Film Noir HoF - Part 2

That's a shame. Two of my favorite movies from this HoF are being disqualified.

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Hopefully we get to do a 1940's countdown. I'm really enjoying Raul's 1950's countdown but it seems a lot of mofos aren't into older films, I guess that's why there's so many other countdowns going on or about to start

Anyway I'm interested in the 1940s and I'm glad you like Scarlet Street. I never thought of it as a humorous movie, but yeah Dan Duryea certainly is a wildly entertaining sleazeball.

There's another very similar noir also made by Fritz Lang with the same cast members too, Woman in the Window (1944). It's not as colorful as Scarlet Street, but it's worth a watch and all three leads: Edward G. Robinson, Joan Bennett and Day Duryea play very similar characters.

The Killers (1946)

I couldn't decide on what photo to go for, both are powerful elements in this polished noir. I love the opening where the two hitman are waiting at a roadside diner. Has William Conrad ever been more imposing on the screen? Has any hitman for that matter of fact been more imposing in a noir? These two are a big part of the film even though they don't have much screen time. One last thing about the muscle, I love the way the director Robert Siodmak shows the hit with blinding light flashes. Very cool! Very powerful.

Well the other dynamic duel is The Swede, Burt Lancaster in his first movie role...and Kitty, Ava Gardner in her first big movie role. The couple have a dynamic and doomed chemistry together. Like a moth to a flame, Swede faces his destiny knowing the outcome. It's this finality that makes the movie work for me, more so than the insurance investigation that follows the hit.

This is one of the great noirs and Ava Gardner is the queen of femme fatales.

Kiss Me Deadly (1955)

I love that ending! It's fun! it's ripped right out of the pages of an old pulp fiction magazine. Some classic director, I forget who, once said whatever you do with your movie make sure the ending wows them, that's what the audiences remember, the ending. Damn straight! and I always remember the ending to Kiss Me Deadly.

You know this movie isn't as polished as the really well known noirs. If Sunset Blvd or The Sweet Smell of Success was a rock band, they'd be a polished band that had been making music long enough to get every last note perfect...But Kiss Me Deadly is like a garage band, raw, ballsy and with lots of off notes. It ain't polished, but brother it rocks!

In some ways these really raw noirs are my favorites, they risk more and they're just flat out fun. This one was made for a shoe string budget and shot in only 3 weeks. It's not polished but there's something special about it's energy.

I think we all know that. What did you want? Everything to evaporate? And how would they do that? Think more about what it means. Or just consider it really stupid.

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The Big Sleep

I really enjoyed this one. At one point I figured this would be a shoo in as an all time 100 great, but there were certain lulls to the film that kept it from that sort of greatness. Still the set up to the story and the first 20 minutes were marvelous. The chemistry between a Bogart and Lauren Bacall is as good as could have been imagined. The film had a really crisp look to it and the music gave the movie a certain kind of the atmosphere I was looking for. This film centers a lot on its dialogue, which is real good. I feel like a lot happens throughout the film and there are certain scenes that could have been built up better but for the most part it was really well directed. Howard Hawks is a really talented dude. This one should fare well here.

+

I Confess

You can't put this in the upper echelon of Hitchcock films, but that still doesn't make it a bad film. I really liked the film up until the courtroom scenes in which I found that part to be too predictable for me, I really thought the acting from Clift, Malden, and Baxter was really good. A little more suspense is something I desired, but I chalk it up to the high expectations of Hitchcock. Still a pretty pleasant surprise as it is good storytelling regardless of how noir one believes it to be. I would certainly revisit it.

+

Should've written up on it sooner, but I liked Night of the Hunter quite a bit. Fascinating and thriling piece of experimental American cinema. +

I guess all I have now is I Confess and A Face in the Crowd both of which I'm excited for

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Three left for me, I'll go with Kiss Me Deadly tomorrow.

I still got to watch The Big Sleep, maybe soon I'll get to it.

Kiss Me Deadly

I wanted to love it. There were scenes that I thought were exceptional and then there were scenes that bored me. It felt choppy as a whole to me. The lead actor was great but the other ones sort of bothered me at times. It didn't feel like a mystery film at all times, so sometimes I felt like I wasn't watching a noir. It was ok but I had expected to like it more than I did.

A Face in the Crowd

I'm not really sure how this is a noir, did the nomination get confused on the HOF they were in?

But it's a good film. It's nice to see another Kazan film that I can hope learn to appreciate even more. The script and story were real good and I liked a majority of the acting. There are certain times where I wonder just how good Griffith was in this lead role.mid like to believe he is good, but at times I certainly found myself questioning the validity of his acting. Probably just me though. Nothing bad at all, but from Kazan I would take other performances ahead of it. A great pace and a great story. I won't let its lack of being a noir affect it when I rank it.

Wow Raul you're flying through these, so do you have only one more to go? We still have plenty of time, but how is everybody doing? I wonder how Pelican is doing

I have just one more to go, maybe tonight I'll get to it.

Yep CR, just Night of the Hunter rewatch left for me. I also want to see Spellbound, even though disqualified. But I can at least wait on that. This is one of my favorite HOFs I've been in. Between this, animated musical, the Western one, and the 4th and 7th general HOFs

I watched this last night and had seen it some year ago too. But I still don't know who killed who? But it doesn't matter! I loved it anyway, it's such a neat movie to watch.

Director Howard Hawks broke the rules when he decided to de-emphasize a structured plot and instead focus on character development, quick dialogue and entertaining scenes. Hawks was amazed that audience loved the film despite the lack of traditionalism in story telling. I though it was pretty awesome myself!

I watched the 1946 theatrical release, this is the version most people watch. I know I seem to talk a lot about different versions of film! I guess I find it interesting

So I hope this is of interest to someone: The Big Sleep was shot in 1944 during WWII and just as the film was being finished, the war was coming to an end. Warner Brothers Studio had a lot of war themed movies in the pipeline and wanted to get those out before they became passe. So The Big Sleep was put on the shelf and it's release held.

Meanwhile Lauren Bacall who had shot to stardom in her first film,To Have and Have Not, had her second film released Confidential Agent which critics hated her in. They had considered her a major talent but after Confidential Agent, the questioned even if she could act at all and her future as an actresses was in serious doubt.

Seeing how The Big Sleep was in limbo, Jack Warner ordered additional scenes to be shot of Bacall that would allow her to shine with her the sexual innuendos and insolence that made her a star in To Have and Have Not. Thus the original 1945 film was never released but a reworked film came out in 1946.

So as luck would have it, I watched the 1946 last night on DVD which I own. I removed it from the DVD player and think it's odd that it doesn't have a label on it. So on the spur of the moment I turn the DVD over and insert it into the player...and low and behold there's the 1945 version. I never knew that! And I've owned this Bogart movie set for nearly a decade. So I'm watching the 1945 version tonight.

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So I watched the 1945 unreleased version of The Big Sleep last night. After watching the movie back to back on two consecutive nights, I have a new impression to just how ground breaking this movie was! And I was just as engrossed in the movie the second night as I was on the first night.

The 1945 version is somewhat different. There's a lengthy scene where Philip Marlowe (Bogart) is hauled into police headquarters to be grilled by the police captain and DA. The scene basically exist to tell the audience who is doing what. It's a static scene and not entertaining like the rest of the movie and I can see why it was cut.




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I finished this HoF, too. I just have to get my reviews written and posted. I am only saying this because I wanted to let people know that I am still in this.

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It's been awhile since I posted here, but I just wanted to let you know I'm still alive. I just need to write up a couple of reviews and I'm almost done.

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OK good, I only got done with this just the other day.

BTW, you guys don't have to write anything much or even anything at all. I always enjoy seeing what others write about the movies, but it's not like a rule or anything.