Film-Noir Discussion/DVD Review Thread

[cigar joe]

A Question for Noir heads, any one recall any Film Noirs that featured gangsters in Zoot Suits. This style of clothing was popularized by Mexican-Americans, African Americans, and Italian Americans during the late 1930s and 1940s.

I can't think of a single period film that displayed that style of clothing. I CAN remember "The Zoot Cat"  a 1944 one-reel animated cartoon, and possibly Tex Avery's "Wolfie" character in "Red Hot Riding Hood" may have worn a Zoot Suit. There may have been musicals that featured them but I don't watch many musicals.

More recent depictions:

Who Framed Rodger Rabbit had the Toon patrol in zoot suits & Jim Carey in The Mask wears one.

examples

Cab Calloway Geechy Joe: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyuRT-ExzuQ

A Zoot Suit With a Reet Pleat: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zKP-_oIADg&feature=related

Tex Avery's "Oh Wolfy": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtcJ7gvJP0Q&feature=related

Zoot Cat: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6Gwdj0C6S4


Jim Carey in The Mask: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNEAnDrx3UE&feature=related

[cigar joe]

They Drive By Night (1940) dir Raoul Walsh, with George Raft, Humphrey Bogart, Ida Lupino, Ann Sheridan, and Alan Hale. Two wildcat truckers, brothers Joe and Paul Fabrini (Raft & Bogart) struggling to make it in the hauling business. First half of the film is mostly about their trials and tribulations, triumphs and failures. Joe meets redhead waitress Cassi (Ann Sheridan) and they eventually hit it off. After Bogart looses his arm in a wreck Raft goes to work for his old friend Joe Carlson (Hale) as a traffic manager. Complications ensue when Carlson's wife Lana (Ida Lupino) an old flame of Joe's starts to come on to him.  Ida looks pretty good in this one, Raft & Bogart and Sheridan are entertaining. 7/10

[titoli]

Zoot suits: all the videos by Kid Creole, 80's stuff.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UWU2X7fk_8&feature=related

They are notable for the non zoot (thank god) suits of the coconuts.

[cigar joe]

Panic In The Streets (1950) Dir Elia Kazan with Richard Widmark, Paul Douglas,    Barbara Bel Geddes, Jack Palance, Zero Mostel and the sleazy underbelly of New Orleans on a re-watch, a classic 10/10 

[cigar joe]

I was listing for drinksanddestroy some of my favorite Noirs and he was asking me how come I didn't list some of the obvious ones. Thinking about it now, I tend to like the ones dealing with the sleazy underbelly of society and the decaying locals inhabited and associated with it much more than the high society noirs except where they intermingle. The advent of the use of the lighter handheld movie cameras developed during WW2 enabled directors to have to option to go out to and into real life locations giving the post WW2 noirs a grittier look "Panic In The Streets", "Crime Wave", "Cry Danger", and "Appointment with Danger" for examples.

These films strike an almost nostalgic cord in me because I can still remember that look of the real everyday world from my childhood.

That said, there were still some outstanding studio bound noirs that achieved incredible realistic  looks with studio sound stage sets, lighting, and matte painting backdrops, i.e., "The Phantom Lady", "The Killers", "The Set Up", "the Narrow Margin", "The Big Heat", and "Scarlet Street" .

I can still enjoy "Laura", "Gilda", "The Big Sleep", "Murder My Sweet" and others more for the excellent performances than the sets.

[dave jenkins]

One thing I noticed as a result of the Memorable Lines thread is that I tend to get the most enjoyment out of the noirs with snappy patter. So my top three faves are now Double Indemnity, Out of the Past, and Murder, My Sweet. But I also prize the ones that provide an unrelentingly bleak view of the lives of their characters, so I fill out my top 10 with Criss Cross, In a Lonely Place, the Killers, the Prowler, and Angel Face (which has one of the greatest pay-offs in cinema history). Then there are the ones with interesting plots: The Big Sleep, Strangers on a Train.

Several popular films, which are often referred to as films noirs, I disqualify: Sunset Boulevard, Sweet Smell of Success, Night of the Hunter, etc. Those seem to belong to other categories (except for NotH, which is sui generis).

[titoli]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKQfDNw5ZNI

[cigar joe]

Stanlio & Olio in Zoot Suits  .

[cigar joe]

The Racket (1951) Dir. John Cromwell, with Robert Mitchum, Robert Ryan, Lizabeth Scott, William Talman, and William Conrad. Decent crime/gangster Noir that pits a crooked political system against a few honest cops, bet you can't guess who wins, lol. Nothing outstanding, and the Hayes Code makes it predictable. Scott puts in a nice turn as night club chanteuse, entertaining. 7/10

[titoli]

What's this crap?

[cigar joe]

What's this crap?

a musical

[titoli]

a musical

Saw it?

[cigar joe]

Saw it?

when it was on cable TV, I wasn't impressed.

[titoli]

Shark (1969) The last 15 minutes reveal it as a noir with all the mandatory ingredients. Until then you have an adventure movie, rather, and not quite so brilliant in spite of the unusual locales (Sudan): Fuller doesn't make most of it, probably because of lack of funds. Reynolds is good, the other ones are immemorable. The italian dvd includes this:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118004/

[dave jenkins]

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film3/dvd_reviews54/the_breaking_point.htm
Some people seem to like this. I watched it this weekend and didn't think it was all that. The hero-who-takes-the-dodgy-job-to-save-his-boat routine is used twice, making the second time less interesting than it should be, and the Pat Neal character never really pays off as she should. The "haunting ending" seems a bit tacked on.