Film Noir - Tumblr Posts
OUT OF THE PAST aka BUILD MY GALLOWS HIGH (Dir: Jacques Tourneur, 1947).
Adapted from his novel by Geoffrey Homes, this classic thriller from the golden era of film noir stars Robert Mitchum as a former PI with a shady past and Jane Greer as the femme fatale he is hired to find by louche businessman Kirk Douglas in a star-making performance.
Mitchum has a new life and new girl in very un-noirlike rural Bridgeport California. But his past soon drags him back to his sordid big city life and back into the arms of his client’s cheating, murderous gal.
This terrific movie is like a film noir checklist with cutting dialogue, shadowy cityscapes and moody atmosphere to spare.
Out of the Past is a classic of it’s genre.
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ON DANGEROUS GROUND (Dir: Nicholas Ray, 1951).
A stellar cast including Robert Ryan, Ida Lupino and Ward Bond feature in Nicholas Ray’s tough and surprisingly violent film noir-ish thriller.
On Dangerous Ground is kind of a movie of two halves. The first sees sadistic cop Ryan clash with the lowlife of New York’s mean streets. However, after one display of brutality too many he is sent out of town to a rural, snow-covered isolated small town to track down the killer of a young girl, having to deal with the girl’s vengeful father and the killer’s blind sister.
The beautiful, contrasty monochrome photography in the second half is a definite plus, and the relationship that develops between Ryan and Lupino is unexpectedly tender.
A fairly overlooked title among Ray’s work, On Dangerous Ground is an enjoyably gritty hardboiled 50’s crime flick.
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Movie number 19: The Wrong Man (Alfred Hitchcock, 1956). Henry Fonda stars as ‘Manny’ Balestrero, a Stork Club musician wrongly arrested for robbery. Unusually for Hitchcock, The Wrong Man is a true story and befitting the subject he shoots in a stark documentary style on the real life locations on which the story takes place. The director cameo, gallows humour and exotic locales which characterise much his 1950’s oeuvre is absent in what is Hitchcock’s most serious work. Fonda is excellent in the role of Manny, conveying fear and bemusement with complete conviction. Vera Miles is equally convincing as his wife whose descent into mental illness is, thankfully, handled with sensitivity and taste. Support comes in the form of underrated British Star Anthony Quayle. Lacking the glossy flamboyance of much of the director’s mid/late 50s movies, The Wrong Man is none the worse for it. This was a first time view for me and I would certainly regard it as among Hitchcock’s finest work. #thewrongman #alfredhitchcock #henryfonda #veramiles #anthonyquayle #filmnoir #hollywood #classichollywood #vintagehollywood #goldenagehollywood #jinglebonesmoviereviews #jinglebonesmovietime #jinglebonesnewyearsresolution #everymovieiwatch2019
Movie number 58: The Long Arm aka The Third Key (Charles Frend, 1956).
The final movie shot at Ealing Studios before production shifted to the MGM British Studios. The Long Arm, retitled The Third Key in the US, stars Jack Hawkins as phlegmatic detective superintendent Tom Halliday, busy pursuing a safecracker while neglecting his family.
Charles Frend directs in a somewhat low-key documentary style which recalls earlier Ealing police drama The Blue Lamp (Basil Dearden, 1950). The attempted realistic portrayal of unglamorous, often mundane police work results in a movie which is less a thriller and more a police procedural drama.
Hawkins is as dependable as ever in the lead and the film benefits from its use of real life locations, in particular an exciting climax at the Royal Festival Hall.
While not quite as satisfying a movie as the classic The Blue Lamp, The Long Arm is still a neat little drama; notable for both its place in British film history and its considerable entertainment value.
POKÉMON: DETECTIVE PIKACHU (Dir: Rob Letterman, 2019).
Part of the phenomenally successful Pokémon franchise, Detective Pikachu is the first movie in the series to combine live-action with CGI Pokémon. The somewhat convoluted plot finds insurance salesman and former Pokémon trainer wannabe Tim Goodman (Justice Smith) teaming up with Pikachu (voiced by Ryan Reynolds) to investigating the mysterious death of Tim’s detective father. Tim is the only human who can understand the amnesia suffering Pikachu who has some previous link with the detective.
Visually Detective Pikachu is a highly satisfying film, narratively it is less so. The CGI Pokémon are beautifully realised creatures that integrate believably with the humans and real life surrounds; thankfully there are a wealth of these fabulous beings on display. Main man Pikachu has the requisite level of cuteness while Mr Mime makes a very effective and amusing cameo as a police informant; an encounter with oversized Torterra is visually stunning, as is the climatic battle with it Avengers-level of structural decimation! The film noir-like cityscapes that form the story’s backdrop are also highly impressive.
Where the movie falters is in its narrative which somehow manages to be both predictable and confusing. With a tidier and tighter script Detective Pikachu might have been a modern day Who Framed Roger Rabbit (Robert Zemeckis, 1988); a family friendly infusion of 40’s film noir detective thriller and 2019 high-tech blockbuster. Dedicated Pokémon fans will probably be more forgiving of Detective Pikachu’s short comings. For casual fans and those less familiar with the franchise, it should prove to be a bewildering yet entertaining 105 minutes. For its amazing eye candy alone Pokémon: Detective Pikachu is well worth catching.
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Movie number 74: The Gilded Cage (Dir: John Gilling, 1955).
There are shades of The Maltese Falcon (John Huston, 1941) to this low budget British thriller set in the murky underworld of art forgery.
The film stars Alex Nicol and Michael Alexander as brothers embroiled in murder and an attempted art heist. Punch-ups ensue as the pair endeavour to solve the crime and clear their name.
The Gilded Cage is a decent enough crime thriller from the era of the second feature; solidly, if a mite unimaginatively, directed by John Gilling, who would later direct some noteworthy movies for Hammer Film Productions including Plague of the Zombies (1966) and The Reptile (1966).
With American actors in the lead and a mix of mid-Atlantic accents throughout, presumably in an attempt to appeal to US audiences, its hoped for ‘hard-boiled’ style is a little underdone. It does benefit from use of the actual London locations on which it is set, including Tower Bridge with its pre-Jubilee paint job and a fascinating but all too brief glimpse of St Katherine Docks when it was still a working dock.
The Gilded Cage is no masterpiece but it is a well paced, entertaining flick. Worth a watch, especially for fans of vintage British cinema.
Originally produced by Tempean Films, it would presumably have fallen into obscurity were it not for film archivists Renown Pictures and their dedication to preserving such overlooked works which collectively form an important part of Britain film history.
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THE MOB (Dir: Robert Parrish, 1951).
A tough gangster movie-cum-film noir thriller. The Mob stars Broderick Crawford as Johnny Damico, a tough New York cop who poses as a longshoreman to bust up the corrupt union activity polluting the city's dockyards.
Based upon the novel Waterfront by Ferguson Findlay, The Mob covers similar ground to the more famous On the Waterfront (Elia Kazan, 1954). Pre-dating the latter movie by three years it is more of a pulpy crime drama that Kazan's socially conscience classic.
In his second outing as director, former editor Robert Parrish has crafted a hard hitting, at time brutal thriller which still packs a considerable punch seven decades later. It is a tough movie, with tough guys talking tough. William Bowers' screenplay is interspersed with some smart hard boiled dialogue, delivered in suitable pithy fashion by the excellent Broderick Crawford.
A year after his Oscar winning performance in All the King's Men (Robert Rossen, 1949) Crawford is dynamite here; perfectly cast as a hard nosed cop, ruthless in his mission to bring down the mob. Also impressing in an early role is Ernest Borgnine as thuggish mobster Johnny Castro. As his right hand man, Neville Brand is equally effective in one of many maniacal bad guy roles.
Often categerised as a film noir, The Mob feels closer to a gangster film than a true noir; its staccato pacing and overall theme evoking the Warner Brothers mob movies of 1930s. It presents an evocative, shadowy world of backstreets and dive bars populated with shady characters It is surprisingly violent at times, especially in its realistically scrappy fist fights.
It may not rank among the greatest thrillers of its era, but it is an exciting and engaging minor noir, or rather a gangster movie in noir clothing. Deserving of far more attention than it generally receives, The Mob is neat little crime flick with a cracking screenplay and a first rate cast. To my knowledge, the movies only official home video release is as part of Spain's Columbia Classics range. This may make The Mob a little difficult to source, but it is well worth the effort!
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NIAGARA (Dir: Henry Hathaway, 1953).
Marilyn Monroe's breakthrough performance in an unusual film noir, distinguished by its use of eye-popping three strip Technicolor.
Arriving at Niagara Falls for a delayed honeymoon, the affable Polly Cutler (Jean Peters) and her husband Ray (Max Showalter, billed here as Casey Adams) encounter the altogether odder married couple Rose (Monroe) and George (Joseph Cotton) Loomis, visiting the Falls six years after their own honeymoon in an attempt to rekindle their relationship. Recently discharged from a mental institution, the troubled George is scarred by his experiences in the Korean War and seemingly an ill match for the voluptuous Rose. Darker motives are apparent as Polly spies Rose in the embrace of another man. When George mysteriously disappears Polly suspects murder, but has a hard time convincing her husband and the authorities until George reappears and the fatalities begin to mount.
Read the full review on my blog JINGLE BONES MOVIE TIME! Link below.
HELL BENT FOR LEATHER (Dir: George Sherman, 1960).
The Audie Murphy western wagon trundled on with Hell Bent For Leather. Yet, on this occasion the end product is a mite gritter than one would usually expect from a Murphy movie.
Wandering into homestead Sutterville after having his horse stolen, cattle man Clay Santell (Murphy) is mistaken by the townsfolk for a murderer known as Travers (Jan Merlin). He is pursued by a corrupt Marshall (Stephen McNally) who knows of his innocence but wants the glory of caching 'the killer'. Santell goes on the lam, taking with him hostage Janet Gifford (Felicia Farr), herself a town outcast due to the actions of her late father.
Read the full review on my blog JINGLE BONES MOVIE TIME! Link below.
DATE WITH DISASTER (Dir: Charles Saunders, 1957).
Visit my blog JINGLE BONES MOVIE TIME to read a longer, more in-depth review of DATE WITH DISASTER.
Date with Disaster is something of a misnomer of a title, seemingly designed to appear more sensational. With no particular date or disaster to be found, the movie concerns two partners of secondhand car dealer Highgrade Autosales, who plan a safe robbery while third partner Miles Harrington (Tom Drake) is out of town. Engaging the help of professional criminal Tracey (William Hartnell) things, as you might expect, do not go according to plan. Mixed up in the dodgy doings is Miles' girl Sue (Shirley Eaton).
Read the full review on my blog JINGLE BONES MOVIE TIME. Link below.
PORT OF ESCAPE (Dir: Tony Young, 1956).
Noir-ish British B-movie crime flick starring real life husband and wife John McCallum and Googie Withers. Based upon Barbara S Harper’s short story Safe Harbour.
Having just docked in London, seaman Mitch Gillie (McCallum) accidentally kills a man in a knife fight while protecting his pal Dinty (Bill Kerr). On the lam and needing an escape route they commander the houseboat of gossip columnist Anne Stirling (Googie Withers). At first fearing the men, Anne, her sister (Wendy Danielli) and their housekeeper (Joan Hickson) eventually try to help the pair when they learn of Dinty’s mental illness.
Read the full review on my blog JINGLE BONES MOVIE TIME. Link below.
THE DARK PAST (Dir: Rudolph Maté, 1948).
Told in flashback and narrated by Lee J Cobb as criminal psychiatrist Dr Andrew Collins, Collins relates how he and his family were held hostage by escaped convict Al Walker (Holden). With the help of Walker's girl Betty (Nina Foch), the good doc attempts to uncover Walker's unconscious motivation to kill, a disorder linked to a recurring nightmare following childhood truma.
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ESCAPE IN THE FOG (Dir: Oscar Boetticher Jr, 1945)
The evocatively titled Escape in the Fog is a B-movie thriller from Columbia Pictures; directed by Budd Boetticher, billed here, as on all his early movies, as Oscar Boetticher Jr.
Wartime nurse Eileen Carr (Nina Foch) has a nightmare about the attempted murder of friendly neighbourhood G-Man Barry Malcolm (William Wright). The premonition proves prophetic and on this preposterous premise is hung a convoluted plot involving smuggled documents, kidnapping and Nazi bad guys.
Read the full review on my blog JINGLE BONES MOVIE TIME. Link below.
New review! Van Johnson spins a web of intriguing in Web of Evidence! Read my review of this Brit crime flick here:
i’m so obsessed with this movie
Anyways here's Kill My Boyfriend by Natalie Kills
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I call this set… “Noir Princesses”.
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