Category: Uncategorized
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Get ‘Ruthless’ Via Online Streaming, Or Get Gone
The New York Times will report in its Sunday edition that Edgar G. Ulmer’s “Ruthless”(1948), is available to stream from Netflix in its full 105 minute version, rather than the 88-minute public domain cut that’s been the only version available for years. Ulmer is also known for classic noirs “Detour” (1945) and “The Black Cat”…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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Dead Hollywood Starlet Still Spotted at Old Haunt?
17575 Pacific Coast Highway, once home of silver screen star Thelma Todd. Quite by accident I had the opportunity to tour a historic L.A. crime scene this week. I’d seen pictures of the place a thousand times, but I didn’t recognize it until my host pointed out the tawdry historic significance of the location —…
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Mean Streets and Sidewalks, Preminger’s Bleak Vision
In Otto Preminger’s 1950 hard boiled crime drama, “Where The Sidewalk Ends” (Script by Ben Hecht), Dana Andrews, as Det. Mark Dixon, lays the groundwork for “Dirty” Harry Callahan. Much like Clint Eastwood’s Fascist-leaning crime fighter, Andrews’ Dixon can’t play by the rules–he’d just as soon slap around crooks and wiseguys, and can’t stomach the…
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Aussie Gangster Film Side-Steps Cliches
Few crime dramas are as compelling as last year”s “Animal Kingdom.” David Michôd wrote and directed the film about a Melbourne family of bank robbers. We never see them rob a bank, and except for one or two brutal scenes never a crime is committed. How’s that for avoiding heist film cliches?Michôd is after something…
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You Deserve to be on the Hit List
The Black List is dead–the Hit List is where it’s at. Well, the Black List isn’t exactly dead–it’s still quite well read and influential. But following in its path, the Hit List provides a rundown of spec screenplays by promising unrepped writers. That was the Black List’s mission originally. But while most of the Black…