Noir Alley

[Bronxgirl48]

I saw KISS THE BLOOD OFF MY HANDS years ago but (mercifully) hardly remembered any of it. Seeing it Sunday morning after all that time made me realize why, lol. Outre, bizarre, awkward, silly, just plain weird. The cinematography is outstanding, though, and certainly contributes to the overall surreal, nightmarish quality of the story. "Sure, Burt, come right in through my window as I'm sleeping, do some gentle, goofy terrorizing then greet me politely the next day with "Hello, would you like to go on a date?"

I cannot get over the medieval punishment he receives in post-WWII England. Were they really whipping first-time offenders with cat-o-nine tails in 1948?

That was indeed shocking, brutal for a 1948 film and brutal for a civilized country in 1948.

Well they were still hanging people in England in the early 60s!

In America too -- with those IN COLD BLOOD killers I think.

[Hibi]

Yep. Some states did.

[Andree]

Eeeeek! I am assuming it only took one take.

I would hope so for Burt's sake. Wouldn't it have been one of those funny old Hollywood pranks if Kirk had snuck
onto the set and started giving Burt a whipping.

[jamesjazzguitar]

HANGOVER SQUARE is an old favorite of mine. An excellent period melodrama-thriller but in my opinion it does not qualify as noir (and I have an expansive interpretation of this genre that goes beyond the hard-boiled detectives and dames scenario) For me, George Harvey Bone's obsession with Netta Longdon is not fatalistic -- he is just a very sick individual who cannot help his murderous rages.

George's obsession was in the completion of the concerto. That was what was fatalistic; anyone that got in the way had to be dealt with. We see that at the end. What is unrealistic is that the Doctor doesn't. I.e. if he would have let George go and perform his concerto, George would have gone quietly to a mental facility. But then we would not have had that one-for-the-books ending.

Great points I hadn't immediately thought of, james. So do you think HANGOVER SQUARE could be considered noir?

Generally I try to avoid the noir\not noir classification. Hangover Square has some noir themes, as well as visuals. That being said, if I was writing a book on Film Noir I would not list Hangover Square in the main section of the book. Instead I would feature it in the appendix as a period-film that has noir themes.

This is what the book Film Noir (Ward \ Silver), does: In the appendix it has western films with noir themes (Blood on the Moon, Perused), comedies (Unfaithfully Yours), etc...

[EP Millstone]

Generally I try to avoid the noir\not noir classification. Hangover Square has some noir themes, as well as visuals. That being said, if I was writing a book on Film Noir I would not list Hangover Square in the main section of the book. Instead I would feature it in the appendix as a period-film that has noir themes.

This is what the book Film Noir (Ward \ Silver), does: In the appendix it has western films with noir themes (Blood on the Moon, Perused), comedies (Unfaithfully Yours), etc...

And yet, the same authors (Alain Silver and James Ursini, along with Elizabeth Ward and Robert Porfirio) make no such distinction in FILM NOIR The Encyclopedia. In that 2010 tome, published by Overlook Duckworth, Hangover Square is an unqualified and unequivocal entry (as is The Lodger).

[laffite]

I enjoyed BLOOD OFF MY HANDS but could not always take it seriously. I agree with someone that Joan tried to play it a little too nonchalant in the beginning and I wondered whether she had a feel for the role, but she came on strong at the last, especially helpful in that she had more to do. A weird parallel came to mind regarding Burt and AudreyH. Here the former quite a splash with screen appearance in an early role, and the latter the same with Roman Holiday. Just a few years apart to help usher in the post-war era. The pair of scissors as a murder weapon made me chuckle, who could not think of Dial M? Newton was fine of course, but the role seems so Taylor-Made for him that the performance had a phoned-in quality about it or perhaps more fair, it came too easy. If Burt's performance seemed a little green, it was overcome by sheer physically and energy, added to by a stunning new face. He even had a bare upper torso scene which should thrill any of the ilk of woman in thrall to such things. Better even than a t-shirt scene (semi-private joke).

I liked the ending where they decide to face the music.

This reminded me of Port of Call Ingmar Bergman. This film was a little more salient because the two protagonists were much younger

and would have been more expected to run away

. It was moving and a bit of a feel-good quality.

[jamesjazzguitar]

Generally I try to avoid the noir\not noir classification. Hangover Square has some noir themes, as well as visuals. That being said, if I was writing a book on Film Noir I would not list Hangover Square in the main section of the book. Instead I would feature it in the appendix as a period-film that has noir themes.

This is what the book Film Noir (Ward \ Silver), does: In the appendix it has western films with noir themes (Blood on the Moon, Perused), comedies (Unfaithfully Yours), etc...

And yet, the same authors (Alain Silver and James Ursini, along with Elizabeth Ward and Robert Porfirio) make no such distinction in FILM NOIR The Encyclopedia. In that 2010 tome, published by Overlook Duckworth, Hangover Square is an unqualified and unequivocal entry (as is The Lodger).

My version of the book was published before 2010, (I can not find the date since the book has fallen apart and the first few pages are misplaced) and the "H" sections starts off with The Harder They Fall, and then He Ran All The Way, etc.. I.e. there is no Hangover Square.

But yea, I did know the book has had many revisions.

[jamesjazzguitar]

Delete

[EP Millstone]

My version of the book was published before 2010 . . . and the "H" sections starts off with The Harder They Fall, and then He Ran All The Way, etc.. I.e. there is no Hangover Square . . .

In the Preface to the 4th Edition (published in 2010), it is stated that the appendices were removed to make the encyclopedia easier to use.

[Bronxgirl48]

Eeeeek! I am assuming it only took one take.

I would hope so for Burt's sake. Wouldn't it have been one of those funny old Hollywood pranks if Kirk had snuck
onto the set and started giving Burt a whipping.

I could believe it, lol -- the start of their friendly competitive rivalry.

[Bronxgirl48]

I enjoyed BLOOD OFF MY HANDS but could not always take it seriously. I agree with someone that Joan tried to play it a little too nonchalant in the beginning and I wondered whether she had a feel for the role, but she came on strong at the last, especially helpful in that she had more to do. A weird parallel came to mind regarding Burt and AudreyH. Here the former quite a splash with screen appearance in an early role, and the latter the same with Roman Holiday. Just a few years apart to help usher in the post-war era. The pair of scissors as a murder weapon made me chuckle, who could not think of Dial M? Newton was fine of course, but the role seems so Taylor-Made for him that the performance had a phoned-in quality about it or perhaps more fair, it came too easy. If Burt's performance seemed a little green, it was overcome by sheer physically and energy, added to by a stunning new face. He even had a bare upper torso scene which should thrill any of the ilk of woman in thrall to such things. Better even than a t-shirt scene (semi-private joke).

I liked the ending where they decide to face the music.

This reminded me of Port of Call Ingmar Bergman. This film was a little more salient because the two protagonists were much younger

and would have been more expected to run away

. It was moving and a bit of a feel-good quality.

laffite, wow, two great minds -- I did think of DIAL M FOR MURDER as Joan reached for the scissors six years before Grace. And I could not agree with you more about Robert Newton; this was an actor who could practically play Bill Sikes in his sleep, lol. (not forgetting Blackbeard and Long John Silver)

[Bronxgirl48]

George's obsession was in the completion of the concerto. That was what was fatalistic; anyone that got in the way had to be dealt with. We see that at the end. What is unrealistic is that the Doctor doesn't. I.e. if he would have let George go and perform his concerto, George would have gone quietly to a mental facility. But then we would not have had that one-for-the-books ending.

Great points I hadn't immediately thought of, james. So do you think HANGOVER SQUARE could be considered noir?

Generally I try to avoid the noir\not noir classification. Hangover Square has some noir themes, as well as visuals. That being said, if I was writing a book on Film Noir I would not list Hangover Square in the main section of the book. Instead I would feature it in the appendix as a period-film that has noir themes.

This is what the book Film Noir (Ward \ Silver), does: In the appendix it has western films with noir themes (Blood on the Moon, Perused), comedies (Unfaithfully Yours), etc...

I tend to agree with you -- sometimes I think I can actually find noir themes in every single movie I watch, including the Shirley Temple Depression-era vehicles, lol. (abandonment, alienation in an uncaring universe, spinach as an evil vegetable, etc. Okay maybe not the last)

[Sue Sue Applegate]

I agree, Bronxgirl! And so glad you are here.

[Andree]

I could believe it, lol -- the start of their friendly competitive rivalry.

Just a couple of grown-up kids. My aunt went to school with Kirk Douglas in Amsterdam, NY when he was still
known as Isodor Demsky.

[Andree]

-Want to go to my place and see my etchings?
-Yeah, I've never heard that one before.
-How about my collection of European salt shakers?
-Get lost.
-I've got a baseball autographed by Wee Willie Keeler.
-Now you're talking. Let's go.

Any movie that begins with a guy saying 'I don't want a priest' can't be that bad. Out of the big city into the wide spaces of the
west. Ruth is tied of playing Desdemona and getting strangled every night in small, jerkwater towns, so she's taking a dude ranch
vacay. On the way she meets Todd, the recently acquitted wife killer. Did he or didn't he? That is the question. She gets to the
dude ranch to find it's closed, but proprietor McCambridge lets her stay on for a few days. Back where she first came from, she
is introduced to Scott, playing his usual dapper ladies' man of semi-creepy charm with more one liners than Henny Youngman. They
flirt for a while, but she ping pongs back to Todd, where the two kids discover yep, they're in love and get married, with Ruth convinced
that Todd is not a killer. But he goes all weird during their wedding night and Ruth takes off before the marriage can be consummated,
unless it already was among the cliffs of the desert. Then we discover that Mercedes was in love with Todd and went and killed his
first wife. Naughty, naughty. Mercedes tries to strangle Ruth, but she fails and is taken into custody. Ruth and Richard get back
together and ride off happily into the sunset. The western setting makes things a little more interesting and there are some nice shots
of the western expanse with some touches of the gothic at the start of the film, but the story itself is rather threadbare and
unoriginal. It is fun to see Scott dressed up in his cowpoke gear while spouting his usual smart aleck dialogue. Entertaining enough,
but it's nothing special.