Film Noir

Written by Steve-O Note: This week I've double dipped taking a second look at Out of the Past and Criss Cross. I always find the music in film noir interesting. Unlike self-conscious noirs like Farewell, My Lovely and Body Heat , most noir soundtracks are orchestral – not jazz. The slow wailing saxophone over a Robert Mitchum voice-over can be found in noir parodies like the Guy Noir segments of A Prairie Home Companion. Strangely enough, that kind of music track is never actually heard in classic film noir. With some exceptions ( Odds Against Tomorrow , for example) jazz and other forms of ... Read Full Story

“After all the assorted prizefight pictures that have been paraded across the screen—after all the pugs and muggs and chorus girls and double-crosses and last-round comebacks that we've seen—it hardly seemed likely that another could possibly come along with enough zing and character to it to captivate and excite us for two hours. Yet Body and Soul has up and done it...” That's how Bosley Crowther begins his 1947 review of the first great boxing movie. There are plenty of boxing movies with similar structures before Body and Soul – including the now hopelessly dated Golden Boy and the wonderful but schmaltzy City for ... Read Full Story

The second part of our Greatest Film Noir of All Time poll is complete! The selection for film noir from 1946-1949 was loaded with great movies so I’m sure many had trouble picking a favorite. 1. Out of the Past Coming in first is what’s now considered the best noir by most (surprising since 15 years ago it probably wouldn’t make the top ten). The movie’s filled with great performances and a wonderful twisty story. The best part: The chemistry between Robert Mitchum and Jane Greer. It was hotter than an Acapulco summer afternoon.   2. The Big Sleep Second is The Big Sleep ... Read Full Story

Editor's note: This week's film noir is written by Ginger - a writer and classic film lover. Her blog - Asleep in NY - is lots of fun. This week she tackles Fritz Lang's last film noir. *** By Ginger Ingenue Released in 1956, and directed by Fritz Lang -- a man all too familiar with film noir, and one of its earliest predecessors, German Expressionism. Lang delivers a disappointing entry, which proved to be his last American film. Dana Andrews , another veteran of noir, stars as Tom Garrett, a novelist who recently got famous for his first publication. Now his editor wants ... Read Full Story

[Editor's Note: The review of "Where The SideWalk End" was written by Donna.... and was used with the "permission" of Gary S. from The Midnight Palace....] Where the Sidewalk Ends (1950): Directed by Otto Preminger, Starring Dana Andrews, Gene Tierney, Gary Merrill, Bert Freed, Tom Tully, Karl Malden, Ruth Donnelly and Craig Stevens. B&W. Where the Sidewalk Ends is a film that is considered a part of the genre of film noir from the 1940's & 1950's, which corresponded to the events occurring during WWII as well as the war weary veterans who were trying to adjust to civilian life again. While most of ... Read Full Story

Posted by Steve-O Apology for Murder is not a great movie. However, the film does give viewers a glimpse into how films (especially B-movies) were green-lighted in the 1940s. Double Indemnity was released in 1944 and made movie history. It wasn't the first film noir but it was and still is one of the best. If you're ever stuck trying to explain to someone what film noir is, pop Double Indemnity into the DVD player and have them get comfortable. The twisty plot told with razor-sharp dialog (courtesy of James M. Cain and screenwriters Raymond Chandler and director Billy Wilder) was jaw dropping in ... Read Full Story

Editor's note: This review is written by Thomas C. Renzi. Tom has written a book on noir writer Cornell Woolrich called Cornell Woolrich from Pulp Noir to Film Noir. He compares the Woolrich book or short story to the films that were made based on them. Being a big Woolrich fan I found the study compelling. In this article he writes about Fear in the Night . Renzi mentions that this particular film has a homosexual subtext. Honestly, I never noticed it in the half-dozen times I've seen it. His book also goes into detail about the 1956 remake Nightmare with Edward G. Robinson. ... Read Full Story

Posted by Bogeyman Road House , the fifth and last of the noirs directed by Jean Negulesco is unquestionably his best effort in the genre. That is, if we are in fact comfortable with the film itself taking a spot upon the shelves with other more hard-boiled offerings. So the first question for this reviewer is; is Road House film noir or your typical love triangle drama? A number of the quintessential elements of noir are missing from Road House . Perhaps the most noticeable being the absence of the gritty urban landscape we generally associate with noir. The closest we ever get to ... Read Full Story

Editor's note: The Lost Weekend . A film noir. Before you go shooting me off an angry email about what “film noir is” a bit of history. In summer 1946, with the war ended and American films once again appearing on Paris movie screens, several French critics became immediately attracted to certain dark movies with arresting visuals and a focus on psychology. French writers figured out what to call them. Nino Frank, writing for a French film journal, dubbed the movies film noir. The term was deliberately analogous to roman noir used to describe American “hard boiled” fiction. ( Série noire was the title ... Read Full Story

Written by clydefro (editor's note: You can check out clydefro's blog here ) Film noir has always been predicated on the loss of innocence. There’s an inherent cynicism, a battered degree of expectation, that goes hand in hand with noir. It tends to be the only reliable area of film where we know, with almost extreme certainty, that bad things will happen to characters we like. If there’s a happy ending in noir it’s false and studio-mandated. If there’s any seed of hope left by the final credits the burgeoning distrust we’ve wrapped around our eyes refuses to fully buy in to the result. ... Read Full Story