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TSPDT
TSPDT

1,000 Noir Films (T)

Introduction
The 1,000 Noir Films: A - B - C - D - E - F - G - H - I - J - K - L - M - N - O - P - Q - R - S - T - U - V - W - Y - Z
View by: Title / Director / Year / Country
More Noir(ish) Films / 50 Key Noir Directors / Updates / Links
Take Aim at the Police Van
Take Aim at the Police Van
Jûsangô taihi-sen ori: Sono gôshô o nerae (original title)
● LATE NOIR (1960s) / JAPANESE NOIR
1960, Japan, 79m, BW, Action-Crime-Mystery
Screenplay Shinichi Sekizawa (based on a story by Kazoo Shimada) Producer Ryoji Mogi Photography Shigeyoshi Mine Editor Akira Suzuki Music Koichi Kawabe Cast Michitaro Mizushima, Mari Shiraki, Misako Watanabe, Shinsuke Ashida, Shoichi Ozawa, Ryohei Uchida, Toru Abe, Tatsuo Matsushita, Saburo Hiromatsu, Reiko Arai.
"With its surfeit of blind alleys, sudden bludgeonings, and delirium montages, its Wellesian proliferation of parting-shot punks, shadow-masked thugs, and conveniently faked deaths, Suzuki’s Police Van harkens distinctly back to his pre-mukokuseki ways, beginning with its fist-faced forty-eight-year-old leading man, Michitaro Mizushima—hardly the sort of matinee idol the new Nikkatsu action films were designed to feature… There are just a few of the outré visual shenanigans for which Suzuki would come to be known after 1960 on display in Police Van… Suzuki’s formative days at Nikkatsu would soon be over, but his wildest creations were still to come." - Chuck Stephens (The Criterion Collection)
Take My Life
Take My Life
● BRIT-NOIR
1947, UK, 79m, BW, Thriller-Crime-Drama
Screenplay Valerie Taylor, Winston Graham (based on the novel by Winston Graham) Producer Anthony Havelock-Allan Photography Guy Green Editor Geoffrey Foot Music William Alwyn Cast Hugh Williams, Greta Gynt, Leo Bieber, Marjorie Mars, David Wallbridge, Francis L. Sullivan, Rosalie Crutchley, Herbert C. Walton, Marius Goring, Dodd Mehan.
"This film is not only beautifully written by Winston Graham (Marnie, The Walking Stick, The Poldark Saga…) and directed by Ronald Neame, it also has a first class score and outstanding cinematography by Guy Green along with the imaginative editing and structure that adds so much to this film. The film’s opening is narrated by Francis Sullivan, the sarcastic and brilliant QC prosecuting Nicholas Talbot (Hugh Williams) for murder. We hear Sullivan’s account of the case while we watch what actually unfolded, even when it veers from Sullivan’s biased account… This is a fine suspense film that is gorgeous to look at, imaginatively cut, and shot and directed by the always interesting Neame." - David Vineyard (Mystery*File)
Take One False Step
Take One False Step
1949, USA, 94m, BW, Mystery-Crime-Drama
Screenplay Chester Erskine, Irwin Shaw (from a story by Irwin Shaw and David Shaw) Producer Chester Erskine Photography Franz Planer Editor Russell Schoengarth Music Walter Scharf Cast William Powell, Shelley Winters, Marsha Hunt, Dorothy Hart, James Gleason, Felix Bressart, Art Baker, Sheldon Leonard, Howard Freeman, Houseley Stevenson.
"William Powell stars in Take One False Step as a happily married college professor who foolishly agrees to a reunion supper with old flame Shelley Winters. Winters later disappears, and the evidence points to murder. To allay suspicion--and to avoid losing an important financial grant to his university--Powell starts his own investigation… Adapted from the Irwin Shaw novel Night Call, Take One False Step is saved from tawdriness by the innate dignity of William Powell. Also, the film is leavened by unexpected moments of humor, notably the relaxed banter between Powell and Shelley Winters." - Hal Erickson (Allmovie)
Talk About a Stranger
Talk About a Stranger
1952, USA, 65m, BW, Mystery-Drama
Screenplay Margaret Fitts (from the short story The Enemy by Charlotte Armstrong) Producer Richard Goldstone Photography John Alton Editor Newell P. Kimlin Music David Buttolph Cast George Murphy, Nancy Davis, Billy Gray, Lewis Stone, Kurt Kasznar, Anna Glomb, Katherine Warren, Teddy Infuhr, Stanley Andrews, Maude Wallace.
"David Bradley's flawed but fascinating study of a young boy's paranoid suspicions about his new neighbor plays like an early blend of Blue Velvet and The Good Son. Young Bobby Fontaine (Billy Gray of Father Knows Best) is sure something malevolent is happening beneath the quiet surface of his small town, and neither Bradley's direction nor the wonderfully sinister cinematography of John Alton do anything to convince the viewer that Bobby may not be right… That Bradley never really capitalizes on the possibilities owes more to the limitations of the source material (Charlotte Armstrong's short story The Enemy) than any flaws in Margaret Fitts' screenplay, but the film remains worthwhile as a hint of the directions in which the subgenre would later develop." - Robert Firsching (Allmovie)
The Tall Target
The Tall Target
● PERIOD NOIR
1951, USA, 78m, BW, Thriller-Crime-Period Film
Screenplay Art Cohn, George Worthing Yates (based on a story by George Worthing Yates and Daniel Mainwaring) Producer Richard Goldstone Photography Paul Vogel Editor Newell P. Kimlin Cast Dick Powell, Paula Raymond, Adolphe Menjou, Marshall Thompson, Ruby Dee, Richard Rober, Will Geer, Leif Erickson, Florence Bates, Erville Alderson.
"A cheapo gem of a thriller: a noir-influenced costume drama set largely aboard a train carrying Abe Lincoln (the date is 1861) to Baltimore to make a pre-inauguration speech. Hitching a ride is Powell, a New York cop who has wind of an assassination attempt, has resigned from the force because of the scepticism of his superiors, and finds that playing a lone wolf hand with no official backing has its hazards as he does everything in his power to avert disaster. Ingeniously and inventively plotted, taut and unpretentious, the film dashes along at a furious pace, with a strong period feel and nicely understated performances, well served by Mann's straightforward direction." - Geoff Andrew (Time Out)
The Tattered Dress
The Tattered Dress
1957, USA, 93m, BW, Courtroom Drama-Crime-Thriller
Screenplay George Zuckerman Producer Albert Zugsmith Photography Carl Guthrie Editor Edward Curtiss Music Frank Skinner Cast Jeff Chandler, Jeanne Crain, Jack Carson, Gail Russell, Elaine Stewart, George Tobias, Edward Andrews, Phillip Reed, Edward Platt, Paul Birch.
"The Tattered Dress is a good courtroom drama that doesn't quite reach the heights for which it aims. It also falls between a few too many stools -- it's noir-ish, but not really film noir; it's a legal thriller but ignores some legal niceties; and it's a serious drama that has something to say about society but does so in too facile a manner. As a result, Tattered gets stretched a little too thin for its own good… Still, even with these failings, Tattered is often gripping and almost always involving. Jack Arnold directs with a sure hand, leaping over some of the plot holes and playing up the strengths of the screenplay. He also utilizes the desert setting to make visual comments about the aridness of his lead character's life.” - Craig Butler (Allmovie)
The Tattooed Stranger
The Tattooed Stranger
1950, USA, 64m, BW, Drama-Crime-Mystery
Screenplay Philip H. Reisman Jr. Producer Jay Bonafield Photography William Steiner Editor David Cooper Music Alan Shulman Cast John Miles, Patricia Barry, Walter Kinsella, Frank Tweddell, Rod McLennan, Henry Lasko, Arthur Jarrett, Jim Boles, William Gibberson, William Alston.
"The Tattooed Stranger has few stylistic elements that would categorize it as a film noir. The characters are uncomplicated and the hunted killer remains a mostly off-camera threat. We stick with the cops all the way through. Neither the script nor the visuals suggest themes of alienation, anxiety or social sickness. Although we are always told in these proto-CSI police procedural movies that the science lab work is authentic, the clues followed here are more believable and less sensational than those in John Sturges' noir thriller Mystery Street from the year before… The Tattooed Stranger's low-key tone is its strength… Director Montagne doesn't build any great suspense but handles things in a matter-of-fact way. The people are likeable and even the non-actors come off fairly realistically.” - Glenn Erickson (DVD Savant)
Taxi Driver
Taxi Driver Recommended Viewing (by TSPDT)
● NEO-NOIR / COLOUR NOIR
1976, USA, 113m, Col, Psychological Drama-Crime
Screenplay Paul Schrader Producers Julia Phillips, Michael Phillips Photography Michael Chapman Editors Marcia Lucas, Melvin Shapiro, Tom Rolf Music Bernard Herrmann Cast Robert De Niro, Cybill Shepherd, Jodie Foster, Peter Boyle, Harvey Keitel, Leonard Harris, Martin Scorsese, Steven Prince, Diahnne Abbott, Albert Brooks.
"Some motion pictures produce the uncanny sensation of returning the spectator’s gaze. Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver—a movie in which the most celebrated line asks the audience, “Are you talkin’ to me?”—is one such film. It came, it saw, it zapped the body politic right between the eyes... Taxi Driver was a powerfully summarizing work. It synthesized noir, neorealist, and New Wave stylistics; it assimilated Hollywood’s recent vigilante cycle, drafting then-déclassé blaxploitation in the service of a presumed tell-it-like-it-is naturalism that, predicated on a frank, unrelenting representation of racism, violence, and misogyny, was even more racist, violent, and misogynist than it allowed." - J. Hoberman (The Village Voice)
Temptation
Temptation
● COSTUME NOIR
1946, USA, 98m, BW, Drama-Thriller
Screenplay Robert Thoeren (based on the play Bella Donna by James Bernard Fagan, itself based on the novel Bella Donna by Robert Hichens) Producer Edward Small Photography Lucien Ballard Editor Ernest Nims Music Daniele Amfitheatrof Cast Merle Oberon, George Brent, Charles Korvin, Paul Lukas, Lenore Ulric, Arnold Moss, Ludwig Stossel, Gavin Muir, Ilka Gruning, Robert Capa.
"Period noir, set at the fin de siècle. Femme fatale Ruby Armine (Oberon), married to Egyptologist Nigel (Brent) in Cairo, out of boredom rescues ingenue Yvonne Dupont (Cloutier) from the clutches of blackmailing seducer Mahoud Baroudi (Korvin), only to become infatuated with him herself even as she discovers he's an homme fatal of snakiness far surpassing her own… Oberon vamps with great style but, despite some effective twists in the final act, this has little of the depth of the comparable The Letter (1940)." - John Grant (A Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Film Noir)
Tension
Tension
1950, USA, 95m, BW, Thriller
Screenplay Allan Rivkin (from an unpublished story by John Klorer) Producer Robert Sisk Photography Harry Stradling Editor Albert Akst Music Andre Previn Cast Richard Basehart, Audrey Totter, Cyd Charisse, Barry Sullivan, Lloyd Gough, Tom D'Andrea, William Conrad, Tito Renaldo, Ray Bennett, Virginia Brissac.
"They aren't making 'em anymore like this 1949 melodrama by John Berry, and that's too bad. Richard Basehart plays a nebbish of a druggist who's married to a tough cookie (Audrey Totter); he slaves away on the night shift to buy her a little house in the suburbs, but she likes other kicks. She finds herself a boyfriend, and the Basehart character cracks... What sticks with you about the film is what a classic, prize-winning sap the Basehart character is, how pathetic and ill-considered are his dreams of domestic bliss, and how easily he's able to shift into a new and quite different identity. All in all, a good example of noirish post-war disillusionment - and it has Cyd Charisse and William Conrad, to boot." - Walter Addiego (San Francisco Examiner)
Terror at Midnight
Terror at Midnight
1956, USA, 70m, BW, Crime-Drama
Screenplay John K. Butler (based on a story by John K. Butler and Irving Shulman) Producer Rudy Ralston Photography Bud Thackery Editor Tony Martinelli Music R. Dale Butts Cast Scott Brady, Joan Vohs, Frank Faylen, John Dehner, Virginia Gregg, Ric Roman, John Gallaudet, Kem Dibbs, Percy Helton, Francis De Sales.
"As a 'Poverty Row' noir, this film definitely lacks some polish. The cinematography is mostly quite bland, with key scenes being photographed in mundane medium shots. Some of the dialogue stinks, and the budget is obviously miniscule. But it’s a decent little thriller. At a lean 69 minutes, it moves swiftly and progresses nicely. Brady (Lawrence Tierney’s lesser-known little brother) and Vohs are both good enough to pass muster, but the real MVPs are Faylen and Gregg. Their bitter, hateful onscreen marriage rivals that of Elisha Cook and Marie Windsor in The Killing. There are some really vicious, gritty scenes between them… a level of nastiness gives the movie a lot of edge." - Martin Teller (Martin Teller's Movie Reviews)
The Testament of Dr. Mabuse
The Testament of Dr. Mabuse
Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse (original title)
● NOIR-PRECURSOR / GERMAN NOIR
1933, Germany, 120m, BW, Thriller-Mystery-Master Criminal Film
Screenplay Fritz Lang, Thea von Harbou Producer Seymour Nebenzal Photography Fritz Arno Wagner Editors Conrad von Molo, Lothar Wolff Music Hans Erdmann Cast Rudolf Klein-Rogge, Otto Wernicke, Oscar Beregi Sr., Paul Bernd, Henry Bless, Gustav Diessl, Paul Henckels, Oskar Hocker, Georg John, Karl Meixner .
"Calling The Testament Of Dr. Mabuse "the Citizen Kane of super-criminal thrillers" isn't too outrageous, though Fritz Lang's 1933 proto-noir predates Orson Welles' rip-roaring American tableau. Both films combine style, exuberance, and thematic complexity, with Lang's work in particular presenting nightmarish scenarios with clever sound design and ingenious rhyming compositions, and both films are sophisticated in their unconventional conception of good and evil… Lang claimed that this genre piece was a comment on Nazism, but Testament speaks more directly to how human frailty gives fascism room to grow. The film's villains act out of raw need or reckless curiosity, following the orders of a man behind a curtain, in a featureless room, in a part of the city where people prefer to remain anonymous." - Noel Murray (A.V. Club)
Thérèse Raquin
Thérèse Raquin
The Adultress (English title)
● FRENCH NOIR
1953, France-Italy, 102m, BW, Drama-Crime-Romance
Screenplay Charles Spaak, Marcel Carné (based on the novel by Émile Zola) Producers Raymond Hakim, Robert Hakim Photography Roger Hubert Editor Henri Rust Music Maurice Thiriet Cast Simone Signoret, Raf Vallone, Jacques Duby, Maria Pia Casilio, Marcel André, Martial Rèbe, Paul Frankeur, Alain Terrane, Bernard Véron, Jean Sylvère.
"Marcel Carné's 1953 adaptation of the famous Émile Zola novel came up against a divided critical reception. Besides updating the story, Carné and his screenwriter Charles Spaak radically altered the plotline. The result is a well-acted but overly familiar murder triangle more in keeping with serie noire crime thrillers than classic fiction… Although the film had its champions (director Carné was at the time reportedly being recognized as an overlooked talent) reviewers also took Thérèse Raquin to task by calling it a Neorealist version of what they would have preferred to be straight French guignol. The film plays as a perfectly fine domestic murder thriller in a pleasing setting." - Glenn Erickson (DVD Savant)
They Drive by Night (1938)
They Drive by Night
● NOIR-PRECURSOR / BRIT-NOIR
1938, UK, 84m, BW, Crime-Thriller-Chase Movie
Screenplay Derek Twist, James Curtis, Paul Gangelin (based on the novel by James Curtis) Producer Jerome Jackson Photography Basil Emmott Editor Leslie Norman Music Bretton Byrd Cast Emlyn Williams, Anna Konstam, Allan Jeayes, Ernest Thesiger, Jennie Hartley, Ronald Shiner, Anthony Holles, William Hartnell, Kitty de Legh, Joe Cunningham.
"Warner Brothers churned out hundreds of 'quota quickies' from their small British studio in Teddington, most of which are no doubt best left in the dustbin of history. Occasionally, though, the fusion of quirky British realism and slick Hollywood melodramatics produced a real gem. Here the revelation of '30s British society as a world of spivs and cardsharps, lecherous lorry drivers and sybaritic sex maniacs, is worth discovering in itself. But director Woods, soon to die in the war, takes the workmanlike story of a petty criminal (Williams) hunted for a murder he didn't do, and invests it with an atmosphere of unrelenting wind, rain and gloom which makes the average American film noir look bright and breezy by comparison." - Robert Murphy (Time Out)
They Drive by Night
They Drive by Night Recommended Viewing (by TSPDT)
1940, USA, 93m, BW, Drama-Crime
Screenplay Jerry Wald, Richard Macaulay (based on the novel The Long Haul by A.I. Bezzerides) Producer Mark Hellinger Photography Arthur Edeson Editor Thomas Richards Music Adolph Deutsch Cast George Raft, Ann Sheridan, Ida Lupino, Humphrey Bogart, Gale Page, Alan Hale, Roscoe Karns, John Litel, Henry O'Neill, George Tobias.
"This 1940 feature begins as a fast, growly proletarian drama of an independent trucker (George Raft) fighting to build his business, but breaks midway and becomes a high bourgeois melodrama about an ambitious woman (Ida Lupino) on trial for killing her husband. The switch may not make sense on first viewing, but director Raoul Walsh brings a thematic (and rhythmic) continuity to it: the same obsessional intensity that makes Raft an admirable figure in the first half is seen in the second, applied to Lupino, as something psychotic. Walsh may not have been directly responsible for the structure (the second half is a remake of an earlier Warners melodrama, Bordertown), but his personal response to the material puts it across." - Dave Kehr (Chicago Reader)
They Live by Night
They Live by Night 100 Essential Noirs (or the 100 films most often referred to as noir) Recommended Viewing (by TSPDT)
1948, USA, 95m, BW, Drama-Crime
Screenplay Charles Schnee (adapted by Nicholas Ray from the novel Thieves Like Us by Edward Anderson) Producer John Houseman Photography George E. Diskant Editor Sherman Todd Music Leigh Harline Cast Farley Granger, Cathy O'Donnell, Howard da Silva, Jay C. Flippen, Helen Craig, Will Wright, Marie Bryant, Ian Wolfe, William Phipps, Harry Harvey.
"This boy… and this girl… were never properly introduced to the world we live in." With those words, superimposed over images of Farley Granger and Cathy O’Donnell tenderly kissing, Nicholas Ray’s masterpiece They Live By Night—his debut feature, incredibly—declares its allegiance to poetry rather than realism, which is what sets it apart from the dozens of lovers-on-the-lam pictures that would follow in its footsteps. The film’s story is simple, even skeletal: After busting out of jail, Granger meets a nice (if unusual) girl, O’Donnell, and makes a concerted effort to go straight, which circumstances continually prevent. But Ray inflects every aspect of this primal, tragic narrative with overpowering strangeness and beauty, creating a private world for the couple that reinforces that arresting opening statement. " - Mike D'Angelo (A.V. Club)
They Made Me a Fugitive
They Made Me a Fugitive Recommended Viewing (by TSPDT)
I Became a Criminal (USA title)
● BRIT-NOIR
1947, UK, 103m, BW, Crime-Drama
Screenplay Noel Langley (from the novel A Convict Has Escaped by Jackson Budd) Producer Nat A. Bronstein Photography Otto Heller Editor Margery Saunders Music Marius-Francois Gaillard Cast Trevor Howard, Sally Gray, Griffith Jones, Rene Ray, Mary Merrall, Charles Farrell, Michael Brennan, Jack McNaughton, Cyril Smith, John Penrose.
"They Made Me a Fugitive may be a movie about crooks, but it's more than a gangster picture. It's a bona fide British-made film noir and features the fine, stylized direction of Alberto Cavalcanti, from a screenplay written by Noel Langley and based on the novel A Convict Has Escaped by Jackson Budd…” Aside from the violence men and women commit against each other, there's a rough and nihilistic quality to They Made Me a Fugitive that is a quality of noir as much as it is a reflection of the postwar malaise that this film perfectly captures. - Scott McGee (Turner Classic Movies)
They Made Me a Killer
They Made Me a Killer
1946, USA, 64m, BW, Crime-Drama
Screenplay Daniel Mainwaring, Kae Salkow, Winston Miller (from a story by Owen Franes) Producers William C. Thomas, William H. Pine Photography Fred Jackman Jr. Editor Henry Adams Music Alexander Laszlo Cast Robert Lowery, Barbara Britton, Lola Lane, Frank Albertson, Elisabeth Risdon, Byron Barr, Edmund MacDonald, Ralph Sanford, James Bush, Paul Harvey.
"An obscure programmer that goes for just 64 minutes, They Made Me a Killer, is a tidy little thriller. An innocent guy is framed for a bank heist after a crooked dame sets him up, and faces a murder rap for the killing of a security guard and a cop. He makes a break at a hospital after a guy who could corroborate his innocence dies without making a statement to the cops. It is is non-stop action with a neat romantic interest, and an inventive technical ruse to get the evidence the guy needs to secure his freedom. The hospital escape scene is distilled noir. The fugitive slugs a cop in the back of the head with the cop’s gun, and then tips the bed with body of the guy that has just died still in it over another cop! He makes his final escape from a window after knock-out punching a female nurse in the face!" - Tony D'Ambra (FilmsNoir.net)
They Won't Believe Me
They Won't Believe Me Recommended Viewing (by TSPDT)
1947, USA, 79m, BW, Crime-Drama
Screenplay Jonathan Latimer (from an unpublished story by Gordon McDonell) Producer Joan Harrison Photography Harry Wild Editor Elmo Williams Music Roy Webb Cast Robert Young, Susan Hayward, Jane Greer, Rita Johnson, Tom Powers, George Tyne, Don Beddoe, Frank Ferguson, Harry Harvey, Wilton Graff.
"An effective film noir with a cult following, this 1947 adaptation of a pulp novel by Gordon McDonell stars Robert Young as a philanderer on trial for the murder of his rich wife. Under cross-examination he spills the sordid details of a secret life, including his plan to kill his wife and start anew with lover Susan Hayward. Although he tells the court that his wife died before he could follow through, they won't believe him. Cast against type, Young manages to be both creepy and sympathetic. Actor-turned-director Irving Pichel gets hard-boiled performances from a solid cast that also includes Rita Johnson and Jane Greer. Harry Wild's cinematography is expressionistic, and Jonathan Latimer's zinger-laden script snaps like James M. Cain." - Ted Shen (Chicago Reader)
Thief
Thief
● NEO-NOIR / COLOUR NOIR
1981, USA, 122m, Col, Crime-Drama-Thriller
Screenplay Michael Mann (based on the novel The Home Invaders by Frank Homier) Producer Ronnie Caan Photography Donald Thorin Editor Dov Hoenig Music Tangerine Dream Cast James Caan, Tuesday Weld, Willie Nelson, James Belushi, Robert Prosky, Tom Signorelli, Dennis Farina, Nick Nickeas, W.R. Brown, Norm Tobin.
"The contemporary American auteur Michael Mann burst out of the gate, his bold artistic sensibility fully formed, with Thief, his debut feature. James Caan stars, in one of his most riveting performances, as a no-nonsense ex-con safecracker planning to leave the criminal world behind after one final diamond heist, but discovering that escape is not as simple as he hoped. Finding hypnotic beauty in neon and rain-slick streets, sparks and steel, Thief effortlessly established the moody stylishness and tactile approach to action that would also define such later iconic entertainments from Mann as Miami Vice, Manhunter, and Heat." - The Criterion Collection
The Thief
The Thief
1952, USA, 85m, BW, Spy-Crime-Drama
Screenplay Clarence Greene, Russell Rouse Producer Clarence Greene Photography Sam Leavitt Editor Chester W. Schaeffer Music Herschel Burke Gilbert Cast Ray Milland, Martin Gabel, Rita Gam, Harry Bronson, Rita Vale, Rex O'Malley, John McKutcheon, Joe Conlin, Ray Stricklyn.
"A phone shrills, two bursts of three rings; the man on the bed (Milland) leaves his room; out in the night a waiting man (Gabel) lights a cigarette, throws down the empty packet, and vanishes... Rouse's movie is embarked on its challenge to tell the story of a spy without dialogue. There's an element of gimmickry here (even passers-by never say a word), but it's far outweighed by the tangible sense of a man isolated by his sense of fear (you never learn his motives), by the anonymity of his associates (all contact is by prearranged signal and at second remove), by the caution which edges into paranoia as things suddenly go wrong. Rouse's dispassionate, evenly-paced direction, abetted by Sam Leavitt's superb noir camerawork, strands Milland in a shadowy world of fellow-humans, any one of whom might spell disaster." - Tom Milne (Time Out)
Thieves' Highway
Thieves' Highway 100 Essential Noirs (or the 100 films most often referred to as noir) Recommended Viewing (by TSPDT)
1949, USA, 94m, BW, Crime-Thriller-Drama
Screenplay A.I. Bezzerides (A.I. Bezzerides from his novel Thieves' Market) Producer Robert Bassler Photography Norbert Brodine Editor Nick DeMaggio Music Alfred Newman Cast Richard Conte, Valentina Cortese, Lee J. Cobb, Barbara Lawrence, Jack Oakie, Millard Mitchell, Joseph Pevney, Morris Carnovsky, Tamara Shayne, Kasia Orzazewski.
"Like the movie’s rattletrap trucks lurching down the highway as they carry way-too-heavy loads, the characters in Jules Dassin’s brilliantly volatile Thieves’ Highway struggle under psychological and moral baggage until they can lay their burdens down. Working from a novel and script by A.I. Bezzerides, Dassin made this swift, fluid melodrama in 1949, after Brute Force and The Naked City. Thieves’ Highway is his best American movie. It breathes the same air of risk and desperation as his made-in-Europe masterpieces, London’s Night and the City (1950) and the Paris-set Rififi (1954). But it has a rich sensuality all its own." - Michael Sragow (The Criterion Collection)
Thieves Like Us
Thieves Like Us Recommended Viewing (by TSPDT)
● NEO-NOIR / COLOUR NOIR
1974, USA, 123m, Col, Crime-Drama-Americana
Screenplay Calder Willingham, Joan Tewkesbury, Robert Altman (based on the novel by Edward Anderson) Producer Jerry Bick Photography Jean Boffety Editor Lou Lombardo Cast Keith Carradine, Shelley Duvall, John Schuck, Bert Remsen, Louise Fletcher, Ann Latham, Tom Skerritt, Al Scott, John Roper, Mary Waits.
"Perhaps Altman's most persistently charming film, a remake of Nicholas Ray's They Live By Night (or rather, second adaptation of Edward Anderson's novel), in which a trio of semi-competent bank robbers attempt to emulate the big-time gangsters publicised by the media, comics, and radio serials, and finally get their comeuppance after a brief respite from prison and poverty. Altman adheres to Ray's conception of the youngest criminal (Carradine) and his plain-Jane lover (Duvall) as innocents all at sea in an uncaring world, although the tone here is one of bitter-sweet irony rather than romantic pessimism… Never portentous, never a mere spoof, this is a touching, intelligent, and - in its own small way - rather wonderful movie." - Geoff Andrew (Time Out)
The Thin Man
The Thin Man Recommended Viewing (by TSPDT)
● COMEDY NOIR / NOIR-PRECURSOR
1934, USA, 93m, BW, Mystery-Comedy-Crime
Screenplay Albert Hackett, Frances Goodrich (based on the novel by Dashiell Hammett) Producer Hunt Stromberg Photography James Wong Howe Editor Robert Kern Music William Axt Cast William Powell, Myrna Loy, Maureen O'Sullivan, Nat Pendleton, Minna Gombell, Cesar Romero, Edward Brophy, Porter Hall, Henry Wadsworth, William Henry.
"Dashiell Hammett's fifth and last novel was something of a departure in that it was less a hardboiled thriller than a spray of sophisticated banter in which nobody - least of all detective Nick Charles and his delightful Nora - took the tough guy ethos very seriously. With Powell and Loy fitting the roles to perfection, the film draws happy doodles around the mystery of the missing scientist… What enchants, really, is the relationship between Nick and Nora as they live an eternal cocktail hour, bewailing hangovers that only another little drink will cure, in a marvellous blend of marital familiarity and constant courtship, pixillated fantasy and childlike wonder. None of the five sequels that followed (1936-47) recaptured quite the same flavour." - Tom Milne (Time Out)
Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead Recommended Viewing (by TSPDT)
● NEO-NOIR / COLOUR NOIR
1995, USA, 115m, Col, Crime-Drama-Thriller
Screenplay Scott Rosenberg Producers Cary Woods, Cathy Konrad Photography Elliot Davis Editor Richard Marks Music Michael Convertino Cast Andy Garcia, Christopher Walken, Gabrielle Anwar, William Forsythe, Treat Williams, Christopher Lloyd, Bill Nunn, Jack Warden, Steve Buscemi, Fairuza Balk.
"Former gangster Jimmy the Saint (Garcia) has got himself a legit business (video-recording advice from the dying to their families), so he's reluctant to do one more job for the Man (Walken), who wants the frighteners put on the creep dating his slow-witted son's dream girl… Much of the fun to be had from Fleder's stylish, engrossing first feature derives from Scott Rosenberg's lively, literate and engagingly offbeat script. The witty dialogue, its slangy, profane poetry is even more delightful than the plot's tight twists and turns, while the colourful characterisations, sufficiently rock solid to have attracted and inspired a marvellous cast, simultaneously play fast and loose with the conventions of crime fiction." - Geoff Andrew (Time Out)
The Third Man
The Third Man 100 Essential Noirs (or the 100 films most often referred to as noir) Recommended Viewing (by TSPDT)
● BRIT-NOIR
1949, UK, 104m, BW, Thriller-Mystery
Screenplay Graham Greene Producer Carol Reed Photography Robert Krasker Editor Oswald Hafenrichter Music Anton Karas Cast Joseph Cotten, Orson Welles, Alida Valli, Trevor Howard, Paul Horbiger, Bernard Lee, Ernst Deutsch, Wilfred Hyde-White, Erich Ponto, Siegfried Breuer.
"In The Third Man—probably the greatest British thriller of the postwar era—director Carol Reed and screenwriter Graham Greene set a fable of moral corruption in a world of near-Byzantine visual complexity: the streets and ruins of occupied Vienna... This was the one time Reed, as a director, reached perfection; and he did it as much by assembling and marshalling a brilliantly talented company as by the power of his own vision. Together he and Greene—and Welles, Cotten, Howard, Valli, Karas, Krasker, Korda and all the others—created a portrait of postwar corruption and the death of idealism that has lodged ever since in our collective consciousness. Together, they made a rich, moody masterpiece of guilt, love, and ambivalent redemption." - Michael Wilmington (The Criterion Collection)
13th Letter
The 13th Letter
1951, USA, 85m, BW, Mystery-Psychological Thriller
Screenplay Howard Koch (from the story and screenplay Le Corbeau by Louis Chance) Producer Otto Preminger Photography Joseph LaShelle Editor Louis Loeffler Music Alex North Cast Linda Darnell, Charles Boyer, Michael Rennie, Constance Smith, Francoise Rosay, Judith Evelyn, Guy Sorel, June Hedin, George Alexander, Jacques Auger.
"Otto Preminger's 1951 remake of Henri-Georges Clouzot's Le Corbeau (1943), a nasty noir thriller about a series of poison-pen letters that terrorize a small town, shifts the action to Quebec, where much of the film was shot. The original film courageously if covertly attacked the sleaziness of collaboration during the German occupation of France; Preminger's version, scripted by Howard Koch, projects a more generalized as well as sanitized misanthropy. But it's still one of his best efforts of the period—he's so adroit at raising doubts about all the characters that the denouement can't help but disappoint a little." - Jonathan Rosenbaum (Chicago Reader)
36 Hours
36 Hours
Terror Street (USA title)
● BRIT-NOIR
1953, UK, 80m, BW, Crime-Drama-Mystery
Screenplay Steve Fisher (based on his story) Producer Anthony Hinds Photography Walter J. Harvey Editor James Needs Music Ivor Slaney Cast Dan Duryea, Elsie Albiin, Gudrun Ure, Eric Pohlmann, John Chandos, Kenneth Griffith, Harold Lang, Jane Carr, Michael Golden, Marianne Stone.
"The movie is very light on the noir elements overall… This is more of a straight-forward innocent-man-on-the-run thriller than anything else. And it is half-decent at that, the movie doesn't hold interest enough throughout and at no point does it really give a sense of urgency to Rogers' (Duryea) predicament. Hammer noir's tend to be relatively light on the noir side, and this is not one of the better movies that Hammer Studios produced I'm afraid to say. It's okay enough to waste under an hour and a half with on a rainy evening, but don't expect greatness." - Reviews from the Bottom of the Barrel
THis Gun for Hire
This Gun for Hire 100 Essential Noirs (or the 100 films most often referred to as noir) Recommended Viewing (by TSPDT)
1942, USA, 80m, BW, Thriller-Crime-Romantic Mystery
Screenplay Albert Maltz, W.R. Burnett (from the novel A Gun for Sale by Graham Greene) Producer Richard Blumenthal Photography John F. Seitz Editor Archie Marshek Music David Buttolph Cast Alan Ladd, Veronica Lake, Robert Preston, Laird Cregar, Tully Marshall, Mikhail Rasumny, Marc Lawrence, Pamela Blake, Harry Shannon, Frank Ferguson.
"A definitive opening: Alan Ladd's hired gun wakes in a seedy hotel, then, with the distracted air of a schizophrenic, pays visit to his victims, first gunning down the man, then the woman as she tries to hide behind the door. Ladd's unsmiling performance - the prototype of the killer as angel of death - employs a repertory of classic gestures: no wonder Melville and Delon lifted so much of this film for Le Samourai. The film's amorphous conspiracy plot (this in 1942) lacks the conviction of the terse introduction, but director Tuttle wisely concentrates on the set pieces and performances rather than the script's loose adaptation of Graham Greene's novel." - Chris Petit (Time Out)
This Side of the Law
This Side of the Law
1950, USA, 74m, BW, Drama-Mystery
Screenplay Russell S. Hughes (based on a story by Richard Sale) Producer Saul Elkins Photography Carl Guthrie Editor Frank Magee Music William Lava Cast Viveca Lindfors, Kent Smith, Janis Paige, Robert Douglas, John Alvin, Monte Blue, Frances Morris, Nita Talbot, Edgar Dearing, Michael Mark.
"This 1950 Warner Brothers offering is perhaps more of a gothic thriller than a true film noir but it has enough noirish elements to be worthy of consideration by noir fans. We start in true noir style with the hero in a great deal of trouble telling us how he got into the mess in a flashback that occupies most of the movie’s running time… Russell S. Hughes’ screenplay (from a story by Richard Sale) is pefectly serviceable. Director Richard L. Bare had a long if undistinguished career but he keeps the action moving along… This Side of the Law is an unassuming but thoroughly satisfying B-movie." - Classic Movie Ramblings
This Woman is Dangerous
1952, USA, 100m, BW, Romance-Crime-Drama
Screenplay Daniel Mainwaring, George Worthing Yates (based on a story by Bernard Girard) Producer Robert Sisk Photography Ted McCord Editor James C. Moore Music David Buttolph Cast Joan Crawford, Dennis Morgan, David Brian, Richard Webb, Mari Aldon, Philip Carey, Ian MacDonald, Katherine Warren, George Chandler, Sherry Jackson.
"This Woman is Dangerous is an unofficial third picture teaming Ms. Crawford with David Brian, who had played a tough politician and a brutal gangland boss. Joan's very last Warners picture on her '40s contract is a slapdash mix of exploitable elements. A brutal crime story thread never begins to match up with soap opera ideas that seem to have been force-fed into the storyline. Writers Daniel Mainwaring and George Worthing Yates had between them a list of great credits -- Out of the Past, The Lawless, The Tall Target -- but This Woman is Dangerous plays as if they would write anything to get Crawford to sign off on her script approval. I have to think that what we're seeing is Crawford's idea of a gripping thriller." - Glenn Erickson (DVD Savant)
This World, Then the Fireworks
This World, Then the Fireworks
● NEO-NOIR / COLOUR NOIR
1997, USA, 100m, Col, Crime-Drama
Screenplay Larry Gross (based on the novella by Jim Thompson) Producers Brad Wyman, Chris Hanley, Larry Gross Photography Tom Priestley Jr. Editor Emma E. Hickox Music Pete Rugolo Cast Billy Zane, Gina Gershon, Christian Durango, Sloan Cobb, Roberta Hanley, Megan Leigh Brown, Christopher Jones, Orson Oblowitz, Philip Loch, Rue McClanahan.
"Twins Marty (Zane) and Carol (Gershon) grow up despising everyone but each other. She's a hooker, he's a con-man. Such harmless diversions turn nasty as their incestuous love gets out of hand. Director Oblowitz tries to keep faith with the material with a distorting wide-angle lens, lurid, theatrical lighting and a chopped, staccato rhythm. The movie is the spit of a '50s dime store paperback cover, not brought to life, but preserved in amber. Even the actors resemble old B-movie icons. Throw screenwriter Larry Gross's voice-over into the mix, simmer with cod-blues sax and banjo, and the stylisation is complete. Too bad they forgot to put over the story." - Tom Charity (Time Out)
The Threat
The Threat
1949, USA, 65m, BW, Crime-Drama
Screenplay Dick Irving Hyland, Hugh King Producer Hugh King Photography Harry Wild Editor Samuel E. Beetley Music Paul Sawtell Cast Michael O'Shea, Virginia Grey, Charles McGraw, Julie Bishop, Frank Conroy, Robert Shayne, Anthony Caruso, Don McGuire, Frank Richards, Michael McHale.
"Felix Feist is no auteur but he made some minor classics of the noir genre, notably The Devil Thumbs a Ride and Tomorrow is Another Day. Here he has a good story (if not always a great script) and a truly menacing heavy in Charles McGraw as death-row killer Red Kluger… We’re not talking lost masterpiece here; Feist is saddled with flat dialogue (“Now you know how a good detective works. When he finds something, he calls!”), generic sets and a cast of frankly non-charismatic leads (Michael O’Shea adequate as the cop hero, Robert Shayne a real stiff as his partner, and Frank Conroy almost a non-entity as the D.A..). But Virginia Grey is superb as a trampled flower of a showgirl and Feist allocates his limited budget cleverly, saving his resources for a few set pieces.” - Sean Axmaker (Parallax View)
Three Steps North
Three Steps North
● ITALIAN NOIR (CO-USA PRODUCTION)
1951, Italy-USA, 85m, BW, Drama-Crime
Screenplay Lester Fuller (based on a story by Robert Harari) Producer W. Lee Wilder Photography Aldo Giordani Editor Ruth Totz Music Roman Vlad Cast Lloyd Bridges, Lea Padovani, Aldo Fabrizi, William Tubbs, Dino Galvani, Adriano Ambrogi, Gianni Rizzo, Peggy Doro, Adam Genette, Roberto Murolo.
"Lloyd Bridges stars as World War Two GI Frank Keeler, dishonorably discharged for black market dealing while stationed in Italy. He later returns to Italy after a four-year spell in a military jail to recover his stashed treasure buried near Amalfi. But it has vanished, and he has to track down the suspects to try to find it, as the police start tailing him and other criminals turn up. Three Steps North is a moderate, soft-centred but well-meaning melodrama, carefully written by Lester Fuller, but it has no edge or incisive handling, and no real surprises either." - Derek Winnert (Derek Winnert)
Three Strangers
Three Strangers
1946, USA, 92m, BW, Drama-Crime-Thriller
Screenplay Howard Koch, John Huston Producer Wolfgang Reinhardt Photography Arthur Edeson Editor George Amy Music Adolph Deutsch Cast Sydney Greenstreet, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Peter Lorre, Joan Lorring, Robert Shayne, Marjorie Riordan, Arthur Shields, Rosalind Ivan, John Alvin, Peter Whitney.
"At first glance Three Strangers sounds like a gloss on The Maltese Falcon tricked out with some spiritualist mumbo jumbo. Happily, it turns out to be a much more accomplished piece of work. For lovers of unappreciated studio talent the movie is a treasure trove. Both Lorre and Greenstreet are given really meaty roles, and favorite Geraldine Fitzgerald gets to shine as well. The busy, eventful original screenplay is by John Huston (seems fitting) and Howard Koch… Three Strangers is tightly paced, fairly credible and packed with reversals of fortune and twists of fate. The point seems to be that people don't need magic Chinese idols to turn their lives into crazy puzzles. The movie is generous to its characters, especially Peter Lorre's. It's highly recommended." - Glenn Erickson (DVD Savant)
Tiger in the Smoke
Tiger in the Smoke
● BRIT-NOIR
1956, UK, 94m, BW, Crime-Thriller-Drama
Screenplay Anthony Pelissier (based on the novel The Tiger in the Smoke by Margery Allingham) Producer Leslie Parkyn Photography Geoffrey Unsworth Editor John D. Guthridge Music Malcolm Arnold Cast Donald Sinden, Muriel Pavlow, Tony Wright, Bernard Miles, Alec Clunes, Laurence Naismith, Christopher Rhodes, Charles Victor, Thomas Heathcote, Sam Kydd.
"Though this old-style thriller entertainment is perhaps mild and dated, the twisting plot (with the screenplay effectively and closely adapted by Anthony Pelissier from the Margery Allingham novel The Tiger in the Smoke), effective atmosphere and welcome cast keep the action bubbling along very nicely indeed. The cinematography by Geoffrey Unsworth conjures up a very effective noirish smog-shrouded London, mostly shot in Pinewood Studios with sets designed by art director Jack Maxsted. It is all very entertaining and satisfying. Roy Ward Baker and Unsworth pull off some fancy black and white visual flourishes." - Derek Winnert (Derek Winnert)
Tight Spot
Tight Spot
1955, USA, 97m, BW, Crime-Drama
Screenplay William Bowers (based on the play Dead Pigeon by Lenard Kantor) Producer Lewis J. Rachmil Photography Burnett Guffey Editor Viola Lawrence Music George Duning Cast Ginger Rogers, Edward G. Robinson, Brian Keith, Lucy Marlow, Lorne Greene, Katharine Anderson, Allen Nourse, Peter Leeds, Doye O'Dell, Eve McVeagh.
"Based on a stage play, most of Tight Spot takes place in the same hotel room. Sort of a train-challenged reworking of the Fleischer classic The Narrow Margin, it's about a cop (Brian Keith) trying to keep a witness alive long enough to testify against the mob. Ginger Rogers is the sassy convict sprung to tattle on a top underworld figure… The problem with the film is Ginger Rogers, who may have used her clout to keep all of the attention on her character. Rogers seems to think she's acting in a comedy. Although the film has a sense of humor, Rogers plays her sassy felon too broadly and continually reaches for contact with the audience… The movie's suspenseful finish is unimpaired, but despite Phil Karlson's hard-edged direction, the movie feels like a compromise." - Glenn Erickson (DVD Savant)
Tightrope
Tightrope Recommended Viewing (by TSPDT)
● NEO-NOIR / COLOUR NOIR
1984, USA, 114m, Col, Thriller-Crime-Mystery
Screenplay Richard Tuggle Producer Clint Eastwood, Fritz Manes Photography Bruce Surtees Editor Joel Cox Music Lennie Niehaus Cast Clint Eastwood, Genevieve Bujold, Dan Hedaya, Alison Eastwood, Jennifer Beck, Marco St. John, Rebecca Perle, Regina Richardson, Randi Brooks, Margaret Howell.
"Clint Eastwood turns kinky in Tightrope, playing a police inspector investigating a string of sex crimes and succumbing to the wiles of some of the prostitutes he questions. But it's only a temporary aberration. For the most part, Tightrope is a crisp thriller that is essentially faithful to the Dirty Harry formula, notwithstanding its attempts to give Mr. Eastwood's character what the production notes call ''an added dimension of complexity.'' Kinks or no kinks, Mr. Eastwood does his usual turn as the most hard-boiled, relentless detective in town… Tightrope isn't quite top-level Eastwood, but it's close." - Janet Maslin (The New York Times)
Time Without Pity
Time Without Pity
● BRIT-NOIR
1957, UK, 85m, BW, Crime-Drama-Mystery
Screenplay Ben Barzman (based on the play Someone Waiting by Emlyn Williams) Producers Anthony Simmons, John Arnold Photography Freddie Francis Editor Alan Osbiston Music Tristram Cary Cast Michael Redgrave, Leo McKern, Ann Todd, Paul Daneman, Peter Cushing, Alec McCowen, Renee Houston, Lois Maxwell, Richard Wordsworth, George Devine.
"An adaptation of Emlyn Williams' potboiling play Someone Waiting, about a young man wrongly convicted of murder (McCowen), and the last-minute hunt for the real killer by his dipsomaniac father (Redgrave). This was the first time Losey had filmed under his own name since the trauma of the blacklist, and it shows in the overstatement… By shifting the emphasis from thriller to anti-capital punishment pleading, Losey also strains the structure almost to breaking point. An undeniably powerful film, all the same, superbly shot by Freddie Francis and conceived with a raw-edged brilliance, right from the brutal opening murder." - Tom Milne (Time Out)
Timetable
Time Table
1956, USA, 80m, BW, Crime-Drama-Detective Film
Screenplay Aben Kandel (based on a story by Robert Angus) Producer Mark Stevens Photography Charles Van Enger Editor Kenneth G. Crane Music Walter Scharf Cast Mark Stevens, King Calder, Felicia Farr, Marianne Stewart, Wesley Addy, Alan Reed, Rodolfo Hoyos, Jack Klugman, John Marley, Robert Anderson.
"Unfortunately for anyone who hasn’t seen Time Table, it’s impossible to discuss without spoiling its big twist - so let’s get it out of the way right now (and don’t worry, the reveal occurs in the first half of the film): Stevens plays an insurance investigator who - here it comes - turns out to be the brains behind the very robbery he’s asked to solve. Although it’s an old saw that may bring to mind Double Indemnity, Time Table more closely resembles titles like Roadblock, Private Hell 36, and The Man Who Cheated Himself. It draws from a myriad of noir films rather than any one in particular. This much is certain: in spite of being a cinematic mutt, Time Table is an intriguing movie that deserves to be seen." - Mark Fertig (Where Danger Lives)
T-Men
T-Men 100 Essential Noirs (or the 100 films most often referred to as noir) Recommended Viewing (by TSPDT)
1947, USA, 92m, BW, Crime-Thriller-Detective Film
Screenplay John C. Higgins (from an unpublished story by Virginia Kellogg) Producer Aubrey Schenck Photography John Alton Editor Fred Allen Music Paul Sawtell Cast Dennis O'Keefe, Alfred Ryder, Mary Meade, Wallace Ford, June Lockhart, Charles McGraw, Jane Randolph, Art Smith, Herbert Heyes, Jack Overman.
"T-Men, arguably the strongest picture from Mann's noir period, boasts a raw documentary feel that will remind some viewers of the classic TV series, Dragnet. But Mann's brilliant cinematographer, George Alton, gives the film a memorably stark look. Add a first-rate script by John C. Higgins, and Mann's almost intuitive command of the visual language of cinema, and T-Men is a surprisingly powerful B-picture, an urban crime drama for the ages. As always, Mann's sure sense of visual flair is virtually undetectable. Even in the stylized noir tradition, there's a naturalism to his storytelling, an emotional honesty that serves as the backbone of his work. Mann always generates steam while appearing to never break a sweat." - Paul Tatara (Turner Classic Movies)
Pickup
To Have and Have Not Recommended Viewing (by TSPDT)
1944, USA, 100m, BW, Romance-Drama-Adventure
Screenplay Jules Furthman, William Faulkner (based on the novel by Ernest Hemingway) Producer Howard Hawks Photography Sidney Hickox Editor Christian Nyby Music Franz Waxman Cast Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Walter Brennan, Dolores Moran, Hoagy Carmichael, Dan Seymour, Marcel Dalio, Walter Molnar, Sheldon Leonard, Walter Sande.
"Director Howard Hawks made a bet with Ernest Hemingway that he could make a good movie out of his worst novel. I don't know who won or how much the bet was for, but my money is on Hawks. To Have and Have Not is a perfect companion piece to Casablanca, which is one of America's favorite movies. Casablanca is more beloved than To Have and Have Not presumably because Americans prefer sentiment over camaraderie… Although both movies are satisfying, To Have and Have Not leaves a more satisfying taste, precisely because Hawks isn't trying for any specific emotional effect other than friendship. The result is smooth filmmaking, in which the audience is able to relate to flawed characters and meet them halfway." - Jeffrey M. Anderson (Combustible Celluloid)
To Live and Die in L.A.
To Live and Die in L.A.
● NEO-NOIR / COLOUR NOIR
1985, USA, 116m, Col, Crime-Action-Drama
Screenplay Gerald Petievich, William Friedkin (based on the novel by Gerald Petievich) Producer Irving H. Levin Photography Robby Müller Editor Bud Smith Music Wang Chung Cast William Petersen, Willem Dafoe, John Pankow, Debra Feuer, John Turturro, Darlanne Fluegel, Dean Stockwell, Steve James, Robert Downey Sr., Dwier Brown.
"Sure, the Reagan-era exoticization of painters and extras salivating over the cash they count are as dated as the Wang Chung synth score, but To Live and Die in L.A. is as urgent and exhilaratingly paced as anything William Friedkin's done. This raw, elaborately cynical 1985 action flick puts two Secret Service agents (William Petersen, John Pankow) on the trail of a counterfeiting artist (Willem Dafoe at his most slithery) obsessed with spending money. Some of the best crook-on-crook, cop-on-crook banter there ever was and John Turturro's best cursing in a motion picture… the six-lane rush-hour car chase that would make Popeye Doyle crash and burn… The only problem is that Friedkin would never get any better than this." - Wesley Morris (San Francisco Examiner)
To the Ends of the Earth
To the Ends of the Earth
1948, USA, 109m, BW, Thriller-Crime-Adventure
Screenplay Jay Richard Kennedy (from his original story) Producer Sidney Buchman Photography Burnett Guffey Editor William Lyon Music George Duning Cast Dick Powell, Signe Hasso, Maylia, Ludwig Donath, Vladimir Sokoloff, Edgar Barrier, John Hoyt, Marcel Journet, Luis Van Rooten, Fritz Leiber.
"A top-notch adventure yarn that criss-crosses the globe in the mid-1930s. The film is told in a semi-documentary style. A Treasury Department narcotic head of its San Francisco bureau, Michael Barrows (Dick Powell), stumbles across a Japanese tramp freighter which is acting as a slave cargo tub. He observes them overthrowing the illegal passengers when they thought that the Coast Guard boat would stop them. In a cameo, the real Treasury director Harry J. Anslinger has a non-speaking role as Barrows's boss… A solid film that's high on entertainment value." - Dennis Schwartz (Movie Reviews)
Tokyo Drifter
Tokyo Drifter Recommended Viewing (by TSPDT)
Tôkyô nagaremono (original title)
● LATE NOIR (1960s) / JAPANESE NOIR / COLOUR NOIR
1966, Japan, 82m, Col-BW, Action-Crime-Thriller
Screenplay Yasunori Kawauchi Producer Tetsuro Nakagawa Photography Shigeyoshi Mine Editor Shinya Inoue Music So Kaburagi Cast Tetsuya Watari, Chieko Matsubara, Hideaki Nitani, Ryuji Kita, Hideaki Esumi, Tamio Kawachi, Isao Tamagawa, Michio Hino, Tomoko Hamakawa, Takeshi Izumi.
"Suzuki’s films made money and enjoyed some critical attention, but Nikkatsu grew increasingly irritated with the director’s flights of outrageous fancy. In 1966, the studio ordered him to toe the aesthetic line with Tokyo Drifter, an ostensibly routine potboiler about a recently retired yakuza. The result is thrilling—a jaw-dropping, eye-popping fantasia in which the hero-gangster, Tetsu (Tetsuya Watari, who pouts as beautifully as he fights) tries to go straight but is thwarted by his former rivals every step of the way. No wonder Suzuki went nuts; in a sense, he was shooting his autobiography. From its opening melee (tinted a bilious green) to its last showdown (which looks like an outtake from a late-era MGM musical), Tokyo Drifter astonishes with style, even as it hammers home points about the struggle of individualism." - Manohla Dargis (The Criterion Collection)
Tomorrow is Another Day
Tomorrow is Another Day
1951, USA, 90m, BW, Crime-Mystery-Drama
Screenplay Art Cohn, Guy Endore, Felix E. Feist [uncredited] (from a story by Guy Endore) Producer Henry Blanke Photography Robert Burks Editor Alan Crosland Jr. Music Daniele Amfitheatrof Cast Ruth Roman, Steve Cochran, Lurene Tuttle, Ray Teal, Morris Ankrum, John Kellogg, Lee Patrick, Hugh Sanders, Stuart Randall, Bobby Hyatt.
"Doomed lovers on the run are a quintessentially noir archetype, combining the American romance of the outlaw with the poignant appeal of redemptive love. A powerful and little known variation is provided by legendary B film director Felix Feist (Donovan’s Brain, The Devil Thumbs a Ride) in one of his more sensitive and revealing pictures. The great Steve Cochran stars as a lonely convict just out of the pen and disoriented by the harsh logic of the outside world. Brief solace is found in his friendship with a taxi dancer (Roman)-- until her ex-lover turns up dead and the blame falls, inevitably, upon the innocent man. Haunting images of postwar Americana are vividly evoked throughout the film as specters of the dream denied the young couple." - Harvard Film Archive
Tomorrow is Forever
Tomorrow is Forever
1946, USA, 105m, BW, War-Melodrama
Screenplay Lenore Coffee (based on the novel by Gwen Bristow) Producer David Lewis Photography Joseph Valentine Editor Ernest Nims Music Max Steiner Cast Claudette Colbert, Orson Welles, George Brent, Lucile Watson, Richard Long, Natalie Wood, John Wengraf, Sonny Howe, Michael Ward, Ian Wolfe.
"Tomorrow is Forever should certainly appeal to those who like their love affairs doomed and their melodramas stuffed with overheated emotions. The film is quite interesting, though, in that it goes (at least intermittently) to an anti-war 'place' that is quite unusual for the time period in which it was produced. Director Irving Pichel also offers a few stylistic flourishes along the way (note how he utilizes a grand flowing staircase in a manner at least somewhat reminiscent of a very famous shot from another 1946 film, Alfred Hitchcock's Notorious)." - Jeffrey Kauffman (Blu-ray.com)
Too Late for Tears
Too Late for Tears
1949, USA, 99m, BW, Crime-Drama-Thriller
Screenplay Roy Huggins (from the Saturday Evening Post serialization of his novel) Producer Hunt Stromberg Photography William Mellor Editor Harry Keller Music R. Dale Butts Cast Lizabeth Scott, Don DeFore, Dan Duryea, Arthur Kennedy, Kristine Miller, Barry Kelley, Denver Pyle, Virginia Mullen, Richard Irving, George Mann.
"Too Late for Tears is a low-budget film noir that, if not quite a real gem, is a mighty good cubic zirconia. Coincidence is a noir staple, a not surprising fact when you consider that so many of these films deal on one level or another with the inexorability of fate; but some may find the level of coincidence in Tears a little off-putting. The screenplay also gets a little talky in places; this in itself is not bad, but the dialogue just misses having that little extra punch and crackle that the best noirs pride themselves on. Still, these little deficiencies don't seriously damage the film; and the plot, basic set-up and characters more than make up for these flaws... Byron Haskin directs with skill and creates fine tension and atmosphere, also making good use of location shots. Too Late for Tears is no Double Indemnity, but fans of such films will be delighted to come across it." - Craig Butler (Allmovie)
Touch of Evil
Touch of Evil 100 Essential Noirs (or the 100 films most often referred to as noir) Recommended Viewing (by TSPDT)
1958, USA, 108m, BW, Thriller-Crime-Mystery
Screenplay Orson Welles (based on the novel Badge of Evil by Whit Masterson) Producer Albert Zugsmith Photography Russell Metty Editors Aaron Stell, Virgil W. Vogel Music Henry Mancini Cast Charlton Heston, Janet Leigh, Orson Welles, Joseph Calleia, Akim Tamiroff, Marlene Dietrich, Dennis Weaver, Ray Collins, Mercedes McCambridge, Lalo Rios.
"Gather, darkness: Here is the inkiest, most fetid, most despairing Hollywood film ever, the noirest of the noirs, the blackest of cartwheels, a pain-haunted swoop made by Faust after everything else has been sold off and his foot has tripped into the abyss. Orson Welles's 1958 anti-masterpiece Touch of Evil isn't quite typically Wellesian—the past has no relevance, the literary sourcebook is pure Monterey Jack, and the nocturnal style is as unforgiving as a bone bruise. What it is is a note from the underground, a gout of bile from a diseased cosmic liver. Or it's Welles, attempting to resuscitate his career yet again, doing calisthenics with his camera and lights. Either way, it's a required experience." - Michael Atkinson (The Village Voice)
Touchez pas au Grisbi
Touchez pas au Grisbi Recommended Viewing (by TSPDT)
Grisbi (alternative title)
● FRENCH NOIR
1953, France, 94m, BW, Crime-Drama-Gangster Film
Screenplay Albert Simonin, Jacques Becker, Maurice Griffe (based on the novel by Albert Simonin) Producer Robert Dorfmann Photography Pierre Montazel Editor Marguerite Renoir Music Jean Wiener Cast Jean Gabin, Rene Dary, Paul Frankeur, Lino Ventura, Paul Oettly, Jeanne Moreau, Dora Doll, Daniel Cauchy, Vittorio Sanipoli, Denise Clair.
"Jean Gabin is at his most wearily romantic as aging gangster Max le Menteur in the Jacques Becker gem Touchez pas au grisbi (Hands Off the Loot!). Having pulled off the heist of a lifetime, Max looks forward to spending his remaining days relaxing with his beautiful young girlfriend. But when Riton (René Dary), Max’s hapless partner and best friend, lets word of the loot slip to loose-lipped, two-timing Josy (Jeanne Moreau), Max is reluctantly drawn back into the underworld. A touchstone of the gangster-film genre, Touchez pas au grisbi is also pure Becker—understated, elegant, evocative." - The Criterion Collection
Training Day
Training Day
● NEO-NOIR / COLOUR NOIR
2001, USA-Australia, 120m, Col, Police Drama-Crime-Thriller
Screenplay David Ayer Producers Bobby Newmyer, Jeffrey Silver Photography Mauro Fiore Editor Conrad Buff Music Mark Mancina Cast Denzel Washington, Ethan Hawke, Scott Glenn, Tom Berenger, Cliff Curtis, Snoop Dogg, Macy Gray, Harris Yulin, Raymond J. Barry, Dr. Dre.
"Training Day is an equal-opportunity police brutality picture, depicting a modern Los Angeles in which the black cop is slimier and more corrupt than anybody ever thought the white cops were. Alonzo Harris, played by Denzel Washington, makes Popeye Doyle look like Officer Friendly. So extreme is his mad dog behavior, indeed, that it shades over into humor… There are times when you're distracted from the action on the screen by the need to trace back through the plot and try to piece together how events could possibly have turned out this way. But Ayer's screenplay is ingenious in the way it plants clues and pays them off in unexpected ways, so that Training Day makes as much sense as movies like this usually can. It might have been better if it had stayed closer to life, but it doesn't want to be." - Roger Ebert (Roger Ebert.com)
The Trap
The Trap
● COLOUR NOIR
1959, USA, 84m, Col, Drama-Crime
Screenplay Norman Panama, Richard Alan Simmons Producers Melvin Frank, Norman Panama Photography Daniel Fapp Editor Everett Douglas Music Irvin Talbot Cast Richard Widmark, Lee J. Cobb, Tina Louise, Earl Holliman, Carl Benton Reid, Lorne Greene, Peter Baldwin, Chuck Wassil, Richard Shannon, Carl Milletaire.
"A transposition of Key Largo to the desert setting of Bad Day at Black Rock, The Trap is a good but not exceptional thriller. Fine second-unit location work on the high desert cannot hide the fact that much of the show is filmed on sound stages… The Trap is an undemanding and reasonably tense thriller, smartly acted, that might have fared better with a little more thought given to its character dynamics. At a certain point we feel as if we're watching an updated western with just enough dramatic logic to motivate the shootouts and ambushes, and give us a poster image of Widmark holding a rifle. It is recommended, for the good turns by Lee J.Cobb and Tina Louise." - Glenn Erickson (DVD Savant)
Trapped
Trapped
1949, USA, 78m, BW, Drama-Crime-Thriller
Screenplay Earl Felton, George Zuckerman (based on their story) Producer Bryan Foy Photography Guy Roe Editor Al DeGaetano Music Sol Kaplan Cast Lloyd Bridges, Barbara Payton, John Hoyt, James Todd, Russ Conway, Robert Karnes, Harry Antrim, Lucille Barkley, Lennie Burton, Robert Carson.
"A neat film noir in which US Treasury agents set out to catch a counterfeiter… All this is beautifully shot and will not disappoint noir fans with its superb lighting and stylish camerawork… The soundtrack is also a treat, with plenty of jazz, giving way to the essential full orchestra for the most dramatic sequences. The final chase takes place in a trolley car depot, allowing for the changes of level and the confined spaces which are also a requirement of this genre… I wouldn’t call this one a classic, but it’s worth seeing if you like this kind of thing. Lloyd Bridges makes an energetic hero, Barbara Payton is less of an actor but provides the melodramatic eye candy.” - Val Kermode (Eye for Film)
Tread Softly Stranger
Tread Softly Stranger
● BRIT-NOIR
1958, UK, 90m, BW, Crime-Drama
Screenplay Denis O'Dell, George Minter (based on the play Blind Alley by Jack Popplewell) Producer Denis O'Dell Photography Douglas Slocombe Editor Anthony Harvey Music Tristram Cary Cast Diana Dors, George Baker, Terence Morgan, Patrick Allen, Jane Griffiths, Joseph Tomelty, Thomas Heathcote, Russell Napier, Norman MacOwan, Maureen Delaney.
"Although not a perfect film noir, this one, made in England toward the end of the original noir era, comes very very close. In terms of images, including that of Diana Dors' character who acts as the catalyst in sending the lives of two brothers headlong into disaster; a soundtrack that includes the constant throbbing of the industrial town where all three live, day and night; and a story with more than enough twists and turns to show that fate has more control over our lives than we'd like to believe, they're all here… If the ending is only ordinary, what precedes is not bad at all." - Steve Lewis (Mystery*File)
Treasure of the Sierre Madre
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre Recommended Viewing (by TSPDT)
1948, USA, 124m, BW, Adventure-Drama
Screenplay John Huston (based on the novel by B. Traven ) Producer Henry Blanke Photography Ted McCord Editor Owen Marks Music Max Steiner Cast Humphrey Bogart, Walter Huston, Tim Holt, Bruce Bennett, Barton MacLane, Alfonso Bedoya, John Huston, Arturo Soto Rangel, Manuel Donde, Jose Torvay.
"After a long wait, Humphrey Bogart finally broke through to stardom in John Huston's The Maltese Falcon. Unfortunately, the 34 year-old Huston went off to WWII, while the 40 year-old Bogart stayed home. It would be another seven years before they could work together again. But when they did, Huston gave Bogart one of his greatest roles as Fred C. Dobbs in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. A down on his luck American living in Mexico, Dobbs turns prospector and is eventually destroyed by his own mounting greed. Huston also gets a great performance from his father, Walter Huston, as the experienced prospector who warns Dobbs about the dark side of the glittery metal. Huston must have thrown everything he had into this impossibly rich film, packed with grit, passion, adventure and heartbreak." - Jeffrey M. Anderson (Combustible Celluloid)
Le Trou
Le Trou Recommended Viewing (by TSPDT)
The Hole (English title)
● FRENCH NOIR / LATE NOIR (1960s)
1960, France-Italy, 140m, BW, Drama-Prison Film-Escape Film
Screenplay Jacques Becker, Jean Aurel, José Giovanni (based on the novel by José Giovanni) Producer Serge Silberman Photography Ghislain Cloquet Editors Marguerite Renoir, Geneviève Vaury Music Philippe Arthuys Cast Philippe Leroy, Marc Michel, Jean Keraudy, Raymond Meunier, Michel Constantin, André Bervil, Jean-Paul Coquelin, Eddy Rasimi, Catherine Spaak, Dominique Zardi.
"A secular response to Bresson's A Man Escaped. No question of grace here, simply of grind and grime as four prisoners - joined and eventually betrayed by a fifth - laboriously tunnel their way to a derisory glimpse of freedom… Becker maintains a low-key approach, courting reality, avoiding music in favour of natural sound, constantly stressing the sheer physicality (warders' hands laconically slicing foodstuffs in search of hidden files, prisoners' hands feverishly hacking at the unrelenting stone). Yet there is more than a touch of Bresson (even more, however, of Becker's mentor Renoir) to the close-ups which punctuate the evolving relationship between the escapees and their final discovery of a sort of forgiveness for their betrayer. Classical in its intense simplicity, this is certainly Becker's most perfectly crafted film." - Tom Milne (Time Out)
True Confessions
True Confessions
● NEO-NOIR / COLOUR NOIR
1981, USA, 108m, Col, Religious Drama-Crime-Police Detective Film
Screenplay Joan Didion, John Gregory Dunne (from the novel by John Gregory Dunne) Producers Irwin Winkler, Robert Chartoff Photography Owen Roizman Editor Lynzee Klingman Music Georges Delerue Cast Robert De Niro, Robert Duvall, Charles Durning, Kenneth McMillan, Ed Flanders, Cyril Cusack, Burgess Meredith, Rose Gregorio, Dan Hedaya, Gwen Van Dam.
"True Confessions is hard-boiled detective fiction as lazy, Southern California calm. It’s a movie with many disturbing elements bubbling right underneath the surface, but decides to keep many of those mysteries dormant, dead, or just plain buried. Offering two stellar performances by Robert DeNiro and Robert Duvall, this is a film about vendettas and vice, the lure of power and the arbitrary manner in which is it wielded. Some will see the references to the notorious Black Dahlia crime (here referred to as the 'Virgin Tramp' murder) and wonder why novelist John Gregory Dunne (who also wrote the script along with wife Joan Didion) decided to use such an obvious lynchpin for his narrative." - Bill Gibron (PopMatters)
True Romance
True Romance
● NEO-NOIR / COLOUR NOIR
1993, USA, 116m, Col, Romance-Crime-Road Movie
Screenplay Quentin Tarantino, Roger Avary [uncredited] Producer Bill Unger, Samuel Hadida, Steve Perry Photography Jeffrey Kimball Editor Christian Wagner Music Hans Zimmer Cast Christian Slater, Patricia Arquette, Christopher Walken, Dennis Hopper, Val Kilmer, Gary Oldman, Brad Pitt, Bronson Pinchot, Samuel L. Jackson, Michael Rapaport.
"From humble beginnings, this fast, freaky and extremely funny road movie scripted by Quentin Tarantino has become a modern classic… A rocket-fuel romance that rattles from Detroit to Hollywood as Slater’s comic-book geek and Arquette’s hooker with a heart steal a case of cocaine and hit the road… It’s so funny you can forgive Tarantino’s sleazy strain of nerd-boy wish-fulfilment. But it’s Scott’s direction that sets the whole thing on fire, lunging from heart-meltingly sweet to unbearably violent without breaking stride. And True Romance contains more crunchy punch-ups, genius casting choices (let’s not forget stoner Brad Pitt) and moments of real, honest emotion than Tarantino’s entire post-Pulp output put together. Giddy and glorious." - Tom Huddleston (Time Out)
Try and Get Me!
Try and Get Me! Recommended Viewing (by TSPDT)
The Sound of Fury (original title)
1950, USA, 91m, BW, Crime-Drama-Thriller
Screenplay Jo Pagano, Cy Endfield [uncredited] (from the novel The Condemned by Jo Pagano) Producer Robert Stillman Photography Guy Roe Editor George Amy Music Hugo Friedhofer Cast Frank Lovejoy, Lloyd Bridges, Richard Carlson, Kathleen Ryan, Katherine Locke, Adele Jergens, Art Smith, Renzo Cesana, Irene Vernon, Cliff Clark.
"Conceivably the most anti-American Hollywood picture ever made—I certainly can't think of any competitors—Cy Endfield's brilliant and shocking 1951 thriller (also known as The Sound of Fury) was adapted by Jo Pagano from his novel The Condemned, which was inspired by a lynching that occurred in California during the 30s... Apart from a moralizing European character who isn't really necessary, this is a virtually flawless masterpiece, exposing class hatred and the abuses of the American press (represented here mainly by Richard Carlson) with rare lucidity and anger. At once subtle and unsparing, this may be the best noir you've never heard of: Endfield's American career was cut short by the blacklist the year it was released." - Jonathan Rosenbaum (Chicago Reader)
The Turning Point
The Turning Point
1952, USA, 85m, BW, Drama-Crime
Screenplay Warren Duff (from the story Storm in the City by Horace McCoy) Producer Irving Asher Photography Lionel Lindon Editor George Tomasini Music Miklos Rozsa, Victor Young Cast William Holden, Alexis Smith, Edmond O'Brien, Tom Tully, Ed Begley, Danny Dayton, Ted De Corsia, Don Porter, Neville Brand, Carolyn Jones.
"One of several good but undistinguished films that William Holden made between Sunset Boulevard and Stalag 17, The Turning Point is a fairly typical 1950s film noir, enlivened somewhat by its McCarthy-era setting. Unfortunately, Warren B. Duff's screenplay doesn't take advantage of this aspect of the story, settling instead for a fairly routine crime story with less than sparkling dialogue. William Dieterle's direction is also fairly routine, although both the direction and screenplay come alive during the big fire scene. The cast, including Holden and Alexis Smith, is solid, but nothing more, with one exception. That exception is Ed Begley, whose delicious villain has a fire and a life that the rest of the film lacks." - Craig Butler (Allmovie)
Twilight
Twilight Recommended Viewing (by TSPDT)
● NEO-NOIR / COLOUR NOIR
1998, USA, 104m, Col, Crime-Mystery-Detective Film
Screenplay Robert Benton, Richard Russo Producers Arlene Donovan, Scott Rudin Photography Piotr Sobocinski Editor Carol Littleton Music Elmer Bernstein Cast Paul Newman, Gene Hackman, Susan Sarandon, Stockard Channing, James Garner, M. Emmet Walsh, Reese Witherspoon, Giancarlo Esposito, Liev Schreiber, Margo Martindale.
"Twilight, a class act in a classic genre, finds Paul Newman playing detective amid some uncommonly soigne Los Angeles settings. The film's sleek, unusual locations, including an unfinished Frank Lloyd Wright project in the hills above Malibu, have been artfully chosen, but of course it's the guy in the gumshoes who is the real monument here. At 73, Newman still has the wisecracking vigor and panache that have always shaped his screen roles. He inhabits his shrewd, world-weary character with the ease that only lifelong movie stardom can bring." - Janet Maslin (The New York Times)
The Two Jakes
The Two Jakes
● NEO-NOIR / COLOUR NOIR
1990, USA, 137m, Col, Drama-Crime-Mystery
Screenplay Robert Towne Producers Harold Schneider, Robert Evans Photography Vilmos Zsigmond Editor Anne Goursaud Music Van Dyke Parks Cast Jack Nicholson, Harvey Keitel, Meg Tilly, Madeleine Stowe, Eli Wallach, Ruben Blades, Frederic Forrest, David Keith, Richard Farnsworth, Tracey Walter.
"The Two Jakes, the long-awaited sequel to Chinatown, is unlikely to make any list of the best movies of the Nineties. It's an honorable failure, an attempt to deal with ideas (in a summer of idiocies), but the film keeps hammering points Chinatown expressed more subtly and powerfully… As a director, Nicholson is no Polanski. The atmosphere doesn't seep into the viewer's pores the way it did in Chinatown. You don't catch anything out of the corner of your eye; it's all thrust at you. As an actor, however, Nicholson is the film's only undiluted pleasure. The man can do more with an arched eyebrow than others can with a Shakespearean soliloquy. It's a reactive, un-Jokerish performance and a deeply felt one." - Peter Travers (Rolling Stone)
Two Men in Manhattan
Two Men in Manhattan Recommended Viewing (by TSPDT)
Deux hommes dans Manhattan (original title)
● FRENCH NOIR
1959, France, 84m, BW, Thriller-Crime-Drama
Screenplay Jean-Pierre Melville Producers Alain Térouanne, Florence Melville Photography Nicolas Hayer Editor Monique Bonnot Music Christian Chevallier, Martial Solal Cast Pierre Grasset, Jean-Pierre Melville, Michèle Bailly, Christiane Eudes, Ginger Hall, Colette Fleury, Monique Hennessy, Glenda Leigh, Jean Lara, Jerry Mengo.
"If Bob le Flambeur was Melville's love letter to Paris, Deux Hommes is his billet-doux to New York. The chief pleasure from this fast, laconic movie is in the appearance of Melville himself, playing one of two journalists who are sent to Manhattan to trace the French UN delegate, only to discover that he died in his mistress' arms, thus creating possible scandal. The New York scenes were shot on the run, and mainly consist of Melville racing from a cab and into the entrances of famous buildings, which are then matched with suspiciously Parisian-looking interiors. A well-sustained, cheeky joke, full of life and a love for all things American, indispensable for an overview of the man." - Chris Peachment (Time Out)
The Two Mrs. Carrolls
The Two Mrs. Carrolls Recommended Viewing (by TSPDT)
1947, USA, 99m, BW, Thriller-Melodrama
Screenplay Thomas Job (based on a play by Martin Vale) Producer Mark Hellinger Photography Peverell Marley Editor Frederick Richards Music Franz Waxman Cast Humphrey Bogart, Barbara Stanwyck, Alexis Smith, Nigel Bruce, Isobel Elsom, Patrick O'Moore, Ann Carter, Anita Sharp Bolster, Barry Bernard, Colin Campbell.
"This is Bogart as the tormented artist with a psychotic edge and the film reminds us with angels of death on the canvases and a soundtrack punctuated with ominous echoes, peels of bells that build to a pounding pitch and sudden storms that toss timely thunderclaps into the drama... While not one of the best films of either of the stars [Bogart and Stanwyck]—the script (based on a stage play) treads familiar ground and Peter Godfrey’s direction is long on dramatic gestures and short on suspense and tension—it is a handsomely mounted and nicely acted piece, especially when the two Hollywood greats share the screen. And Bogart manages to humanize his psychosis and his character in his gentle way with his preternaturally sophisticated daughter (Ann Carter) and his commitment to the twisted logic of his muse." - Sean Axmaker
Two O
Two O'Clock Courage
1945, USA, 68m, BW, Mystery
Screenplay Robert E. Kent (from the novel Two in the Dark by Gelett Burgess) Producer Benjamin Stoloff Photography Jack MacKenzie Editor Philip Martin Music Roy Webb Cast Tom Conway, Ann Rutherford, Richard Lane, Lester Matthews, Roland Drew, Emory Parnell, Jane Greer, Jean Brooks, Bob Alden, Chester Clute.
"A so-so B-movie murder mystery directed by the future esteemed filmmaker Anthony Mann from a script by Robert Kent and a mystery story by Gelett Burgess. Two O'Clock Courage is a remake of Benjamin Stoloff's Two in the Dark (1936). In this film Stoloff goes from director to producer. Mann has added a great deal of comedy relief through use of his spirited supporting cast, that was not present in the original. Two O'Clock Courage follows in the vaunted tradition of 1930s whodunits. The film is photographed in a conventional style and lacks the overall grace the great cinematographer John Alton would give Mann's later more sophisticated 1940s film noirs." - Dennis Schwartz (World Movie Reviews)
Two of a Kind
Two of a Kind
1951, USA, 75m, BW, Thriller-Crime-Drama
Screenplay James Gunn, Lawrence Kimble (from a story by James Edward Grant) Producer William Dozier Photography Burnett Guffey Editor Charles Nelson Music George Duning Cast Edmond O'Brien, Lizabeth Scott, Terry Moore, Alexander Knox, Griff Barnett, Robert Anderson, Virginia Brissac, Kathryn Card, Claire Carleton, Louis Jean Heydt.
"A minor noir with a fun performance by Edmond O’Brien as a career bad boy, an orphan who scams his way through life until he’s drafted by Scott and her lawyer partner (Alexander Knox) in an inheritance scam involving a rich couple and a missing child from decades back. Yep, he’s posing as the long lost son, snatched away and left to grow up in a series of orphanages and juvenile detention centers until kismet (and a carefully plotted scheme) sweeps him back into their lives… It’s a soft-boiled noir with lots of tough-guy attitude from O’Brien (who delivers in spades) and an entertaining twist involving his unconventional romance with the niece of the old couple (Terry Moore), a sweetheart of a social activist who decides to make reforming O’Brien her new cause." - Sean Axmaker (seanax.com)
100 Essential Noirs (or the 100 films most often referred to as noir) The 100 Most Cited Noir Films
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