At 08:56 AM 8/22/03 +1000, you wrote:
>Hi All,
>
>I've got some spare cash and I want to fill out my
Noir DVD collection,
>probably via Amazon.
>
>Could everyone provide me with their picks of the
best Noir films ever made?
>Then I'll hunt them down.
>
>I'll also keep a tally and post the results for
anyone else who may need
>them.
Hi Steve,
GREAT topic! We could debate this for years.
Here are my pics, in no particular order:
1) "The Maltese Falcon" (1941) starring Humphrey Bogart, Mary
Astor, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, Elisha Cook, Jr.,
Barton McLaine, and Ward Bond. Based on the novel by Dashiell
Hammett, adapted for the screen by John Huston. Directed by
John Huston. Brilliant. Just absolutely bloody brilliant.
Don't miss John Huston's father Walter in a walk-on role
as
"Captain Jacoby, the master of the La Paloma."
2) "The Big Sleep" (1946) starring Humphrey Bogart, Lauren
Bacall, Elisha Cook, Jr., and as the bookstore proprietress,
a then-unknown Dorothy Malone. Based on the novel by Raymond
Chandler, screenplay by (among others) William Faulkner (yes,
THAT William Faulkner) and Leigh Brackett
(yes, THAT Leigh Brackett). Directed by Howard Hawks. A
'flawed gem,' with Bogart looking (in the words of at least
one Rara Avian) uncomfortable as Marlowe, having already
owned (and I do mean OWNED) the part of Sam Spade. A then 14
year-old Andy Williams sang overdubs of Bacall's singing
number in this one. Great film, though, nonetheless.
3) "The Glass Key" (1942) starring Brian Donlevy, Alan Ladd,
Veronica Lake, and William Bendix. Based on the novel by
Dashiell Hammett, screenplay by Jonathan Latimer (who also
wrote "The Big Clock"). Directed by Stuart Heisler. Don't let
Ladd's name on the marquee fool you. This is Brian Donlevy's
movie, the way "The Maltese Falcon" was Bogart's. Donlevy was
usually type-cast as the sort of wicked, one-dimensional thug
that Bogart spent most of the late 30s playing. "The Glass
Key" allowed Donlevy to really show his stuff. His Paul
Madvig is big, and burly, rough, funny, hearty, crooked as a
snake's back and a GREAT guy. When the Coen Brothers did
their somber, self-conscious (and uncredited) remake of this,
Albert Finney's turn as the Madvig-type boss was utterly
joyless. Someone should have strapped him (and them) into a
chair and made all three of them watch both Brian Donlevy and
William Bendix (as a joyously sadistic gangster) in the
original. Alan Ladd was fine, and Veronica Lake was dull (go
figure), but this is Donlevy's movie. A must have.
4) "Murder My Sweet" (1944) starring Dick Powell, Claire
Trevor, Anne Shirley and Mike Mazurky. Based on the novel
"Farewell My Lovely" by Raymond Chandler, screenplay by John
Paxton. Directed by Edward Dmytryk. Talk about inspired
casting. Dick Powell was a song and dance man in Busby
Berkeley musicals during the 30s (anyone remember him
singing
"Forty Second Street" in "Gold-Diggers of 1933"?) before
Edward Dmytryk cast him as the first (and, in my opinion, one
of the best) screen Marlowe. Clair Trevor should have won an
academy award for her star turn as the femme fatale (an
oversight which was remedied by the academy two years later,
with her Oscar nod for "Key Largo"). Mike Mazurky was the
definitive Moose Malloy.
5) "Out of the Past" (1947) starring Robert Mitchum, Jane
Greer, Rhonda Fleming and Kirk Douglas. Based on the novel
"Build My Gallows High" by Geoffreey Holmes, screenplay by
Daniel Mainwaring. Directed by Jacques Tourneur. The film
that made Mitchum a star, and gave Douglas his big break. A
grim adaptation of a grim novel. It's a great piece of
film.
6) "The Killers" (1946) starring Burt Lancaster, Ava Gardner,
Edmond O'Brien, and William Conrad. Based on a short story by
Ernest Hemingway, screenplay by Anthony Veiller, Richard
Brooks (uncredited) and John Huston
(uncredited). Directed by Robert Siodmak. Talk about an
all-star cast. Lancaster's first movie, Ava Gardner's first
film as well, William Conrad is positively villainous here,
and Edmond O'Brien gives the performance of his career as the
insurance investigator piecing together the facts surrounding
the killing of a nondescript gas station attendant in a sleep
New Jersey town. Hemingway has been mentioned frequently on
this list as contributor to the Noir literary tradition, and
his short story of the same name is certainly grim. Big
credit goes out to the trifecta of Veiller, Brooks, and
especially Huston (whose fingerprints are all over this
script) who took a great Hemingway short story and fleshed it
out into a terrific script. Ava Gardner steals the film.
Lancaster's fantastic, stalwart, square-jawed, and all that,
but Ava is hypnotic, you can't take your eyes off her. No
wonder Sinatra fell...
7) "Chinatown" (1974) starring Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway,
and John Huston. Screenplay by Robert Towne. Directed by
Roman Polanksi. Yes, Nicholson, is Nicholson, and he's in his
element here. However, one of the things about Jack Nicholson
that gets lost in all of the sturm und drang about his
prodigious talent is that he makes those around him better.
For my way of thinking, it's the first-rate script and the
ensemble cast who make this one of the greatest films of all
time. Roman Polanksi got lucky. All he had to do was sit back
and make sure the cameras were rolling. In fact, he had so
little to do, that he even inserted himself into the cast (as
the thug who slits Nicolson's nose).
8) "The Big Heat" (1953) starring Glenn Ford, Gloria Graham,
Jeanette Nolan, and Lee Marvin. Based on the novel by William
P. McGivern, screenplay by Sydney Boehm. Directed by Fritz
Lang. GREAT direction by Lang (check out his silent
masterpiece "Metropolis", too, now that it's been restored.
It's worth a look), Ford is solid, Gloria Graham is riveting,
Jeanette Nolan is hiss-at-you venomous, and Lee Marvin is
unforgettable in his first really big break as an actor.
Great film.
9) "Farewell My Lovely" (1975) starring Robert Mitchum,
Charlotte Rampling, John Ireland, Sylvia Miles, Harry Dean
Stanton, Anthony Zerbe, and Sylvester Stallone (in a tiny
role). Based on the novel by Raymond Chandler, screenplay by
David Zelag Goodman. Directed by Dick Richards. I mention
this film because even though he was a bit long in the tooth
for the part by this point in his career, in my opinion,
Robert Mitchum gives the finest screen interpretation of
Philip Marlowe of any of the ones I've seen (James Garner
comes a close second in 1969's "Marlowe", which was a screen
version of Chandler's novel "The Little Sister"). I mean it.
Mitchum's Marlowe is the best. Better than Bogart or Powell,
and certainly better than Robert Montgomery! The cast is
serviceable, Harry Dean Stanton is terrific as a very crooked
cop. Check this one out.
10) "Double Indemnity" (1944) starring Fred MacMurray,
Barbara Stanwyk, and Edward G. Robinson. Based on the novel
by James M' Cain, screenplay by Raymond Chandler. Directed by
Billy Wilder. Everyone who knows anything about Raymond
Chandler knows that he had ill-concealed contempt for the
work of James M. Cain (who was too busy writing best-sellers
to adapt his own work for the screen). He wasn't above taking
Hollywood money to adapt it for the screen, though. The end
result is worth a look. After all, Billy Wilder is remembered
as a great comedic director, but this film serves as a
reminder that he was just plain a great director, without
qualification or categorization by genre. Edward G.
Robinson's work alone is worth the price of at least a
rental.
Ok, there you have them, my top ten noir films. Others will
disagree with some or all of them, but that's the fun of
discussing this stuff! Hope this list helps!
All the Best,
Brian
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