Tag: crime film
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Kings of the Road: Noir’s Alienated, Disenchanted Drifters
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 the American psyche, frequently rhapsodized in popular culture as the restless…
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‘The Night of the Hunter’: Babes in the Woods Face Evil
I first saw “The Night of the Hunter” (1955) 20-plus years ago and walked away impressed but not particularly in love with the movie, and having said that I know what many of you are thinking: Heresy! I have no real excuse for my initial reaction. The Charles Laughton directed drama, the only film he…
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Why Watching ‘Lady in the Lake’ Requires Mind Over Matter Skills
I have a confession to make: For as long as I’ve watched film noir (and I don’t care to go into exactly how long that is) I’d never sat down and watched “Lady in the Lake” (1947) until very recently. That’s not really a stunner, I guess. It’s not widely regarded as a top-shelf Raymond…
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Man From Nowhere: Who is Larry Cravat?
“Somewhere in the Night” (1946) George Taylor (John Hodiak) awakens in a military hospital, and to his horror discovers that his memory has been wiped clean by a serious wound he received in the war. He can’t remember his name or anything of his past, but he hides his amnesia from the doctors to prevent…
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Jean-Pierre Melville’s Dark Visions of Parisian Gangsters
Two films about the Parisian underworld are as different as fire and water. One is awash in old world charm, a nostalgia-tinged tale of the gangsters and gamblers of Montmartre. The other takes place in a Paris at odds with the city’s romanticized past. It’s an icy portrait of an outlaw who’s more a cypher…
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Gumshoe Noir: White Knights, Reluctant Heroes, Rotten Apples
Private eyes, those lone rangers who traverse bleak urban landscapes, are romanticized in books, radio dramas and movies as upholders of right and wrong. They do the dirty work that the cops can’t or won’t touch. Often hired by those who are monied, corrupt, or both, they’re the go-to guys when it comes to cleaning…
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Poverty Row II: Scheming Communists Walk Among Us
Like many up and coming Hollywood actors, Hugh Beaumont appeared in noir B-pictures before he became better known as an all-American TV dad, and he played some pretty despicable characters, too. But more about that later. From the 1920s to the 1950s, scads of B-pictures were produced by small studios located near the intersection of…
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More Than Just a Gunsel: Elisha Cook Jr. Was the Face of Noir
When he died in 1995 at the age of 91, Elisha Cook Jr. was the last surviving cast memberof John Huston’s 1941 film noir classic “The Maltese Falcon,” whose players included Humphrey Bogart, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre and Mary Astor. While his was a supporting role, Cook left an indelible impression that remains intact more…
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When Mitchum’s Jail Time Cemented His Bad Boy Image
A lot of red flags should go up when Dr. Jeff Cameron (Robert Mitchum) meets Margo Lannington (Faith Domergue). But she’s a real dish and this is noir, so naturally he ignores the many warning signposts screaming at him that he’s about to drive over a cliff. Margo is an emergency room case whom Jeff…
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Express Train to Hell: When Noir Goes Off the Rails
It’s safe to say that if you’re watching a black and white film with a handcuffed criminal being shuffled aboard a Pullman car, you just might be watching noir. Trains are not only the popular mode of transportation in noir, they’re often a stage where dramatic scenes play out. They’re a location where solo travelers…