I’m not sure why I never got around to seeing this until now — I blame No Context Noir for posting screenshots. I have had the Frederic Brown novel in a glorious paperback that I paid too much for to Hal the Bookie (RIP) because he could be so persuasive and because it was supposed…
Tag: films
The Big Clock (1948)
THE BIG CLOCK (1948) is another John Farrow-directed noir(ish) and quite a bit snappier overall than NIGHT HAS A THOUSAND EYES, though less interesting beyond that slick surface — but what a surface! Milland and Laughton of course, and a criminally underused O’Sullivan, but the shine is in the supporting cast who really give the…
Saturday Matinee: The Night Has a Thousand Eyes (1948)
The Night Has a Thousand Eyes Francis William Bourdillon (b. 1852) THE NIGHT has a thousand eyes, And the day but one; Yet the light of the bright world dies With the dying sun. The mind has a thousand eyes, And the heart but one; Yet the light of a whole life dies When love…
Letty Lynton (1932)
LETTY LYNTON (1932) I am on something of a Marie Belloc-Lowndes kick somewhat unexpectedly, though I didn’t write up The Lodger (1944) which I watched recently because I thought I had seen it but I hadn’t. With Merle Oberon as the vivacious Kitty, George Sanders as the sleuthing Inspector Warwick and a swivel-eyed Laird Cregar…
Film for a Friday: Laura (1955) #noir
LAURA (1955) Two words appear absolutely nowhere in this made-for-tv boiled down version of the story: Vera Caspary. Instead we get a ‘Screenplay by Mel Dinelli’ so I conveniently blame him for the lacklustre 43 minutes we have here. Which isn’t really fair, but come on! Erasing the author is never cool and when it’s…
Film for a Friday: The Brasher Doubloon (1947)
THE BRASHER DOUBLOON (1947) There’s a reason this film is not remembered as fondly as other Chandler adaptations: it’s not as good. With lacklustre leads and very little style or ambience, there’s really only the plot to keep you engaged and who goes to Chandler for plot? In smaller roles there’s the always wonderful Florence…
Saturday Matinee: The Clairvoyant (1935)
Apropos for Derby Day (no, the other one, my American friends) I can recommend the early Gainsborough film starring Claude Rains, Fay Wray and Jane Baxter. Rains and Baxter are music hall performers with a mind reader act very familiar to Nightmare Alley fans. It’s a family tradition and they seem happy on the circuit…
Film Noir Friday: Fallen Angel (1945)
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…
#Folklore Thursday: In Search of Voodoo – Roots to Heaven
Belatedly catching up on episodes of Pam Grossman’s Witch Wave podcast, I heard the always fascinating Lilith Dorsey mention this film, available streaming on Az. Award-winning actor Dijmon Hounsou returns to Benin to follow the roots of this often misunderstood and generally maligned magical system and along the way examines how colonialism, racism and Christianity…
Matinee: The Magnificent Dope (1942)
Farran Nehme (@selfstyledsiren) started a wonderful thread of golden recommendations on Twitter the other day, so I bookmarked a few things for when I had a spare moment. This came up first early Sunday morning because it was a the first time I could fit something in (yeah, back on dad duty) because I thought…
K. A. Laity 