The Silver Screen Oasis

All femmes fatale, all the time at the NYC Forum in its Femmes Noirs film series, July 18 - August 7.

A bit mainstream in the programming area, but still a grand opportunity for NYC folk...Calling Dr. Maven...Calling Dr. Goddess....to see the fine film noir.

LAURA - 1944 Noir Film


I watched this movie today on TCM and came away with a different perspective today because I see Gene Tierney's character Laura somewhat a snobbish selfish radiant beauty that wants to love Dana Andrews - The Police Lieutenant instead of Lydecker who played by Clifton Webb who got killed at the end of the movie. What bizarre about this movie that Laura never really dies and some other dame took her place instead. I feel that this movie would had been better if they cut out Vincent Price's character because he was a basically a throw in my mind, but he did performed greatly as a gigolo as Shelby Carpenter.

It was one of his best role in a non-horror movie - but I feel that his character was wasted and exclaimed at the same time. I just can't put a finger on it.

One thing about this movie - of which made the Police Lieutenant to rethink about this murder case and because of that I had to stop right there and start thinking from scratch. That's makes the movie somewhat anti-climax when Dorothy Adams (uncredited role) walked in and was horrified to see Laura is still alive and that point on - all went back up and and start to build another anti-climax scene of which the real killer was Lydecker (played by Clifton Webb) and he was killed by one of Andrews's men and that's was the end of the movie.

It was a four-star movie - but as I watch it for the first time in 5 years - I would give this movie a 3 1/2 star rating - according to Internet Movie Database this movie has a higher rating than Gilda, starring Rita Hayworth. Having seen this movie today, I would give this movie a slightly better rating than Gilda. But, if had cut out Vincent Price Character and gave small parts to uncredited actors and actresses - I would give it a 4 star rating tops!

I maybe a bit prejudiced about Vincent Price's character - a gigolo of which had no apparent justice in this great film noir that was brilliantly played by Tierney, Andrews, and Webb. Judith Anderson was good - but I wished she had more lines and more screen time and that's would had been done by the removal of Price's character of Shelby Carpenter.

I maybe a bit rambling here ... but thats my honest evaluation of Laura.

BIG THREE OF LAURA



Andrews, Tierney, and Webb

I am in the minority of classic fans who don't LOVE this movie. Is it a good noir? To be sure! Anything glaringly wrong with it? No. It just doesn't thrill me as some others do. It's not my favorite Preminger film. I prefer ADVISE AND CONSENT. It's not even my favorite Preminger noir. FALLEN ANGEL is just as exciting. I have no complaints about this much heralded classic. It's just not at the top of my list!

Sometimes one goes in really wanting to like a film, but has no high hopes. And, then, it turns out to be very enjoyable and more.

Such was RYNOX (Michael Powell 1932), Powell's second feature film as director. Once thought to be lost, it was found in 1990 at Pinewood Studios.

F.X. Benedik is a business tycoon. His brokerage company, Rynox, however, has hit hard times. There are some contracts with big money in the works, but Rynox may not have the funds to last until then. On top of that, a hulking, rude man - Boswell Marsh - stalks him by telephone and letter, demanding a large payment for a past dispute. Marsh is so angry and obsessed that he buys a gun and makes clear that Benedik is his prey.

Marsh finally arranges a meeting with Benedik for one night at Benedik's home. Pedestrians and a bobby hear several gunshots that evening. Benedik is dead.

Benedik's son takes over the business and, with the immediate payout from Benedik's life insurance policy, he is able to keep Rynox afloat until the long awaited contracts come in. They do and the company is saved. But there's an extortionist with a backstory....

What a twisty and turny fun 48 minutes! I assumed that it was a quota-quickie, but Powell said that it wasn't and that its budget was quite substantial. It also was successful, according to Powell, at the box office.

The primary attraction is Powell's staging and composition. Elements of his ability to weave obvious backdrops into an otherwise naturalistic movie are evident, as are his debts to King Vidor, Rex Ingram and F.W. Murnau. Overall, a strong start to a career that, within five years, would encompass some of the finest movies in cinema history.

ChiO, where did you get your copy of Rynox?

JF -

Email on the way.

[u][color=#FF0000]ChiO[/color][/u] wrote:All femmes fatale, all the time at the NYC Forum in its Femmes Noirs film series, July 18 - August 7.

A bit mainstream in the programming area, but still a grand opportunity for NYC folk...Calling Dr. Maven...Calling Dr. Goddess....to see the fine film noir.

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Hello ChiO. You RANG??

I'm going to try and make as many of these femmes noirs as I have time for. See this link attached to my collage. Mmmmmm...what a hot summer.

God, I love your poster. What a crew! I wouldn't trust any of these dames as far as I could throw them...


"Babette looked too good for the place tonight, but then goodness is only relative after all."

“As for her perfume, it was the kind you only noticed after she'd left a room, not while she was still in it. Even then you didn't realize it was perfume, you only wondered what had made you think of her just then.”

“Beside her, her husband could only splutter, and he stopped even that when she half turned to flash him a smile - the instinctive, brilliant smile of a woman who knows what feeble creatures men can be. You couldn't learn to smile like that. It was something a woman either knew the minute she was born, or never knew at all."


- all excerpts by Cornell Woolrich

.
I love it too, but is Veronica Lake on there? My blinkers are not as young as they used to be, and my glasses aren't as strong either so if she is there, please point her out to me. Thanks.

[u][color=#FF0000]JackFavell[/color][/u] wrote:God, I love your poster. What a crew! I wouldn't trust any of these dames as far as I could throw them...

__________

[u][color=#FF0000]mrsl[/color][/u] wrote:I love it too, but is Veronica Lake on there? My blinkers are not as young as they used to be, and my glasses aren't as strong either so if she is there, please point her out to me. Thanks.

Hi there Ladies. Thanxx for the compliments on my latest collage. ( Whew! A lotta work. ) Hey Mrs. L, Veronica Lake's not included in the Film Forum programming, so your peepers are still working just fine. I didn't add her to my collage. JaxXxon, NONE of these gals can be trusted. But try to get a man to listen to you. Heh! Good luck!

...Lovin' the Cornell Woolrich quotes, JackaaA[/u]ay. Thanxx for including them.

JaxXxon, NONE of these gals can be trusted. But try to get a man to listen to you. Heh! Good luck!

Ha! A man will listen if you have swingy hips, or a .38 in your hand.

That's why I take Glenda Farrell with me wherever I go!

JaxXxon, NONE of these gals can be trusted. But try to get a man to listen to you. Heh! Good luck!

[u][color=#800000]JackFavell[/color][/u] wrote:Ha! A man will listen if you have swingy hips, or a .38 in your hand.

Red, you leave Glenda outta this!

Sometimes one watches a movie with no particular expectations, but just because. Then...

Wow, WOW, WOW!

Thus it was with THE LONG WAIT (Victor Saville 1954). A hitchhiker is picked up on Route 66 at night. The vehicle rolls off the road and bursts into flames, but the hitchhiker is thrown clear. He tries unsuccessfully to open the doors to save the driver, burning his hands in the process. He's taken to a hospital for an operation on his hands and rehabilitation, and now he also has amnesia. The doctor is guarded in his prognosis for the recovery of his memory. He works in an oil field for a couple of years. While talking to his new girlfriend in a nearby town's diner, a fellow - who's after the woman - tells him that he saw a picture of him while on the road in a town about 600 miles away, and shows him the picture. He immediately takes off for the town in order to find himself. The other fellow then discloses to the women that he hadn't been in that town...that he'd torn the picture from a Wanted Poster in another town. The hitchhiker, identified on the poster as Johnny McBride, is wanted in that town...for murder!

When McBride arrives in the town, he learns his name from townsfolk who are surprised, but glad, to see him. He's also soon taken to the police station. The police figure the amnesia is a scam, but they have sure-fire proof that he's the murderer if his fingerprints match those on the murder weapon. Unfortunately, for the cops, his fingerprints were so disfigured that they can't match them and they have to release him. But they tail him relentlessly...as does the crooked syndicate that controls the town and probably framed Johnny for the murder. Johnny tries to pull together the pieces of his life and find the real killer...tearing apart the town in the process and exposing its seamiest elements.

Part of why I found the movie so enjoyable was that the director and cast are generally not names commonly and closely associated with film noir. This was Saville's penultimate directing credit and only film noir (THE SILVER CHALICE was his last movie). Johnny is portrayed by Anthony Quinn; his long time girlfriend is Peggy Castle (I, THE JURY and 99 RIVER STREET were her other ventures into noir country); good ol' Gene Evans is the face of the mob (five or so other noirs, but a couple roles are uncredited and the others are small roles); my obsession, Bruno VeSota, is the mob muscle; and, as Johnny's ex-employer and money behind the mob, Charles Coburn. The credited actor most closely associated with noir is Jay Adler in a relatively minor role.

The noir of the group is the cinematographer, Franz Planer (THE CHASE, CRISS CROSS, 99 RIVER STREET, THE SCARF, 711 OCEAN DRIVE, and it-could-be-noir LETTER FROM AN UNKNOWN WOMAN). The climax - Quinn tied to a chair as a wrist-and-ankle bound Castle slowly crawls to him and Evans mocks them from the dark while pointing a gun at Quinn - is gorgeous in its simplicity and excruciating in its sadism and tension, and yet atypical for noir in its setup.

Based on a Mickey Spillane novel, Mike Hammer is nowhere in sight.

A hitchhiker is picked up on Route 66 at night.

I like it already!