Film-Noir Discussion/DVD Review Thread

[cigar joe]

Thieves Highway 1949 dir. by Jules Dassin with Richard Conte, Valentina Cortese, Lee J. Cobb, Barbara Lawrence, Jack Oakie, Millard Mitchell , Joseph Pevney, and Ed Kinney, an excellent noir about the fruit market  business in California, with Richard Conte actually playing the good guy for once, wasn't quite convinced about Cortese playing a hooker or Cobb an Italian, lol, but a very nice Criterion release 8/10.
   

[dave jenkins]

A nice text-with-photos intro to  Razzia sur la chnouf (1955) (which I haven't yet seen myself): http://members.boardhost.com/mrvalentine/msg/1263799444.html

UPDATE: the link no longer works

[dave jenkins]

Dragnet (1954) is now available on DVD-r. This is not the TV show: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0033PSH5O

[moviesceleton]

Hey what's the idea of releasing DVD-r's?

[dave jenkins]

Last April, Warner launched an archive program selling deep catalog titles on a made-on-demand basis. This is because, probably, they got tired of pressing big runs of classic titles that didn't sell. There is a demand for old films, but there isn't necessarily a demand for ALL old films. Deciding which films to bring out was always a crap-shoot, and once the Casablancas and the like had been released, it got harder and harder to guess what consumers would shell out for. Rather than keep guessing and losing money, Warner decided to let consumers casts votes with the only ballots the industry respects, the ones with pictures of dead presidents on them.

But to do made-on-demand, you have to use DVD-r.

Evidently Warner's experiment has been a success, because other companies are now getting into the business. This is, unhappily, the future. Companies will continue to release pressed discs, but only for new releases or films that have a proven track record. Classic titles, by and large, will come out on DVD-r. Eventually, of course, disc technology will go away as downloads and streaming supplant it, but that's probably a long way away.

[T.H.]

99 River Street (1953)

The plot, as outrageous as it is, works pretty well. The opening boxing scene was every bit as good as those in Wise's THE SET-UP. I really only take issue with the ending, which disappoints; too conventional and ordinary. The score is standard stuff. I really like Phil Karlson.


Continued to be reviewed here: http://www.fistful-of-leone.com/forums/index.php?topic=1822.msg144784#msg144784

[moviesceleton]

Last April, Warner launched an archive program selling deep catalog titles on a made-on-demand basis. This is because, probably, they got tired of pressing big runs of classic titles that didn't sell. There is a demand for old films, but there isn't necessarily a demand for ALL old films. Deciding which films to bring out was always a crap-shoot, and once the Casablancas and the like had been released, it got harder and harder to guess what consumers would shell out for. Rather than keep guessing and losing money, Warner decided to let consumers casts votes with the only ballots the industry respects, the ones with pictures of dead presidents on them.

But to do made-on-demand, you have to use DVD-r.

Evidently Warner's experiment has been a success, because other companies are now getting into the business. This is, unhappily, the future. Companies will continue to release pressed discs, but only for new releases or films that have a proven track record. Classic titles, by and large, will come out on DVD-r. Eventually, of course, disc technology will go away as downloads and streaming supplant it, but that's probably a long way away.

That's fucked up because eventually you'll end up having shelf-fulls of empty discs...

[dave jenkins]

We don't know that for a fact. Not all DVD-r's are created equal (or so they tell me).

[Dust Devil]

The Man Who Wasn't There (2001)

Excellent neo-noir and one of the few Coen Bros movies I do care for. Maybe a tad unemotional in a few critical turns but the character study and acting overcome this deficit. It seems Billy Bob Thornton was born for this part.


8/10

[dave jenkins]

Over at the Blackboard reports from Noir City 8 are coming in. This note is particularly, er, noteworthy:

Eddie Muller also showed a 6-minute short entitled The Endless Night: A Valentine To Noir, which many of you may have seen linked on Back Alley or on YouTube. Eddie calls it the best distillation of noir he's ever seen, and I have to agree, even if it somehow overlooks any clips of Joan Crawford and Edmond O'Brien. It gets just about everybody else. A 20-year-old woman from Santa Rosa named Serena Bramble put it together on her laptop using downloaded Internet clips and iMovie software. She was in the audience Friday night and received great applause for her work and oozing praise from Muller. She deserved it -- it looked incredible on the big screen (the background music ``Angel'' from the band Massive Attack ... and hey, it works). Many people personally congratulated her during intermission and after the show, including me. Here's a link to the montage, well worth 6:41 of your life.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOgBa2Oij1A

The poster is right to wonder at the absence of Crawford and O'Brien. And I want to know where Whit Bissell is! Another complaint: too few films are represented. Still, it's a great job of editing, and of matching clips to music. (Note to self: re-listen the Massive Attack's Mezzanine real soon).

[cigar joe]

Thanks for that. 

[T.H.]

The Long Goodbye (multiple viewing) - probably the best PI movie I've seen.

[dave jenkins]

The Long Goodbye (multiple viewing) - probably the best PI movie I've seen.

I like The Long Goodbye a lot--IMHO, it's Altman's best. But I wouldn't call it a PI movie, more of an anti-PI movie.

[dave jenkins]

Another film noir board: http://www.backalleynoir.com/

And free streaming TV noir: http://www.cbs.com/classics/perry_mason/

[T.H.]

I like The Long Goodbye a lot--IMHO, it's Altman's best. But I wouldn't call it a PI movie, more of an anti-PI movie.

Well, yeah, but it should still be considered a PI film regardless of any revisionist and/or subversive characteristics/intentions. imo any way.