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

[bizarre_eye@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

Do Maltesers smell?

I just tend to pick up the little chocolate balls and suck em'.

Who would have thought that it would be the film noir thread where Dem finally admits to enjoying sucking balls.

[J Harker]

Originally Posted by bizarre_eye@Cult Labs

It was going quite cheap not long after release (about a tenner I think). Due to the limited nature of steelbooks they do tend to sell out and fetch silly money pretty quick. I regret not picking up The Treasure of the Sierra Madre steel when it was going for a reasonable price.

That's the one i really want. Goes for £50 for a new copy now.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

I regret not buying the Casablanca steel book now.

Sorry but i refuse to pay £20 for something i can't actually watch.

[Inspector Abberline]

Kiss of Death Blu Ray review on Mondo Digital.

kissdeath6.jpg



Kiss of Death

[Richard--W]

I'm waiting for John Huston's THE ASPHALT JUNGLE (1950) to get a hi-def transfer and a blu-ray release. A great big god of film noir, that movie is.

[Inspector Abberline]

Saboteur 1942

Saboteur has the hallmarks of a lot of early Alfred Hitchcock earlier films,innocent man wrongly accused of some sort of crime,goes on the run and tries to prove his innocence.Where as Hitchcock's movies seemingly got more cynical and bleaker,his earlier films still had an optimism that even the most guiltiest looking man could prove his innocence,( unlike in Frenzy where poor old Richard Blaney (Jon Finch) is thwarted at every turn when he tries to prove his innocence ).Barry Kane (Robert Cummings) is a factory worker at an aircraft factory,after bumping into a rather miserable co worker Norman Lloyd as Saboteur Frank Fry,the factory is set on fire and Robert Cummings as Barry Kane friend is killed in the blaze and Cummings is put into the frame for the fire.
Like most Hitchcock movies his films are always fillled with some real oddball characters.take Norman Lloyd as Saboteur Frank Fry,even though he is not on screen much more than a few minutes,his surly attitude and his sneering conceit of his co-workers makes him prime villain material.Then there's Otto Kruger as Charles Tobin as one of the head saboteurs a snobbish and elitist man seeking power .The power and brains behind the saboteurs is never actually revealed,there not referred to as Nazi's and there is no mention at all of anyone being from Germany,although obviously being set in the 1940's im assuming the enemy are supporters of a foreign power ,but they tend to act more like home grown terrorist's (with very rich supporters ) who are at odds with the government of the day. Still whoever the bad guys are working for they pretty much play to stereotype,either being cold hearted intellectuals or sneering weasel faced fifth columnist's.The ending is pure Hitchcock,with the saboteur about to plunge to his death of the statue of liberty,the hero Robert Cummings tries to rescue the saboteur Frank Fry from falling,only for the saboteurs sleeve to rip off and for him to fall to his death. Its that kind of twist,with Cummings spending the whole film on the run from saboteurs only to try and rescue his persecutor from death.Saboteur is a little to much like the 39 Steps to be considered one of his classics but still a good thriller.

[Inspector Abberline]

The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946)

As soon as John Garfields character gets dropped of outside the diner belonging to Lana Turner and her husband Nick played by Cecil Kellaway, and Garfield first lays eyes on Turner it’s not hard to see why Garfields character is instantly infatuated with Lana Turner. Of course there is always some sort of obstacle and its usually in the form of a husband, and it’s the classic older man with a trophy wife. Lana Turner as Cora has to be one of the sexiest screen performances in Noir cinema history, she is not the classic femme fatale, as her character Cora is seemingly trapped in a loveless marriage and see’s Frank as her way of escaping her hum drum existence. Of course when she suggests that they kill her husband after a remark that Frank had made, you do wonder if she plotting all this for her own selfish reasons or whether she really is in love with Frank. John Garfield gives a great performance, he is not the tough guy of Bogart or Cagney ,but he exudes a marvellous nervous energy and he seemingly seems to be sweating profusely as the plot thickens. Of course Lana Turner does not really have to do an awful lot to make most men droll down there chin, and Im sure plenty would kill for her and more. But that’s not to take anything away from Turner’s performance, she pretty much goes through all the emotional roller coaster ride of a woman trapped and looking to her escape her life. Written by James M.Cain there are several similarities between this and his other film Double Indemnity, but with Indemnity you know the man is being lead astray where as with Cora and Frank you realise that both parties are doomed due to there love for each other. A great story with a terrific ending,remade in the 1980’s but with abit more explicit sex,yes I know here we go again,it’s a classic noir.Hopefully will watch the remake and see how it compares.

[mr 420]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

Do Maltesers smell?

I just tend to pick up the little chocolate balls and suck em'.

So much temptation to make a joke, I must resist!

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

Do Maltesers smell?

I just tend to pick up the little chocolate balls and suck em'.

Originally Posted by mr 420

So much temptation to make a joke, I must resist!

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

I've never seen the original version of The Postman Always Rings Twice, Inspector. It's been in my wishlist for several years though.

I have seen the remake when i was a lot younger. It was one of those sexy romps that used to be on tv in the mid 80's. I haven't seen it since.