Yakuza Wolf 1: I Perform Murder is a 1970s Japanese action film staring Sonny Chiba as Gosuke Himuro. The film is a rip of of Django which is a rip off of A Fistful Of Dollars which is a rip off of Yojimbo which is a licensed remake of The Glass Key (1942). Seeking revenge for his murdered father and kidnapped sister, Gosuke Himuro pits two rival Yakuza factions against each other. The filmmakers steal from other films with abandon. If it's not nailed to a solid slab of copyright law, it's filched. This is your intellectual property? You must have drooped it somewhere.
Yakuza Wolf opens with Gosuke Himuro performing a black gloved giallo murder of a couple in coitus. It could have come straight out of Bava's Blood And Black Lace. The colour palette is Argento. Chiba wears...
Yakuza Wolf opens with Gosuke Himuro performing a black gloved giallo murder of a couple in coitus. It could have come straight out of Bava's Blood And Black Lace. The colour palette is Argento. Chiba wears...
- 2/18/2024
- by Donald Munro
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
"This has spoiled my tranquility." AMC Networks has debuted the full official trailer for the noir mystery thriller series titled Monsieur Spade, co-created by the writers / directors Scott Frank and Tom Fontana. Now set to launch at the end of January in just a few months (here's the teaser). The famous detective Sam Spade is now 60 and living as an expat in France in 1963 trying to enjoy some peace. This series is originally based on a character created by Dashiell Hammett, the same author who wrote the famous noir stories The Glass Key, The Thin Man, Red Harvest, The Maltese Falcon. Set in the early 1960s, after the Algerian War just ended. Detective Sam Spade has been quietly living out his golden years in a tiny town in the South of France. Soon enough, it won't be quiet for him any longer when his past from America catches up with him.
- 11/16/2023
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Explore where to stream the best films of 2023.
Each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit streaming platforms in the United States. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.
Drylongso (Cauleen Smith)
Writer-director Cauleen Smith made Drylongso when she was in college, 25 years ago, premiering at Sundance in 1998. She has gone on to create dozens of short films, art installations, and more experimental work, focused on similar themes of feminism, racial violence, and Black communities. The low-key hangout movie should have been a stepping stone for Smith, but, as with many other works by Black female filmmaking of the last half-century, it fell out of circulation. – Michael F. (full interview)
Where to Stream: The Criterion Channel
Fingernails (Christos Nikou)
Is love quantifiable? No, but that doesn’t stop Greek filmmaker Christos Nikou from exploring that question over two dull, excruciating hours in Fingernails,...
Each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit streaming platforms in the United States. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.
Drylongso (Cauleen Smith)
Writer-director Cauleen Smith made Drylongso when she was in college, 25 years ago, premiering at Sundance in 1998. She has gone on to create dozens of short films, art installations, and more experimental work, focused on similar themes of feminism, racial violence, and Black communities. The low-key hangout movie should have been a stepping stone for Smith, but, as with many other works by Black female filmmaking of the last half-century, it fell out of circulation. – Michael F. (full interview)
Where to Stream: The Criterion Channel
Fingernails (Christos Nikou)
Is love quantifiable? No, but that doesn’t stop Greek filmmaker Christos Nikou from exploring that question over two dull, excruciating hours in Fingernails,...
- 11/3/2023
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
These last few years the Criterion Channel have made October viewing much easier to prioritize, and in the spirit of their ’70s and ’80s horror series we’ve graduated to––you guessed it––”’90s Horror.” A couple of obvious classics stand with cult favorites and more unknown entities (When a Stranger Calls Back and Def By Temptation are new to me). Three more series continue the trend: “Technothrillers” does what it says on the tin, courtesy the likes of eXistenZ and Demonlover; “Art-House Horror” is precisely the kind of place to host Cure, Suspiria, Onibaba; and “Pre-Code Horror” is a black-and-white dream. Phantom of the Paradise, Unfriended, and John Brahm’s The Lodger are added elsewhere.
James Gray is the latest with an “Adventures in Moviegoing” series populated by deep cuts and straight classics. Stonewalling and restorations of Trouble Every Day and The Devil, Probably make streaming debuts, while Flesh for Frankenstein,...
James Gray is the latest with an “Adventures in Moviegoing” series populated by deep cuts and straight classics. Stonewalling and restorations of Trouble Every Day and The Devil, Probably make streaming debuts, while Flesh for Frankenstein,...
- 9/28/2023
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
"No one cares about that Sam Spade anymore..." AMC Networks has revealed the first teaser trailer for a new noir mystery thriller series titled Monsieur Spade, co-created by writers / directors Scott Frank and Tom Fontana. The series is expected to premiere in early 2024 streaming on AMC+ and their TV networks. The famous detective Sam Spade is now 60 and living as an expat in the south of France in 1963. It's based on a character created by Dashiell Hammett, the same author who wrote the famous noir stories The Glass Key, The Thin Man, Red Harvest, The Maltese Falcon. Set in the early 1960s, after the Algerian War just ended. Detective Sam Spade has been quietly living out his golden years in a town in the South of France. Soon enough, it won't be quiet for him any longer. Clive Owen stars as Spade, with Cara Bossom, Denis Ménochet, Louise Bourgoin, Chiara Mastroianni,...
- 9/9/2023
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
This Mickey Spillane noir tale has its good points: star Anthony Quinn gives a solid ‘tough guy’ performance, sizing up a quartet of thrill-crazy Spillane dames that promise no end of trouble. The surprisingly clever script dares to exploit the gimmicks of both amnesia and plastic surgery — without insulting our intelligence. Peggie Castle is our new favorite in the glamour sweepstakes, and Gene Evans, Charles Coburn, Mary Ellen Kay, Shawn Smith, Barry Kelley, Jay Adler and Bruno VeSota co-star. And remember: ‘Evil to Him who Evil Thinks.’
The Long Wait 4K
4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray
ClassicFlix
1954 / B&w / 1:75 widescreen / 94 min. / Street Date March 21, 2023 / Available from ClassicFlix / 39.99
Starring: Anthony Quinn, Charles Coburn, Gene Evans, Peggie Castle, Mary Ellen Kay, Shawn Smith, Dolores Donlon, Barry Kelley, James Millican, Bruno VeSota, Jay Adler, John Damler, Frank Marlowe, Paul Dubov.
Cinematography: Franz Planer
Art Director: Boris Leven
Film Editor: Ronald Sinclair
Editorial Supervisor Otto Ludwig...
The Long Wait 4K
4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray
ClassicFlix
1954 / B&w / 1:75 widescreen / 94 min. / Street Date March 21, 2023 / Available from ClassicFlix / 39.99
Starring: Anthony Quinn, Charles Coburn, Gene Evans, Peggie Castle, Mary Ellen Kay, Shawn Smith, Dolores Donlon, Barry Kelley, James Millican, Bruno VeSota, Jay Adler, John Damler, Frank Marlowe, Paul Dubov.
Cinematography: Franz Planer
Art Director: Boris Leven
Film Editor: Ronald Sinclair
Editorial Supervisor Otto Ludwig...
- 3/14/2023
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Most filmmakers get bit by the movie bug early in life. They walk out of "Star Wars," "Raiders of the Lost Ark," or "Jurassic Park," and, like getting off a great amusement park ride, are desperate to get back in line to relive the experience all over again. At some point, they have to go home. That's where the dreaming starts. They imagine the further adventures of their big screen heroes, and, eventually, craft whole universes of their own. Sure, they'd love to add their own chapter to the "Indiana Jones" films, but what they really want is to create their own Indiana Jones. As they get older and discover other genres like Westerns, musicals, and gangster flicks, they study their tropes and unavoidably put their own spin on them.
The best filmmakers are the ones who seek not to replicate their formative experiences, but to work within different genres on their own terms.
The best filmmakers are the ones who seek not to replicate their formative experiences, but to work within different genres on their own terms.
- 1/27/2023
- by Jeremy Smith
- Slash Film
A lone stranger wanders through the countryside. He walks into a small town that, at first, looks deserted. When the stranger finally meets a few locals and begins talking to them, he finds that the entire town, though remote, is under the uneasy control of two warring criminal gangs. The stranger, identified as a dangerous handler of weapons, is enlisted by each side of the gang conflict to help eradicate the other. The stranger, cynical and perhaps a bit playful, manipulates both sides into killing each other. After a violent conflagration, the stranger wanders away from the town, happily leaving the madness behind.
This is the story of Akira Kurosawa's 1961 film "Yojimo," written by Kurosawa and Ryūzō Kikushima. "Yojimbo" is easily the most cynical film in Kurosawa's filmography, bitterly taking glee in the copious amount of stupidity-inspired death depicted. Kurosawa, with a scoff, might have been making a dismissive...
This is the story of Akira Kurosawa's 1961 film "Yojimo," written by Kurosawa and Ryūzō Kikushima. "Yojimbo" is easily the most cynical film in Kurosawa's filmography, bitterly taking glee in the copious amount of stupidity-inspired death depicted. Kurosawa, with a scoff, might have been making a dismissive...
- 9/3/2022
- by Witney Seibold
- Slash Film
This Star Wars: Visions article contains spoilers.
The first short film in Star Wars: Visions, “The Duel,” sets the anime collection’s unique, creative tone. Its main character, a wandering swordsman named Ronin, also challenges the idea of what it means to be a Sith. But just who is Ronin and what is the significance of his name?
Visions sits just to the side of Disney’s Star Wars canon. Given free range to create stories inspired by the beloved saga, the seven studios invited to make the nine anime shorts in the collection were able to reinterpret the story of Star Wars in their own ways. In “The Duel,” the protagonist simply known as Ronin wields multiple red lightsabers like a Sith. So does his opponent. That’s weird — in canon, morality is usually color-coded with red for evil and other lightsaber colors denoting noble Jedi. But “The Duel...
The first short film in Star Wars: Visions, “The Duel,” sets the anime collection’s unique, creative tone. Its main character, a wandering swordsman named Ronin, also challenges the idea of what it means to be a Sith. But just who is Ronin and what is the significance of his name?
Visions sits just to the side of Disney’s Star Wars canon. Given free range to create stories inspired by the beloved saga, the seven studios invited to make the nine anime shorts in the collection were able to reinterpret the story of Star Wars in their own ways. In “The Duel,” the protagonist simply known as Ronin wields multiple red lightsabers like a Sith. So does his opponent. That’s weird — in canon, morality is usually color-coded with red for evil and other lightsaber colors denoting noble Jedi. But “The Duel...
- 9/22/2021
- by Megan Crouse
- Den of Geek
Vintage high-end Film Noir from the classic year 1947! Low Mileage too — this long cut hasn’t been seen since the early laserdisc days. I didn’t know it needed restoring until George Feltenstein talked about it a couple of years ago. It’s a domestic noir crossed with Double Indemnity with a little An American Tragedy thrown in for good measure. Normally squeaky-clean Robert Young throws his hat into the ring with the lowest of noir hero-villains: in this one he double-crosses three terrific noir leading ladies. We can now spell ‘Unspeakable Cad’ with the initial Ry. The most amazing thing about The Warner Film Archive’s new disc is that it restores a full fifteen minutes — Eddie Muller screened They Won’t on his Noir City show not long ago, with no mention that it was the short, edited version.
They Won’t Believe Me
Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1947 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 95 min.
They Won’t Believe Me
Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1947 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 95 min.
- 5/8/2021
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
The Notebook Primer introduces readers to some of the most important figures, films, genres, and movements in film history. Above: Detour “The Americans made [film noir] and then the French invented it.”—Marc VernetIn a world of uncertainty, where the lines between good and bad are routinely blurred and peril lurks behind every hesitant corner, film noir had—and still has—a spellbinding way of cutting through the banalities of ordinary existence. Noir tarnishes the superficial sheen of domestic stability, peace and prosperity, and the naïve, sanguine euphoria of one’s best-laid plans. It revels in a realm of desperation, despair, and dread, leading audiences down long, lonely streets and engineering an entertaining and engaging descent into humanity’s dark side. While there remains some question about what defines film noir, and even more debate concerning whether or not the form is a genre or a movement (or something of the two...
- 8/27/2020
- MUBI
Because “The Bad Sleep Well” had not performed as expected commercially, Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa decided to return to the jidai-geki with what is arguably one of his most popular and most beloved films, “Yojimbo”. At the same time, Kurosawa felt the message of his previous film – a bitter image of the corruption in post-war Japan – would also work as a period film while still having the same impact on the viewer. Stylistically, as Kurosawa later admitted, he was inspired by the works of the film noir, in particular Stuart Heisler’s “The Glass Key”, a crime drama dealing with the links between organized crime and politics, as well as the kind of opportunist characters taking advantage of a corrupt system which can be seen as the foundation of the character played by Toshiro Mifune in “Yojimbo”.
In 1860, during the final years of the Edo period, a...
In 1860, during the final years of the Edo period, a...
- 4/7/2020
- by Rouven Linnarz
- AsianMoviePulse
Murder, He Says
Blu ray
Kino Lorber
1945 / 1.33:1 / 94 min.
Starring Fred MacMurray, Marjorie Main, Peter Whitney
Cinematography by Theodor Sparkuhl
Directed by George Marshall
The Snopes family were a collection of Southern-fried scoundrels introduced by William Faulkner in 1940’s The Hamlet. Over the course of three novels and several short stories, the clan proved themselves capable of just about any atrocity. They were so comically loathsome they could have been kissing cousins to Mamie, Mert and Bert: the Fleagle family – a slapstick version of the Snopes. Even the local sheriff is terrified of the Fleagles and a greenhorn census taker from the big city is about to find out why.
Fred MacMurray plays Pete Marshall, the eager beaver field man for the Trotter Poll who’s searching for a missing colleague last seen headed toward the Fleagle house, way, way out in the woods (where presumably no one can hear...
Blu ray
Kino Lorber
1945 / 1.33:1 / 94 min.
Starring Fred MacMurray, Marjorie Main, Peter Whitney
Cinematography by Theodor Sparkuhl
Directed by George Marshall
The Snopes family were a collection of Southern-fried scoundrels introduced by William Faulkner in 1940’s The Hamlet. Over the course of three novels and several short stories, the clan proved themselves capable of just about any atrocity. They were so comically loathsome they could have been kissing cousins to Mamie, Mert and Bert: the Fleagle family – a slapstick version of the Snopes. Even the local sheriff is terrified of the Fleagles and a greenhorn census taker from the big city is about to find out why.
Fred MacMurray plays Pete Marshall, the eager beaver field man for the Trotter Poll who’s searching for a missing colleague last seen headed toward the Fleagle house, way, way out in the woods (where presumably no one can hear...
- 3/28/2020
- by Charlie Largent
- Trailers from Hell
The Great McGinty
Blu ray
Kino Lorber
1940/ 1:33:1 / 82 min.
Starring Brian Donlevy, Akim Tamiroff
Cinematography by William C. Mellor
Written and Directed by Preston Sturges
If the story of a unscrupulous crook who rises to great political power hits a little too close to home these days, consider that in 1940’s The Great McGinty the mobster in question is a fundamentally decent gent who sacrifices his career to do the right thing. When the jig is up he high-tails it to the border, penniless but with a clean conscience. Current events require that Preston Sturges’ bittersweet political satire be filed under Fairy Tales.
The movie opens in a rowdy little dive in South America where the once and future lowlife Dan McGinty has made his new home, lording over the bar while dispensing equal amounts booze and wisdom. One poor fellow wanders in who could use a little of both.
Blu ray
Kino Lorber
1940/ 1:33:1 / 82 min.
Starring Brian Donlevy, Akim Tamiroff
Cinematography by William C. Mellor
Written and Directed by Preston Sturges
If the story of a unscrupulous crook who rises to great political power hits a little too close to home these days, consider that in 1940’s The Great McGinty the mobster in question is a fundamentally decent gent who sacrifices his career to do the right thing. When the jig is up he high-tails it to the border, penniless but with a clean conscience. Current events require that Preston Sturges’ bittersweet political satire be filed under Fairy Tales.
The movie opens in a rowdy little dive in South America where the once and future lowlife Dan McGinty has made his new home, lording over the bar while dispensing equal amounts booze and wisdom. One poor fellow wanders in who could use a little of both.
- 2/15/2020
- by Charlie Largent
- Trailers from Hell
” I just met the swellest dame… She smacked me in the kisser. “
The Glass Key starring Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake screens at Webster University’s Moore Auditorium(470 E Lockwood Ave) screens Tuesday February 11th. The film begins at 7:00pm. This is the second film in a 3-film ‘Lake and Ladd’ series that continues February 18th with The Blue Dahlia. A Facebook invite can be found Here.
Fast-tracked into production on account of Ladd’s rising stardom, The Glass Key is an adaptation of Dashiell Hammett’s 1931 bestseller, previously adapted just seven years prior as a George Raft vehicle of the same name. Here we have Ladd playing Ed Beaumont, something of a fixer for corrupt politician Paul Madvig. Ed falls into a dangerous love triangle with Paul and Paul’s political rival’s daughter, Janet Henry (Lake). Things get even more complicated when Janet’s brother turns up dead,...
The Glass Key starring Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake screens at Webster University’s Moore Auditorium(470 E Lockwood Ave) screens Tuesday February 11th. The film begins at 7:00pm. This is the second film in a 3-film ‘Lake and Ladd’ series that continues February 18th with The Blue Dahlia. A Facebook invite can be found Here.
Fast-tracked into production on account of Ladd’s rising stardom, The Glass Key is an adaptation of Dashiell Hammett’s 1931 bestseller, previously adapted just seven years prior as a George Raft vehicle of the same name. Here we have Ladd playing Ed Beaumont, something of a fixer for corrupt politician Paul Madvig. Ed falls into a dangerous love triangle with Paul and Paul’s political rival’s daughter, Janet Henry (Lake). Things get even more complicated when Janet’s brother turns up dead,...
- 2/6/2020
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
This Gun For Hire (1942) starring Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake screens at Webster University’s Moore Auditorium(470 E Lockwood Ave) screens Tuesday February 4th. The film begins at 7:00pm. This is the opening film in a 3-film ‘Lake and Ladd’ series that continues February 11th with The Glass Key and February 18th with The Blue Dahlia. A Facebook invite can be found Here.
The first pairing of Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake wasn’t meant to be so—Ms. Lake’s love interest in the film is played by Robert Preston (The Music Man)—and yet all of the chemistry is between her nightclub singer and Mr. Ladd’s hit man. Based on the Graham Greene novel A Gun for Sale, This Gun for Hire shot Ladd to instant stardom and immediately had audiences clamoring for more Lake/Ladd films.
Admission is:
$7 for the general public
$6 for seniors, Webster...
The first pairing of Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake wasn’t meant to be so—Ms. Lake’s love interest in the film is played by Robert Preston (The Music Man)—and yet all of the chemistry is between her nightclub singer and Mr. Ladd’s hit man. Based on the Graham Greene novel A Gun for Sale, This Gun for Hire shot Ladd to instant stardom and immediately had audiences clamoring for more Lake/Ladd films.
Admission is:
$7 for the general public
$6 for seniors, Webster...
- 1/31/2020
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
I tell you it’s rough out there on Frisco Bay, especially when you say the word ‘Frisco’ within earshot of a proud San Francisco native. This Alan Ladd racketeering tale could have been written twenty years earlier, but it has Warner Color and the early, extra-wide iteration of the new movie attraction CinemaScope.
Hell on Frisco Bay
Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1955 / Color / 2:55 widescreen Academy / 98 min. / Street Date , 2017 / available through the WBshop / 21.99
Starring: Alan Ladd, Edward G. Robinson, Joanne Dru, William Demarest, Paul Stewart, Perry Lopez, Fay Wray, Nestor Paiva, Willis Bouchey, Anthony Caruso, Tina Carver, Rod(ney) Taylor, Jayne Mansfield, Mae Marsh, Tito Vuolo.
Cinematography: John F. Seitz
Film Editor: Folmar Blangsted
Stunts: Paul Baxley
Original Music: Max Steiner
Written by Martin Rackin, Sydney Boehm from a book by William P. McGivern
Produced by George C. Berttholon, Alan Ladd
Directed by Frank Tuttle
Alan Ladd had always been...
Hell on Frisco Bay
Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1955 / Color / 2:55 widescreen Academy / 98 min. / Street Date , 2017 / available through the WBshop / 21.99
Starring: Alan Ladd, Edward G. Robinson, Joanne Dru, William Demarest, Paul Stewart, Perry Lopez, Fay Wray, Nestor Paiva, Willis Bouchey, Anthony Caruso, Tina Carver, Rod(ney) Taylor, Jayne Mansfield, Mae Marsh, Tito Vuolo.
Cinematography: John F. Seitz
Film Editor: Folmar Blangsted
Stunts: Paul Baxley
Original Music: Max Steiner
Written by Martin Rackin, Sydney Boehm from a book by William P. McGivern
Produced by George C. Berttholon, Alan Ladd
Directed by Frank Tuttle
Alan Ladd had always been...
- 10/21/2017
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
From a postmodernist perspective, perhaps there is nothing left to art but the deconstruction of what’s already been created, piecing together the ideas of those you admire. In that case, then perhaps Sergio Leone was ahead of his time in 1964 when he made “A Fistful of Dollars,” the first film in the spaghetti western 'Dollars' trilogy, which was in fact a remake of Akira Kurosawa’s 1961 samurai epic “Yojimbo." Read More: 13 Essential Female-Lead Westerns By the same hand, Kurosawa adapted ideas from Dashiell Hammett’s brilliant novel “Red Harvest,” though he claims he modeled the film after “The Glass Key,” but historians — and myself as a reader of both books — beg to differ. In “Red Harvest” the protagonist — who comes to a small town trying to stop the corruption amongst local gangs and the law — has no name, thus inspiring the mysterious leads in both Kurosawa and Leone’s films.
- 2/12/2016
- by Samantha Vacca
- The Playlist
If there’s a name synonymous with femme fatale and scene-stealer, it’s Old Hollywood legend Veronica Lake.
She would have been 91 today. The film noir starlet was famous for her enchanting presence in films like Sullivan’s Travels, The Blue Dahlia, and The Glass Key.
“Lake brought to the screen an air of mystery, contained sensuality and quiet wit that lit up the screen. But, as she herself said, she just wasn’t cut out to be a movie star — at least not as Hollywood in the Forties envisioned that role — and her later life was marked by broken marriages,...
She would have been 91 today. The film noir starlet was famous for her enchanting presence in films like Sullivan’s Travels, The Blue Dahlia, and The Glass Key.
“Lake brought to the screen an air of mystery, contained sensuality and quiet wit that lit up the screen. But, as she herself said, she just wasn’t cut out to be a movie star — at least not as Hollywood in the Forties envisioned that role — and her later life was marked by broken marriages,...
- 11/14/2013
- by Jennifer Arellano
- EW.com - PopWatch
On December 3, the TCM Vault Collection released a tantalizing box set of three film noirs, “The Glass Key,” “Phantom Lady” and “The Blue Dahlia,” all previously unavailable on Region 1 DVD. The connecting thread is crime fiction -- the first two films are based on novels by Dashiell Hammett and Cornell Woolrich, respectively, and the third is from an original screenplay by Raymond Chandler. “The Glass Key” was Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake’s second onscreen pairing, made the same year as the duo’s better-known noir “This Gun for Hire,” in 1942. Production on “The Glass Key” actually began before “This Gun for Hire” was released, showing the amount of confidence Paramount had in Ladd and Lake’s sizzling chemistry. The studio knew it had blonde, exquisitely fine-boned lightning in a bottle. In the film, which is a very good adaptation of Hammett’s novel of the same title, Ladd...
- 12/4/2012
- by Beth Hanna
- Thompson on Hollywood
Hammett, Chandler, Cain: the modern mystery thriller starts with them. They are the godfathers of that sensibility that would come to be called noir which would, in time, overflow the printed page and onto the stage, the big screen, and eventually even to television. Identified primarily with mysteries, the concept of flawed human beings ethically tripping and stumbling in a moral No Man’s Land, equidistant between Right and Wrong, Good and Bad would bleed across genre lines. There would be noir Westerns (Blood on the Moon, 1948), noir war movies (Attack!, 1956), noir horror (The Body Snatcher, 1945), even noir melodramas like Cain’s own Mildred Pierce, adapted for the screen in 1945.
But they all started with what Hammett, Chandler, and Cain did on the page, and each provided an evolutionary step which took what had once been usually dismissed as a flyweight genre dedicated to colorful private investigators and clever puzzles,...
But they all started with what Hammett, Chandler, and Cain did on the page, and each provided an evolutionary step which took what had once been usually dismissed as a flyweight genre dedicated to colorful private investigators and clever puzzles,...
- 9/19/2012
- by Bill Mesce
- SoundOnSight
Best Picture winners The Lost Weekend (1945), Forrest Gump, and The Silence of the Lambs (1991), along with the Walt Disney Studios' animated classic Bambi (1942), Charles Chaplin's silent comedy-drama The Kid (1921), and Howard Hawks' early screwball comedy Twentieth Century (1934) are among the 25 "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant movies just added to the Library of Congress' National Film Registry. Directed by Billy Wilder, The Lost Weekend earned Ray Milland a Best Actor Oscar for his portrayal of an alcoholic. Jonathan Demme's The Silence of the Lambs earned Oscars for both leads, Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster. A monumental box-office hit in the mid-'90s and a paean to idiocy and conformism, Forrest Gump earned Tom Hanks his second back-to-back Oscar (he had won the previous year for Demme's Philadelphia). As per the National Film Registry's release, Bambi was Walt Disney's favorite among his studio's films. (That's all fine,...
- 12/28/2011
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Chicago – Diabolical twins, obsessed journalists and jail-breaking thugs are heading their way to the Music Box Theatre. The Film Noir Foundation’s third installment of “Noir City: Chicago” features no less than sixteen restored 35mm prints of must-see cinematic rarities. Ten of these noir classics have yet to land a DVD release, thus making this festival all the more essential for local cinephiles.
The week-long festival kicks off Friday, Aug. 12, and includes criminally overlooked performances from Hollywood legends such as Humphrey Bogart, Anne Bancroft, Barbara Stanwyck, Olivia de Havilland, Ernest Borgnine, Shelley Winters and Burt Lancaster. Acclaimed noir historians Alan K. Rode (“Charles McGraw: Biography of a Film Noir Tough Guy”) and Foster Hirsch (“Detours and Lost Highways: A Map of Neo-Noir”) will be presenting the pictures while offering their wealth of historical and filmic insight.
Among this year’s most priceless treasures is “Deadline USA,” starring Bogart as...
The week-long festival kicks off Friday, Aug. 12, and includes criminally overlooked performances from Hollywood legends such as Humphrey Bogart, Anne Bancroft, Barbara Stanwyck, Olivia de Havilland, Ernest Borgnine, Shelley Winters and Burt Lancaster. Acclaimed noir historians Alan K. Rode (“Charles McGraw: Biography of a Film Noir Tough Guy”) and Foster Hirsch (“Detours and Lost Highways: A Map of Neo-Noir”) will be presenting the pictures while offering their wealth of historical and filmic insight.
Among this year’s most priceless treasures is “Deadline USA,” starring Bogart as...
- 8/11/2011
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
I'm not entirely opposed to remakes. Historically there have been some great ones. And even though "The Thin Man" is one of my all-time favorite films (and franchises), I really don't see the harm in redoing it. The W.S. Van Dyke version is based on a book by Dashiell Hammett, whose work is associated with some of the best examples of worthwhile remakes and reworkings ("The Maltese Falcon" and the many films loosely based on "Red Harvest" and "The Glass Key"--including "Yojimbo" and "Miller's Crossing"--for instance). Plus, it's already spun-off some terrific to so-so sequels (the first, "After the Thin…...
- 10/21/2010
- Spout
Today is the 100th birthday of Japanese master filmmaker Akira Kurosawa. He died back in 1998, but his films carry on his legacy in many ways. First, obviously, there are the literal titles that continue to be watched and studied religiously (13 of them are being aired on Turner Classic Movies today). Second, there are the upcoming remakes of "Seven Samurai," "High and Low," "Rashomon" and "Ikiru" in development. And third, there are those films directly inspired by Kurosawa's films.
Kurosawa himself had many influences, and a number of his films were loose remakes or direct adaptations of everything from Westerns to Dostoyevsky to films noir to Shakespeare. So it's unlikely he'd be upset about the idea that his work has gone on to influence some of today's most notable filmmakers. He might even be enjoying some of the following blockbuster movies, all owing much to his work, from beyond the grave:...
Kurosawa himself had many influences, and a number of his films were loose remakes or direct adaptations of everything from Westerns to Dostoyevsky to films noir to Shakespeare. So it's unlikely he'd be upset about the idea that his work has gone on to influence some of today's most notable filmmakers. He might even be enjoying some of the following blockbuster movies, all owing much to his work, from beyond the grave:...
- 3/23/2010
- by Christopher Campbell
- MTV Movies Blog
“You idiot, I’m not giving up yet. Theres a bunch of guys I have to kill first!”
So says Toshiro Mifune as the traveling ronin Sanjuro in Akira Kurosawa’s 1961 jidaigeki film Yojimbo. Mifune stars as Kuwabatake Sanjuro (which means Mulberry Field thirty-year-old, but he tends to take the surname from whatever plant is near him at the time of giving his name). Even though this is a period film with a master less samurai who travels from town to town, looking for food and drink, it feels as if it’s from a time that never was.
Sanjuro finds out the town is overrun by two warring factions, one led by Seibei who is the town brothel owner and the other led by Ushitora, the sake brewer. They’ve been at odds for many years and there seems to be no end in sight from the endless killing...
So says Toshiro Mifune as the traveling ronin Sanjuro in Akira Kurosawa’s 1961 jidaigeki film Yojimbo. Mifune stars as Kuwabatake Sanjuro (which means Mulberry Field thirty-year-old, but he tends to take the surname from whatever plant is near him at the time of giving his name). Even though this is a period film with a master less samurai who travels from town to town, looking for food and drink, it feels as if it’s from a time that never was.
Sanjuro finds out the town is overrun by two warring factions, one led by Seibei who is the town brothel owner and the other led by Ushitora, the sake brewer. They’ve been at odds for many years and there seems to be no end in sight from the endless killing...
- 3/20/2010
- by James McCormick
- CriterionCast
No 84 Alan Ladd 1913-64
He had a hard early life and a long apprenticeship. Born in Hot Springs, Arkansas, he was four when his accountant father died and, still a child, he moved to North Hollywood, California with his mother (who would become an alcoholic and commit suicide) and stepfather, a painter and decorator.
He was a high-school athletic star, principally as a swimmer, and developed the fine physique he was often to expose on screen, including two scenes of public flogging. Living so close to the movie business, he had certain acting aspirations but was constantly told he was too short (5ft 6in) and unfashionably fair-haired for stardom.
But after leaving school in the Depression, briefly running his own burger joint (disarmingly called Tiny's Patio) and working as a studio carpenter, he spent nearly a decade freelancing in radio and taking minor movie parts. Many of the latter were without dialogue,...
He had a hard early life and a long apprenticeship. Born in Hot Springs, Arkansas, he was four when his accountant father died and, still a child, he moved to North Hollywood, California with his mother (who would become an alcoholic and commit suicide) and stepfather, a painter and decorator.
He was a high-school athletic star, principally as a swimmer, and developed the fine physique he was often to expose on screen, including two scenes of public flogging. Living so close to the movie business, he had certain acting aspirations but was constantly told he was too short (5ft 6in) and unfashionably fair-haired for stardom.
But after leaving school in the Depression, briefly running his own burger joint (disarmingly called Tiny's Patio) and working as a studio carpenter, he spent nearly a decade freelancing in radio and taking minor movie parts. Many of the latter were without dialogue,...
- 3/7/2010
- by Philip French
- The Guardian - Film News
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