love

Author Topic: Noirvember Group Marathon 2017  (Read 18252 times)

pixote

  • Administrator
  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 34237
  • Up with generosity!
    • yet more inanities!
Re: Noirvember Group Marathon 2017
« Reply #90 on: November 30, 2017, 07:02:44 PM »


In a Lonely Place  (Nicholas Ray, 1950)

I still don't fully like this ode to toxic masculinity and don't fully understand why it's generally so highly regarded. Half the film feels like a sitcom. The other half is another one of those is-the-man-I-love-a-murderer? films (Suspicion, etc), the resolution of which doesn't matter because Bogart's Dixon Steele is a dick either way (as that name suggests).

I'm generally unimpressed with 1950s Hollywood cynicism — especially about itself — and that's certainly the case here, with that tone feeling rather rote and cartoonish, filled with caricatures lifted from the walls of Sardi's. Bogart and Grahame both have their moments — including some really good moments — but I find their performances more uneven than reputation would suggest. Bogart is given to overacting severely at times, while Grahame's performance sometimes seemed to exist in too narrow a spectrum, without enough modulation. Her relationship with her butch lesbian masseuse is certainly interesting, however.

I could have used more Hadda Brooks.

Grade: B-

Up next: Panic in the Streets

pixote
« Last Edit: November 30, 2017, 07:04:46 PM by pixote »
Great  |  Near Great  |  Very Good  |  Good  |  Fair  |  Mixed  |  Middling  |  Bad

pixote

  • Administrator
  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 34237
  • Up with generosity!
    • yet more inanities!
Re: Noirvember Group Marathon 2017
« Reply #91 on: November 30, 2017, 08:03:51 PM »






























Panic in the Streets  (Elia Kazan, 1950)

There's a scene early on in Panic in the Street where a coroner, examining a dead body, casually makes lunch plans with a colleague while, in the background and without comment, a woman can be seen identifying another corpse. That combination of the macabre and the mundane represents everything that's right about this movie.

I heard or read that, with this film, Kazan made a concerted effort to become a more visual film director, taking queues from Ford and Welles. The effort really paid off. His growth as a filmmaker in the five years between A Tree Grows in Brooklyn and Panic in the Streets is really impressive. I suspect that shooting on location was a strong catalyst, breaking the connection between the theatrical stage and the sound stage and forcing him to see the space of each scene differently. The long takes in Panic in the Streets are especially well done, as are the compositions in depth.

As with It Always Rain on Sunday, the strong noir elements of the first act (a hunt by the railroad) and the last act (the brutal, visceral tossing of a mattress; the chase through the wharf) make the middle act seem a bit mundane by comparison. The outbreak story starts with more promise than it actually delivers, featuring too much shoe leather and not enough actually investigative or clinical process. I would have expected the scenes of Richard Widmark's home life to be an unwelcome diversion from the main plot, but his scenes with wife Barbara Bel Geddes and the kid from Lassie (Tommy Rettig) create a lovely counterpoint tone thanks to strong writing and very good performances. Less successful is the bickering partner shtick between Widmark and Paul Douglas. The latter never felt at home in the picture to me, which has more to do with the character as written than the performance (though I didn't love either).

What a screen debut for Walter Jack Palance. He's nonchalantly a completely dominating physical presence on film, and he runs from hot to cool perfectly; an excellent noir presence. Zero Mostel is equally vibrant as his sweaty sidekick. Surrounded by such talent, the many non-actors in the cast really stand out in unfortunate ways.

Grade: B

Up next: Edge of Doom

pixote
« Last Edit: November 30, 2017, 08:05:26 PM by pixote »
Great  |  Near Great  |  Very Good  |  Good  |  Fair  |  Mixed  |  Middling  |  Bad

1SO

  • FAB
  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 36129
  • Marathon Man
Re: Noirvember Group Marathon 2017
« Reply #92 on: November 30, 2017, 09:07:21 PM »
I love The Heiress! I haven’t seen Robin Hood since I was a kid, so I’ll make that my next de Havilland film.

“Fun noir” :) Now that’s my kind of noir!
Robin Hood is worth watching for many reasons. de Havilland gets shoved behind the manly action but her chemistry with Errol Flynn is one of the film's many, many charms. I would like to put on your radar It's Love I'm After, which stars Leslie Howard and Bette Davis. It's a screwball comedy with Olivia de Havilland in a major supporting role as a lovestruck fangirl.

I should give you a list of Fun Noir, but one that jumps out is Alias Nick Beal, starring Thomas Mitchell, Audrey Totter and Ray Milland as a mischievous devil.


Too Late for Tears  (Byron Haskin, 1949)

I hope fans of this film have all taken the time to watch the restored version.

Grade: B
One of my favorites and I'm glad you caught the restored version. I never thought they'd get around to it, but it's a glorious transfer of a real gem. I always expect pushback on DeFore's character because it's not placed on the usual story beats, but it's one of my favorite aspects too. Really glad you caught up with this one.


Panic in the Streets is another favorite, and I agree with you about the visuals. I normally associate Elia Kazan with more highbrow material, but putting his stamp on pulp like this is like when Demme did Silence of the Lambs. I also love the evil being connected to a dangerous health outbreak. This month I watched The Killer That Stalked New York, which also had a health scare. It's not as polished and professional as Kazan, but the idea works. I'd say I just like Outbreak stories because I used to own 1995's Outbreak, but Contagion bucks the trend.

Sandy

  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 12075
  • "The life we build, we never stop creating.”
    • Sandy's Cinematic Musings
Re: Noirvember Group Marathon 2017
« Reply #93 on: December 01, 2017, 12:26:53 AM »
In a Lonely Place has never sat well with me. Not because of the doomed romance, but because I couldn't tell if I was supposed to somehow root for them, when all I wished is for her to run away very fast.

pixote, your reviews and snapshots have been excellent and are rapid fire! You have outdone yourself.


Robin Hood is worth watching for many reasons. de Havilland gets shoved behind the manly action but her chemistry with Errol Flynn is one of the film's many, many charms. I would like to put on your radar It's Love I'm After, which stars Leslie Howard and Bette Davis. It's a screwball comedy with Olivia de Havilland in a major supporting role as a lovestruck fangirl.

I should give you a list of Fun Noir, but one that jumps out is Alias Nick Beal, starring Thomas Mitchell, Audrey Totter and Ray Milland as a mischievous devil.

I'm always happy with your recommendations, 1SO. I'll add these to my watchlist right now. I'm trying to picture Howard and Davis in a screwball comedy, but after seeing Of Human Bondage, I'm having a hard time doing so!

DarkeningHumour

  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 10453
  • When not sure if sarcasm look at username.
    • Pretentiously Yours
Re: Noirvember Group Marathon 2017
« Reply #94 on: December 01, 2017, 09:17:04 AM »
In a Lonely Place has some of the best dialogue.
« Society is dumb. Art is everything. » - Junior

https://pretensiouslyyours.wordpress.com/

pixote

  • Administrator
  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 34237
  • Up with generosity!
    • yet more inanities!
Re: Noirvember Group Marathon 2017
« Reply #95 on: December 02, 2017, 09:16:48 PM »


Edge of Doom  (Mark Robson, 1950)

Interesting to learn after the fact that this film's bookend scenes and narration (with Dana Andrews telling the story to another priest) were added after initial audiences seemed to reject the bleak pessimism of the original film. It's a shame a director's cut doesn't exist because those additions really sabotaged the whole experience for me.

Even with those changes, Edge of Doom remains a very bleak movie, one that goes overboard in its portrait of an unsympathetic world. Every time Farley Granger tells another character that his mother has just died, it merits a shrug, at best.

I've been a bit of an apologist for Granger in the best, but his performance is one of many here that's problematic. Only Paul Douglas and Robert Keith really acquit themselves well (though it bothered me than the detective character of the latter never got punched in the face or at least slapped with a civil suit). Robson's direction is sluggish, and Philip Yordan's screenplay lacks bite. "My mom needs a big funeral" is a weak motivation on which to hang an entire film. I was already glancing at the clock just ten minutes in, and that restlessness persisted for the remaining ninety.

Not counting the frame story, the film ends on its best scene, one that hints at the project's unfulfilled potential. I kept imagining an alternate version with Sal Mineo in the lead and someone like Robert Wise directing. Maybe I should have just rewatched Somebody Up There Likes Me instead.

Grade: C-

Up next: Woman on the Run

pixote
« Last Edit: December 03, 2017, 01:39:34 AM by pixote »
Great  |  Near Great  |  Very Good  |  Good  |  Fair  |  Mixed  |  Middling  |  Bad

pixote

  • Administrator
  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 34237
  • Up with generosity!
    • yet more inanities!
Re: Noirvember Group Marathon 2017
« Reply #96 on: December 03, 2017, 02:01:35 AM »


Woman on the Run  (Norman Foster, 1950)

Lots to like here, especially the surprising way this man-on-the-lam noir becomes a portrait of a marriage. But even with Ann Sheridan as the lead, I sensed a misogynistic bent to the film's treatment of that marriage, and that didn't sit well with me. There's a great moment where Sheridan complains about all the mansplaining going on, and I excitedly thought the film was going to turn the male perspective on its head, but then by the end Sheridan's character she seems to concede that the men were right all along. Maybe I'm being oversensitive (a flurry of femme fatales will do that to you), but I found it troubling nonetheless.

A couple other lines made me laugh out loud, especially when a drunk woman at the a bar tells Sheridan she should wear more hats, and Sheridan is like, "I don't look good in hats," and the drunk lady is like, "Yeah, you're right." It's all the funnier for being so perfectly random.

Sheridan is mostly good, save for a couple bad moments where it's easy to imagine the editor picked the worst possible take for whatever reason. I didn't like Robert Keith quite as much as in Edge of Doom even though he's playing almost the exact same character. Dennis O'Keefe isn't someone I really know, but he looks like a cross between Keifer Sutherland and Sam Neill, and he's serviceable enough here. Ross Elliott does well in his brief scenes, jumping off the screen like a guy who should have had a better career.

There's a nice twist to the story that's handled very well initially but eventually moves past the point of credibility, leading to someone silly plotting. There's also a great embrace of location shooting, with the film at times seeming like the most entertaining San Francisco travelogue ever made. Good photography by Hal Mohr, especially in the final sequence. (How many noirs culminate at carnivals and fairgrounds?)

Did I miss something, or does the key final moment make zero sense? Sheridan gets off the rollercoaster, races in the direction of her husband, runs into Robert Keith, hears gun shots, runs on, and when she reaches the body in bay, Robert Keith is already there as if he fired the shots himself. wtf?! Is something missing there? It's such a weird bit of elliptical storytelling in what's otherwise a long, detailed sequence.

Grade: B-

Up next: The Narrow Margin

pixote
Great  |  Near Great  |  Very Good  |  Good  |  Fair  |  Mixed  |  Middling  |  Bad

pixote

  • Administrator
  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 34237
  • Up with generosity!
    • yet more inanities!
Re: Noirvember Group Marathon 2017
« Reply #97 on: December 03, 2017, 02:51:57 AM »


























The Narrow Margin  (Richard Fleischer, 1952)

I'm watching these Noirvember films chronologically, and The Narrow Margin feels like a great leap forward from the other films I've watched to date, in terms of modernity, right from the opening credits. The use of handheld camera in later scenes even made my jaw drop a little in awe and delight.

The story is nice and lean, with a pair of real good twists. It's a minor disappointment that those twists are stacked on top of one another, with the second somewhat nullifying the shock of the first, but they're still good. I didn't always understand the logic of things (why not arrest the bad guys right away? why are you always yelling in your cabin when you're supposed to be in the alone?) and a few coincidences strained credibility (how does nobody know what a key character looks like? why'd they happen to stop in front of that one cabin?), but those issues only make a small dent on the fun. There's too much other good stuff to enjoy, like the (illogical) intensity added by the car racing alongside the train; and all those nice reflections in the windows; and the lack of score; and just the general hard-nosed vibe.

I thought Charles MacGraw worked well here, especially in the more 'tough guy' moments, where his energy and vibe fit the film perfectly. His more human scenes (e.g., with Jacqueline White) are less successful but still adequate. Marie Windsor is such a striking visual presence (she's somehow related to Allison Janney, right? I mean, she just has to be) that even the awkward moments in her performance still have an appeal to them. I might appreciate her even more on a subsequent screening. I wish Don Beddoe had had a bigger role; there's a uniqueness to his presence and character that I wanted more of. I guess Paul Maxey takes the baton from him somewhat.

I wasn't quite as impressed with the dialogue as it sounds like I ought to have been (another reason a future revisit), but I definitely loved when Macgraw complains, "You make me sick to my stomach," and Windsor yells back, "Well, use your own sink."

Grade: B

Up next: Angel Face

pixote
« Last Edit: December 03, 2017, 02:56:07 AM by pixote »
Great  |  Near Great  |  Very Good  |  Good  |  Fair  |  Mixed  |  Middling  |  Bad

1SO

  • FAB
  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 36129
  • Marathon Man
Re: Noirvember Group Marathon 2017
« Reply #98 on: December 03, 2017, 01:48:02 PM »
Edge of Doom  (Mark Robson, 1950)
I watched this during the month too. It's a favorite of Martin's, but I stayed away because of Granger, who is also the worst thing about Rope and Strangers on a Train, two of my favorite Hitchcock films. He was worse than I expected, I agree with your opinion. I do like Dana Andrews, but nobody can watch this and come out singing the praises of Andrews.

By contrast, nobody can watch Narrow Margin and not be impressed by Mary Windsor. Most actors kill for a role that tart.

I need to rewatch Woman on the Run, which I saw years before my Ann Sheridan crush.

MartinTeller

  • FAB
  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 17864
  • martinteller.wordpress.com
    • my movie blog
Re: Noirvember Group Marathon 2017
« Reply #99 on: December 03, 2017, 11:02:44 PM »
Marie Windsor <3


I have to admit Edge of Doom did not stand up so well last time I watched it. All of Granger's whining about "A BIG FUNERAL" gets really really tedious.

 

love