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Post by ash2 on Jun 28, 2006 11:39:09 GMT -5
When I think of "film" I think of Film Noir. To me everything else is just movies. This is a place to post your reviews of classic and forgotten film noirs and even neo-noirs.
The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946)
Don't let the title fool you this isn't some touchy feely romance from the 40s. In fact, I'm pretty sure small town ice-princess Martha Ivers (Babara Stanwyck) has never loved anyone.
The basic plot of the flim is that Sam Masterson (Van Herflin), crashes his car outside of his hometown of Iverston which he hasn't visited in 17 years.
After wondering around his old neighborhood he meets a mysterious girl Toni (Lizabeth Scott). Is she a "femme fatale?" All I'll say is that he falls for her and she ends up on the wrong side of the law.
But wait, Sam's old friend Walter O'Neil (Kirk Douglas in his first role), is the DA of the town now. And his wife is that's right Martha Ivers, the richest woman in town. I don't want to give anything away but, it seems she got all her aunt's money when her aunt was brutally murdered.
Walter finds out that Sam has a criminal record and becomes convinced Sam's going to blackmail him. Also, Walter can see how Martha looks at him, she still loves him.
From there it's non stop back-stabbing, betrayals and bar fights. These aren't the kind of people you'd want to be friends with but it makes great entertainment.
Walter comes across as a very sympathetic character. His love for Martha has led him to do many things he regrets. Martha tries to act sympathetic, but as portrayed by the cool and calculating Stanwyck, there is never any doubt in my mind that she's pure evil.
From a technical sense this movie had some great shots and good uses of shadows.
Overall I'd say that this is a forgotten classic and I bought the DVD for a dollar at K-mart. it's the b-side of the Kirk Douglas collection by pc treasures. So go out and get it.
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Post by Chuck on Jun 28, 2006 14:03:11 GMT -5
[glow=red,2,300]Detour[/glow]
Edgar G. Ulmer's VERY low budget, VERY nasty little film noir, that puts the fatale in femme fatale!
Shot for about $30,000 at a running time of 67 minutes, this story falls into place very quickly and efficiently. The performances of Tom Neal and Ann Savage are riveting.
Turner Classics has been showing it. If you see it on the schedule, catch it!
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Post by ash2 on Jun 28, 2006 15:13:07 GMT -5
Laura (1944)
Okay, so I read everywhere that this was a film noir classic. And I felt a little bit left out never having seen it. And the fact remains that no matter how I feel about the film, it is a classic. It has been studied and copied by dozens of people and I know David Lynch used a lot of the film's elements in Twin Peaks.
Otto Preminger who directed the film thought all the use of shadows in film noir was hack-ish and so visually Laura didn't really feel like noir to me. However, the plot is most certainly classic and the acting is great too.
The movie starts out with Det. Mark McPherson (Dana Andrews) investigating the murder of socialite, Laura Hunt (Gene Tierney). His suspects are Waldo Lydecker (Cifton Webb), a famous writer who had taken Laura under his wing and is a tad obsessed with her; Shelby Carpenter (Vincent Price) who Laura was engaged to, but he has been cheating on her and she might have found out; Ann Treadwell ( Judith Anderson) an older woman who clearly wants Shelby's attention.
Like all film noirs these are a motley crew. Any one of them would have done it and done it neatly and without hesitation if it served their purposes. McPherson's not sure who did it, but he's in Laura's apartment day and night, and he's staring at her picture and drinking. Lydecker catches on quickly " I never thought I'd see the day a man falls in love with a corpse."
Then halfway through the film and I'd stop reading now if you haven't seen the film....
Laura comes home from a weekend holiday. If she's not dead, who was murdered in her apartment and was wearing her clothes. And could it be that Laura herself is a suspect now?
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Post by ash2 on Jun 28, 2006 15:50:35 GMT -5
The Third Man (1949)
Holly Martins (Joseph Cotton), a writer of western paperback novels who has fallen on hard times comes to Vienna after the war because a friend Harry Lime (Orson Welles) promised him a job. This turns out, in the first five minutes of the film, to not be possible because it seems Lime was recently run over by a truck.
In fact Major Calloway of the English Police believes that Lime was involved in all sorts of smuggling and wrongdoings. Martins cannot believe his friend was a criminal and decides, not unlike one of the cowboy protagonists in his novels he’s going “to prove the lawman wrong.” Along the way he meets a host of strange characters and falls for Lime’s girl Anna Schmidt (Alida Valli).
The film noir idea of the city as a corruptor is featured heavily in this movie, but it works effectively here because Vienna is portrayed as a city still in disarray. The police force is divided into four groups; the Americans, English, Russian and French; and certain parts of the city have not been rebuilt since they were bombed in the war. In fact a partially bombed-out car still hasn’t even been cleared.
Spoilers below…
Guess what? Lime isn’t really dead. He is revealed to Martins in one of the classic scenes in all of film noir in terms of the use of shadows. Lime is completely engulfed in shadows but then someone in the neighborhood flips on a light and it’s as if a spotlight was thrown on Lime.
Welles doesn’t really have much screen time but the character he portrays is well defined. Lime sees himself as a opportunist and doesn’t feel at all guilty for his actions even if they led to people’s death. He’d say that if he didn’t do it someone else would. I hear that in typical Welles fashion he left before shooting all of his scenes so in some of the shots especially the second unit types ones like Lime’s hands coming out of the grate at the end of the film, it’s actually the director Carol Reed’s hands.
The tone of this film manages to stay fairly light even though the subject matter is very dark. This is because of the film’s zippy music and the fact that some scenes like the one where a child fingers Martins as a murderer, are played for there apparent absurdity.
Overall I think this one deserves its status as a classic.
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Post by Chuck on Jun 28, 2006 20:26:55 GMT -5
Ash2, I saw Third Man discussed on Tcm and apparently Welles' hand was all over the film, especially every scene he was in.
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Post by ash2 on Jun 29, 2006 6:23:54 GMT -5
Ash2, I saw Third Man discussed on Tcm and apparently Welles' hand was all over the film, especially every scene he was in. hmm? TCM said he helped direct? Wikipedia Many people erroneously believe that Welles directed the film himself, as the film's expressionistic photography is very reminiscent of his style. In interviews with Peter Bogdanovich, Welles states that outside of acting, his only contribution was the 'cuckoo clock' speech (This is Orson Welles, p. 220). |
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Post by mightyjack on Jun 29, 2006 7:11:25 GMT -5
Great movies being recommended here.
A guy I liked, who mixed Expressionism and Noir and was an early inspiration for Hitchcock, was Fritz Lang.
2 of his more pure Noir thrillers he made in 1945 with Joan Bennett and Edward G. Robinson - Scarlet Street and
The Woman in the Window.
Both are marvelous, perfectly directed and acted. This is some of Robinson's most heartfelt work.
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Post by ash2 on Jun 30, 2006 22:53:40 GMT -5
The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946)
Until I watched this movie, I figured it must have something to do with a postman. I imagined a murder in which an unsuspecting postal workers plays some sort of pivital role in a murder. Sadly I don't think this film has ever been made.
Instead we have this film which is basically Double Indemnity set at a diner. (James M. Cain wrote the novels both films are based on.)
Frank Chambers (John Garfield) is a hitchiker who got a ride with the local district attorney. This is your first sign that the DA is a little off. The DA drops him off at the Twin Oaks gas station/diner. Because back then it was okay to have the same guy pump gas and make hamburgers.
Anyway, the owner of the Diner, Nick, comes over to Frank and immediately knows he wants a job. I'm thinking this guy's either psychic or he doesn't get many customers.
It turns out Nick has a wife, Cora (Lana Turner), that could easily be his daughter. The only explanation for this given is that "He was in the right place at the right time" Some guys have all the luck.
Anyway, poor Nick is completely clueless that Cora and Frank are hot for each other. One night he begs Cora to dance with Frank. "I'd rather watch" he says.
It's not long before they both begin to think of Murder!
But just like in Indemnity, this movie asks the question, after you have commited a murder together, can you ever trust each other?
Not a bad movie, but it just didn't do it for me.
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Post by mightyjack on Jul 1, 2006 2:07:58 GMT -5
Ash2, I saw Third Man discussed on Tcm and apparently Welles' hand was all over the film, especially every scene he was in. hmm? TCM said he helped direct? Wikipedia Many people erroneously believe that Welles directed the film himself, as the film's expressionistic photography is very reminiscent of his style. In interviews with Peter Bogdanovich, Welles states that outside of acting, his only contribution was the 'cuckoo clock' speech (This is Orson Welles, p. 220). My book on him by Frank Brady (Citizen Welles) also states that he had limited influence on the direction. He did come up with the Cuckoo Clock speech - there was also a moment when he wanted to do a retake and when Reed balked, he threatened to walk. But the two worked it out, re shot the bit 10 times and Welles was pretty co-operative thereafter. |
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Post by ash2 on Jul 1, 2006 12:55:54 GMT -5
The Dark Mirror (1946)
Olivia de Havilland gives an amazing performance as both Terry and Ruth Collins, identical twins.
One of the two commited a murder the other is protecting her, but which one is which?
"It makes about as much sense to me as Chinese music" says porty cop Lt. Stevenson (Thomas Mitchell).
However, the true male lead is the Lemondrop loving Dr. Scott Elliot (Lew Ayres), an expert on twins. He begins to study the sisters and finds that he is in love with one of the sisters and that the other sister is insane.
My favorite scenes are when the evil sister begins to subtly torture the good sister in an attempt to drive her into madness.
Highly recommended; The director Robert Siodmak is arguably the greatest film noir director.
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