The Insomniac’s Movie Review: Born to Kill
By Bud White on November 21, 2008 at 10:35 PM in Crime, Media, Television, Women
It’s Friday night, so that means it’s time for another installment of The Insomniac’s Movie Review. We had a great time last week and I hope to make this a regular Friday night feature. So grab your popcorn and Hot Tamales, it’s time to leave politics behind — at least for a little while.
Next week I’ll be reviewing Seconds, recommended by No Quarter regular, TexasMirth. Please watch it this week if you want to join in the discussion.
Born to Kill (1947)
Director: Robert Wise
Rating: 3 1/2 Ambien (out of 5)
Crime is central to the American experience; one doesn’t have to be a cynic to know that. Crime is a daily occurrence in the most impoverished ghettos, in the highest corporate boardrooms, and in every strata of private and public life in between. Crack dealers are simply a marginalized version of the Enron CEOs. As Steven Levitt describes in Freakonomics, the crack dealer hierarchy is based on the corporate organizational chart, specifically McDonald’s.
Taken from this point of view, crime films are not escapist entertainment; they are sociological mirrors. Or in the language of film noir, cracked mirrors.
Crime films are vehicles for exploring issues of class and the tension between the sexes. Some film critics argue that the rise of film noir was an expression of our society’s anxiety produced when women entered the workforce during World War II. Novelist James Lee Burke believes that “crime fiction has come to replace the sociological novel of the 1930s and 1940s.”
A signature feature of film noir is the sense of overwhelming dread. The protagonists make one bad decision after another, usually inspired by lust or greed, leading them slowly but surely to their inevitable demise. It’s dramatic irony at its gritty best: the slippery slope from suspicion, bad judgment and betrayal which leads to plot twists, disrepute and murder.
Raymond Chandler, crime novelist and film noir screenwriter, captured the existential vacuum of the noir protagonist this way:
“I put the duster away folded with the dust in it, leaned back and just sat, not smoking, not even thinking. I was a blank man. I had no face, no meaning, no personality, hardly a name. I didn’t want to eat. I didn’t even want a drink. I was the page from yesterday’s calendar crumpled at the bottom of the waste basket “—The Little Sister (Chapter 25)
The visual vocabulary of film noir is arresting:
Dark rooms with light slicing through venetian blinds, alleys cluttered with garbage, abandoned warehouses where dust hangs in the air, rain-slickened streets with water still running in the gutters, dark detective offices overlooking busy streets: this is the stuff of film noir–that most magnificent of film forms–a perfect blend of form and content, where the desperation and hopelessness of the situations is reflected in the visual style, which drenches the world in shadows and only occasional bursts of sunlight.
These bleak images of noir, of course, express the bad choices made by the characters in the films. In Born to Kill, Helen Trent (Claire Trevor) is the poor half-sister of a wealthy San Francisco socialite. She witnesses a murder while in Reno for a quickie divorce. She knows the identity of the killer (Sam Wild, played by the menacing Lawrence Tierney), and she falls in love with him even as he marries her sister for her money. Helen is engaged to someone else, in the parlance of Born to Kill, he’s a “turnip,” a weak man. But she’s fallen in love with the cold-hearted Sam, and the money Sam will get because of his marriage to her sister. A private detective is hired to investigate the murder and things begin to fall apart for Helen when she decides to cover for Sam.
As we watch Born to Kill, we become emotionally attached to Helen. She’s despicable, of course, but her radiant beauty and naive love of Sam are endearing. The emotion and heat between Sam and Helen is palpable. Below the surface, however, Helen is just as cold-hearted as Sam. Her low-class status makes her an evil Cinderella. We know this but because we are so drawn to her pathos, we become accomplices to her iniquity. Her demise seems inevitable but proves the truth of the genre: “you can’t get away with nothin’.”
Hints of sex and then murder kick off the movie in the scene below:
What are your favorite crime films? Do you agree that crime novels and films have replaced the sociological novel? Who is the most menacing bad guy of all time? Are they real life tragic heroes to you?
Listen to my NQR interview with crime novelist James Lee Burke.
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By Sarah Palin (Release date: November 17. 2009)
Have you noticed how the 30’s look is back in style.
I went and bought myself a beautiful fedora hat. Love it with my trench coat.
Bud, great post…My favorites are the usuals…Maltese Falcon - My BFF just named her baby Dashell, The Big Sleep - I love anything Raymond Chandler. Not really a crime movie, per se, but I love Rebecca. More contemporary? Obviously the Godfather, Silence of the Lambs, Usual Suspects, The Salton Sea. I think the creepiest CHARACTER and bad guy in a film was Vince D’Onofrio in Salton Sea. With that freaky fake nose. Ewww…Hannibal Lecter of course another most creepy. Then there is Taxi Driver and the anti-hero Travis Bickell (I think that’s right, long time). Another really creepy bad guy - Dennis Hopper in Blue Velvet. Another great film…Seven. Wow, you just opened a can of worms. This is my all time fave stuff but I can’t think of all of them at one time LOL.
Those all sound creepy OIAF..
I guess my favorite right now,
Singing in the rain..
Seattle is very wet, but I still feel like dancing because Hillary will save America as SOS.
I’m just really happy we have an Organizer who knows how to put the best people in place.
The best thing is that Obama has nothing of substance to contribute beyond organizing and delegating to great people.
We have all won a great victory. Obama will govern from the center with a Clinton foreign policy and will reach out to republicans.
I have seen most moderate republicans praising the Clinton choice. The Republicans know they can work with Hillary and now won’t have the fear of an Obama white flag foreign policy.
Moss…did you drink Kool-Aid? Ughhh…don’t tell me my handsome hot Moss is a TROLL???? Come on.
You are OT. Pick a crime movie and stop cooing at Fraudbama.
I’m just very upbeat tonight B
Right now all I care about is the economy Switching on again!!
My background and education has prepared me for a repeat of the thirties.
America will be very different place within two years.
I was concerned about foreign policy and now for the first time I’m not so worried because of Hillary.
hmmmm…Moss it will get bad but not as bad as the thirties…seventies maybe…but not the thirties…imho….hope that helps.
The style is back to the thirties. Look at O’Reilly..They actually looked Victorian the other night.
As for actual economic conditions. You are correct that they will be similar to the seventies.
We can never have an actual 30’s because we have products today and they had none.
Except for one big difference
The amount of people in this country are far greater than in the 70’s so unemployment will be huge compared to the seventies.
I hope you are right about style, SM. I am tired of seeing my granddaughter’s belly ring and other body parts.
My favorite crime movie…
Goodfellas
Robert De Niro
Ray Liotta
Joe Pesci
Okay so we had a film in common Moss.
I’m Italian so I kind of do like the mob movies.
OIAF,
I’m just getting back into my 30’s groove. Been a long time coming but now it’s here. Of course I never lived back then, but I sure studied those years.
I have some big plans for helping people in this town because of the industries I associate with.
These events we have seen are game changers for the way this economy operates.
I’m ready to excel in this environment.
Okay Mr. It’s A Wonderful Life…so you will be playing George Bailey at Christmas LOL? You are a lovely man. Tell your wife she’s a lucky one.
My wife is disabled..I just cracked her back again for her. Has bone condition. Very painful. Thanks for the nice comments!
You’re right..I enjoy doing George Bailey.
Ouch, I hope your wife is okay. You are very sweet George.
I give her anything she needs..
and in exchange I get to talk with you guys on NQ…
Well thank her for all us kids at NQ LOL.
Gone with the Wind…sigh. Seen it 100 times and still love it. 1939 was one of the best ever for movies.
The idea that Obama will “govern from the center” is a myth and wishful thinking. He and Scorch and Burn Emmanuel are ready to socialize anything and everything they can get their hands on. Obama is an extreme leftist and a radical. Don’t kid yourself.
Kathy..Moss is cute and all, but you are as usual right. I am glad people are trying to get out of the Fraudbama Doldrums by this positive thinking stuff. But I’m afraid the freak really buys his own way out to the left nutty marxist rhetoric.
OIAF,
As I have said to everyone…If only one thing comes true about Obama we’re toast as a country.
No Koolaid here gals…Just happy my Goldwater Republican super woman Hillary got the most important job.
I posted this earlier…My mother has to literally talk me off the ledge every day. She’s more like you are. She’s 79 and I should be the strong one for HER. But she keeps telling me that no matter what, somehow we will survive Fraudbama. Maybe I’ll get there. I just think it’s naive to go into this mess thinking he’s anyone other than the jackazz we’ve been talking about here forever. HE didn’t change, no matter how many Clintonistas he purloins to do his job.
He is the jack ass..That is true!!
However,because of 56 million and a global collapse he has to forget all his egotistical ambitions and just have competent people lead. Very much the new puppet for people that know how to govern.
Well, that brings up what Kathyneocon said…did he HAVE to pick Rahm Emanuel? That isn’t the biggest faith inspiring idea. In fact between HIS ego, his temper, Buttcrack’s ego, Buttcrack’s temper…how the F can they get anything done? I bet they actually come to blows a a few times
Rahm does look like he loves himself that’s for sure..
Yeah but his own mother said he was
her least successful son(ouch). Sounds like he might feel inadequate.I’ll never forget how he referred to Hillary holdouts as bitter knitters.He had no problem with Bill giving him his political career now did he?
LOL OIAF!!!
Even I believe America will survive ObamaNation, although it’ll take years to recover. If this Nation can get through the Civil War and its aftermath, we can survive Barry-the thug, coward, socialist Commander-in-Chief Obama.
Speaking of the Civil War, the fact Obama is being compared to Lincoln makes me heave and wretch to the point of bursting blood vessels. It’s blasphemy. Like Scarlett O’Hara said, Obama “isn’t fit to wipe [Abe's] boots!” Lincoln loved the Union to the point of being killed for his love of Nation. Barry can’t stand the USA and thinks it needs a fundamental overhaul a la socialism, secularism, liberalism and probably some New Age to boot.
Kathyneocon…I’m sure you saw my post where one of my Hollywood agent libby friends from CAA said “Yeah, not a great idea that Rahm thing…Nothing like a guy sending a steaming hot turd to your office if you piss him off.” I’m still laughing at that one.
The one thing we can’t survive is being DEAD. Between drunkard Obiden and Buttcrack and their smart mouthing off to Israel, etc. I’m afraid they’ll go to some state dinner, call some dignitary’s wife a pig with lipstick, and we’ll get nuked LOL.
You know, I just don’t get it. Obama has done nothing and yet they have compared him to every famous man in America.
I have this feeling no mater what Obama does certain people will still rave about him. If we were to go into a depression they would say…What a shame America is in a depression but that Obama! Wow he sure is something. Makes the people feel like hope has made a comeback and isn’t hope just grand!
Great selection. I haven’t seen Salton Sea but I want to. Vince D’Onofrio is superb. Remember him in Full Metal Jacket?
OMG I have the HUGEST crush on Vince D’Onofrio. Yes I remember him in Full Metal Jacket. He’s amazing. You MUST see Salton Sea. Not only is Vince great, weird and creepy, but both Val Kilmer and Peter Skarsgaard are great too. I think it’s a little underrated actually.
Great performance…saw it in the theater.
Salton Sea was interesting also..but on DVD.
There is something to be said for seeing certain movies on the big screen.
There’s one moment in Salton Sea where you just fall in love with Skarsgaard. I’m sure you know what moment that is. Very sweet part he played.
Now I am going to have to rent it again….lol. Not sure what moment it is.
But I agree Skarsgaard always delivers great performances. Usually with a few levels going on at once….so I am bummed not to remember…lol
I don’t want to blow it for anyone..but if you remember what Skarsgaard had on his arm at the end? OMG that made me cry.
My BFF just named her baby Dashell
I missed this comment earlier. You mean Dashiell Hammett!! That was my favorite name for a boy (wife nixed it!!)
Bud…my friend and her partner just had a gorgeous 8 lb. baby boy this week. He’s gorgeous and I can already tell will be a WRITER LOL. He already gives me sort of an “F Scott” vibe. I’m the GODMOTHER and I got to hold him when he was just a few hours old. It was between “Addison” or “Daschiell” (they changed the spelling a little). I begged and pleaded for Daschiell. It’s my favorite boy name too. He is Daschiell Jack. Isn’t that cute?
Very much so
Goodfellas, Double Indemnity, CHINATOWN, Strangers on a Train…
Double Indemnity is the best film noir ever made, in my opinion. Great movies, all.
Bud, yeah it’s between Double Indemnity (then you have to also love Body Heat, the “rip off” lol) and Chinatown.
Mine too. Stanwyck and MacMurray were sizzling, and you get to see MacMurray’s stellar acting ability outside of comedy. And let’s not forget Edward G. Robinson….a supreme master at his craft.
Well said. EG Robinson was amazing. Stanwyck and MacMurray…well, you said it. Great movie
Strangers on a Train scared the crap out of me, as did Frenzy. Anyone see that one??!! Hitchock at his scariest and most twisted. Just the thought of Rusk still gives me the willies.
Frenzy was way creepy too. Rope is a good one too.
Good catch–forgot about Rope. That is a good one.
No Country for Old Men, Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Clockwork Orange…Sorry, don’t want to be a thread hog but I keep thinking of them…
Moss, where are you?
No Country for Old Men
My absolute favorite recent movie. I was on the edge my seat the whole time. I love it when a film is so good that you lose track of time and are totally engrossed in the story. I found Zodiac to be thrilling, too.
I will have to try and watch that movie again Bud. I just couldn’t get into it and only watched 15 or 20 minutes of the movie.
My wife hated it. It’s so bleak.
ahhh, maybe it’s one of those movies you either like or hate.
Anyone know of some good comedies?
Conman movies…crime plus humor…The Sting.
Grifters…Oh Brother Where Art Thou…The Great Train Robbery…Prizzi’s Honor
I had no interest in Country for old men…Until my genius kid said she thought it was a great post modern take on the Old Western…so then I had to watch it…it is good…she was right…aaaand she’s a genius…chuckle….
hmmmm…I saw that one as a classic Western…To me I would classify it more as a contemporary western and not a classic crime film because it felt like that to me…The music, story, landscape, acting style…They coulda been on horseback etc..
Some of my favorite crime dramas–Dial M for Murder, The Usual Suspects, LA Confidential, The Firm, A Few Good Men, The Pelican Brief, Presumed Innocent
Yes! Hitchcock’s Dial M for Murder….of course I love: LA Confidential
I really like suspense movies so of course I have to also go with Deja Vu starring Denzel Washington.
Ray Milland is my all-time favorite actor.
Rear Window is another Hitchcock gem. Enjoy the Man Who Knew too Much and North by Northwest too.
I LOVE Rear Window too. I just want Grace Kelly’s wardrobe from that flick. Wowzah. Did you see Disturbia? A little too close for comfort for me. North by Northwest a goodie too. And just think, if they REMAKE North by Northwest - BUTTCRACK’S MUG WILL BE ON MOUNT RUSHMORE.
ROFLMAO.
ROTFL!!! There’s probably a remake of North by Northwest in the works. Hollywood is to bankrupt for ideas these days they’ll remake anything, even if they blashpeme the original. Maybe they could switch up the ending Octopussy style, and have Victor Mason’s plane take off and then crash into the side of Rushmore, smack into Obama’s ugly plastic mug.
So wish there was an edit function to fix typos.
OMFG…LMAO…
They can’t remake North by Northwest. No way. Although when Buttcrack’s mug is up there maybe Babs can stage her farewell performance on one of his EARS.
Bud this is fun…very and you are an insightful critic.
” Look Ma…I’m on top of the World…” That has to be one of my favorite scenes…and and guys of all time…If ya gotta go…Go Big!
Sometimes it’s the story…or the dramatic acting…or the sheer velvet film quality…Who knows with these films…Sometimes with a true classic ya get lucky with all of it being in a perfect film…and it is timeless.
Can’t wait to see your take on Pre WWII and Post WWII ( commie psycho paranoia films…) and how they differ an reflect…Hmmmm…I’ll stay tuned.
And imho crime films/novels have not replaced the socialogical they are a subgenre within the socialogical…a particular vernacular of the age old morality play which dates in Western society to the epics of the Greeks. To me it’s an open dialog with the past masters…Most Art is…
“Shattered” a 1991 box office sleeper staring Tom Berenger. Maybe they didn’t promote it enough because everyone I recommended it to, loved it.
One of the best suspense movies I’ve ever seen.
I’ll have to look it up. I think Berenger is underrated.
Blood Simple is a great movie. It was written and directed by the Coen brothers (it may have been their first) in the 1980s. Don’t judge it on the first ten minutes or so. The critics didn’t give it great reviews, but now it is a cult classic. It’s a great crime movie and really creepy (is creepy allowed as descriptive?). I recommend it to anyone who enjoys the genre.
oooooh, I looked it up and it sounds like something I’d like. Thanks
I’m not a Coen brother’s fan, but Fargo is excellent.
I love Blood Simple…the inspiration is that it’s really WAY harder to kill someone than you think. LOL. I’m not a huge Coen Brothers nut so this was the only one I really liked until No Country For Old Men.
Well….
It is sorta a crime movie as well as a Coen brothers classic.
Raising Arizona.
Raising Arizona and Oh, Brother are two of my all time favs!!
A Dapper Dan man…lol
Great movie too!
Tampagurl…I love Shattered…Early Wolfgang Petersen. I think it might have been the cast that held it back from being a huge movie.
Maybe it didn’t have a strong enough cast but it sure was riveting. I also loved Fargo, didn’t think I was going to at first though.
I love your rating system Bud. 3 Ambiens! LOL
Double Indemnity with Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwick, and Laura, with Gene Tierney. Strangers on a Train with Farley Granger is also awesome.
Bud, what is Film Noir’s relationship to the Gothic genre of literature? There are similarities.
strangers on a train was on the other night. i watched it again.
Thanks for the light thread, people need it.
Thanks for noticing! What are your fav’s, Galt?
Oh man, I was hoping no one would ask. I am so down on Hollywood right now, with what appears to be a pandemic of koolaid induced psychosis. I’m really a bummer to be around right now. But let me try. Favorite crime films? I guess I will include those with koolaid addicts: The Score (De Niro and Brando - his last performance), Godfather I&II, The Hot Rock (Redford - crime comedy), The Sting, Escape from Alcatraz (Eastwood), Shawshank Redemption (Tim Robbins - major koolaid drinker who I recall had to be escorted out of the polling place by the cops on election day! I guess the kasheestees were after him again?
). I included some prison movies since they do house criminals in jail. 
How’s that?
That’s a great list. I really enjoyed the score, of course Godfathers, haven’t seen The Hot Rock and I loved the rest you mentioned. Speaking of The Sting, I want to see The Verdict (Newman). I hear it’s good.
The Verdict with Newman is brilliant…and one of his best performances…It is one of the top Courtroom dramas of all time…a great legal thriller…
The Hot Rock is a wonderful film! You have to see it! 5 Ambien (out of 5) - excellent colorful characters and real character development and wonderful performances; something I find lacking in most more modern films. I do have a question on your rating system: I understand Ambien is for the treatment of insomnia, but it does help one to sleep, so if I rate a movie, shouldn’t a good film get a lower number as it doesn’t put one to sleep like a crappy film might?
Please advise! 
Galt,
I think you’re technically right. Oh, well. I didn’t think through the effects of 5 Ambien on person watching a film — or maybe the movie soooo good you need 5 just to fall asleep!
We’ll stick with more = good. More buzz?
Witness for the Prosecution, American History X, The Departed, Once Upon a Time in America, Pyscho, Diabolique, DOA (the original)…Wow I could do this all night. Way to go Bud.
Okay Bud, then you love Straw Dogs, In Cold Blood?
I LOVE Straw Dogs. The sexual tension in that movie — mixed with violence — is just over-the-top and total Peckinpah. I liked In Cold Blood, in fact I think the movie was better than the book. I know, I know, it’s Capote’s opus. But there are much better true crime books than In Cold Blood — Ellroy’s My Dark Places comes to mind.
You are talking my language Bud. Before I got into the business I am in, I was going to go to law school and be a criminal prosecutor. I have a big obsession with crime. So I read every crime novel I can get my hands on. I love the true crime ones. Ellroy is amazing. What a story HE has..,his life and his own mother being murdered.
I know it is different but I’m a great fan of Leon the Professional as a contemporary classic..any way I see it…it cannot be improved upon which to me makes it a perfect film…Nope! not a single line…shot…casting…length…music…even down to the last prop. And about as different a crime film as is possible…It is a great homage to America and American films…imho…
That is a great one.
“Downfall”, about the culmination of the worst crime in human history, and who besides the Devil himself could be a more memorable badguy than Adolph Hitler?
And don’t answer “Obama”, he’s not there……..yet.
andrew191…you did that to torture me…I know it…
I guess there’s a little bit of bad guy in all of us.
Sigh, andrew, weren’t you he one that made the Philip Uranus joke on another thread? You were my hero.
You need to go back to that thread to read “The rest of the story.” I’m sure you’ll be ammused.
I think I did go back when you were talking about Ben Dover? ROFLMAO. Was there more?
Yes, unfortunately Philip met with a bizarre end. However, I’ve been informed that the park police now suspect foul play, which coincidently aligns nicely with this thread.
LOL…”a bizarre END…” I do hope the Philip story continues somehow.
Dateline D.C.; FOUL PLAY SUSPECTED! Park police have just released a statement regarding the outhouse death of economist Philip Uranus. The police claim to have found a banana peal that they now believe caused the victim to tragically slip to his death into the nearly full outhouse toilet. Detectives believe that the peal was to strategically placed to be be just random or chance. Also, upon recovery of Mr. Uranus’ Labrador Scratchy that had been pulled into the commode by the victim, a latex glove was found clutched in his jaws, and once taken from the Lab the glove has been sent to the lab for DNA ANALysis along with the banana peal.
Police have contacted Mr. Uranus’ estranged life partner, the noted proctologist Dr. Sandy Largefinger, to inform him of the situation. Police have named him a person of interest.
When reporters attempted to interview Dr. Largefinger, he was seen to exit the rear of his office. His whereabouts are not known.
ROFLMAO andrew…Ahahahhaha…Poor Mr. Uranus and his tragic END…
I hope you didn’t gloss over the part where they were interred (in turd) together. I was rather proud of that one.
You should be proud of ALL of it LOL…I am just giggling about Ben Dover all over again. The fraternity boys at USC used to order magazine subscriptions and use all those crazy names…Dick Everhard, Mort Poohawk, Ben Dover, Mike Hunt, you name it, LOL.
You can’t kill off Philip Uranus. I think he needs to be resurrected so the story can continue.
Well, now that Dr. Largefinger is on the lamb searching for the one eyed man, (oops, I let that slip) I suppose it could be a running gag.
Ja. Der Untergang (The Downfall) and The Lives of Others are OUTSTANDING German films.
I really enjoyed watching the clip!! I love movies from the 30 and 40s. I will look for the film want to see the whole thing. I love the fashion too.
Thank you for the clip:)
You bet. If you like the fashion, Born to Kill will blow your mind. Claire Trevor wears one amazing outfit after another. At one point she’s dressed just like Kim Bassinger in LA Confidential, with the hood.
http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/features/arts/offthepage/blog/KIM.jpg
Basinger was STUNNING in LA Confidential. Best she’s ever looked (and acted).
Yes, there’s a reason I call myself Bud White!
Oops I misread, I thought your name was Bud Light.
Maybe I need a malt beverage? 
Thank you for the clip. I am going to have some one design me cloak like that! I never follow contemporary design … since I was in high school I always shopped at consignment shops where old ladies would retire their ‘30, ‘40 and ‘50 era well kept clothing. You can also find nice retro clothes at estate sales.
I mean… thank you for the Kim Bassinger link:)
TMC has a great bio of John Garfield on right now!
Narrated by his daughter…
He was in a bunch of great film noir
Paul Muni: - I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang
Sorry, I meant…TCM…Turner Classic Movies….it’s late!
Bud, great post. Let me add one to the list -
“The Night of the Hunter” starring Robert Mitchum, directed by Charles Laughton, 1955. I saw this film as a child and was terrified. I saw it again a few years ago and found it just as riveting.
I’m also anxious to hear what you think of “Seconds.” It’s another unforgettable film. I look forward to next week’s discussion.
Good one TexasMirth. I was involved in trying to remake Night of the Hunter for a while. Cool flick.
Farewell My Lovely, The Drowning Pool, Bullitt, The Seven Ups, Both French Connections, Diva (French), The List of Adrian Messenger, Ten Little Indians, The Trouble with Harry, and The Third Man
Good one. Ten Little Indians!!!!
In the more spy-noir, for your consideration, Marathon Man, Three Days of the Condor (very hip viewpoint) The Boys From Brazil, The Quiller Memorandum, Topkapi, The Day of the Jackal, The Parallax View
What happened to the project?
We made Cape Fear instead and it kind of died. I don’t know who owns the rights now. I think it was Universal but it was a while ago.
“Cape Fear” -Another Robert Mitchum film - the earlier one. Good choice for a thriller. There is just something so enduring about these crime films. You never forget the fear.
Rollo Tomasi…
I want to play too but I don’t do late night and my coffee hasn’t kicked in yet. I am definitely pulling out my “Greatest Film Noir Classics” DVD package this weekend.
“Double Indemnity” leaps to the top of my semi-somnambulist list.
I love the Thin Man movies. He is hilarious.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PG3NZjRv2nM&feature=related
Those are fun!
Oh darn, I missed a fun thread, I should have stayed up last night with NQ instead of going to bed early and having a sleepless night.
Some of my favorite noir films are almost anything with Barbara Stanwyck. “Double Indemnity”, “The Strange Love of Martha Ivers”.
Another favorite actor, Robert Mitchem in “Out of the Past”.
Someone mentioned “Night of the Hunter” which is beautifully filmed and really creepy.
“Laura” with Gene Tierney and Dana Andrews
“The Killing” directed by Stanley Kubrick starring Sterling Hayden.
My other half’s all time favorite film is “The Aspalt Jungle”.
Modern film noir’s I’ve enjoyed are “China Town” and “L.A. Confidential”.
I’ve noticed that many of these films, made during the 30’s and early 40’s while the country was still experiencing a depression, served as morality tales. A warning that crime doesn’t pay.
Are there any films made during that time where the criminal does get away with the crime?
“Laura” is wonderful.
A later answer to your question about the “Bad Guy” winning or crime paying is that it was not allowed by law.
From 1934 Hays Code:
The treatment of crimes against the law must not:
1. Teach methods of crime.
2. Inspire potential criminals with a desire for imitation.
3. Make criminals seem heroic and justified.
Revenge in modern times shall not be justified. In lands and ages of less developed civilization and moral principles, revenge may sometimes be presented. This would be the case especially in places where no law exists to cover the crime because of which revenge is committed.
Because of its evil consequences, the drug traffic should not be presented in any form. The existence of the trade should not be brought to the attention of audiences.
The use of liquor should never be excessively presented. In scenes from American life, the necessities of plot and proper characterization alone justify its use. And in this case, it should be shown with moderation.
The “Code” lasted from 1934-1968
I remember the hype about the film “The Getaway” with Steve McQueen as being the first film where crime paid.
What exactly classifies a movie as Film Noir?
Logan Lamech
http://www.eloquentbooks.com/LingeringPoets.html
[...] No review next week. The next review will be on December 12. We’ll be discussing The Salton Sea, which comes recommended by Obama is a Fraud. [...]
ohsas 18000…
OHSAS 18001 standard defines “acceptable risk” as a risk that has been reduced to a level that can be tolerated by the company in regard to the company’s legal obligations and its own occupational health and safety (OH&S) policy….