film noir — Page 6 — Film Noir Blonde

‘Double Indemnity’ plays nationwide on the big screen

July 18, 2015 by Film Noir Blonde

Cissy and Raymond Chandler were married for 30 years.

Cissy Chandler (1870-1954) was married to Raymond Chandler for 30 years.

Just this morning, I finished reading “The Long Embrace: Raymond Chandler and the Woman He Loved” (Pantheon Books, 2007) by Judith Freeman. It’s a look at Chandler’s work and his 30-year marriage to a mysterious woman named Cissy Hurlburt Porcher Pascal, a sexy but refined redhead from the Midwest who was 18 years his senior. (It was her third marriage; his first and only.) Not that she bothered to tell him her real age, natch. Details, details …

In the book, Freeman describes a turning point in Chandler’s career: When he received the offer from Paramount Studios to adapt James M. Cain’s novel “Double Indemnity” for the big screen, working in partnership with writer/director Billy Wilder.

The film, starring Fred Mac Murray, Barbara Stanwyck and Edward G. Robinson, was released in 1944. It earned seven Oscar noms, including screenplay, which was extremely rare for a film noir title.

Freeman writes:

“Ray didn’t get the idea of the whole thing at first. When Joe Sistrom, the producer, called and offered him the job, Ray said he could probably do it, but he wouldn’t be able to turn in the screenplay for a couple of weeks, and it would cost them a thousand bucks. Sistrom laughed. Was the guy being funny, or was he really that naïve about the way the movie business worked? Sistrom told him he’d be working with Wilder, in an office on the studio lot, that he’d have ten weeks to do the screenplay, and he’d be getting seven hundred and fifty bucks a week. Ray did the math. Ray liked the result. Ray saw the future … and Ray said, Yes. Sure. Why not?”

Precisely! So, why not treat yourself to a big-screen viewing of this genre-defining film? TCM, Fathom Events and Universal Pictures Home Entertainment are partnering to bring this classic to select cinemas nationwide on Sunday, July 19 and Monday, July 20.

“That tears it,” as Walter Neff would say.

See you there, noiristas. Meanwhile, you can read our review as well as 14 reasons we adore this flick.

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Filed Under: Classic Noir Reviews, Noir Style Tagged With: Barbara Stanwyck, Billy Wilder, Cissy Chandler, Cissy Hurlburt Porcher Pascal, Double Indemnity, Edward G. Robinson, Fathom Events, film noir, Fred MacMurray, James M. Cain, Judith Freeman, Raymond Chandler, TCM, Universal Pictures Home Entertainment

Film Noir File: TCM’s badass binge continues with darkside divas Barbara Stanwyck, Lizabeth Scott and more

July 16, 2015 by Film Noir Blonde

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). The times are Eastern Standard and (Pacific Standard). All films without a new review have been covered previously in Film Noir Blonde and can be searched in the FNB archives (at right).

Pick of the Week: Summer of Darkness soldiers on

Barbara Stanwyck plays the tough-as-nails title broad in “Martha Ivers.” Kirk Douglas plays her husband.

Unless you’re a noirista who has been living under a rock, you know that TCM’s badass binge of film noir continues this Friday.

This week TCM’s list includes the spine-tingling masterpiece “Strangers on a Train” and the lesser-known but compelling melodrama “The Strange Love of Martha Ivers,” plus noir highlights by and with ace actors like Humphrey Bogart, Robert Ryan, Robert Mitchum, recent birthday gal Barbara Stanwyck, Lizabeth Scott, and Audrey Totter, brilliant writers like Patricia Highsmith, W. R. Burnett and Cornell Woolrich, and directors like Alfred Hitchcock, Joseph H. Lewis, Phil Karlson and Anthony Mann.

Lizabeth Scott and Van Heflin co-star in “Martha Ivers.”

Curated and hosted by the Czar of Noir himself, Eddie Muller of the Film Noir Foundation and the Noir City film festivals, TCM’s Summer of Darkness is one festival of classic dreams and movie nightmares, you don’t want to miss. As Raymond Chandler once said about Phillip Marlowe, in “The Simple Art of Murder”: “Down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid…”

Friday, July 17

7:45 a.m. (4:45 a.m.): “Tension” (John Berry, 1950).

Robert Mitchum

9:30 a.m. (6:30 a.m.): “Where Danger Lives” (John Farrow, 1950). Robert Mitchum is dragged to the bad side of the border and the law by second-tier femme fatale Faith Domergue. This one has its moments.

11 a.m. (8 a.m.): “The Woman on Pier 13” (“I Married a Communist”) (Robert Stevenson, 1950).

12:30 p.m. (9:30 a.m.): “A Lady Without Passport” (Joseph H. Lewis, 1950). Hedy Lamarr is an illegal alien who proves irresistible to secret service man John Hodiak. Stylishly wrought by the director of “Gun Crazy” and “My Name is Julia Ross.”

2 p.m. (11 a.m.): “Cause for Alarm” (Tay Garnett, 1951). Loretta Young, caught in a noir trap of lies and murder. With Barry Sullivan.

3:15 p.m. (12:15 p.m.): “No Questions Asked” (Harold F. Kress, 1951). Barry Sullivan is an insurance agent gone bad. With Arlene Dahl and other temptations.

Farley Granger and Robert Walker have a wonderful weird chemistry in “Strangers on a Train.”

4:45 p.m. (1:45 p.m.): “Strangers on a Train” (Alfred Hitchcock, 1951).

6:30 p.m. (3:30 p.m.): “The Racket” (John Cromwell, 1951). Gangster Robert Ryan and tough cop Robert Mitchum duke it out in this moody adaptation of Bartlett Cormack’s hit stage play.

8 p.m. (5 p.m.): “Too Late for Tears” (Byron Haskin, 1949). Recently restored by the FNF, this sleeper stars Lizabeth Scott and Dan Duryea. The film examines the evils of money. Seriously?

10 p.m. (7 p.m.): “The Strange Love of Martha Ivers” (Lewis Milestone, 1946).

12:15 a.m. (9: 15 p.m.): “99 River Street” (Phil Karlson, 1953). Taut little thriller, with unlucky but feisty cabbie John Payne caught in a frame-up, directed with panache by B-maestro Karlson (“The Phenix City Story”). Evelyn Keyes co-stars.

2 a.m. (11 p.m.): “Conflict” (Curtis Bernhardt, 1945). Bogie in his bad mode, tormenting Alexis Smith and trying to evade Sydney Greenstreet.

3:30 a.m. (12:30 a.m.). “Klute” (Alan Pakula, 1971).

Saturday, July 18

8:15 a.m. (5:15 a.m.). “Crime and Punishment” (Josef von Sternberg, 1935). Director Sternberg, in his Dietrich years, tackles Fyodor Dostoyevsky, with the young Lucien Ballard behind the camera, and a cast that includes Peter Lorre (as the gloomy, philosophical student killer) and Edward Arnold (as his nemesis, genial and persistent police detective).

3:15 p.m. (12:15 p.m.) “Rebel Without a Cause” (Nicholas Ray, 1955).

5:15 p.m. (2:15 p.m.): “Lolita” (Stanley Kubrick, 1962). Kubrick’s superb film of Vladimir Nabokov’s classic comic-erotic novel about the dangerous affair of college professor Humbert Humbert (James Mason) with nymphet Lolita (Sue Lyon). [Read more…]

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Filed Under: Classic Noir Reviews Tagged With: Alfred Hitchcock, Barbara Stanwyck, Eddie Muller, film noir, Film Noir Foundation, Lizabeth Scott, Robert Mitchum, Robert Ryan, Summer of Darkness, TCM

Film Noir File: Lupino, Spillane light up Summer of Darkness

July 9, 2015 by Film Noir Blonde

By Film Noir Blonde and Mike Wilmington

Pick of the Week: Summer of Darkness sizzles on

“Kiss Me Deadly” has an unforgettable opening.

You know the drill. Each Friday, throughout June and July, running from dawn to dusk and back again, TCM is screening practically every classic film noir you can think of. This week, the dark list includes “D.O.A.” and “Raw Deal,” plus the talents of writers Mickey Spillane and A. I. Bezzerides, director Robert Aldrich and actor Ralph Meeker (as private eye Mike Hammer), all of whom took part in that Eisenhower-era masterpiece “Kiss Me Deadly.” And though Spillane may have disliked the picture Aldrich made from his violent paperback best-seller, most noir buffs love it. Count us in!

Also, there are terrific turns by that magnificent dame Ida Lupino as both actress (in Nick Ray’s and Bezzerides’ “On Dangerous Ground”) and director (in Ida’s classic B suspenser “The Hitch-Hiker”). Curated and hosted by the Czar of Noir, Eddie Muller of the Film Noir Foundation and the Noir City film festivals, TCM’s Summer of Darkness is one festival of classic dreams and movie nightmares you won’t want to miss.

Friday, July 10

Who doesn’t love Gloria Grahame?

6 a.m. (3 a.m.): “Follow Me Quietly” (Richard Fleischer, 1949). Neat little B thriller about the manhunt for a crazed killer. With William Lundigan and famed acting teacher/blacklist victim Jeff Corey.

7:30 a.m. (4:30 a.m.): “A Woman’s Secret” (Nicholas Ray, 1949). Nick Ray directs, and Herman Mankiewicz writes, a kind of cut-rate “All About Eve.” With Maureen O’Hara and Gloria Grahame.

9 a.m. (6 a.m.): “Side Street” (Anthony Mann, 1950).

10:30 a.m. (7:30 a.m.): “Black Hand” (Richard Thorpe). Gene Kelly vs. The Mafia.

12:15 p.m. (9:15 a.m.): “Armored Car Robbery” (Richard Fleischer, 1950).

1:30 p.m. (10:30 a.m.): “Caged” (John Cromwell, 1950). Before there was “Orange Is the New Black,” there was “Caged.” One of the best and grimmest of the “women’s prison” pictures, with Eleanor Parker, Agnes Moorehead, Hope Emerson, Jan Sterling and Jane Darwell.

3:15 p.m. (12:15 p.m.): “D.O.A.” (Rudolph Maté, 1950).

4:45 p.m. (1:45 p.m.): “Destination Murder” (Edward L. Cahn, 1950). Joyce McKenzie vs. The Mob.

6:15 p.m. (3:15 p.m.): “The Tattooed Stranger” (Edward Montagne, 1950). N. Y. murder, investigated. With John Miles.

8 p.m. (5 p.m.): “Red Light” (Roy Del Ruth, 1949). A vendetta noir sandwich with George Raft and Raymond Burr. Hold the (Virginia) Mayo.

9:45 p.m. (6:45 p.m.): “Kiss Me Deadly” (Robert Aldrich, 1955).

11:45 p.m. (8:45 p.m.): “On Dangerous Ground” (Nicholas Ray, 1951). Ida Lupino plays a blind country girl who lives with her brother. She meets a psychologically scarred cop (Robert Ryan) when her brother becomes a suspect in a murder. With a taut script by A. I. Bezzerides and moody, poetic direction from Nicholas Ray, “On Dangerous Ground” is an unforgettable film noir.

1:30 a.m. (10:30 p.m.): “The Hitch-Hiker” (Ida Lupino, 1953).

2:45 a.m. (11:45 p.m.): “The Blue Dahlia” (George Marshall, 1946).

4:30 a.m. (1:30 a.m.): “Raw Deal” (Anthony Mann, 1948).

Monday, July 13

Bob Mitchum was an actor who had no fear, few limits and no false vanity.

9:45 a.m. (8:45 a.m.): “The Bad Sleep Well” (Akira Kurosawa, 1960). A great, savage crime drama, set in the world of corrupt and murderous Japanese corporate businessmen. With Toshiro Mifune, Masayuki Mori and Takashi Shimura. (In Japanese, with subtitles.)

Wednesday, July 15

12:30 a.m. (9:30 p.m.): “The Night of the Hunter” (Charles Laughton, 1955).

4:15 a.m. (1:15 a.m.): “Pitfall” (André de Toth, 1948).

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Filed Under: Classic Noir Reviews Tagged With: A Woman’s Secret, A.I. Bezzerides, Akira Kurosawa, André De Toth, Anthony Mann, Charles Laughton, D.O.A., Eddie Muller, film noir, Film Noir Foundation, Gloria Grahame, Ida Lupino, Kiss Me Deadly, Nicholas Ray, On Dangerous Ground, Pitfall, Raw Deal, Robert Aldrich, Robert Mitchum, Rudolph Mate, TCM, The Bad Sleep Well, The Blue Dahlia, The Hitch-Hiker, The Night of the Hunter

Film Noir File: Go deeper into depravity with the second month of TCM’s Summer of Darkness

July 2, 2015 by Film Noir Blonde

By Film Noir Blonde and Mike Wilmington

Pick of the Week: Summer of Darkness Chapter 5

Rita Hayworth went blonde for “The Lady from Shanghai.”

Each Friday, throughout July, running from dawn to dusk and back again, TCM is whistling up practically every classic film noir you can think of. Curated and hosted by the Czar of Noir himself, Eddie Muller of the Film Noir Foundation and the Noir City film festivals in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago and other big bad towns where people prowl around after midnight, TCM’s Summer of Darkness is one festival of classic dreams and nightmares you won’t want to miss.

Friday, July 3

6 a.m. (3 a.m.): “Johnny Belinda” (Jean Negulesco, 1946).

8 a.m. (5 a.m.): “Key Largo” (John Huston, 1948). Humphrey Bogart and Edward G. Robinson are pitted against each other in this tense adaptation of the Maxwell Anderson play. Bogie is a WW2 vet held hostage (along with Lauren Bacall and Lionel Barrymore) during a tropical storm by brutal mobster Robinson and his gang. Claire Trevor, as a fading chanteuse, won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar.

10 a.m. (7 a.m.): “The Lady from Shanghai” (Orson Welles, 1948).

11:30 a.m. (8:30 a.m.): “The Bribe” (Robert Z. Leonard, 1949). Cabaret torcher Ava Gardner pours it on for cop Robert Taylor, Charles Laughton and Vincent Price. A lot of footage from this lesser-known black-and-white romantic suspenser wound up in Steve Martin and Carl Reiner’s film noir parody “Dead Men Don‘t Wear Plaid.”

1:15 a.m. (10:15 a.m.): “Scene of the Crime” (Roy Rowland, 1949). Van Johnson and Arlene Dahl in a sexy mystery thriller.

3 p.m. (12 p.m.): “They Live by Night” (Nicholas Ray, 1949).

4:45 p.m. (1:45 p.m.): “The Threat” (Felix Feist, 1949). Charles McGraw takes a con’s revenge.

6 p.m. (3 p.m.): “White Heat” (Raoul Walsh, 1949). “Top of the world, Ma!” James Cagney screams, in one of the all-time great noir performances and last scenes. Cagney’s character is Cody Jarrett, a psycho gun-crazy gangster with a mother complex.

Edmond O’Brien is the undercover cop in Cody’s gang, Virginia Mayo is Cody’s faithless wife, and Margaret Wycherly is Ma. One of the true noir masterpieces.

8 p.m. (5 p.m.): “The Big Clock” (John Farrow, 1948).

9:45 p.m. (6:45 p.m.): “The Window” (Ted Tetzlaff, 1949).

11:15 p.m. (8:15 p.m.): “Shadow on the Wall” (Pat Jackson, 1950). A sensitive child (Gigi Perreau) thinks she’s a witness to a family slaying. With Zachary Scott.

12:45 a.m. (9:45 a.m.): “High Wall” (Curtis Bernhardt, 1947). Murder and psychiatry, with Robert Taylor and Audrey Totter.

2:30 a.m. (11:30 p.m.): “The Long Goodbye” (Robert Altman, 1973).

4:30 a.m. (1:30 a.m.): “Marlowe” (Paul Bogart, 1969).

Sunday, July 5

10 a.m. (7 a.m.): “The Band Wagon” (Vincente Minnelli, 1953). With a brilliant dance parody of Mickey Spillane with Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse. Also on at 4:15 p.m. (1:15 p.m.) on Wednesday, July 8.

5:15 p.m. (2:15 p.m.): “West Side Story” (Robert Wise, 1961).

Monday, July 6

6:15 p.m. (3:15 p.m.): “Pete Kelly’s Blues” (Jack Webb, 1955).

Tuesday, July 7

8:30 a.m. (5:30 a.m.): “Doctor X” (Michael Curtiz, 1932).

10 a.m. (7 a.m.): “Mystery of the Wax Museum” (Michael Curtiz, 1933).

Thursday, July 9

8:15 a.m. (5:15 a.m.): “Finger of Guilt” (“The Intimate Stranger“) (Joseph Losey, 1956). A blackmail thriller about a persecuted director (Richard Basehart), set in the world of British studio filmmaking, and directed (under the pseudonym “Joseph Walton“), by blacklist victim Losey.

10 a.m. (7 a.m.): “Time Without Pity” (Joseph Losey, 1957).

11:30 a.m. (8:30 a.m.): “Dead of Night” (Alberto Cavalcanti, Basil Dearden, Robert Hamer, Charles Crichton, 1945).

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Filed Under: Classic Noir Reviews Tagged With: film noir, TCM, The Lady from Shanghai

Film Noir File: Summer of Darkness keeps dealing out winners

June 25, 2015 by Film Noir Blonde

By Film Noir Blonde and Mike Wilmington

Pick of the Week: Another Friday Full of Darkness

It’s Chapter Four of TCM’s film noir binge-fest. As Bogie once said, “It’s the stuff that dreams are made of.” Each Friday, throughout June and July, running from dawn to dusk and back again, TCM is serving some deluxe stuff: practically every classic film noir you can think of, from “The Maltese Falcon” to “Born to Kill,” and (this Friday) from “Out of the Past” to “The Third Man.”

Curated and hosted by the Czar of Noir himself, Eddie Muller of the Film Noir Foundation and the Noir City film festivals in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago and other big bad towns where people prowl around after midnight, TCM’s Summer of Darkness is one season in Hell, and one festival of dreams and nightmares, you won’t want to miss. Wise up. Don’t let the Postman have to Ring Twice.

Friday, June 5

Lana Turner

6 a.m. (3 a.m.): “The Postman Always Rings Twice” (Tay Garnett, 1946).

8 a.m. (5 a.m.): “They Won’t Believe Me” (Irving Pichel, 1947). Robert Young is accused of adultery (he did), and murder (he didn’t). With Susan Hayward.

9:45 a.m. (6:45 a.m.): “The Woman on the Beach” (Jean Renoir, 1947).

11 a.m. (8 a.m.): “Lady in the Lake” (Robert Montgomery, 1947).

1 p.m. (10 a.m.): “Out of the Past” (Jacques Tourneur, 1947).

2:45 p.m. (11:45 a.m.): “Possessed” (Curtis Bernhardt, 1947).

4:45 p.m. (1:45 p.m.): “Act of Violence” (Fred Zinnemann, 1948).

Audrey Totter plays an editor in “Lady in the Lake.” Make sure your copy is clean, Marlowe!

Audrey Totter plays an editor in “Lady in the Lake” from 1947. Robert Montgomery stars and directs.

6:30 p.m. (3:30 p.m.): “The Set-Up” (Robert Wise, 1949).

8 p.m. (5 p.m.): “The Mask of Dimitrios” (Jean Negulesco, 1944).

9:45 p.m. (6: 45 p.m.): “Berlin Express” (Jacques Tourneur, 1948).

11:30 p.m. (8:30 p.m.): “The Stranger” (Orson Welles, 1946).

1:15 a.m. (10:15 p.m.): “The Third Man” (Carol Reed, 1949).

3 a.m. (12 a.m.): “Point Blank” (John Boorman, 1967).

Saturday, June 27

8 p.m. (5 p.m.): “The Picture of Dorian Gray” (Albert Lewin, 1945).

Sunday, June 28

Anthony Dawson tries to do away with Grace Kelly in “Dial M for Murder.”

2 p.m. (11 a.m.): “Dial M for Murder” (Alfred Hitchcock, 1954).

4 p.m. (1 p.m.): “The Birds” (Alfred Hitchcock, 1963).

2 a.m. (11 p.m.): “Band of Outsiders” (“Bande a Part”) (Jean-Luc Godard, 1964). Three amoral and amateurish Parisian movie fans and would-be burglars (played with delightfully offhand bravado by Anna Karina, Sami Frey and Claude Brasseur) bungle their way though one of the most amusingly eccentric, self-indulgent and utterly foolish of all film neo-noir heists. One of almost everybody’s favorite Godards, this is the one with the stunningly inept bar-room dance routine by the three musically challenged co-stars to that finger-snapping dance step “The Madison.” Based on Dolores Hitchens’ American crime novel “Fool’s Gold,” it’s like “Rififi” gone frou-frou. In French, with subtitles.

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Filed Under: Classic Noir Reviews Tagged With: Dial M for Murder, film noir, Lady in the Lake, Out of the Past, Point Blank, Possessed, TCM, The Birds, The Postman Always Rings Twice, The Third Man

Film noir darkness descends again: Dmytryk, Hawks, Siodmak, Mann and more, part of TCM’s terrific fest

June 18, 2015 by Film Noir Blonde

Pick of the Week: Summer of Darkness Film Noir Friday

The Czar of Noir Eddie Muller guides us through another great dark day of classic film noir.

Friday, June 19

6 a.m. (3 a.m.): “Cornered” (Edward Dmytryk, 1946).

7:45 a.m. (4:45 a.m.): “Crack-Up” (Irving Reis, 1946). Crooks in the art world face fearless critic. With Pat O’Brien and Claire Trevor.

9:30 a.m. (6:30 a.m.): “Gilda” (Charles Vidor, 1946).

11:30 a.m. (8:30 a.m.): “The Big Sleep” (Howard Hawks, 1946).

“The Killers” catapulted Ava Gardner and Burt Lancaster to A-list status.

1:30 p.m. (10:30 a.m.): “The Killers” (1946, Robert Siodmak).

3:15 p.m. (12:30 p.m.): “Nobody Lives Forever” (Jean Negulesco, 1946). But we wish John Garfield had had a few more decades. Here, he puts the con on Geraldine Fitzgerald, and then falls for her.

6 p.m. (2 p.m.): “Nocturne” (Edwin L. Marin). Mediocre noir from George Raft, the actor who turned down the leads in “The Maltese Falcon” and “High Sierra.”

6:30 p.m. (3:30 p.m.): “Crossfire” (Edward Dmytryk, 1947).

8 p.m. (5 p.m.): “Hollow Triumph” (“The Scar”) (Steve Sekely, 1948). Paul Henreid plays a bad guy playing a classy shrink. With Joan Bennett.

9:45 p.m. (6:45 p.m.): “Mystery Street” (John Sturges, 1950).

11:30 p.m. (8: 30 p.m.): “Border Incident” (Anthony Mann, 1949).

1:15 a.m. (10:15 a.m.): “The People Against O’Hara” (John Sturges, 1951). Spencer Tracy and his Milwaukee boyhood pal and Hollywood Irish lunch buddy Pat O’Brien pull some courtroom shenanigans.

9:15 a.m. (12:15 a.m.): “Get Carter” (Mike Hodges, 1971).

Saturday, June 20

2:30 p.m. (11:30 a.m.): “All the King’s Men” (Robert Rossen, 1949).

11:30 p.m. (:30 p.m.): “99 River Street” (Phil Karlson, 1953). Good tough B, with John Payne as a framed cabbie.

1 a.m. (10 p.m.): “The Face Behind the Mask” (Robert Florey, 1941). Peter Lorre as a fire-scarred crime genius.

3:45 a.m. (12:45 am.): “Mean Streets” (Martin Scorsese, 1973).

Nebraska native Montgomery Clift stars as a priest in “I Confess.”

Monday, June 22

10 a.m. (7 a.m.): “To Have and Have Not” (Howard Hawks, 1944).

Tuesday, June 23

10:45 a.m. (7:45 a.m.): “A Place in the Sun” (George Stevens, 1951).

3 p.m. (12 p.m.): “I Confess” (Alfred Hitchcock, 1953).

9:45 p.m. (6:45 p.m.): “The Last of Sheila” (Herbert Ross, 1973). James Mason, James Coburn, Dyan Cannon and murder on a yacht. Plays like an attempted cross of Patricia Highsmith and Agatha Christie.

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Filed Under: Noir Stuff Tagged With: film noir, Summer of Darkness, TCM

Rare French film noir screens at the Aero Theatre

June 17, 2015 by Film Noir Blonde

Start your weekend with some sizzle: a Brigitte Bardot noir double-feature (“The Truth” and “Love Is My Profession”) at the Aero Theatre in Santa Monica. It’s part of a mini-festival put on by the American Cinematheque and Mid-Century Productions, called “The French Had a Name for It: Rare French Film Noir.”

Brigitte Bardot stars in ‘Love Is My Profession.’ It screens Friday night.

The fest springs from an irony of film history – though the French New Wave filmmakers, writers and critics celebrated many American film noir works, they were often quick to disparage indigenous French noirs. As a result, some fine films have not received much love over the years.

The fest seeks to rediscover and redeem these films—many of which feature France’s most iconic stars such as Bardot, Jean Gabin, Simone Signoret and Lino Ventura; directors such as Henri-Georges Clouzot, Julien Duvivier, Yves Allégret, Claude Autant-Lara and Edouard Molinaro; and photographers such as Henri Dacaë, Armand Thirard and Jacques Natteau.

See you at the Aero!

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Filed Under: Noir Style Tagged With: Aero Theatre, Brigitte Bardot, film noir, French New Wave, The French Had a Name for It: Rare French Film Noir

Film Noir File: Summer of Darkness has strong second chapter

June 11, 2015 by Film Noir Blonde

By Film Noir Blonde and Mike Wilmington

Pick of the Week: Friday is Noir Day on Summer of Darkness

Nothing beats a stroll a down a dark slick street to cool off on a hot summer night. The second week of TCM’s Summer of Darkness boasts as strong a lineup as the first. Curated and hosted by the Czar of Noir himself, Eddie Muller of the Film Noir Foundation and the Noir City film festivals, TCM’s Summer of Darkness is one festival of shadowy dreams and gun crazy nightmares you won’t want to miss.

Friday, June 5

6 a.m. (3 a.m.): “The Glass Key” (Stuart Heisler, 1942). Brian Donlevy, Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake star in this stylish remake of the 1935 film based on Hammett’s popular novel. The story follows a ruthless political boss and his personal adviser, who become entangled in a web of organized crime and murder involving the daughter of a rising gubernatorial candidate. Akira Kurosawa once claimed this film to be the inspiration for his classic samurai flick “Yojimbo” (1961).

7:30 a.m. (4: 30 a.m.): “Laura” (Otto Preminger, 1944).

9 a.m. (6 a.m.): “Ministry of Fear” (Fritz Lang, 1944). Ray Milland, just released from a British mental institution, wins the wrong cake at a charity raffle and becomes ensnared in a nightmarish web of espionage and murder. Graham Greene wrote the source novel. Co-starring Marjorie Reynolds and Dan Duryea.

10:30 a.m. (7:30 a.m.): “Murder, My Sweet” (Edward Dmytryk, 1944).

12:15 p.m. (9:15 a.m.): “Danger Signal” (Robert Florey, 1945). More top-notch caddery from that expert lounge snake, Zachary Scott, pulling the wool over Faye Emerson’s and other eyes. 1:45 p.m.

(10:45 a.m.): “Detour” (Edgar Ulmer, 1945).

3 p.m. (12 p.m.): “Mildred Pierce” (Michael Curtiz, 1945).

5 p.m. (2 p.m.): “Deadline at Dawn” (Harold Clurman, 1946). Bill Williams is a sailor on leave who has just one New York City night to prove his innocence of murder. Susan Hayward and Paul Lukas are the shrewd dancer and philosophical cabbie trying to help him. Clifford Odets’ script is from a Cornell Woolrich novel.

6:30 p.m. (3:30 p.m.): “Johnny Angel” (Edwin L. Marin, 1946). Middling noir with George Raft hunting down killers and Claire Trevor.

“Gun Crazy” is Joseph H. Lewis’ masterpiece.

8 p.m. (5 p.m.): “The Gangster” (Gordon Wiles, 1947). A sleeper. Good, neglected gangster noir, based on novelist (and later, screenwriter) Daniel Fuchs’ superb Brooklyn low-life chronicle, “Low Company.” (Read it, if you haven’t.) With Barry Sullivan, Shelley Winters, Akim Tamiroff, John Ireland and Harry Morgan.

9:45 p.m. (6:45 p.m.): “Gun Crazy” (Joseph H. Lewis, 1950).

11:30 p.m. (8:30 p.m.): “Tomorrow is Another Day” (Felix Feist, 1951). An ex-con (Steve Cochran) adjusts violently to post-prison life. With Ruth Roman.

1:15 a.m. (10:15 p.m.): “Nightmare Alley” (Edmund Goulding, 1947).

3:30 a.m. (12:30 a.m.): “Night Moves” (Arthur Penn, 1975). Underrated ’70s private-eye noir, set in the Florida Keys, with Gene Hackman as the tough P. E. and Melanie Griffith, Edward Binns and James Woods in fine support. Written by Alan Sharp and directed by Arthur Penn (“Bonnie and Clyde”).

Saturday, June 13

8 p.m. (5 p.m.): “Bullitt” (Peter Yates, 1968). One of the more stylish cop-movie thrillers. With Steve McQueen at his coolest, Jacqueline Bisset at her loveliest, Robert Vaughn at his slimiest – plus the car chase to end all car chases.

Sunday, June 14

2:15 p.m. (11:15 a.m.): “A Kiss Before Dying” (Gerd Oswald, 1956). A charming psychopath (Robert Wagner) preys on two sisters (Joanne Woodward, Virginia Leith) in this tense adaptation of the novel by Ira Levin (“Rosemary’s Baby”). With Jeffrey Hunter and Mary Astor.

12 a.m. (9 p.m.): “Greed” (Erich von Stroheim, 1924). Erich von Stroheim’s silent masterpiece about the dark side of life in San Francisco and Death Valley, with Gibson Gowland, Jean Hersholt and ZaSu Pitts as an odd, deadly triangle. Mutilated and cut by nearly six hours by MGM and Irving Thalberg, this is still one of the all-time great films.

Monday, June 15

12 p.m. (9 a.m.): “The Fallen Idol” (Carol Reed, 1948). mesmerizing story of a little French boy (Bobby Henrey), a French diplomat’s son, who hero-worships the embassy butler (Ralph Richardson), but mistakenly comes to believe his idol has murdered his wife, and keeps unintentionally incriminating him. Graham Greene adapted the script from his short story.

5:45 p.m. (2:45 p.m.): “Bunny Lake Is Missing” (Otto Preminger, 1965). Bunny Lake is an American child kidnapped in London, Carol Lynley her terrified mother, Keir Dullea her concerned uncle, Anna Massey her harassed teacher, Noel Coward her sleazy landlord, and Laurence Olivier the brainy police detective trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together. The most important of those pieces: Was Bunny ever really there at all? A neglected gem; based on Evelyn Piper’s novel.

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Filed Under: Classic Noir Reviews, Noir Style Tagged With: A Kiss Before Dying, Bullitt, Bunny Lake is Missing, film noir, Greed, Gun Crazy, Laura Elena Harring, Mildred Pierce, Ministry of Fear, Murder, My Sweet, TCM, The Fallen Idol, The Glass Key

Film Noir File: Summer of Darkness starts off with a bang

June 4, 2015 by Film Noir Blonde

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). The times are Eastern Standard and (Pacific Standard). All films without a new review have been covered previously in Film Noir Blonde and can be searched in the FNB archives (at right).

Pick of the Week: Summer of Darkness starts Friday

Hold onto your hat, button up your raincoat (you guys) or slip into your slinky gown (you gals), practice your best sneers or sultry glances, shove your gat in your pocket, crush a cigarette in the nearest ashtray (but don‘t smoke it), gun your engines and get set for the ride of your life.

June is the month when all lovers of film noir get the treat of the year on Turner Classic Movies. All you have to do every Friday is remember what day it is, then switch on the set and gorge yourself on TCM’s great festival of classic crime and prime punishment, Summer of Darkness.

Some experts consider “The Maltese Falcon” the first film noir. Others say “Stranger on the Third Floor” holds that distinction.

It’s the station’s annual banquet of stylish movie murder and mayhem, of gunmen and gunsels, of whiskey and women and blues in the night, and of dark deeds on dark, rainy city streets. Each Friday, throughout June, running from dawn to dusk and late into the night (natch), TCM will show nearly 50 classic noir titles, including “The Maltese Falcon,” “Born to Kill,” “Out of the Past,” “The Third Man,” “The Killers” and “Detour.”

Curated and hosted by the Czar of Noir himself, Eddie Muller of the Film Noir Foundation and the Noir City film festivals in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago and other towns where people prowl around after midnight, TCM’s Summer of Darkness is one season in Hell, and one festival of dreams and nightmares, you won’t want to miss.

Friday, June 5

6 a.m. (3 a.m.): “M” (Germany: Fritz Lang, 1931).

8 a.m. (5 a.m.): “La Bete Humaine” (France: Jean Renoir, 1938). Jean Renoir’s noir masterpiece is a dark, stark tale of railroads, adultery, madness and murder, with Jean Gabin as the train engineer who goes crazy with l’amour fou, Simone Simon as the woman who drives him there, and Fernand Ledoux as her rat husband and his boss. The source is a classic novel by Emile Zola.

9:45 a.m. (6:45 a.m.): “The Letter” (William Wyler, 1940).

11:30 a.m. (8:30 a.m.): “Stranger on the Third Floor” (Boris Ingster, 1940).

The great Peter Lorre stars in “Stranger on the Third Floor.”

12:45 p.m. (9:45 a.m.): “High Sierra” (Raoul Walsh, 1941).

2:30 p.m. (11:30 a.m.) “The Maltese Falcon” (John Huston, 1941).

4:15 p.m. (1:15 p.m.): “Journey Into Fear” (Norman Foster & Orson Welles (uncredited), 1942).

5:45 p.m. (2:45 p.m.): “Johnny Eager” (Mervyn LeRoy, 1942).

8 p.m. (5 p.m.): “Nora Prentiss” (Vincent Sherman, 1947). Ann Sheridan gives Doc Kent Smith all the oomph he can handle.

10:15 p.m. (7:15 p.m.): “Woman on the Run” (Norman Foster, 1950). Neglected noir with Sheridan sizzling as a murder witness’s wife.

11:45 p.m. (8:45 p.m.): “Dark Passage” (Delmer Daves, 1947).

1:45 a.m. (10:45 p.m.): “Born to Kill” (Robert Wise, 1947).

3:30 a.m. (12:30 a.m.): “L. A. Confidential” (Curtis Hanson, 1997).

Saturday, June 6

4:15 p.m. (1:15 p.m.): “The Big Heat” (Fritz Lang, 1953).

Monday, June 8

5 p.m. (2 p.m.): “Conflict” (Curtis Bernhardt, 1945).

8 p.m. (5 p.m.): “Man Hunt” (Fritz Lang, 1941). Big game hunter Walter Pidgeon goes after human prey Adolf Hitler – who was no friend of Fritz.

10 p.m. (7 p.m.): “Hangmen Also Die” (Fritz Lang, 1943).

12:30 a.m. (9:30 p.m.): “Saboteur” (Alfred Hitchcock, 1942).

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Filed Under: Classic Noir Reviews, Noir Style Tagged With: film noir, Summer of Darkness, TCM

‘High Sierra’ kicks off Ida Lupino tribute at Lacma

June 2, 2015 by Film Noir Blonde

Ida Lupino directed “The Hitch-Hiker” and “The Bigamist,” both from 1953, as well as five other features.

Ida Lupino directed “The Hitch-Hiker” and “The Bigamist” as well as five other features.

“High Sierra” is the first of five films starring the multi-talented Ida Lupino to play this month at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The Tuesday matinee series runs June 2-30.

Most famous as an actress, Lupino was also a director, writer and producer. She was the second woman (after Dorothy Arzner) to join the Directors Guild of America. Lupino was known for her energy and her intensity as well as her fiery temperament and mercurial character. She once described herself as “the poor man’s Bette Davis.” Like Davis, Lupino craved meaty, challenging roles and was not afraid to look unglamorous while playing them.

Earlier in her career, she was billed as “the English Jean Harlow” and she was made to dye her hair blonde. But whether she was a blonde or a brunette, Lupino had a strong affinity with film noir. She certainly had a knack for playing tough broads and bad girls from the wrong side of the tracks.

In addition to “They Drive By Night” and “High Sierra,” she earned 15 film noir or crime/mystery acting credits. She directed seven feature films (most notably “The Hitch-Hiker” and “The Bigamist” both from 1953) as well as many TV shows.

Thank you, Lacma, for celebrating Lupino’s rich and enduring contribution to film noir. The other films in the series are: “Ladies in Retirement,” “The Man I Love,” “Road House” and “The Big Knife.”

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Filed Under: Noir Style Tagged With: film noir, Ida Lupino, LACMA, Los Angeles County Museum of Art