Down These Mean Streets A Man Must Go - The Film Noir Thread

[bdc]

I thought the original theatrical version of Blade Runner was certainly noirish...
Future Noir?

But I'm getting a bit off-topic...

[Make Them Die Slowly]

Originally Posted by Slippery Jack

Saw Kiss Me Deadly earlier in the year - blew me away (like a nuclear blast ...)!!! Grabbed the Criterion straight after the first viewing. I'm on the lookout now for noir as nutty as that . . .

I can't think of any film that is as barmy as "Kiss Me Deadly" but the last book in James Ellroy's L.A. Quartet, "White Jazz" has the relentlessness of KMD.

The four books in the series are:

The Black Dahlia
The Big Nowhere
L.A. Confidential
White Jazz

I can't praise these books enough, Ellroy was on fire when he wrote them.

I'd also recommend Ellroy's autobiographical work, "My Dark Places" which is a heady mix of Ellroy's memoirs and an investigation into his mother's murder. Ellroy comes across as a complete madman, openly confessing to breaking into women's homes to steal drugs and sniff panties in his youth, to ruthlessly exploiting his mother's murder to gain publicity as he started out as a writer.

@bdc, Future Noir sounds cool, you can see the visual influence of FN in a lot of films, though not so much the main themes.

@Demdike, the James Ellroy books mentioned above are a good place to start on modern hardboiled fiction but for older stuff I'd go for Charles Williams, "Dead Calm" is one of his, James .M McCain, "The Postman Always Rings Twice" is a great sparse read, and Jim Thompson.

[platostotal]

In a kinda on topic way, may I recommend the BBC radio versions of Raymond Chandler's novels with Ed Bishop(Cmdr Straker himself) as Marlow, at 90mins each they bring 40s America to life in grand style. Radio 4xtra repeats em every so often, think there is six in total.

[Demoncrat]

No love for Detour?
this is a belter by Jacques Tournier.

[the blob]

I do like a bit of Noir myself too. I have about 30 or so and that barely skims the surface. The film that got me into it though was seeing Double Indemnity on TV many many years ago and that probably still remains my favourite, although it's closely run by Sunset Boulevard and The Maltese Falcon. To be honest, I can't think of one I've seen that I haven't enjoyed in one way or another, even the ones that border more on melodrama in parts.

Good to see Out Of The Past get a mention because that's a corker!

One of it's most notable aspects as a film genre though and one of the reasons why there are so many good ones is the wealth of directorial talent that dabbled in it's prime. Alfred Hitchcock, John Huston, Otto Preminger, Jacques Torneur, Orson Welles, Fritz Lang, Robert Wise, Stanley Kubrick...

That's one formidable list!

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Make Them Die Slowly

@Demdike, the James Ellroy books mentioned above are a good place to start on modern hardboiled fiction but for older stuff I'd go for Charles Williams, "Dead Calm" is one of his, James .M McCain, "The Postman Always Rings Twice" is a great sparse read, and Jim Thompson.

Laughing to myself here.

When i said i had never read any noir i was thinking authors from the early 20th century, Chandler etc.

I actually have all Ellroy's books up to The Cold Six Thousand which i got signed at an instore book signing at Waterstones in Manchester.

His signature is like a 3 on its side, (not an E) with a long tail. A bit poor really.

[Criterion7]

I think Narrow Margain is one of the best and most under-rated film noire out there.
Anyone who hasn't picked up the Warner film noire sets or the fox film noir DVDs really should.

[oaxaca]

I've seen the 1990 version of Narrow Margin starring Gene Hackman & Anne Archer. I assume its kind of based on the original film anyway. It was decent but pretty derivative, more of a thriller than a noir.

One early 90s film to check out is China Moon. Stars Ed Harris, Charles Dance and Madeline Stowe; three of Hollywood's best. Very much a modern noir, similar to Body Heat. Fantastic atmosphere via locations and the score. Highly recommended to noir fans.

[oaxaca]

Originally Posted by bizarre_eye@Cult Labs

Out of the ones I've seen, my favourite noir is probably Kiss Me Deadly, although as a starting point the Criterion Blu is pricey (DVDs are readily available, however!). It's also quite uncoventional for a noir.

The Asphalt Jungle, Double Indemnity, The Maltese Falcon, and The Third Man are also excellent and fairly easy to pick-up.

The most main-stream (and widely available noir) is probably Chinatown (I'm guessing you've probably seen this one, though?): An excellent film, although the noir 'golden age' was definitely in the 1940s and 1950s, imo.

Unbelievably I haven't seen Chinatown before despite claiming to be a huge Polanski fan. That's one I'm definitely picking up soon. I've been meaning to watch more Bogart films too, he's a cracking actor. Dead End, Key Largo, Dead Reckoning, The Big Sleep, etc are films I must watch when I get the chance.

[Criterion7]

Originally Posted by oaxaca

I've seen the 1990 version of Narrow Margin starring Gene Hackman & Anne Archer. I assume its kind of based on the original film anyway. It was decent but pretty derivative, more of a thriller than a noir.

One early 90s film to check out is China Moon. Stars Ed Harris, Charles Dance and Madeline Stowe; three of Hollywood's best. Very much a modern noir, similar to Body Heat. Fantastic atmosphere via locations and the score. Highly recommended to noir fans.

The 1990 remake has absolutely nothing on the brilliant original. If you haven't seen the 1952 Film you owe it to yourself to do so. Definitely one of the best of the genre. Listen to the commentary track as well and hear about just well regarded this film is by film noir enthusiasts.

Comparing it to its remake is like trying to compare Kiss of Death to its remake or Psycho to its.