crimeonfilm.com – crime films and TV, mostly film noir

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…
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…
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…
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…
‘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…
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…
Feeling the ‘Drive’ To Survive

Drive” Premiering at the L.A. Film Festival June 17, 2011. In “Drive,” the new film by Danish-born director Nicolas Winding Refn, Ryan Gosling channels Steve McQueen‘s turbo-charged antics from films like “Bullet” and “The Getaway.” In fact, McQueen would have been a shoo-in to play the hero, here known simply as “Driver,” if the movie…
Hong Kong Noir Makes French Connection

Let the bonding begin. Hong Kong is featuring a two-month-long arts festival — Le French May. In addition to music, dance and theater, a film program titled, “NOIR – A Film Noir Retrospective Bridging France and Hong Kong,” has rolled out. The festival features some of the best French crime movies from the last decade,…
Raoul Walsh Biographer Intros Two at Egyptian

If you live in the L.A. area you’ll want to be at the Egyptian Theater Friday, June 10, when two of director Raoul Walsh’s towering achievements in crime cinema, “High Sierra” and “The Roaring Twenties,” will be screened. And to celebrate the first book-length biography of Walsh, Marilyn Ann Moss, author of “Raoul Walsh: The…
Hammer Swings Again

Although he died in 2006, Mickey Spillane has a new crime novel out featuring New York private detective Mike Hammer. Spillane wrote numerous crime novels from the 1940s until shortly before his death, including “I, the Jury” (which sold 3 million copies and launched Spillane’s career), Vengeance is Mine” and “My Gun is Quick.” He…