Reviews

A sublime and transcendent experience for fans missing the glorious Celtic romps of the Pogues in their prime. Director Temple wildly enhances the underwhelming interviews with a mostly ruined, but still fascinating, Shane MacGowan with psychedelic animation, heavenly black and white Irish pastoral scenes, and an engaging trove of archival footage that includes Shane dancing in the front row of a Sex Pistols' show. Gets to the very heart of Shane and connects all the essential dots ultimately revealing a brave and free spirit who was ripped away as a child into the devastating whirlwinds of his era yet managed somehow to ride them all out.

A remarkable and rare performance by Kim Stanley as a medium who is in a slump is probably the most impressive aspect of this excellent British thriller, and it earned her an Oscar nomination in a career mostly known for Broadway roles. Stanley coerces the most hen-pecked husband in cinema history, Richard Attenborough in convincing form, that they need to kidnap a child to boost their sagging séance business. The plot unfolds brilliantly, each step revealing another motivation for this otherwise enigmatic crime. Tense, fascinating, mysterious, and deeply compelling from beginning to end and it delivers a knockout punch in the séance finale.

An early Indie-Horror masterpiece that overcomes its miniscule budget and tiny crew with disturbing, creepy ambiance. Candace Hilligoss is the haunted blonde whose car plunges into a cold rural river, beginning her dissent into madness, death, or Salt Lake City (take your pick!). Gene Moore's hair-tingling morbid organ soundtrack combine with the sinister lo-fi cinematography and peak at the transcendently ghoulish finale at an abandoned Salt Lake amusement park.

Classy San Francisco socialite Merle Oberon falls in love with blind pianist Dana Andrews, even though he is bitter, cruel, and demeaning, especially to her. But his unpublished concerto piece is overwhelming to her ears, so she creates a strange and unlikely plot to both get his talents out into the world and seduce him. Quality support roles by Hoagie Carmichael and Ethel Barrymore make this watchable, and Oberon and Andrews do their best, but like the grandiose and overwrought concerto, the film can't find any real street cred. The Hoagie songs are far better!

When a mixed-race woman is found murdered in a London park, serene Chief Inspector Nigel Patrick points the investigation to the white family who were not keen on the woman marrying into their midst. Though action is minimal, surprise twists in the case keep the tension high and sharp insights into the nature of institutional racism make this film both exceptional and ahead of its time.

Ida Lupino is classy and compelling as a lounge singer who returns home to California and gets a gig at a gangster's club. Man problems ensue, in part because all the men in this film are quite damaged, even the ones not returning from WWII. Often it seems the point of this film is to let Ida sing a few jazz numbers, such as the title song, then throw together a plot around her. Melodrama, noir-toned night shots, jumping jazz tunes, and Ida steering the world in the right direction, through an undercurrent of melancholy.

A rousing and inspirational newspaper noir made on a shoestring budget with director Samuel Fuller's own money (which he lost!) and a small name cast. Gene Evans is the principled editor in the Park Row of 1886, whose dream of his own paper to run is fulfilled by a heavy drinking investor at a bar. And Mary Welsh is the strong but ethically challenged editor at the paper that intends to run them into the ground. The dueling editors have a great distaste for each other, despite an undercurrent of building lust. Park Row features great dialogue, fascinating characters, amusingly detailed glimpses of the latest 1880s newsprint technology, the actual moment linotype is invented, some surprisingly violent attacks on the press, and a fundamental message that is as urgent as ever today-democracy dies without a free and active press.

Not the Whitney Houston thing, but the obscure B noir quickie with tough guy deluxe, Lawrence Tierney. Tierney once again displays the full range of human emotion between grimacing and scowling as he roughs someone up daily, is fired for slugging his boss, is generally rude to everyone, and he's the good guy this time! Suddenly an ex-cop, Tierney investigates a murder and discovers indisputable evidence that meatpacking plants are the source of all evil. The plot seems constipated, until it all comes out at once in time for the meat hook and hog saw finale. A few nice shots of vintage LA night streets, a few Tierney wisecracks in between punches, a ridiculous plot, and in a flash you are right back on the street wondering how or why you found it somewhat enjoyable.

The earliest film to be considered a Western noir, Ox-Bow is a powerful, disturbing, and vividly realistic picture of mob justice and the deeper meaning of the law. In one of his greatest roles, Henry Fonda portrays an unkempt, temperamental, and flawed Western anti-hero who goes along on a posse to chase down some cattle rustlers who murdered a local rancher. When they catch their suspects an intense conflict arises between those rushing to judgment and those having reasonable doubts. Great dialogue, a solid supporting cast, and profound moral issues make this film a riveting drama, far weightier than your average Western, and all in a mere 75 minutes. Despite its low budget and expectations, Ox-Bow was nominated for Best Picture of 1943.

Edward G. Robinson presides over his Italian family with charismatic tyranny as he builds a banking empire in this rock-solid Little Italy noir. Richard Conte and Susan Hayward provide love and rockets in an unlikely and hard to maintain romance, and a good amount of humor and sharp dialogue lessens the blows of what is more a family melodrama than a crime film.

Cary Grant, who invented "debonair", charms the library glasses off a restrained Joan Fontaine, and they live happily-ever-after, at least until their honeymoon ends. Then he seems to be trying to murder her.

Director Edward Dmytryk warns us of the "menace of girl hitchhikers" in this obscure B movie starring Nan Grey and Mary Anderson as sisters who are forced to work for the mob after getting out of reform school. The girls join a vast network of highway tramps who lure lustful male travellers to mob-owned motor courts where they are fleeced. Though silly and predictable, it does eventually deliver some entertainingly campy excess.

An odd and darkly beautiful swamp noir directed by revered French director Jean Renoir. Dana Andrews charges into the eerie & dangerous wilds of the Okeefenokee to find his lost dog and encounters the ravaged but thriving fugitive Walter Brennan.

Exoticism runs amok in Sternberg's Shanghai-Babylon noir spectacle. A very young and beautiful Gene Tierney is overmatched, both as an actress and a character, as she waltzes into the ornate oriental casino world of Ona Munson's Mother Gin Sling.

Razor-sharp card shark Barbara Stanwyck stuns and hypnotizes unassuming rich heir and Amazon explorer Henry Fonda into an exhilarating and wild romance. A cast of amusing side characters, including a beer baron who looks and sounds like a bullfrog, keep things comically rolling along.

Pin-up heroine and song & dance superstar Betty Grable ventures into the shadowy world of noir, where she discovers that her beautiful sister has been murdered. Suave, charming, and streetwise sports promoter Victor Mature swears he had nothing to do with it, and tough New York cops fight through the dense cigarette smoke haze to get the answers. A well-framed, well-acted, and very suspenseful and evocative early noir.

In this early noir-era dip into darkness, Peter Lorre excels in a rare starring role, magically transforming from naïve Old World immigrant dishwasher into diabolical crime genius after a hotel fire burns his face off. A creepy mask powers his performance, which transcends the B movie budget, and ends in a desolate Yuma desert climax.

A lunatic evil twin escapes to terrorize a small Southern Gothic town and get smitten with a young and saucy Susan Hayward. And that's the good news! A campy, good twin-bad twin, swamp melodrama.

First time director John Huston hits a thundering grand slam in his first at bat, adapting Dashiell Hammett's classic San Francisco crime novel into a script of fiery drama and scintillating dialogue, assembling a legendary cast of character actors, and instantly turning lesser known actor Humphrey Bogart a screen icon for the ages. And he got to sneak in his dad, famous actor Walter Huston, in a cameo as a sea captain who stumbles into Sam Spade's office carrying the falcon and instantly drops dead.

An evil granny gangsta tries to bring down Fay Wray's family busing business. Light comedy, romance, and harrowing vintage bus crashes, but not enough juice to fill your glass.

Now considered by many to be the very first true film noir, this dark and strange RKO B movie features a classic Peter Lorre creepy psycho performance and an eerie and extended hallucinatory Expressionistic nightmare sequence.

Based on 3 Eugene O'Neill's plays and his favorite film, Voyage is a grim, dark seafaring tale by John Ford about a tramp steamer's rogue's gallery crew as they sail across the dangerous Atlantic in the early days of WWII with a cargo of ammunition. Exquisite pre-Noir cinematography, strange Irish characters and John Wayne playing a Swede. The first WWII film.

Bette Davis powers this exotic rubber plantation murder melodrama and begins the film with a big bang--emptying her revolver into the body of some unfortunate man. A classic early femme fatale performance by Davis, brilliant acting in every role, a compelling plot, and moody tropical atmospherics make this one of the best films of 1940.

Boris Karloff stars in film five of the Mr. Wong series playing the reserved, brilliant, and refined Chinese American detective James Lee Wong. Amusing banter, incompetent police, and a typical murder mystery that only Wong can solve complete the formula for this very average film. Not sure why this is labeled a FILM NOIR by IMDB, because the other Wong films aren't.

John Garfield provides the power as a gung-ho gangster who struggles to accept his time at Sing Sing in this prison reform drama. A faithful remake of 20,000 Years At Sing Sing that leans more to its 30s gangster roots than to the nascent style of film noir. Though the plot itself is harsh, the film lacks subtlety, portrays the prison staff as noble stewards bent on rehabilitation, and aims for sentimentality over action.