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Tabloid Photog Had Eye For Public Drama
“He will take his camera and ride off in search of new evidence that his city, even in her most drunken and disorderly and pathetic moments, is beautiful.” – William McCleery in ‘Naked City’ New York shutterbug Arthur Fellig, AKA “Weegee” (June 12, 1899 – Dec. 26, 1968) didn’t invent tabloid photography, but he turned…
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Gangsters And Grifters: Know Your Favorite Betes Noire
I’ve seen lots of stories online these days about film noir, and that may mean that there’s an uptick in noir interest among movie fans. The question is: What exactly is a film noir, and how do you know if the movie you’re watching is one? Here are a few of my own guidelines to…
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Get ‘Ruthless’ Via Online Streaming, Or Get Gone
The New York Times will report in its Sunday edition that Edgar G. Ulmer’s “Ruthless”(1948), is available to stream from Netflix in its full 105 minute version, rather than the 88-minute public domain cut that’s been the only version available for years. Ulmer is also known for classic noirs “Detour” (1945) and “The Black Cat”…
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Wacky Neighbor Whitey Coming To A Sitcom Near You?
Everybody Loves Whitey Twentieth Century Fox has made a deal with writer-producer Peter Mehlman for a new comedy pilot about a young couple who get a new neighbor: notorious mobster Whitey Bulger. That makes a great deal of sense because Whitey was a million laughs. Just ask the people he extorted money from and terrorized.…
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Bogart Still Center Stage As American Screen Idol
I talk about film here for the most part, but I would be shirking my duty as a reporter if I didn’t mention a book that I finished reading some time ago that deserves to be noted in this forum. It’s Stefan Kanfer’s biography of Humphrey Bogart, “Tough Without A Gun: The Life and Extraordinary…
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Let There Be ‘Brighton Rock’
Some great news: “Brighton Rock,” the acclaimed new adaptation of Graham Greene‘s classic novel, will be seen in U.S. theaters August 26, thanks to IFC. The film depicts the story of Pinkie, a lowly gangster who romances a naive, lonely waitress, Rose, after she discovers evidence he committed murder.Fans of British cinema will certainly remember…
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Remembering the City’s Prince of Pulp
“It was a blonde. A blonde to make a bishop kick a hole in a stained glass window.”— Raymond Chandler, “Farewell, My Lovely,” 1940 This Saturday, July 23, marks the 123rd anniversary of the birth of one of this city’s greatest fiction writers, Raymond Chandler. Chandler was born on July 23, 1888 in Chicago. But…
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Son of a Satire: ‘Chain Gang’ Rattles On
I n 1932’s “I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang,” Paul Muni stars in the real-life story of a poor schlump who gets roped into years of hard prison labor for no reason at all. “Chain Gang” is one of the “socially conscious” movies of that time. It was meant to publicize the brutal…
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‘The Mechanic’ Is Bronson At His Peak
They don’t make actors like Charles Bronson anymore. No one except Bronson, who shows his grizzled, hard-earned authority in every line in his face, could have played the role of Arthur Bishop in 1972’s “The Mechanic.” For those who haven’t seen it – or have only seen the remake starring Jason Stratham – you owe…
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Scorsese’s Favorite Gangster Movies
James Cagney, “White Heat” (1949). Director Martin Scorsese revisits crime pictures that most influenced him Here are 15 gangster pictures that had a profound effect on me and the way I thought about crime and how to portray it on film. They excited me, provoked me, and in one way or another, they had the…