Film-Noir Discussion/DVD Review Thread

[titoli]

<spoilers>

He was blow out the cargo door at impact.

 

[dave jenkins]

 Just a bit too draggy

Yup. I'd rate it 4/10.

[cigar joe]

Man-Trap (1961) Directed by Edmund O'Brien, with Jeffry Hunter, David Jansen, Stella Stevens, and a cameo by Bob Crane. Not really noir but not a bad crime flick revolving around Central American ill gotten loot. Jansen and Hunter are Korean War vets. Jansen repays Hunter (who saved his life) with an in on a deal for 1/2 a million dollars. Stevens plays Hunters drunk & promiscuous wife, San Francisco locations, and a nice chase sequence, nothing special Stevens really looks good. 6/10

[dave jenkins]

Man-Trap (1961) Directed by Edmund O'Brien, with Jeffry Hunter, David Jansen, Stella Stevens, and a cameo by Bob Crane. Not really noir but not a bad crime flick revolving around Central American ill gotten loot. Jansen and Hunter are Korean War vets. Jansen repays Hunter (who saved his life) with an in on a deal for 1/2 a million dollars. Stevens plays Hunters drunk & promiscuous wife, San Francisco locations, and a nice chase sequence, nothing special Stevens really looks good. 6/10

Huh, I've never heard of this one. O'Brien just directs, he's not in it?

[cigar joe]

Huh, I've never heard of this one. O'Brien just directs, he's not in it?

Yea his first directorial debut, also forgot to mention that its based on a John D. McDonald story, I'm sure the story is much better. Its on Netflix streaming video.

[cigar joe]

Back to Back films based Chandler's Philip Marlowe character.

Lady in the Lake (1947) director Robert Montgomery, with Robert Montgomery as Phillip Marlowe, Audrey Totter as Adrienne Fromsett, Lloyd Nolan as Lt. DeGarmot, Tom Tully as Capt. Kane, Leon Ames as Derace Kingsby, Jayne Meadows as Mildred Havelend
Dick Simmons as Chris Lavery.

Unusual innovative Noir part serious partly send up, I chuckled at some of the conversations between Totter & Montgomery and the allusion to author's of hard boiled detective fiction. With the POV camera portrayal gimmick of Marlowe by Montgomery the brunt of the film falls on Audrey Totter's shoulders and she is both fascinating and stellar in the various long takes.  Some great sequences to watch for, the casing of Lavery's house with the intro of Jane Meadows, and the reveal of the body (nuff said), the auto accident sequence and the confrontation between Nolan and Meadows. Has a Christmas theme vocal chorus that warps ominous for what little soundtrack there is.   Once you get the hang of the POV its very entertaining. This is a film you could "almost" show to kids that are enamoured with first person shooter games, they'd probably "get it" lol.  10/10

Marlowe (1969) Director: Paul Bogart, with James Garner as Philip Marlowe, Gayle Hunnicutt as Mavis Wald, Carroll O'Connor as
Lt. Christy French, Rita Moreno as stripper Dolores Gonzáles, Sharon Farrell as Orfamay Quest, William Daniels as Mr. Crowell,  H.M. Wynant  as gangster Sonny Steelgrave, Jackie Coogan as Grant W. Hicks, and Bruce Lee as Winslow Wong. This is an adaptation of Chandler's "The Little Sister" which is interestingly enough a song that runs under the opening credits. Filmed way past the end of stylized Noir this film updates Marlowe to the contemporary late 1960's replete with hippies and flophouses. The opening title sequence shows a Peeping Tom/Blackmailer taking photos of two poolside lovers, the next sequence has Marlowe, already on a case, driving up to a peace sign bedecked beach house (in a convertible Dodge with a photo of the Peeping Tom attached to his dash). The beach house has its denizens all stoned out on the porch. I like Garner and his Marlowe is a loner, which hews pretty close to the Marlowe of the novels, but still color and lack of stylized Noir lighting rob you of the gritty feel of the original novels.

The story revolves around the hunt for the wayward brother of Orfamay Quest (Farrell) and turns convolutedly into something else. Gayle Hunnicutt is Mavis Wald, a prominent TV star billed as "America's Sweetheart" an almost auguring like reference to Mary Tyler Moore & her show by the same name. Moreno is great as a stripper (she does a nice routine) and it has some adequate performances by Hollywood child star Jackie Coogan and TV actor O'Connor, Bruce Lee (in his first American film) doesn't quite make sense as it is filmed, that said, all of the supporting cast could have used a bit more development, especially Lee, and it needed much more in the way of actual establishing shots of sleazy LA locations. Anyway could have been better, worth a watch 8/10

[titoli]

How about Garner as Marlowe? I think he's the best.

[cigar joe]

How about Garner as Marlowe? I think he's the best.

On impulse I'd agree, I didn't like Bogart, or Gould, and Montgomery is OK probably the next best, but I'll have to watch Mitchum again in Farewell My Lovely (1975) to give you a definitive answer. I remember liking that, but I didn't like The Big Sleep (1978) being set in England , and I don't remember Murder, My Sweet (1944) with Dick Powell or George Montgomery in The Brasher Doubloon (1947).

Then there are TV depictions, Philip Carey (1960), Powers Boothe (1986) James Caan (1998) Jason O'Mara (2007), I may have seen Poodle Springs with James Caan

We probably should start a Best Phillip Marlowe thread.

[titoli]

Powell is actually the only serious contender. Carey and O'Mara I never saw, Booth sucks like all that series he starred in, Caan I reviewed it a few days ago. Mitchum is great but he plays Mitchum, not Marlowe: though he plays it in the arguably best movie about Chandler's character (again Powell's movie being the best contender).

[cigar joe]

Powell is actually the only serious contender. Carey and O'Mara I never saw, Booth sucks like all that series he starred in, Caan I reviewed it a few days ago. Mitchum is great but he plays Mitchum, not Marlowe: though he plays it in the arguably best movie about Chandler's character (again Powell's movie being the best contender).

Unfortunately "Murder, My Sweet" is unavailable here at the moment.

[titoli]

I thought I had bought it but I was wrong.   

[titoli]

Bought.

On Amazon.it a little over 6 euros.

[titoli]

In Italy there's also a dvd of The Brasher Doubloon but, so I've read, only with italian audio :
As the movie isn't that good (it was on tv a handful of times) I let it pass.

[cigar joe]

Mister Buddwing (1966) Director, Delbert Mann, with James Garner as Mister Buddwing, Jean Simmons as The Blonde, Suzanne Pleshette as Fiddle, Katharine Ross as Janet, and Angela Lansbury as Gloria. (It begins with a POV camera portrayal we see the sky and tree branches, then Central Park as our perspective changes, then we see hands searching finding clues, we don't see who we are until we enter the Plaza Hotel and look in a mirror).  A well-dressed man (Garner) wakes up on a bench in New York's Central Park, with no idea of who he is, or how he got there. All he can find in his pockets are a train schedule, a couple of drug capsules, and a piece of paper with a phone number on it. On his right hand: a ring with a cracked stone; engraved on the inside of the band is the inscription, "From G.V." Armed with these meager clues, the man, adopting the name "Buddwing" (inspired by a passing Budweiser beer truck and a plane flying overhead), sets out to learn his true identity. Along the way, he encounters a variety of people, including three different women (Simmons, Pleshette, Ross) who each reminds him in some way of someone named "Grace." With each of the three women he meets he has flashbacks to his life with Grace at different stages of their relationship. Great New York locations abound, the Plaza Hotel, The Queensboro Bridge, Times Square Arcades, and a excellent crap game sequence in Harlem.

Very surreal film Noir-ish in style, I would call it a Near-Noir it would fit in a list of those darker, sleazier, Black & White Films of the Fifties and Sixties that didn't necessarily have a crime angle involved, films like "Requiem For a Heavyweight", "Somebody Up There Likes Me", "Marty", "A Streecar Named Desire", "The Fugitive Kind", "On The Waterfront", "The Hustler", "Baby Doll", "Walk on the Wild Side", "Anatomy of a Murder", "To Kill a Mockingbird", "The Defiant Ones", "Your Cheatin' Heart", "I Want to Live!", "A Face in the Crowd ", etc., etc.  I should start a new thread on these.

Two interesting past and future character actor appearances in it, first one was the 2nd cab driver, Billy Halop from the old Dead End Kids. The second is the lady dice player who is played by Nichelle Nichols, the lovely Lt. Uhura of Star Trek. I like it, 7.5-8/10

[dave jenkins]

Unfortunately "Murder, My Sweet" is unavailable here at the moment.

No, it's available. "Farewell, My Lovely," however, is not.