In this week’s post mardecortesbaja.com explores a maze with no center, featuring references to Nightmare Alley (1947) and The House On 92nd Street (1945).

Source: Don Renfroe, News Editor, Albuquerque Tribune, Friday, June 15, 2007

Don Renfore’s all-time top 10 noirs:

Any debate among film noir fans will ultimately include the phrase, “That’s not a film noir!”

The genre’s definition is broad, but almost any aficionado would agree on these 10 must-sees.

For novices, seeing all or most of this list will provide a basic education in the dark, wonderful dread that is film noir. Here they are, in no particular order.

Out of the Past (1947). A stellar cast featuring Kirk Douglas, Robert Mitchum and Jane Greer take viewers down a very dark dream of gangster murder and double-dealings. Directed by Jacques Tourneur. The dialogue is poetic; the cinematography is lush.

Detour (1945). Some call this B-picture the beginnings of true American noir. Hitchhiking leads to no good in this cheapie directed by Edgar G. Ulmer. Tom Neal (you’ve never heard of him) is the pawn of a femme fatale played by Ann Savage (and you’ve never heard of her, either). An overwhelming sense of fate and powerlessness permeates the film.

The Killers (1946). Burt Lancaster, in his film debut, plays a boxer who waits in his dingy room to be assassinated by thugs. How he got there is told in flashback. Look for great performances by the ravishing Ava Gardner in one of her early roles.

Kiss Me Deadly (1955). An early adaptation of Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer series. Robert Aldrich directs Ralph Meeker as Hammer. Violent, fast-paced and with a wacky plot involving a nuclear device and an atomic dame or two. Watch early in the film for Cloris Lechman in a minor part. And the cars are great.

Double Indemnity (1944). I can’t add much to all that has been written about Billy Wilder’s masterpiece except that, if you haven’t seen it, hop the nearest train and get to a video store. The script is sterling, and so are all the principals: Fred McMurray, Barbara Stanwyck and Edward G. Robinson. My favorite is Stanwyck’s lout of a husband, who deserves what he gets.

Gun Crazy (1949). Bang! Bang! The lady loves to shoot! Peggy Cummins steals the show in this Bonnie and Clyde-ish tale of two bank robbers on the run. In shooting the first heist, director Joseph H. Lewis placed the camera in the back seat of the getaway convertible so that it feels like we’re escaping with them. John Dahl plays a man who worships guns and his girl. From the outset, you know how this one is going to end, but it doesn’t matter.

Brute Force (1947). Nasty prison breakout flick stars Burt Lancaster and a host of first-rate character actors. Hume Cronyn, later of “Cocoon” fame, is the warden, a real jerk you love to hate…

Rififi (1954). One of the first caper movies. This French masterpiece, directed by Jules Dassin, has all the components we’ve come to expect: the selection of the gang, all of whom have special talents; the heist explained for their benefit and ours; and the actual robbery, which in this case takes place in total silence.

Laura (1944). Otto Preminger directs Dana Andrews as a detective trying to uncover the mystery of who killed the woman in the painting. Clifford Webb is excellent as the newspaper columnist/foil…

Touch of Evil (1958). Arguably the best of the lot, this movie had everything going against it before the first scene was shot. A bloated Orson Welles wanted it to be his comeback as a director; Charlton Heston was taking a big chance in the lead (as a Mexican!); the script was full of borderline super-sleaziness. But Welles, who also stars as a corrupt American cop investigating a homicide literally on the border, makes it all work. Fun, nasty, with not a spare frame in the whole picture. Pay attention to the opening scene, one of the longest long shots in movie history.

Source: The Albuquerque Tribune, Friday, June 15, 2007

This year’s Fourth Annual Noir Film Festival commencing today at the Guild Cinema in Nob Hill, Albuquerque, features some obscure B titles. The full program is set out at the end of this post.

Nine of the 20 movies are from private collections, including:

Breakdown (1952) A morality tale with a mostly no-name cast - “a flawed but really good melodrama” says Festival organizer and co-owner of the Guild, Peter Conheim.

Screaming Mimi (1958) starring a naughty Anita Ekberg and the exotic Gypsy Rose Lee.

“Is it noir? Is it horror? Is it a slasher movie?” Conheim asks. “Is it a campy stripper movie? Who knows? It’s really in outer space. It’s perverse.” Other movies like Caught and Hoodlum are even racier, especially for their time, with irredeemable characters and taboo topics - the very definition of noir.”Some of them really step out of the ring and take on the censors”, Conheim said.

Le Cercle Rouge (1970) Made a year after Army of Shadows, which will run at the Guild a week after the noir run, and has just been released on DVD - see this filmsnoir.net post.

House of Strangers (1949 )from Joseph Mankiewicz.

The Brothers Rico (1957)

The 4th Annual Festival of Film Noir Program - June 17 through July 5 2007

Curator Program Notes

June 17-18: Thieves’ Highway (2:30, 6:20) / House Of Strangers (4:25, 8:15)

June 19-20: B-Movie Triple Feature: Canon City (3:35, 7:45) / The Hoodlum (5:15, 9:20) / Under Age (6:30)

June 21-23: Murder, My Sweet (2:30, 6:30) / Out Of The Past (4:30, 8:30)

June 24-25: My Name Is Julia Ross (4:10, 7:00) / Cause For Alarm! (5:30, 8:20)

June 26-27: The Killing (4:45, 8:00) / Breakdown (6:30)

June 28-29: Pickup On South Street (5:00, 8:20) / T-Men (6:35)

June 29 -30: Special Late-Night Screening: Screaming Mimi (10:00 - Separate Admission)

June 30-July 1: Le Cercle Rouge (3:20, 7:30) / Plunder Road (6:00)

July 2-3: Caught (4:45, 8:00) / The Reckless Moment (6:30)

July 4-5: The Brothers Rico (3:10, 6:45) / The Garment Jungle (5:00, 8:35)

June 17-18: Thieves’ Highway (2:30, 6:20) / House Of Strangers (4:25, 8:15)

June 19-20: B-Movie Triple Feature: Canon City (3:35, 7:45) / The Hoodlum (5:15, 9:20) / Under Age (6:30)

June 21-23: Murder, My Sweet (2:30, 6:30) / Out Of The Past (4:30, 8:30)

June 24-25: My Name Is Julia Ross (4:10, 7:00) / Cause For Alarm! (5:30, 8:20)

June 26-27: The Killing (4:45, 8:00) / Breakdown (6:30)

June 28-29: Pickup On South Street (5:00, 8:20) / T-Men (6:35)

June 29 -30: Special Late-Night Screening: Screaming Mimi (10:00 - Separate Admission)

June 30-July 1: Le Cercle Rouge (3:20, 7:30) / Plunder Road (6:00)

July 2-3: Caught (4:45, 8:00) / The Reckless Moment (6:30)

July 4-5: The Brothers Rico (3:10, 6:45) / The Garment Jungle (5:00, 8:35)

Download (1.7mb) 18 noir wallpapers (1024*768 ) of scenes from 9 classic films noir :

Act Of Violence (new!)
Crisscross
Dark Passage
Double Indemnity (x3)
Force Of Evil
Lady From Shanghai (x3)
Out of The Past (x2)
The Killers (x4)
The Man Who Wasn’t There
The Taking of Pelham 123

I recommend the free Wallpaper Master application to manage wallpaper rotation on your PC desktop.

Update 4 Aug 07: I have added 5 new wallpapers. Contact me if you have a request for a wallpaper scene, and I will try to upload it here. Tony

Ten minutes into Out of the Past, when Jeff picks-up Ann for the trip to Lake Tahoe to meet with Whit, and during which Jeff begins to tell Ann about his mysterious past in flashback, Jeff opens the car door for Ann, and while he moves to the driver side and takes the wheel, the director, Jacques Tourneur, frames Ann alone inside the divided windscreen of the car for a full 10 seconds.

It is early morning and the scene is dark with foreboding, as Jeff’s past races to catch up with him. By framing Ann alone in the car, with the dividing upright of the car windscreen closing the frame and excluding Jeff from the scene, Tourneur precisely conveys the relationship as doomed.

This is a master craftsman at work.

Tourneur’s other Hollywood noirs include:

Experiment Perilous (1944)
Berlin Express (1948)
Nightfall (1957)

The Seattle Film Festival is bringing Noir City to Seattle for the first time. The festival is co-presented with and will benefit the Film Noir Foundation. Noir City denizen Eddie Muller who will introduce many of the screenings says:

If you want to study noir’s ‘existentialist deconstruction of the Judeo-Christian patriarchy’ good for you. If you’re coming to dig the vintage rides and vinegary repartee, to soak up the shadows and wallow in the wanton behavior, take a seat front and center.

The full program (wish I was in Seattle):

Thieves’ Highway Friday, July 6, 7:00 Directed by Jules Dassin

Deadline at Dawn Friday, July 6, 9:00 Directed by Harold Cluman

Pitfall Saturday, July 7, 2:00, 5:20, 9:00 Directed by André De Toth

Woman on the Run Saturday, July 7, 3:45, 7:10 Directed by Norman Foster

Desert Fury Sunday, July 8, 1:00, 5:05, 9:10 Directed by Lewis Allen

Leave Her to Heaven Sunday, July 8, 3:00, 7:00 Directed by John M. Stahl

99 River Street Monday, July 9, 7:10 Directed by Karlson Phil

Framed Monday, July 9, 9:00 Directed by Richard Wallace

I Love Trouble Tuesday, July 10, 7:00 Directed by S. Sylvan Simon

Pushover Tuesday, July 10, 9:00 Directed by Richard Quine

The Spiritualist Wednesday, July 11, 7:00 Directed by Bernard Vorhaus

Nightmare Alley Wednesday, July 11, 8:45 Directed by Edmund Goldberg

Scarlet Street Thursday, July 12, 7:00 Directed by Fritz Lang

Wicked Woman Thursday, July 12, 9:10 Directed by Russell Rouse

Hammer Film Noir Collector’s Set One (Re-release by CVI US$29.99)

In the early 50s, Hollywood studios approached Hammer executives about making mini-budget noir dramas for the American market. The six black-and-white films in the Hammer Film Noir Collector’s Set have noir themes:

Bad Blonde
Blackout
The Gambler and the Lady
Heat Wave
Man Bait
Stolen Face

The extras include trailers and World of Hammer featurettes.

Army of Shadows (L’Armee des Ombres) (1969) (New release by Criterion US$39.99)

A not-strictly-noir starring Lino Ventua and Simone Signoret, from noir director Jean-Pierre Melville, about the French Resistance in 1942. A Paris native, Melville’s noir credits include:

Quand Tu Liras Cette Lettre (1953)
Bob le Flambeur (1955)
Le Doulos (1962)
Le Samourai  (1967)
Le Cercle Rouge (1970)

Army of Shadows is an atmospheric work where danger lurks around every corner and even the slightest security breach means instant death. The 145-minute film did not have a US theatrical release until last year. The Criterion label is renowned for painstaking restorations and re-mastered prints. A second disc is loaded with extras.

Jonathan Rosenbaum’s Chicago Reader review on the film’s theatrical release in the US in May 2006, places Arm of Shadows in the noir catalog:

“I had trouble reconciling the realism of Army of Shadows with the mannerism of Melville’s noirs. But then I came across a review Dave Kehr wrote for the Reader in 1982 of The Silence of the Sea and Bob le Flambeur (1955), Melville’s first noir: Much of Melville’s work hangs on a paradox: in silent self-containment there is certainty, strength, and integrity, but also a kind of death; when the silence is broken, as it must be broken, life and emotion enter, only to destroy completely. Melville’s films are about the violation of closed worlds, a violation both necessary and fatal. Whether or not Kehr saw Army of Shadows before writing this, he perfectly captures what binds Melville’s noirs to his films about the war… ” More

Download these original radio broadcasts featuring the original cast and director’s commentary from mystery.otr.net:

Radio Film Noir Episode 13

Humphrey Bogart and Ida Lupino in the Screen Guild Theater’s production of High Sierra, April 17, 1947.

Radio Film Noir Episode 12
Orson Welles, reprises his role as Harry Lime, in The Adventures of Harry Lime, The Golden Fleece Oct 12, 1951.

Radio Film Noir Episode 11
The Lux Radio Theater production of The Third Man, starring Joseph Cotten, Apr 09, 1951.

Radio Film Noir Episode 10
The Screen Director’s Playhouse production of Life Boat, Nov 16, 1950.

Radio Film Noir Episode 9
The Maltese Falcon Jul 03, 1946 starring Humphrey Bogart and Sidney Greenstreet.

Radio Film Noir Episode 8

Radio Film Noir episode 8, presents Lux Radio Theater production of Gaslight starring Ingred Bergman and Charles Boyer, April 29, 1946.

Radio Film Noir Episode 7
Lux Radio Theater Manhattan Melodrama Sep, 09, 1946.

Radio Film Noir Episode 6
The Screen Director’s Playhouse version of The Big Clock, starring Ray Milland.

Radio Film Noir Episode 5
Screen Director’s Playhouse Spellbound Mar 08 1948 starring Joseph Cotton.

Radio Film Noir Episode 4
Burt Lancaster in the Screen Directors production of Criss Cross Oct 10, 1949.

Radio Film Noir Episode 3
The Lux Radio Theater production of The Woman In The Window Jun 25, 1945 starring Edward G Robinson.

Radio Film Noir Episode 2
Shadow of A Doubt starring Joseph Cotton from the Academy Award series Sep 11, 1946.

Radio Film Noir Episode 1

Screen Director’s Playhouse, The Killers Jun 05, 1949 starring Burt Lancaster and Shelly Winters.

Radio Detective Story Hour Episode 83 - Screen Director’s Playhouse

Newspaperman as detective as Jimmy Stewart (right) turns detective as he tries to solve a miscarriage of justice. A radio play based on Call Northside 777.