Category: Uncategorized
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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…