Film Noir HoF IV

This is my third watch of Asphalt Jungle, and I have gone up in my rating each time. I wrote in my last review that I had a hard time getting used to Hayden. Now I am having a hard time figuring out why in the world that would be. I really enjoyed him this time, and especially his relationships. How him and the doctor develop is probably one if the better things in the movie. I really like how sprawling this is as far as characters though. Most Noirs concentrate on a couple people, this one has a lot going on and, to me, that makes it really fun. The heist scene is pretty fantastic and I love that ending. Movie looks great as well. There is a ton to love here, so I am glad, yet again, to be made to rewatch. This may just make my list and definitely wouldn't have without the rewatch.

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Letterboxd

When I said to my wife I was hosting the Noir HoF and what noir did she like the best, she said The Asphalt Jungle. I'm glad to see it get some love here....One FYI for the Noir Countdown, if you include it on your ballot remember it's The Asphalt Jungle, I myself keep typing it as Asphalt Jungle, I don't why? Anyway I'm looking forward to my third rewatch of it. I'm a big fan of Sterling Hayden and the entire cast just blows me away with their humanity.

Absolutely agree. The three women in this movie all have small roles and they each have moments where I could absolutely cry if I thought about it enough. These men are just breaking these poor souls, and all they want is some love and attention. I can’t believe I gave this a subpar rating first watch. I must not have been in the mood, because it’s pretty great.

That bringing to life of secondary characters is what I look for the most in the movie. Even better if the actors are superb. I'm saving The Asphalt Jungle for a special viewing treat.

I've only seen Asphalt Jungle once. I blind bought the criterion so I'll be looking forward to seeing it again.

Maltese Falcon



So I officially have Noir fever, but also this movie is just so damn good. How many Bogart flicks are going to make the list because he just simply kills playing this type of character. Smart, capable, quick witted, but also just stone cold. Absolutely diabolical, I love details like that.

All the acting is good here. One, they got great actors, but also the dialogue is crackling. This has gotta be one of the better scripts out there.

These rewatches are doing me good, but they are also making my ballot a lot harder to nail down. Good problem to have.

Act Of Violence



Thought my Noir fever was going to continue through the first third of this. Cool story and really good, subtle character development going on. The next two thirds didn’t break my fever, but definitely brought it down to a more manageable temperature.

It’s weird, but I think even at 80 minutes this one goes on a little long. Once it switches to LA it feels like a whole story line could just be lifted. The plot point should add more tension, but somehow it feels like it brings everything to a halt.

Starts to pick up again at the very end, but the ending is weird morally for me. Maybe more mofos will have an opinion in it as you guys watch it.

Really glad this got nominated. It was high up on my fresh Noir watches I wanted to get to.

Sean's flying, 8 noir noms watched and reviewed so far. Way to go!

Detour follows Al Roberts (Tom Neal), a night club piano player that is determined to follow his girlfriend into Los Angeles. However, fate sticks out a foot to trip him on his way, as he stumbles upon deceit and murder in the form of Vera (Ann Savage), who decides to blackmail the poor man.

I saw Detour a couple of years ago when I took an online course on film noir. In it, Professor Richard Edwards used it to highlight most of the more iconic and emblematic motifs in film noir: flashbacks, foggy lighting, canted angles, our lead narrator beaten down and trapped by fate, and a wicked femme fatale. It's all here.

Both Neal and Savage were very good portraying the desperation from their characters. Her performance might've been a bit more forced, but the character called for it. Still, they worked pretty well off each other. Director Ulmer makes the most of what he got with some great use of shadows, lights, and music, which serves to create a unique and effective atmosphere.

Detour is a fairly simple film in terms of how it was made and what it was aiming for. Filmed by one of the Poverty Row studios, in 6 days and with about $100K, it ended up becoming one of the most popular film noirs ever made. A twisted and dark little story about life, death, and fate sticking out a foot to trip you.

Grade:

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Citizen, you still haven't linked my Criss Cross review from the previous page.

This one is already a favorite, but always happy to rewatch. It had been a few years. This is basically everything I like in a Noir. Great lead, the proper amount of mystery and twists. A gorgeous femme, and a awesome villain played by a great actor. If there is something missing here, it might be that I could of used a scene of violence from Douglas just to give his scenes a bit more tension. Douglas sells the baddy really well though. Despite the small amount of screen time, it might be my favorite performance from him.

Awesome flick. Not just a favorite Noir, one of my favorites period.

Watching all the Marlowe adaptations is on my to do list during the Noir countdown. So this is the movie I was probably most excited to see among the noms. It didn't disappoint. This is my third or fourth adaptation, but there already seems to be a common thread. These are all well written films, and that may be what I value in cinema above all. Marlowe is such a fun character, maybe doesn't seem as original as he was 75 years ago, but imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

This Marlowe is really good, and I can't enjoy more watching him fumble his way through the mystery, all the while knowing he will probably end up with the upper hand. Lots of fun characters in this, in fact I would say there isn't a bad or worthless one in the bunch.

These Noir viewings are going so well. I may just watch this genre for the rest of my life and leave the rest behind.

The Asphalt Jungle

If there's one thing I hate in otherwise great movies, it's weak-ass characterization and tropiness, like in The maltese Falcon where everyone was a well-acted trope. It's a bit different here in The Asphalt Jungle, where everyone's character comes from their standards, desires and struggles. Even if the characters are delivered as one or two-sided, there are REASONS. Becuase of this, the attention to character is about as fleshed out as the actual plot progression, allowing both to go effortlessly hand-in-hand. In other words, The Asphalt Jungle is my type of movie. With just a slight bit more characterization and more music throughout, this would be a 10 instead of a 9.5



Since I won't be writing a full review for this, but I want to mention it anyway, I'll take a tradition from my own reviews thread.

The Asphalt Jungle raises John Hunston's position on my best directors chart from #128 to #85 between Mel Brooks and Richard Linklater.

Very twisty noir, I watched that for the first time in an HoF. It's been awhile since I seen Out of the Past but I haven't forget her:

Count me as a favorite of John Huston's films. He might not always be technically correct in his film making, i.e. a perfectionist, like someone like Kubrick would be...but Huston excels at capturing the human experience which makes me favor his movies over more acclaimed directors like Kubrick. Last night I just watched Huston's The Man Who Would be King and a few nights ago I watched his The African Queen. One of these days I'm going to check out all of his films, but first I'm watching a gut full of noirs!

A wee bit of ketchup. I will be back to read all the excellent reviews.




Act of Violence (1948)

Frank (Van Heflin) has got 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.

This was utterly unknown to me prior to 2021 and would have been my nom, so I'll be pleasantly biased in my review. This was such an enjoyable second watch and easily one to return to. 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.

Just a wonderful noir film all around.

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What I actually said to win MovieGal's heart:
- I might not be a real King of Kinkiness, but I make good pancakes

~Mr Minio

This is my nom; it became an instant favorite the first time I saw this, making this around the fifth or so time I watched it. And let me tell ya, it gets -- wait, hold on, FECKEN better each and every time.
I genuinely love the pulp-style cinematography! It's dead-on for the great angles and compositions that bring this professionally done jewelry heist going south fast. First, by bad luck and then by a double-cross. Both end in gunplay and somebody slumping over. From there on, it's a mad dash to escape the Police hot on their @sses.

My favorite of the thieves was Sam Jaffe's Doc Erwin Riedenschneider, the Fresh Out of Jail, Mastermind ready to commit a heist he had staged before his time in jail. The pairing of him and Hayden's Dix had a great counter-balance and a solid, cohesive team. I've seen Jaffe previously, and this is an exceptional performance of the calm strategist with nostalgia for life. "One way or another, we all work for our vices.".
The hunchbacked, cat-loving Driver, Gus (James Whitmore), is close on his heels of favorite characters. They're all great, all the way through. Even the cops were great. Barry Kelly's dirty cop with smarts, Lt. Ditrich, had the same authentic looks that Hayden brought to Dix. Some great scenes with him and the weasel-esque Booky Cobby (Marc Lawrence). Their inside/deeper meaning conversation of "looks" was fecken brilliant.

I also love the "grays" of everyone. No one is entirely one thing, but a mix of strengths and weaknesses. Even the Lawyer, Alonzo D. Emmerich, played by Louis Calhern, that was supposed to finance everything only to try to rob them once the job is done, isn't a complete slimeball. Just very broke and in need of a substantial amount of cash right now.
And I mustn't forget les Femmes. Stepping away from the usual Femme Fatales, they are, instead, pretty decent ladies. From the bed-ridden May Emmerich (Dorothy Tree) to the Young Bit O' Candy, Angela Phinlay. Played by the upcoming Bombshell, the iconic Marilyn Monroe. Showing serious potential as an actress.

Ending the list with a scared but devoted Doll (Jean Hagen), I love the dynamics between Jean Hagen's Doll and Dix. There's a lot of layers going on, as well as a lot of low self-esteem on both sides. Even Dix thinks he's unworthy/too dangerous for someone to care about him. Add on his past loss of home puts a massive wall up to everyone else. I'm guessing Doll had known him for a bit and knew that, while a violent man by trade, it might not necessarily be what kind of man he may be. And she probably gets that some of that sh#tty treatment comes out of inner pain. A wounded dog that bites the hand trying to help, sort of thing. And not because he's just an insensitive A-hole. And she is in desperate times, reaching out for any bit of kindness as sh#t continues to happen in her own life. We meet her being booted out of her apartment, in dire need of indoor shelter. It says a lot that she chooses Dix's place as a feasible haven in the storm. They're two people with challenging/hard-luck times and far too familiar with such times to trust or take a chance with someone else, but not jaded enough to be unnecessarily callous and/or cruel.
While I'm not caught up in their star-crossed romance, it is a great addition to an already excellent noir in my eyes and heart.

This brings me to a primary key to all of these "interactions," dynamics, and overall presentation of this exceptional Heist Noir: the director, John Huston. He f@ckin nails it on every level and every nuance. But, then, it's John Huston, for feck's sake. Nuff said.

Murder My Sweet (1944)

Philip Marlowe: She was a charming middle-aged lady with a face like a bucket of mud. I gave her a drink. She was a gal who'd take a drink if she had to knock you down to get the bottle.

I've seen this film a couple of times and have always enjoyed it. Besides the fact that I do enjoy a good crime/noir film - following its author's prose, there is sarcasm galore here as well. Along with some great use of camera trickery to delve into the narration and "feel" of this gumshoe tale of playing the sitting duck for the blind with unlimited ammo.

There have been several actors who have played Chandler's iconic Philip Marlowe. Powell is my go-to guy for playing the sarcastic, nonviolent detective who loves to drink and talk sh#t with. . . hell, pretty much everyone. For me, this film seems to epitomize a Chandler story while delving into the prose that would become the staple of the genre as well as some of the mannerisms (the smart-ass in particular) to so many private dicks and cops to come.

An entertaining detective romp with some great visuals and all the noir tropes that made it such a great genre to behold and be entertained by.

Criss Cross

In Criss Cross Siodmark gives us an example of a restless Film Noir He writes the story with an exiting structure which increases the drama beyond what it would have been otherwise. "The art here is to complicate something that would have been quite straight-forward".

He does this by using some familiar Film Noir tropes moves, and signals. The first of these is the idea of returning. Other styles and genres make use of this idea, but Film Noir is full of examples of this idea. In Criss Cross early flashback we see Burt Lancaster's character returning to Bunker Hill. He is full of melancholy, wisdom, questions, memories, weighed down with experience, and looking for a lost love. He explains all this through his characters voice over.
Burt Lancaster's character is a type. He is the Film Noir "sap". He is the fall guy who can't help himself He is unsure why he has elected to commit crimes, irresistibly drawn to the one woman who will betray him or destroy him.
i read that this structure which the simple plot is complicated allows the film maker to make some errors that the audience might overlook. It's easy to forgive the screenwriter for allowing Burt Lancaster's character to give such flimsy excuses not to call in when one of the guards is called away due to a phone call. Why doesn't Lancaster do something when his sidekick notices they are being followed.

I don't think it's *that* popular, but one that I saw a couple of years ago it's Quicksand (1950). Stars Mickey Rooney and Peter Lorre. Scrappy good film.

Yeah that's a good one, I remember we talked about that last Noirvember...I still need a rewatch of that one.