do with Nina Foch. And then Evelyn Keyes shows up. The heavy is played by heavy Thomas Gomez. A very underwritten film: there's almost nothing driving us from scene to scene. Cry Danger is way better.

The Two Mrs. Carrolls (1947) - 6/10 Bogart is a psychotic painter, Barbara Stanwyck his endangered wife, in this rather standard woman-in-peril picture. Stanwyck gives us none of the great attitude we see in her other films, and Bogart supplies nothing but his patented nut-job routine (featured also in Conflict, at the end of Sierra Madre, in The Caine Mutiny, and intermittently in In a Lonely Place, all better films). Pretty miss-able.

Framed (1947) - 7/10. Starts with a bang (Glenn Ford behind the wheel of a truck heading downhill without brakes) and hardly lets up until the end. Janis Carter is the femme fatale who plans to take Ford for a ride--with extreme prejudice--and she's doing it all for the sake of rotter Barry Sullivan. The ending, though weak, is not awful.

The Web (1947) - 9/10. What a cast! Edmond O'Brien is the patsy. Ella Raines is the girl. Vincent Price is the evil--and oh-so-smooth--mastermind. William Bendix is the hero's cop friend--or is he? Bendix plays his part so well you can't tell if he's really trying to help O'Brien or not. The plot, though simple, works very nicely.

Tomorrow is Another Day (1951) - 3/10. Steve Cochran and Ruth Roman are a couple on the run. The story is so utterly preposterous I found it impossible to enjoy any of the individual scenes. Why did this make Eddie Muller's Top 25?

Inferno (1953) -  7/10. Rhonda Fleming and her new boyfriend decide to leave hubby out in the desert and hope he croaks, but Robert Ryan's will to survive is very strong. This color noir desperately needs a restoration. Probably won't happen, as they'd have to restore the 3-D effects too.

Human Desire (1954) - 6/10. This remake of a Renoir film (which in turn was adapted from a Zola novel) isn't a patch on the original, although it's always nice to see Gloria Graham. Glenn Ford gets suckered again--until he doesn't. Broderick Crawford lumbers around and looks uncomfortable.

[titoli]

Great ending though, what?

Bah...

[dave jenkins]

Been wondering about this, and in light of Beaver's review, I may have to pick up my own copy: http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film2/DVDReviews48/berlin_express.htm

[cigar joe]

D.O.A. (1949) - Half ot the time one doesn't know what's going on and when you know it it's a let down. Still this is one of the faster-paced movies I know, with O'Brien always, literally, on the run. The italian distributor found smartly a good italian title fitting the original acronym : Two hours more (Due ore ancora). 7\10.

Just caught it again tonight on TCM I'll go one more point than titoli 8/10

[cigar joe]

 TCM had an Edmund O'Brien night  DOA followed by The Hitch-Hiker, Lupino did a great job and with not much budget another winner 7/10

continue discussion here: http://www.fistful-of-leone.com/forums/index.php?topic=1822.msg140132#msg140132

[cigar joe]

Call Northside 777 (1948)  Basically a woman places an ad in the Chicago Times offering a $5,000 reward for information that will exonerate her son Richard Conti, the newspaper assigns Jimmy Stewart to look into case. Great cinematography of the seedier parts of Chicago circa 1948. 7/10.

Second viewing here........ : http://www.fistful-of-leone.com/forums/index.php?topic=1822.msg151045#msg151045

[cigar joe]

Cry Of The City (1948)  dir by Robert Siodmak, Not a bad noir not great but on the good side of average, I'm on a Richard Conte roll lately on Fox Movie Channel this morning, with Victor Mature as Lt. Candella,  Richard Conte as Martin Rome,  Fred Clark as Lt Collins, Shelley Winters as Brenda Martingale and Debora Paget as Tina Riconti.

Continued reviews here: http://www.fistful-of-leone.com/forums/index.php?topic=1822.msg142769#msg142769

[dave jenkins]

Been wanting to see that one. Hopefully Criterion will be bringing it out in 2010.

[cigar joe]

If you get FMC they show quite a few of their noirs, I just stumble upon them, one good thing about FMC as opposed to say TCM is every time I hit one in the middle I get a dialog box on the screen giving me the opportunity to start it over, I don't get that with Turner for some reason.

[dave jenkins]

Beaver reviews Warner Archive's Highway 301: http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film2/DVDReviews48/highway_301.htm

[cigar joe]

Blonde Ice (1948) an Ok noir, low budget nothing spectacular.

[titoli]

The Set-Up (1949)




What I don't like about this movie? Its perfection. Direction is faultless, but too elaborated. The characters (expecially the boxers) are all exemplary. Audrey Totter would make every fighter a loser with her whining about retiring. Ryan is the "iveseenitall" kind: and the too intelligent look on his face makes one wonder why should he be still stuck on boxing at 35. And last but not least, Rocky's fights are more realistic than the set-up one in this. I've read  that Ryan was an adept of the art in his youjth: one easily understands why he didn't make a name for himself. Still the movie has unquestionable merits: the pace, the side characters, the actors. 7\10

Continued here....... : http://www.fistful-of-leone.com/forums/index.php?topic=1822.msg146052#msg146052