Brit noir

[dfordoom]

Do you have a favourite British film noir? My pick would be Brighton Rock, based on Graham Greene's novel (and you can't get much noirer than Graham Greene). Stnning performance by Richard Attenborough (a very underrated actor).

[nightwalker]

I haven't really seen much "Brit Noir", but one film that I really do enjoy is THE INTRUDER, from 1953, starring Jack Hawkins as a former military officer who discovers an intruder in his home and finds that it's a man who once served under him during World War II.

The man, upon his discovery, flees into the night and Hawkins determines to uncover what has driven him to these desperate straits, which he will as the ex-soldier's postwar life is revealed in a series of shattering flashbacks.

A compelling plot with another solid Hawkins performance in the lead.

Worth a look!

[klondike]

My choice would be "Ministry of Fear".
I know some critics have considered it too linear in its plotting, but I really enjoy its depths of texture and tone (camera-wise & characteristically), and the insidious way that the pace of the story changes speed, as needed, from scene to scene.
I also think it's one of the most on-the-mark performances I've ever seen from Milland.

P.S: Hey Nightwalker, have you ever caught Jack Hawkins' performance in Wild Geese? Nothing like a noir, but plenty of action & drama, and Hawkins' supporting role really stands out!

[MikeBSG]

I suppose I would have to come up with the typical mid-Atlantic standbys of "The Third Man" and "Night and the City."

I've read a little about Brit noir and "spiv movies," and it sounds interesting. I'm sorry I missed "The October Man," when TCM showed it a while ago.

And I know this is departing from Brit noir a bit, but I've always been curious about the "Gainsborough ghastlies" like "The Wicked Lady".

However, it seems that if it isn't the Archers, Olivier, Lean or Ealing, British films from the postwar era don't turn up in the USA easily.

[nightwalker]

Klondike:

No, I haven't seen Hawkins in WILD GEESE. It's not listed in his credits on his IMDB page. You've whetted my appetite for it, however. Can you provide some details about it?

[jdb1]

Help me here, colleagues -- there was a very atmostpheric murder mystery done in the 50s or early 60s; the police are investigating the death of a young woman, and take a walk on the Wild Side of London, so to speak, into the nighttime world she inhabited. The woman may have been West Indian - I can't remember, but I sort of remember that she was maybe trying to be accepted as not a woman of color. I think the title of the film was the woman's name. Oh dear, it will probably come to me at 3 AM, as such things usually do. In any event, I remember liking the movie.

Does anyone know what I'm partially remembering?

[nightwalker]

It may be SAPPHIRE, from 1959.

[jdb1]

It may be SAPPHIRE, from 1959.

YES! That's the one, and a good one it was.

All I could think of was "Ruby." Close, but not quite. Many thanks.

[klondike]

Klondike:

No, I haven't seen Hawkins in WILD GEESE. It's not listed in his credits on his IMDB page. You've whetted my appetite for it, however. Can you provide some details about it?

WOOOPS!
Sorry, NW, wrong British "Jack" (no flag pun intended)!

The one in Wild Geese is Jack Watson!
Still, a great performance, in a big, gritty film, chock-full of jaded (but good natured) testosterone, and with a nice little clutch of headliners, like Burton, Harris, Granger, Kruger et al.
Sort of a thematic forerunner to the better-textured Extreme Prejudice, from Walter Hill.
If you're intrigued at all by the concept of "principled mercenaries", and/or modern-day punic victories, either one would be rewarding to check out.

[nightwalker]

Agreed about WILD GEESE, however, I'll have to watch it again and take note of Watson's performance, as it's been years since I've seen it.

Thanks for the heads-up.

[vallo]

Another film I like ,Directed by an American(Henry Hathaway) But written by two Brits Philip MacDonald (novel) Nigel Balchin) is "23 Paces to Baker Street (1956)It may not be classified as Noir. But it's a good Mystery / Thriller with Van Johnson and Vera Miles. Of course it's Not available for home viewing. Good Film.


vallo

[MissGoddess]

Instead of creating a separate thread, I'll post this here. I finally got around to watching
CLOUDBURST (1951), starring American Robert Preston as a WWII Code Breaking expert
in Great Britain who embarks on a relentless path of revenge of the murder of his wife.

[youtube][/youtube]

What the trailer may not give you an inkling of is the emotional drama and rather
frightening violence, especially for a British film of that time. Robert Preston's implacable peformance
holds it together and he really makes you sympathize with him. Some of the credit should
go to the director, Francis Searle, for he surprisingly manages to be as delicate and touching
with scenes depicting the unusually close marriage Preston enjoyed with his ill-fated wife (played
with a becomingly quiet commitment by Elizabeth Sellars---you may recall her as Mrs. "Bogie"
in The Barefoot Contessa) even as he goes to the limit with the violence. This is crucial
because once Preston's out on the hunt for her killers you have to have something to hook your
sympathy on because he is really unstoppable and quite insistent his prey suffer the same ghastly
fate as his wife. Harsh stuff but I have to say I was really on the edge of my seat and even moved
to tears at a couple of points.

The Scotland Yard inspector who is assigned to find out who the killer is was played exceptionally well
by actor Colin Tapley. In fact the entire cast is tight and believable and the cinematography is creative,
the music just right and the script intelligent and not at all schlocky (it's a Hammer film)----I am surprised
this movie isn't that well known, it's much better than other Brit "thrillers" of the period I've seen that are
highly praised.

This is amazing because I seldom ever find myself that moved by British movies of the period.
I admire and enjoy them but this one was a little more "visceral" than I expected. It really
entertained. Try to catch it next time TCM airs it.

[moira finnie]

I thought that this was one of the better film roles that Robert Preston ever had, and, unlike an American movie of the same period, he was relentless, and as ruthless as the people he was tracking throughout his pursuit of his game.

I thought that the air of physical and psychological exhaustion associated with years of military intelligence work during the war was very effectively conveyed with a modicum of explicit dialogue by both Elizabeth Sellars and Preston, who seemed to be a credible couple. If you liked Sellars in this film, I hope you have seen her in one of David Lean's best (non-epic, black and white) movies, Madeleine (1950)on TCM at 6:00 AM on Fri., June 26th. Many of Sellars best movies are never shown on tv any longer. Another of them is The Long Memory (1952) with the under-rated John Mills. This latter movie gives her a great role that is the opposite of her Cloudburst character--she plays a coward and does it with great relish! I also like her "ordinary wife and mother" in The Man in the Sky (1957) with Jack Hawkins. Both actors' performances are devastatingly good and a clip from this can be seen briefly here.

Btw, one of the reasons for the quality of Cloudburst may well be the author of the play that Cloudburst was based on, Leo Marks.

Marks, who was the head of code development and code security for the Special Operations Executive (SOE) in Britain, which supplied resistance fighters in occupied Europe with support, was also the son of the owner of Marks' bookshop as featured in 84 Charing Cross Road (1987).

Carve Her Name with Pride (1958), a British film about the real life Violette Szabo (played by a radiant Virginia McKenna) used information provided by Marks to tell the story of this incredibly brave woman operative, who was captured in France and was executed in Ravensbruck concentration camp just as the Allies neared them. Marks, who the head cryptographer for SOE (like Preston's character), often composed poems for agents to use as an emergency code.
In Carve Her Name with Pride, he wrote the following for Violette to use, which became a valedictory for her character's raison d'etre in the movie:

The life that I have is all that I have
And the life that I have is yours
The love that I have of the life that I have
Is yours and yours and yours.
A sleep I shall have, a rest I shall have
And death will be but a pause
For the years I shall have in the long green grass
Are yours and yours and yours.

Marks contributed to many movies including some of those of Michael Powell and Martin Scorsese (Marks added the voice of Satan to The Last Temptation of Christ!) You might enjoy reading his obituary here and though I take everything on Wikipedia with a big grain of salt, you might enjoy reading more about Marks here, a very romantic sounding, rather cynical real life character, who was also quoted as saying:
"The only indecipherable code in the world is a woman"

Here is the entire movie, Carve Her Name With Pride (1957) on youtube (it is also available on Region 1 DVD)
[youtube][/youtube]

Well, so much for posting a brief appreciation of your comment!!

[MissGoddess]

Moira you never cease to amaze me with your brains! That Marks character sounds
fascinating (and I love the quote!).

Stuart has long been telling me the praises of Carve Her Name with Pride,
I just have to be in the right mood for something that heavy.

You mentioned Preston's role being one of his best and as far as I'm concerned it is his
VERY best because I have never warmed to him. But he thoroughly impressed me and
had me believing that the Music Man could really kick patooty.

Thank you for all that background and for the other movie suggestions. I'm constantly
missing Madeleine, but maybe this time will be the charm. And my I return the favor?
If you have not seen Lean's THE PASSIONATE FRIENDS, and I do think you have but it's alway
worth another look---it's also playing on the same day.

[moira finnie]

If you have not seen Lean's THE PASSIONATE FRIENDS, and I do think you have but it's always worth another look---it's also playing on the same day.

I have seen The Passionate Friends. As a big Claude Rains and Trevor Howard fan and someone who prefers Lean's black and white movies over his big epics, I was looking forward to it, but couldn't warm to it, in part, I think, because, just as she seemed to be a human icicle to me in The Paradine Case, the director's then-wife, Ann Todd left me cold as a sort of upper crust Brief Encounter wife without much humanity. What puzzled me more, was that in Madeleine, Todd blew my socks off with her deeply felt characterization. Maybe it was just me, but she was wonderful in Madeleine and a bit hard to warm up to in a movie I wanted to like. I'll try The Passionate Friends again, though I even thought that Trevor was a bit of a ninny in that one too. Loved Claude's slow burn, however. Best thing in the movie, other than the gorgeous look of Guy Green's cinematography.

Stuart has long been telling me the praises of Carve Her Name with Pride, I just have to be in the right mood for something that heavy.

I think you will find yourself drawn into it as a romance as well as the tale of a real life heroine. I've never seen McKenna better in a movie. Stuart is so right!

You mentioned Preston's role being one of his best and as far as I'm concerned it is his VERY best because I have never warmed to him. But he thoroughly impressed me and had me believing that the Music Man could really kick patooty.

I agree that this is one of his best roles, but have you ever seen Robert Preston in This Gun for Hire (1942), The Macomber Affair (1947), Whistling Smith (1948), Blood on the Moon (1948), The Dark at the Top of the Stairs (1960) or All the Way Home (1963), and his wonderful acting in My Father's House (1975)?? "Kicking patooty" may not have been his primary skill, but the man was much more than The Music Man (1964) or the gay guy in Victoria, Victoria.