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She weighed nothing in my arms. I sat down on the couch and held her close. She tried to get out of my grip when I told her that Sugar Joe was heading for the cells. I held her tightly and she soon settled down,
"Why didn't you kill him like I asked?" she breathed at me.
I looked at her gently,
"I told him and I'll tell you. I don't kill people anymore. You're a doll but I'm not like that any more."
She fell quiet so leant in and kissed her. I told her he wasn't going to get out anytime soon.
I let her go and left. The D.A was waiting in a car downstairs and I didnt' want to keep him waiting, I may have a case for me.
Oh! It's the last noir review of the week and this week, I'm stumbling blindly into neo-noir with:
L.A Confidential (1997)
Directed by Curtis Hanson, this film is based on the complex James Ellroy novel of the same name. The novel is actually surprisingly different in many of the plot points although the film retains many of the themes, scenes and elements of the novel.
One of the main differences between L.A. Confidential and the previous film noir films reviewed this week is that this film explores with far more detail the psychology of the main characters themselves, not just their history but their minds, emotions and psychological profiles. Whilst the three main characters initially appear to be three 'stock' type characters, they grow, mature and change over the course of the film. Certainly, most of the anti hero characters in the noir films end the film very similar to how they were when the film started. They may have been beaten up, or solved a crime, or witnessed murders but they don't really change from hardboiled Private Eye or whatever.
It's certainly one of the most noticeable differences between this film and the previous noir films.
This film also makes fantastic use of colour, something the films from the 40s of course didn't have access to. The film drips with bright colours, when coupled with the fantastic set design gives the film an incredible look. In the middle of this, you have a cast that is picked to perfection. Guy Pierce is perfect as the uptight and cold career man who slowly gets more tough and cynical. Kevin Spacey is cool, suave and debonair, the closest to the classic film noir characters in this film. Russell Crowe is a beast of a man, his physical presence is outstanding and he works well off the other leads. The peripheral characters work well too, Kim Basinger is sultry, mysterious and intelligent in her role.
The film has so many classic elements of noir films, the mood and characters could have jumped straight into the black and white frames. It's the more mature, violent and psychological elements that lift it from that genre.
By itself though, you have an incredibly well written and directed film which is cast to perfection and treats you like an adult to present a complex and mature crime story. One of my all time favourites.
So over the weekend, I'll be talking about the Hayes Code (as previously mentioned) and it's influence on the noir films covered this week.
By the way, here's the L.A. Confidential trailer:
She was right, he was huge. Sugar Joe was an Everest of a man, all sinew and scar tissue. His wild hair and broad jaw made him look like a heavyweight boxer who dabbled as a mad scientist. His eyes were dull and made him look stupid, he opened his mouth and confirmed the fact.
"Gen'rel sent you?"
I shook my head and smiled,
"No dice Joe. Shirley sent me."
He took a while to process that,
"Shirley?"
"That's right. She doesn't want to dance with you anymore."
The way he flexed his knuckles made me shiver,
"It ain't for you t'interfere, gorgeous!" He moved towards me.
My gun was out of my jacket pocked faster than he could spit. Even a man this dim knew to stop dead when faced with a piece this size. Joe was no different.
"Take a seat Joe." I gestured with the gun, "She wants me to put the big sleep on you Joe, she wants me to kill you. You understand? But I don't do that anymore, I've got enough sins on me that one more is something I don't need."
Joe was about to ask what I was going to do, he never finished the question but I could see the question form in his head as clear as if he spoke it himself. There was a knock at the door.
I let the police in and they took him away in handcuffs. I put the gun back in my pocket.
Entry number 4!
Hope you're still having fun.
The Big Sleep (1946)
Now this is the classic film noir.
Much like yesterday's Murder, My Sweet, this film is based on a Raymond Chandler novel of the same name and stars the amazing Humphrey Bogart. The film is directed by the legendary Howard Hawks.
It shows, the film is a sumptuous piece of cinematic gold of such quality that it stands up today as being a gritty, dangerous and smooth piece of cinema. Much of the smooth element comes from Bogart himself, who is as cool as a cucumber in an ice bath. Unlike Dick Powell's 'rough around the edges' Marlowe, Bogart is almost unbelievably cool. He's too cool for the film and its flawed characters to handle, the character of Marlowe is flawed here but he remains so magnetic that any scene without him is worse off. He appears in the vast majority of the film is every move, every line is delivered in such a classic way that this ens up being one of the easiest films to quote from, it just sounds great.
Lauren Bacall is a furious piece of female here, capable, intelligent and witty. The charisma between her and Bogart is fantastic, the script and the scenes between the two of them are fast, slick and witty with crackling electricity.
The story itself differs in some cases from the far more confusing novel (mainly thanks to the Hayes code again) but the plot in this case is a bit easier to follow. It's still pretty confusing if you're not paying attention as Marlowe finds himself in quite a web of criminal activity. The ending of the film is much more satisfying than the previous noir films I've covered this week because the consequences of the actions during the film are explored a little more rather than the ending coming so abruptly.
This film is a stone cold classic. The quintessential noir film and it's not hard to see why.
Trailer:
The fog was as still as the dead, clinging to the gently lapping waves. The rhythm soothed my nerves as I approached the single figure on the boardwalk.
I snicked a match, it briefly flickered into life. The figure turned to face me, his thin lips illuminated by his cigarette.
"General Price?"
I took a shot in the dark but luckily it landed true,
"Yes?"
I approached closer and took in what I saw. The General was a badly aged man, his face looked worn and eroded by stress. But not his eyes, they shone with a fierce light of a man half my age. I told him that his new muscle, Sugar Joe, was a guy who danced with dames and I was out to teach him a thing or two. His eyes softened in thought. He told me where he was. It was easier than I thought. I didn't thank him but headed back to the car, I could feel his eyes in my back. I'd have to watch out for him in the future.
Oh, it's entry number three for FFFNFD week. Hope you're still enjoying it.
Murder, My Sweet (1944)
This classic film is directed by Edward Dmytryk is a pretty faithful adaption of the 1940's Raymond Chandler novel Farewell, My Lovely (which is what the film was called in the UK). Unlike the other great Chandler film adaptions I'm familiar with, this time the character of Philip Marlowe isn't played by vertically challenged booze funnel Humphrey Bogart but instead by Dick Powell.
Certainly it plays out really, really well. The Marlowe that Powell evokes is far less suave but seemingly more dangerous. He's far less cool in many of the situations and Murder, My Sweet also has it's really gritty moments but they feel very different from the emotionally charged scenes of violence in The Big Sleep.
The plot of the film mixes up two main cases and almost inevitably end up being related (this type of story is lampooned to great effect in Kiss Kiss Bang Band). The first is of the missing girlfriend of a large and simple man called Moose Malloy, a mountain of a man introduced in a very stylish way at the start of the film. The second 'strand' involves the murder of a wealthy man Marlowe was paid to protect, this part of the story involves blackmail, precious stones and the seductive women you'd expect in such a noir tale.
Whilst no where near as gritty and dangerous as the world that Chandler created, the film certainly has it's nastier moments. One in particular involves the forced intake of illegal drugs and the resulting nightmarish vision is one of the most spectacular scenes I've seen since Vertigo.
There are also no femme fatales on the scale or quality of Veronica Lake. The main female character, played ably by Claire Trevor is a predatory character which plays nicely against the far more childish and innocent Ann Grayle, played by Anne Shirley. It's just that Veronica Lake had a sheer magnetism to her that made her hold the screen with hardly any movement that in this film, neither Trevor or Shirley have.
This film is an improvement on This Gun For Hire and is as good as The Glass Key. Both this film and The Glass Key are noir films much darker, violent and cynical than This Gun For Hire.
Again, the direction of Murder, My Sweet is outstanding. The hallucination scene is almost without equal and the style of the film as a narrative allows Marlowe's sardonic written narration to pass over into cinema. It's a great film, I really liked it.
Trailer (I love these types of trailers!):
The guy knew where Sugar Joe was holed up, I could see it.
He was playing tough so I tapped him on the jaw with the business end of my Colt. The guy sat back in the chair in a second, guess he was a tough guy after all. I asked him again, he told me to go spit. Another harder tap with the barrel on his jaw threw his head to the side and threw his rebellion out of the window into the street.
"The Yacht Club you son of a bitch. He's bein' kept at the Yacht Club."
"Who's got him?"
"General Price. The old man's got a keen eye for muscle and Sugar Joe fits alright."
Welcome to the second entry for Film Flare's Film Noir week. After the treasonous shenanigans of last night's This Gun For Hire, we move on to:
The Glass Key (1942)
Oh look! It's Veronica Lake and Alan Ladd again.
This time they are starring in a film directed by Stuart Heisler, based on the novel of the same name by Dashiell Hammett.
A tightly directed knot of betrayal, political intrigue and noirish murder. The film is a much more fleshed out film than This Gun For Hire which better uses the talents of Lake and Ladd far better.
After the grizzled anti-hero of Raven, it's nice to see Alan Ladd play a much more rounded, sympathetic character as Ed Beaumont. The character has his flaws (as is natural for a noir film), mainly his association and friendship with crooked polical man Paul Madvig (Brian Donley). Veronica Lake plays the daughter of a candidate for governor who is attracted to the enigmatic Beaumont.
The film is thrilling, gripping, and pretty brutal at times. Some parts of the film seem almost unseasonably violent, especially considering the influence of the Hayes Code on films in general of the era (this topic I'll discuss further over the weekend).
The script crackles with quick quips, funny remarks and makes each character either hard but sympathetic as in the case of Ladd's character, or smart and enigmatic in the case of Lake's character. In other cases, some characters of the gangsters are cold and violent whilst others are charming. Each character has their own personality and the plot whips along at a fair pace but never really confuses even though there are quite a few characters and threads of the plot to concentrate on.
As the film goes on it gets nastier and more desperate, both in terms of the actions on screen but also the direction gets more rapid and the score moves into faster tempo and you are carried along the way. The film moves quickly towards the final third act at a breakneck pace and it's only really here that the plot points of the film start to falter. Whilst the plot makes perfect sense, a lot of the motivations don't quite satisfy considering how well the plot is told.
Certainly the film looks incredible, it's not quite a hauntingly black and white as This Gun For Hire but the film as a whole has a sumptous, vivid look to it that really works well. The scope of the film also works really well, the indoor sets and well as the outdoor scenes never overwhelm the senses and certainly there's nothing as pretty as the railyard scene from This Gun For Hire.
All in all, when the film ends it's a little abrupt but you end up satisfied.
A really good film.
Trailer:
The night was dark, as dark as it gets.
Piercing the veil were the far off distant lights of San Francisco. I didn't have the stomach for a night on the town but after sampling the office bottle, I hit the bars looking for trouble.
I soon found it.
Her skin was as pale as an Alaskan snowflake and her eyes cut through you like a slug from a .45. She knew all the right words and the all the right movements, like a perfected routine, it was only a matter of time before she made me kill again.
Oh hello everyone!
I thought I'd introduce this FFFD with some original prose because this week it's been all about FILM NOIR.
Yes! The hard looking, fast talking, well dressed men and the seductive, dangerous femme fatales have been my bread and butter this week, and I'm most satisfied.
I am so satisfied in fact, that I'm planning a run of five noir films over five days for my first ever FFFD week long entry, sort of.
We start this entry with:
This Gun For Hire (1942)
Goddam! Look at that poster!
Although he only receives fourth billing for this film, the true star and main character of this film is really Alan Ladd and his character Raven.
For starters, apart from Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake, the rest of the cast are more or less peripheral characters. The two billed actors of Robert Preston as the LAPD officer and Laird Cregar as the two timing businessman. Veronica Lake plays a magic performer who is in a relationship with the LAPD officer but partly falls for Todd's Raven character.
Certainly the Raven character is initially a hard one to love. The film starts and he's killed some people in cold blood and slapped a cleaner about for shooing away a cat, as you do. But his intial business with double crossing Willard Gates (Gregar) set ups a stirling revenge story where Raven finds his payment was paid with stolen money to set up his arrest.
The rest of the film is a perfect noir story as the moral but cruel man is driven by revenge against the man who did him wrong and finds a woman who falls for him and helps him on his quest.
Certainly, like most noir, the film looks incredible, the black and white German Expressionist type framing and colouring sticks in the mind and the film graces both glamerous clubs and grotty drain pipes.
The film doesn't make the most sense and throws in story lines regarding the Japanese and treason which is seemingly written in to make the anti-hero's motives not simply just emotion in nature, but also that he's doing the country a favour.
The film ends FAR too soon after the climax without really trying to explain how the character and the events have influenced the narrative, which is a shame really. The film was a really stylish, cold film noir before the ending just cuts into the moment where you really hope it wouldn't. Director Frank Tuttle has until this point put no foot wrong in showing us the story. There are incredibly subtle and tense scenes as well as the typical quieter moments between the anti hero and the femme fatale, which crackle in this film thanks to the acting of Veronica Lake and Alan Ladd.
An enjoyable film:
Tomorrow there will be another film review (The Glass Key) as well as more original FFFD film noir prose. Look forward to it!
A charmingly rubbish 13 days after seeing this film, it's finally time for my Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa review.
"Waterway to have a good time. Cheers!"
I was expecting for this to be THE most awkward film ever. Like watching 90 minutes of David Brent from The Office. It is not, mercifully. The film has it's awkward moments but the reason it never quite reaches the wince-inducing heights of I'm Alan Partridge or Knowing Me, Knowing You is that it treats the character of Alan Partridge differently.
Unlike the desperate television shows (and to a lesser extent Mid-Morning Matters), the film doesn't treat Alan as a victim. In the shows, bad things happen to him and it's his attitude and reaction against the face of everything going wrong that is so painful to watch at times. The film actually treats Alan with much more respect. Yes, he's an aged, out of date radio DJ working for North Norfolk Digital but the film gives him opportunities for heroism, redemption and fame.
I would strongly argue that this is one of the main reasons that the film is no where near as cringeworthy as the televisions shows that feature Alan Partridge. In fact, apart from a few scenes where it gets a little awkward, the film is entirely watchable. It's a really good film.
First and foremost, it is funny. Really, really funny. The character of Alan Partridge has been around for so long that it's hard to imagine any further comedic situations are possible with him. And yet, his most recent outings, whether Mid Morning Matters, I Partridge (We Need to Talk about Alan) or Welcome to the Places of My Life show that the character has hit a stride.
And the film continues with a rich, varied and very sharp sense of humour. The humour is distinctly Alan Partridge and yet it is just funny. His mannerisms, his sense of humour, his view of people and world inbue this film not only with a great sense of comedy, but also act as to further open up the character himself. The other cast besides Coogan as Partridge are great also, it's nice to see Felicity Montagu as Lynn Benfield, Simon Greenall as Michael the Geordie, Tim Key as Sidekick Simon and Phil Cornwell as Dave Clifton come back from either I'm Alan Partridge or Mid Morning Matters. It's nice and grounding to his back catalogue to have characters back from his past and well placed within the film. The new main addition is that of Colm Meaney as also over-the-hill radio DJ Pat, the film's antagonist. His character provides a nice foil against Alan's character, as well as a level of further emotional involvement and a small level of unhinged menace. It's a great role that isn't played too hard for comedy whilst also not being serious and dangerous enough to go against the overall tone of the film.
It's also a charmingly British, a small, unimportant piece of small city adventure. There's armed police and chases and a seige and hostages and guns and fights and yet it's just silly in so many ways. It's a really nice, small story. It all makes sense and several points of the film also remain surprising and really very funny.
I very much enjoyed this and look forward to seeing it again.
Trailer:
Well hello and welcome everyone.
In case you're trapped inside the insidious machinations of some time travelling villain, it is a relief to report that today FFFD is actually coming to you on a Monday, as it should. This comes in stark contrast to the previous entry, which was unveiled to the public on a wednesday. Sorry about that.
However.
Been a quiet week for films I've not already covered in this blog. I've watched the shockingly shitty X-Men Origins: Wolverine film. A film that makes even my childhood love of peripheral X Men anti-hero Gambit wither and die.
More like Remy LeBoo, anyone?
I also watched the surprisingly watchable Total Recall remake, starring Colin Farrell, Kate Beckinsale and Bryan Cranston (with hair!).
More like Breaking Bald, anyone? Anyone??
However, I've passed over both these films in previous entries, which leaves me in a little bit of a micro-problem. For FFFD entries in the past, I'd simply say "Not watched anything, f**k off", but this is the new me.
So please, I've not watched anything new this week. If you come back tomorrow, you will find a shiny, new Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa film review here for your enjoyment. Have a good evening everyone.
