How I do love Countdowns and the fast-growing watchlist they invoke!
86 Angel Face (1952) I'm always down with watching Robert Mitchum, but, migod, the look Jean Simmons does at the end that Mitchum misses is the price of admission. It's an excellent "holy sh#t" moment.
83 All The King's Men (1949) I think Crawford was pretty ideal playing the boisterous Willie Stark, who was a literary figure mirroring the Louisiana Governor Huey Long. A Hick from the Sticks fights his way into the seats of the corrupted men running things so that he can be the man in charge.
Next on the Rectification List
81 Too Late For Tears (1949) Seeing @
Holden Pike placing this at #3 on his List, I knew it was going to be a hidden gem, and it was. Having seen Lizabeth Scott with Bogie in
Dead Reckoning before finishing my List I would have happily found a spot for this had I done the same. Holden metions in his review that Scott did not care for doing the role in TLFT that she utterly nailed. Ruthless, wreckless, and scheming, her resolution to keep the money no matter what was an amazing spiral to witness. I loved seeing Dan Duryea playing a more confident role than the usual weasel, and then Scott's femme fatale tears him down. Damn fine noir!
78 This Gun For Hire (1942) The pairing of Veronica Lake and Alan Ladd is a very fun noir. Though it was not on my List, I am very happy to see it here.
76 Dark Passage (1947) Unsure why, but the first-person POV of the first part of this solid Bogie & Bacall noir never quite set with me. Strange.
74 The Blue Dahlia (1946) Another Lake and Ladd noir. You cannot go wrong.
70 Drunken Angel (1948) Being Kurosawa, the compositions were intoxicating to witness. Also, being Kurosawa, the master of exposition of the human condition with two of his best-used repeated actors, Takeshi Shumira and Toshirô Mifune, the story of a drunk/angry doctor and the upstart gangster dying of TB and the colliding personalities in a small, putrid village is an excellent watch.
68 Spellbound (1945) Dr. Alex Brulov: Women make the best psychoanalysts until they fall in love. After that, they make the best patients.
I loved the man's witticisms in this.
Coming in at #16
66 Where The Sidewalk Ends (1950) With Otto Preminger at the helm, Dana Andrews plays a volatile cop who tries his best not to be like his old man, a dirty cop. Quick to anger, he can't help but slip further while, with equal anger, fighting his way out of the spiral. The exquisite Gene Tierney is the love interest with a violent gangster of a husband. Everyone is looking to use everyone, and the stakes are getting higher and higher.
64 To Have And Have Not (1944) This is a heart-breaking cut from my List with one of my lifelong crushes, Lauren Bacall. I've seen this numerous times throughout my life, and if not for the several Bogie films already on my List, it would have, should have, been included.
63 Bob Le Flambeur (1956) In the vein of the typical gambler who commits a Heist at a High Stakes Casino, Bob (Roger Duchesne) is not the typical degenerate, deep-in-the-hole loser. He's actually pretty d@mn f@ckin good at it. He's habitual. EXCEEDINGLY habitual. He doesn't owe big, but Bob gets a crew together to stage safe cracking during an armed holdup after one night of losing his high winnings.
Bob's charming style and class extend to everyone else in this film without losing the tension or impending menace. And, of course, a befitting, quite entertaining, excellent ending for this Melville classic film brimming with class and style.
Coming in at #10
61 Act of Violence (1948) Frank (Van Heflin) has a perfect life: a really wonderful wife, Edith (Janet Leigh), and a baby boy. He's a war hero and a successful businessman that everyone likes.
But, ya see, during the war, in a POW camp, Frank made a mistake. We all make mistakes, right? Well, it was a pretty hefty one, and Joe (Robert Ryan) is coming to kill him for it.
With a cast that, along with those mentioned, includes Mary Astor playing a drifter who finds Frank at his worst and tries, in vain, to help. Phyllis Thaxter plays Joe's girlfriend, Ann, who tries and tries to dissuade Joe from this hellbent vengeance.
Along with all the cinematic shadowing and twisting roads of excellent noir, we are also treated with not only the tormented "prey" (Heflin) but also the tortured "hunter" (Ryan) as the chase draws to a close. Both men are haunted by what happened and how this will have to end.
Coming in at #23
60 The Naked City (1948) Even with its terrible Narration that sounded like those Educational Films from grade school, this really is a good noir from the police perspective. There are some great shots on location, which was pretty new at the time. I absolutely loved Barry Fitzgerald as the leading Homicide detective.
59 Kiss of Death (1947) With a lousy actor that can be a fun romp to watch, Victor Mature, and for me, the real highlight in this, like numerous films I've seen him in, is Richard Widmark playing what he plays best: an utter psycho-f@ck
Next on the Rectification List
53 Kansas City Confidential (1952) What's that? A rectification when it was just announced? Um, yes, actually. This was one I needed to see, didn't and watched after the Countdown had begun. And yes, it would have found a spot or d@mn near on my vote.
With both Jack Elam and Lee Van Cleef rounding out the hired thieves whos' identities are hidden from one another, including the one masterminding it in a snatch-and-grab heist involving an armored truck. The successful job has only one hiccup. A flower delivery man with a record is snatched up because of the similar van used in the robbery. Pissed off and getting jerked around by the cops that arrested him, he goes after the crew to get his share for his troubles.
The twist/reveal at the end was one I was hoping for while viewing this, and I'm sure it surprised the original movie theater audience.
The Big Combo sounds VERY familiar, but then, so many noir films do that I thought I'd seen but were other films. Definitely one for the watchlist, that's for sure. If for anything, to see if I did really see it and if so, a great rewatch.
51 Crossfire (1947) While the hate motive has been changed from the book, from a homosexual to a Jewish man, you can still see the original scenario should you find yourself looking for it. And for me, it belongs to this story far more as it plays out. The characters, their actions, and how they interact with one another. It is more cohesive. Without it, I see the incorrect fitting of a "replacement" hatred that causes me to pause and wonder what exactly is going on and why it doesn't seem to fit together.
But that is a minor critique and easily rectified by a simple mindset of what it should be as opposed to what the Studio/Hays Code insisted upon.
Making for what this truly is, a d@mn good story that delves into what people felt and think as opposed to a basic mystery whodunit. Bringing an added depth to -- well, everyone. Many of them are world-weary of the hardships they've endured, creating not so much a callousness but a preference to be left out of more hardship. The hatred that led to the murder shook loose the tired, indifferent fog of those involved in the investigation. Reviving and giving people purpose. You see it most in Robert Young's Finlay. His indifference to yet another senseless death becomes a determined focus as he sets his sights on who is guilty and ensures they have him dead to rights.
Watched 21 out of 52 (40.38%)
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8. Panic In The Streets (1950) (#98)
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10. Act of Violence (1948) (#61)
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16. Where the Sidewalk Ends (1950) (#66)
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22. Body and Soul (1947) (#94)
23. The Naked City (1948) (#98)
24. Dead Reckoning (1946) (#95)
25.
Rectification List
Stranger on the Third Floor (1940) (#92)
Too Late for Tears (1949) (#81)
Kansas City Confidential (1952) (#53)