Noir Films

[CineMaven]

No worries Wendy. Of course. But listen...if you start speeeeeeeding down I 95...and a Connecticut State Trooper pulls you over...and smells the Bourbon on your breath...and asks you to get out of your ( red ) sportster and tells you to touch your nose...and you touch his nose and then he asks you take a breath analyzer...and you start doing the Mambo down the Service Road...

Don't come crying to us over in the Advice Column...asking for bail money...b'cuz you told Andrew you were going to the store to buy some Arlo Guthrie cds...and you used up all your money.

Don't say I didn't warn ya.

Remind me to tell you about the time a Connecticut State Trooper did pull over my friend and I when we were dropping off our dog to a friend's house in Massachusetts.

Aye yi yi.

[JackFavell]

HA! That's too funny! I always wanted to steal a police car....

[RedRiver]

If you had a chance to be with Ava or Yvonne, would you take it and go down in flames

Let's see...Be healthy, productive, use sound judgment. Or Ava Gardner. LATER!

You have a NYC friend?

He lives near The Film Forum. Loves the place!

[ChiO]

According to Dewey, UNE SI JOLIE PETITE PLAGE aka SUCH A PRETTY LITTLE BEACH (Yves Allegret 1949) was one of the big hits in May at the Roxie. His program notes quoted a source as calling it "the missing link between the French thrillers of the 30s and the nouvelle vague." Unfortunately for me, he screened it a couple of days before my arrival. Now I know what the fuss is about.

On my shelf labelled "BLEAK", at one end is BLAST OF SILENCE and this now occupies the other end. I now have to rearrange my Noir Top 10 to make room for this masterpiece.

In the dead of a rainy night, a handsome young man, Pierre, is dropped off at an inn in a small French village on the beach. He tells the innkeeper that he is there on the advise of his doctor, the air is better at this spot. Among the inhabitants of the inn, there is an old man, the former owner of the inn, confined to a wheelchair and mute except for grunts when he sees Pierre; a pretty maid; an orphan boy who attends to the inn's heavy work; an attractive older woman and her husband on holiday; and, also on holiday, a secretive gentleman who stays out of Pierre's sight. The rain keeps falling. People talk about a famous singer who was recently killed in Paris and who, years ago, had visited the inn. The rain keeps falling. A record of hers is constantly playing on the phonograph in tribute. The rain keeps falling. The orphan boy works constantly and hard, hating every moment. The rain keeps falling. Pierre and the maid and, unknown to them, the secretive gentleman all see the attractive older woman seduce the orphan. The rain keeps falling. The gentleman later confronts the orphan and advises him to demand money from the older woman for his services because "there is no love." The rain keeps falling. After days of hearing talk about and the record of the slain singer, an enraged Pierre destroys the phonograph and record. The rain keeps falling. Pierre is having deja vu all over again -- he was an orphan boy who had worked for the old man at the inn, doing menial labor that he hated, and had been rescued by the slain singer and her husband after having provided her with sexual favors. The rain keeps falling.

You get no resolution or spoilers from me. This is a beautifully shot, atmospheric and textured work of Art that must be seen.

Final shot for the ages (BLAST OF SILENCE in reverse): The attractive older woman and her husband are leaving church. The rain keeps falling. She suggests that they walk to the beach because the air is better. The camera tracks them. As they look out to the water (they are in close-up), she says: Such a pretty little beach.

The camera pulls back, faster and faster, until the two of them are a speck. FIN

[JackFavell]

WOW! If your description is anything like the movie, it must be great!

And bleak. (The rain keeps falling)

So you organize your films by adjective?

[knitwit45]

but what was the weather like???

[ChiO]

I think there was one shot where I saw a group in the background building an ark.

[ChiO]

GUILTY BYSTANDER (Joseph Lerner 1950) has a labyrinthine plot (yea!) that is decipherable only through exposition (boo!). Suffice it to say that a down-and-out alcoholic ex-cop (Zachary Scott) is led down a number of blind alleys and double-crossed by friend, foe and family during his search for his missing son through the scuzziest parts of New York City (yea!). And concludes with the reuniting of him, his son and estranged wife in an idyllic suburb (boo!).

Scott is generally not a draw for me, but he is at his best here. His portrayal of an alcoholic, climbing on and falling off the wagon, veering between a desperate search for his son and giving up everything out of weakness, makes Ray Milland look like Carrie Nation. Lerner directed only six movies, C-MAN (1949) being the only other Noir. The cinematography has its moments, with the lighting surpassing the camera movement. The credited cinematographer is Gerald Hirschfeld (FAIL-SAFE, YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN, MY FAVORITE YEAR), whose first two movies were Lerner's two Noirs; however, IMDb also lists the great Russell Harlan (RED RIVER, THE THING, DAY OF THE OUTLAW), whose Noirs include GUN CRAZY, THE MAN WHO CHEATED HIMSELF and RIOT IN CELL BLOCK 11.

Other actors include Faye Emerson (Scott's estranged wife), Mary Boland (the salty operator of the sleaze bag hotel where Scott lives, & her last film appearance), Sam Levene (police captain & Scott's ex-boss), J. Edward Bromberg (crime boss & looking like Peter Lorre), Kay Medford (woozy floozie), Jesse White (barfly swatted away by Medford) and, though not listed in IMDb or Film Noir: An Encyclopedic Reference to the American Style, I swear I saw and heard John Marley (bartender).

Not a bad list of participants for a movie from Film Classics, a short-lived studio operating just this side of PRC.

[JackFavell]

You had me at Mary Boland.

[ChiO]

Guess who turns out to be the real evil character.

I won't tell you the actor's name, but the actor's initials are "M.B."

[JackFavell]

Marlon Brando?

[ChiO]

No. Mitchum, Bob.

[JackFavell]

Milton Berle....

[ChiO]

Matthew Broderick? Meredith Baxter (or, Meredith Birney)? Monte Blue? Ooo...Oooo...Mel Blanc!

[CineMaven]

"Such A Pretty Little Beach" "Guilty Bystander" are these movies you own ChiO? How are you seeing these?