Favourite Film Noirs

The Postman Always Rings Twice (MGM, 1946): (Links to an external site.) "With its depiction of a blonde femme fatale (Lana Turner) leading astray a veteran (John Garfield) adrift in a world of corruption, The Postman Always Rings Twice stands as one of the key works in the development of film noir. The film represents one of the ultimate depictions of doomed love in the film noir genre, making it a major influence on more recent films such as Body Heat (1981), Final Analysis (1992) and The Last Seduction (1994). The success of The Postman Always Rings Twice opened the door for more film noirs at MGM, even though studio head Louis B. Mayer had a distinct dislike for the genre. The film was a breakthrough in the battle against screen censorship. Although the Production Code Administration had kept James M. Cain's novel off the screen for twelve years, they approved the 1946 picture despite its sizzling love scenes. Shocked fans even insisted the two stars were French kissing on screen. Garfield's restrained performance marked a turning point in his career, a transition from the kinetic street toughs of early films such as Four Daughters (1938) and Dust Be My Destiny (1939) to the introspective, emotionally distant characters of more mature films like Body and Soul (1947) and Force of Evil (1948). Lana Turner's portrayal of Cora Smith is her best performance of the '40s and a rare look at what she could do with a solid dramatic role."

On The Big Clock (Links to an external site.): "In The Big Clock (1948), George Stroud, (Milland) the editor of Crimeways magazine has been given the task of solving a murder before his own staff finds evidence that will point to him as the killer. As he races to find the real murderer, Milland discovers that his search has led him to his magazine's corporate headquarters. Located in a massive tower within the cold confines of those headquarters, the big clock seems to dominate and watch over everything. Even when Milland hides in a room just behind the clock, it's as if he's trapped inside a box of time within other boxes, one onto the other. All of them enclosed in the labyrinthian corridors of the imposing, futuristic-looking Janoth building. Time is the real enemy in The Big Clock."

Here is a clip from The Big Clock that reminds me that film noir challenges all of our assumptions of rational investigation. This scene, done in a splendid long take style, has Milland seeking to demonstrate the rational aspects of a murder investigation, but as you will discover if you watch the whole film, no investigation is ever so straightforward in the noir universe, and fate and postwar uncertainty will tear at the very fabric of such rationality:

https://youtu.be/3j3aSvHqY9g (Links to an external site.)

On Detour (Links to an external site.): "It might be extremely low-budget and it might not have any major stars but Detour (1945), with a brisk running time of only 68 minutes, may be the most bleak and nihilistic film noir thriller ever made....and that's a compliment. The film has long enjoyed a cult reputation in Europe and among American film buffs for its existential tone. The main character, Al Roberts (Tom Neal), is an unemployed piano player intent on hitchhiking from New York to Hollywood where his girlfriend is a singer. When he reaches Arizona, he thumbs a ride with a dissipated gambler who relates a disturbing tale about a female hitchhiker he recently encountered. From that point on, the film travels quickly into nightmare territory with border crossings into paranoia, death and despair." (TCMDb) You can film for free online at Archive.org (Links to an external site.). You can also search YouTube or watch it at Open Culture (Links to an external site.).

Curator's Note: Alfred Hitchcock is a special case in discussions of film noir. He wasn't one of the German émigrés like Lang or Siodmak. He wasn't an American director like Welles or Huston. He was an English filmmaker and producer who made his first Hollywood film in 1940 (Rebecca). And here in today's Dose, though Warner Bros. is the name before this film's title, it’s Hitchcock’s name above the title. Even from the opening shot, we know we are watching a Hitchcock film. In 1951's Strangers on a Train, we encounter visual motifs in this opening sequence that we have seen in other Daily Doses: shots of legs and shoes a la Kiss Me Deadly or The Hitch-Hiker and a POV shot of criss-crossing railroad tracks that could be from La Bete Humaine. But Hitchcock, as the master of suspense, elevates each of these elements to add his particular touch to the opening of his film. Hitchcock emphasizes a strong contrast in the type of shoes and luggage the two characters are carrying, as we watch them eventually converge and "bump" into each other on a train car. Pay attention to how Hitchcock foreshadows the theme of "criss-cross" in these opening moments. As scholar Foster Hirsch would say, while Hitchcock "work[ed] in that narrow vein of the thriller he has made distinctly his own…[he] is pre-eminently a noir stylist." Stylistically, this scene is carefully staged, with a dynamic, criss-crossing rhythm, and the action zips along accompanied by Dimitri Tiomkin's wonderful musical score. For discussions on this film's noir credentials, consider that this film has strong hard-boiled literary bloodlines. Based on a novel by Patricia Highsmith (who also wrote The Talented Mr. Ripley series) and with a screenplay credit to Raymond Chandler (though little of what he wrote made it into the final film), this film's literary influences match up with the best of film noir. Finally, this opening promises what so many Hitchcock films deliver in spades: elaborate, tightly designed set pieces that will keep us on the edge of our seats! [Curated by Richard Edwards]

Since I covered this film already in a Daily Dose, I'll just add another observation that fits into this week's topic of The Opportunity. According to Bill Hare in a Film Noir of the Week (Links to an external site.) post: "By the time of the film’s release America was immersed in the Cold War opposite the Soviet Union. Albeit Hitchcock was not a political person, as a filmmaker he was not only acutely aware of American and global trends; he knew that by incorporating familiar themes and images in his films he increased the likelihood of audiences identifying with them. Walker could be seen as a dark totalitarian image as he was observed hovering around Washington’s familiar historical sites such as the Jefferson Memorial shrouded in darkness. While Walker represents the anarchistic challenge to established authority, the always distinguished, frequent Hitchcock character performer Leo G. Carroll appears as the cool establishment figure that stands for order and reason, seeking to comfort fears of his lovely daughter Ruth Roman and son-in-law to be Granger."

Curator's Note: The final Daily Dose is one of my favorite films noir from the classic era: Robert Siodmak's Criss Cross (1949). I'm a fan of heist films and this is one of the great ones, reuniting actor Burt Lancaster and director Robert Siodmak after their 1946 classic The Killers. The opening of this film is carefully designed and sets up the dynamics that will propel this film forward towards an inexorable meeting with fate. We start with aerial views of the city at night accentuated by Miklos Rozsa's musical score. A noir tone and mood are established quickly. The aerial camera, as the credits are playing, seems drawn to a particular corner of this dark noir universe as we continue to close in on a parking lot. Headlights suddenly illuminate a tryst between Steve Thompson (Burt Lancaster) and Anna (Yvonne De Carlo), embracing between two parked cars. Steve and Anna engage in a quick conversation, but one that continually shifts between the past, present and the future. But, if we have learned anything about film noir, we know to be wary about what comes out of the past and the long odds against tomorrow. The next scene introduces Slim Dundee (Dan Duryea), as the action switches to the interior of a nightclub. Played superbly by Duryea, Slim's introduction in the film ratchets up the tension immediately. Watch this film to see one of the high points of film noir and the heist film. If there was a heist of the Hollywood studio system, one of its master thieves was Robert Siodmak. [Curated by Richard Edwards]

Considered one of the best of the film noirs to come out of Hollywood in the post-war years, Criss Cross (1949) tells the story of an honest armored-car guard whose involvement with his scheming ex-wife, now married to a sleazy gangster, lands him in the middle of a tangled and disastrous robbery. With a twisting narrative full of double crosses and deceitful characters so typical of the genre, the film is also something of a blueprint for the "heist" or "caper" film, a subgenre of the gangster movie that would become so popular with John Huston's The Asphalt Jungle (1950) and Stanley Kubrick's The Killing (1956) right up to the present day with Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs (1992) and David Mamet's Heist (2001).

Criss Cross was slated to star up-and-coming actor Burt Lancaster, with a script by Anthony Veiller. It was also to be directed by Robert Siodmak, and produced by Mark Hellinger, reuniting the team responsible for successful noir thriller The Killers (1946). Before it went into production, however, Hellinger died (in December 1947), and the board of directors of Hellinger's production company voted to sell the property and two other projects to Universal to pay off debts. Siodmak's and Lancaster's contracts came as part of the deal, but Lancaster didn't want to do the film without Hellinger. He was offered several ways out of his potential breach of contract, but none of them panned out. So in June 1948, Lancaster reported to the set, along with co-stars Yvonne De Carlo, Dan Duryea, and Stephen McNally.

On Crossfire (Links to an external site.): "Crossfire (1947), one of the best film noir to come out of RKO Studios, is a film of many firsts. It was executive producer Dore Schary's first film for RKO (he would take over as chief of production at MGM in 1948). It was based on Richard Brooks' first novel, The Brick Foxhole, written while he was still in the Marines (he later became a Hollywood screenwriter/director). And it brought first time Oscar® nominations to both Robert Ryan and Gloria Grahame in supporting roles and to Edward Dmytryk for his direction. At the same time, Crossfire marked the last time Dmytryk and his producer Adrian Scott would work together after collaborating on such popular movies as Murder, My Sweet (1944) and Cornered (1945); both men would be called before the House Un-American Activities Committee after completing Crossfire and blacklisted for refusing to answer questions about their alleged Communist Party affiliations." (TCMDb)

The Third Man (Selznick International, 1949): (Links to an external site.)"Film Noir is typically thought of as a purely American style or genre, but in 1949 two Englishmen - novelist Graham Greene and director Carol Reed collaborated to flesh out an idea by producer Alexander Korda for a film set in the divided war-torn city of Vienna. The resulting movie, The Third Man, was an overnight worldwide hit and is often listed as the greatest British film of all time. An American influence came from producer David O. Selznick and the stars Joseph Cotten and Orson Welles, but there is no mistaking the European flavor of the movie. Shot largely on location, it captures the darkness and decay of the formerly grand city that is now littered with rubble, just as it captures the corruption and decadence in the soul of people warped by World War. The Third Man works on many more levels than merely the "entertainment" that Greene termed it to be. It wonderfully captures a time and a place unique in history; it is an early example of a cold-war intrigue that, while not depicting a single spy, can be seen as a prototype for spy thrillers to come. It also works as a study of post-WWII morality with Harry Lime viewing his victims not as human but as far-removed dots that stop moving. It is also a character study featuring a hopeless love triangle.

On Kiss Me Deadly (Links to an external site.): This is the one we will all probably be watching, so this one doesn't need much set up by me. If you watch nothing else this Friday, watch this. It's essential: "Kiss Me Deadly (1955), Robert Aldrich's hard-edged, stylistically innovative adaptation of the Mickey Spillane novel, features what may be the most violent and unsympathetic private eye in the history of cinema. As Mike Hammer, Ralph Meeker is like a bull in a china shop, lurching haphazardly from one deadly encounter to the next, often employing the same brutal tactics of the criminals he's pursuing. But as the plot of Kiss Me Deadly unfolds, Hammer goes from being just a cheap hood who specializes in divorce cases to serving as an unwitting accomplice in the retrieval of a mysterious box that holds "the great whatsit."

Reason to watch: Jeanne Moreau in a claustrophobic Hitchcockian-style thriller with Miles Davis' amazing film score

Back in 1957, before the French New Wave knew it was the New Wave, Louis Malle was a 24-year-old aspiring filmmaker who admired Robert Bresson, Alfred Hitchcock and Hollywood noirs ranging from The Asphalt Jungle (1950) to The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946). Putting his own spin on these sources, Malle's debut feature, Elevator to the Gallows (Ascenseur pour l'echaufaud, 1958), remains a vivid, stylish thriller that genuflects to the noir genre with elegant brutality and cool rigor, taking it to a few new places en route. It and Jean-Pierre Melville's Bob le Flambeur (1956) are the New Wave's two great precursors, arriving before Truffaut's 400 Blows (1959) and Godard's Breathless (1960). But too much energy has gone into classifying it and Malle and not enough into simply enjoying it.

There's much to savor, especially the sculpted face of Jeanne Moreau in closeup as Florence Carala, plotting with her ex-paratrooper lover (Maurice Ronet) to murder her rich arms dealer husband (Jean Wall). Her face, first seen as she murmurs "Je t'aime, je t'aime" to her lover on a phone, is a mask of smoldering anticipation, then anxiety, then doom.

One of film's great jazz scores in a golden age of jazz scores, even more envelope-pushing than Duke Ellington's score for Anatomy of a Murder (1959), Johnny Mandel's for I Want to Live!(1958) and The Modern Jazz Quartet in No Sun in Venice (1957). Malle was a jazz nut. He used Charlie Parker music in his student film. When he heard Miles Davis was coming to Paris to play at the Club St. Germain, he went to the airport to meet the great trumpeter, musician, and -- as Davis soon was to make clear to the world -- composer. No sooner had Davis deplaned and introductions were exchanged than Malle asked Davis to compose the music for his film. Davis agreed. Using drummer Kenny Clarke and three French musicians Barney Wilen, Rene Urterger and Pierre Michelot -- Davis improvised and recorded the entire score a suite of 10 pieces on a single December night in 1957, working from midnight to dawn, sometimes watching scenes and conferring with Malle.

Out of the Past (RKO, 1947): (Links to an external site.)"Bitter, cynical, fatalistic and peppered with some of the best tough-guy dialogue in the genre, Out of the Past (1947) is a consummate example of film noir made during the movement's golden age in the '40s and '50s. Robert Mitchum stars as Jeff Bailey alongside Kirk Douglas as Whit Sterling, two shrewd, rock-hard individuals enthralled by the same mysterious, danger-courting woman, Kathie Moffat (played by Jane Greer). Jacques Tourneur directed with an eye toward the baroque, the evocative, and the erotic. The son of French-born director Maurice Tourneur (The Last of the Mohicans, 1920), Jacques made his own memorable mark on the noir genre with a string of inspired choices, from the casting of the film to the use of real locations to enhance the film's gritty realism. Tourneur had handled equally macabre subject matter, though in a different genre, in such horror films as Cat People (1942) and I Walked with a Zombie (1943). The cynicism of Out of the Past was also well served by the taut, acerbic script by gifted novelist/screenwriter Daniel Mainwaring (aka Geoffrey Homes). Mainwaring, who adapted the screenplay from his own novel Build My Gallows High, went on to write the equally gripping screenplay for the science fiction classic Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956). Mitchum and Kirk Douglas are beautifully matched in Out of the Past. As with many film noirs, the relationship between the brutally cynical Whit and Jeff, who share a woman and a cynicism about human behavior, turns out to be more honest and affectionate than either man's love for Kathie, a woman with the face of an angel and the impulses of a viper. The two actors, who both became known for their idiosyncratic, combative temperaments, reportedly engaged in an extended power play for attention in their scenes together."

Reason to watch: Otto Preminger directing Robert Mitchum and Jean Simmons

During his hey-day, Otto Preminger was one of the few famous directors whose face was immediately recognizable to the average movie-goer, due mostly to his success at playing vicious Nazi commandants in World War II pictures. But few people realized that he was actually Jewish. Preminger was always a hard man to pin down. There was a perverse streak running through almost all of his film work, both in front of and behind the camera. Honestly-name another accomplished filmmaker who would have agreed to play Mr. Freeze in the original Batman TV series!

Angel Face, which Preminger directed in 1952, stands as one of his more memorable projects. The "Angel Face" of the title is Diane Tremayne (Jean Simmons), the apparently innocent daughter of a wealthy businessman named Charles Tremayne (Herbert Marshall.) Diane may seem like a sweetie on the surface, but she also happens to be a psychotic who will stop at nothing to maintain her own happiness, including killing her stepmother (Barbara O'Neil.) Diane also sets her sights on the family's hunky chauffeur, Frank Jessup (Robert Mitchum), even though Frank already has a girlfriend (Mona Freeman.) Suffice it to say that things don't go well for Frank and Diane. You'll need a very broad definition of "happy ending" to smile at how this one wraps up.