Category: neo-noir
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A cunning serial killer is on the loose and police are baffled
Song Kang-ho, ‘Memories of Murder’ (2003).Searching for clues and coming up empty. ‘Memories of Murder’ (2003) Bodies are popping up with terrifying regularity in a small South Korean city and the local police force has few clues to go on. Young women are being raped and strangled, their bodies abandoned in little traveled spots, and…
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‘They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?’: A Tinseltown Allegory that Ends Unhappily Ever After
Michael Sarrazin, Jane Fonda, ‘They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?’ Harrowing Tale of Dance Marathons and the Depression-Era Downtrodden. But Those Marathons Remind Us of Something Else — the Studio System at its Most Heartless Contains spoilers By Paul Parcellin “They Shoot Horses, Don’t They” is a noir tragedy about exploitation of the desperate and beleaguered…
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‘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…
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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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‘The Killers’: Nagging Questions In a Haze of Gunsmoke
In both versions, sports heroes have tragic downfalls and alluring women enter the picture to offer a helping hand — it doesn’t turn out well for the wounded competitors “The Killers” (1946) Robert Siodmak (director) — “The Killers” (1964) Don Siegel (director), The Criterion Collection, [Blu-ray] Why on earth would a man facing the barrel…
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Two Couples Who Murder: “Double Indemnity” Faces Off Against “Body Heat” — And It’s Not Even Close
Left, Kathleen Turner, William Hurt, “Body Heat” (1981). Right, Barbara Stanwyck, Fred MacMurray, “Double Indemnity” (1944). Warning: Contains Spoilers By Paul Parcellin After I moved to L.A. in 2008, I got together with a Meetup group that was going to see a screening of “Double Indemnity” (1944) at the ArcLight Theater in Hollywood. I was…
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Acting Through Clenched Teeth: Quirky Timothy Carey Performed in a Number of Noirs and Neo-Noirs … and Was Kicked Off Almost as Many as He Appeared In
Timothy Carey, “The Killing” (1956). By Paul Parcellin Timothy Carey was the kind of actor who refused to fade into the background — even as a movie extra. That cost him a job or two, including one of his earliest acting gigs, an occurrence that would prove all too typical in his professional life. He’d…
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Femmes Fatale Are Deceptively Charming, Dangerous and Often Lethal; But One Among Them Tips the Scales When It Comes to Evil Doings — And She’s Probably Not The One You’re Thinking Of
Elisha Cook Jr., Marie Windsor, “The Killing” (1956). By Paul Parcellin Be forewarned: Many spoilers are included throughout the text below. Sure, Phyllis Dietrichson (Barbara Stanwyck), the husband liquidating murderess of “Double Indemnity” (1944) might be your go-to gal whenever the term “femme fatale” is mentioned. She’s as coolly detached and methodical as a hangman,…
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The Key to Marlowe’s Conundrum is In a Can of Cat Food
Elliot Gould, “The Long Goodbye” (1973) One of my favorite neo-noirs is “The Long Goodbye” (1973), Robert Altman’s adaptation of the Raymond Chandler novel of the same title, published 20 years earlier. Altman’s most drastic alteration of Chandler’s opus is placing the story in the 1970s instead of eight years after the end of World…
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When Tinsel Town Turns the Camera on Itself
Rod Steiger, ‘The Big Knife’ (1955). Face it, scandals make good news copy and the Los Angeles entertainment industry produces a bumper crop of the stuff that keeps gossip writers in business. From Rosco “Fatty” Arbuckle to Harvey Weinstein the press has never been at a loss for words when it comes to movie industry…