Film Noir?

[martinsantos]

I saw this years ago... Very impressive, as always Dmytryk do. And agree about Mitchum. He always looked well when at dark roles...

When I saw this film I didn't know "Father Knows Best". I didn't imagine Young in this kind of role!

Saw Crossfire a couple of days ago. Very well photographed, with close to superb lighting. Robert Ryan was powerful in the role of the bigot ex-serviceman who kills a Jew while in a drunken stupor. It was also good to see Robert Young in a low-key role that was none-the-less very different from his Father Knows Best typecast. I think that the film would have been better, though, if Mitchum has played the part of the GI falsely accused of the killing, especially if the role had been beefed up. As it was, while he had plenty of dialogue, his character really had nothing to do with the actual setting up and trapping of Ryan at the end. The opening scene, which actually shows the murder, was very well executed with low-angle camera shots, as well as shadows cast upon a wall. Director Dmytryk said in an interview that the low-lighting was the result of budget constraints, a factor very common in Films Noir. It was also clever not to show Ryan's face in the murder scene, so that as the film progresses, the audience is "allowed" to figure out who the culprit is, just before his identitiy is revealed about half-way through.

 

[John in Covina]

In a film noir discussion on a DVD they talked about how in Crossfire the way they filmed Ryan's face changes over the course of the film to an added effect.

 

[Mike1939]

It was also good to see Robert Young in a low-key role that was none-the-less very different from his Father Knows Best typecast.

I really dig Robert Young's character in Crossfire. A few weeks ago at the Film Noir Festival I saw him in 'They Wont Believe Me' (1947) with Susan Hayward. He was playing the complete opposite of his 'Father Knows Best' role. It was like seeing his evil twin. A great actor, hasn't disappointed me yet.

 

[martinsantos]

Is it just me or really Elisha Cook worked in a very large ammount of these thrillers? Never saw any other kind of film with him (and no one with a main caracter).

Funny enough, I remember only one recent movie with him - "Hammett", from 80s.

 

[John in Covina]

IMDB Mr Cook
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0176879/

 

[martinsantos]

Thanks for the link! (and I didn't remember Cook in Hellzapoppin'!)

IMDB Mr Cook
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0176879/

 

[Atomic Age]

Cook was a character actor. I don't believe he ever played a lead. He did LOTS of television in the 60's 70's and had a reoccurring character on Magnum P.I. in the 80's. Honestly I think one of his best roles was that of Captain Kirk's lawyer in the Court Martial episode of Star Trek. He was VERY good in that.

Doug

 

[Widebrim]

Is it just me or really Elisha Cook worked in a very large ammount of these thrillers? Never saw any other kind of film with him (and no one with a main caracter).

Funny enough, I remember only one recent movie with him - "Hammett", from 80s.

I think that it was Noir historian Eddie Muller who said that to many people, any movie that Elisha Cook is in makes it a Film Noir!

 

[Talbot]

Magnum P.I. doesn't count. TV doesn't count.

 

[Widebrim]

Last night I finally saw The Crooked Way (released 1949) with John Payne, Sonny Tufts, and Ellen Drew. It had a classic Noir plot: WWII vet Eddie Rice suffers from amnesia, returns to Los Angeles (where he's told he enlisted) to find out who he is/was, discovers that he is actually Eddie Riccardi, a gangster who enlisted in the Army to get away from the thugs of the partner he helped to send up the river, and that he was previously married to the woman who is now working for his recently-released-from-jail former partner...Sound confusing? It really wasn't, and to greatly help it along was the top-notch cinematography of maestro John Alton. John Payne, who is one of my favorite actors trained as a singer and/or hoofer who made a niche for themselves in Noir (the other two being Dick Powell and Dana Andrews), is not as sure of himself in this film as he would be in Kansas City Confidential three years later. When he tries to be tough, he can only sustain it for a while, and then starts to soften a bit. (Of course, maybe the director had a hand in this.) Still, he's enjoyable (is that the right word to use?) in the role, even if Sonny Tufts as his ex-partner dominates just about every scene he's in, with a 2-dimensional character that exudes controlled rage. Ellen Drew's character was hard to figure out, as regards her motivation at times; I liked her much more in Johnny' O'Clock three years earlier with Dick Powell. At any rate, the scenes of Union Station at the beginning of the film were great, and the shoot-out at the end kept my interest.

 

[martinsantos]

Sounds interesting! I'll look around to see.

 

[Widebrim]

Sounds interesting! I'll look around to see.

E bom, Martin, but hard to find.

 

[martinsantos]

Just discovered this...

It was realesed here as "Afrontando a Morte" in 1949/50 (in those days they used to change completely the titles here in Brazil!). And never more saw a screen.

E bom, Martin, but hard to find.

 

[Widebrim]

Just discovered this...

It was realesed here as "Afrontando a Morte" in 1949/50 (in those days they used to change completely the titles here in Brazil!). And never more saw a screen.

"Facing Death"...that kind of makes sense. Be that as it may, I hope that you do get a chance to see it.

 

[Wally_Hood]

The Black Book (1949), with Robert Cummings, Richard Basehart, and Arlene Francis as the principals in a French Revolution thriller.
Look, the only way to describe this movie is historical noir expressionist whodunit. I was amazed at how good this was, as jumbled up as it was with layers of genres. Directed by Anthony Mann, it was aptly described by the Robert Osborne substitute as a costume epic filmed as a 1920s German expressionist with a noir director.
Basehart plays Robespierre as a completely amoral control maniac plotting to become dictator of France; Cummings is a good guy trying to derail the Reign of Terror (its alternate title in some releases), and Frances promotes the cause of liberty with skulduggery of her own.
But the high contrast lighting, the scenes in darkness or at night, the frequent camera angles showing the ceilings, add up to an incredible visual experience. See this if you can.

Edit: I posted this over on the What Film Did You Just Watch, but just had to put in the noir thread.

Widebrim, have you seen this before?

 

[aragon]

I know these two noir movies that I had watched The Maltese Falcon, The Big Sleep.

 

[davidraphael]

I really like this French poster for Dark Passage

Great hats, too!

 

[Philip Adams]

Great posters. Thanks.

Dark Passage is an excellent film.

 

[Atomic Age]

I really like this French poster for Dark Passage

Great hats, too!

The French always seemed to have better posters in the late 40's than the American versions.

Though in this case the American wasn't bad either.

Doug

 

[Atomic Age]

Any movie poster with Betty Grables legs on its is okay in my book. But add to that one of the very first films noir.....awesome!

Of course they changed the title back to that of the original book, I Wake Up Screaming.

Doug