#211
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Looking forward to reading them. |
#212
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Slightly sub-per weekend double bill - Fear in the Night (1947) - The old 'was it a dream' chestnut given an overwrought, fatally po-faced early outing. Admittedly the print I watched was awful do my thoughts aren't definitive but I found this a bit of a plod with some wooden acting and on the cheap visuals. 1947 a good year for rooms of mirrors but Lady of Shanghai this ain''t Scrapes a 6-10. Tomorrow Is Another Day (1951) - This starts off great - Steve Cochrane, one of my fav noir heavies (especially Highway 301 and The Chase) is released after 18 years in the jug. At a dime a dance hall he meets blonde cynic Ruth Roman. Classic noir set-up right? Sadly it all goes pear shaped - after the inevitable murder, we drift into a lovers on the lam scenario with Cochrane done up like James Dean and Roman a bucolic brunette., a cute kid and sone hale and hearty bumpkins appear. No tension, no interesting character development. Plot proceeds on periodic use of the photo in the paper/magazine cliche - lazy writing in other words. The ending is the final insult. I say avoid, and check out They Live By Night to see how this material should be done. 4/10. Hopefully better fare soon! Last edited by Handyman Joe; 15th November 2015 at 09:50 AM. |
#213
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The Long Goodbye (1973)
The Long Goodbye Robert Altman's version of Raymond Chandlers The Long Goodbye,has shabby down on his luck cat loving Private investigator Phillip Marlowe (Elliott Gould) help his friend Jim Bouton as Terry Lennox to get to Tijuana on his return the police arrest Marlowe for helping Lennox escape after he is accused of murdering his wife.There starts a classic noir storyline mystery,double cross and seedy characters abound. The Phillip Marlowe of the 1940s is a world away from 1973 which the character is ceremoniously dumped into.A world of hippy communes and health concious joggers,while Marlowe still puffs away on cigarettes and probably pours whiskey on his cornflakes.Elliott Gould must of been an off the wall choice for Marlowe but his rambling and constant muttering to himself while deflecting the advances of the police and gangsters with a sarky wit,is pretty much the main stay of modern action films.Elliot Gould is pretty impressive in this film,with his wise ass quick fire dialogue whenever he's being interrogated and the way he run rings around his enemies. Adapted by screenwriter Leigh Brackett from the Chandler novel, apparently it takes a few liberties with the novel,mainly due to the novel being to long to adapt for one film.Theres a great cast of oddball characters including Sterling Hayden as writer Roger Wade,who;s a drunk and a violent one in the style of Hemmingway.Then there's Mark Rydell as Marty Augustine who is the seedy gangster of the piece,in what must be the meanest piece of cinema he smashes a bottle into his girlfriends face just to show what could happen to Marlowe,and with a coldness he says "That's someone I love. You, I don't even like.".What is even creepier is that he later apologies to her even tho her whole head is in traction.The noir genre is something we tend to only think was made in the 40's but its fair to say its shadows and dark streets have permeated there way down thru the years. out of 5
__________________ Always forgive your enemies, nothing annoys them so much.. |
#214
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Quote:
I can't remember: is it this or Marlowe that has Bruce Lee show up for a bit too?
__________________ "We're outgunned, and undermanned. But, you know somethin'? We're gonna win. You know why? Superior attitude. Superior state of mind." |
#215
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yeah Bruce lee is in Marlowe with James Garner,Marlowe hints that Bruce is abit gay tries to kick Marlowe but dives over the side of the building instead,he also had a great scene smashing up Marlowes office while Garner sits there just smoking.
__________________ Always forgive your enemies, nothing annoys them so much.. |
#216
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Thieves' Highway. (1949) Until last Sunday i'd never seen a film directed by Jules Dassin. Rififi was excellent but i think i preferred this. Starring Richard Conte as an American GI home at the end of WW2 vowing revenge on the unscrupulous San Francisco traders and truckers who crippled and robbed his father. Thieves' Highway is a film that grabs you in the first few minutes and hurtles straight into it's hard bitten plot. There's no filler here, no let up for breath in this at times mean spirited noir. It's violent, people get properly beaten up, someone is burned alive, a man gets his hand crushed to a bloody pulp, i can imagine audiences being shocked at some of the scenes back when it hit cinemas. Naturally the direction is flawless from Dassin as is the acting. Conte and femme fatale Valentina Cortese have a great smoldering chemistry and Lee J Cobb sneers as only he knows how. Highly recommended. |
#217
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Pulp 1972
Pulp 1972 [voice-over] I am famous for such books as "My Gun is Long". I have many aliases. I am authors Susan Eager and Paul S. Coming. I am those and others. I am Paul Strong, Gary Rough and Les B. Han. Michael Caine has made alot of films in his long career,he's also made alot of bloody shite ones too,but you can forgive him because in the good ones The Ipcress File and The Man who would be King he's bloody blow the bloody doors off brilliant.Pulp directed Mike (Flash Gordon) Hodges is a rather marvellous homage to gangster films,old Hollywood and Raymond Chandler and his ilk.Michael Caine is Mickey King a sleazy pulp novelist who glorifies in violent stories and smutty innuendo and sometimes goes under the psydenum "S. Odomy" and writes such novels as My Gun Is Long .He's Offered a lucrative ghost writing job by his publisher to write the biography of old time Hollywood star and wannabe gangster Preston Gilbert (Mickey Rooney). Rooney is marvellous as the egotistic and vane star who tries to impresss King with his stories of love life and mixing it with the underworld.Filmed on the island of Malta it has a very Euro feel to it but still has that Noir flavour with its story of revenge and a secret that has been uncovered.King has to navigate thru many an eccentric character including Al Lettieri as Miller who may or may not be a cross dressing hitman,Dennis Price doing his usual camp party piece while reciting Alice in Wonderland, Lionel Stander as Ben Dinuccio Rooneys henchman and of course Max from Hart to Hart and Robert Sacchi who is the man with bogeys face.This is by no means a proper Noir film,but it does give plenty of nods to the whole pulp detective genre and stories, especially with Caine's voice over that gives the viewer an insight into the character's thought's. Its a very witty film with plenty of oddball characters and Mike Hodges balances comedy with this great detective thriller, would make a great double bill with the film Gumshoe.. out of 5
__________________ Always forgive your enemies, nothing annoys them so much.. Last edited by Inspector Abberline; 16th November 2015 at 07:54 PM. |
#218
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Woman On the Run (1950) - here's a brilliant little film desperately needing rescued from public domain hell. The Alpha Video copy I watched was bloody awful (still not as bad as Too Late For Tears though!) but still the quality shone through. A great B cast - Robert Keith, Ann Sheridan, Dennis O'Keefe are given snappy, rapid fire dialogue and a tight suspenseful plot (murder witness is pursued by estranged wife/cop/dog/killer) and have a ball. These's crazy expressionistic camera angles and off beat imagery a plenty culminating in a great fairground climax. Even the humour fizzes rather than clunks - I would be all over a remastered version of this one. 7.5/10 for The Picture, 3/10 for the picture.
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#219
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BREAKING NEWS...BREAKING NEWS...BREAKING NEWS.... The body of Cult Labs moderator Bizarre_Eye was found down a mean street in downtown Chicago this evening. Inspector Abberline from Chicago PD had this to say. Quote:
Demdike, a fellow moderator at Cult Labs paid tribute. Quote:
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#220
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I've got quite the back-log to get through - I've watched seven films since my last update in the thread; Suspicion being one of them and that even though made the TSPDT? Top 250 isn't exactly what I'd call Noir - just as you initially stated, Dem. Between being busier at work (I can usually find time to write up a brief review of my viewings) and suffering from a migraine most of Sunday and carrying the after effects over to today I haven't been able to watch as many films as I would have liked thus far sadly (13 in total in 16 days) let alone written anything about them. I'll attempt and get caught up this week, but here is a rundown my viewing thus far: |
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