You are very right: the otherwise excellent House of Bamboo
is not exactly noir and the commentary of Ursini and Silver
in the 20th Century Fox DVD version explain quite well why
and might serve as a guide for the search being done
here...
Montois
On 8/6/07 10:20 AM, "JIM DOHERTY" <
jimdohertyjr@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Jeff,
>
> Re your question below:
>
> "Are there any films from in the classic period
that
> were shot in color? I can't think of
any."
>
> I can't think of any either. In fact,
particularly
> during that classic period, the available
color
> technology had the effect of making the films
so
> well-lighted that the atmospherics were
completely
> changed and crime films, despite having
similar
> themes, plots, and characters to those films
generally
> regarded as noir, just couldn't quite get that
noir
> feel.
>
> A good example is HOUSE OF BAMBOO, a
wide-screen
> Technicolor epic about an undercover cop
infiltrating
> a criminal organization. It's a
scene-for-scene,
> sometimes line-for-line, remake of an earlier
film,
> THE STREET WITH NO NAME, which was filmed in
B&W, and
> is unquestionably a film noir.
>
> Another is the 1954 feature-length version of
DRAGNET.
> Though the TV series at that time had the same
kind
> of noir-ish, B&W photographic effects, has
been
> described as "film noir in miniature," the
film,
> though as shadowy as color cinematography could get
at
> that time, just can't quite get the same dark
and
> sinister atmosphere.
>
> By nothing more than the simple use of color,
exactly
> the same story becomes non-noir because of the loss
of
> the atmospheric qualities possible in
B&W.
>
> BTW, other post-TOUCH OF EVIL noir candidates
that
> might be considered: UNDERWORLD U.S.A. (1960),
HELL
> IS A CITY (1960), EXPERIMENT IN TERROR (1962), THE
SPY
> WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD (1964), and IN COLD
BLOOD
> (1967).
>
> JIM DOHERTY
>
>
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