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Messages - XhcnoirX
1
« on: January 20, 2020, 02:23:07 AM »
Some movies I watched recently... The Whisters in a cinema, the rest on blu-ray or DVD.
The Whistlers (2019): A police officer gets drawn into a gang by a femme fatale, to free her boyfriend from the police as well as find 2 mattresses full of cash. The gang operates out of a Spanish island and communicate by way of whistling (Silbo Gomero), which he first has to learn. Romanian neo-noir that works well and contains tons of references to classic movies. 7+/10
Murder Is My Business (1946): The first PRC Michael Shayne movie starring Hugh Beaumont. Shayne is asked by a wealthy old lady to investigative threatening letters she's been receiving. Soon after she's murdered and aside from the woman's family who despised her, Shayne also becomes a suspect. Not as entertaining as the Lloyd Nolan Shayne movies but pretty decent for a PRC movie. 6/10
The Third Secret (1964): A psychiatrist commits suicide but daughter Pamela Franklin believes its murder and together with one of his patients, Stephen Boyd, starts to investigate. Before too long Boyd isn't sure anymore it wasn't him who killed the man. Slow-burn thriller that picks up pace in the last act leading to a tragic (but not too surprising) conclusion. Franklin is fantastic, Boyd is miscast. 7/10
The Black Book aka Reign Of Terror (1949): Richard Basehart intends to grab absolute power during the French Revolution, while Robert Cummings and Arlene Dahl attempt to stop him. Not the strongest Anthony Mann/John Alton collaboration but it's still gorgeous to look at and highly entertaining. 7/10
2
« on: September 12, 2019, 03:43:27 AM »
Apologies for the lack of participation... Hopefully I will get back into the swing of posting here  Some of the recent movies I saw... Without Warning! (1952): Gardener Adam Williams is a psychotic serial killer of pretty women. His attention focuses on Meg Randall, daughter of the owner of his usual gardening tools supply store. Edward Binns is the investigating police detective. Docu-noir in the vein of 'He Walked By Night' (1948) and, even more so, 'The Sniper' (1952). Good movie, but not as good as the other 2 movies. 7/10 The Strange Woman (1946): Femme fatale Hedy Lamarr marries a local business man, seduces her husband's son Louis Hayward to get him to kill his father, and then takes up with lumberjack George Sanders (if that isn't a case of weird casting I don't know what is). Good movie by Edgar Ulmer ('Detour'), Lamarr is simply great here. 7/10 X Marks The Spot (1942): Private eye Damian O'Flynn is looking into a rubber stealing gang, responsible for killing his dad. Not bad, and not a dull moment, but doesn't stand out. Except for the phone-operated jukeboxes to request numbers, a precursor to Spotify! 6/10 No Orchids For Miss Blandish (1948): Jack La Rue's gang kidnaps Linden Travers hoping to get $1M for her. But La Rue and Travers fall in love... Pretty outrageous, violent and scandalous movie (the novel by James Hadley Chase was even more raunchy). But also awkward, as it's a British production but it tries extremely hard to come off as a hardboiled US 30s gangster/40s noir movie. And in doing so, goes overboard with clichéd dialogue and characters, becoming almost a spoof. Fairly unique movie, I have to say, just not that great. 6/10 Watched em all on youtube, except for No Orchids... which I watched on the UK blu-ray.
3
« on: June 08, 2019, 06:46:54 AM »
The Woman In The Window (1944): Edward G. Robinson is mesmerized by the portrait of Joan Bennett who promptly enters his life, and he ends up killing her lover by accident. Good noir but not as good the 2nd Fritz Lang/EGR/Joan Bennett/Dan Duryea collaboration, 'Scarlet Street'. 7+/10
The Fifth Cord aka Giornata Nera Per l'Ariete (1971): Crummy journalist Franco Nero becomes a suspect in a series of murders that he's writing about. Decent-to-good giallo, bonus point for the beautiful cinematography by Vittorio Storaro. 7/10
4
« on: May 28, 2019, 01:03:54 AM »
I also may be in the minority on Nightfall. I love the movie and would love to watch those outdoor scenes etc in HD.
I received the Arrow Nightfall blu-ray this weekend. I've not yet had a chance to check the picture quality, but looking forward to giving it a spin and checking those snowy mountain scenes, as well as Anne Bancroft, in HD. It's not a favorite noir of mine, but it's pretty damn good.
5
« on: May 20, 2019, 02:08:53 AM »
Never Take Sweets From A Stranger (1960): A small town tries to bury a case of pedophilia when it involves a member of a powerful family. In essence it's a good movie with a powerful message, but I found it very slow and dull at times. 6+/10
6
« on: May 08, 2019, 02:47:01 AM »
Speaking of blurays and Don Siegel, Kino is going to release Charley Varrick at some point. I just learned this today, it was announced last summer. Very, very late to that party.
The UK blu-ray has a good but not stellar transfer, perhaps Kino will use a different one and that's why it's taken longer? Excellent movie. Surprising to find The Crimson Kimono on this upcoming set, Twilight Time did a US blu-ray of it not that long ago. Perhaps the rights have lapsed already.
7
« on: May 07, 2019, 01:17:26 AM »
Underworld U.S.A. (1961): Cliff Robertson witnesses 4 men beating his dad to death as a teenager, and vows revenge. Years later he finds out those men have become major crime syndicate bosses but that doesn't stop him. Nor does the affection of surrogate mother Beatrice Kay or gun moll Dolores Dorn. Stripped down, nasty and tough-as-nails revenge (early neo-)noir by Samuel Fuller. 8/10
Watched the UK blu-ray, part of a Samuel Fuller boxset. Great-looking print, and for Fuller aficionados, the set comes with hours upon hours of footage of Fuller doing an interview with Tim Robbins.
8
« on: May 06, 2019, 01:19:36 AM »
As for the olive bluray, I recommend it. There's a lot of print damage that wasn't cleaned up but the transfer is good enough to highlight the phenomenal photography. Unless there's a better transfer in a different region, I'd recommend it.
The Arrow UK blu-ray uses the same transfer but has a bunch of special features (Eddie Muller commentary track, some featurettes, etc). The Arrow website says it's region free.
9
« on: March 29, 2019, 02:23:17 AM »
The Quiller Memorandum (1966) - 8/10. Guinness, Segal, von Sydow, Senta Berger, playing spy games in Berlin. I can see why some people don't like this: it apes genre conventions without fulfilling them. But it's a mistake to see this as something that should be on a double bill with, say, Funeral in Berlin. The better pairing would be with Accident, from another Pinter script. The espionage tropes are really there to comment on modern male-female relationships. Granted, not everyone's cup of venom. The new restoration/transfer on the TT blu looks great.
The old UK blu-ray is pretty bad, good to hear there's a new restoration out there. I rated it 7/10, but I honestly can't remember much of it aside from feeling George Segal wasn't the right actor for the character.
10
« on: March 27, 2019, 05:32:57 AM »
One of my favorite noirs, it's a lot of fun and has tons of great scenes and dialogue like you mention. Audrey Totter is irresistible in this movie, the way she plays with the camera is amazing IMHO. 9/10  Montgomery's other noir, 'Ride The Pink Horse', is also an a-typical noir (tho far less so than this one) and also really good.
11
« on: March 26, 2019, 02:27:09 AM »
Strange Days (1995): Neonoir sci-fi thriller with Ralph Fiennes as a black market VR dealer who gets himself trapped in a murder investigation. Good shit, altho it took a bit to get started. Saw this in a small theater with a beat up print, adding to the grittiness of the movie. The old lady sitting next to me slept through most of the movie. Thankfully she didn't snore  8/10
12
« on: February 25, 2019, 01:50:55 AM »
Ya don't say? Imagine ol' Kirk, going a bit over-the-top. Who'd a thunk it? 
13
« on: February 24, 2019, 08:36:20 AM »
Detective Story (1951): An evening at the 21st precinct bureau in NYC, with various storylines intersecting, centered around principled detective Kirk Douglas, his wife Eleanor Parker and abortion doctor George Macready. William Bendix plays Douglas's more easy-going partner. Smaller parts for Joseph 'Dr. No' Wiseman and Cathy O'Donnell. Noir-lite. Really enjoyed it, even tho Douglas goes a bit over-the-top at times. Good movie. 8/10
14
« on: February 19, 2019, 02:26:31 AM »
Agree, I also like the little vignette with the chopsticks in the Chinese restaurant with real life pickpocket Vic Perry playing Lightning Louie.
I didn't know he was a real life pickpocket, thanks for the info, that's pretty cool... I love how he uses his dirty chopsticks to pick up the bills Peters gives him in exchange for information.
15
« on: February 17, 2019, 12:46:35 PM »
Pickup On South Street (1953): A piece of classified stolen microfilm gets fingered off Jean Peters by pickpocket Richard Widmark, making him a target for the government as well as the 'Reds' wanting the piece of film back. Widmark is excellent as always but Thelma Ritter as a hustler trying to get enough money for a proper funeral is amazing. Watched this classic Samuel Fuller movie before, but forgot how brutal and violent it is, esp when Peters gets tossed around like a ragdoll by her ex-bf, and commie agent, Richard Kiley. Great, great movie. 8+/10
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