FilmsNoir.Net – all about film noir
the art of #filmnoir @filmsnoir.net | Copyright © Anthony D'Ambra 2007-2025
Alphaville, a futuristic B&W noir from 60’s “enfant terrible” French director, Jean Luc Godard, can be viewed in widescreen on-line at Google Video. It is a weird homage to the genre with Lemmy Caution, an American private-eye, played by Eddie Constantine, arriving in Alphaville, a futuristic city on another planet… The female lead is played by Godard’s then wife, the georgeous, Anna Karina. Watch it.
The jackal’s film corner blog has posted the jackal’s favorite films noir yet to be released on DVD. The list is not meant to be exhaustive, but “the tip of the iceberg”. The jackal also notes that Ministry of Fear (1944) is due for release in September, while Dangerous Crossing (1953) has been flagged by Fox for future release. Read the jackal’s post for the fully annotated list.
99 River Street (1953)
Conflict (1945)
Cornered (1945)
Cry Danger (1951)
Human Desire (1954)
Johnny Angel (1945)
Johnny O-Clock (1947)
My Name is Julia Ross (1945)
Nocturne (1946)
Phantom Lady (1944)
Pitfall (1948)
Ride the Pink Horse (1947)
Saigon (1948)
Stranger on the 3rFloor (1940)
The Brasher Doubloon (1947)
The Breaking Point (1950)
The Bribe (1949)
The Fallen Sparrow (1943)
The Glass Web (1953)
The Sleeping City (1950)
The Web (1947)
The Window (1949)
They Won’t Believe Me (1947)
To the Ends of the Earth (1948)
My apologies to all who have posted comments. There have been delays in moderation – I forgot… Comments now appear in posts! I am a novice at CSS and it has taken me a while to change the comments font-color back from black to white, after some inept attempts at changing certain style elements. Btw, any feedback on the site theme is welcome. Tks.
Geoff Pevere has today coined a nice expression of the film noir genre in his Toronto Star review of the just released Film Noir Classic Collection, Vol. 4 DVD set (see my post of yesterday):
… a genre defined by shadows, of harsh, sharp contrasts of light and dark: at any moment, those clouds of fate could pass right over your head.
Have some fun and enjoy this public domain copy on RetroTV.com of the 50’s schlock noir Jail Bait from the legendary Ed Wood.
Rated 2.2/10.0 on IMDB (so bad it’s good):
“She’s A Good Girl… To Leave Alone!”
Vic Brady draws young Don Gregor into a life of crime. He then blackmails Gregor’s plastic surgeon father…
‘Jail Bait’, directed by the legendary Ed Wood, is an enjoyably bad attempt at Film Noir on a shoestring budget. The cast includes Lyle Talbot, Dolores Fuller and Timothy Farrell from Wood’s classic ‘Glen Or Glenda’, as well as a very early appearance by Steve Reeves. Talbot once again plays a kindly cop, but this time Farrell is on the other side of the law, the nasty Vic Brady. Brady has corrupted Fuller’s brother Don (Clancy Malone) the middle class son of a world renowned plastic surgeon Dr. Boris Gregor (Herbert Rawlinson). We first see Don being bailed out by his sister Marilyn (Dolores Fuller) after being caught carrying an unlicensed firearm. Despite his sister’s concern and a stern lecture from Ins. Johns (Talbot), he continues to associate with small time crook Vic Brady. A robbery gone wrong results in the death of a Night Watchman. Don’s conscience gets the better of him and he intends to give himself up, but Brady has other ideas… ideas which involve Dr. Gregor’s skills as a plastic surgeon. The combination of Wood’s trademark lousy dialogue and the stilted performances of the actors (especially Malone and Fuller) with Farrell’s hammy Vic Brady and the nutty denouement make ‘Jail Bait’ a lot of fun to watch.
If you install UnPlug for Firefox you can download the movie. And don’t forget the pop-corn…
I just came across this book of film noir posters from the classic period of film noir: Crime Scenes: Movie Poster Art of the Film Noir : The Classic Period : 1941-1959 by Lawrence Bassoff (Paperback).
Available from Amazon from US$20.
On December 18, Warner will release a definitive version of director Ridley Scott’s cult classic Blade Runner: The Final Cut, a fusion of film noir and science fiction The DVD set will also feature four other versions of the movie. The film will be available in both HD formats and in three different DVD editions, with the final cut also receiving select theatrical releases in New York, Los Angeles and the Venice Film Festival. More from Variety.
Update 31 July 2007: Hollywood.com Interview with Ridley Scott on his memories of making Blade Runner.
I have been searching for ages for a thumbnail of a poster for 20,000 Years In Sing Sing (1932) for that film’s entry in the FilmsNoir.Net Films Noir Catalog, and I know from my search stats that many visitors have been looking too.
I have finally located an original poster, which looks in excellent condition, for sale for US$600 from FilmPosters.com.
Item #: 11425 Mini Window Card. 8in x 12in, FINE, U.S.
Be quick if you have the cash, as I don’t. I will have to settle for this image:
First time independent director, Rian Johnson, shot the alleged neo-noir Brick
After all the hype, I was disappointed. Though technically competent and with clever allusions to the film noir genre, I found the story distasteful and with little real meaning or social value. The plot is confusing and the mumbled dialog of tribal argot generally unintelligible. An obvious influence is Tarantino, and this is also a negative.
The film may have some meaning for local audiences, but outside CA you can give it a miss. Or maybe, I am just too old…
On July 31, Warner Home Video, will release Film Noir Classic Collection, Vol. 4
Act of Violence / Mystery Street
Crime Wave / Decoy
Illegal / The Big Steal
They Live By Night / Side Street
Where Danger Lives / Tension
Each DVD in the set can be purchased separately.
The DVD release has reviewed by Glenn Erickson of DVDTalk.Com, with a focus on They Live By Night and Side Street.
Update 7 Aug 2007: Decoy has been has been reviewed on Noir Of the Week.
Update 8 Aug 2007: All movies on the DVD are reviewed in filmjournal.net by clydefro.
Update 9 Aug 2007: All movies on the DVD are reviewed by Adnan Tezer at dvd.monstersandcritics.com.
Update 13 Aug 2007: All movies on the DVD are reviewed by dvdverdict.com.
Update 14 Aug 2007: All movies on the DVD are reviewed by The Shelf DVD Reviews.
Update 21 Aug 2007: All movies on the DVD are reviewed by Film Forno.
Update 9 Sep 2007: An interesting review of the DVD and film noir generally by Cullen Gallagher of The Brooklyn Rail.
These movies are a feast for noir fans with many of the top-level directors and stars of the period featured:
Act of Violence (1948)
Cast: Van Heflin, Robert Ryan, Janet Leigh, Mary Astor, Phyllis Thaxter
Director: Fred Zinnemann
War veteran Frank Enley seems to be a happily married small-town citizen until he realises Joe Parkson is in town. It seems Parkson is out for revenge because of something that happened in a German POW camp, and when a frightened Enley suddenly leaves for a convention in L.A., Parkson is close behind.
Mystery Street (1950)
Cast: Ricardo Montalban, Sally Forrest, Bruce Bennett, Elsa Lanchester, Marshall Thompson
Director: John Sturges
Vivian, a B-girl working at “The Grass Skirt,” is being brushed off by her rich, married boyfriend. To confront him, she hijacks drunken customer Henry Shanway and his car from Boston to Cape Cod, where she strands Henry…and is never seen again. Months later, a skeleton is found (sans clothes or clues) on a lonely Cape Cod beach. Using the macabre expertise of Harvard forensic specialist Dr. McAdoo, Lt. Pete Morales must work back from bones to the victim’s identity, history, and killer. Will he succeed in time to save an innocent suspect?
Crime Wave (1954)
Cast: Sterling Hayden, Gene Nelson, Phyllis Kirk, Ted de Corsia, Charles Bronson
Director: André De Toth
Three San Quentin escapees kill a cop in a gas-station holdup. Wounded, Morgan flees through black-shadowed streets to the handiest refuge: with former cellmate Steve Lacey, who’s paroled, with a new life and lovely wife, and can’t afford to be caught associating with old cronies. But homicide detective Sims wants to use Steve to help him catch Penny and Hastings, who in turn extort his help in a bank job. Is there no way out for Steve?
Decoy (1946)
Cast: Jean Gillie, Edward Norris, Robert Armstrong, Herbert Rudley, Sheldon Leonard
Director: Jack Bernhard
Gangster Frank Olins (Robert Armstrong) is to die in the gas chamber much to the dismay of his girlfriend Margot Shelby (Jean Gillie) as he is carrying the secret of the location of $400,000 with him. Margot seduces gangster Jim Vincent (Edward Norris) to get him to engineer the removal of Olins’ body from the prison immediately after he dies in the gas chamber. She takes prison doctor Craig (Herbert Rudley) away from his nurse/girl friend (Marjorie Woodworth) and gets him to administer an antidote for cyanide gas poisoning. During the removal of Olins’ body, the hearse driver is killed by Tommy (Phil Van Zandt). The revived Olins gives Margot half of a map showing the money location and Vincent, in a fit of jealousy, kills Olins and takes the other half. Because the doctor’s plates on his car will get them through the police roadblocks, Vincent and Margot take him with them on the money hunt.
Illegal (1955)
Cast: Edward G. Robinson, Nina Foch, Hugh Marlowe, Robert Ellenstein, DeForest Kelley
Director: Lewis Allen
Ambitious D.A. Victor Scott zealously prosecutes Ed Clary for a woman’s murder. But as Clary walks “the last mile” to the electric chair, Scott receives evidence that exonerates the condemned man. Realizing that he’s made a terrible mistake he tries to stop the execution but is too late. Humbled by his grievous misjudgement, Scott resigns as a prosecutor. Entering private practice, he employs the same cunning that made his reputation and draws the attention of mob kingpin, Frank Garland. The mobster succeeds in bribing Scott into representing one of his stooges on a murder rap and Scott, in a grand display of courtroom theatrics, wins the case. But soon Scott finds himself embroiled in dirty mob politics. The situation becomes intolerable when his former protégé in the D.A.’s office is charged with a murder that seems to implicate her as an informant to the Garland mob. Can Victor defend the woman he secretly loves and also keep his life?
The Big Steal (1949)
Cast: Robert Mitchum, Jane Greer, William Bendix, Patrick Knowles, Ramon Novarro
Director: Don Siegel
Jane and Duke (alias Capt. Blake) accidentally meet in Vera Cruz while chasing flim-flam man Fiske. Soon the local Inspector General (El Gato) is involved. Fiske races across Mexico, pursued by Jane and Duke, trailed by the real Capt. Blake. The crafty Inspector General is waiting for them in Tihuacan but they all give him the slip, just in time for the climactic finale. Very tight script and pacing.
They Live by Night (1948
Cast: Farley Granger, Cathy O’Donnell, Howard Da Silva, Jay C. Flippen, Helen Craig
Director: Nicholas Ray
In the ’30s, three prisoners flee from a state prison farm in Mississippi. Among them is 23-yo Bowie, who spent the last seven years in prison and now hopes to be able to prove his innocence or retire to a home in the mountains and live in peace together with his new love, Kitty. But his criminal companions persuade him to participate in several heists, and soon the police believe him to be their leader and go after “Bowie the Kid” harder than ever.
Side Street (1950)
Cast: Farley Granger, Cathy O’Donnell, James Craig, Paul Kelly, Jean Hagen
Director: Anthony Mann
Joe Norson, a poor letter carrier with a sweet, pregnant wife, yields to momentary temptation and steals $30,000 belonging to a pair of ruthless blackmailers who won’t stop at murder. After a few days of soul-searching, Joe offers to return the money, only to find that the “friend” he left it with has absconded. Now every move Joe makes plunges him deeper into trouble, as he’s pursued and pursuing through the shadowy, sinister side of New York.
Where Danger Lives (1950)
Cast: Robert Mitchum, Faith Domergue, Claude Rains, Maureen O’Sullivan, Charles Kemper
Director: John Farrow
One night at the hospital, young doctor Jeff Cameron meets Margo, who’s brought in after a suicide attempt. He quickly falls for her and they become romantically involved, but it turns out that Margo is married. At a confrontation, Margo’s husband accidentally gets killed and Jeff and Margo flee. Heading for Mexico, they try to outrun the law.
Tension (1950)
Cast: Richard Basehart, Audrey Totter, Cyd Charisse, Barry Sullivan, Lloyd Gough
Director: John Berry
A mousy drugstore manager turns killer after his conniving wife leaves him for another man. He devises a complex plan, which involves assuming a new identity, to make it look like someone else murdered her new boyfriend. Things take an unexpected turn when someone else commits the murder first and he becomes the prime suspect.
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