The Maltese Falcon (1941)

And, of course, we had Sean Chercover provide an introduction for the film, and his insights were invaluable. Please enjoy...

Interview with Sean Chercover

We kicked off The Noir Series 2011 with a spectacular program featuring THE MALTESE FALCON (1941) and an interview with Shamus- and Anthony-winning author Sean Chercover. Sean's Ray Dudgeon PI novels BIG CITY, BAD BLOOD and TRIGGER CITY are classic tarnished knight tales in the tradition of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler. Here he talks about his previous life as a PI, his books, and what the movies get right. Enjoy!

Mildred Pierce (1945)

While Shannon was here, our audience here at the Dryden Theatre was treated to his introduction to the film playing that night, MILDRED PIERCE. Here he talks about its basis in hard-boiled fiction and a surprising theory about what the best performance in the film might be...

Interview with Shannon Clute

This Winter, I was lucky enough to have four great guests visit for The Noir Series 2011: Sean Chercover, Shannon Clute, Megan Abbott and Charles Benoit. I've finally gotten around to posting the video for these talks, and I hope that you'll check them out, both here and on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/user/jaredscase?feature=mhsn.

Today, I'm featuring my talk with Shannon Clute, TCM employee, film noir scholar, and co-author of the upcoming tome THE MALTESE TOUCH OF EVIL: POTENTIAL CRITICISM AND FILM NOIR.

I Walk Alone (1948) - Notes

The Noir Series 2011 is coming to a close tomorrow with a bang: Special Guest Charles Benoit and John Huston's heist thriller THE ASPHALT JUNGLE. Make sure you show up for that. It's been a great time through the whole series, and I can't wait to do it again.

In the meantime, here are the notes I prepared for last week's film I WALK ALONE, which featured the first teaming of Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas. I hope you enjoy:

Born about three years apart, and both in New York State, Kirk Douglas and Burt Lancaster shared remarkably similar paths to stardom and shared the screen on several occasions. Lancaster was born in 1913 Harlem and Douglas in 1916 Amsterdam, NY, and both were exposed to the entertainment industry before they enlisted in the Armed Forces during World War II. After the war, they individually went back to the theater and were introduced to producer Hal Wallis by friends (Harold Hecht for Lancaster and Lauren Bacall for Douglas), who “discovered” them and took them to Hollywood.

Lancaster’s film debut was in the 1946 film noir classic The Killers, directed by Robert Siodmak. Douglas’s film debut was also in 1946 and also in a film noir, The Strange Love of Martha Ivers, with Barbara Stanwyck. They went on to act in additional films noir. Lancaster was the star of Jules Dassin’s Brute Force, and Douglas supported Robert Mitchum in one of the finest noirs of all time, Out of the Past. And in 1948, the pair collaborated for the first time on an additional noir, I Walk Alone, for Byron Haskin, a former cinematographer. It was Douglas’s fourth film and Lancaster’s fifth, but they had already established themselves as Hollywood stars of the first order. The story about two bootleggers separated by a long prison sentence brought them together, but they didn’t become friends on the set.

The two men went on to their own careers, working in all kinds of films, including film noir. Lancaster, especially was drawn to this kind of role. Later in 1948 he starred in Kiss the Blood Off My Hands as an American on the run from an accidental homicide. 1948 also brought Sorry, Wrong Number with Lancaster as an unwitting conspirator in a plot to kill his wife, played by Barbara Stanwyck. In 1949, Lancaster starred in Criss Cross, one of his most under-rated films, as loser Steve Thompson, a man whose terrible decisions always bring him back to the woman he can’t forget, and a fate he can’t escape. Lancaster also went on to roles in films such as Jim Thorpe – All American, Trapeze, and The Kentuckian. In 1953, he earned his first Academy Award nomination as Sergeant Warden in From Here to Eternity.

Meanwhile, Douglas made his own way. 1951 saw the release of two films noir: Ace in the Hole (aka The Big Carnival) and Detective Story. In the first film, Douglas starred as the unscrupulous reporter Chuck Tatum; in the second he is James McLeod, a cop with a vicious streak and a hidden agenda. Douglas also distinguished himself with roles in Young Man With a Horn, The Glass Menagerie, Ulysses, and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. It was also in this period that he received all three of his Oscar nominations: for Champion (1950), The Bad and the Beautiful (1953) and Lust For Life (1956) as the great Vincent van Gogh.

Lancaster and Douglas re-teamed for Gunfight at the OK Corral, with Lancaster taking the Wyatt Earp role and Douglas at his side as Doc Holliday. It was on this film that their friendship really took off. They would stay up talking well into the night, on subjects of all kinds. It was only two years later that they were together again in the Revolutionary War film The Devil’s Disciple, opposite Laurence Olivier. And in 1963, Douglas played multiple roles in The List of Adrian Messenger, while Lancaster had a cameo.

Meanwhile, they continued to foster their own careers. In this time, Lancaster won an Oscar for Elmer Gantry and got another nomination for The Birdman of Alcatraz. His other films included The Sweet Smell of Success, Run Silent, Run Deep, The Unforgiven, Judgment at Nuremberg, and Visconti’s The Leopard. Douglas had his own string of hits with Paths of Glory, The Vikings, Spartacus, and Lonely Are the Brave.

The two actors’ next collaboration was the Rod Serling-scripted Seven Days in May. A taut political thriller about a potential military coup in the United States played on Cold War fears and the threat of a “military-industrial complex” at work behind the scenes. This was the actors’ last collaboration for more than twenty years, but they continued to be movie stars. Lancaster made The Train, The Professionals, The Swimmer, Airport, Local Hero, and got one last Oscar nomination for Atlantic City. Douglas went on to make In Harm’s Way, Cast a Giant Shadow, Is Paris Burning?, The Villain, and The Man From Snowy River.

The two actors teamed one last time in 1986 for Tough Guys, the tale of two aging gangsters who no longer fit in the world after being released from prison. Burt Lancaster died in 1994 at the age of 81, but Kirk Douglas, despite suffering a stroke in 1995, celebrated his 94^th birthday in December.

Weekend TV: Life 2.4

Crews and Reese investigate a murder that took place in a recreation of the 1971 Stanford Prison Experiment. Meanwhile, Captains past and present meet when Davis's new partner discharges his weapon and is brought to Tidwell for questioning.

This is one of the most important episodes in the series, as it explicitly underlines Charlie's situation, and his noir standing. There is a certain subset of noir that explores heroes who are forced to act like criminals, and the darkness they find within themselves as a result. DEAD RECKONING and DESPERATE, both 1947, are probably the best examples, but there are others. Some of the "bad cop" noirs of the 50s might be included. LIFE takes this concept and merges it with the ideas behind the Stanford Prison Experiment and a conspiracy storyline to create its meta-narrative



There are several scenes I want to point out in this episode. It starts out with this conversation between Charlie and Ted explicitly stating that despite his standing as a policeman, there are things Charlie does that are not legal:



This next clip not only demonstrates the mind-set of someone fully invested in the experiment, which mirrors Charlie's real-life experience, but it also shows the violence Charlie is still capable of:



This next line reflects what Kyle Hollis said in the first episode of the season:



So, if the perception is that all people who are in jail must have done something, whether or not it was the thing they were convicted for, how does one adapt to this new perception? They become the other:



And when one has successfully become the other, is there any road back? If you are offered a life-line, will you take it? This scene that immediately precedes the last suggests that the transition to becoming yourself is not so easy.



There is a lot of very noir-ish doubling in this episode, as students become guards and prisoners, and as the guards themselves become prisoners of the system:



Charlie, of course, is the ultimate double, as a cop who becomes a con who becomes a cop. And in this analogy, the professor becomes the warden, whether he likes it or not. This scene shows Charlie confronting him with the idea, as well as giving insight not only into what Charlie's worst fear is, but reflecting, through the entire episode, what his worst fear was, as a cop going into prison, and how he managed to survive for 14 years, not to mention another look at the violence that lives within him.



This last scene provides us with not only a glimpse into the lengths Charlie had to go to survive in prison (or was it just intimidation tactics he and Ted learned there) as well as giving us a final doubling, as the warden becomes the prisoner in his own jail.



And here's the philosophical coda:



In the end, the student became a killer because he "accepted that he was a convict," according to Reese, and killing was within his definition of a convict, in order to survive. Here, we see Charlie passing on advice, another clue to how he survived and, through his own doubling, a ray of hope that he may ultimately be able to find his way back to who he was.

Mildred Pierce - Notes

Notes more about Joan Crawford and her noir roles, so make sure to show up for yours truly and Shannon Clute Thursday at 6:30 pm!

Joan Crawford was named through a contest put forth in Movie Weekly magazine. She had been born Lucille LeSueur, but that name didn’t impress MGM publicity head Pete Smith. He arranged the contest and the new name was chosen. Lucille hated it, but learned to love the security that came with it. Prior to being Joan Crawford, Lucille was born in Texas and raised in Oklahoma, where her aspirations as a dancer led her to spots in travelling revues, and eventually to a chorus line on Broadway. From there, she did a screen test that was seen and liked by producer Harry Rapf, who offered her a contract. By New Year’s Eve 1924, she was in Hollywood, and by New Year’s Eve 1925, she had a new name and a new career, with three films to her credit.

Through the last half of the ‘20s, Crawford elevated herself to star status with the image of a flapper. Her silent films reflect this persona. But when sound arrived, MGM started to cultivate her into a more sophisticated character, often playing hardworking young women who find romance and success. She became one of the highest-paid stars of the ‘30s, starring often with Clark Gable in films like Possessed, Dancing Lady, Chained and Strange Cargo. By the end of the ‘30s, however, her popularity had waned, and parts became fewer and smaller. She split with MGM in 1943 after 18 years. It was two years before she was seen on-screen again. Warner Bros. signed her to a three-picture deal, the first of which happened to be Mildred Pierce.

When Bette Davis balked at playing the mother of a seventeen-year-old, Joan Crawford was given the opportunity, but not before pleasing director Michael Curtiz with a screen test, because the Casablanca director didn’t want to “waste my time directing a has-been.” The screen test passed muster, Crawford got the part, Curtiz directed the film, and it went on to receive six Academy Award nominations, including a win for Crawford. It also started Crawford off on a string of darker roles, or at least roles in darker films, some of them now considered noir.

The next in this line was the last of the three-picture deal with Warners, 1947’s Possessed. Strangely, Crawford had already made a film called Possessed with MGM in 1931. In that film, part of her social-climbing romantic drama phase, she starred with Clark Gable in the story of small-town girl enamored of a divorcee attorney. They tango around their relationship, both spurning the other until Gable faces political ruin and their relationship comes to light. This Possessed, much different in tone, chronicles the mental collapse of Louise Howell (Crawford), a live-in nurse who may or may not have killed her patient to marry her husband (in shades of Double Indemnity). Her real affections lie with Van Heflin, but when she can’t have him, it drives her mad and into the arms of the widower. The film has some very nice touches including a homicidal fever-dream and a room buzzer that intones Louise’s name. The film also garnered Crawford her second Oscar nomination.

Then in 1950, Crawford starred in The Damned Don’t Cry for Vincent Sherman. Crawford plays another small-town girl, this time trapped in a loveless marriage. When her only son is struck down on the bicycle she bought for him on credit, it gives her an excuse to leave home for the big city. But the big city is cruel, and as a model, she ends up going on dates for tips. Once she’s learned the ropes, she meets meek CPA Martin Blackford (Kent Smith of Nora Prentiss), whom she cajoles into cooking the books for an organized crime outfit. She climbs the ladder to escort for the head of the outfit, but she learns that she hasn’t come very far at all when he wants her to ingratiate herself with a rival gangster. Interesting as much for being a forward-thinking gangster film as a film noir or Crawford vehicle, it unfortunately did not earn Crawford any accolades.

Crawford asked out of her Warner Bros. contract in 1952 and moved to RKO. Her first film there was the thriller Sudden Fear, the screen debut of Jack Palance. She is playwright Myra Hudson who fires Palance from her current play, as he doesn’t come across as a romantic lead. The two happen to meet on a train back to San Francisco and strike up a romance that leads to marriage. But Palance is still in love with Irene Neves (film noir veteran Gloria Grahame), and his feelings for Crawford may not be genuine. A taut suspense film, Crawford earned her third and final Oscar nomination for the role.

Crawford only made about a dozen more films after this, but she both played on and played against the character she had created since leaving MGM, in films like Torch Song, Johnny Guitar and Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? Her film legacy, however, remains her glorious period of noir, beginning with Mildred Pierce.

Don Siegel Double Feature

Just a reminder that the Don Siegel Double Feature at the Dryden Theatre starts tonight at 8:00, with THE LINEUP featuring Eli Wallach, Robert Keith and Richard Jaeckel and continues at 9:45 with THE BIG STEAL, re-teaming Robert Mitchum and Jane Greer from OUT OF THE PAST, along with William Bendix and Ramon Novarro. Come see why Eli Wallach was honored with the Oscar last year and delve into some noir with the director of DIRTY HARRY and THE SHOOTIST!

Don Siegel - Notes

Here are the prepared notes for the Don Siegel double feature taking place at the Dryden Theatre this Thursday, January 13. Enjoy!

Don Siegel, who served as a mentor to both Sam Peckinpah and Clint Eastwood, started his Hollywood career in the Warner Bros. film library, sussing out possible stock shots from millions of feet of film. He steadily conned and cajoled himself into jobs as an assistant cutter, head of the insert department, and eventually into creating montages for such Warners classics as The Roaring Twenties, Knute Rockne – All American, Meet John Doe, Yankee Doodle Dandy, Now, Voyager and Casablanca. He moved from this to directing second unit sequences, or action that takes place away from the main actors or at a distance. His work on Saratoga Trunk, The Conspirators and To Have and Have Not got him a chance to direct shorts at Warners. Star in the Night was a modern re-telling of the Nativity, and Hitler Lives explored the lasting impact of the Nazi Party.

Despite his work behind the camera and in editing rooms getting him noticed around the Warners lot, his brazen attitude rubbed Jack Warner the wrong way, and once he started getting feature assignments, the material was often challenging. His first film, The Verdict, re-teamed Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet for the last time in a convoluted story of innocent men sentenced to death and the lawyers who represent them. He directed another film at Warners, Night Unto Night, before he was laid off. He struggled to find work from there, picking up a second unit gig on All the King’s Men, and eventually landing at the Howard Hughes-controlled RKO for The Big Steal and No Time for Flowers. As a relatively inexperienced director in the early ‘50s, it was difficult for Siegel to get a long-term contract and picked up additional work at Universal and Columbia.

His first big break came from Walter Wanger at Allied Artists, who hired him to direct the prison drama Riot in Cell Block 11. The film was well-received and assured Siegel of work in film and TV for years to come. He distinguished himself throughout the ‘50s with the film noir Private Hell 36, the sci-fi classic Invasion of the Body Snatchers, gangster film Baby Face Nelson, as well as the pilot episode and feature adaptation of The Lineup. Siegel’s style grew and refined in the early ‘60s as he directed Elvis Presley in Flaming Star and Steve McQueen in Hell Is for Heroes. He turned exclusively to television for a time, producing and directing several episodes as well as the film The Killers with Lee Marvin and Ronald Reagan, originally destined for TV, but ultimately deemed too violent. When he returned to features in the late ‘60s, he was a seasoned veteran with a definitive style.

1968’s Madigan, with Henry Fonda and Richard Widmark, was a glimpse into the films to come. It was at this point that he met Clint Eastwood, and the two collaborated on his next four films: Coogan’s Bluff, Two Mules for Sister Sara, The Beguiled and the seminal Dirty Harry. He continued to work with big stars throughout the ‘70s: Walter Matthau in Charly Varrick, Michael Caine in The Black Windmill, Charles Bronson in Telefon, John Wayne in his last film role as The Shootist, and re-teaming with Eastwood on Escape from Alcatraz. His last film was 1982’s noir-inspired farce Jinxed!, with Bette Midler, Ken Wahl and Rip Torn.

Siegel’s legacy is as a director of violence, but a closer look reveals a career-long interest in the outsider, whether he be criminal, prisoner or cop working outside the law. The existential question of the outsider, and how he comes to transgress criminal, moral or ethical boundaries is a central tenet of the construct that we now call noir.

Sean Chercover and The Maltese Falcon - Tonight!

A last minute reminder to all of you out there that award-winning author Sean Chercover will be discussing THE MALTESE FALCON, Dashiell Hammett and his own work tonight at 6:30, followed by a book-signing and a screening of the film.

Make sure you're here!

Also, there's a nice blog at the George Eastman House website right here: http://blog.eastmanhouse.org/2011/01/06/from-page-to-screen-and-back-again/

Sean Chercover and The Maltese Falcon (1941) - Notes

Just like last year, I'll be posting notes about the films from The Noir Series prior to their actual screenings. The series starts out with a bang this first week as we present THE MALTESE FALCON, and prototypical film noir and PI film from 1941. Joining us to discuss the film, his former profession, his writing and why Dashiell Hammett is so good will be Shamus-winning author Sean Chercover. His two Chicago-based novels feature private investigator Ray Dudgeon, himself a former reporter whose commitment to taking down the bad guys sometimes disrupts his ability to compromise. The whole shebang starts at 6:30pm on Thursday, January 6 with Sean's discussion. He'll sign copies of his novels Big City, Bad Blood and Trigger City prior to the film, which he will introduce.

Here's a brief history of the film history of THE MALTESE FALCON:

One of the first hard-boiled novels to grow out of the pulp magazine tradition, The Maltese Falcon was serialized in Black Mask from September, 1929 to January, 1930 and published in proper book form by Alfred A. Knopf on Valentine’s Day, 1930. It was an instant success and went through seven printings in its first year alone. It didn’t take long for Hollywood’s newly-minted “talking pictures” to come calling. Hammett sold the rights to Warner Bros. in June of that year for $8500, and the film was in production by January, with a release date on June, 1931.

Warners turned to first-time screenwriter Brown Holmes, who later went on to pen the classic I Was a Fugitive from a Chain Gang. This first film adaptation was headlined by silent film stars Bebe Daniels as Ruth Wonderly and Ricardo Cortez as Sam Spade. Although it was generally well-received, the script truncated the book down to 75 minutes of quick-paced pre-code fun. Cortez was uneven as Spade, alternately laughing at his own lines and grimacing menacingly. The character of Wilmer Cook was severely limited and Wonderly’s alternate identities (including Brigid O’Shaugnessy) were eliminated completely. The script’s major addition was the final scene, with Wonderly behind bars, where Spade pulls his last card. Surprisingly, Dashiell Hammett’s main criticism of the film (at least according to Marguerite Tazelaar in the November 12, 1933 New York Times) was that the film hewed too closely to the book. “’You need to simplify a story as much as possible when you’re going to make a picture of it,’ he said. ‘If you don’t you’ll have too many lines and so lose your full effect.’”

In 1934, producer Hal B. Wallis sent a memo to part of his production team, recommending a remake: “We made a picture from this several years ago, which was very successful, but in the picture version we only touched on the story contained in the book. I think we can get another screen play out of it by actually making the book.” What emerged, instead, was the film version furthest removed from the original tome. The script was again written by Brown Holmes, but character names were widely changed (Sam Spade to Ted Shane, Effie Perrine to Miss Murgatroyd), and actions and even genders were altered (Caspar Gutman became Madame Barabbas). The film could not, in fact, have been titled The Maltese Falcon, because the prize worth pursuing was Roland’s Trumpet.

The tone of the film was much lighter than even that of the 1931 version, possibly hoping to capitalize on the success of 1934’s The Thin Man, also based on a Dashiell Hammett novel, which was a piece that was naturally light in tone. But this effort didn’t work as it was lambasted by critics. The New York Times called it “a cynical farce of elaborate and sustained cheapness,” while Variety pints out that the film “endeavors to replace mystery with comedy, but the comedy isn’t strong enough to fill the bill.”

John Huston was already the successful screenwriter of Jezebel, Juarez, Dr. Ehrlich’s Magic Bullet, High Sierra and Sergeant York when he convinced Warner Bros. to give him a shot at directing. Howard Hawks suggested Huston take on The Maltese Falcon, as the property was currently owned by Warners and had previously been made, making it low-risk. Huston read the book and agreed. Legend has it that Huston gave the novel to his secretary and asked her to type it into screenplay form, as a sort of first draft. Jack Warner, eager to find out what Huston was doing, found the script on Huston’s desk while he was away and approved it, with very few changes from the book.

This, of course, was a large part of the success of the 1941 version, as well as its darker tone and the inimitable eye of director John Huston. The film launched the directorial career of Huston and took Humphrey Bogart to new heights, and introduced them both as forces of film noir, as Bogart went on to star in at least five other films noir before his death in 1957, and Huston directed Key Largo and The Asphalt Jungle, also films in the genre.

The Movies of 2010

Well, the amount of movie watching has increased again. The tally for last year was 158 movies, and I'm pretty sure there were even more repeat viewings again as well. Maybe I should just shoot for 183 in 2011 and make sure I watch one every other day. I'm sure I'll get a great headstart in January as I prepare for The Noir Series, starting this Thursday, January 6, with THE MALTESE FALCON, introduced by special guest Sean Chercover. Check this blog and dryden.eastmanhouse.org for details.

25th Hour (2002)
99 River Street (1953) - 2X
2012 (2009)
Across the Bridge (1957)
Alphabet Killer (2008)
Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel (2009)
American Grindhouse (2010)
Angel Face (1952)
Arctic Tale (2007)
Asphalt Jungle (1950)
Avatar (2009)
Back to the Future (1985)
Batman: The Movie (1966)
Because I Said So (2007)
Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
Big Fan (2009)
Big House, USA (1955)
Big Steal (1949) - 2X
Black Narcissus (1947)
Blind Side (2009)
Boys Are Back (2009)
Brooklyn Bridge (1981)
Brooklyn's Finest (2010)
Buck Privates (1941)
Burglar, The (1957)
Caught (1949)
Chad Hanna (1940)
Chang: A Drama of the Wilderness (192
Charlie Chan at Treasure Island (1939)
Closer (2004)
Coogan's Bluff (1968)
Cop Hater (1958)
Cop Out (2010)
Corvette Summer (1978)
Counterplot (1959)
Crazy Heart (2009)
Crime Against Joe (1956)
Crossfire (1947) - 2X
Daisy Kenyon (1947)
Dance With Me, Henry (1956)
Dark Crystal (1982)
Dark Mirror (1946)
David Goodis...To a Pulp (2010) - 4X
Day the Earth Stood Still (2009)
Dead Zone (1983)
Despicable Me (2010)
Devil Makes Three (1952)
Devil Thumbs a Ride (1947)
Dodesukaden (1970)
Double Indemnity (1944)
Down These Mean Streets a Man Must Go (1969)
Due Date (2010)
Duel at Silver Creek (1952)
Duplicity (2009)
Earthworm Tractors (1936)
Empire Strikes Back (1980)
Escape from Alcatraz (1979)
Everybody's Fine (2009)
Expendables (2010)
Finding Neverland (2004) - 2X
Flaming Star (1960)
Girl Who Played with Fire (2009)
Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (2009) - 2X
Good Night, and Good Luck (2005)
Goonies (1985)
Gun Crazy (1950) - 2X
Gun Runners (1958)
Hamlet (1996)
Hangover (2009)
Harlan County, USA (1976)
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002)
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001)
Hell is for Heroes (1962)
Hot Tub Time Machine (2010)
Huckleberry Finn (1920)
Hurt Locker (2009)
I Wake Up Screaming (1941)
Inception (2010)
Inglourious Basterds (2009)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
Iron Man 2 (2010)
Julie and Julia (2009)
Karate Kid (2010)
Killers (1946)
Killers (1964)
Kiss Me Deadly (1955)
Kiss of Death (1947) - 3X
Knight & Day (2010)
Last Airbender (2010)
Laura (1944) - 3X
Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943)
Life and Times of Hank Greenberg (1998)
Lifeboat (1944)
Lineup (1958)
Lonesome (1928)
Macao (1952)
MacGruber (2010)
Madadayo (1993)
Madigan (1968)
Maltese Falcon (1931) - 2X
Maltese Falcon (1941)
Matter of Life and Death (1946)
Margie (1946)
Metropolis (1927)
Mister 880 (1950)
My Name is Julia Ross (1945)
New Frontier (1939)
Night Moves (1975)
No Country for Old Men (2007) - 2X
Nora Prentiss (1947)
Peeping Tom (1960)
Planet 51 (2009)
Postman Always Rings Twice (1946) - 2X
Private Hell 36 (1954)
Proposal, The (2009)
Ray (2004)
Reckless Moment (1949)
Red Shoes (1948)
Return of the Jedi (1983)
Riff-Raff (1936)
Rocketeer (1991)
Rogue Cop (1954)
Scarlet Street (1945)
Shadowing the Third Man (2004)
Shooter (2007)
Shootist (1976)
Shutter Island (2010)
So Dark the Night (1946)
Somewhere in the Night (1946)
State of Play (2010)
Stone (2010)
Street of Chance (1942)
Sunrise (1927)
Superman: The Movie (1978)
Superman 2 (1980)
Superman III (1983)
Tale of Two Worlds (1921)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990)
Third Man (1949)
This is Spinal Tap (1984)
Throne of Blood (1957)
Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974)
Thunderheart (1992)
To Have and Have Not (1944)
Toy Story 3 (2010)
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009)
Try and Get Me! (1950)
Two Mules for Sister Sara (1970)
Up in the Air (2009)
Valentine's Day (2010)
Vicki (1953)
When the Clock Strikes (1961) - 2X
Where the Sidewalk Ends (1950) - 3X
Whtie Christmas (1954)
White Desert (1925)
White Heat (1949) - 3X
White Lightning (1973)
X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)

Weekend TV: Life 1.3

In this episode, Crews and Reese investigate a crash/car-jacking and a husband with amnesia. (Interesting how both episodes this weekend deal with amnesiacs.) But the sub-text pertaining to Crews' noir status is contained in these two scenes:

First, Crews faces the lead detective that sent him to jail

Crews's statement that he didn't appreciate his life suggests a need for the dark side, that without the contrast, there is no way to value what you have, and indicates that the dark side is now a permanent part of who he is.

The next two scenes tie together


The chase shows that, even though Crews has been re-instated as a cop, it's still his con instincts that take over when his life is on the line. The second scene shows his willingness to try to change, to find redemption on level ground, as well as the pressure that he and his partner are under due to the settlement.

Here's the full episode:

The Noir Series, Part 4

The last two weeks of the series feature a rarely-seen classic and a returning favorite. On February 17, we will screen the first pairing of Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas in I WALK ALONE. Running rum in the 20s, Lancaster is caught but doesn't talk. On the outside, Douglas goes straight and opens a successful nightclub with the bootlegging profits. When he gets out of prison, Lancaster wants his share of the profits and Douglas's girl (Lizabeth Scott).

The last noir film of the series is the classic heist film THE ASPHALT JUNGLE, screening on February 27. Being a bit of a heist aficionado himself, and in the midst of writing a caper novel, noir author Charles Benoit returns after a successful 2010 event to answer more questions about how film noir has influenced his writing and how his new book YOU has been recieved.



I am looking forward to another successful series and expect to see all of you there!

The Noir Series, Part 3

The 2011 "Essential Film Noir" series continues on February 3 with a unique double feature. Both films feature the same star and same director, and were released in the same year, in addition to both being noir. The star was James Mason, the director Max Ophuls, the year 1949 and the films CAUGHT and THE RECKLESS MOMENT. In CAUGHT Barbara Bel Geddes is a woman trapped in a loveless marriage that she runs out on. In THE RECKLESS MOMENT, Joan Bennett is another mother who would do anything for her daughter, including hide a dead body. Neither of these films are on DVD, so make sure to take advantage of this opportunity to see them on the big screen.





On February 10 I will have the honor of welcoming noir author Megan Abbott to the Dryden Theatre stage. Her novels THE SONG IS YOU, DIE A LITTLE, QUEENPIN and BURY ME DEEP have won just about every major mystery award and have been optioned by Hollywood. Megan will be with me to talk about her writing and about the 1946 film Gilda starring Rita Hayworth. In between, she'll be signing copies of her books.

The Noir Series, Part 2

On January 2o, 2o11 the "Essential Film Noir" series will feature the 1946 Joan Crawford MILDRED PIERCE a full two months before the new HBO version featuring Kate Winslet airs. The story of a mother who would do anything for her daughter is accompanied by a talk with film noir scholar and Turner Classic Movies employee Shannon Clute, who has a book coming out in 2011 with co-author Richard Edwards. The two have filled the web airwaves with darkness from their podcasts "Out of the Past: Investigating Film Noir" and "Behind the Black Mask: Mystery Writers Revealed." Shannon will talk about the influence of literature on noir, and the influence of noir on literature.



January 27 will feature the Ronald Colman film A DOUBLE LIFE. Colman won the Oscar for this 1947 portrayal of an actor who loses himself too deeply in a murderous part.

The Noir Series, Part 1

It's almost time once again for the annual "Essential Film Noir" film series to start at the Dryden Theatre in Rochester, NY. Once again, we will take 8 consecutive Thursdays in January and February to watch some of the best classic films noir on the big screen, and I am very proud to announce some extra-special guests that will be joining us this year to talk about the films and their influence.

We start off the 2011 series on January 6 with THE MALTESE FALCON. You may not think there's anything else to say about the San Francisco-based P.I. film, but I'll be talking with author Sean Chercover, Shamus-winning author of the P.I. Ray Dudgeon series, and a former private investigator himself. If anyone has something new to reveal about the film, it will be Sean. In between, he'll be signing copies of his Ray Dudgeon books. Visit Sean's website at http://chercover.com/



On January 13, we'll have a double feature of Don Siegel-directed noirs, starting with THE LINEUP and finishing with THE BIG STEAL. THE LINEUP is based on the police procedural series of the same name. Eli Wallach, in only his second big-screen role is the noir focus of this film, as a psychotic thug hired to retrieve some smuggled drugs. Robert Mitchum returns to noir in THE BIG STEAL as a man on the run from the US Army, either absconding with or tracking down stolen funds. Watch the trailers here:

Weekend TV: Life 1.1

Hulu has yet again pushed back their streaming of the third season of SONS OF ANARCHY, so I've decided to highlight an overlooked and underappreciated noir series from 2007-2009, called LIFE. The entire 2-season run is on Hulu, and doesn't expire until September of next year, so we'll be able to go through one episode a week and finish with plenty of time.

LIFE is the story of Charlie Crews, a policeman who was convicted of murder in 1995, and freed in 2007 when the conviction was overturned based on shoddy policework. Charlie's settlement included a large undisclosed sum and renistatement in the LAPD as a detective. Charlie is partnered with Dani Reese, a detective 21 months sober, but still on the department's shit list. Crews's ultimate plan is use the department's resources to find out who framed him and sent to jail, but Dani's getting pressure to witness Crews in a compromising situation and get him kicked off the force. In the meantime, they are pushed together to solve crimes.

The noir thrust of the series is analogous to the film noir protagonist type of a hero forced to act like a criminal. Charlie is described by his ex-partner as a good cop, but one just "looking to get his 20 and his pension." Understandably, prison changes him. Inside, the prisoners treat him like a cop and the guards treat him like a con. Both beat him, leading to multiple trips to the infirmary and over 200 stitches. Not only does he need to learn to survive, but to cope. This leads him to the study of zen philosophy, which he continues to use on the outside.

Once released, Crews is a new kind of cop, walking the line between the perceived light of police procedure and the perceived dark of criminal activity. His first day back on the job, he is already illegally informing suspects of pending searches, which gives them time to remove drugs from their house. But he did this in the interest of family, by not having a father ripped from a household after their son has just been murdered. Crews's moral compass now transcends the difference between police and criminals.

Crews's first case involves a man who is a mirror of himself, a man who went to jail and found the darkness in himself, and a man who found himself abandoned by his wife because of it.