Category: John Garfield
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Kings of the Road: Alienated, Disenchanted Drifters May Think They’re Heading Toward their Destination, but They’re Really on Course to a Tragic End
Ann Savage, Tom Neal, “Detour” (1945). Contains Spoilers By Paul Parcellin Film noir is full of cheap hotel rooms, train stations, roadside diners, filling stations, bus depots — places that transients inhabit while on their way somewhere, or perhaps rambling toward nowhere in particular. A compulsive desire to take to the highways is part of…
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Knockout Punch Noir: The Runyonesque, Raw-Boned World of Prizefighting Inspires Tales of Corruption, Violence and Redemption
Humphrey Bogart, “The Harder They Fall” (1956). By Paul Parcellin This post contains spoilers, so you may want to see the films before reading the article. You’d be hard pressed to find a sport more noir-like than professional boxing. It’s got all of the elements of noir rolled into a savage athletic competition whose object…
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Ripped From the Headlines, Part II: A Feast of Murder, Robbery and Exploitation
Cecil Kellaway, John Garfield, Lana Turner, “The Postman Always Rings Twice” (1946). By Paul Parcellin As you’ve probably gathered by now, the 1940s and ’50s saw a bumper crop of sensational tales ready-made for the screen. It was an era when Hollywood greedily harvested stories from news tabloids’ front pages. In the last post, we…
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Grifter Aims to Separate a Widow from her Fortune
John Garfield, Geraldine Fitzgerald and Walter Brennan in ‘Nobody Lives Forever’ (1946). By Paul Parcellin As conmen go, Nick Blake (John Garfield) is more likeable than your average grifter. A bit out of practice, he’s ready to get back into the flim-flam game. But first, he’s got a score to settle. In “Nobody Lives Forever” (1946),…