Category: film noir
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Imposter noir: 51 films about swapping, losing and faking identities
Olivia de Havilland, ‘The Dark Mirror’ (1946). “There is only one plot – things are not what they seem.” — Jim Thompson Let’s say you’re a character in a film noir. It’s likely that someone who you’re rubbing elbows with is not who they say they are. For that matter, you may not be who…
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‘Pale Flower’: Gambling dens, yakuza and a mysterious woman who lives on the edge
“Pale Flower” It’s clear from the start that Masahiro Shinoda’s “Pale Flower” isn’t your typical yakuza picture — the kind that’s simmered in the Japanese underworld’s intricate codes of conduct, with a lead character who agonizes over prickly themes such as honor and loyalty. “Pale Flower” covers the same slice of society as other yakuza…
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‘The Killers’: A much loved noir that’s the spitting image of another American classic
“The Killers” (1946) Some say “The Killers” is the “Citizen Kane” of noir, but how can that be? One is a beloved noir, the story behind a brutal murder of a washed up prizefighter. The other, a fictional biography of a media tycoon, loosely based on the life of William Randolph Hearst. It’s like comparing…
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Off the Hook: A bedridden heiress glimpses the face of doom in ‘Sorry, Wrong Number’
‘Sorry, Wrong Number’ (1948) Barbara Stanwyck plays Leona Stevenson, a woman markedly dissimilar to Stanwyck’s cold blooded Phyllis Dietrichson of “Double Indemnity” four years before. Leona is no femme fatale — she’s a femme in jeopardy. That alone ought to make us feel sympathy for her, but she’s a hard one to warm up to.…
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‘Out of the Past’: 13 Signs that Jane Greer will Destroy You
‘Out of the Past’ (1947) You can’t say that Jeff Bailey (Robert Mitchum) had no way of knowing what he was in for. A shamus ought to be able to see things that a civilian would miss, even when he’s dazzled by the gorgeous and perfidious Kathie Moffat (Jane Greer). How inevitable was it that…
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The Big Knockoff: 14 Films With Armored Car Heists
If the movies are any indication, the 1940s and ’50s, especially the ’50s, must have been the golden age of armored car robberies — they were getting knocked over like clay pigeons in a shooting gallery. A common armored car robbery movie plot: Ex-con, recently paroled, finds a crummy job. Meets a girl. Wants…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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,…