Author: fenrisfil

The Long Night (1947)

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Tonight’s Film Noir is Anatole Litvak’s “The Long Night” from 1947 staring Henry Fonda (The Grapes of Wrath, 12 Angry Men) with support from Barbara Bel Geddes (Vertigo) and Ann Dvorak (Scarface) and the legendary Vincent Price (Who despite being mostly known for horror, actually did quite a lot of Film Noir too).

The Long Con

Before I talk about the plot, there is an interesting story involving this film that is a real lesson about just despicable Hollywood was historically. This movie is actually a remake of the French movie “Le jour se lève” from 1939. RKO acquired the distribution rights for the movie in preparation for remaking it and then set about buying up any and all available prints of the original film. These weren’t collected for prosperity, no they collected them to destroy them. They actually found a story they thought would be good for their market, bought it and then tried to completely erase the original movie to prevent the public from ever finding out their version wasn’t the original.

The moral of the story? Hollywood was always a cess pool. Fortunately more prints were later recovered in the 1950’s so their effort was for nothing. Sadly that was actually the second attempt at suppression for the movie as it was also banned during the occupation (Apparently for being demoralizing). Despite all that it didn’t stop the critics of the day from comparing this remake to the original and find it wanting.

The Long Story

Anyway, the plot starts of in a very traditional Film Noir style with our lead “Joe” (Fonda) barricaded into his top floor department after killing a man. The police are outside and we are given the impression Joe won’t survive the night as he seems determined not to surrender. Of course while he waits for the end he thinks back to how he got into this situation.

The story that lead him there is pretty straight forward really. He fell in love with a a woman, Jo (Geddes) but she was involved with another man. This Man, Maximillian (Price) is a real dirt bag. Charming but manipulative, lying and determined to have his prize. He has a novelty act as a dog trainer, though it turns out he abuses the dogs. At first Joe backs off and instead gets involved with another woman that shares his dislike of Maximillian, his former assistant in his dog show Charline (Dvorak). Eventually though he wins Jo around and in doing so discovers just how much of a dirt bag Maximillian is. After realising it’s over between him and Jo, Maximillian heads to Joe’s apartment with the intention of shooting him but ends up being shot by his own gun.

The Wrong Night

There are a lot of changes to this movie from the original French version. The biggest one being the ending, which is actually quite puzzling. We know Hollywood likes happy endings but the change here is jarring and doesn’t really fit within the Noir genre. Instead of the fatalism that is present in the majority of Film Noir we are presented with a much more hopeful picture. In some ways Joe is the opposite of a character like Philip Marlowe. While Marlowe is a white knight in a Noir world, Joe is a miserable fatalist surrounded by optimistic people that want him to know they care. It’s a strange thing to see in the genre.

For most of the movie Joe and Jo seem simple and naïve. This makes them easy pickings for the manipulative Maximillian. Charline by contrast though is a great character. A woman of genuine strength and wisdom that really deserves much better than jerks like Max and fools like Joe. She wants Joe to fall for her but figured pretty early on that he was in love with someone else. The truth is though, the ease with which she deals with things doesn’t make her feel that genuine and that is a big problem I had for all these characters. None of them felt real.

The Song Night

The acting though is pretty good from all involved and the film looks and sounds good. Of particular note is the score that makes heavy use of the Allegretto second movement of Beethoven’s seventh symphony. It’s a great piece of music and it does enhance the feelings of absolute despair in the siege scenes. The problem being that since the ending swerves on the viewer all the tension built up from the score seems a bit wasted.

Overall. Well it’s a very average movie really. It starts well and has its moments, but ends like a totally different movie. Characters are stupid and inconsistent and ultimately it feels like a poor take on strong source material (And that is without having seen the French original).

Rating: 5.5 out of 10.

Trick ‘r Treat (2007)

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For October I decided to watch a horror (or Halloween related) movie every day and review it in the build up to Halloween. The plan was to use that as an opportunity to catch up with all the movies I haven’t gotten around to watching yet. I initially started just casually posting these to Facebook and then to my Minds account, but after completing the month and writing more and more about each movie I was inspired to start this blog. I am retrospectively posting these reviews here when I have time (some of the earlier ones were short so I will have to update them before posting). This was my first.

Trick

First up for October 1st was “Trick’r’Treat” from 2007. Directed by Michael Dougherty (Godzilla: King of Monsters) and staring amongst other Brian Cox (Hannibal Lecter from “Manhunter”) and Anna Paquin (Sookie from True Blood). It’s a linked anthology horror featuring several vaguely intertwined stories all set on Halloween night in one town. The key linking figure is “Sam”, a mysterious figure that appears at first to be a child trick-or-treater in a burlap pajama costume, but is actually a kind of personification of Halloween. Sam has his own story at the end of the anthology is always fund lurking around the other stories (often being treated like a regular trick-or-treater).

There are four main stories, the first features the local school principal who tricks and murders an unruly child in a fairly comedic horror tale mostly involving his struggles to hide the body. The second tale is a pretty classic story of kids daring each other to go somewhere scary, telling a scary tale and then playing a prank to freak out the “weird” kid. This goes exactly as you would expect when the story of the Halloween School Bus Massacre turns out to have more truth to it than they expected. The third story is actually alluded to with some hot out of town girls hooking up with dates for a big party. The apparent lack of any standards for this hook up of course hints that things are not quite as they seem and really it’s best not to trust Sookie Stackhouse offering you the night of your life, lol. The final tale is Sam’s own and also where we get Brian Cox’s full involvement as Sam terrorizes the angry old man in his own house until he learns the true meaning of Halloween.

Treat

There have been a lot of linked horror anthologies over the years and this isn’t the first with a Halloween theme. One of big decisions when making an anthology horror is how many stories you put into the movie. The choice of four here is about perfect as each had enough time to tell its story but none of them felt like they were dominating the others (Compared to something like the “ABC’s of death” with 26 stories or “Books of Blood” where one main story takes up the bulk of the time).  The linking between the stories was done particularly well and this was one of the highlights for me especially between the Principle and Sam stories at either end of the anthology. 

Personally I felt “Tales of Halloween” from 2015 did a better job of the Halloween theme, though that had the benefit of multiple writers and directors to add variety. None of the tales provided anything outside the twists and turns I expected but they were all well executed (as were several of the townsfolk). The actors all put in a solid performance, though Brian Cox was the stand out here. Overall this was a solid horror fest, did a good job of pacing and left me satisfied by the end. One of the better anthologies out there.

Rating: 6 out of 10.

Odds Against Tomorrow (1959)

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The Odds Against Tomorrow.

Today’s November Noir is 1959 classic “Odds Against Tomorrow”. Directed by Robert Wise (The Haunting, Andromeda Strain) and staring Robert Ryan (The Wild Bunch, The Dirty Dozen), Ed Begley (Hang ‘Em High, Twelve Angry Men) and legendary singer Harry Belafonte (Who produced the film as a vehicle for himself).

The plot is basically a bank job, though it’s really more about the characters and the building tension which crescendos with the job itself (which is the final act). Burke (Begley), an aging ex-con has a plan for what seems like the perfect heist, a poorly protected bank with an abundance of cash. He brings in two war veterans Slater (Ryan) and Ingram (Belafonte) to work the job with him. Both carry heavy burdens with them, Slater seems damaged by his time in the war and is bitter from his time in jail. He is an angry man with little nice to say to anyone but his girlfriend Lorry (Shirley Winters) whom he is determined to support (Though that doesn’t stop him having an affair with a neighbour (Played by Noir legend Gloria Graham).

Ingram’s burden meanwhile is his gambling addiction. He has a loving wife and daughter and steady work but his debts have gotten out of control and now the lives of those he love are in danger if he doesn’t settle up. Ingram is basically our hero in this movie, though Slater is introduced first. He is at his core a good man, but he is desperate. He’s also not too keen on the racist attitude of Slater. This tension between the two of them ultimately leads to the failure of the heist and the deaths of all involved (What’d you expect, a happy ending?). Burke for his part does his best to keep everyone calm and focused and I felt genuinely bad for him when he meets his own demise, even more than for Ingram who by the end is just as full of hate as Slater. 

The Odds Against Analysis.

I have to give the three leads a lot of credit here for the intensity of their performances. Especially Ryan, who feels positively dangerous and unstable to be around. Belafonte also puts in a top level performance, which is especially impressive given he was more of a singer/composer than an actor. Begley has the least to do of the three but he excels at selling his characters concerns and emotions with just the odd glance here and there, most notably whenever Slater says something racist.

I can’t talk about this movie though without referencing the superb Jazz score by the Modern Jazz Quartet. This is appropriate given this is 1959, one of the most ground breaking years in the history of Jazz and this soundtrack stands up well to the other giant compositional works of that year. It’s worth noting the MJQ actually worked some of the tracks on this score into their regular repertoire. The music is thoughtful, melancholy in others and somewhat dreamlike but also assists in building tension when needed. People tend to think of Film Noir as filled with this sort of Jazz music and it actually isn’t, it’s just a handful of films at the very end of the Noir period, such as this one.

The Odds Against Symbolism.

Accompanying the score is some great imagery. It opens with a shot of some wind blown standing water from a drain at the side of the road and ends with a very similar shot (Though accompanied by a sign saying “Stop – Dead End”). There’s also a moment just before the heist where a contemplative Ingram is staring at some water down by the dock. Nothing is said, but the score and the scenery along with the actors expressions say it all. The movie features a lot of shots of empty streets and worn down looking buildings and a repeated use of wind, both as background noise and visually blowing stuff around in the streets. Everything looks cold, empty and barren. It’s almost post apocalyptic (Which is interesting considering Belafonte ‘s previous film was actually post apocalyptic).

Where there is life often it’s kids running around. Slater, the racist war veteran’s first interaction of the film is actually a friendly one with a small black child. That’s is in stark contrast with his generally angry, bitter attitude and very open racism with Ingram later. The movie seems to be drawing a dividing line between the innocence of the children and the heavy burden carried by the adults.

The most obvious bit of symbolism in the film comes after the explosive finale… literally explosive, where the burned remains of Slater and Ingram can’t be disguised from each other: “Which one is which” asks one of the police officers. It’s worth noting in 1959 this was the first Film Noir with a black lead and needed Belafonte producing the film himself to get there. This was a very different world, but the themes of hatred (Mutual by the end) leading to mutual destruction and the reminder we are all just humans underneath is still very valid.

The Final Verdict – An Excellent Movie

Rating: 7 out of 10.

Hello World!

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Welcome to the website. This is a learning experience for me since I’ve not run a blog since Lost was still on air (and I lost enthusiasm very quickly with my Lost Blog due to… well, if you watched that show in the day you probably know). Anyway, I’m here to chew bubblegum and review movies and I’m all out of bubblegum.

Three Strangers (1946)

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Three Strangers Movie Poster

Three Strangers

Tonight’s November Noir is 1946’s “Three Strangers”. This was part of a series of movies starring Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet that were marketed as spiritual sequels to “The Maltese Falcon”. The pair made nine movies together and when they weren’t supporting Bogart their pairing became the selling point. They had great chemistry and who doesn’t love a trailer that starts out with Greenstreet offering to tell us an astounding story. Joining them in this one is the very talented Geraldine Fitzgerald who plays the pivotal character bringing the three together, though this is very much Peter Lorre’s movie.

The movie was based on a John Huston idea that he came up with at a party and after bouncing the idea off Alfred Hitchcock presented it to Warner. Originally Humphrey Bogart was on board but that changed and at director Jean Negulesco insistence they settled on Peter Lorre as lead. It’s worth noting Negulesco had worked with both Lorre and Greenstreet previously with the very entertaining “The Mask of Dimitrious” and was clearly a fan of the pairing.

Peter Lorre, Geraldine Fitzgerald and Sydney Greenstreet

Three Stories

The movie is basically three shorter stories linked by pivotal meetings between the three strangers. These meetings were instigated by Crystal (Fitzgerald) who believed an old superstition about her bronze statue of the Chinese goddess Kwan Yin (The goddess of fortune) who would grant three strangers that meet at her statue at midnight on Chinese New Year their wish (of fortune). She convinces the other two strangers, Johnny (Lorre) and Jerome (Greenstreet) to go along with it and Johnny offers up his sweepstakes ticket he purchased with the last of his cash at the end of the day as the source for that potential fortune if the others buy out a third of the ticket. After the initial meeting their stories progress separately until the first horse of the sweepstakes comes in and then they return to the apartment for the conclusion of both the sweepstakes and their own stories.

Of course this is Film Noir, not a fantasy or comedy. So as we get into the individual stories we see that these are broken people heading towards disaster. Jerome is a dishonest accountant embezzling money from a trust fund to make a profit on the stock exchange. A proud man that refuses to admit his own guilt and so when his schemes start to collapse he becomes desperate. Crystal meanwhile is a manipulative Femme Fatale refusing a divorce to her estranged Husband and trying to drive a wedge between him and his lover (Who he wants to marry).

Three Tragedies

Johnny however is not himself a bad person and though in a desperate situation remains calm and it seems has a good heart. He is on the run from the law, but in truth he is only a petty criminal (If even that) mixed up with something much more dangerous due to his alcoholism and agreeable nature. He has been framed by one of the criminals he was mixed up with for the murder of a policeman.

In traditional Noir style things obviously don’t end up well for Jerome or Crystal but Johnny does find some redemption by the end of the story and is ready to change his life (and even stop drinking). This movie landed well with me from start to finish. But it’s worth noting that Johnny’s story is by far the highlight. Jeromes is fairly bland though Sydney Greenstreet has his moments in the role. Crystals story is an interesting one as is her character. Although a Femme Fatale, Crystal is not your typical one as she is driven more by her idea of a fairy tale ending than greed and selfishness. She actually deals honestly with her fellow strangers and it’s only in dealing with her husband that her darker side comes out.

As I said though Peter Lorre is the star and he nails it. The little Hungarian may have had a funny voice and a strange face but he had buckets of charm and talent in equal measure. His story is the most complex of the three and his supporting sub-cast is the most entertaining. Greenstreet barely has a supporting cast and it’s not a surprise really he is at his best when meeting up with the other strangers. Fitzgerald’s supporting cast is basically her husband and his lover and they are fine but it’s Geraldine herself that makes that story interesting.

One Resolution

Overall this was a very crafted story. The weaker third is the shortest and the stronger third the longest which keeps the pace solid and for the time given all the stories did their job. The three leads were all superb and the linking anchor added a really interesting element to the stories. I have to admit I am a sucker for stories involving strangers meeting up in unusual circumstances. It’s just something that I find narrative gold. The elements of gambling on a fortune are also very much ones you see regularly in Film Noir, though usually ancient Chinese goddesses aren’t involved in the gamble. Then on top of that we have several classic Noir tropes with the alcoholic, the dishonest businessman and the femme fatale. Lorre’s character though is somewhat outside of the usual Noir gallery and that allows the film to feel unique.

There aren’t really any negatives her outside of not especially being into Greenstreet’s Story. But as a Film Noir I do have to examine the use of visuals and there is really nothing special here. Competent though Negulesco is, he was not one of the great visionaries of his day and I recalled that fairly straightforward movie style from his “The Mask of Dmitrios”. The music is your average affair for the time and doesn’t especially stand out. But this is all fine because the John Huston story is what makes this film work. I’m giving this a strong 6.5/10

Rating: 6.5 out of 10.