FILM NOIR WEEK: KISS ME DEADLY

This is a movie that starts at 60mph and keeps going until the wheels fall off.  Ralph Meeker is the best Mike Hammer ever committed to film, and I'm including Stacy Keach-- Meeker isn't a pretty boy, he's a tough as nails hard boiled PI who punches his way through the film.

The opening sequence is pretty shocking-- even for it's time (1955) and if you manage to follow the plot you'll be pretty amazed at the ending as well.

Film noir should be tough and gritty-- and this one fits the bill.  Perfect for a hot summer night.

FILM NOIR WEEK: Postman Always Rings Twice

THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE is almost the same story as Double Indemnity.
Lana Turner runs a roadside diner with her older husband and she wants more.  When John Garfield happens by she decides to go for it and the two of them hatch a plan to murder him and collect the insurance money.

It's ending isn't as strong as DOUBLE's but it's interesting to watch the two films to compare and contrast.

This disc I'm recommending also has DIAL M FOR MURDER, THE MALTESE FALCON and THE BIG SLEEP on it.  I already own all of these movies but I might just order this myself anyway!  The movies are that good.

FILM NOIR WEEK: Double Indemnity

I've taught a few Film Noir classes in the past and one of the toughest things to start with is just what is film noir and what movies qualify?

1941's STRANGER ON THE THIRD FLOOR certainly has a lot of the elements, so does THE MALTESE FALCON (also 1941) but I'd argue that REAL film noir must have certain elements:

1. Dark shadowy cinematography (the term Film Noir translates into Dark Film).
2. A Femme Fatale-- she's no good and usually leads the protagonist down a dark road.
3. A protagonist who is either equally dirty him (or her) self or makes a bad choice.
4. The film has to be American.  The French coined the term in reference to post WWII American films they were watching.
5. The ending should be pessimistic or at the very least end on a dour note.

I'd even quantify by adding there has to be death involved, and there should be hot weather.  Film noir's are dark and sweaty.

Using those qualifications Billy Wilder's 1944 film DOUBLE INDEMNITY becomes the first film noir.  Perfect because our protagonist is none other than Fred MacMurray-- the guy who was the dad in MY THREE SONS, the professor in FLUBBER, and the physical basis for Captain Marvel.   This guy is red white and blue white bread-- but in this movie he's lured by Barbara Stanwyck into a plan to murder her husband and collect the insurance money.

Bogie FILM NOIR: CONFLICT

In CONFLICT, Bogie is the owner of an Engineering Firm who is unhappily married to Catherine, mostly it seems, because Catherine has a Bride of Frankenstein shock of white hair and a little sister who he considers the cats pajamas now that she's all grown up.

This is a Warner Bros film so the whole setup for the plot is summed up for you in the first eight minutes of the film.  I actually like WB for that very reason-- they made movies for hardworking people who didn't want the lush musical numbers of MGM or the artsy buildup we're more familiar with today-- instead the movie starts and fires at you on all cylinders right away.

So Bogie is in love with Catherine's sister Evelyn, and Catherine knows it-- but she will never divorce him.  Bogie starts to think maybe if Catherine was out of the way he and Evelyn could finally be together, unfortunately for him his good friend Mark (played by Sydney Greenstreet) keeps trying to set Evelyn up with a handsome young college professor.

The performances in this movie are entertaining enough, and I don't think there can be such a thing as a bad Bogie film- especially when he's teamed with Greenstreet.  The interaction between the two as the film progresses will keep you engaged.

While the film certainly has a dark feel to it-- Bogie has bad plans all on his own, there's no temptation from the little sister which means I can't give this the FILM NOIR stamp-- instead it's more akin to the crime noir family.

It's not available commercially on DVD but they show it on TCM on a regular basis.  It's worth your 87 minutes.

NEXT UP: Bogie's REAL Film Noir

FILM NOIR - DOUBLE INDEMNITY (1944)

Barbara Stanwyck can't find her groceries with her dark glasses on.

If you wanted to watch just one film to understand what FILM NOIR is, DOUBLE INDEMNITY would be it.   Released in 1944 by Paramount the film is directed by Billy Wilder with a story by Raymond Chandler-- himself a master of the genre.

Fred MacMurray plays a little bit of a sleazy insurance salesman who happens upon the sultry Barbara Stanwyck when he stops at the Los Angeles home of her husband-- an oil tycoon who seems to have lost interest in her.

Stanwyck lures MacMurray into a plan to murder her husband and collect the insurance money, but as with all good film noir's the plan soon starts to unravel and MacMurray ends up on a spiral down into the darkest recesses of the human mind.

Firing on all cylinders, despite or perhaps aided by the cheap blonde wig Stanwyck wears, the film is perfectly cast, tightly paced and delivers on all of its promises.

TOMORROW: More Noir, this time with Bogart.