Author: pparcellin@gmail.com
-
‘The Long Good Friday’: The British Gangster Classic That Predicted the Future
Mobster’s World Blown to Bits in an Easter Wave of Terror Contains spoilers ‘The Long Good Friday’ (1980) As Good Friday approaches it’s fitting that we look at one of the slender number of crime films set on the holiest of Christian holy days. In filmdom, the connection between religious rites and acts of criminal…
-
When Gangsters Collide with the Dark Side: 65 Mobbed Up Films Noir
Gangster films were already a cinematic staple when a new kind of crime film began to emerge in the early 1940s. Films noir captured the popular imagination for a couple of decades after World War II. While some of the post war films are about mobsters, they’re different in tone from 1930s gangster films. Warner…
-
Coen Brothers Film : An Ordinary Man Caught in Fate’s Clutches
Contains Spoilers ‘The Man Who Wasn’t There’ (2001) Ed Crane (Billy Bob Thornton) is the kind of guy who can enter or leave a roomful of people without a single soul taking notice. He’s got a knack for blending into the background, barely leaving an impression on anyone who cares to chat or even glance…
-
Dreams of a comfortable life in the suburbs can lead a man to murder
“I want to be a contractor,” announces Claude (Vince Edwards), a determined, 30ish guy in the middle of an unusual kind of job interview at the start of “Murder by Contract” (1958). The shot cuts to an abrupt closeup as he utters those words, emphasizing that this is a turning point in his life, the…
-
Headshrinker Noir: 10 Films With Mind Games, Hypnosis, Crime
From Dedicated Healers to Evil Control Freaks, Noir Psychiatrists Want to Pick Your Brain By Paul Parcellin Do all psychiatrists intentionally drive their patients insane and force them to commit awful crimes? In real life it’s unlikely … probably. But in film noir it’s a 50-50 bet. Not that all noir psychiatrists are the same,…
-
Could You Repeat That? — 36 Noirs That Unfold In Flashbacks
Is that film you’re watching a noir? Here’s one semi-reliable way to tell: Look for flashbacks. In noir, flashbacks show us the stuff that gets characters into the mess that they are in, and are no doubt trying to wriggle out of. Did that someone betray a spouse, steal from an employer or send another…
-
D.O.A.: Small Town Man Visits Big City, Murder Follows
When you think of noir, it’s probably not 18th century British author Samuel Johnson who first springs to mind. But his most famous quote really nails the crux of “D.O.A.”: “When a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully.” Apt words for Frank Bigelow ( Edmond O’Brien),…
-
Whiteout Noir: 6 Films With Cold Blooded Crimes In Wintery Places
Winter is upon us, and in many places snow has either fallen or soon will. So it’s time to consider noirs that feature arctic blasts of frigid air and piles of the white stuff. Can’t think of any? Understandable — there aren’t a lot of them. Snowfall plays a dramatic role in a handful noirs…
-
New Year’s Noir: 8 Crime Films Bring You Dark Tidings
Why is it that a lot of noirs take place around Christmas, but not so many focus on New Year’s Eve? Granted, New Year’s doesn’t carry the same weight as Christmas — it’s just not a family holiday, with all of the sentimental memories (or emotional baggage) that you may find in Yuletide festivities. But…
-
21 Cornell Woolrich Stories That Made It To the Big Screen; Plus ‘Never Open That Door’
“Never Open That Door” (1952) Blu-ray and DVD, Flicker Alley (158 minutes) A lot of movies never quite get author Cornell Woolrich’s tone right, especially the films made in Hollywood. Their forced upbeat endings just don’t do justice to the pitch black darkness of his novels and short stories. That’s not the case with the…