Although I did not quite understand Neil Norman's opening that these films were a "style of philosophy", I could see what he meant with "the characters under some kind of pressure". Derek Malcolm said that they "showed a very pessimistic view of American society". This episode started with 1950's Side Street that was filmed on the streets of New York. There is a chase around the city (mainly Greenwich Village) at night after a robbery. Ian Nathan called it "an expressionist's dream". There are lots of shots from all sorts of positions. The same year saw a British film Night and the City, this time filmed in London with all these different camera angles. The black and white photography for all these films looks great on TV, especially as this is before widescreen film.
We then jump forward to 1957's The Sweet Smell of Success with Bert Lancaster and Tony Curtis. Times Square at night, no wonder these films are called noir. Then back to 1944's Laura with Dana Andrews and Gene Tierney. We have to guess whether these narrators are reliable. Neil Norman added "the sands are constantly shifting". I'm just not sure why the films are not in date order. I think someone wanted to group together different genres, but this never came across. Next came In a Lonely Place in 1950 starring Humphrey Bogart (in his darkest role) and Gloria Graham. We don't know if he murdered someone. Derek Malcolm loved it.
Then 1947's Out of the Past with Robert Mitchum and Jane Greer with narrated flashbacks. The previous year saw Robert Montgomery as Philip Marlowe in Lady in the Lake. A very novel idea saw "the camera becomes the eyes of the detective" so we only ever see his hands. Amazing when e see someone punch him in the face. In 1949 came D.O.A. directed by Rudolf Mate and starring Edmund O'Brien. We know from the beginning that he is going to die as he has been poisoned, but that does not stop his quest to find the perpetrators. Next came The Postman Always Rings Twice in 1946 with Lana Turner, and The Asphalt Jungle from 1950. John Huston's "masterpiece" of a caper movie and a jewel robbery. These films are more about the aftermath of an event.
When next is 1955's Rififi, we are on to films I have seen. Stephen Armstrong said you know that "the heist will always fail" and Neil Norman added "it was always going to go wrong". My post of the 1st January 2021 said "it paved the way for the making of heist movies for years to come". Stanley Kubrick's The Killing was released in 1956. These films always fall apart on a tiny event, this time a dog. The year before came Kiss Me Deadly, one of the all time greats of film noir. A quite violent film with Robert Aldridge as a sadistic detective. However up next is the classic, The Night of the Hunter with Robert Mitchum from 1955 that saw Charles Laughton as a one time director. Apparently it was a flop at the time but is now considered one of the best ever film noirs. Derek Malcolm said it was "an extraordinary story" and "a wonderful film".
Then in 1958 came Touch of Evil directed by Orson Welles and co-starring Charlton Heston ann Jent Leigh. My post of the 23rd December 2022 refereed to the classic first scene. Neil Norman called it "a masterpiece" and Derek Malcolm thought "it was the best film he (Welles) ever made". At the end of the programme, Ian Nathan wondered what happened to film noir. He thought it was TV that took over these stories. Neil Norman knew it would rise again, and so a decade later we see Bonnie and Clyde, Point Blank, Chinatown and The Long Goodbye. Perhaps they inspired Martin Scorsese's Mean Streets, Brian de Palma's Body Double and David Lynch's Blue Velvet.
No comments:
Post a Comment