(from The Killers, adapted from a short story by ernest hemingway)
talking about the really good stuff, atmospheric photography, hard core detectives…sidney greenstreet and peter lorre, bogart and bacall…
Casablanca…DOA…China Town…Blood Simple…
what’s your favorite film noir flick?
bring it on
this tasty ort from annie leibovitz and michael roberts over at vainty fair: Killers Kill. Dead Men Die caused this
whataya got?
lTMF’sA
dada, I watched that a few hrs. ago. Great link.
The one about that black bird, The Maltese Falcon.
The perfect name for a PI … 🙂
Is that your gardener`s name, Olivia?
I wish I had one o’ those … 😉
And Double Indemnity.
The Maltese Falcon.
But Chinatown, Blood Simple, Touch of Evil, The Third Man, DOA, Body Heat and Wild Things are all good too.
Mr. D, Thanks for reminding me of “The Third Man”.
I used to watch the series of that on television in French a very long time ago, “Le Troisiem Homme”. Although all the dialogue was translated from the Graham Greene story, we used to want to be Harry Lime, when we played out the story lines on the streets of the small town neighborhood where I grew up. The music was also a good part of the suspense.
Those were the days when ones parents would call out into the neighborhood for their respective children to come on in, as it was getting dark out & to be getting ready to go to bed. We`d all pretend that we hadn`t heard them. The days when kids were safe in their neighborhoods without “play dates”.
Casablanca set the standard, in my book.
for all film, for all time. But I never thought of it as “film noir”.
Maybe not a text book example; I’ll grant you that the back lot at Warner Bros. recreating a facsimile of Casablanca certainly does not produce a bleak urban setting. However, the scenes in Rick’s upstairs apartment/office, the scenes at the airport at night, the black and white dimly lit sets of these and the last scene itself all make it so to me, and apparently dada.
Lizabeth Scott. Rrroooowwwwwwww.
She chews up the set in Desert Fury.
She’s still alive and lives with her “female companion” in LA.
Keres, although I have not read the complete bio from the link you provided, I have to take exception to the statement that claims,”not a classical beauty”.
I would like to think that her “look” & “beauty” are in a class that make her one of the exceptional people alongside the others mentioned in comparison. Great link.
Agreed.
Here’s another link, with more photos.
To the best of my understanding, it seems Scott was “outed” in a 1959 issue of Confidential magazine, and that she was essentially tossed to the wolves in exchange for hiding similar “dirt” on a larger studio assest. Not surprisingly, she left the studio system a year later when her contract expired.
That should be “a 1956 issue”.
Thanks Keres, & the link just proves my original point.
How horrible of people to use others, as pawns in a game.
She’s got great eyes.
Barbara Stanwyck was fabulous in “Double Indemnity” – funny thing is, I never liked her in anything else she ever did.
Double Indemnity was great.
Barbara Stanwyck and Lizabeth Scott were both in The Strange Love of Martha Ivers, which Rotten Tomatos gives a 100% rating and touts as one of the best Film Noirs of all time.
In voting with those in favor of Maltese Falcon, here`s a little story about it. Many years ago, let`s say over a dozen, there was a package on my porch, when I arrived home. I had not been expecting anything, & as a matter of fact, I probably hadn`t recvd. anything for years. There was no return address nor any other markings that would identify where it came from, nor what it contained. I opened it, to find this. I wondered about it over the years, & I was reminded of it a few months ago, when the original replacement,[ more later] was stolen from the San Fransico restaurant, that had it on display, along with the manuscript , I believe, that Hammet, had written there; that`s right, “The Maltese Falcon”.
It was a replacement, because during shooting the film, Mr. Bogart, complained that doing repeated takes with the heavy bronze one was quite tireing.
I never found out it`s provenance. This image taken 5 mins. ago.
The stuff that dreams are made of.
dada, I forgot to mention, this is a great idea you presented here. It`s different from a cafe, it has a very interesting draw, & allows all to see what their feelings are on something we would normally not be privy to. Great diary.
thanks Head….great story above!
and l like the new sig line, too.
lTMF’sA
The Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest is “[a]n international literary parody contest, the competition honors the memory (if not the reputation) of Victorian novelist Edward George Earl Bulwer-Lytton (1803-1873). The goal of the contest is the essence of simplicity: entrants are challenged to submit bad opening sentences to imaginary novels.”
And the winner for 2006 is . . .
I have a soft spot for Ray Milland in his Lost Weekend.
I’ve been sober for 18 years now and there are scenes in that film that still give me the jumps.
My suggestion, Vittorio De Sica’s The Bicycle Thief, may not belong within the true definition of “film noir” class, but I believe it has many elements in common with that genre.
It’s a great film, and I’d highly recommend it.
I love The Bicycle Thief, but I think it has more in common with the early black and white dystopian film genre.
if dystopian film noir is what you’re looking for, check out Sin City, if you haven’t seen it.
lTMF’sA
I thoroughly enjoyed Jim Jarmusch’ Down By Law with Tom Waits, John Lurie and Roberto Benigni.
I like most anything by Jarmusch.
My favorite is “Dead Man” btw. Johnny Depp and Robert Mitchum in the same movie? Shut up!
;O)
good call ask, Jarmusch is a genre of his own…really like his work, everything l’ve seen.
lTMF’sA
if you haven’t seen it l highly recommend Paris Texas. by wim wenders…written by sam shepard.
not noir, in the classic sense, but an incredible film
…with a beautiful soundtrack by ry cooder….the albums beautiful if you can find it, btw.
lTMF’sA
Hi dada,
saw that too, but – my – that’s a long time ago.
I’ll ask curly to get it on Netflix.