Film Noir
We watch and comment on film noir. Any noir is fine--from the golden noir age of the 40s and early 50s, through neo noir, and even future noir, it's all good.
Posts for this club should be tagged: filmnoir_club.
April 24
Movie: Night and the City
A small-time grifter and nightclub tout takes advantage of some fortuitous circumstances and tries to become a big-time player as a wrestling promoter. [more inside]
September 24
Movie: Leave Her to Heaven
A writer falls in love with a young socialite and they're soon married, but her obsessive love for him threatens to be the undoing of them both as well as everyone around them. [more inside]
March 22
Movie: The Maltese Falcon
San Francisco private detective Sam Spade takes on a case that involves him with three eccentric criminals, a gorgeous liar, and their quest for a priceless statuette, with the stakes rising after his partner is murdered. [more inside]
January 4
Movie: The Asphalt Jungle
A major heist goes off as planned, but then double crosses, bad luck and solid police work cause everything to unravel. [more inside]
December 26
Movie: Farewell, My Lovely
Los Angeles private eye Philip Marlowe is hired by paroled convict Moose Malloy to find his girlfriend Velma, former seedy nightclub dancer. [more inside]
May 15
Movie: White Heat
A psychopathic criminal with a mother complex makes a daring break from prison and leads his old gang in a chemical plant payroll heist. [more inside]
April 16
Movie: The Lady from Shanghai
Fascinated by gorgeous Mrs. Bannister, seaman Michael O'Hara joins a bizarre yachting cruise, and ends up mired in a complex murder plot. [more inside]
April 2
Movie: The Letter
The wife of a rubber plantation administrator shoots a man to death and claims it was self-defense, but a letter in her own hand may prove her undoing. [more inside]
March 22
This Gun for Hire
Sadistic killer-for-hire Raven becomes enraged when his latest job is paid off in marked bills. Vowing to track down his double-crossing boss, nightclub executive Gates, Raven sits beside Gates' lovely new employee, Ellen, on a train out of town. Although Ellen is engaged to marry the police lieutenant who's hunting down Raven, she decides to try and set the misguided hit man straight as he hides from the cops and plots his revenge. [more inside]
March 13
Movie: Laura
A police detective falls in love with the woman whose murder he's investigating. [more inside]
July 8
Movie: The Killing
Crooks plan and execute a daring race-track robbery. [more inside]
July 2
Movie: I Want to Live!
A prostitute, sentenced to death for murder, pleads her innocence. [more inside]
June 10
Film Noir Club: Touch of Evil
Next up, on Monday, June 13, is Orson Welles's Touch of Evil, widely considered to mark the end of the classic film noir era:
Welles' Mexican border-town B-movie classic Touch of Evil (1958) is generally considered the last film in the classic cycle of film noirs. It starred Charlton Heston as Vargas - a naive Mexican-American narcotics cop, Janet Leigh as his imperiled, honeymooning wife Susan, and Welles' own corrupt and corpulent local cop Hank Quinlan. The film also featured a comeback appearance by cigar-smoking bordello madam Marlene Dietrich, and a breathtaking opening credits sequence filmed in a single-take.--Filmsite.org [more inside]
June 9
Movie: Kiss Me Deadly
A doomed female hitchhiker pulls Mike Hammer into a deadly whirlpool of intrigue, revolving around a mysterious "great whatsit." [more inside]
June 7
Film Noir Club: Kiss Me Deadly
Next Film Noir Club Selection is Robert Aldrich's 1955 masterpiece Kiss Me Deadly, found streaming here in HD on YouTube. This selection will be posted Thursday, June 9.
Movie: Pushover
A larcenous undercover cop falls for the beautiful moll of a bank robber on the run and together they double-cross the hood and the cops. [more inside]
June 6
Film Noir Club: Pushover
Next feature in the Film Noir club is 1954's Pushover starring Fred MacMurray, E.G. Marshall, and introducing Kim Novak. Streaming here on YouTube, going to post this on Tuesday, June 7. [more inside]
May 13
Film Noir Club: The Naked Kiss
The Film Noir Club is back with this gem from Sam Fuller: The Naked Kiss, streaming here on YouTube.
Movie: The Naked Kiss
Kelly, a prostitute, finds redemption in the town of Grantville, where she arrives working as a medium-time seller. [more inside]
March 11
Movie: Where the Sidewalk Ends
Det. Sgt. Mark Dixon wants to be something his old man wasn't: a guy on the right side of the law. But Dixon's vicious nature will get the better of him. Movie found here on YouTube. [more inside]
March 3
Movie: The Big Combo
A police lieutenant is ordered to stop investigating deadly crime boss Mr. Brown, because he hasn't been able to get any hard evidence against him. He then goes after Brown's girlfriend, who despises him, for information instead. Full movie here on YouTube. [more inside]
February 26
Movie: D.O.A.
Frank Bigelow, told he's been poisoned and has only a few days to live, tries to find out who killed him and why. Full movie on YouTube found here. [more inside]
February 19
Next up?
Next installment will be D.O.A., the Edmond O'Brien classic from 1950.
Anyone have a hankering for something else? Different viewing schedule? I was just gonna post one per week and try to stick to what's streaming for free on YouTube for the time being.
Thoughts?
February 18
Movie: Detour
Chance events trap hitch-hiker Al Roberts in a tightening net of film noir trouble--"Fate, or some mysterious force, can put the finger on you or me for no good reason at all." [more inside]