"The Drowning Pool" I remember liking, but it's been a few
years.
The Mitchum "Long Goodbye" is very "noir" in a classic visual
way, even
though it's in color. Still, it has Mitchum, who even by then
was a noir
icon. Not as good as "Murder My Sweet," but decent.
"The Glass Key" is one of those wartime Paramount borderline
stiffs, with
Alan Ladd. I never could get too interested in it. It's more
of a Brian
Donlevy movie, unless I'm mistaken.
Now, getting into the "Spiral Staircase." That's an excellent
picture,
though it's more gothic than noir. There's some truly creepy
stuff in it.
Robert Siodmak was the visual master of Noir.
"Phantom Lady" is another classic, just incredible, until the
last third,
when they completely went off-base, ruining the picture..
It's too bad,
because it would be completely undeniable if it remained
consistant. Short
of "DOA," it's got the best jazz sequence in Noir. Woolrich
film adaptations
are always problematic. Some critics like "Black Angel," but
I think it's
dull. "The Window" is very good, and of course, so is "Rear
Window."
"Deadline At Dawn," and those other "race against time"
pictures are pretty
dated, to my mind.
But as long as you're talking about Siodmak, there's the
classic "The
Killers." And my personal fav, "Criss-Cross," not to be
missed. (Another
Burt Lancaster masochistic melodrama.)
But one of my all time favorites is the awesome "Brute
Force," with
Lancaster, directed by Jules Dassin. Has anybody else see
these amazingly
powerful prison movie?
Dave
Enrique Bird wrote:
> Yesterday I gave my feedback on some hard-boiled/film
noir movies. Could
> some of you please recommend or cnesure the following
which I have not
> watched?
>
> The Harper (Lew Archer) movies, with Paul Newman. I
usually hear "see
> the first, skip the second".
>
> The Mitchum Philip Marlowe.
>
> The Glass Key. Note: Although am a big Hammett fan,
this is the one
> novel of his I did not like. As I read it over 25
years ago, I plan to
> retry it in the near future. I have heard that the
Alan Ladd(?) version
> is topnotch.
>
> The Spiral Staircase (Dorothy McGuire) This is #1 in
my list of must see
> movies; I have never been able to find the video.
Suncoast movies told
> me that it was recently released and withdrawn. Is my
desire to see this
> out of place?
>
> Phantom Lady and the other 1940's Cornell Woolrich .
I loved Phantom
> Lady and some of the novels; is the movie as bad as
some say it is? They
> were recently reissued in video (or for the 1st
time). Incidentally,
> isn't it incredible that his The Bride Wore Black was
never filmed in
> the 1940s and 1950s when film noir was booming? I
liked the French
> version, even with the resolution change, except for
the nudity - there
> goes my Puritanism again!
>
> The Mike Shayne movies - are these available? Are any
worthwhile?
>
> Thanks for any feedback.
>
> Enrique
>
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