Film-Noir Discussion/DVD Review Thread

[cigar joe]

cool

[T.H.]

Johnny Allegro (1949) - This might get a passing grade if George Raft wasn't the lead, but the subject matter is goofy and it needed a charismatic lead to hold everything together. There are some nice B&W shots and an almost clever mini twist in the early going, but it's not something to ever revisit and is hardly essential viewing. D+

Another miss for the Noir Archive Vol 1 set. The transfer is passable and the exteriors can pop a little at times.

[drinkanddestroy]

Noir Alley returns from a vacation following TCM's 31 Days of Oscar programming.

Here is the upcoming schedule:

MARCH
7 Ride the Pink Horse
14 I Wake Up Screaming
21 Elevator to the Gallows
28 Crime Wave



APRIL
4 Address Unknown
11 Beyond a Reasonable Doubt
18 Witness to Murder
25 Wicked Woman

MAY
2 Fallen Angel
9 Mildred Pierce
16 The Crimson Kimono
23  Cornered
30 A Kiss Before Dying


JUNE
6 The Underworld Story
13 Murder By Contract
20 Underworld U.S.A.
27 The Lady From Shanghai


JULY
4 The Sign of the Ram
11 Bodyguard             
18 Three Strangers
25 The Breaking Point

[drinkanddestroy]

Eddie Muller (in silk bathrobe from a locked-down California) announced the postponement of this year's Noir City film festivals
https://twitter.com/EddieMuller/status/1241130890954043392

[dave jenkins]

Eddie Muller (in silk bathrobe from a locked-down California)

Nice touch. Does this man know how to dress or what?

[drinkanddestroy]

interview with Muller

https://screencomment.com/2020/03/filmnoir-eddiemuller/#disqus_thread

not much here.

btw, I disagree with the writer who says "These are tough times for movie lovers. Theaters across the country are closed, many libraries shuttered and people are staying home."

for people who aren't working, or working from the office, they stay home and watch movies all day, it is the best of times as a movie lover

[dave jenkins]

for people who aren't working, or working from the office, they stay home and watch movies all day, it is the best of times as a movie lover

The Jenkins Culture Bunker is up and running. All visitors are denied entrance at the front gate. Security patrols operate 24/7. Mrs. Jenkins has some mean-looking carving knives. And the discs spin on and on . . .

[cigar joe]

The Jenkins Culture Bunker is up and running. All visitors are denied entrance at the front gate. Security patrols operate 24/7. Mrs. Jenkins has some mean-looking carving knives. And the discs spin on and on . . .

Yea! Obviously life is good for a film buff in these times of multiple resources to sample.

[dave jenkins]

This is up at blu-ray.com:

Kiss the Blood Off My Hands

Synopsis: Screen legends Joan Fontaine (Rebecca, Suspicion, The Bigamist) and Burt Lancaster (Desert Fury, I Walk Alone, The Train) star in Kiss the Blood off My Hands, a classic film noir about fate and love amongst the most unlikely individuals. Former POW Bill Saunders (Lancaster), now living in England, is scarred with unstable and violent tendencies. After killing a man in a bar fight, he flees the scene and manages to find cover in the home of Nurse Jane Wharton (Fontaine), who agrees to take him in and believes his story that the killing was an accident. Now in love, Nurse Wharton tries to secure Saunders a job delivering medical supplies when he's released from prison after serving time for fighting with a police officer. Things take a turn, however, when a racketeer (Robert Newton, Odd Man Out) who witnessed Saunders' murder threatens to turn him into the police unless he agrees to assist in a crime. Beautifully shot in glorious black-and-white by the great Russell Metty (Touch of Evil, The Lady Gambles) and stylishly directed by Norman Foster (Journey into Fear, Woman on the Run).

Special Features and Technical Specs:
NEW 2K RESTORATION OF THE FILM
NEW audio commentary by critic Jeremy Arnold
Theatrical trailer
Optional English subtitles for the main feature
STREET DATE: JUNE 9

[dave jenkins]

Here it is: https://www.amazon.com/S%C3%A9rie-Noire-Blu-ray-Patrick-Dewaere/dp/B0858SZWHQ/ref=sr_1_13?

Unhappily, the blu has missed its release date (or, more exactly, amazon never got any in stock).
Happily, while we're waiting, there's this: https://ok.ru/video/2106871712366

[drinkanddestroy]

Noir bookmarks https://twitter.com/EddieMuller/status/1260335812614344704

[dave jenkins]

Noir bookmarks https://twitter.com/EddieMuller/status/1260335812614344704

Peter Lorre: check.
Gloria Grahame: check and double-check
Dorothy Malone: Er, OK.
Joe Cotton: WTF?

Anyway, thanks, Drink.

[drinkanddestroy]

Peter Lorre: check.
Gloria Grahame: check and double-check
Dorothy Malone: Er, OK.
Joe Cotton: WTF?

Anyway, thanks, Drink.

Pleasure.

I don't have a problem with Malone: there is something funny about the nerdy bookstore worker who locks the door, removes her glasses, lets down her hair, has a drink with Bogie and fucks him in the back room. She's not the typical femme fatale, but they already have Gloria Grahame, so I don't have a problem with something offbeat.


But Joseph Cotten? ("e" not "o") Terrible choice. I don't even know what movie that's from. I'll never understand how he was such a movie star. And he sure as hell is no noir icon. I say we burn that bookmark.

Let's make a protest: "Noir Bookmarks Matter"

[dave jenkins]

I don't have a problem with Malone: there is something funny about the nerdy bookstore worker who locks the door, removes her glasses, lets down her hair, has a drink with Bogie and fucks him in the back room. She's not the typical femme fatale, but they already have Gloria Grahame, so I don't have a problem with something offbeat.

I love that sequence also, but it's just one bit. And as far as I can remember, Malone never did another so-called noir. Lorre and Grahame, they notched up a few in their time. So, I accept Malone, but wonder why other worthier actresses weren't honored before her.

[dave jenkins]

Criterion is upgrading their Dassin noirs:

The Naked City

Synopsis: "There are eight million stories in the Naked City," as the narrator immortally states at the close of this breathtakingly vivid film?and this is one of them. Master noir craftsman Jules Dassin and newspaperman-cum-producer Mark Hellinger's dazzling police procedural, The Naked City, was shot entirely on location in New York. Influenced as much by Italian neorealism as it is by American crime fiction, this double Academy Award winner remains a benchmark for naturalism in noir, living and breathing in the promises and perils of the Big Apple, from its lowest depths to its highest skyscrapers.

Special Features and Technical Specs:
NEW 4K RESTORATION by TLEFilms FIlm Restoration & Preservation Services, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
Audio commentary from 1996 featuring screenwriter Malvin Wald
Interview from 2006 with film scholar Dana Polan
Interview from 2006 with author James Sanders (Celluloid Skyline) on the film's New York locations
Footage of director Jules Dassin from a 2004 appearance at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Stills gallery
English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
PLUS: An essay by author and critic Luc Sante and production notes from producer Mark Hellinger to Dassin
STREET DATE: SEPTEMBER 8.

Brute Force

Synopsis: As hard-hitting as its title, Brute Force was the first of Jules Dassin's forays into the crime genre, a prison melodrama that takes a critical look at American society as well. Burt Lancaster is the timeworn Joe Collins, who, along with his fellow inmates, lives under the heavy thumb of the sadistic, power-tripping guard Captain Munsey (a riveting Hume Cronyn). Only Collins's dreams of escape keep him going, but how can he possibly bust out of Munsey's chains? Matter-of-fact and ferocious, Brute Force builds to an explosive climax that shows the lengths men will go to when fighting for their freedom.

Special Features and Technical Specs:
NEW 4K RESTORATION by TLEFilms FIlm Restoration & Preservation Services, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
Audio commentary from 2007 featuring film-noir specialists Alain Silver and James Ursini
Interview from 2007 with Paul Mason, editor of Captured by the Media: Prison Discourse in Popular Culture Program from 2017 on Brute Force's array of acting styles featuring film scholar David Bordwell
Trailer
Stills gallery
English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
PLUS: An essay by film critic Michael Atkinson, a 1947 profile of producer Mark Hellinger, and rare correspondence between Hellinger and Production Code administrator Joseph Breen over the film's content
STREET DATE: SEPTEMBER 8.