Following my previous post on Jean Delannoy’s sexy and funny noir adventure-melodrama, Macao, L’enfer Du Jeu (aka Gambling Hell 1939), I want to share a delicious Ernst Lubitsch like scene from the movie featuring a mischievous Erich von Stroheim as the gun-runner Werner von Krall, and the utterly beguiling Mireille Balin as the cabaret dancer Mireille. The background [...]
No colors anymore I want them to turn black Electric stars on main street No moonlight A desert wilderness of concrete and steel Sphinx cars abandoned relics of broken dreams gravestones for lost souls
Part of the fun of having an interest in old movies is discovering an obscure title. Full Confession is so obscure that I could find only one frame and a lobby card on the Web, and no posters. It is not on DVD and while TCM has the movie in its catalog, it is not [...]
“I don’t do much business with preachers” Ray Milland is Lucifer, alias Nick Beal ‘Agent’, who, with the help of b-girl Audrey Totter goes shopping for the soul of honest DA and aspiring governer Thomas Mitchell. Add to the mix smart direction from John Farrow, a killer script from Jonathon Latimer, superb noir lensing by [...]
For Else Stoned, immaculate Siren for a delicious purgatory a wanton butterfly she flutters wings that beckon to a bed of lurid bliss She mopes she languishes she swoons she formulates a trajectory to the stars from the milky way of her bosom to the glistening ivory of her ice cold thighs A gambit for [...]
When I Was Little I Used to Write Letters to God I’ll die with this pen in my hand if I have to I will not call out your name one more time Destroy everything and set fire to every lie has ever been told to you So lets dance tonight and leave this world [...]
In Your Mind In your mind, in your mind One foot on Jacob’s ladder And one foot in the fire And it all goes down in your mind Living at the bottom of the stairs in your life Never a smile knocking on your door The air is blue and so are you Prehistoric monsters [...]
In this early Jean Renoir film with a magically delicious femme-noir and a brilliant car chase at night, were sewn the seeds of French poetic realism that flourished later in the 30s in the films of Marcel Carné and others. La Nuit de Carrefour is a largely faithful adaption of Georges Simenon’s gloomy pulp policier [...]
In Jean Delannoy’s sexy, funny, and uber dark adventure-melodrama, Macao, L’enfer Du Jeu (aka Gambling Hell 1939), starring a charming Erich von Stroheim as an arms dealer, the luminous Mireille Balin as a cabaret dancer, and the suave but sinister Sessue Hayakawa as a racketeer, the spin of the roulette wheel offers no escape nor [...]
“As different as the street language of the gangster, detective, or newspaper film is from the high society chatter of the screwball comedy, all these genres are characterized by a rapid-fire delivery, a lovely zippy rhythm. In all cases, it is a cinema that has a buoyant energy and expresses that energy in a rapid, [...]
This scene from Anthony Mann’s 1947 noir, Desperate, never fails to send a shiver down my spine. A wonderful example of collaborative artistry: a fusion of elements so elegant it ranks with the greatest scenes from any noir. Full credits are listed after the video. Studio: RKO (73 min) Directed by Anthony Mann Writing credits: [...]
In Jean Delannoy’s sexy, funny, and uber dark adventure-melodrama, Macao, L’enfer Du Jeu (aka Gambling Hell 1939), starring a charming Erich von Stroheim as an arms dealer, the luminous Mireille Balin as a cabaret dancer, and the suave but sinister Sessue Hayakawa as a racketeer, the spin of the roulette wheel offers no escape nor [...]
Dead Reckoning (1947 Columbia 100min) It is as if at a meeting at Columbia Pictures in early 1946 it was decided to make a ‘film noir’. John Cromwell’s Dead Reckoning (1947) is so noir it is a parody of noir: they threw the then non-existent book at the film and produced a glorious pastiche of [...]
“Mister… What does it mean when a man crashes out?” “Crashes out? That’s a funny question for you to ask now, sister. It means he’s free.” “Free… free” High Sierra (1941) Screenplay by John Huston and W.R. Burnett based on the novel by W.R. Burnett
Act of Violence (1948) Dir: Fred Zinnemann | DP: Robert Surtees | Locale: Los Angeles
Knock on Any Door (1949 – US) Nick Ray directs Bogart as a lawyer with a social conscience, but the closing sermon to jurors is hammered and too late. A young John Derek impresses as a hood on a murder rap. Bogart is disengaged in this minor Ray, which could have been great. Unusually for [...]
Foggy night in New Bedford Massachusetts January 1941 Jack Delano – US Office of War Information
Promises (1996) Promises given And promises broken Words stain my lips Just like blood on my hands And words are like poison That sinks down inside you And some things you do You just don’t understand I offer no reason I ask for no pity I make no excuse For the way that I am [...]
Ray Milland in Billy Wilder’s The Lost Weekend (1945) The floor is strewn with empty bourbon bottles. You’re shaking. You stare at the bottom of the empty glass and see only a vision of hell – your face. Your insides are aching and your throat is burning. You need a drink. Water won’t put out [...]