Film Noir HoF IV

The Asphalt Jungle



I had seen this once before when I blind bought the criterion and I was severely underwhelmed with it. Now to today's watch, I feel like I liked it even a little less. There's really nothing that trips my trigger with this one, I'm actually kind of baffled that most seem to enjoy it. there isn't a lot to connect with for me, I feel like there's pacing issues and the story is kind of bland. I also feel like the film is too quiet and there isn't a whole lot of noise as weird as that sounds. As for the performances, nothing really stands out either, maybe the presence of Monroe and that's really about it. I'll just blame me not liking this on my lack of concentration for plot detail but I didn't feel like hitting rewind because I already felt bored enough.

Murder My Sweet

This is the second adaptation of Farewell My Lovely. This first replaced Marlowe with The Falcon, and seems to have cut out a lot of meat considering how empty and rushed the plot got sometimes. Murder My Sweet is different. It's all about development, rocking the tropes it invented with some good, albeit more cinematic than realistic, acting and a love of interesting twists. Powell is one of the more realistic actors and brings an extraordinary power to the movie. He's so convincing that I'm under the impression that Bogart had a challenge on his hands when he took the role in the next Marlowe movie. This movie is extremely well-detailed and puts a good deal of charm and sophistication into both the story and the direction.


= 92


And, I'm done!

Congrats Keyser! and thanks for joining! Hope you had fun

Detour(1945)

Detour is a micro-budget four player noir film released during the war years. It covers the story of a down on his luck piano player who ends up in a twisty tale of murder and crime. I think the film gets most of its accalaim from the performance of Ann Savage the femme fatale in the film. Her character of Vera is such a broken down and cycnical character you almost feel like the film should be told from her perspective.

Detour isn't a great film though...the deaths in this film are just silly, They aren't shot well especially the first one which could have been done well but I suspect the film had a very short shoot time. Still for what the film was it's solid even if it's really just a movie with three conversations.

C

Gilda: I hate you so much, I think I’m going to die from it.

Red hot passion raging in noir shadows. The conflicts, clashing, and reckless ruthlessness of Rita Hayworth’s unabashed lover of life and singing/entertainer Gilda (the inspiration for Jessica Rabbit) and Glenn Ford’s domineering, volatile conman Johnny Farrell is backdropped by high society illegal casino in festive Buenos Aires. Both of them owe their positions of posh life to Gilda’s new husband and owner of the Casino, corrupt puppeteer Ballin Mundson, played with layered subtle by George Macready.
The first of two standout secondary characters is Steven Geray’s glib fountain of wisdom, Uncle Pio. Doggedly pointing out the newly retained Number Two Man, Johnny Farrell’s failings, and his begrudging hopes of Johnny rising above them. The second is Joseph Calleia—his sauve Det. Maurice Obregon is calculating and patient for the inevitable screw-up the guilty always provides. Forever in the background, swooping in to assess and goad.

Befitting noir, this explosive love triangle is wrought with every emotionally irrational pitfall and callous manipulation by everyone involved. There is no victim, no hero, no one person is without sin, without fault or machination. However, the path is paved for the two leading roles of past lovers of mutual betrayal. Fueling their hatred and igniting their never-ending desire to eventual fruition. It is the fireworks and spiteful sparks preceding it that keep us glued. Hayworth and Ford’s chemistry is believable; their Hate-Love-Hate-Love is a captivating, careening ride as the wheels go flying off the tracks.

It's been so, very long since seeing this, making it, at many times, a new watch for me, and I loved it.

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We're at the halfway mark. Three weeks have passed...and we have three more weeks to go until the deadline, which will be December 16th. I know this is a shorter time than most Hofs, BUT the noms are much shorter than the average HoF movie, so you might as well say our 12 noms equal 6-8 noms in a main HoF....How's everyone doing?

I finally bought Touch Of Evil, so I will watch it sometime this week and finish up.

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Letterboxd

“Except for markf, you’re all a disgrace to cinema.”

That opening tracking shot!

So good. I wanted to get the 4K but it is $40. Got it digitally for $5.Should look fantastic.

Hopefully it looks great. I started watching Touch of Evil the other night but the copy had been stretched which makes the top and bottom slightly cut off...I'm sure Orson would've been outraged over that So hopefully I have a proper format copy now.

Nothing more frustrating than bad transfers. This will be my third watch though. Already pretty well a lock for me, not expecting much to change but any chance to watch Welles chew up the scenery.

Thieves' Highway (1946)

There were a couple of points of interest that piqued my curiosity regarding this film. The first was seeing more of my minimal views of Director Jules Dassin’s films. The high point is, of course, Rififi. The second two regarded Ty Cobb beyond his appearance as the Racketeering boss from On the Waterfront. And having seen him here playing the double-dealing slimeball, Fresh Food Market Distribution Owner, Mike Figlia, short-changing delivery truckers, and worse, I can easily imagine those who were considering him for On the Waterfront due, possibly, for his role here.
The final one is the lead, Richard Conti, playing out of his norm as a bad guy, as Nick Garcos, a revenging son, and the closest thing to a good guy sans fall guy that appears in a noir film. He cinches the lead role and holds our endearment, sympathy, and support in this expose of the graft and corruption of the fresh produce business in California.

Like in any film, secondary characters are an integral part of keeping us involved in the storyline. Here, there are several that serve as solid performances. Beginning with comedian Jack Oakie playing Slob, a competing truck driver looking to steal or, in some form or another, profit from Conti’s Nick Garco’s truckload of freshly picked apples. Another is Nick’s new partner, cynical veteran trucker Ed Kinney, played by Millard Mitchell. A true player to the scheming, cut-throat protocol of underbuying produce from farmers, beating other drivers, or flat-out stealing their loads only to get short-changed by the distributors at the depot who jack up the price to the shopkeepers who buy from them.
The standout, for me, is Valentina Cortese playing the jaded Rica. A pawn of Figlia’s as a diversion to Nick while he attempts to sell Nick’s produce with zero interest in paying him for it. Dassin, as is his wont and necessity for any truly worthwhile noir, her character’s range extends well beyond the two-dimensional into a far more morally complex and, we discover, with far more caliber of character than Nick Garcos’ fiancée (Barbara Lawerence).

Having chosen to go basically blind into this film with the title and basic premise of revenging his father who lost his legs and payment for his load of produce to Figlia, I was expecting the usual presence of gangsters and criminals only to find that there were none. Just the sheer overwhelming presence of corruption in a supposedly legitimate business adds a more profound, wider spread of “gray” to the morality of everyone involved and, for me, more compelling filmmaking. I can easily see myself enjoying this even more on further watches.

My next review pending will be The Maltese Falcon.

Ha, yup Welles chews it up alright. Love him in Jane Eyre, you ever see that one?

That version of Jane Eyre was on my watchlist for last year's Film Challenge that Jabs hosts. I never made it around to it, but it's definitely on my watchlist for some point to check out. Looks awesome.

No, I actually just heard he was in that a couple weeks ago. I need to check it out. I get hung up on watching through directors. Eventually I need to do the same with actors the way you are doing.

I've came very close to nominating Jane Eyre (1943) in the last few general HoFs. I really need a rewatch it's been over a decade.

Director's filmography watching is a great way to go too, I like to watch the Billy Wider and Douglas Sirk films that I haven't seen. Just too many damn movies!

Touch Of Evil



There are certain words thrown around by movie lovers that I don’t like to use a lot because they lose their flavor. One of those words that I would use for this movie is crackling. Touch Of Evil is definitely crackling to me. I love the forward momentum. I love how characters come and go so quickly. I love how wonderfully weird some of the side characters are. This movie just jumps and has so much life.

All that is great, but the piece that really makes this movie so engaging is Welles as the grumpy, sloppy, racist detective. He makes every scene he is in sing. Every other character is much better for playing off of Welles. Hard to imagine a better Noir performance for me. Really this is probably one of my favorite performances period.

All that and I haven’t even mentioned the technical aspects, which are just par for the course with Welles. His movies look so good that someone like me who doesn’t really understand lighting and cameras can’t describe the difference between his movies and others. He is one of those directors that is just a notch above.