| Author |
Message |
|
| censored-03 |
 Posted: Tue Nov 30, 2004 2:03 am |
 |
|
Joined: 24 May 2004
Posts: 3058
Location: Gotham, Big Apple, The Naked City
|
Marc wrote: Quote: Marilyn suggested discussing some modern noirs, such as CHINATOWN and BODY HEAT. I had suggested BLOOD SIMPLE and L.A. CONFIDENTIAL.
What you all say?
I think post noir or current noir is a very important part of the entire picture and I say yes to those above and also Taxi Driver, The Long Goodbye, John Boorman's Point Blank, Heat, John Woo's The Killer Sorry if you think it's trivial Marantzo but I think it helps to iron out the kinks on the first day in here at our new NOIR blowout !!! Yeah baby! |
_________________
"Life is a comedy for those who think and a tragedy for those who feel."
-- Horace Walpole |
|
| Back to top |
 
|
| censored-03 |
| Posted: Tue Nov 30, 2004 2:38 am |
|
|
|
Joined: 24 May 2004
Posts: 3058
Location: Gotham, Big Apple, The Naked City
|
Marantzo as soon as possible give us the next 3-5 movies so we can get started on our worldwide quest. Thanks.
The Maltese Falcon with Humphrey Bogart was actually the third film take on the Dashiell Hammitt book of the same title, although the other films weren't called by that name. There is one I know about from the thirties called Satan Met A Lady starring Bette Davis.
The Maltese Falcon was a film that changed Bogart's career in that he became a "good guy" hero and romantic lead instead of someone on the wrong side of the law..or "a bad guy". He had started to make the character cross-over with High Sierra, but TMF really was the film that changed the theater going audience's take on Bogie forever. His portrayal of the tough but sympathetic Sam Spade is the ultimate detective character and a great jumping off point for this Noir Forum. Thanks to all involved. |
_________________
"Life is a comedy for those who think and a tragedy for those who feel."
-- Horace Walpole |
|
| Back to top |
|
| tirebiter |
| Posted: Tue Nov 30, 2004 2:49 am |
|
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 4011
Location: not far away
|
Some very noirish quotes from Sam Spade:
When a man's partner is killed, he's supposed to do something about it. It doesn't make any difference what you thought of him. He was your partner and you're supposed to do something about it.
.
When you're slapped, you'll take it and like it. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| ehle64 |
| Posted: Tue Nov 30, 2004 3:34 am |
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 7149
Location: NYC; US&A
|
| This is cool, I've never seen The Maltese Falcon all the way through before. Just your standard clips. |
_________________
It truly disappoints me when people do something for you via no prompt of your own and then use it as some kind of weapon against you at a later time and place. It is what it is. |
|
| Back to top |
|
| Marc |
| Posted: Tue Nov 30, 2004 3:48 am |
|
|
Joined: 19 May 2004
Posts: 8424
|
Quote: also Taxi Driver, The Long Goodbye, John Boorman's Point Blank, Heat, John Woo's The Killer
good shit. shockingly, POINT BLANK has not been released on DVD.
I have it on laserdisc and recently screened for my film society. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| Shane |
| Posted: Tue Nov 30, 2004 3:48 am |
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 1168
Location: Chicago
|
actually censored I'll agree to a point about the cross over but I think there was a lot of fence riding here as well.
This film gave us an uncommon quality in noir, laughs and good ones too. The scene with Brigid (Mary Astor) trying to possibly kill Joe Cairo(Peter Lorre) only to have to explain to the cops(Ward Bond and Barton MacLane) a minute later they were play-acting or the wonderful scene where Spade and the Fatmans ( SydneyGreenstreet) conversation convince the gunsal,Wilmer(Elisha Cook Jr.) he's about to be setup. This is one of the things which to me set in motion the futher team ups of this crew, they all seem to do what they do very well together and with the tongue not so firmly planted in thier cheeks. I believe there was a need for this new mixture and that may be what set american noir apart as evidenced a decade later by the use of a simular crew in Truman Capote and John Huston comedic homage to the genre, Beat the Devil. |
_________________
I'd like to continue the argument we were having before. What was it about? |
|
| Back to top |
|
| censored-03 |
| Posted: Tue Nov 30, 2004 4:30 am |
|
|
|
Joined: 24 May 2004
Posts: 3058
Location: Gotham, Big Apple, The Naked City
|
Shane I like your take on it particularly your use of the word gunsal. Man I had forgotten that one.
For those with no other way to see The Maltese Falcon if you have Turner Classic Movies you can see it on Dec. 31st on a great day for noir on TCM : Maltese Falcon 12:00PM EST
The Big Sleep 2:00PM EST
Dark Passage 4:00 PM EST
Key Largo 6:00PM EST
Also The Postman Always Rings Twice will be on TCM this coming Friday Dec. 3rd at 4:30 AM EST Some of you will make it that late...right ?
One more noir this month at TCM is Touch of Evil Sat. Dec. 11th 8:00 AM EST
Point Blank will be on TCM Wed. Dec. 29th 2:00 AM EST
Thanks to Marj for the inspiration to look them up. |
_________________
"Life is a comedy for those who think and a tragedy for those who feel."
-- Horace Walpole |
|
| Back to top |
|
| Shane |
| Posted: Tue Nov 30, 2004 4:41 am |
|
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 1168
Location: Chicago
|
| Love your tagline!!!! |
_________________
I'd like to continue the argument we were having before. What was it about? |
|
| Back to top |
|
| billyweeds |
| Posted: Tue Nov 30, 2004 5:40 am |
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20613
Location: New York City
|
"Gunsel" is spelled...well, the way I just spelled it. It's an "E," not an "A."
The Maltese Falcon is one of the most faithful adaptations of any novel ever brought to the screen. It moves so fast that people may not be aware of the amazing amount of dialogue it contains. If I didn't know better, I would suspect it was directed by Howard Hawks--the Howard Hawks not of The Big Sleep but of His Girl Friday. Plot is almost all done in fast-paced dialogue. The viewer of this movie must be a very alert listener or the plot will escape unnoticed.
This has been said by others, but Mary Astor's hairdo is remarkably unsexy by contemporary standards and this damaged the film for me ever so slightly. Her performance is arch in just the right way and I believe her (well, believe in the right way), but her sex appeal is limited by that iout-of-date hair style. Otherwise the cast is admirable, all the way to Jerome Cowan's pitch-perfect cameo as Miles Archer.
But the billing is weird. Gladys George gets, I think, third billing as Archer's wife. This must have been a contractual thing, because her part is minimal. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| dlhavard |
| Posted: Tue Nov 30, 2004 8:45 am |
|
|
|
Joined: 24 May 2004
Posts: 1352
Location: Detroit (where the slow are run over)
|
A bit of trivia about MF is that George Raft was offered the part but turned it down (he also turned down Casablanca). Funny, but I can't imagine anyone but Bogie playing the parts.
One thing I liked about the early Noir is that there is actually a great deal of humor in it. The later films were darker and more bitter. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| Ghulam |
| Posted: Tue Nov 30, 2004 9:43 am |
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 4742
Location: Upstate NY
|
| Have not seen MF since I rented it when the kids were in middle school, so I have only a hazy memory of it, although I do remember the fast dialogue. I should have it by Saturday, so will be ready for the beginning of the discussion on Monday. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| Marilyn |
| Posted: Tue Nov 30, 2004 10:05 am |
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 8210
Location: Skokie (not a bad movie, btw)
|
"Let's talk about the bird."
One of my favorite movie lines.
I would suggest that we might want to consider at some point the influence of noir on the people who coined the term. Le Samourai is perhaps my favorite noir. |
_________________
http://ferdyonfilms.com |
|
| Back to top |
|
| Marilyn |
| Posted: Tue Nov 30, 2004 10:16 am |
|
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 8210
Location: Skokie (not a bad movie, btw)
|
Just an aside about Edgar Ulmer the director of Detour. His 1955 film The Naked Dawn is playing at the LaSalle this Saturday. The film apparently deeply impressed Francios Truffaut, who said in his review of it:
Quote: One of the most beautiful modern novels I know is Jules et Jim by Henri-Pierre Roche, which shows how, over a lifetime, two friends and the woman companion they share love one another with tenderness and almost no harshness, thanks to an esthetic morality constantly reconsidered. The Naked Dawn is the first film that has made me think that Jules et Jim could be done as a film." |
_________________
http://ferdyonfilms.com |
|
| Back to top |
|
| marantzo |
| Posted: Tue Nov 30, 2004 10:28 am |
|
|
|
Guest
|
Billy pre-empted my post; correcting the spelling of 'gunsel' and mentioning that the Maltese Falcon movie is remarkable in it's adherence to the dialogue of the book. I read the book many years and many viewings of the movie. I was amazed at the almost complete transfer of dialogue from book to movie. It's maybe the only case that I can think of, where if you've seen the movie you know the book. The only difference that comes to mind is the stature (physically) of Sam Spade.
Thanks for the compliment Marilyn, your opinion means a lot to me. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| Marilyn |
| Posted: Tue Nov 30, 2004 10:28 am |
|
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 8210
Location: Skokie (not a bad movie, btw)
|
| If we are beginning with The Maltese Falcon, I have a comment to make about the progess of the antihero in noir. In MF, Bogart skirts the law, but he has a code that makes him act against his own desires. I might argue that he uses the code to keep him from falling into the clutches of a real dragon lady--he's got a great survival instinct. In later noirs, the antihero seems to move mindlessly through his adventure, seeking something that ultimately will make no difference in his life and could, in fact, end it. The ending of the edited version (not the "happy" ending of the restored version) of Kiss Me Deadly is perhaps the apex of this kind of quest. D.O.A. is another. |
_________________
http://ferdyonfilms.com |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
