Noirvember 2022

It's Noirvember...That time of the year when shadows get long and cast ominous shapes on the walls of smoke filled rooms...and rain pours down like a leaky faucet on back alley streets where gun toting dicks and shady perps slink. And hot dames? Always hot dames.

Like last year, this is just a fun thread to hang out and talk about noirs, no commitments, very chilled. If you watch some noirs or know of some good ones pop in and let us know about them. I'm up for watching a ton of noirs this month and if someone mentions one especially one that they're about to watch I'll try to watch it too.

So I want to watch a noir tonight, suggestions?

I watched Caught today by Max Ophuls. It was pretty decent with good performances from James Mason and Barbara Bel Geddes

Have you seen Each Dawn I Die (1939)? I saw it a while back and really liked it.

I'm going to watch Fallen Angel (1945) tonight. It was just added to the Criterion channel.

Ohh, that sounds good, James Mason is a favorite, Barbara Bel Geddes was great in Vertigo and it has Robert Ryan who's like a noir mainstay. I'm watching that one and soon.

I have seen it, I wanted to do a compete Cagney filmography watch, right now I'm still working on Bogart's films, I heard Bogie was in some noirs

Cool, if you're watching that tonight so will I I've not seen it that I remember, always liked Alice Faye and of course Dana Andrews is the man!

The only Noir film I enjoyed was "Elevator To The Gallows". Have you seen that?

No, but I've heard of it and know it's well respected here.

Well, you'd be hard to recommend to, since you've seen oodles of noirs.


If you haven't seen Roadblock (1951) it's a good noir photographed by the great Nicholas Musaraca. It was shot entirely on location in L.A., starring Charles McGraw and Joan Dixon.

You also might like Raw Deal (1948). It was photographed by the legendary John Alton, and directed by Anthony Mann. Stars Dennis O'Keefe, Claire Trevor, and Marsha Hunt.

I've seen a lot of noirs but they made a ton of them too! The studios must have cranked them out on a weekly basis.

I've not seen either of those before. I don't think I've heard of them either, though I'm a big fan of Anthony Mann's westerns and of course I know who Claire Trevor is. I like that they are only 1h 13mins and 1h 19 mins long. That's only 2 1/2 hours if I watch both, which is the usual length of new movies these days. So time effective.

I see Gilda is on Tubi, so I’ll finally get to that. I’ll have to scour around and see what else is available. Lots, I imagine.

Let me know what you think of Gilda? I liked it, I mean hey it's Mrs Orson Welles and she sings a lounge number too. I think the song is Put The Blame On Me, don't remember if she sang it or lip synced it.

Even Youtube has a lot of obscure noirs for free. I think there's even a noir channel or two there.

Definitely will let you know.

Trying to go beyond the usual suspects... The Narrow Margin? Gun Crazy? Quicksand?

__________________

Good choices. Both Narrow Margin and Gun Crazy blew me away. Two very different movies with a totally different vibe. I've been meaning to rewatch Gun Crazy as it's been years. Come to think of it I could rewatch The Narrow Margin which I've seen twice just to see Marie Windsor in that. She pops up from time to time in old films I'm watching and is like the female version of Whit Bissell.

I've not seen Quicksand but I do have it, so I'll check that one out.

I have seen 2 noir films and that was the only one I liked. Noirs are not my taste.

Quicksand is definitely the lesser of those three; more pulpy and rough around the edges. But it does have a great turn from Peter Lorre, albeit brief, and a committed performance from Mickey Rooney.

Mickey Rooney, good I like him he's always committed to his roles... I did see him in one noir where he works in an auto garage and takes a few dollars from his boss to take his girlfriend out. One thing leads to another and he's in way over his head trying to cover up his petty crime. I don't remember what it was called, but it was good.

Ha! That's Quicksand

HAWT!

Seriously though I'm gonna recommend what I always do when noir is being discussed, Ride the Pink Horse.