FALLEN ANGEL (1945) Dir Otto Preminger Attempting to capture the magic of Laura the year before, Preminger got Dana Andrews back into a fedora and Joseph LaShelle lensing but no Gene Tierney, alas. Instead we have a ripe Linda Darnell as the bad girl Stella (she shines at night of course) and Alice Faye as…
Category: film noir
Sunday Matinee: The Fake (1953)
Another early morning movie with a noir tinge and an art scam — I’m staying on brand for once! I watched another neo-noir last night but am mulling over whether I want to write about it. Yes, two films in a 24-hour period. Who am I? The key is working around dad’s schedule (also ear…
TAROT IN GRESHAM’S NIGHTMARE ALLEY
[N.B. Written when I first heard that GDT was remaking it] When I showed Nightmare Alley to the students in my noir film course, one came up at the end to complain that the tarot readings were way off. I agreed and encouraged him to pick up Gresham’s novel. I assured him that the author cared a…
Neo-Noir: Julia (2008)
JULIA (2008) dir Erick Zonca An A-list star takes a role in a crime film that offers a chance to slum it as a low-life in a downward, drunken spiral amongst the neon flicker of dive bars and low-rent flop houses. A recipe for Oscar-bait — well, if you’re male. If you’re Tilda Swinton, not…
TOA/V: New Shorts from Alan Moore
This week’s entry for Todd’s round up of overlooked audio/visuals is the first two bits of a new project from Alan Moore. Not content with forays into comics, novels, music, magic and publishing, he’s teamed up with Mitch Jenkins to work on a ‘Northampton Noir’ series. Because of course Moore has discovered that NoHo ‘practically…
Tuesday’s Overlooked A/V: The Hitch-Hiker
Ida Lupino’s film noir debut, available free thanks to the Open Culture site. If you don’t know about them — well, there goes your productivity for the day. Books, audio and films galore. The RADA-trained English daughter of a stage comedian became best known for her increasingly dark films, no less than when she turned…
Tuesday’s Overlooked A/V: 22 Bullets
In the crime zone lately (I have so much to catch up on!) although last night we watched Resident Evil: Afterlife which might as well be called Resident Evil: We Don’t Even Bother with Narrative, as they just string along a bunch of things that happen and shoot a lot of zombies and edit poorly…
Tuesday’s Overlooked A/V: London Boulevard
You know I’m a sucker for Ken Bruen, so why has it taken so long to catch up with this 2010 neo-noir film? Not spectacularly successful, I’m not even sure it made it to American shores, my home at the time. I can see why it did not make a splash; people who were impressed…
TOA/V: Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid
Tuesday’s Overlook Audio/Visuals: Over at A Knife & A Quill I take a look at Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid. Be sure to drop by Todd’s for the round up of overlooked A/V.
Tuesday’s Overlooked A/V: The Third Man
Phone pics off the screen Hold on there, cookie! The Third Man, that classic Orson Welles film — overlooked?! Well, yeah, I dare to say it. I say it on the basis of so many people who are not film geeks who’ve either never heard of it though they might recognise the title or those…