Film-Noir Discussion/DVD Review Thread

[cigar joe]

If that is the only reason I ain't gonna watch it.

Lol, Ok.

His Kind Of Woman (1951 D: John Farrow. Robert Mitchum, Jane Russell, Vincent Price, Tim Holt, Raymond Burr, Charles McGraw, Marjorie Reynolds, Jim Backus. Mitchum blindly goes to Mexico for a payoff of 50 grand, discovers he's the soon-to-be-dead chump whose identity will help deported gangster Burr re-enter the country.  Only saw part of it but Vincent Price is a hoot as a ham actor (I’m sure it wasn’t much of a stretch for him) Only caught the beginning and bits and pieces before I had chores to do. This has a huge write up in the Encyclopedia of American Film Noir will have to revist.

Ok watched it through , It SUCKS didn't like it much at all, and Price gets truly irritating no wonder I sort of tuned it out the first go round. 2/10, now I'll have to check out WTF the Encyclopedia of American Film Noir devoted a few pages to.

[cigar joe]

The Man From Cairo (1953) Directed by Edoardo Anton and Ray Enright with George Raft, Gianna Maria Canale,  Leonardo Scavino, Alfredo Varelli, Mino Doro, Massimo Serato, and Richard McNamara. A US, Italian, English noir, Mike Canelli (Raft), the man from Cairo, is passing through Algiers and in a case of mistaken identity is taken for an American PI that the French Gov sends to solve a mystery of war-time theft of $100,000,000 national gold buried somewhere in the nearby desert. Everyone involved assumes he's working for the French government through a mole in the national security apparatus. Canale is a big gal she's no waif but she is shapely. It could have used a bit more outside locations or more varied and interesting sets, as it is it seems way too studio bound and the studio sets all blend into the same look along with the actors, no real standouts opposite Raft, too bad the premise was good.  A nice finale with a steam engine and a final denouement on a train. 6/10

[dave jenkins]

Joe, good job, you've come up with one I've never seen--and one I've never even heard of. However, I'm allergic to George Raft, so I probably won't be seeking this out. I appreciate the info, though.

[titoli]

The Man From Cairo (1953) Directed by Edoardo Anton and Ray Enright

I presume the italian director's name was put there only  for reasons of state subsidies for co-productions.

[cigar joe]

I presume the italian director's name was put there only  for reasons of state subsidies for co-productions.

Possibly, but the entire crew was also Italian.

[cigar joe]

Dramma nella Kasbah is the original title for "The Man From Cairo"  

Any way it was doubled on the "Forgotten Noir" disk with Mask Of The Dragon(1951) dir by Sam Newfield, with Richard Travis, Sheila Ryan,    Sid Melton, Michael Whalen, Lyle Talbot, Dee Tatum, and Terry Newell. Not very noir at all with cheesy organ music for a sound track and a character that looked like Odd Job from Goldfinger, but the IMDb search doesn't confirm that.

Story, a US soldier and partner in a detective agency agrees to take a jade dragon to an LA collector, He's killed upon arrival to the states and his partner & his secretary investigate. Its almost a comedy unintentionally, 5/10.

[titoli]

Possibly, but the entire crew was also Italian.

 
That means little, as the same went for The Last Man of Earth, which was directed by the american.

[cigar joe]

T Men (1947) Dir by Anthony Mann, with Charles McGraw, Dennis O'Keefe, Mary Meade, Alfred Ryder   , Wallace Ford, and June Lockhart. The story is basically two Treasury agents O'Brien (O'Keef) and Genaro Ryder) infiltrate a counterfeiting ring with good paper using their raided plates as the bait. Its a good procedural type of Noir, I'll give it a 7/10.

[dave jenkins]

Holy Anthony Mann! Check out TCM's schedule for Thursday, June 30 (Times in EST):

9:45 AM
78 min
Tall Target, The (1951)
A detective tries to prevent the assassination of President Lincoln during a train ride.

D: Anthony Mann. Dick Powell, Paula Raymond, Adolphe Menjou, Marshall Thompson, Ruby Dee, Will Geer. Gripping suspense as detective Powell follows tip that Abraham Lincoln is going to be assassinated during 1861 train ride. Interestingly, Powell's character is named John Kennedy!


11:15 AM
59 min
Follow Me Quietly (1949)
Police track a mysterious killer nicknamed "The Judge."

D: Richard Fleischer. William Lundigan, Dorothy Patrick, Jeff Corey, Nestor Paiva, Charles D. Brown, Paul Guilfoyle. Solid little film noir about police manhunt for self-righteous psychopathic killer called The Judge. Packs style and substance into just 59 minutes.

b
12:30 PM
66 min
Two O'Clock Courage (1945)
An amnesiac discovers he's wanted for murder.

D: Anthony Mann. Tom Conway, Ann Rutherford, Richard Lane, Lester Matthews, Roland Drew, Bettejane (Jane) Greer. Conway wakes up on a street corner with amnesia and finds himself the top suspect in a murder case, joins with cabbie Rutherford to solve mystery. Routine effort which looks and sounds like a typical SAINT or FALCON entry, but is actually a remake of a 1936 film, TWO IN THE DARK.


1:45 PM
73 min
Desperate (1947)
An innocent trucker takes it on the lam when he's accused of robbery.

D: Anthony Mann. Steve Brodie, Audrey Long, Raymond Burr, Douglas Fowley, William Challee, Jason Robards, Sr. An honest truck driver is victimized by racketeers and forced to flee with his wife. Well-made little film noir, if not as good as director Mann's follow-ups (RAW DEAL, T-MEN, etc.). Also shown in computer-colored version.


3:00 PM
90 min
Black Book, The (1949)
Opponents plot to bring down Robespierre during the French Revolution.

D: Anthony Mann. Robert Cummings, Arlene Dahl, Richard Hart, Richard Basehart, Arnold Moss, Beulah Bondi. Vivid costume drama set during French Revolution, with valuable diary eluding both sides of battle. Moss is particularly good as the elegantly, eloquently evil Foucher. Stunningly photographed by John Alton; every shot is a painting!


4:30 PM
96 min
Border Incident (1949)
Police try to crack down on the illegal immigration racket.

D: Anthony Mann. Ricardo Montalban, George Murphy, Howard da Silva, Teresa Celli, Charles McGraw. Tension-packed story of U.S. agents cracking down on smuggling of immigrants across Texas-Mexico border. Well directed, and uncompromisingly violent.



6:15 PM

Devil's Doorway (1950)

[cigar joe]

House of Strangers (1949) Director Joseph L. Mankiewicz, with Richard Conte, Susan Hayward, Edward G. Robinson,    Luther Adler, Paul Valentine, and Efrem Zimbalist Jr.

Didn't know what to expect from this Noir, since I'd never heard of it. It was actually a quite good family drama Noir, with a story told mostly in flashback about an Italian patriarch with four sons who originally ran a barbershop and parlayed that into a money lending bank on NYC'sLower East Side. With the passage of new banking laws the Monetti bank is in trouble and lawyer son Conte ends up in jail doing seven years for trying to bribe a juror while the other three brothers reopen the bank and cut out the old man. Robinson is quite convincing as Monetti.

Conte is almost consumed with hate while in prison but love interest Hayward is the antidote and is very good in this film playing a high-class dame and they mutually fall in love at first sight. A nicely done denouement that keeps you guessing. No big set pieces or outstanding action sequences but above average. 8.5/10

[Novecento]

Holy Anthony Mann! Check out TCM's schedule for Thursday, June 30 (Times in EST):

Managed to catch some of Border Incident. Have always wanted to watch it because of the John Alton cinematography. From what I saw, seemed like he did as good a job on this as on his other two Anthony Mann outings. Was strange to watch a film noir without an urban setting.

[dave jenkins]

Managed to catch some of Border Incident. Have always wanted to watch it because of the John Alton cinematography. From what I saw, seemed like he did as good a job on this as on his other two Anthony Mann outings. Was strange to watch a film noir without an urban setting.

I count 6 collaborations between Mann and Alton. Are you disallowing the non-noir films? Or are you just talking about the other Mann-Altons that you've seen?

[Novecento]

Yes, I was referring to the noir ones only. However, I guess I should have included "He Walked by Night" as well, even though Mann isn't credited.

[cigar joe]

The Tall Target(1951) directed by Anthony Mann a very noirish film about an attempt to assassinate President elect Abraham Lincoln on his journey to Washington DC.  The film stars, Dick Powell, Paula Raymond, Adolphe Menjou, Marshall Thompson, Ruby Dee, Richard Rober, Leif Erickson,  and Will Geer. All the action takes place on the train journey between New York City (probably actually Weehawken NJ) and Washington DC. Dick Powell plays a discredited NYC detective tries in the face of disbelief to foil the assassins, who hate the President's policies. Paula Raymond a Southern Belle ,married to West pointer Marshall Thompson, with Ruby Dee as her maid. Menjou plays a Poughkeepsie militia colonel riding on the train. The film keeps you guessing who is involved with the plot and who is not. This will remind those who are familiar with Film Noir of "The Narrow Margin".

This film is very well done and I can't believe it isn't more well known, A gem from Mann 10/10

[cigar joe]

The Grand Central Murder (1942) Dir: S. Sylvan Simon, with an ensemble cast of Van Heflin, Patricia Dane, and about 12 others.

Synopsis from Imdb:
 
A convict being escorted in for retrial escapes at Grand Central and threatens his old girlfriend (Dane)on the phone. She flees for her new beau's private railcar at the same station. When she is then found murdered the cops round up a motley group of suspects including the escapee, several guys feeling sore at the way the gold-digging broad had treated them, some jealous dames, and a private eye (Hefiln) already on the case.

This has got some great Grand Central Terminal rail sequences and an interesting method of murder. The majority of the film is told in flashback as different suspects tell their stories. 7/10