Film noir: your favourites

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I wasn't that into the Naked City...and Night and the City is my favorite movie ever pretty much, so I wanted to love it. (both Dassin).

I found the dialogue in Brick, like Millers Crossing, totally stylized in a way similar to the books, they also shared the protaganist as punching bag cliche so common in the books. There was just something about the way the lead in Brick kept being knocked out, then seeing just a hint of light, then passing out again, then waking up somewhere else, then getting beat up, that to me represented the feeling I get from the Chandler books. Murder, My Sweat is one vintage noir that does this, of course, with it's expressionistic passing out sequence. The complicated plot that really doesn't matter so much, crime lords and their henchmen, the playing of sides against each other. All classic pulp fiction/film noir things.

Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Wednesday, 31 May 2006 20:01 (seventeen years ago) link

I'm glad someone mentioned Nightmare Alley, it's one of my favorite movies.

Bluebell Madonna (Ex Leon), Wednesday, 31 May 2006 20:02 (seventeen years ago) link

I've mentioned it on both the Mitchum and Robert Wise threads, but I'm going to third my recommendation for Blood On The Moon
Chris, you also plugged it on this thread

Sons Of The Redd Desert (Ken L), Wednesday, 31 May 2006 20:14 (seventeen years ago) link

One of the things I love most about noir is the black humour. Have just remembered D. Indemnity and some of the lines, like Neff's double entendre about insurance coverage when Phyllis is barely ‘covered’ by clothing:

"I’d hate to think of your having a smashed fender or something while you’re not, uh, fully covered."

It's still amazing that they could get away with some of this stuff considering the times.

Neo-noir can also be fab.

salexander (salexander), Thursday, 1 June 2006 02:10 (seventeen years ago) link

Murder, My Sweat is one vintage noir that does this...

Is this the one about the athelete with really stinky perspiration?

I second the recs for Detour and Long Goodbye because they seem to not get as much respect as they deserve.

nickn (nickn), Thursday, 1 June 2006 17:55 (seventeen years ago) link

I think "The Thin Man" is considered to be the first noir?

This is madness, surely? "The Thin Man" may be a Hammet adaptation, but it's still basically a screwball comedy where the main characters solve crimes!

Are these as good as that warner bros gangster box set that they resemble?

Daniel_Rf (Daniel_Rf), Thursday, 1 June 2006 21:15 (seventeen years ago) link

I haven't seen the gangster sets, but I have vol. 1 of those noir sets and it is single-source-lighting-tastic.

Keywords: revenge, knife, granddaughter, demonic-possession, rock-star, eel (Aus, Thursday, 1 June 2006 21:19 (seventeen years ago) link

Is there a good website out there with a concise list (and/or blurbing) of the best of noir?

pleased to mitya (mitya), Thursday, 1 June 2006 23:55 (seventeen years ago) link

http://noiroftheweek.blogspot.com

Not exactly what you're asking for, but it's in my bookmarks.

Keywords: revenge, knife, granddaughter, demonic-possession, rock-star, eel (Aus, Thursday, 1 June 2006 23:56 (seventeen years ago) link

Yeah, that's a good site.

Sons Of The Redd Desert (Ken L), Friday, 2 June 2006 00:00 (seventeen years ago) link

The gangster box set is absolutley essential - it's basically a Cagney's Greatest Hits, with some Bogart and Edward G. Robinson thrown in. Also, has a newsreel, a cartoon and a short film before each feature (I think the abscense of this is what disappointed me about the noir sets, at first.)

check it out

Daniel_Rf (Daniel_Rf), Friday, 2 June 2006 11:13 (seventeen years ago) link

I haven't read a whole lot of the pulp that led to noir -- one each by Cain, Hammett, Chandler -- but I prefer the bonus of chiaroscuro lighting in the films, and the ability of some actors to make the dialogue seem less ass.

Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Friday, 2 June 2006 12:18 (seventeen years ago) link

all three of them are well worth reading. Which Hammett have you read?

p@reene (Pareene), Friday, 2 June 2006 13:02 (seventeen years ago) link

Maltese Falcon ... Big Sleep and Postman Always Rings Twice for the others. (I'm eager to read Mildred Pierce before long, which sure isn't likely to come up as a film noir favorite despite the murder linchpin.)

Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Friday, 2 June 2006 13:19 (seventeen years ago) link

You should at least read Red Harvest, as so many movies works off it's basic plot.

Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Friday, 2 June 2006 13:30 (seventeen years ago) link

You gotta read Red Harvest -- despite it being a western, it's like the pulp novel/film noir rosetta stone.

if you've read The Big Sleep you've read Chandler, basically -- but Farewell, My Lovely is my personal favorite Marlowe book.

p@reene (Pareene), Friday, 2 June 2006 13:31 (seventeen years ago) link

Mildred Pierce the book is good, but it's not noir, although the film version tries to turn it into noir. Double Indemnity the book is great, although plotwise it's pretty similar to Postman. The later Cains are more episodic, with more likeable characters - it's only really Postman and Double Indemnity that have a real tragic noir feel to them with their flat prose, amoral protagonists, sense of desperation and 'perfect' murders that don't come off.

Revivalist (Revivalist), Friday, 2 June 2006 13:40 (seventeen years ago) link

Yeah, I want to read lots more Hammett and Cain. (The uniform loathsomeness of the Big Sleep characters kinda turned me off Chandler.)

I've also had the novel Out of the Past is based on -- Build My Gallows High -- forever, but haven't read it (tho I've read that Daniel Mainwaring's adaptation of his own book is judged an improvement).

Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Friday, 2 June 2006 13:46 (seventeen years ago) link

Yeah, I've never had the desire to read Build My Gallows High, mostly because, you know, Robert Mitchum isn't in it.

HA, "loathsome." Yeah, Chandler was pretty irredeemably sour, but you know, Marlowe as chivalrous Arthurian knight in morally bankrupt world and all that; he's the most interesting character in pulp fiction, 'cause he's entirely self-loathing, never shoots or fucks anything, really a sort of pathetic repressed moralist masochist, he's as painful to watch as an early Woody Allen protagonist (impotent but for his cleverness, which just gets him beat up repeatedly), except he gets less satisfaction from this terrible modern society, 'cause Allen protagonists always get laid.

p@reene (Pareene), Friday, 2 June 2006 14:09 (seventeen years ago) link

I don't remember Red Harvest as a western. It was a Continental Op book, no?

Cornell Woolrich is fun too.

Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Friday, 2 June 2006 14:14 (seventeen years ago) link

yeah, "western" is a total gloss, i just meant "mining town," which sets it apart from the new york/la/san fran typical noir setting

p@reene (Pareene), Friday, 2 June 2006 14:24 (seventeen years ago) link

Three great little-known noir novels from the 1940s: The Deadly Percheron, The Last of Philip Banter and The Devil Take the Blue-Tail Fly, all by John Franklin Bardin. Sort of Woolrich crossed with Patricia Highsmith. From Wikipedia:

The novels are distinguished by a combination of the hard fiction style of the late forties and a pervasive and morbid sense of psychology, in most cases pathological (psychiatrists and general discussions of insanity pervade the works). The protagonists are subject to extraordinary situations which provoke intense feelings of distress and mental agony, communicated to the reader with a lucidity that makes his storytelling logic surrealistic, fantastic, persuasive and disturbing at once.

Revivalist (Revivalist), Friday, 2 June 2006 14:28 (seventeen years ago) link

Red Harvest? Never heard of it.

Sons Of The Redd Desert (Ken L), Friday, 2 June 2006 17:52 (seventeen years ago) link

If I can only get to the FF one night this week, should I go to the Sam Fullers tonight or the Allen Dwan and Anthony Mann tomorrow?

Sons Of The Redd Desert (Ken L), Wednesday, 14 June 2006 12:47 (seventeen years ago) link

I'll probably go to House of Bamboo in Scope tonight, never seen it (I'm not a huge Fuller fan tho -- didn't think a lot of Kimono). Border Incident is on TCM in a week or two, I think.

Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 14 June 2006 13:29 (seventeen years ago) link

Yeah, I'm not as big a fan as some. Yeah, They already showed Border Incident once or twice- the previews looked great. Also to be taken into consideration: personal appearance by Arlene Dahl at tomorrow's 7:30 show of Slightly Scarlet.

Sons Of The Redd Desert (Ken L), Wednesday, 14 June 2006 13:46 (seventeen years ago) link

Actually, I think Border Incident already came and went for this month.

Sons Of The Redd Desert (Ken L), Wednesday, 14 June 2006 13:51 (seventeen years ago) link

Slightly Scarlet was very interesting. Lamely plotted, cheesily scripted story about an operator playing two sides against each other in a crooked town featuring the redhead sibling rivalry of Rhonda Fleming and Arlene Dahl- Technicolor noir played as Sirk melodrama that could have been titled Written On The Red Harvest.

Sons Of The Redd Desert (Ken L), Friday, 16 June 2006 17:47 (seventeen years ago) link

I didn't make any the last week.

Border Incident is in a new Noir box.

Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Friday, 16 June 2006 18:23 (seventeen years ago) link

I left during the middle of that one, I had to go home and go to sleep. It looks great, but the story has got an instructional video feel to it and Ricardo Montalban is, of course, not very good. It does have an appearance by Sig Ruman, though.

Sons Of The Redd Desert (Ken L), Friday, 16 June 2006 18:59 (seventeen years ago) link

Ricardo Montalban is, of course, not very good

!!!

Of course, the only pre-"Space Seed" Ricardo I've seen is Cheyenne Autumn.

Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Friday, 16 June 2006 19:52 (seventeen years ago) link

what was the last noir?

duff (duff), Friday, 16 June 2006 22:42 (seventeen years ago) link

Border Incident

Sons Of The Redd Desert (Ken L), Friday, 16 June 2006 23:13 (seventeen years ago) link

Based on the first 15 minutes, Elvis Telecom OTM about Raw Deal. In addition to the expected great photography, the writing and editing are super snappy. I guess after this I've gotta track down T-Men, the bits I saw of it on TCM were great.

Sons Of The Redd Desert (Ken L), Saturday, 17 June 2006 14:45 (seventeen years ago) link

Ken, offtopic -- I'm out the door to see Army of Shadows at 1. You've seen, yes?

Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Saturday, 17 June 2006 14:50 (seventeen years ago) link

I loved Army of Shadows, but I'm a huge Melville fan.

Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Saturday, 17 June 2006 16:09 (seventeen years ago) link

Yeah Morbius, I went opening weekend. Enjoy!

Sons Of The Redd Desert (Ken L), Saturday, 17 June 2006 16:53 (seventeen years ago) link

one year passes...

Anyone seen Cry Terror!... At Film Forum tonight, intriguing pairing of Mason and Steiger?

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0051501/

Dr Morbius, Thursday, 30 August 2007 14:41 (sixteen years ago) link

How come we discussed Red Harvest and Enrique didn't come along to mention that Goldoni play?

James Redd and the Blecchs, Thursday, 30 August 2007 14:45 (sixteen years ago) link

The Farmer's Daughter is in that movie, Morbs?

James Redd and the Blecchs, Thursday, 30 August 2007 17:47 (sixteen years ago) link

I haven't seen it, no. I don't think I ever really watched the other feature either.

James Redd and the Blecchs, Thursday, 30 August 2007 18:12 (sixteen years ago) link

Has anyone got the recut of Touch Of Evil? Is it worth paying more for over the original?

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa, Thursday, 30 August 2007 18:28 (sixteen years ago) link

Absolutely.

C0L1N B..., Thursday, 30 August 2007 18:34 (sixteen years ago) link

Redd, I don't believe Loretta Young is in it.

Dr Morbius, Thursday, 30 August 2007 18:48 (sixteen years ago) link

Touch of Evil is great if you can stand charlton heston.

it's tough to beat Out of the Past, although the faulkner-penned Big Sleep is classic, too (although the plot literally does not make any sense). I'm also a huge fan of Night and the City and Asphalt Jungle.

An interesting but unsuccessful noir is Dark Passage with Bogey and Bacall, which features a lot of 1st-person shots. Agnes Moorhead is great in it, however.

noirs i dislike: Force of Evil, The Postman Always Rings Twice (both John Garfield vehicles), Cat People (despite its alleged influence), Angel Heart (neo-noir).

poortheatre, Thursday, 30 August 2007 18:59 (sixteen years ago) link

Curse of the Cat People is better than plain old Cat People.

James Redd and the Blecchs, Thursday, 30 August 2007 19:03 (sixteen years ago) link

noirs i dislike: Force of Evil

!!!!

Dr Morbius, Thursday, 30 August 2007 19:06 (sixteen years ago) link

Yar, The Big Sleep film is tough to follow, but that's down to the production code.

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa, Thursday, 30 August 2007 19:10 (sixteen years ago) link

The I Love Film noir thread is pretty good; here's the link if it's not already upthread: film noir

James Redd and the Blecchs, Thursday, 30 August 2007 19:11 (sixteen years ago) link

Morbius, have you seen that Danish movie that's at FF now?

James Redd and the Blecchs, Thursday, 30 August 2007 19:31 (sixteen years ago) link


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