Archives for September 2014

By Film Noir Blonde and Mike Wilmington

The Film Noir File is FNB’s guide to classic film noir, neo-noir and pre-noir on Turner Classic Movies (TCM). All movies below are from the schedule of TCM, which broadcasts them uncut and uninterrupted. The times are Eastern Standard and (Pacific Standard).

Pick of the Week

“The Asphalt Jungle” was a hugely influential thriller.

“The Asphalt Jungle” (1950, John Huston). Thursday, Sept. 4, 10:30 p.m. (7:30 p.m.). With Sterling Hayden, Sam Jaffe, Jean Hagen, Marilyn Monroe, Louis Calhern. Reviewed here.

Thursday, Sept. 4

4:30 p.m. (1:30 p.m.): “Obsession” (1949, Edward Dmytryk). A classic noir helmer, Edward Dmytryk, puts a classic noir ham, Robert Newton, through the agonies of mad marital jealousy in this lesser known, but gripping thriller. With Sally Gray and Naunton Wayne.

6:15 p.m. (3:15 p.m.): “The Sniper” (1952, Edward Dmytryk). Arthur Franz plays a psychologically disturbed sniper, picking off his victims from the upper stories, in this solid Dmytryk noir thriller.

Shirley MacLaine plays the party girl who loves Frank Sinatra to pieces.

8 p.m. (5 p.m.): “Some Came Running” (Vincente Minnelli, 1958). Frank Sinatra plays a World War II returning vet and prospective novelist who goes back to his bourgeois Midwestern hometown. There he becomes involved with his stuffy, square relatives and neighbors (Arthur Kennedy and Martha Hyer), a charming gambler (Dean Martin), and an adoring party girl (Shirley MacLaine) who loves him to pieces. One of the great underrated American ‘50s movies, it’s as good as any of Douglas Sirk’s romantic melodramas. In some ways, this picture is just as much a classic as “From Here to Eternity.” And, if Shirley, as Ginny, doesn’t make you cry, you have no heart. From James Jones’ novel (as was “Eternity.”)

10:30 p.m. (7:30 p.m.): “The Asphalt Jungle” (1950, John Huston). See Pick of the Week

Friday, Sept. 5

12:15 p.m. (9:15 a.m.): “Safe in Hell” (1931, William Wellman), With Dorothy Mackaill and Donald Cook. Reviewed in FNB on May 6, 2013.

Saturday, Sept. 6

4:15 a.m. (1:15 a.m.): “Caged” (1950, John Cromwell). With Eleanor Parker, Agnes Moorehead and Hope Emerson. Reviewed in FNB on July 13, 2012.

Sunday, Sept. 7

12 p.m. (9 a.m.): “And Then There Were None” (1945, Rene Clair). With Barry Fitzgerald, Walter Huston, Judith Anderson and Louis Hayward. Reviewed in FNB on March 5, 2014.

Tuesday, Sept. 9

8 p.m. (5 p.m.): “The Stranger” (1946, Orson Welles). Orson Welles plays a mad post-World War II fascist who’s hidden himself in a peaceful New England city. He‘s about to marry Loretta Young and is being pursued by a relentless cop, Edward G. Robinson. Welles’ most conventional thriller was also his most popular with audiences. It’s no “Touch of Evil,” but it still plays well.

11:45 p.m. (8:45 p.m.): “The Pawnbroker” (1964, Sidney Lumet). With Rod Steiger, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Brock Peters and Juano Hernandez. Reviewed in FNB on June 28, 2014.

Wednesday, Sept. 10

2:30 p.m. (11:30 a.m.): “They Made Me a Fugitive” (1947, Alberto Cavalcanti). From Cavalcanti, the director of the classic French documentary “Rien que les Heures,“ this is a good British noir, in the Carol Reed vein. Trevor Howard is an embittered escaped con, wrongly convicted of murder, who breaks out and goes after the real killer. With Sally Gray.

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