Film Noir Thread Batches!

edith headedith head 5,106 Posts
edited February 2016 in Off Topic (NRR)
i'm on a noir kickthese make me have a thing for cary grant:





these make me think robert mitchum is the most badass actor that ever lived:







something about embracing w/ gun in hand that is so sexy:



simply unfuckwittable:









i can't think of others so drop some of yr favorites
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  Comments


  • luckluck 4,077 Posts
    You know - the basics:

    -C. Kane
    -The Third Man
    -Rififi
    -The Stranger
    -Double Indemnity
    -The Maltese Falcon
    -Rebecca (noir of sorts)
    -M (Noir roots in German Exp.)
    -Chinatown (Noir seeds)
    -Sin City (Noir seeds)

    The best I've seen recently is the recent print of Melville's "Army of Shadows." Some holes, but what Noir is really airtight? Worth a viewing.

  • DjArcadianDjArcadian 3,632 Posts
    You're all dropping the ball again!



  • ReynaldoReynaldo 6,054 Posts


  • lamaslamas 39 Posts

    The best I've seen recently is the recent print of Melville's "Army of Shadows." Some holes, but what Noir is really airtight? Worth a viewing.

    you can't go wrong with Melville





  • Hotsauce84Hotsauce84 8,450 Posts
    How's this:



    I'm not up on noir at all, but a friend of mind recommended this and described it as such.

    Herm

  • luckluck 4,077 Posts
    One cannot truly call the below works "Noir," but the Nykvist camerawork, slightly surrealist bent, and moral weight add up to a mess of shared themes. Among, in my humble opinion, the best films ever made:




  • canonicalcanonical 2,100 Posts
    no love for Double Indemnity?







  • I was flying from Morrocco to Australia (ouch!!) with a moulded plastic poster of Alain Delon (see above)and I had to carry it on my lap all the way - the French air hostesses were so impressed they bumped me up to BUSINESS class!


    Bobby Mitchum is still the man though

  • motown67motown67 4,513 Posts
    Double Indemnity is THE all time greatest Film Noir to me.

  • soulmarcosasoulmarcosa 4,296 Posts



    Robert Ryan & Sterling Hayden

      





  • Did you watch the short Russian version on this DVD? Pretty fresh.

    I checked out Maltese Falcon a few months ago and put on your hatter hatts cause it didn't really do anything for me.

  • DjArcadianDjArcadian 3,632 Posts


  • dollar_bindollar_bin I heartily endorse this product and/or event 2,326 Posts
    no love for Double Indemnity?



    Oh, there's love, M-F'er! Barbara Stanwick, rrroowwwrrr! I used to have a crush on this girl and in retrospect I'm pretty sure it was only because she looked like Phyllis Dietrichson.

    Podcast peoples, you might want to check out Out of the Past. I recommend it with reservations, the two commentators can be a little odd and don't listen to any episodes for movies you haven't seen--spoilers abound. Other than that, it's a pretty good academic discussion of the genre.

    I don't want to try to list the canonical Noir list, plus so many have been listed that I don't need to recap, but here's my list of my favorite while-not-technically-noir-are-inspired-homages-and-variations:

    1) Rififi: Do foreign movies count as noir? The director was a blacklisted American. Easily one of the most perfect movies ever made.
    2) The Big Lebowski: Heavily inspired by the Big Sleep, and Chandler in general.
    3) Yojimbo/Fistfull of Dollars/Millers Crossing and numerous other retellings of Red Harvest (please do not mention the horrible Bruce Willis remake). Heavier on the violence/lighter on the femme fatale
    4) Brick: While over-stylized, I really enjoyed this one, still the best movie I've seen this year

    capping it at 4 this time.

  • SwayzeSwayze 14,705 Posts


  • SoulOnIceSoulOnIce 13,027 Posts
    OH YES, BATCHES -y'all in MY HOUSE now!

    Au*rey, you really liked Woman on the Run?
    I copped the DVD for cheap recently, and although I
    am a big fan of O'Keefe and Sheridan - and enjoyed
    them in the film - I thought the movie itself was pretty
    tepid. Here's one of my favorite exchanges from the
    movie, if only for the cabbie's voice:

    As for stuff on DVD, starting with the best:



    From Joseph E. Lewis, director of the more well-known - and incredible - Gun Crazy,
    and available on a budget DVD with a great print, The Big Combo may be the ultimate film noir.
    At least, if you agree that a certain low budget
    atmosphere is essential to the equation. With photography by John Alton, one of
    the most important figures in creating and perfecting the noir "style," and a
    plot that could only come from a dime paperback, this baby has it all - fine
    performances from leads and character actors, action, lust & paranoia.





    The Fox series that has recently been released has some gems - Nightmare
    Alley
    submitted by Rey above is certainly one of the best and a must-see.
    Fallen Angel is right up there, though - lots of wild characters, lots of shady dealings,
    uncontrollable passion and late-night rendezvous...and
    Linda Darnell is a dimepiece!

     



    Universal has a nice series of Noir on DVD - these 2 are based on novels by
    the great Cornell Woolrich - who also wrote the basis for a seemingly endless stream of films,
    from Hitchcock's Rear Window to the Banderas/Jolie sex
    romp Original Sin - these 2 films are Woolrich at his best, though,
    and have alot going for them. Phantom Lady includes a great turn by Noir mainstay
    Elisha Cook, Jr (see Maltese Falcon, Aspahalt Jungle, The Killing) in one
    of the most insane drumming/jazz scenes ever commited to film, and some deep
    deep photography. Black Angel has the always entertaining Dan Duryea as
    a washed-up drunken musician who may or may not have killed his wife while on
    a bender. A bit lighter than some Noirs, but satisfying nontheless, with fine
    performances, a tight little story and my main man Peter Lorre.






    Fritz Lang helped invent the Film Noir visual style, working in German
    expresionist cinema in the 20's, including what may very well be the first
    Noir evar, M, which starred Peter Lorre and is essential viewing.
    By the time of the actual Film Noir "era," he was still going strong, and
    most of his Noirs are available on DVD. Scarlet Street, which is actually
    a remake of a Jean Renoir film, is a tour-de-force of the genre, with stunning
    performances from everyone involved, including Dan Duryea & Joan Bennett as
    the most blatant pimp/prostitute pairing seen on film for decades! The great
    Edward G. Robinson is perfect as the pair's naive foil and dupe, and the dialogue
    is aces, "for cat's sake!" The same stars and director got together a couple years
    later and made a remake/variation on the same film, but with a more lighthearted,
    glamorous approach, Woman in the Window - worth seeing by all means
    but nowhere near the salacious pleasure that is Scarlet Street.
    The Big Heat stars Glenn Ford, well-known from the proto-noir Gilda,
    and he gives a nice turn as the idealistic cop who gets beat down by the forces
    of crime until he just can't take it anymore. Essential Lang and essential Noir -
    and featuring one of the most vital women of the genre, Gloria Grahame, as well
    as a young Lee Marvin as a vicious criminal. Other Lang noirs from the era include
    Beyond a Reasonable Doubt, While the City Sleeps, Human Desire, The Blue Gardenia
    and Clash by Night, all worth seeing.






    Anthony Mann, paired with the aforementioned John Alton as his photographer,
    made some of the ultimate low-budget Noir classics of the late 40's. While
    Raw Deal is a fascinating study of the criminal life and the seemingly
    unchangable path downward many people fimd themselves on, with great acting
    and incredible photography, I feel T-Men is an even better film, a total
    white-knuckle action film, seemingly devoid of women altogether, as we follow
    to treasury agents going undercover to crack a deadly counterfitting ring.
    One of the most tense scenes in all of cinema will have your heart skipping
    a beat, and the photography is the Noir style at it's absolute height.
    Anthony Mann also directed the great Border Incident, about illegal
    immigrant labor (and relevant today!), which is not on DVD but is shown sometimes
    on TCM.

    Also not on (official) DVD but worth finding is Night Fall,which was directed by Out of the Past auteur
    Jacques Tourneur and based on a novel by pulp master David Goodis,
    who wrote the novel that became the Bogart/Bacall early Noir Dark Passage.
    Another non-DVD entry to look out for is Ride the Pink Horse,
    a quiet little masterpiece starring the underrated Robert Montgomery
    caught up in some dirty dealings in a Mexican border town.

    I've got more, but this is getting ridiculous!

  • paulnicepaulnice 924 Posts
    Double Indemnity is #1 with a bullet on the top of my list.
    Just picked up that new 2 disc edition - beautiful.


    Other favorites...

    Sunset Blvd.
    Out of the Past
    Laura
    Ace In the Hole
    Sudden Fear
    Key Largo
    Gun Crazy


    Modern Day Noir Honorable Mention...

    The Grifters


    ...and cosizzle on Blade Runner - NOT the Director's Cut.
    Despite popular opinion, I love the gumshoe narrative. Works perfectly.


    Best Runner Up For Most Bizarro Noir/Horror Hybrid...

    Angel Heart

    (complete with Poughkeepsie reference)

  • JBCJBC 25 Posts
    Don't really have anything to add, but I saw The Third Man on the big screen, at the NFT, for the first time last Thursday. So neccessary.



  • PSellersPSellers 157 Posts
    I like most:

    "The Maltese Falcon"

    "The Big Heat"

    "Rififi"

    "D.O.A" is pretty good get it here for free

    "D.O.A"

    I think you can get "M" on The Archive too.

    I really want to see "Kiss Me Deadly" and "Night And The City"

    I hate all the film studies bullshit (I take film studies by the way )on classification of Film-Noir I call what I like Film-Noir I say

    A detour on Film-Noir here though everyone needs to see the film "Brief Encounter"

  • erewhonerewhon 1,123 Posts
    A bunch of good ones already mentioned, but I gotta add this gem:



  • JimsterJimster Cruffiton.etsy.com 6,954 Posts
    "Kiss Me Deadly" =

    So many fantastic things about this film, from the opening credits, to what is in the boot of the car.

    More "Noir" than Ice Cube and Dr. Dre being sucked into a velvet-lined black hole....

    "NWAAAAaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh (to infinity)"

  • Birdman9Birdman9 5,417 Posts
    Modern Day Noir Honorable Mention...

    The Grifters



    Don't forget "After Dark, My Sweet", also a Jim Thompson adaptation (and the best one IMO), and one of Bruce Dern's best performances. Also maybe the only time Jason Patric showed any real acting chops. One of my modern noir faves.



    Also, this is kind of a modern Noir satire, and well worth seeing

    Lena Olin as the Russian hitwoman is



    and what do folks think of the Mitchum as Philip Marlowe films "Farewell My Lovely" and "The Big Sleep"? I really enjoyed "Farewell My Lovely" as a more gritty remake of the classic "Murder My Sweet", but thought "The Big Sleep" had more to live up to than it could possibly muster. But Mitchum as a world-weary older Marlowe is still fun to watch, and you get to see Jim Thompson act!

  • Birdman9Birdman9 5,417 Posts
    And this flick is one I haven't seen in ages, but it stuck in my head

    Richard Widmark plays a great crazy heavy for such a scrawny guy. Highly recommended



  • Not traditionally considered part of the noir period (it didn't come out until 1959) but one of my all time favorite films:




    with a score by the Modern Jazz Quartet.

  • edith headedith head 5,106 Posts

    Did you watch the short Russian version on this DVD? Pretty fresh.

    I checked out Maltese Falcon a few months ago and put on your hatter hatts cause it didn't really do anything for me.

    now i haven't! i have to check that out my roommate has the dvd.

    i agree that Maltese Falcon is overrated.

  • edith headedith head 5,106 Posts

    Au*rey, you really liked Woman on the Run?
    I copped the DVD for cheap recently, and although I
    am a big fan of O'Keefe and Sheridan - and enjoyed
    them in the film - I thought the movie itself was pretty
    tepid.

    i can't believe what i'm hearing! i think ann sheridan has so many great witty lines in here. i like that she is so sassy and abrasive that the chief says "No wonder the world is full of bachelors!" i thought there were some good surprises, especially when the identity of Danny Boy is revealed. i thought dennis o'keefe's acting was great. i'm also a sucker for suspenseful climaxes that take place at the carnival/fair and i thought that was well done. maybe a huge part of me liking it is that i recognize a lot of those places since it was shot in san francisco, and also cause it's so romantic. the closing scene is of "laughing sally" and she is at the musee mechanique here but she's had a makeover:

    thanks for all the you mention a lot of titles i haven't heard of.

    i remember this being good although i am a little frightened of jack palance



  • white_teawhite_tea 3,262 Posts
    Per that Hitckcock thread, I Netflixed "Rope" and watched it last night. That movie was so GAY. Seriously -- those actors let it all hang out as far as the homoerotical not-so-underpinninngs of the story. Then I watched the making-of and learned that they wanted Cary Grant for the Jimmy Stewart role. That would have made it complete. I realize this is completely unrelated to this thread.

  • edith headedith head 5,106 Posts
    Then I watched the making-of and learned that they wanted Cary Grant for the Jimmy Stewart role. That would have made it complete.

    i don't think cary grant is fully gay, i think most biographers speculated that he was bisexual at best. poor archibald. i don't think he comes off gay in his movies, he's got that bizarre accent but it doesn't sound effeminate. i think grant is pretty awesome actually, i always wanted a debonair dude.

    speaking of debonair, ray milland



    this is a pretty good flick although i am reluctant to say it's a noir flick



  • Brick is the shit. So is Angel Heart.

    Does Mickey Rourke's presence in a movie automatically make it "noir-ish"? Just asking.



  • Don't forget the Lady from Shanghai. The fun house gun battle at the end is sick!
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