I had some spare time last night, so I actually got in two noirs. Both very different from each other and both very good.
Inferno (1953)
This was a blast! An early 1950s technicolor film...and in 3D! To bad I couldn't have seen it in a 3d theater with those funky blue/red glasses. So of course the 3D effect doesn't work on 2D TVs but the film isn't about that anyway.
It's about wealthy Robert Ryan being left to die in the desert by his wife (Rhonda Fleming) and her boyfriend. Ryan said his performance in
Inferno was one of his best. I don't know about that as he did a lot of great work in films, but he was good as a man trying to survive in the Mohave desert with the hope of getting even with his wife and her boyfriend. Loved the internal monologue both in the way it was written and in the way Ryan delivered it.
The Woman in the Window (1944)
This is the third time I've seen it and if anything I've grown to appreciate it more with each viewing. Edward G. Robinson is just perfect in this role and Joan Bennett, wow! Especially in that sparkling black outfit with the sheer top. She really looks like a million bucks...and so did her apartment, I guess she was a kept woman? Though the film never says, nor does it need to.
Fritz Lang's direction is sublime and I could tell that this was a masterpiece even if I turned the sound off...the camera work and the scene transitions and editing was so professional that the film is a thing of beauty, kind of like Joan Bennett!
I use to not like the ending of the film, but this time around I think it fit the overall tone of the movie and fit Edward G. Robinson's character and what he and his club mates were talking about at the start of his journey. One of the great films and features one of my favorite noir bad guys Dan Duryea.