The Silver Screen Oasis

Saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay, how'd you do that? I'm techno-challenged. Above the post a reply box...lots of buttons. I don't see 'em. But thank you.

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OH NO!!! A NEW TOY!!! I CAN NOW RULE THE WORLD NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thank you Miss Goddess. And don't worry...you didn't give a kid a loaded gun.

You're welcome! Just don't point it at anyone, you'll shoot your eye out!

knitwit45 wrote:You're welcome! Just don't point it at anyone, you'll shoot your eye out!

Ha!!! Thank you too!

knitwit45 wrote:Just don't point it at anyone, you'll shoot your eye out!

Ya ask me, Heflin's runnin' the exact same risk from the front side of Ms. Scott's sweater!
(Good thing I didn't say that out-loud anywhere! )

This is the trailer for the first movie directed by Chicago-born Bruno VeSoto (his only other directing efforts were THE BRAIN EATERS (1958) and INVASION OF THE STAR CREATURES (1963)), who was that same year the associate producer of the truly whacked-out and super-eerie DEMENTIA (1955). He also has a long list of acting credits including, not only FEMALE JUNGLE and DEMENTIA, but THE WILD ONE, THE WASP WOMAN, THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS and THE CHOPPERS (the first Arch Hall, Jr. movie). For fans of Poverty Row noir, this is a must-see if only for the incredible cast.

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klondike wrote:

knitwit45 wrote:Just don't point it at anyone, you'll shoot your eye out!

Ya ask me, Heflin's runnin' the exact same risk from the front side of Ms. Scott's sweater!
(Good thing I didn't say that out-loud anywhere! )

Pretty amazing photo, considering it was done long before PhotoShop. Reminds me of a deck of playing cards one of my uncles had . . . . . .

I'll bet it's the same one MY uncle had...are you sure we're not related??? My second grade teacher, Mrs. Stack (honest!) was "built" like that...Dad never missed a conference, PTA meeting, carnival, Christmas assembly...and he traveled for a living!!!!!!

Geez...it's so good to see a parent taking such interest in his child's...education.

That "bullet" (or "torpedo") look was all the fashion at my school. Either that or the "Jane Darwell" look....Talk about a confused child!

knitwit45 wrote:That "bullet" (or "torpedo") look was all the fashion at my school. Either that or the "Jane Darwell" look....Talk about a confused child!

For us guys, the confusion ends in our teens: Darwell for the kitchen, weapon-girls for the dance floor . .
As for the distinction between bullet & torpedo . . that would depend on the caliber of the adversary, and whether one desires to be wounded, or to get sunk!

The House of Noir proudly presents--in it’s entirety on one long,
extended YouTube clip is the 1949 drama D.OA. starring Edmond
O’Brien and directed by Rudolph Mate. Kick back for the next 83
minutes and be witness to one of the strangest, fateful tales ever told…
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In tribute to Jean Simmons, here's the trailer to ANGEL FACE. The entire film is on YouTube in installments. According to Foster Hirsch, Howard Hughes wanted to punish Ms. Simmons, so he borrowed Otto Preminger from 20th Century-Fox, thereby giving Mitchum the opportunity to punish Preminger.

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A little somethin' previously posted at a Noir board, but here we also proudly present the episode in its entirety.

NIGHT CALL (1964)

Program Series: The Twilight Zone
Director: Jacques Tourneur
Writer: Richard Matheson
Cinematographer: Robert Pittack
Actors: Gladys Cooper, Nora Marlowe, Martine Bartlett
Original Air Date: February 7, 1964 (Season 5, Episode 19)

From 1942 through 1958, Jacques Tourneur directed a number of quality film noir that is arguably unparalleled, including OUT OF THE PAST, which many critics and fans consider the outstanding example of the style. During those years, he also directed some Westerns, most of which contain film noir elements. In 1964, with NIGHT CALL, an episode for The Twilight Zone, Tourneur returned to film noir, especially recalling the movies he made for Val Lewton at RKO.

For this marvel of minimalism, the narrative is simplicity itself. During a thunderstorm in the middle of the night, Elva Keene (Gladys Cooper), an elderly woman living alone in a tiny Maine community and limited to being in her bed, rocker and wheelchair, receives a telephone call. The response to her “Hello” is static. The telephone rings again and, again, there is only static.

When Elva’s daytime care provider, Margaret Phillips (Nora Marlowe) arrives the next day, Elva is on the phone with Miss Finch (Martine Bartlett) of the telephone company who explains that the storm caused many service problems. Looking through her day’s mail, Elva complains that there is no personal mail, that her sister has not written for weeks, and says to Margaret, “You don’t know what it’s like to be alone.” When the telephone rings, there is only static. Margaret tells the increasingly agitated Elva to stop complaining and just leave the receiver off the hook.

That night, the next day and the next night, the telephone rings and with each call the voice becomes slightly more decipherable. The voice on the last call repeats, “Where are you? I want to talk to you.” Elva, visibly horrified, says, “No! Leave me alone!” and drops the receiver. The following day, Miss Finch calls and informs Elva that nobody could be calling her because the line is down…in the cemetery.

At Elva’s request, Margaret drives her to the cemetery. The line has fallen on the grave of Brian Douglas, who died in a car crash one week before he and Elva were to marry. She had insisted on driving the car that day because “I was dominating…. And now he’s trying to reach me…. I want to talk to him. I won’t be lonely anymore.” The crash resulted in Brian’s grisly death and Elva being crippled. That night, Elva picks up the telephone and calls out to Brian. Brian says, “You said ‘Leave me alone.’ I always do as you say.” Elva sobs.

A recurring theme in Tourneur’s films is the issue of the integration of an outsider in the community. Here, there are two outsiders: Elva, cut off from her community and family, and Brian, cut off from life. Margaret and Miss Finch try through rationality to bring Elva into their reality, but she rejects those efforts. Similarly, Brian tries to make contact with Elva, but is rejected until she accepts his reality and, then, he rejects her.

Tourneur makes wonderful use of various juxtapositions: Elva, while Margaret is with her, complaining that she is alone; Brian reaching out to Elva and being told to leave her alone; a telephone line, a life line of sorts for Elva to contact people outside of her house, fallen on a grave and being now either a life line or a death line. Like the best of Tourneur’s film noir, NIGHT CALL blurs the line between reality and unreality, the rational and irrational, and respects the intelligence of the audience to decipher the film’s meaning(s).

Side note: The first two characters of Elva’s telephone number are “K” and “L”. Is this another “Kill” message?

Other noir-ish credits of note:

Richard Matheson: THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN, DUEL
Robert Pittack: STRANGE IMPERSONATION
Gladys Cooper: REBECCA, THE GAY FALCON

JACQUES TOURNEUR “Night Call – Part 1”
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JACQUES TOURNEUR “Night Call – Part 2”
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