The Noir List Discussion and Suggestions (Genre Project)

[YnEoS]

Kiss of Death (Henry Hathaway, 1947) – Don’t have a lot to say about this one, I thought this was well put together, and I stayed with the plot most of the time, but was never really fully immersed. Widmark performance is interesting, and there are a few really excellent stylish shots here. An interesting film, but not one of my favorites.

Underworld USA (Samuel Fuller, 1961) – Pretty grim and stylish revenge film that has a lot of energy behind it. For the most part this was a lot of fun, but I felt the romantic subplot was a bit too removed from the main action, so it didn’t quite reach the heights for me that it might’ve if everything was working together perfectly.

This Gun for Hire (Frank Tuttle, 1942) – A key film in the development in noir, the film was hit with massive budget cuts after the US entered the war. UFA trained art director Hans Dreier helped give a stylish look to the film despite the lack of resources on set. Hans Dreier would work on a number of subsequent noirs and his art department at Paramount was known as “Dreier College” as he trained up a lot of additional talent. The patriotic themes allowed the film to get away with a lot of violent material that would’ve been previously censored. Graham Greene wasn’t too enthusiastic about the many changes to his original novel, such as the addition of Veronica Lake as a singer/magician turned undercover FBI Agent (probably because he doesn’t like fun or happiness or anything good in the world). I don’t think everything here comes together perfectly, it's certainly a very compromised production, but there’s a lot of fun to be had here and I quite enjoyed the film.

Phantom Lady (Robert Siodmak, 1944) – Joan Harrison first film as a producer seeking more creative control after having a number of her screenplays so significantly altered that she had her named removed from the films. After her success scripting a number of gothic thrillers for Alfred Hitchcock like Rebecca, she negotiated a producing job with universal and found a perfect collaborator in director Robert Siodmak. There’s a lot of remarkable stylish, well directed scenes here done on a low budget. I think the switching of protagonists in the beginning is a bit clumsy, and the later film Woman on the Run handles certain similar plot elements more elegantly. None the less there’s a lot of of great material here.

The Woman in the Window (Fritz Lang, 1944) – Writer-Producer Nunnally Johnson had submitted some early treatments of Double Indemnity and as part of the effort to get that story passed censors. After the landmark release of that film, he was quick to capitalize off the signaled relaxed censorship and his newfound creative control as the founder of International Pictures. This is a wonderfully scripted and super tense noir. It does a great job of playing the ”involved in your own criminal investigation plot” reminiscent of Double Indemnity, but now with Edward G. Robinson on the other side of the investigation. The way they casually joke about all the evidence pointing to him is simultaneously amusing and terrifying. Though I’ve got somewhat mixed feeling about the ending, this felt like pretty much a certified noir masterpiece.

Moontide (Archie Mayo, 1942) – This is the kind of film that makes me wish it was better than it is, perhaps because it's such a unique production. There’s really great moody atmosphere here, and tons of great performances from the stellar cast. The main source of tension in the film didn’t really work for me. The film simply denies information and then hangs the threat of blackmail and rape over the character’s heads until the final reveal. Still the mood makes the film hold much better than would be expected. An interesting film to be sure, but I can imagine a much better one with similar elements.

The Long Night (Anatole Litvak, 1947) – I couldn’t help but compare this to Le Jour Se Leve while watching it, so I was perhaps incapable of appreciating it on its own terms. Henry Fonda and Vincent Price are inspired casting choices, but I couldn’t help but see them as imitating characters I was already familiar with. Definitely an interesting production and a good attempt at remaking Le Jour Se Leve for American audiences, but I can’t say I was taken with it.

Sorry, Wrong Number (Anatole Litvak, 1948) – For the most part I thought this was really well done, but the flashback structures didn’t work quite as well for me as it does in other films. The opening scene was really terrifying and tense, but then when it goes into the back-story I didn’t really appreciate being dragged away. I don’t theoretically have any problems with the way the film unfolds, but my experience was I felt like was being pulled back and forth between being interested in the backstory of the characters and the tension of the present situation.

RiffRaff (Ted Tetzlaff, 1947) – I’m going to join in the crowd in praising this film, definitely among the most fun noirs I’ve watched for this project. I was really struck by how well the narrative and cinematography work together here. The plot really kicks and effortlessly moves between subtle narrative cues and witty dialog. And looking at the creative personnel behind the film, it's no wonder everything works here so well. Ted Tetzlaff, as mentioned in past discussion, was fresh off from being a cinematographer himself on Hitchcock’s Notorious and would direct the wonderfully tense The Window next. And the cinematographer here George E. Diskant does a really great job of doing subtle, narrative focused cinematography on other noir favorites of mine like They Live By Night and The Narrow Margin just to name two.

A Kiss Before Dying (Gerd Oswald, 1956) – I think this films does some pretty good job juggling a lot of characters and some pretty severe narrative shifts. Most remarkable of which being the first section of the film spending lots of time being put in the POV of a character pulling off a pretty sinister plot. A lot of times this falls into what Bordwell calls clothesline cinematography that a lot of cinemascope films use, but the framing is kept tighter than in some worse offenders, and uses some creative compositions and staging when needed for narrative emphasis. I think it's interesting that we have a younger european émigré director here and the film mixes noir plot elements into a youth problem film so soon after Rebel Without a Cause. Gerd Oswald came to America when he was 18 or 19 with his father, the silent director Richard Oswald. I wish I had more information about the production and a wider exposure to 1950s American films to say anything concrete about this, but it’s a detail that I find interesting and would love to investigate further.

[domino harvey]

Great thoughts, as always!

Reminder for everyone that lists are due one month from today, November 13th!

[domino harvey]

Appointment With Danger (Lewis Allen 1951) The trend of Naked City-inspired procedurals scrapes bottom with this tale hilariously introduced with false pomposity as finally telling the thrilling story of… US Postal Inspectors? The only real interest here is seeing Jack Webb and Harry Morgan working together as the heavies (one lighter than the other, though). Lots of people getting either knocked off or threatened with such, and the Bells of St Mary’s-ish sideplot with the world’s most foolhardy nun doesn’t help matters.

Destination Murder (Edwin L Cahn 1950) Slight but fun b-pic with a few good ideas, including the opening alibi-faking where the shooter excuses himself from a date to smoke a cigarette, goes out and kills someone, then sneaks back in to the theatre through the bathroom window (though this scene seems familiar— did another noir or later film copy it / was this copying an earlier scene?). Apart from the opening, there’s a couple nice twists involving a local crime boss and one woman’s amateur sleuthing. This is pretty baldly a noir pastiche without shame or class, but that’s part of the charm. Recommended.

Rope of Sand (William Dieterle 1949) Thank you lord for sending this film Claude Rains, who makes an otherwise unbearable African adventure tale (calling this a noir is really stretching it) tolerable. But Rains is also great in films which are also great, so go watch the Unsuspected or Notorious instead.

Still of the Night (Robert Benton 1982) Man, Robert Benton was just obsessed with making his own languid noir updates,wasn’t he? Though he at least has one of the absolute best modern noirs to his credit (Nadine), this is less successful (though better than dreck like Twilight) thought I gave it the benefit of the doubt for much of its running time on the strength of its bizarre pacing and tone, which registers just slightly above catatonic. Benton’s follow-up to Kramer vs Kramer’s great success let him make this one fairly unchecked, I suspect, and surely the only reason a sleepy Meryl Streep is here is as a favor to Benton’s role in gaining her first Oscar (she later cited this as the worst film she’s been in— it’s not, but an interesting self-criticism nonetheless).

Storm Fear (Cornel Wilde 1955) Down there with Shack Out on 101 for the dubious honor of worst noir I’ve ever seen. Awful in every conceivable way, this tale of a snowbound pair of criminals holing up in the cabin of one’s ex turned reluctant family gal is only intermittently salvaged by a young Steven Hill’s wildly careening method acting. Other than that, though, Wilde doesn’t much make a convincing argument here in favor of letting actors behind the camera.

the Velvet Touch (Jack Gage 1948) Despite its premise, this is barely a noir, but it is a fun and often delightfully catty Broadway tale, with the queen of these kind of roles Rosalind Russell doing what she does best as the egomaniacal stage actress who kills her manager in order to be freed from her contract. There’s one great moment of misdirection that seems to have been lifted wholesale for Birdman, and a nice sequence wherein Russell, jealous of Claire Trevor being suspected of her crime, goads Sydney Greenstreet’s inspector into considering her (real) guilt so as to steal the spotlight. Leo Genn's entire role and subplot seem C+Ped from an entirely different film, but it's not a terrible one either.

[life_boy]

Body and Soul (Robert Rossen, 1947)
This is one of those unsung American movies, the kind of thing that the AFI should have been highlighting on their Top 100 redux rather than figuring out ways to squeeze The Sixth Sense onto the list. A stout, rich drama of fate and human frailty played against the backdrop of chance and athletic prowess. John Garfield is always a pleasure but he tops himself here, especially as the noose tightens around his neck. The real surprises though are the standout supporting roles. Lilli Palmer, Anne Revere and Canada Lee all bring a depth and honesty to their portrayals, while the roles were written with much more humanity than the stock tropes these characters might read as in a story synopsis. It is quite unusual to come to a movie like this and be really unsure how it will play out. It's easy to see that Scorsese got a lot of the building materials for Raging Bull from this picture.

Boomerang! (Elia Kazan, 1947)
This is a bitter little pill most of the way through. More like an administrative noir rather than a straight police procedural, Kazan charts the civil proceedings and political posturing of a Connecticut town rocked by the grisly death of a local pastor by a random act of violence. It is an act of murder so random that there is very little the police have to go on besides some vague eyewitness testimony. Their hand is forced by a local government up for reelection and under scrutiny for some recent reforms. They must do something; justice must be expedited. The police sweat a confession out of a guy brought in from out of town, witnesses testify they saw him and even ballistics on his weapon come back positive. It should be open and shut. Though the evidence seems to fit, he doesn't talk like he's guilty.

State attorney Henry Harvey has his doubts too. Once part of the force pushing the police to get a confession, Harvey is now the sole force of reason and justice in town. Honestly weighing the evidence, he shocks everyone with his skepticism at the preliminary hearings. “Is one man’s wife worth more than the community?” he is later asked, his political allies telling him he's sacrificing everything, including his town. There is a frightening herd mentality that Boomerang! is trying to expose; a crime that shakes a town can't go unsolved, they say.

Though it all wraps up a little too quickly and it feels like the stakes are eased before they really had a chance to set in, its depiction of city politics is overall pretty cynical. In the end, it is the difficulty of attaining clear justice in the midst of politics, public outrage and anxious news coverage. Not quite as biting as something like Ace in the Hole but the fact that this case turns out alright begs the question of how many others didn't.

The Chase (Arthur Ripley, 1946)
Here's one of the weirder ones from the era. Military veteran stumbles into the service of a millionaire gangster and ends up trying to steal his wife. That description is nothing special but there is such a delicate mystery at play all around this that it becomes something much greater than the sum of its parts.

Chuck Scott feels about as bland as they come. Even his name is utterly forgettable. But, he is a forgotten man. One of those decent guys who did his service and then finds a country that may pat him on the back for serving but that actually doesn't have much room for him. He happens to find a wallet and returns it to the owner after he buys himself a hot meal. When he meets Eddie Roman, he doesn't try to hide anything. Maybe he is looking for something; maybe he's just a standup guy. Either way, he ends up a chauffeur for Mr. Roman. But Eddie Roman is a gangster, sadist and paranoid micromanager of a frightening order, even going so far as to have an overriding pedal in the back of his car so he can control the speed at will (or torture his chauffeurs with games of chicken with on-coming trains). He likes to maintain psychological leverage over all those around him. Not surprisingly, Lorna Roman is ready to leave the heavy-handed rule of her husband and confides in her chauffeur to help hatch a plan. It all ends up in ethereal territory. This is one of those unheralded films that, had it been produced by Val Lewton, would probably be receiving much more praise now than it is. There are so many simple joys in watching this; I'll save them for those who venture out to discover this unheralded oddity.

Criss Cross (Robert Siodmak, 1949)
A much better flashback noir than Siodmak's overrated The Killers, here he plants his film very deeply in the landscape of urban Los Angeles. Not so much its seediness as its busyness. From the helicopter flyover of City Hall in the opening titles continuing several blocks north to the parking lot of a nightclub, it was pretty evident that we were going to be given a different look at the city for this era. The story in itself has some interest as a fatalistic rendering of relationships (are some relationships literally doomed to failure?--two people somehow attracted despite their better judgment), but the most interesting thing going on in the movie is easily the location filming and the shot framing. That may sound like a mechanical praise, but there is a richness to Siodmak's frames here. Much of this movie had to have been filmed on location, even interiors. It is a masterwork of stylized staging within the real world.

My favorite shot is inside a drug store, presumably right around the block from Steve's apartment, where Steve is meeting his ex-wife. The two have a complicated relationship, the details of which we aren't particularly privy to but just seem to be basic issues of selfishness, irritation and incompatibility - not so much any specific backstory issue (which is, frankly, refreshingly honest). The drug store keeps its door open and just happens to have a perfectly framed view of the Los Angeles City Hall down the street. It is an uncommon angle on that much-photographed structure. At first it seemed like a clever touch by the designers who tried to give the outside matte a distinct visual centerpiece. But, when the end of the scene ends up at the door, it is evident that the outside is no mere matte painting but the actual city at dusk!

In most films noir with an L.A. setting, City Hall seems to serve primarily as a symbol of police authority or as a (in the case of Crime Wave) geographic marker of proximity to the city's urban core. It serves more the purpose of the latter in Criss Cross, but more as a marker and centralizing point for most of the action. Steve's mother lives in Bunker Hill, just north of the City Hall and, as I mentioned, the action at the outset sets us there too. Much has been written about the use of Bunker Hill in film noir, but let me just say that Siodmak seems to go one step further by putting us inside some of the buildings, looking out their doorways and windows into the city around them. All of this gives the film a vitality it would not have as a simple studio production.

There are weaknesses that keep it from masterpiece status. The drama of the central relationship doesn't always feel focused and Dan Duryea didn't make the most menacing villain. Slim would have been better served by an actor that was able to more eccentrically bring out the suave veneer and lurking menace that seemed to be what was intended with Slim, but Duryea never quite got the menace across.

Double Indemnity (Billy Wilder, 1944) [rewatch]
I had forgotten that this is just great as people say it is, though it is easy to take for granted because it is all pulled off so effortlessly. The Coens have spent their careers basically remaking it.

Fallen Angel (Otto Preminger, 1945) [rewatch]
Hard to call this subpar when you've got Preminger's beautifully baroque camerawork gliding all over the place, but the story for this one just falls a little flat for me on the rewatch. Down on his luck Dana Andrews ends up in a northern California town trying to hustle his way into the hearts of a couple of local ladies. The romances never really felt plausible (Linda Darnell is fine but Andrews' falling for her feels contrived, though he kind of admits to that in the end) and the movie is pretty slow going.

The emotional dead ends of lust and greed are major themes, sure, but the characters feel a little too thin for a movie that's basically supposed to be a character drama. The last 30 minutes have some interesting scenes once Andrews must come to terms with some of his decisions (and the commitment of Alice Faye is an interesting wrinkle); too bad the movie didn't start a little deeper into the story or streamline the telling of it in some way because it feels like there is a great film trapped in here among everything else.

The Killers (Don Siegel, 1964)
Sorry, I really just have no patience for this story at all, I guess. Even Siodmak's stylish original left me pretty cold except for the crackling opening scene in the diner. The great opening is done away with for something much more blunt and forceful. Even the elegance of the dialogue is done away with. We're met with just vicious, thorough murder. The fact that its in a school for the blind is only of passing interest. It doesn't really matter. Maybe its symbolic. Who cares? But it turns out they care - "they" being the contract killers. They start to care about who is behind this job, who is paying them double their standard rate. They get curious because "he just stood there and took it." There's a whole little plot about racing and a heist double-cross. It all feels very flat, painfully slow and dull.

The tension is deflated the moment they start backtracking. Siodmak's film at least had the device of the insurance man trying to work out the claim, here its just a couple of guys who shouldn't care but decide to. Don't get me wrong, Lee Marvin and Clu Gulager are the film's only saving graces, but they spend most of the movie "listening" which puts most of the movie happening without them. And to think, all this snooping could have been avoided if Ronald Reagan had just paid the standard rate for knocking off John Cassavetes.

The Seventh Victim (Mark Robson, 1943) [rewatch]
A strange, sinister and ultimately melancholy descent into urban loneliness and despair, The Seventh Victim is really unlike any other movie from this era, even the other films in the Val Lewton cycle. Where movies like I Walked with a Zombie or Cat People were unsettling by the realization of the supernatural world invading the physical world, The Seventh Victim actually slowly removes the supernatural altogether and finds a bunch of lonely, confused people wandering around grasping for answers. Some have found safety at a religious boarding school, some in science and psychology, some in romance, still others in a Satanic cult. Answers are hard to come by and, in many ways, reality is too depressing to take.

As unsatisfying as it is, everything I have tried to write about this comes up feeling utterly flat, as nothing seems to express the heart of what is going on in this very strange movie. I immediately feel like there are depths to this that I have only scratched the surface of and mysteries worth exploring in detail. I will simply defer to Cold Bishop's wonderful analysis from the first iteration of this project.

The Window (Ted Tetzlaff, 1949)
In addition to dealing with the grisly and the unseemly, film noir often took wrecking balls (in some measure) to the institutions we most often place our trust and comfort in as a society. Whether it be the legal system (Boomerang!), the press (Ace in the Hole), the police force (Kansas City Confidential), religion (The Seventh Victim) or even insurance salesmen (Double Indemnity), it was only a matter of time before someone took a hammer to the nuclear family. While Tetzlaff's film isn't interested in totally deconstructing it, he is interested in examining it from up close, looking particularly at the natural distrust parents have of a child who is prone to lie and the complicated logistics of working class parenting. This film is deeply helped by some great New York location photography and a wonderful integration of the sets and real world. It is clear that Tetzlaff had a very steady hand when it came to storytelling and, while the film feels a bit slight overall, he keeps things moving at a brisk pace and really keeps Bobby Driscoll in check.

[domino harvey]

Due to personal obligations, list submission deadline will be pushed ahead by one week to November 20th. Feel free to use this extra week to watch forty more noirs than you were planning

[swo17]

Here are some titles I plan to vote for that didn't make it onto the last list. There's still about a week and a half left to check some of them out:

Spotlight: The Devil Thumbs a Ride (Felix Feist)
Why does any movie need to last more than an hour? This one is ferocious, and so much happens during that scant runtime. Or maybe it's just that it feels like anything can happen throughout.

Spotlight: The Web (Michael Gordon)
A very confident film, clever enough to be able to grin at how clever it is without it seeming like a boast. There are so many cherries on top of this milkshake, you might almost lose count.

The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (Lewis Milestone)
One of the classiest noirs. Almost feels too refined to be one for some of its runtime, but then eventually shows that it's still hitting the same beats, just in more sophisticated ways.

Drive a Crooked Road/Pushover (Richard Quine)
Both of these films, at their heart, are about sad men taking a misguided path all the way out to its unfortunate conclusion, because they are too weary at that point to double back.

Highway 301 (Andrew Stone)
Steve Cochran's finest hour?

Scene of the Crime (Roy Rowland)
A perhaps average programmer elevated by virtue of some of the genre's snappiest dialogue.

Reign of Terror (Anthony Mann)
One of the few films I'm classifying as noir almost entirely because of its stylistic merits. Same goes for Caged, which I might otherwise see as more of a prison film/social problem picture.

The Sound of Fury (Cy Endfield)
When the film shows its conscience it feels a little phony, but when it shows its fangs (e.g. the finale, every scene with Lloyd Bridges) it's electric.

Tension (John Berry)
Opens with a detective stretching a rubber band until it snaps. This is that kind of movie. Strikes a nice balance between fatalism and playfulness.

The Window (Ted Tetzlaff)
Why isn't this as well regarded as Rear Window?

They Made Me a Fugitive (Alberto Cavalcanti)
The Upturned Glass (Lawrence Huntington)
Frankly, if there were more American noirs that I was passionate about, or that I felt were more prototypical of the genre, I might be inclined to leave British films off of my list entirely. But these two films are so blatantly noir from both thematic and stylistic standpoints that I can overlook the fact that the English spoken in them is just a tad more proper than usual. Plus, it's not as though James Mason wasn't in some legit American noirs.

Rififi (Jules Dassin)
I'd rather rule out Brute Force for being more a prison movie and Thieves' Highway for being more a social problem picture than this and Night of the City just because they're from the wrong country.

Le Samouraï (Jean-Pierre Melville)
And this is just a reminder that you can only vote for this in the pre-1970s noir list, so don't let its Frenchness, colorness, or year of release prevent you from voting for it at all.

[YnEoS]

Didn't quite make it through all the noirs I had lined up for the project, but I've sent my list in. Here's my last batch of reviews.

The Seventh Victim (Mark Robson, 1943) – I've seen this a long time ago when I watch watching a bunch of Val Lewton films, but decided to re-visit it in the context of noir. There are a lot of exceptional scenes here, but overall I wasn’t too involved with the story or most of the characters

Spoiler

My favorite character in the movie gets killed off early on, and while it’s a wonderful scene, it would’ve been better if I enjoyed staying with the rest of the characters for the remainder of the film.

Drive a Crooked Road (Richard Quine, 1954) – Another great example of a basic story ideas executed really well. The film really did the necessary legwork to get me really involved with the characters so the final heist would work well.

Pushover (Richard Quine, 1954) – More familiar ideas, but it does something that really helps improve the investigating your own crime story format, which is that the investigation and the crime are happening simultaneously. As much as I like many of the format templates, I do start losing interest when the protagonist has done something I know they can’t get away with and the film marches inevitably to their capture. Here the protagonist is still evidently screwed from early on, but the film is juggling so many plot threads that I was constantly guessing exactly how everything was going to come together in the end. I thought it did a great job of keep the narrative driving forward while developing its cast of characters, and keeping character traits involved in the narrative.

Dead Reckoning (John Cromwell, 1947) – There’s a good movie in here somewhere, but every time I thought the film was finally getting going it seems to lose its pacing again. It also re-purposes some material from The Maltese Falcon and The Big Sleep.

Nightfall (Jacques Tourneur, 1957) – I quite enjoyed some of the material here, but overall the film felt a bit slight. I enjoyed watching it but not great enough to dent my list.

Detective Story (William Wyler, 1951) – One of the best films I’ve watched for this project, but I wouldn’t put it on a noir list.

Scarlet Street (Fritz Lang, 1945) – This was very well made, but I had difficulty getting into it because there wasn’t really anything to look forward to. Between the extreme portrayal of Edward G. Robinson’s character as a henpecked husband and him being a total dupe throughout the film didn’t leave me rooting for anything but just squirming at the films plot. My favorite scenes were the ones between Joan Bennett, Dan Duryea, and Margaret Lindsay but those were rather sparse throughout the film. When the film starts piling up plot twists and irony in enough quantity the sheer momentum of the narrative kept me involved. Overall I quite liked it, but this isn’t my favorite noir material.

Devil Thumbs a Ride (Felix E. Feist, 1947) – Just a really perfect short and sweet noir. Gets right down to the point and does a good job building tension and developing characters. Lawrence Tierney does an incredible job here and really earns the film its name.

Reckless Moment (Max Ophüls, 1949) – Nice tense and sweet film. James Mason is a cutie here. This was really great but didn't stand out against my other favorite noirs.

The Big Combo (Joseph H. Lewis, 1955) – Overall this was pretty great, but I’ve got 50 other great movies I prefer to it.

He Ran All The Way (John Berry, 1951) – I’m going to sound bit repetitive here, but yet another example of a great short noir with a nice mix of tension and character development. Despite having a character who’s obviously screwed, the characters are so great here that I was still absorbed by all their interactions that the inevitable trajectory of the plot didn’t hinder my experience.

Body and Soul (Robert Rossen, 1946) – Another really tremendous boxing film, but so far The Set-Up is the only boxing film I’d put on a noir list.

Phenix City Story (Phil Karlson, 1955) – The first 40 or so minutes of this film really take their time with some very slow and uninteresting setup. But boy, when this film gets going does it get going. This normally isn’t my kind of material, but the sheer height of emotion and intensity going on here kept me drawn in. I like that the film regularly denied any kind of cathartic vengeance on the wrongdoers.

The Web (Michael Gordon, 1947) – This didn’t really stand out to me in any particular way, but it was just an overall really solid film in all departments. The cast is really stellar, Edmond O'Brien, Ella Raines, William Bendix, and Vincent Price all give exceptional performances here. So thanks for the last minute recommendation Swo, I quite enjoyed this.

[swo17]

Props where they're due: I only checked out The Web because domino raved about it earlier in the thread.

[YnEoS]

Ahh, apologies domino, that one must've slipped past my notice. And thanks for spotlighting domino's recommendation, Swo.

[domino harvey]

Seven lists in so far, not counting my own (get your lists in, dummies, the deadline's tomorrow)-- it's clear many of our submitters having a go at being iconoclastic, so barring some last minute rallying, I think we're in for a markedly different list this time around

[domino harvey]

Sorry guys, crazy weekend. Submissions closed, results will either be posted late tonite or in the morning, depending.

Fun fact while we wait: exactly 1/4 of the list's participants are made up of previous contributors (all with new lists). Lots of fresh blood in these lists inside and out!

[domino harvey]

TOP MODERN NOIRS (1970 - PRESENT)



01 Blue Velvet (David Lynch 1986)
02 Chinatown (Roman Polanski 1974)
03 Taxi Driver (Martin Scorsese 1976)
04 Mullholland Dr (David Lynch 2001)
05 Fargo (Coen Brothers 1996)
05 the Long Goodbye (Robert Altman 1973)
07 LA Confidential (Curtis Hanson 1997)
08 Blade Runner (Ridley Scott 1982)
09 Memento (Christopher Nolan 2000)
10 Blood Simple (Coen Brothers 1984)
11 Le cercle rouge (Jean-Pierre Melville 1970)
12 Red Rock West (John Dahl 1993)
13 Pulp Fiction (Quentin Tarantino 1994)


ORPHANS

A History of Violence, A Simple Plan, Amateur

Badlands, Basic Instinct, Batman, the Black Dahlia, Bound, Brick

Cold Weather

Deep Cover, Der Skorpion, Devil in a Blue Dress, Die Sieger, Drive, the Driver

the Friends of Eddie Coyle

Get Carter, Gone Girl

Heist, Homicide, House of Games

Igla, Inherent Vice, Into the Night

Jigoku no banken: akai megane

the Kill-Off, the Killer Inside Me, Killer Joe, the Killing of a Chinese Bookie

Leon: the Professional, Lost Highway

Mad Max, Miller’s Crossing

Nadine, Naked Lunch, Narrow Margin (1990), the Nickel Ride, Night Moves

Road to Salina

the Spanish Prisoner, Spartan, Straight Time

Thief, Thieves Like Us, To Die For

the Way of the Gun, Winter’s Bone

[domino harvey]

TOP CLASSIC ERA NOIRS (THRU 1969)



“I hate surprises, don’t you?” -- Whit Sterling, Out of the Past

01 Out of the Past (Jacques Tourneur 1947) 526
02 Kiss Me Deadly (Robert Aldrich 1955) 491
03 Night and the City (Jules Dassin 1950) 479
04 Double Indemnity (Billy Wilder 1944) 416
05 In a Lonely Place (Nicolas Ray 1950) 409
06 Touch of Evil (Orson Welles 1958) 370
07 Scarlet Street (Fritz Lang 1945) 367
08 Force of Evil (Abraham Polonsky 1948) 349
09 the Big Heat (Fritz Lang 1953) 332
10 Raw Deal (Anthony Mann 1948) 330

11 Pickup on South Street (Samuel Fuller 1953) 321
12 Laura (Otto Preminger 1944) 320
12 Thieves Highway (Jules Dassin 1949) 320
14 Detour (Edgar G Ulmer 1945) 300
15 Gun Crazy (Joseph H Lewis 1949) 297
16 Act of Violence (Fred Zinnemann 1948) 284
17 Sweet Smell of Success (Alexander Mackendrick 1957) 277
18 Ace in the Hole (Billy Wilder 1951) 264
19 Caged (John Cromwell 1950) 263
20 Pitfall (Andre de Toth 1948) 262

21 the Window (Ted Tetzlaff 1949) 249
22 the Night of the Hunter (Charles Laughton 1955) 235
23 the Maltese Falcon (John Huston 1941) 234
24 Angel Face (Otto Preminger 1950) 228
25 Sunset Blvd (Billy Wilder 1950) 225
26 Too Late for Tears (Byron Hasin 1949) 220
27 the Asphalt Jungle (John Huston 1950) 219
28 the Strange Love of Martha Ivers (Lewis Milestone 1946) 217
29 the Big Sleep (Howard Hawks 1946) 215
30 the Lady From Shanghai (Orson Welles 1947) 208

31 the Killing (Stanley Kubrick 1956) 207
31 Tomorrow is Another Day (Felix E Feist 1951) 207
33 Crime Wave (Andre de Toth 1954) 202
33 On Dangerous Ground (Nicolas Ray 1951) 202
35 the Killers (Robert Siodmak 1946) 193
36 Gilda (Charles Vidor 1946) 185
37 Nightmare Alley (Edmund Goulding 1947) 179
38 the Postman Always Rings Twice (Tay Garnett 1946) 176
39 Woman on the Run (Norman Foster 1950) 170
40 Brute Force (Jules Dassin 1947) 164

41 the Set-Up (Robert Wise 1949) 163
42 Detective Story (William Wyler 1951) 160
43 the Hitch-Hiker (Ida Lupino 1953) 159
44 the Devil Thumbs a Ride (Felix E Feist 1947) 155
45 Murder by Contract (Irving Lerner 1958) 152
46 the Chase (Arthur Ripley 1946) 151
47 Where the Sidewalk Ends (Otto Preminger 1950) 150
48 Phantom Lady (Robert Siodmak 1944) 147
49 the Prowler (Joseph Losey 1951) 148
50 They Live by Night (Nicholas Ray 1949) 145

51 Criss Cross (Robert Siodmak 1949) 143
51 Leave Her to Heaven (John M Stahl 1945) 143
53 Riffraff (Ted Tetzlaff 1947) 142
54 Strangers on a Train (Alfred Hitchcock 1951) 138
55 Born to Kill (Robert Wise 1947) 130
56 Somewhere in the Night (Joseph L Mankiewicz 1946) 128
57 the Narrow Margin (Richard Fleischer 1952) 125
58 Odd Man Out (Carol Reed 1947) 124
59 Dark Passage (Delmer Daves 1947) 122
60 Moonrise (Frank Borzage 1948) 122

61 the Third Man (Carol Reed 1949) 119
61 Union Station (William Dieterle 1950) 119
63 the Woman in the Window (Fritz Lang 1944) 113
64 Whirlpool (Otto Preminger 1949) 109
65 the Woman on the Beach (Jean Renoir 1947) 107
66 the Seventh Victim (Mark Robson 1943) 104
67 the Lineup (Don Siegel 1958) 99
68 Rififi (Jules Dassin 1955) 98
69 T-Men (Anthony Mann 1947) 95
70 99 River Street (Phil Karlson 1953) 94

71 A Kiss Before Dying (Gerd Oswald 1956) 91
72 the Web (MIchael Gordon 1947) 90
73 the Reckless Moment (Max Ophuls 1949) 87
74 They Made me a Fugitive (Alberto Cavalcanti 1947) 86
75 the Scar / Hollow Triumph (Steve Sekely 1948) 82
76 Two of a Kind (Henry Levin 1951) 81
77 Cause for Alarm (Tay Garnett 1951) 78
77 Le Samouraï (Jean-Pierre Melville 1967) 78
79 Reign of Terror / the Black Book (Anthony Mann 1949) 77
80 Body and Soul (Robert Rossen 1947) 75
80 Where Danger Lives (John Farrow 1950) 75

82 the Big Combo (Joseph H Lewis 1955) 74
82 the Spiral Staircase (Robert Siodmak 1946) 74
84 the Blue Dahlia (George Marshall 1946) 72
85 Side Street (Anthony Mann 1950) 71
86 the Phenix City Story (Phil Karlson 1955) 70
87 Panic in the Streets (Elia Kazan 1950) 69
88 Mildred Pierce (Michael Curtiz 1945) 68
89 Pushover (Richard Quine 1954) 64
90 Murder, My Sweet (Edward Dmytryk 1945) 63
90 the Tall Target (Anthony Mann 1951) 63

92 Key Largo (John Huston 1948) 60
92 Nightfall (Jacques Tourneur 1957) 60
94 the Naked City (Jules Dassin 1948) 59
95 Ride the Pink Horse (Robert Montgomery 1947) 58
96 Slightly Scarlet (Allan Dwan 1956) 57
96 the Wrong Man (Alfred Hitchcock 1956) 57
98 Shockproof (Douglas Sirk 1949) 56
99 Drive a Crooked Road (Richard Quine 1954) 55
100 Armored Car Robbery (Robert Fleischer 1950) 53
100 the Blue Gardenia (Fritz Lang 1953) 53
100 Lady in the Lake (Robert Montgomery 1947) 53
100 Scandal Sheet (Phil Karlson 1952) 53


ALSO RANS

(52) Cry of the City, Pursued

(49-42) Border Incident, the Gangster, Human Desire, the Red House, House by the River, He Ran All the Way

(39-30) Macao, Tension. DOA, Beware, My Lovely, Underworld USA, Crossfire, the Big Night, Kansas City Confidential, Kiss of Death

(24-20) Possessed, the Bribe, Desperate

(19-11) Stranger on the Third Floor, Fury, Ministry of Fear, the Big Steal, Deadline at Dawn, M (Losey), Highway 301

(06-05) Decoy, the Sound of Fury, Storm Warning


ORPHANS

A Place in the Sun, Aar-Paar, the Accused

Bad Day At Black Rock, Behind Locked Doors, Berlin-Alexanderplatz, the Big Clock, the Big Knife, Black Angel, Blast of Silence, Boomerang!, Branded to Kill, the Brasher Doubloon, the Breaking Point, Brighton Rock, the Brothers Rico, the Burglar

Cape Fear, City For Conquest, Crack Up, Crime of Passion, the Crooked Way, Cry Danger

Dangerous Crossing, Dans la nuit, Das Totenschiff, Deadline USA, Deep Valley, Desert Fury, Dial 1119, Dishonored, Dokufu Takahashi Oden, Don’t Bother to Knock, Dragonwyck

Ein Alibi zerbrich, the Enforcer

Fallen Angel, the Fugitive

Gaslight (Cukor), the Glass Wall, the Great Sinner, Green For Danger

Hateshinaki yokubo, He Walked By Night, High Sierra, His Kind of Woman, Homicidal, House of Bamboo

I vigliacchi non pregano, I Wake Up Screaming, I Want to Live!, Impact, It Always Rains on Sunday

Johnny Angel

Kinjirareta tekunikku

Le deuxieme souffle, Le jour se leve

Madchen für die Mambo-Bar, Manon, Monsieur Verdoux

Naked Angels, the Naked Kiss, Night Has a Thousand Eyes, the Night Walker, Nocturne, Non coupable, Nora Prentiss, Notorious

One Way Street, Party Girl, Peeping Tom, Plein soleil, Plunder Road, Pretty Poison, Psycho

the Racket, Rashomon, Rear Window, Road House

Safe in Hell, Scene of the Crime, Shock, Secret Beyond the Door, Sex und noch nicht 16, Shadow of a Doubt, Shakedown, the Shanghai Gesture, the Sniper, So Dark the Night, Spellbound, Split Second, Strait Jacket, the Strange Affair of Uncle Harry, Strange Illusion, the Stranger, Sword of Doom

This Gun For Hire, Tokyo Drifter

Undercurrent, the Underworld Story, the Unsuspected, the Upturned Glass

Vertigo

When Strangers Marry / Betrayed, While the City Sleeps, White Heat, Without Warning!

You Only Live Once

[swo17]

Thanks for all your hard work compiling! Some stats:

New to the list
Too Late for Tears
the Devil Thumbs a Ride
Riffraff
Odd Man Out
Union Station
Rififi
the Web
They Made Me a Fugitive
Two of a Kind
Cause for Alarm
Le Samouraï
Reign of Terror
Key Largo
the Naked City
the Wrong Man
Drive a Crooked Road
Scandal Sheet

Off the list
Kansas City Confidential
Border Incident
He Walked By Night
Human Desire
He Ran All the Way
Fallen Angel
Shadow of a Doubt
Underworld USA
Kiss of Death
the Naked Kiss
White Heat
the Thief
Crossfire
DOA
the Sniper
the Big Steal
the Racket
Mr Arkadin

Now on the Neo-Noir list
Chinatown
the Long Goodbye

Biggest risers
the Strange Love of Martha Ivers +85
the Window +81
Detective Story +56
Caged +55
Born to Kill +53
Woman on the Run +50
Tomorrow is Another Day +47
Phantom Lady +47
the Chase +40
Mildred Pierce +32
Pitfall +31
the Postman Always Rings Twice +30
Pushover +29
Somewhere in the Night +27
the Woman in the Window +25
Night of the Hunter +24
the Woman on the Beach +22
Moonrise +21
Gilda +18
Leave Her to Heaven +16
Body and Soul +16
Brute Force +15
Laura +14
Whirlpool +13
Panic in the Streets +13
Pickup on South Street +12
Sunset Blvd +11
Murder by Contract +11
the Spiral Staircase +11
Sweet Smell of Success +10
Ace in the Hole +10

Largest falls
the Blue Gardenia -48
Slightly Scarlet -46
Murder, My Sweet -44
Ride the Pink Horse -42
the Reckless Moment -41
Armored Car Robbery -41
Shockproof -40
They Live By Night -35
the Big Combo -34
T-Men -31
Nightmare Alley -30
the Lineup -29
Dark Passage -25
the Lady From Shanghai -22
the Killers -21
Criss Cross -21
99 River Street -21
A Kiss Before Dying -21
the Third Man -20
the Blue Dahlia -19
the Phenix City Story -14
the Big Sleep -13
the Killing -13
Crime Wave -13
Where the Sidewalk Ends -13
Strangers on a Train -12
On Dangerous Ground -11
the Hitch-Hiker -11
the Set-Up -10

[sinemadelisikiz]

Other new entries:
The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (#28)
The Window (#21)
Born to Kill (#55)

[swo17]

Whoops, thanks for catching that. They were also rans last time so I put them under biggest risers.

Also, here is my personal noir list. Well, the list I submitted had Le Samouraï on it but for this one I kept a stricter definition of genre. (Interestingly, the Melville was the only '60s film to make the cut this round--not even any of the late Fullers charted.)

It looks like my only orphans were The Upturned Glass and Scene of the Crime.

And my top 10 neo-noirs (orphans bolded):

1. Miller's Crossing (Joel & Ethan Coen, 1990) -- So many of their films are noir in some way, but dialogue-wise, none more than this one.
2. Taxi Driver (Martin Scorsese, 1976)
3. A History of Violence (David Cronenberg, 2005)
4. Naked Lunch (David Cronenberg, 1991)
5. Le Cercle rouge (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1970)
6. Blood Simple (Joel & Ethan Coen, 1984)
7. A Simple Plan (Sam Raimi, 1998)
8. The Driver (Walter Hill, 1978)
9. Deep Cover (Bill Duke, 1992) -- Thought I was throwing Cold Bishop a bone here.
10. Red Rock West (John Dahl, 1993)

[domino harvey]

My Top 10 + Orphans

01 Whirlpool
02 Out of the Past
03 Caged
04 Tomorrow is Another Day
05 A Kiss Before Dying
06 the Blue Gardenia
07 Gun Crazy
08 Night and the City
09 Detective Story
10 Laura

19 Pretty Poison
28 Impact
44 Dragonwyck
50 Night Has a Thousand Eyes

Either the board is getting better taste or I'm getting worse, because I only had four orphans, by far a record for these kind of exercises! That's okay, I made up for it by almost going ten for ten on orphans for the Modern Noir list:

01 Heist
02 Gone Girl
03 Nadine
04 the Spanish Prisoner
05 Into the Night
06 Killer Joe
07 Leon: the Professional
08 Pulp Fiction
09 Red Rock West
10 the Killer Inside Me

[domino harvey]

Those are pretty good write ups

Laura

Woman sabotages relationship by being dead.

[Ashirg]

My top 10 (orphans in bold)

01. The Breaking Point (Michael Curtiz, 1950)
02. Out of the Past (Jacques Tourneur, 1947)
03. Ace in the Hole (Billy Wilder, 1951)
04. In a Lonely Place (Nicholas Ray, 1950)
05. The Big Heat (Fritz Lang, 1953)
06. Pickup on South Street (Samuel Fuller, 1953)
07. Force of Evil (Abraham Polonsky, 1948)
08. Hollow Triumph (Steve Sekely, 1948)
09. The Night of the Hunter (Charles Laughton, 1955)
10. Kiss Me Deadly (Robert Aldrich, 1955)

more orphans -
27. The Crooked Way (Robert Florey, 1949)
34. So Dark the Night (Joseph H. Lewis, 1946)
+ 4 also rans...

[YnEoS]

Thanks for you hard work organizing the project and compiling the list, domino!

I had a lot of fun schooling myself up on all the noir classics I had never seen and getting lots of great recommendations from the discussion. I have to say I'm really happy with the final look of the list. Glad to see a lot of the discussion led to lots of great new films placing on the list.

I was a a bit surprised by the discrepancy between Ted Tetzlaff's The Window with 249 points and only 61 for Riffraff. But narrowing a list down to just 50 noirs means cutting off a lot of great films, so its hard to predict how much enthusiasm will translate into points. Personally, I actually liked Riffraff a little more than The Window, but its great they're both on the list. Which I guess is a long-winded roundabout way of saying that anyone who voted for The Window and hasn't seen Riffraff yet is in for a treat when they get around to it.

I think every movie from my list but 3 made the top 100.

One of my spotlights The Gangster ended up in the Also-Rans, but its noir credentials were always a little suspect, so that's not too surprising. Anyone who hasn't seen it yet, should check it out, its a good film, noir or not. Quite happy to see my other spotlight Cause For Alarm end up on the final list.

I think my only two Orphans I'm a sad panda about are The Big Clock and His Kind of Woman which both ranked very highly on my list. In retrospect I probably should've picked these two as my spotlights, I think I passed them up because there had already been some discussion about them. I'm going to re-watch them and do big write ups on them since I didn't champion them enough during the project.


I entered into this project not being particularly fond of that many noirs I had seen up to that point. By now its probably become pretty obvious there are quite a bunch of noir films I like. I think my original gripes with the genre still stand, its just I was such surprised to find out how diverse the films are. Most of the gripes I had don't really apply to the majority of the films. So I had lot more fun than I was expecting and got a quite a few new favorite films out of the project.

[life_boy]

I had a great time with this one. It was a genre I was conversant in but did not feel fluent. Not sure if I'm quite there yet but I do feel a lot closer than I did back in June. Thanks for organizing it and tallying it up, domino. And glad to see some love for Union Station!

TOP 10
01) Night and the City (Dassin, 1950) [#03]
02) Kiss Me Deadly (Aldrich, 1955) [#02]
03) Nightmare Alley (Goulding, 1947) [#37]
04) Union Station (Maté, 1950) [#61]
05) Force of Evil (Polonsky, 1948) [#08]
06) Double Indemnity (Wilder, 1944) [#04]
07) Crime Wave (de Toth, 1955) [#33]
08) Raw Deal (Mann, 1948) [#10]
09) Detective Story (Wyler, 1950) [#43]
10) Riffraff (Tetzlaff, 1947) [#91]

ALSO-RANS
26) Pursued (Walsh, 1947)
35) Kiss of Death (Hathaway, 1947)
40) Kansas City Confidential (Karlson, 1952)
43) Beware, My Lovely (Horner, 1952)

ORPHANS
38) House of Bamboo (Fuller, 1955)
42) Boomerang! (Kazan, 1947)
45) Bad Day at Black Rock (Sturges, 1955)

Total Films Watched for Project: 42
Total Films Re-watched for Project: 9
Total Films Watched for Project that Made my Final List: 18

[domino harvey]

Thanks to YnEoS for noticing a tallying discrepancy: I inadvertently gave two of Riffraff's votes to Rififi, so both have been adjusted accordingly in the new tally

[dustybooks]

I Want to Live! (Robert Wise 1958) I'm working through my remaining unseen works cited in Mark Osteen's Nightmare Alley before reading and kept putting this one off, as it looked from the outside to be another example of the medicine cinema of the late 50s I described in my last Wise thumbnail. But, to my great delight, I loved this capital punishment diatribe. After four unsuccessful noms, Susan Hayward finally won her Oscar and it was well-merited (while Googling this film I horrifyingly found many commentators claiming she deserved it more for I'll Cry Tomorrow, proving that literally everyone is wrong on the internet), as this is a nicely brassy and unsympathetic portrayal of a constant fuckup who finds herself railroaded into a murder charge. Though the real life inspiration was, by Hayward's own admission, probably guilty, her on-screen counterpart is innocent, and this lends a nice sense of injustice to fuel the obvious disgust the film has for the death penalty (as seen beautifully in its documentary-style attention to detail in the last thirty minutes).

I just saw this last night and it really is quite extraordinary. Having forgotten it was classified as noir, I too was expecting Oscar bait (indeed, I watched it as part of a personal Oscars-related project I've had going on for a while) and instead was stunned by its effortless shift from gritty, stylized underworld melodrama to harrowing, sensitive screed against the death penalty. I didn't find Barbara unsympathetic at all, but greatly enjoyed Hayward's unapologetic sniping and lack of polite filtering, which I'm sure is a big factor in what's helped this age so gracefully. I like but don't outright love a few of Robert Wise's other films as director; this is the first one I've seen that's deeply impressed me. And the cinematography is indeed remarkable -- Lionel Lindon also shot The Manchurian Candidate; that's one of my favorite movies but I don't think of it as being remotely this handsome.

(By the way, seeing this and Papillon in a two-day period made me wonder if a prison movies mini-list project would be feasible.)

[domino harvey]

Recent noir viewings:

Amnesiac (Michael Polish 2015) Indie stalwart Polish and his new regular squeeze/star Kate Bosworth team up again for this stylish yet excessively protracted exercise in minimalism. Wes Bentley wakes up to discover himself convalescing in a home he doesn’t recognize, looked after by a wife he can’t remember. But since she looks like Bosworth, he’s not in a huge rush to question this development! The period setting of the film is indiscriminately enforced and I’m not sure why Polish makes such pains to place Bosworth and Bentley within the 1950s household and fashion while casually undermining all of this with interruptions of the police officer’s desktop terminal &c. Bosworth has an entertaining runner of providing inane factoids while doing devilish things, and the film is undeniably good-looking (Polish knows his way around a minuscule budget), but the story is better fit for a 25 minute anthology horror show from the 80s, not an 80+ minute feature, and the movie can’t sustain what little narrative there is here. I still kinda liked it despite its faults, but I can’t really recommend anyone go out of their way to see it.

the Beat Generation (Charles F Haas 1959) Coming well beyond the heyday of the genre and straddling the line of its death, this is a shaken-up jumble of ideas and concepts, with no identifiable audience or purpose. But some of the goings-on here are in such bad taste that I half admired the film’s go for broke gusto. The story of… well, let’s see: there’s the adventures of the serial rapist, the Aspirin Kid; a third act extended diatribe against and Biblical smackdown of abortion; phoney-baloney explorations of misogyny; and, of course, extended periods of mocking “beat” poetry and “happenings.” I don’t count myself among the fans of the Beats, so I was receptive to the silliness of these gentle parodies, but at some point I stopped being able to discern from the intentionally awful Beat players and the real-life Beats who cameoed with sincerity in the film! It’s hard to imagine youths of the day being interested in the adult crises aspects of the plot, or for the mature audience members wanting to see a movie with long bongo-tapping daddy-os and hep janes getting next leveled, maan. What a weird movie! Recommended.

Big House USA (Howard W Koch 1955) Also a mess, but not nearly as satisfying as the Beat Generation’s cocktail of insanity. A mix of docunoir, prison movie, kidnapping melodrama, and general TV-ready blocking and construction. There’s some great noir actors in this, including Ralph Meeker, William Talman, and Broderick Crawford, but they’re all in it so little that I suspect most of them were only hired for two or three days’ work and the film was then constructed around them, even though they’re ostensibly the protagonists! The film contains one mildly shocking moment of accidental violence early on, but otherwise this is pained paint by numbers stuff.

Cause For Alarm! (Tay Garnett 1951) Not sure how this one ended up charting on the main list, but after watching this and M this round, I’ve once again now seen all of the films on the main list and Also Rans. This is okay, and transposing the domino effect of bad ideas and mistakes Loretta Young makes to suburbia at least proffers some passing novelty for the audience, but this one was probably a little too ridiculous (and its conclusion entirely too convenient) to really work.

the Convincer (Jill Sprecher 2012) Just once I’d love one of these con man movies to end not with the grand reveal of all the wildly outrageous obfuscation and double-dealing that went on behind the scenes of everything we’ve been shown in the film, but with everything being as it seems. That would truly be a greater surprise than anything “revealed” in the finale to this mediocre, but not terrible, stab at Fargo-lite territory. Like Cause For Alarm!, the plot hinges on what should be a relatively easy task— steal a valuable and unguarded violin from a senile old man— that becomes as Herculean a journey as is possible. Greg Kinnear gives one of his better performances of late, and Billy Crudup steals the film as a short-tempered security installer. Alan Arkin’s comic bewildered old man schtick wears pretty thin here, however. The film was recut (with fifteen minutes removed) and rescored and released as Thin Ice, but both versions are on the Blu-ray.

the House on Carroll Street (Peter Yates 1988) Old fashioned Commie/Nazi (sure, both, why not) spy plot in yet another 80s noir throwback (and I was not surprised to see our old friend Robert Benton listed among the producers) as HUAC target Kelly McGillis sticks her nose in the covert plot to bring Nazi doctors to America under false pretenses. This is all pretty lightweight stuff, but passingly entertaining.

M (Joseph Losey 1951) Remaking the Fritz Lang classic was a thankless assignment and Losey could have easily rested on his laurels since no one would have reasonably expected this to be a good idea, but the end result actually turned out pretty great! David Wayne is spot-on as the child murderer (a tossed off line of dialogue assures us that none of the victims have been “violated,” though as one of the angry mob adds, what does that help if they’re still dead?), and his long-take monologue is excellent. But he’s surrounded by a lot of greatness here, and the film moves swiftly and darkly through many of the same plot ticks of the original. I know some consider this an equal to or even superior work to Lang’s, and… I agree!

the Man Who Wasn’t There (Coen Brothers 2001) The Coen Brothers are already rudderless enough in more constrictive narratives, so setting them adrift in an “existential noir” is not the best idea out of the gate. The movie’s construction mirrors the llackadaisical demeanor of Billy Bob Thornton’s protagonist, but this isn’t particularly clever or worth making everything move at half-speed for two hours. Like most Coen movies, it’s too cute and superior to its characters and the plot, even though legitimate noirs with similar trajectories found plenty of room for playfulness and stylistic experimentation while remaining thoroughly genre works. This is noir as art house dress up, because everyone involved think they’re better than the noir films they’re co-opting.

No Man’s Woman (Franklin Adreon 1955) Marie Windsor is the titular bad dame who contrary to the title actually is several men’s— she won’t grant her estranged husband a divorce without a payout of all of his money, sleeps with an art critic to get her name in the paper, and callously steals her assistant’s beau by breaking their date with work and then taking her place! Sadly, the mildly diverting badness of Windsor eventually gives way to a hoary whodunnit, and I pretty much tuned out the rest of this forgettable entry.

Sympathy for Mr Vengeance (Park Chan-wook 2002) The director is clearly talented and has a lot of fun showing off here, but I thought most of this exercise was in bad taste and not nearly fun enough on my end to justify the excesses. Not especially looking forward to continuing with his “Vengeance Trilogy” after this…

[domino harvey]

TOP MODERN NOIRS (1970 - PRESENT)



01 Blue Velvet (David Lynch 1986)
02 Chinatown (Roman Polanski 1974)
03 Taxi Driver (Martin Scorsese 1976)
04 Mullholland Dr (David Lynch 2001)
05 Fargo (Coen Brothers 1996)
05 the Long Goodbye (Robert Altman 1973)
07 LA Confidential (Curtis Hanson 1997)
08 Blade Runner (Ridley Scott 1982)
09 Memento (Christopher Nolan 2000)
10 Blood Simple (Coen Brothers 1984)
11 Le cercle rouge (Jean-Pierre Melville 1970)
12 Red Rock West (John Dahl 1993)
13 Pulp Fiction (Quentin Tarantino 1994)

Okay, so I realized I had initially made a mistake in tabulating this list, since I accidentally let Point Blank in (thinking it was a vote for Point Break) and the voter casting the ballot must have anticipated I wouldn't allow this since they offered up an 11th place alternate, Pulp Fiction, which now makes the (slightly altered, in terms of placements) list and brings us up to an appropriately unlucky 13 films!