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A Cache of Hot Money Fires Up ‘Private Hell 36’
Det. Jack Farnham (Howard Duff) and wife Francey (Dorothy Malone)in ‘Private Hell 36’ (1955). We’re in a New York City office building. A pair of elevator doors open and a dead man is sprawled on the floor inside. Another, wearing an elevator operator’s uniform, exits and disappears into the night with a satchel of loot…
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Out of the Shadows (and onto the Cathode Ray Tube)
Raymond Burr in ‘Pitfall’ (1948). Film noir heavies and second bananas of the 1940s got respectable in the late ‘50s and ‘60s when they morphed into TV doctors, lawyers and sitcom moms and pops. But could they ever wash the stage blood off their hands? You mean Mom and Pop were once arch criminals? Jeepers!…
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‘The Big Clock’: Time Runs Short for Crime Mag Editor
Charles Laughton and Ray Milland in ‘The Big Clock.’ At first glance, “The Big Clock” is merely a workplace crime drama set in a New York magazine publishing firm, a cold-blooded enterprise that gives new meaning to the phrase, “This job is killing me.” But beneath its surface, the film is satire, lampooning corporate…
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Dressed to Kill: ‘The Outfit’
Mark Rylance as Leonard Burling in ‘The Outfit.’ Set in 1956, “The Outfit” (2022) is a smart-looking Chicago-based drama starring Mark Rylance as meek British cutter Leonard Burling, who has dedicated his life to crafting bespoke men’s suits. After a long tenure on London’s Savile Row, he’s set up shop in the midwestern city famous…
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In ‘Double Indemnity,’ A Stalled Car is a Flash of Genius
Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray, in ‘Double Indemnity.’ As many times as we pore over “Double Indemnity,” there are still important bits that may be missed. Sometimes that leads to revelations that change our understanding of the film. I’m not talking about the Raymond Chandler cameo that went unnoticed for decades — that was a…
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Danger Lurks in the Seedy World of Film Noir Carnivals
Tyrone Power, ‘Nightmare Alley’ (1947) T raveling carnivals are supposed to roll into town and deliver family entertainment — tacky, corny stuff that kids adore: amusements, games of skill, sideshow acts and cotton candy. They bring with them a whiff of nostalgia and remind oldsters of more innocent times. But in film noir, carnivals are…
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Red Scare Noir: Communists on the Waterfront
Janis Carter, John Agar and Thomas Gomez in ‘The Woman on Pier 13’ (1949). ‘The Woman on Pier 13’ (1949) When the Berlin Wall went up in 1961, my first-grade teacher, Miss Berzetz, marched into the classroom and scared the bejesus out of us. To hear her tell it, this was the end of life…
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‘Nightmare Alley’ 2021: Guillermo Del Toro’s Noir Carnival of Horror
I should have known better than to smuggle a chicken burrito into the theater from the taqueria next door to it. Why, you ask? Let’s just say I bit into it at an unappetizing moment in the film. If you saw the original “Nightmare Alley” (1947) with Tyrone Power, or if you know what…
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Sopranos Ending Confirmed: Told Ya So!
“Sopranos” creator David Chase finally set the record straight about Tony Soprano’s fate in the series finale, “Made in America.” Not to toot my own horn, but it seems that Life and Death in L.A. had it right all along. Chase let slip a telling comment that confirms my theory, published here in 2012. The final scene of the dramatic…
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‘The Silent Partner’ : A Noir Bank Job, 1970s Style
Elliot Gould in ‘The Silent Partner.’ Elliot Gould is Miles Cullen, a Toronto bank teller whose chief companions are tropical fish that flutter about in an aquarium in his cramped apartment. To his female co-workers, Miles is a teddy bear nerd with as much sex appeal as one of his guppies. One day, he realizes…