Commies, Commies, Everywhere – Tourneur’s The Fearmakers
Commie on a plane – Oliver Blake and Dana Andrews in The Fearmakers Under the credits of Jacques Tourneur’s The Fearmakers (1958) we see a bearded Dana Andrews being tortured[…]
Category: Noir
The Noir Portraiture of Stacy Lande
Painting influences film. Film influences painting. The portraits of Los Angeles painter and performance artist Stacy Lande (pronounced, “lan-dee”) appear equally influenced by 19th Century Symbolism, 20th Century Expressionism, and[…]
Shanghai Notes
Orson Welles’ The Lady From Shanghai (1948) is one of the most anti-noir of classic noirs. “Shanghai” in The Lady From Shanghai means the same thing as “Chinatown” in[…]
What’s So “Existential” About Noir? (Some Overgeneralized Notes)
C. Jerry Kutner’s proposition on noir-as-genre versus noir-as-style, “We shouldn’t be asking, “Is it noir or not-noir?,” but rather, “How noir is it?,” has prompted me to revisit my own[…]
BLUE FLOWERS AND BLACK
A while back, I talked about the re-emergence of Romantic “blue flower” imagery in films like Batman Begins and A Scanner Darkly. Add one more film to the list –[…]
“Who Owns This Place?” Clashing Values in Sunset Blvd.
This is one close-up Louis B. Mayer wasn’t ready for There was a time when it seemed that Billy Wilder would live forever. Although he stopped directing films in 1981,[…]
Distribute This! Blast of Silence (Allen Baron, 1961, U.S.A.)
This missing noir masterpiece enters the canon in first place
DVD & Blu-ray · Noir · Reviews
“She Loves Too Much”: The Ravishing Leave Her to Heaven on DVD
No matter what she says, don’t upset her
On Commies, Stoolies, and Other Assorted Lowlifes: Pickup on South Street on DVD
Widmark and Peters sizzle, but Thelma Ritter steals the show
South of the Chocolate Mountains: Scattered Impressions of The Hitch-Hiker
Ida Lupino: Mother of Us All! “Any rocks up there to give you a problem, darlin’? Now, Walter baby, while we’re here we might as well take the posse through.[…]
Edgar G. Ulmer’s Detour on DVD
Is Tom Neal’s Al Roberts really Fate’s Plaything or just the ultimate pushy bottom? Edgar G. Ulmer is one of the more provocative auteurs in movie history. His provenance is impeccable[…]
Noir · Reviews · Uncategorized
High Gallows: Revisiting Jacques Tourneur’s Out of the Past
Jacques Tourneur’s riveting 1947 film noir, usually ranked as one of the best of the genre, was adapted from Daniel Mainwaring’s evocatively titled novel Build My Gallows High (published under the name Geoffrey[…]
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