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The Greatest Films Noir?

June Vincent and Dan Duryea in Black Angel

A friend recently asked me to compile my list of ten to twenty of the greatest films noir for a project he is working on. I came up with thirteen. I thought it would be fun to share it with the siffblog readers. I would love to hear back from you about titles that you felt should or should not have been included.

For this list I am adhering to a strict definition of film noir- so no color films on this list or sub-genres like noir western, gangster films, heist films or police procedural, and nothing past the 50s. For this list, there must be an actual crime, deep-seated emotional conflicts, dangerous desire and take place in a morally ambiguous universe typically located in a rain soaked city where it always seems to be night. Witty sarcastic dialog preferred. Notable absences on the list: The Third Man, Touch of Evil, The Lady From Shanghai, Sunset Blvd, Night of The Hunter, The Big Sleep-great films but somehow too expensive, or too formal or too indicative of their director's style to belong to this list of tough gritty little noirs. Out of The Past, The Big Heat and The Killers are prototypical, finely made noirs, and while not personal favorites of mine, are still highly recommended viewing.

Films are not ranked but in order of production year.
* Denotes available on home video.
Original production and distribution companies noted.

The Maltese Falcon 1941 Warner Bros. Pictures*
A seminal film noir that set the visual style of noir- deep focus camera work, chiaroscuro lighting, high contrast black and white, urban setting of streets and small rooms ands marked the key story and character elements of noir- the femme fatale, a hard boiled detective/hero, a Byzantine plot that barely makes sense but provides a dark and potentially fatal quest for the protagonist, overriding moral ambiguity, and sexually questionable villains. Incredibly faithful adaptation of Dashiell Hammett's book, one of the most perfect crime novels ever written.

This Gun For Hire 1942 Paramount Pictures*
Reversal of the sexes makes this film stand out. The heroine, Veronica Lake, is the one on the dark journey who encounters a homme fatale. Being a woman she realizes he's a psychopath and is smart enough not to sleep with him and marries the good man who adores her, but she does give the homme fatale part of her heart. Ladd gives his finest performance as the frightening but compelling assassin. Ladd and Lake's chemistry burns up the screen. Definitely a softer story then the original Graham Greene novel.

Ossessione 1943 Industrie Cinematografiche Italiane (ICI)*
It's the only foreign film on this list. I see noir as a strictly American genre, but it's the best adaptation of Cain's classic novel, The Postman Always Rings Twice and is true to the noir conventions. Like Bunuel's 1954 Mexican version of Wuthering Heights; the transference of the story to another culture makes it work better then the versions produced in their native language. Director Visconti captures the wild sexual energy between the two characters much better then the American directors who tried it.

Double Indemnity 1944 Paramount Pictures*
Barbara Stanwyck plays the greatest femme fatale of all time, Phyllis Dietrichson. I always wondered if author James M. Cain named her after Marlene Dietrich. Barbara seems to be just another heartless femme fatale looking for a chump, but then you realize she's mad as a bag of ferrets. Fred MacMurray plays the chump and is surprisingly sexy. Billy Wilder directs. M y favorite dialog from it:
Phyllis: Mr. Neff, why don't you drop by tomorrow evening about eight-thirty. He'll be in then.
Walter Neff: Who?
Phyllis: My husband. You were anxious to talk to him weren't you?
Walter Neff: Yeah, I was, but I'm sort of getting over the idea, if you know what I mean.
Phyllis: There's a speed limit in this state, Mr. Neff. Forty-five miles an hour.
Walter Neff: How fast was I going, officer?
Phyllis: I'd say around ninety.
Walter Neff: Suppose you get down off your motorcycle and give me a ticket.
Phyllis: Suppose I let you off with a warning this time.
Walter Neff: Suppose it doesn't take.
Phyllis: Suppose I have to whack you over the knuckles.
Walter Neff: Suppose I bust out crying and put my head on your shoulder.
Phyllis: Suppose you try putting it on my husband's shoulder.
Walter Neff: That tears it.

Laura 1944 Twentieth-Century Fox Film Corporation*
This film is so good that if I am flipping channels and it's on, I will watch it, despite the fact that I own a copy. Great script. Great direction. Great cast. Especially fun to see Vincent Price as the charming Southern gentleman who lives off the kindness of women. Clifton Webb's performance as the acid tongued columnist Waldo Lydecker is unbelievably great. Favorite line: "I must say, for a charming, intelligent girl, you certainly surrounded yourself with a remarkable collection of dopes."

Mildred Pierce 1945 Warner Bros. Pictures*
Joan Crawford totally deserved her Oscar for her performance as Mildred, a divorcee with two kids who goes from baking pies in her kitchen to owning her own chain of restaurants (what is it with James M. Cain and restaurant owners?) Unfortunately, the daughter that survives childhood is the biggest ingrate in film history. Murder ensues.

Scarlet Street 1945 Diana Pictures Inc. Dist. by Universal Pictures*
Wowszer. This one gets better with every viewing. Edward G Robinson sympathetically plays the hero who finds out first hand that you never really get away with murder. Joan Bennett is wonderfully crude as the cheap little vixen who destroys his life. But the standouts are Fritz Lang's direction, the cinematography and Dan Duryea as the sleazy boyfriend/pimp who uses his sexual prowess to keep Bennett in line and when that doesn't work gives her the greatest backhand in cinema.

Black Angel 1946 Universal Pictures*
This is a good adaptation of one of Cornell Woolrich's "black" novels. It features a great atypical role for the usually bad guy actor Dan Duryea. He plays beautiful loser Martin Blair an alcoholic songwriter still obsessively in love with his recently murdered ex-wife. The wife of the man convicted of the murder enlists his help in finding the real killer. Duryea falls for her and complications ensue. Duryea was so well known for slapping his female co-stars at this point, that Universal, in it's publicity campaign for the film, attributed Duryea's not hitting co-star June Vincent to her recent pregnancy!

Nightmare Alley 1947 Twentieth-Century Fox Film Corporation*
DARK. DARK. DARK. It's called film noir for a reason. Tyrone Power fought for this part to show he was more then a pretty face and, boy, did he. He gives one of the greatest portrayal in film noir as the ambitious and amoral Stanton Carlisle who goes from carnival roustabout, to a society darling as a medium/spiritualist then falls into alcoholism and degradation. Adapted from an even darker book by William Lindsay Gresham- as with most adaptations of noir classics- they had to tone down the sexuality and the ending.

Night and the City 1950 Twentieth-Century Fox Film Corporation*
London has never looked as damp, depressing and hopeless as in this Jules Dassin gem. Richard Widmark gives a remarkably unnerving performance as Harry Fabian. He's a conniving little hustler who screws over everyone in his desperate bid for success. He deserves to fail; he deserves everything he gets; yet you still somehow feel sorry for him.

On Dangerous Ground 1952 RKO Radio Pictures*
Robert Ryan gives an emotionally charged performance as a city cop on the verge of a breakdown. After nearly killing a suspect, he's sent out to the country to find the murderer of a young woman. There he encounters Ida Lupino, the blind sister of the main suspect. Can he overcome his personal demons and connect with her? Bonus: John Ford Players Ward Bond and Olive Cary portray the murdered girls parents. Oddly this film reminds me of Japanese director Ozu- I think for its emphasis on character and the overall bittersweet mood.

In A Lonely Place 1955 Santana Pictures Corporation, Dist. by Columbia Pictures*
One of Humphrey Bogart's finest performances, and one of the characters closet to his real self, he plays an alcoholic writer with a serious anger management problem. Gloria Grahame plays the woman who falls for him but ultimately wonders if he's capable of murder. Director Nicholas Ray puts together a great film noir with an unusual amount of emotional truth- incredibly melancholy.

Sweet Smell of Success 1957 Hill-Hecht-Lancaster Productions Dist: United Artist*
"The next time you want information, don't scratch for it like a dog, ask for it like a man!" says Burt Lancaster, as all powerful newspaper columnist J.J. Hunsecker to Tony Curtis, ambitious press agent Sidney Falco. I think both actors give the best performances of their careers in this film. This taught thriller keeps twisting and turning through a New York full of morally bankrupt characters. Lancaster terrified me, as Hunsecker- his relationship with his sister is deeply disturbing and threatening. When I watched this film, I kept covering my eyes, not because of on screen physical violence, but a feeling of moral revulsion.

UPG PH

A seamless upgrade to 1.2Ghz from what was formerly .4Ghz might speed the server up a mite. Phew!

Starting Fresh with Adrienne Shelly's Waitress

WAITRESS

(Adrienne Shelly, 2007, USA, 104 minutes)

This movie truly made me both happy and sad at the same time. Happy, because it's honestly one of the best movies I've seen in well, forever. And sad, because director Adrienne Shelly will never be able to make another like it.

Jenna (Keri Russell) works with friends Becky (Cheryl Hines) and Dawn (played by Shelly) at Joe's restaurant, a small diner in the South that specializes in pies - and baking them is the only happiness Jenna ever gets in her life. Her controlling husband, Earl (Jeremy Sisto), demands every dollar she earns, won't let her have any freedom, and insists that all her thoughts and actions be dedicated to him and his needs.

When Jenna realizes she's pregnant, (which will make her dreams of escaping Earl almost impossible), she meets Dr. Pomatter (a gentle and awkward Nathan Fillion), and an affair develops that makes Jenna realize that maybe she is worth more than she thinks she is, and that happiness may be possible if you make the right choices. In the words of the cantankerous diner owner, Old Joe (played with perfection by Andy Griffith!), sometimes you have to "start fresh".

At the risk of sounding cliché, this is not your typical romantic comedy. Shelly's script infuses just the right amount of comic laugh-out-loud moments with heart-tugging realism. Her grasp on the characters is expert - when Jenna jumps into fantasies about possible new pie recipes, you go with her, and then back into the story seamlessly. Most notably: there are no perfect characters, no fairytale illusions, and certainly no neat ends. What you're left with when the credits roll is an inspiring, touching, very real, and believable story.

For those unaware, director, actor, and writer Adrienne Shelly was murdered before this film was completed. Her family and friends worked hard to make sure her last film was released. Waitress is currently playing in limited theaters, and will hopefully open nationwide soon.

Image: Cinema Sips (Keri Russell as Jenna). 

Kenneth Anger at Three Dollar Bill Cinema

"His expression was of the erotic realm - the neurotic gothic deviated sex-colored world and it was a turning inside out of himself and magnificent."--Jack Smith on Josef von Sternberg

Like Jack Smith, Kenneth Anger's films have long languished on prints and video-cassettes of varying quality. To complicate matters, Anger, like Smith, continued to tinker with his films long after he made them. Some, like Rabbit's Moon, appeared every few years with a different cut and soundtrack [the first version I saw had a booming score by the Electric Light Orchestra!]

Using high definition transfers and MTI digital restoration software, The UCLA Film & Television Archive [with Anger's cooperation] has restored the key films of his oeuvre to a luster that shines like the ruby in Isis's diadem.  

Fantoma has released the first batch of these on DVD with a second batch to follow, but those of you who live in Seattle have the additional opportunity of seeing newly minted prints of Fireworks, Rabbit's Moon, Scorpio Rising, and Kustom Kar Kommandos as part of Three Dollar Bill Cinema's 'Scandalous' series. And that's not all! In addition, TDB will be screening Elliott's Suicide, Anger's 2004 meditation on his erstwhile neighbor, Elliott Smith as well as Un Chant D'Amour by Jean Genet.

Although not his first film, Fireworks is the first entry into what Anger would call the Magick Lantern cycle. Shot in 1947, the same year Querelle was published, Anger directed the film at the age of 17 or 20 [depending on which bio you read] during a weekend when his parents were away. 

Under the influence of Le Sang d'un Poète, the film serves a cocktail of Cocteau with a garnish of Genet, mostly in the guise of what Anger refers to as 'real sailors!' As Anger summarizes, "This flick is all I have to say about being 17, the United States Navy, American Christmas and the Fourth of July."

Rabbit's Moon was shot under the sponsorship of the Cinematheque Française where Anger spent much of the 50's as an assistant to Henri Langlois. This time Anger channels Carne with a dose of doowop as Pierrot, Harlequin and Columbine do their thing to the Flamingos, the Dells, the Capris, and the El Dorados.

The rock 'n roll continues with Scorpio Rising. Shot during the same era when American Graffiti was set, the film presents a panoply of satanic, gay bikers to a contemporaneous mix of Elvis, Ricky Nelson, the Crystals, and a song that might be familiar to David Lynch fans. Martin Scorsese loves this film and has reminisced, "It seemed as if nothing else existed, as if everything else had been wiped clean, and we were seeing the first images--totemic, talismanic images."

A short follow-up, Kustom Kar Kommandos, presents a young man who loves his car more than Kenneth Pinyan loved horses.

And there you have it!

Scandalous!: Three Dollar Bill Cinema at NWFF on Thurs, April 26, at 7pm. For more info: seattlequeerfilm.org. Scorpio Rising image from Artforum (Kenneth Anger, 1963, 35 mm, color, sound, 28 minutes. Kenneth Anger).

White Man's Burden: After the Wedding

AFTER THE WEDDING / Efter brylluppet
(Susan Bier, Denmark, rated R, 119 minutes)

Right: Jacob after the wedding

Susan Bier's Oscar-nominated ninth is two films in one. I have mixed feelings
about both. On the one hand, it's a domestic drama. On the other, it's a comment on Third World poverty. Mostly, though, it's an old fashioned melodrama.

Just as the Iraq War provided the backdrop to Brothers (2004), Indian orphans provide the backdrop to After the Wedding. But just as Brothers was more concerned with post-traumatic stress disorder, regardless as to the cause, After the Wedding
is more concerned with guilt and denial...regardless as to the cause.

Consequently, the orphanage scenes that book-end the film feel more like atmosphere than a serious exploration of a major issue. This happens in a
lot of well meaning Western films, and it always makes me uncomfortable.
The movie's real subject is Jacob (Mads Mikkelsen, who last worked with Bier in 2002's Open Hearts). He's a Danish aid worker who moved to Bombay 20 years ago and never looked back. But it could've easily been anywhere with photogenic kids.

Jørgen gets what he wants

As it turns out, Jacob's reasons for relocating were more hedonistic than altruistic, but now he truly cares about his charges, and has little interest in the West.

Despite his best efforts to leave it all behind, the outside world comes calling in the form of entrepreneur Jørgen (Rolf Lassgård), who offers to infuse his faltering orphanage with four million dollars if he'll fly back to Copenhagen to make a case for the funds -- all expenses paid, of course. So, he does, but it's obvious his potential benefactor isn't really listening to his well rehearsed pitch. Then Jørgen invites him to his daughter Anna's wedding. Jacob would prefer not to involve himself in this man's personal affairs, but if that's what it takes, he'll do it.

At the wedding, Jacob is shocked to find that Jørgen is married to his ex-girlfriend, Helene (Sidse Babett Knudsen). Jorgen swears he had no idea. Helene accompanied Jacob to India all those years ago, but returned to Europe when things got too weird.

Then Jacob gets a good look at Anna (Stine Fischer Christensen), puts two and two together, and figures out his connection to Jørgen. It pisses him off. By the end
of the movie, he'll know why he was really invited to Denmark. As he suspects, it doesn't have much to do with the orphanage. And that's true of the film, as well.

Jørgen comforts Anna

I was tempted to end there, but that would be disingenious. The thing is, I like Susan Bier's movies. I have problems with Anders Thomas Jensen's overly-schematic screenplays, but tend to get caught up in their machinations anyway.

Jensen also provided the scripts for Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself, Mifune, and The King is Alive, and wrote and directed last year's Adam's Apples (clearly, he likes to write for Mikkelsen). As for Bier, she's an excellent director of actors, and the entire Wedding ensemble rises to the occasion, especially Mikkelsen, Knudsen, and Lassgård. (Christensen isn't bad, but she's outclassed by the three veterans.)

Some critics don't like the way Bier gets in tight on faces, but I don't mind. It's not as if she turns them into gargoyles (which actually works in David Lynch's favor). I think she just wants us to be with them in the moment, and the actors pull it off.

Naturally, Hollywood's come calling, and Bier is currently putting the finishing touches on her first English-language production, Things We Lost in the Fire with Halle Berry, Benicio del Toro, and David Duchovny. Open Hearts and Brothers are also earmarked for US remakes (the former by Zach Braff). American studios love movies about
guilt and denial, but rarely get the balance right. At least Bier comes close.

So, against my better judgment and because, to paraphrase Donna Summer,
I enjoy watching actors work hard for the money -- much like Mikkelsen's character is forced to do -- I would recommend After the Wedding. But I'll end with a warning. The film's unofficial theme song is "It's Raining Men" by the Weather Girls. It plays not once, but twice. I'll take a schematic screenplay over that irritating disco anthem any day. Can it really be a Danish wedding favorite? If so, they have my sympathies.

Helene admires Jacob's bone structure

After the Wedding opens at the Egyptian on 4/20. The theater is located at 805 East Pine St. For more information, please call 206-781-5755 or visit Landmark Theatres. Image from Rotten Tomatoes. 

Allan King's 1969 A Married Couple at NWFF

A MARRIED COUPLE

(Allan King, 1969, Canada, 97 minutes)

After having made Warrendale (1968), a documentary about emotionally disturbed children, Toronto director Allan King wanted to make a film about married life. Inspired by the breakdown of his own marriage and the fact that his parents, "seemed incapable of talking to each other," he wanted to explore the nitty-gritty of what goes on between a husband and wife. Not being able to find any couples willing to expose their dirty laundry on film, he asked his friends, advertising copywriter Billy Edwards and his wife, Antoinette, to do the picture. Billy and Antoinette were a little flamboyant and exhibitionistic, so they seemed like a good choice. Plus, Richard Leiterman, the cameraman and Chris Wangler, the soundman, were also friends, so an intimate rapport seemed assured.

King and the crew spent ten weeks documenting Billy and Antoinette, along with their three-year-old, Bogart, and the dog, Merton, and got more than they bargained for. The film begins with an exterior shot of a house nice enough to remind you of what a single"ncome family could afford in 1969, as a pleasing guitar ditty is strummed by Zal Yanovsky of the Lovin' Spoonful. A pair of dinner guests are said goodnight to and, privacy regained, Billy begins complaining that his expensive new shoes pinch his feet. Antoinette tells him to just throw them away but he protests that he paid $40 for them! A discussion on home improvements ensues, somehow prompting this exchange:

--Where do you think we should put the harpsichord?

--Same place we're going to put the rock band. What harpsichord?

--That I'm going to buy.

--You're not gonna buy a harpsichord.

--Oh yes I am, with my pocket money.

--You don't need a harpsichord. I'll get you a harmonica. The money has to go for things that we need.

--Well, we need a harpsichord.

--We need a harpsichord like we need a hole in the head.

Ah, but it's never about the harpsichord. If one gets the sense the Edwards are acting a tad too much like the Kramdens, it's an impression they appear willing to give. Things aren't helped by the fact that Antoinette has a voice remarkably similar to Audrey Meadows and, if Billy doesn't resemble the Great One, he could have easily have been separated at birth from fellow Torontan, Graham Jarvis.

However, the marital discord soon escalates to a level that would have had Jack Nicholson and Ann-Margret thinking they had a pretty good thing and nobody is saying, "Baby, you're the greatest." It's not so much that they argue with each other, it's that they argue at each other. Each seemingly vying to win the 'most put-upon in the world' sweepstakes. After ten minutes of "You shut up!" "No, you shut up!" you feel like screaming, "Hey, you live in a nice house with a nice kid and a nice dog in a nice country where you don't have to worry about war or crime or dirt and shoes are only $40 a pair. So, the both of you, shut the fuck up!"

Their son, Bogart, seems to spend most of the film in bemused detachment, though whether that's from an unusual sense of restraint or a general state of shock is anyone's guess. And Merton? Well, he's just along for the ride. In any case, what does it say about a family where the most well behaved members are the dog and kid?

If the arguing isn't enough to make you want to flee the room, there's the additional deal-breaker of Billy's habit of lounging about in the nude or, worse yet, strutting about in a pair of red bikini-briefs. As of this writing, I still haven't determined if I should rip my eyes out.

If the film provides one thing that is usefully illuminating, it's a depiction of the state of gender-relations in the pre-feminist era. Although neither is likeable, Antoinette is more sympathetic, mostly because, as a housewife, she doesn't seem to be trading away a few years till her son gets into nursery school so much as she seems to be serving a life sentence chained to the vacuum cleaner. When she makes the point that she does all the shopping, all the cooking, all the cleaning and raises the kid and gets nary a compliment for it, Billy explodes that he's the breadwinner and everything she owns is because of him. Witnessing this, you can't help but realize why there was a Betty Friedan. Adding injury to insult, Billy displays the kind of nasty behavior that wasn't even regarded as abusive back then. Despite this, Antoinette remains committed to the marriage, mostly because she can't seem to comprehend any other alternative.

So, unless you're dying to see what a tastefully decorated home looked like in 1969, rent Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf or Married With Children, but if you really want to see what Norman Mailer called an 'excrementious relationship' watch A Married Couple.

A Married Couple plays Northwest Film Forum, April 24-25, Tues-Wed at 7 and 9pm. Image of Billy and Antoinette Edwards from Screen Slate.