Film noir: your favourites

City Slickers?

Shane?

Watched Phantom Lady last night, thanks to a recommendation upthread. A great noir, although like many it goes slightly off the boil once the mystery is revealed and you wait for things to play out. But Ella Raines is absolutely luminous in this, I wonder why she wasn't a bigger star. It's free on YouTube btw

That the one with the best drum solo in cinema history?

Yep!

Elisha Cook Jr def one of the great character actors of the era

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yushXLcMalE

^that’s not going to be the famous Out of the Past parody “Out of Gas,” is it?

Oh wait, that’s Aubrey Plaza. From last night, I guess.

Yeah, it's a sketch from last night.

I just checked, and the only thing on YouTube from Mitchum's episode that he actually appears in is his brief monologue.

in 1987, robert mitchum & jane greer reunited to star in an snl parody of their film out of the past (1947) called out of gas pic.twitter.com/dAtbVzq7ZR

— ana (@pelicinema) November 10, 2022

here is the rest of the sort of odd yet endearing skit pic.twitter.com/9KUuKnK9YA

— ana (@pelicinema) November 10, 2022

Playback on the second part is acting up for me.

Same for me. First part was excellent though.

Only goes around fourteen seconds.

Mitchum looks like George Kennedy.

Lol

Only goes around fourteen seconds.

Did it for me too, when it got unstuck the audio was completely out of synch.

It gets unstuck but then there's no audio at all after a certain point. I got the gag at least. Did you see the writer/director credit at the end?

Okay, now I heard the rest.

Yeah, it was made by his daughter, and I assume the kid was his grandson?

Irl grandson.

Yup.

Makes total sense now.

Last time I remember discussing this was here: Robert Mitchum C/D, S/D

I managed to watch all of the "leaving soon" noir on Criterion, last two were The House on Telegraph Hill (more gothic melodrama than noir, with echoes of Rebecca, but fun nonetheless) and The Breaking Point (Michael Curtiz' reworking of To Have and Have Not) which Criterion calls "daylight noir," and which is wonderfully scripted, acted, and shot.

Mister, you’re a better man than I.

Watched Criss Cross last night, which is a good film in its own right, but the excellent location shooting sent me down a several hour rabbit hole learning about Bunker Hill, the Angels Flight funicular and more.

http://americanfilmnoir.com/page19.html

^That's funny; I recently watched Kiss Me Deadly, and the BD bonus disc had a featurette on Bunker Hill. I wasn't aware of the neighborhood's history (and I've lived in L.A. a long time, have been to Angels Flight, etc.).

Just revisited Act of Violence – it's one of my all-time favorite, I guess movies, ever. I see it's been discussed a bunch on this thread, so nothing really to say about it, beyond – what a remarkable film. (Anyone who hasn't seen it should go in as "fresh" as possible, without reading too much...). By the way, that one also has a few great Bunker Hill scenes.

The Big Lebowski

Great line in Detour (1945), truck driver to diner waitress:

“Hey, Glamorous… gimme change for a dime, willya?”

Greil Marcus had a big write-up on Odds Against Tomorrow in connection with Harry Belafonte today:

https://greilmarcus.substack.com/p/real-life-rock-top-10-may-2023

Paywall, probably...Never seen it. I notice it's on YouTube, may watch tonight.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSzDfNn3kYc

Ryan and Winters – what a pairing. I love Rob't Ryan so much...

Isn’t that a Robert Wise film? Have always wanted to see it but world enough and time etc.

Abraham Polonsky.

You're right--written by A.P.

Great film, wonderful enraged sweaty Belafonte song performance.

The film was nominated for a Golden Globe award for Motion Picture Promoting International Understanding.

https://static.simpsonswiki.com/images/c/c6/Springfield_Civic_Center_%28Brother%2C_Can_You_Spare_Two_Dimes%3F%29.png

Watched Pickup on South Street this morning, through a fog of tiredness and hangover (the quintessential conditions for noir-viewing, in honesty). Found it kinda flimsy at the level of plot and character motivation but dang, the violence was visceral and shocking. Kind of stunned it got through the censors in 1953? Standout was obviously Thelma Ritter, who came on like a character out of Dostoevsky. Her death scene is utterly heart-wrenching.

I watched it recently, too... as I think I mentioned on the TCM thread, the biggest issue for me wasn't that I didn't share the film's affection for the Richard Widmark character as a sympathetic rogue; it just didn't seem to do anything to establish his likability, or why Jean Peters would be drawn to him. (The scene where he stands over Peters in his shack, after knocking her out cold, and the camera/music are kind of leering in a titillated fashion was just... uncomfortable.) It had some good aspects, tho.

Thelma Ritter walks in and knocks the movie over imo

Wham! Like two taxis coming together on Broadway!

Sorry, wrong Thelma Ritter movie.

Probably the wrong thread for Odds Against Tomorrow; heist films are adjacent to noir, with some overlap, but to me they're a little different.

Disorienting to see '70s guys Richard Bright (Al Neri in The Godfather) and MASH's Wayne Rogers. (Also Zohra Lampert.) When Ed Begley assures everyone "It's gonna work," he's like the character who goes downstairs with a flashlight in a horror film: "What's wrong with you--haven't you ever seen a heist film before?" Anyway, while I wouldn't rank it with The Killing or The Asphalt Jungle, it was good. How did Robert Wise go from this to his oversized road-show films of the '60s?

The Peter Principle?

Saw Odd Man Out with James Mason a few months ago and it's such a bare bones no-fat noir against a running clock. It's stayed with me ever since.

Can’t fault the accent work

he's beautiful

https://i.imgur.com/Aij9Hj6.jpg

Odd Man Out gets better with every viewing.

Was one of the few I disliked back in college movie classes, but I owe it a rewatch