The Flight of the Phoenix color still set image courtesy Heritage Auction Galleries

Producer-director Robert Aldrich and Twentieth Century-Fox flew The Flight of the Phoenix into movie theaters in 1965. James Stewart plays the veteran pilot, with Hardy Kruger as the abrasive airplane designer.

Elleston Trevor’s The Flight of the Phoenix Novel

The Flight of the Phoenix is based on the 1964 novel of the same name by Elleston Trevor, a pen name for Trevor Dudley Smith (1920-1995). A taut thriller, the book begins: “The wind had flung the sand thirty thousand feet into the sky above the desert in a blinding cloud from the Niger to the Nile, and somewhere in it was the airplane.”

Following a review in Life magazine, several Hollywood agents tried to purchase the movie rights to Trevor’s fantastic novel, including one representing actor James Stewart. But eventually winning the bidding war was director Robert Aldrich, who then agreed to cast Stewart in the starring role.

Robert Aldrich Directs The Flight of the Phoenix

Lukas Heller penned the screenplay for The Associates & Aldrich Company. Robert Aldrich (Vera Cruz, What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, The Dirty Dozen) produced and directed. Frank De Vol created the original music score and Joseph Biroc served as cinematographer.

James Stewart (Frank Towns), Richard Attenborough (Lew Moran), Peter Finch (Captain Harris) and Hardy Kruger (Heinrich Dorfmann) head the small cast. Other players are Ernest Borgnine (E. “Trucker” Cobb), Ian Bannen (”Ratbags” Crow), Ronald Fraser (Sergeant Watson), Christian Marquand (Dr. Renaud), Dan Duryea (Standish), George Kennedy (Mike Bellamy), Gabriele Tinti (Gabriel), Alex Montoya (Carlos), Peter Bravos (Tasso), William Aldrich (Bill), Barrie Chase (Farida) and Stanley Ralph Ross (Arab Singer).

Connie Francis delivers a wonderful rendition of “Senza Fine,” a romantic Italian ballad which emanates from Ernest Borgnine’s transistor radio.

The Flight of the Phoenix Filmed in Arizona and California  

The Flight of the Phoenix was filmed from April to August 1965 in Arizona (Buttercup Valley, Yuma) and California (Pilot Knobb and Imperial County). Principal props employed were three Fairchild C-82 Packet cargo planes and an experimental aircraft called the Tallmantz Phoenix P-1.

Filming went reasonably well until the morning of July 8, 1965, when Paul Mantz, a veteran pilot with over 25,000 flying hours, along with co-pilot Bobby Rose, took to the air. In order to simulate the Phoenix’s attempt to become airborne, Mantz had to guide the plane over cameras placed at opposite ends of Buttercup Valley. Although the first take was adequate, the director called for a second “insurance” take, with Mantz and Rose duly complying.

The second take proved disastrous, with the experimental plane’s landing skids catching a rough patch of ground. The Phoenix then broke apart and crashed, with Rose suffering a broken pelvis and left shoulder and Mantz killed instantly. The Federal Aviation Administration later determined that the plane’s airframe had failed due to overload stresses. The FAA also ruled that alcohol consumption by Mantz prior to the flight had contributed to the crash, impairing the 61-year-old stunt pilot’s “efficiency and judgment.”

With their lead stunt pilot dead and the Phoenix in shambles, the production company rented a vintage North American O-47 observation plane from the Ontario Air Museum, which was used to complete the flying sequences.

The Flight of the Phoenix: Survival in the Sahara Desert

The Flight of the Phoenix opens in North Africa, where a cargo plane owned by Arabco Oil takes off for Benghazi in northern Libya. Manning the aircraft are pilot Frank Towns and navigator Lew Moran, with a small group of company employees and two British Army personnel comprising the sparse passenger list.

A mammoth sandstorm soon engulfs the sky truck, crippling the engines and forcing Captain Towns to set down in the vast emptiness of the forbidding Sahara Desert. As the days pass by and rescue seems more remote, the survivors contemplate their options. Captain Harris, a by-the-book British officer, proposes that he and Sergeant Watson march their way out, producing a map which shows that the nearest water point is a “mere” 106 miles away.

Heinrich Dorfmann, a German aircraft designer, informs Captain Towns that they have all the necessary components to construct a new, smaller plane that can safely fly them back to civilization. A wary Towns reluctantly goes along with the idea, with construction getting underway.

Towns and Lew Moran later learn the truth about Dorfmann. The German works for NEU, a maker of model airplanes whose biggest design boasts of a wingspan of only two feet. “He’s crazy, Lew. The man builds toy airplanes,” Towns tells his friend, who then lapses into the hysterical laughter of a madman.

Dorfmann’s aeronautical creation, dubbed “The Phoenix” by Standish, is finally completed. With Frank Towns at the controls, Dorfmann directly behind him and the other passengers strapped onto the wings, the Phoenix’s single engine is finally ignited and the survivors brace themselves for take-off from their desert hell.

Release and Reviews

The Flight of the Phoenix opened in selected theaters on December 15, 1965, although many would not see it until 1966. The picture did not come to New York City until January 31, 1966, where it opened at the Astor Theater.

“…With the characters all being fellows of limited fascination, at best, who accumulate nothing as time passes except horrible sun blisters and beards, the attraction of being with them in their ordeal is miniscule. It’s as grim and implausible as being with Charlton Heston while he is doing that big interior decorating job in The Agony and Ecstasy,” reported a cranky Bosley Crowther of The New York Times (2/1/66).

“Robert Aldrich’s filmic translation of the Elleston Trevor book is an often-fascinating and superlative piece of filmmaking highlighted by standout performances and touches that show producer-director at his best,” observed Variety.

The Flight of the Phoenix Oscar Nominations, Trivia, DVD

• Academy Award nominations: Best Supporting Actor (Ian Bannen), Best Film Editing (Michael Luciano).
• Over 400 people attended the funeral for stunt pilot Paul Mantz, including James Stewart and World War II flying legend Jimmy Doolittle. Mantz is buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.
• A tribute to Paul Mantz is carried at the end of the picture: “It should be remembered…that Paul Mantz, a fine man and a brilliant flyer gave his life in the making of this film…”
• James Stewart served as a bomber pilot with the U.S. Eighth Air Force during World War II.
• Flight of the Phoenix was remade in 2004 with Dennis Quaid as Frank Towns. The setting was Mongolia’s Gobi Desert.
• On DVD: The Flight of the Phoenix (20th Century-Fox, 2003).

“I’ve lost five men, Lew. Gabriel in there, he’s on the way, that’ll be six. Are you asking me to try to kill the rest of them trying to get a deathtrap off the ground?” James Stewart tells Richard Attenborough.

Not an easy decision…

Jaws lobby card set image courtesy Heritage Auction Galleries

Director Steven Spielberg and Universal Pictures delivered Jaws to movie theaters in 1975. Roy Scheider plays the embattled police chief, with Robert Shaw and Richard Dreyfuss along for the terrifying ride.

Peter Benchley’s Jaws

Jaws is based on the 1974 best-selling novel of the same name by American author Peter Benchley (1940-2006). Benchley had first submitted a four-page outline for Jaws to an editor at Doubleday in June 1971. The completed manuscript was later delivered, with Benchley receiving a $7,500 advance spread out over a period of months.

Benchley’s Jaws was internally hyped by Doubleday as a potential bestseller, with Bantam paying a staggering $575,000 for the paperback rights in spirited bidding. The book clubs soon joined in with their various deals and the publishing buzz was in the air for a possible blockbuster novel about a rogue shark run amok off the eastern coast of the United States.

Movie producers Richard Zanuck and David Brown had gotten wind of Jaws while it was still an unpublished manuscript. They went in for the kill, purchasing the movie rights and a future Peter Benchley screenplay for $250,000.

Steven Spielberg Directs Jaws

Peter Benchley and Carl Gottlieb wrote the Jaws screenplay for Zanuck/Brown Productions and Universal Pictures. Steven Spielberg (Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Schindler’s List) directed. John Williams created the eerie music score and Bill Butler served as cinematographer.

Roy Scheider (Martin Brody), Robert Shaw (Quint) and Richard Dreyfuss (Matt Hooper) head the cast. Other players include Lorraine Gary (Ellen Brody), Murray Hamilton (Mayor Larry Vaughn), Carl Gottlieb (Meadows), Jeffrey Kramer (Hendricks), Susan Blacklinie (Chrissie), Jonathan Filley (Cassidy), Chris Rebello (Michael Brody), Jay Mello (Sean Brody), Lee Fierro (Mrs. Kintner), Jeffrey Vorhees (Alex Kintner), Craig Kingsbury (Ben Gardner), Dr. Robert Nevin (Medical Examiner) and Peter Benchley (News Interviewer).

Jaws Filmed on Martha’s Vineyard

Made at cost of $12 million, Jaws was shot primarily on Martha’s Vineyard, located off the Massachusetts coast. Filming began on May 2, 1974. The first scene shot was the discovery of the remains of a young woman on the beach by Chief Brody, Deputy Hendricks and a young college student. The next week, beginning on Monday, the production company swung into high gear, working six days a week, 14 hours a day.

Three mechanical sharks, constructed at a lot in Los Angeles’ San Fernando Valley, soon joined the production. All nicknamed “Bruce,” the trio of robotic sharks measured 25-feet in length and weighed 2,000 pounds each. Made of tubular steel and a special formula that mimicked shark skin, each model served a unique purpose. One was entirely open on the left side, the other on the right side, with the third being solid and complete.

The mechanical sharks proved to be as unpredictable as their real-life brethren. Oftentimes, filming had to be halted because of malfunctions or other difficulties with the steel monsters. One special problem involved the shark’s artificial skin, which had to be constantly touched up with paint.

Jaws: Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw and Richard Dreyfuss vs. the Great White Shark

Jaws begins at a late-night beach party on peaceful Amity Island. A young blond girl breaks away from the gathering and embarks on a midnight swim in the ocean. Following her is a drunken college kid, who passes out at the water’s edge. The young girl, Chrissie, is soon dragged under by some unseen terror, with her remains later washing up on the beach the next day.

The girl’s death is initially ruled a shark attack, prompting Amity Police Chief Martin Brody to take steps to close the beaches. Amity, however, depends on tourist dollars for the summer season, with the medical examiner bowing to political pressure and ruling the death a boating accident instead.

The summer season opens, with huge crowds packing Amity’s beaches. The festival-like atmosphere soon turns deadly when young Alex Kintner is savaged by a huge shark. The boy’s distraught mother then posts a $3,000 reward for the capture of the beast. A group of local fisherman later snare a large tiger shark, with many believing that the crisis is now over.

Matt Hooper of the Oceanological Institute arrives on the island and performs an autopsy on the dead shark. Just as he had suspected the tiger had come up from southern waters, as he produces a Louisiana license plate, a beer can and other debris from the shark’s belly. Absent, however, are any remains of the Kintner boy.

Professional shark hunter Quint is hired by the town council to kill the great white shark that has staked out Amity Island as its personal feeding ground. Quint, Hooper and Chief Brody set sail on the Orca to find and kill the great white, but soon become the hunted when the 25-foot monster cripples their boat and swims in for the kill.

Jaws First Screened in Dallas, Texas

Prior to its general release of June 20, 1975, Jaws was test screened in several locales around the country. The first came in Dallas, Texas, on March 26, 1975, where the picture played with The Towering Inferno. Two days later, in Long Beach, California, Jaws made a second appearance at a theater in a shopping center.

“Steven Spielberg’s Jaws is a sensationally effective action picture – a scary thriller that works all the better because it’s populated with characters that have been developed into human beings we get to know and care about. It’s a film that’s as frightening as The Exorcist…” reported Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times (6/21/75). 

“Getting right to the point, Jaws is an artistic and commercial smash…The Universal release looks like a torrid moneymaker everywhere,” observed Variety (6/18/75).

“If you think about Jaws for more than 45 seconds you will recognize it as nonsense, but it’s the sort of nonsense that can be a good deal of fun, if you like to have the wits scared out of you at irregular intervals,” opined Vincent Canby of The New York Times (6/21/75).

Jaws Box Office, Academy Awards, Trivia, DVD

• Jaws grossed $129.549 million at the American box office, earning the #1 position on the list of the top moneymaking films of 1975.
• Oscar nominations: Best Picture, Best Film Editing (Verna Fields, won), Best Original Music Score (Williams, won), Best Sound (Robert L. Hoyt, Roger Heman Jr., Earl Madery, John R. Carter, won).
• A fiberglass replica of Quint’s boat the Orca was constructed by production designer Joe Alves and his art company. A perfect duplicate above the waterline, the Orca II was sunk and recovered 24 times during the boat’s climactic battle with the shark.
• The final two scenes filmed were the discovery of Ben Gardner’s submerged boat and Richard Dreyfuss’ deadly confrontation with the shark. Both scenes were shot in the waters off California’s Catalina Island and in a rented water tank at MGM.
• Quint’s fee for killing the shark: $10,000.
• Quint’s riveting personal story of the sinking of the USS Indianapolis on July 30, 1945, which resulted in the deaths of 883 crewmen, many of them by shark attack, was scripted by Howard Sackler, John Milius and Robert Shaw.
• The 13-foot tiger shark displayed as a trophy on the pier was acquired in Florida by Teddy Grossman and Fred Zendar. The two men flew down to Sarasota with a couple thousand dollars in Universal cash and told some local shark hunters what they needed. They wrapped their dead shark in plastic, packed it in ice, rock salt and an open case of Airwick and shipped it north in a 15-foot casket via a private jet dispatched by production executive William Gilmore Jr.
• Jaws sparked a number of shark stories upon its release in the summer of 1975, including one account where a commercial fisherman reportedly hooked a great white and battled it for hours off the coast of New York. 
• Sequels: Jaws 2 (1978), Jaws 3-D (1983), Jaws: The Revenge (1987).
• On DVD: Jaws 30th Anniversary Edition (Universal, 2005).

“I’m pleased and happy to repeat the news that we have, in fact, caught and killed a large predator that supposedly injured some bathers,” Mayor Larry Vaughn tells a reporter.

Right, Mayor. One of the “injured bathers” washed up on your beach missing her head, legs and other body parts…

The Deep lobby card set image courtesy Heritage Auction Galleries

Director Peter Yates and Columbia Pictures delivered The Deep to movie theaters in 1977. Nick Nolte and Jacqueline Bisset play the young treasure hunters, with Robert Shaw and Louis Gossett Jr. also on board.

Peter Benchley’s The Deep

The Deep is based on the 1976 best-selling novel of the same name by American writer Peter Benchley (1940-2006). Also the author of the mega-selling Jaws (1974), Benchley garnered the idea for The Deep while working on an article in Bermuda for National Geographic in 1969-70.

“The Deep was based on a real shipwreck called The Constellation, which was carrying a cargo of drugs during World War II,” Benchley recalled in an interview. “That particular ship sits on not one, but two old Spanish ships, wrecked hundreds of years earlier than The Constellation. I could only make one credible, so that’s what I based The Deep on.”

Columbia Pictures had secured the movie rights to The Deep in pre-publication, paying $350,000 for the privilege. The Deep would mark the first film for producer Peter Gruber and his Casablanca Filmworks.

Peter Yates Directs The Deep

Peter Benchley was paid between $500,000 to $1 million to write The Deep’s screenplay. Lending assistance were Tracy Keenan Wynn and an uncredited Tom Mankiewicz. Among those considered for the director’s chair were Franklin Schaffner, Steven Spielberg, John Frankenheimer, John Boorman and Peter Yates. It was the Englishman Yates who got the call, as he was immediately available and had previous experience in making a film near the ocean.

Nick Nolte (David Sanders), Jacqueline Bisset (Gail Berke) and Robert Shaw (Romer Treece) head the small cast. Other players are Louis Gossett Jr. (Henri Cloche), Eli Wallach (Adam Coffin), Dick Anthony Williams (Slake), Earl Maynard (Ronald), Bob Minor (Riley), Teddy Tucker (The Harbor Master), Robert Tessier (Kevin), Lee McClain (Johnson), Peter Benchley (Mate), Colin Shaw (Young Romer Treece) and Peter Wallach (Young Adam Coffin).

The Deep Filmed in the British Virgin Islands and Bermuda

Budgeted at $9 million, The Deep began filming on July 5, 1976, in the British Virgin Islands. It is here where the 310-foot RMS Rhone – doubling for the movie’s Goliath – was resting in two sections on the bottom, having gone down in a hurricane on her 1865 maiden voyage with 125 hands on board. Filming on the Rhone consumed several weeks, at a cost of $35,000 per day.

The first production unit then headed to Bermuda where the surface scenes were shot, along with more diving action using a specially-constructed underwater set carved out of a coral hill overlooking the ocean. When filled, this remarkable set held over a million gallons of clear sea water, various marine life and a Hollywood-made shipwreck.

The final weeks of filming were consumed with what producer Peter Gruber called “the disaster business.” The most difficult scene in this vein was the destruction of Romer Treece’s lighthouse, accomplished by the Ira Andersons, Senior and Junior, a father and son special effects team who employed 26 sticks of dynamite, 14 pounds of explosive powder and hand-made bombs, 15 gallons of gasoline, 11 gallons of rubber cement and 500 feet of explosive-laden cord.

Following 9,885 dives, 10,780 underwater man hours, 1,054,000 cubic feet of compressed air and over four months of filming in three locations, principal production on The Deep ended in mid-November 1976. The raw product was then edited, given sound for the underwater scenes, musically scored by John Barry and transformed into the final cut for release to movie theaters.

Nick Nolte, Jacqueline Bisset, Robert Shaw: Treasure Hunters of The Deep

The Deep opens in Bermuda, where vacationing New Yorkers David Sanders and Gail Berke are diving on old shipwrecks. They stumble on the World War II cargo ship Goliath, which was carrying a fortune in morphine ampoules when it went down in a storm in 1943.

Haitian drug lord Henri Cloche later approaches the couple, pretending to be a collector of antique glass. The 98,000 morphine ampoules aboard the Goliath are worth a fortune to him, and he will stop at nothing to learn their exact location.

Also found by David and Gail in the wreck was a mysterious gold medallion. With the help of local treasure hunter Romer Treece, the couple discover that the Goliath is resting on the treasure-laden Spanish galleon El Grifon. With Cloche and his band in hot pursuit, Treece and the New Yorkers descend into the deep, hoping to verify El Grifon’s identity and eventually recover “a bloody fortune.”

The Deep Release, Movie Review

The Deep hit movie theaters with great fanfare on June 17, 1977.

“The Deep, which is even sillier than the Peter Benchley novel, recalls – though not to its own advantage – the sort of adventures Frank and Joe Hardy used to have on their summer vacations…The story, as well as Peter Yates’s direction of it, is juvenile without being in any attractive way innocent, but the underwater scenes are nice enough, alternately beautiful and chilling,” reported Vincent Canby of The New York Times in his review titled “The Deep, a Movie, Is Shallow” (6/18/77).

“It’s possible that inside this slick piece of engineering there is a genuinely mordant satire of human greed struggling to get out, but it never quite makes it to the surface,” observed Variety.

The Deep Box Office, Oscar Nomination, Trivia, DVD

• The Deep grossed $31.266 million at the American box office, good for the #7 position on the list of the top moneymaking films of 1977.
• One Academy Award nomination: Best Sound.
• The Deep’s theme song: “Down Deep Inside,” performed by disco diva Donna Summer.
• Special effects wizards Walter Stones and Charlie Spurgeon designed and built “Percy,” a ravenous sea snake prop with razor-sharp fangs.
• Real-life treasure hunter Teddy Tucker served as a consultant.
• A special underwater team filmed in Australia, where they gathered some 24,000 feet of film featuring divers and sharks.
• Producer Peter Gruber, on the November 8, 1976, detonation of Treece’s Bermuda lighthouse: “There was an initial bang, and then a deafening explosion rang out that shot the top cap of the lighthouse 150 feet into the air while fiery pieces of debris rained down onto the island.”
• Robert Shaw died of a heart attack at age 51 on August 28, 1978, a little more than a year following The Deep’s release.
• The unofficial remake of The Deep: Into the Blue (1985), starring Paul Walker, Jessica Alba, Scott Caan and Ashley Scott.
• On DVD: The Deep (Columbia/Tristar, 1999).

“Hey, boy, this is Goliath trash! What the bastard hell were you doing diving down there?” Robert Shaw asks Nick Nolte.

Looking for buxom Jacqueline Bisset in her wet, clinging T-shirt maybe?

Play Misty for Me publicity stills image courtesy Heritage Auction Galleries

Director Clint Eastwood and Universal Pictures delivered the psychological thriller Play Misty for Me to movie theaters in 1971. Eastwood also heads the cast as a cool California disc jockey, with Jessica Walter as his number one fan.

Play Misty for Me Origins

Play Misty for Me began life as an untitled screenplay by Jo Heims, a Clint Eastwood friend. Heims’ outline was then turned into a shooting script by Dean Riesner, a veteran of Eastwood’s Rawhide TV series (1959-66) and the author of another Eastwood film, the popular Coogan’s Bluff (1968).

Robert Daley and Jennings Lang produced Play Misty for Me for Clint Eastwood’s The Malpaso Company and Universal Pictures. Eastwood secured his first director’s assignment from Lew Wasserman of Universal only after agreeing to waive his usual actor’s fee and settling instead for a percentage of the film’s gross.

Play Misty for Me Music

Dee Barton created the picture’s original music score, which prominently featured the songs “Misty” and “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face.”

“Misty” owes its creation to the great African-American jazz composer and self-taught pianist Erroll Louis Garner (1921-1977). Garner reportedly composed his most famous song in his head while flying into Chicago for a recording session for Mercury Records. That session took place on July 27, 1954, with “Misty” flowing out of Garner’s keyboard in one easy take. Johnny Burke later added the lyrics, with “Misty” becoming a hit for at least five different artists, including Johnny Mathis in 1959.

Roberta Flack’s “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” had first appeared on her 1969 debut album First Take. Clint Eastwood had heard the song while driving to work one day and decided to use it in the semi-nude love montage sequence featuring his character and Donna Mills. Thanks to the movie, Flack’s song later became a big hit, climbing to #1 on Billboard’s Top 40 in 1972.

Play Misty for Me Cast

Clint Eastwood, sporting huge amounts of hair, stars as Dave Garver. Other players include Jessica Walter (Evelyn Draper), Donna Mills (Tobie Williams), John Larch (Sgt. McCallum), Jack Ging (Frank Dewan), Irene Hervey (Madge Brenner), James McEachin (Al Monte), Clarice Taylor (Birdie), Donald Siegel (Murphy), Duke Everts (Jay Jay) and Tim Frawley (Deputy Sheriff).

Jazz musicians Cannonball Adderley and Johnny Otis make uncredited cameo appearances.

Play Misty for Me Filmed in California

Budgeted at $750,000, Play Misty for Me was filmed in a scant 21 days in Carmel, California, the city where Clint Eastwood later became mayor in 1986. KRML Radio (1410 AM), as featured in the movie, is a real radio station. Since 1957, KRML – “where the sounds of jazz fill the air!” – has been in continuous operation. Currently broadcasting jazz and blues 24 hours a day, the station’s new digs are located in the Eastwood Building in downtown Carmel-by-the-Sea.

The movie’s concert scenes were shot live at the famous Monterey Jazz Festival.

Special Radio Request: Play Misty for Me

Play Misty for Me opens with Dave Garver driving his sports car along a scenic California highway. On the radio is station KRML in Carmel, with deejay Sweet Al Monte filling the airwaves with his jive banter. Dave relieves Al at the microphone, reciting a little poetry and getting his first request of the night: the old Erroll Garner classic “Misty.”

Dave’s “little Misty chick” is a frequent caller, with the deejay later hooking up with her at a bar. Her name is Evelyn Draper, with she and Dave heading back to his place where they engage in a one-night stand with “no strings attached.”

The deranged Evelyn soon becomes an unwanted presence in Dave’s life, cutting her wrists in his bathroom, trashing his home, ruining his chances for a coveted deejay job in San Francisco and jeopardizing his relationship with his steady girlfriend Tobie.

The deadly climax comes when a crazed Evelyn bound and gags Tobie, kills a police sergeant and waits for the arrival of her former lover. Attacking him with a pair of scissors, Evelyn badly cuts Dave, who retaliates with a wicked punch to the face which sends her hurling through a window to her death in the ocean surf below.

Play Misty for Me Opens in New York City

Play Misty for Me premiered in New York City on November 3, 1971.

“…It is sad that this film, with its locale and some of its moods out of Vertigo and its central obsessional action almost an inversion of Preminger’s wonderful Laura should echo so briefly in the imagination,” observed Roger Greenspun of The New York Times (11/4/71).

“Play Misty for Me is not the artistic equal of Psycho, but in the business of collecting an audience into the palm of its hand and then squeezing hard, it is supreme,” reported Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times.

Play Misty for Me Box Office, Golden Globe, Trivia, DVD

• Play Misty for Me grossed over $5 million at the American box office.
• The movie earned one Golden Globe nomination: Jessica Walter for Best Motion Picture Actress in a Drama.
• Clint Eastwood finished Play Misty for Me four days ahead of schedule and $50,000 under budget.
• The laid-back Eastwood pulled a prank on his Coogan’s Bluff director Don Siegel, who was making a cameo appearance as a bartender. In his first scene as director, Eastwood made Siegel do 11 takes, then kindly informed the cameraman to place some film into his camera.
• Unsure of Misty’s reception, Clint Eastwood went to a movie theater incognito in order to gauge the audience’s reaction.
• In Dirty Harry (1971), Clint Eastwood enters a diner at the beginning of the film. The movie playing at the theater on the corner? Play Misty for Me.
• On DVD: Play Misty for Me (Universal, 2001).

“KRML, Dave Garver speaking.”

“Hello?”

“Hi, what’ll it be?”

“Play ‘Misty’ for me.”

Run!

Jesse (Lisa Chappell) and Rob (Robert Taylor) have the perfect relationship, a home they love, and jobs they both enjoy immensely; the one thing they are missing is a child. But this is the one thing it seems they cannot have, no matter how hard they try. A trip away from the quiet backwater of Coffin Rock takes them to a fertility clinic in the city to investigate the cause of their problems. Unbeknown to them, Jesse has hit the attention of the receptionist Evan (Sam Parsonson) who from very early on its clear is not quite all there. Throwing his job away and heading to Coffin Rock, Evan installs himself in the community having chance encounters with Jesse. When Rob and Jesse have a falling out Evan makes sure he’s about to be there for Jesse and before she’s had time to think about her action they are having sex. The things she liked about Evan soon turn nightmarish, and as she discovers she’s pregnant things are about to get a whole lot worse.

Coffin Rock is a thriller that is not a lot dissimilar to Fatal Attraction, this time however it’s the man that’s the troubled one.  And I think in some cases that is more often than not the reality, it is more often that in real life cases of this sort of thing that it’s the man that comes obsessed. In fact before Fatal Attraction I don’t believe I ever heard of a woman becoming obsessed to the point of madness with a lover. The term Bunny Boiler so bounded about nowadays was not an expression used until Fatal Attraction, and I think part of the big draw was that it was a woman. Since then the psychopathic partner in other movies have nearly always been women, so Coffin Rock returns the balance nicely.

I’m going to stand up now and say I was not as impressed with Coffin Rock as others were at the World Premier at this years Frightfest. There were lots of positive things being bounded around the auditorium as the movie ended., but personally I don’t think we had seen anything new. Sam Parsonson is far from being the talented actor everyone seems to imply he is, and while I’m certain he’s much better than me I just was not taken in any way by his performance. An audience member discussed a moment where Evan kills a baby kangaroo,  so what in Fatal Attraction the character of Alex kills a Rabbit. Now I’m not knocking peoples views, but I think the reason Coffin Rock received such acclaim is because it’s not a horror movie, showing at a horror movie festival. When your trapped in a cinema watching movie after movie all horror themed day after day, I think a point comes where you need a bit of a reprieve and Coffin Rock filled that space. I’d challenge anyone that thought the movie was great to look again in a different environment. You may wonder dear reader why I have taken you down this path, and the reason being is because except for the privileged few the only reviews you’ll find of this movie are pretty much coming from Frightfest, and having read lots of articles all raving about the wonders of Coffin Rock you’ll stumble on mine which is fairly negative, and I thought it good to highlight potential reasons why.

Back on track with the movie and I’ll start chiefly with the performers Lisa Chappell is a great actress and she handles the leading role with great ease. While being great, and no disrespect to the actress, but she is not the sort of woman you’d take one look at and change your life for even if you are a nutcase. That’s not a criticism of her looks, its just there is nothing to stand her out from a crowd, and I think the producers of the movie could have perhaps highlighted either other reasons why the character of Evan would fall for her in such a way, or have spent more time making her look beautiful. In contrast the character of Rob again perfectly well played by Robert Taylor is a fairly unlikely looking partner for Jessie, and it seems the producers do try to overcompensate on certain issues because they both look such an unlikely couple.

On to Sam Parsonson, and as I highlighted earlier I was not in anyway struck by the actor or his performance. I just found him quite annoying; there were good aspects to his performance however I could barely see above the bad. There was never much effort put in by him or the producers to make him remotely endearing to the audience. Even as they show flashbacks to which he in present time and flashback overacts terribly. There were some good bits, a great scene where he eats a fish, and in Q & A after the movie he explained he had to do it again. I also liked aspects of the relationship he had with the kangaroo that is of course till he smashes its brains in because it never helped! Now I’m sure Parsonson has a bright future as an actor, I just don’t feel he put enough into the role here.

The one thing that works well is the location; you get a great feeling of isolation and can see how characters are drawn together by lack of choice. In a community of a few hundred people miles from anywhere maybe you have to lower your standards, which could explain the pairing of Jesse and Rob. It certainly came across that in Coffin Rock there was only one woman for every ten men.

Coffin Rock is not a bad movie; it’s just not anything out of the norm. There is nothing here that you could not find in a U.S. made for TV drama about a psychopathic lover. It just toddles along showing Evan in a bad light, before becoming predictably stupid and going on a road chase between Evan and a kidnapped Jesse and a left behind Rob. It almost enters the realm of Friday The 13th as the climax comes when your thinking, will Evan die? I’d watch Coffin Rock again and gladly re-access my views if I’m wrong, but I think its more likely that out of a packed horror movie environment that Coffin Rock will appeal to me even less.

Titled after the genre he revolutionised the movie Giallo (Giallo being the term used to describe a sexy, violent, often bloody thriller that generally is of Italian origin) is without a doubt one of the worst movies I have seen this year. And as Argento enthusiast Alan Jones took to the stage at the UK premier of Giallo at the 2009 Frightfest stating that he was holding a meeting of Argento Anonymous after the movie for anyone having difficulty coping, I should have known this would be bad.

Image via Wikipedia

The story of Giallo circles around a years old series of killings that have taken place in and around Milan. As the movie begins we see a young Japanese girl abducted by the creepy killer known as Yellow (Giallo is also the Italian word for the colour Yellow).  Quickly moving on the story then moves on to Celine a beautiful model who is eagerly awaiting the arrival of her sister Linda (Emmanuel Seigner). Almost the very moment Linda arrives in Milan Celine goes missing, leaving Linda to call in the police, who it seems to have little interest in missing people, that is until Linda states that Celine is beautiful. Its at this point that she is sent to the basement of the police station where she discovers deep in its bowels New York cop Inspector Enzo Avolfi (Oscar winning Adrien Brody). Enzo has been following the movements of Yellow for many years and knows that Celine’s chances are very slim.

Dario Argento fans come to expect certain things from an Argento movie, they are firstly usually quite well paced, have a high body count of victims, and are pretty grotesque in their gory depiction. Imagine the horror of a thousand strong cinema audience as none of these things occurred. Worse still this serial killer thrillers murders all take place before the movie has even started, leaving two deaths in the entire movie one at the very start, and one at the end.

Giallo is painful to watch as it slowly bumbles about telling a story that you have little interest in. Argento attempts to develop an almost sympathy with the killer, who makes his first full facial appearance about thirty minutes into the movie, we are told a story of the son of a prostitute abandoned to a orphanage at an early age, and then developing a life long jaundiced condition that leaves him the victim of bullies since his formative years. Sadly the first time you see plastic faced killer Yellow (Byron Deidra) all you can do really is laugh because the make up is so bad.

Considering Brody received an Oscar for his role in the Pianist, there is not any major acting talent on show in the movie, but historically some of the most acclaimed actors Orsen Welles, Richard Burton and Marlon Brando all names that immediately spring to mind often seen incredibly wooden. Brody really looks like he is struggling to put any real life into the character, and at times almost seems like he is giving up.

The story develops at an incredibly slow pace, that by the time the characters make any real headway you have literally lost interest. The audience I attended the movie with had also found this a trial as a combination of dull story telling, cheesy lines, and even cheesier actors and actresses plummeted the audience into hysterics. During the last thirty minutes of the movie you could not go more than a minute without laughter breaking out across the cinema. As I left I heard someone outside saying as I stepped in to see if everything was okay I heard the audience in hysterics. Even David Hess (Last House On The Left, House On The Edge Of The Park, Smash Cut) the undisputed king of cheesy acting and starring in even cheesier movies stated in a conversation that this was the worst Argento movie ever finishing by saying “what was he thinking?”

I tried as I wrote this to think of something positive to state about the movie, I commend Argento for trying something different but it seems that his creative genius has all but left him. His hit and miss quality of recent years has finally given him one thing, the ultimate miss; Giallo is a terrible, terrible movie and I hope that I am never forced to see it again.

I don’t know exactly how he first heard about it, but it was my husband that decided we should watch this unusual film. My initial expectations weren’t high. This was a musical (rock-opera, to be exact). It looked to be about a Repo man. And Paris Hilton was in it.

Image via Wikipedia

Okay, so here’s the plot. It’s the not-so-distant future, and for some reason lots of people are suffering organ failure. Many can’t afford organ transplants, so one company (GeneCo) steps in to help. Their “help” is to sell people the organs they need (or sometimes just want) on a payment plan. If you miss a payment, the Repo Man will come to repossess your organ. Gruesome, right?

The owner of GeneCo basically runs everything. He has three overly-privileged kids; including a spoiled daughter played by Paris Hilton (can you say “type-casting”?). Most of the movie centers on a 17 year old girl who is essentially quarantined off from the world by her father. Shiloh is played by Alexa Vega, who you may recognize if you’ve seen any of the Spy Kids movies. Vega does an amazing job and has a great singing voice.

In fact, all the actors sang very well… although you may argue Paris did not. I believe she sang quite fine, and I believe that it was not intended for her to sing superbly for this role. In any case, it’s interesting to note that Hilton won a Razzie, for Worst Supporting Actress for this film. I don’t know. I think that’s a bit harsh. I mean, her face fell off in this movie. Give her some credit for that!

Image via Wikipedia (she has definitely grown up since this picture was taken)

This movie isn’t for everyone. And you need to be in the right mindset to watch this…oh, and definitely NOT while you’re eating dinner. It was visually beautiful, although very dark. The movie interlaces opera-style dramatics, comic book imagery, gothic visuals and modern rock music. Many will want to buy the music CD after seeing this film.

Image via Wikipedia

Note: This is a review of the 2008 movie. An earlier version of Repo! The Genetic Opera was made in 2006.

“What’s it like?” I asked the cashier.

“I don’t know. I haven’t seen it yet because I just came out today.” He told me. Well it’d been too long since I got to see a horror movie so I decided to give it a try. The trailers, like any horror movie trailer, had made me hopeful. So I got my ticket, got my popcorn and I found my seat in the cinema.

If you don’t know what Orphan is about then that’s understandable. The trailers didn’t expose much about the film’s plot or even it’s premise and so all I knew to expect was a horror movie with something to do with orphans. Well that turns out to be pretty accurate. The film stars Vera Farmiga, Peter Sarsgaard, Isabelle Fuhrman and predictability makes a cameo as the film’s plot.

Kate (Farmiga) and John (Sarsgaard) Coleman are two parents who want a third child. Kate’s last pregnancy, the one that would have blessed them with a third child, was a still birth that drove her to alcoholism and still haunts her dreams. But now she hasn’t had a drink in a year and both her and her husband think it’s time to adopt a child. They visit an orphanage and, by chance, they find the perfect little girl. Esther (Fuhrman) is an artistic, talented, mature, well spoken little girl from russia who has already been adopted once but it ended in disaster. Fortunately, Kate and John find her and they know right away that she’s the perfect little girl. Or is she? As soon as Esther joins the family, things start to change. There’s sibling rivalry, school yard brawls, relationship problems and something about Esther just doesn’t seem right.

So in case you missed it: Esther is evil. That’s the premise we’re working on with this film. The direction by Jaume Collet-Serra, the cinematography by Jeff Cutter and the writing by Alex Mace & David Leslie Johnson all come together to create something utterly uninteresting to watch. I knew the film would be a disappointment when we got forty minutes into it and I started checking the time. Which brings me to this film’s biggest problem.

It’s boring and it drags on and on and on. The movie runs at around two hours but I could have sworn there was another hour hidden somewhere in there. The supposedly thrilling and scary scenes don’t add much because the movie teases you with the “false scare”. That’s the moment where the tense music plays, the character’s eyes widen, they look behind them and there’s nothing there! I’m not sure who invented this or why but if I wasn’t sick of it before, I’m definitely sick of it now. By the time it gets to something actually frightening happening, I’m too bored to care.

To be fair, the movie doesn’t fail in every respect. This movie doesn’t do so such a bad job at being creepy. A revelation about Esther’s artistic works is both creative and creepy when we first see it. As the film progresses, it builds on this idea and it only gets creepier. That may well be the film’s only triumph.

What I’d really like to say now is that Isabelle Fuhrman is a wonderful little actress who steals the show and she’s a promising young actress I hope to see more of in the future. I’d like to say it, but I can’t. The best thing about her performance is her accent. Otherwise, this movie makes a poor actor out of everyone who got involved. It’s as if the whole cast new they were in a bad movie and didn’t even bother trying. They took the money, did the job and moved on. All things considered, it probably wasn’t a bad choice.

The film’s climax eventually does come. When everything has gotten as bad as it’s going to get for the Coleman family, the movie shows us exactly what it wanted to be all along. Orphan didn’t want to be a thriller, it didn’t want to be a creative or original horror, it just wanted to be a 1980s stalker movie. This may have worked if it had done this right from the beginning, thirty years ago and it was called “Halloween” and not “Orphan”. But the movie doesn’t meet any of these requirements. The climax isn’t bad but after nearly two hours, I just didn’t care any more. Worst of all the climax, like the rest of the movie, drags on and is horribly predictable. Somehow I don’t think that’s the horror the movie was going for.

There aren’t many films I think of walking out in the middle of but this was one of them. The whole production is just dull. Except for the first scene, which is just weird. But it’s all downhill from there. The sad thing is that Orphan had potential to be a good movie. At times the film was creepy and the twist at the end is creative but poorly executed. When the big revelation comes, it just seems like it was a last minute addition to the script. Orphan is a film with it’s moments but ultimately it’s extremely dull. Consider my sacrifice, in watching the entire movie, a public service to you. There’s better uses for your money.

I don’t expect every movie to be brilliant but I expect every movie to try. Orphan chickens out before it even tries to be brilliant. Orphan just tries to be adequate and unfortunately, it fails at it. The movie reminded me a lot of ‘The Good Son’ but it makes all the same mistakes that movie made and then some.

So I give Orphan 1.5/5 burning tree houses.

Based on the yellow framed novels by authors like Agatha Christie, it was Mario Bava that made the world wake up to the Giallo thriller, during the 1960’s actively producing these movies. It was his 1964 movie Sei donne per l’assassino better known as Blood And Black Lace that really woke up the world.

Blood And Black Lace followed a killer as he hunts down key figures in the fashion industry, the killer became a hallmark for future movies fitted out in an all black outfit with black gloves and a balaclava to disguise the identity. Beyond the story the movie itself was so terribly different to other thrillers, with lurid colours and well laid out shots this was borderline to become a work of art rather than film. It’s artwork that takes us onto our next movie…

Made in 1970, a little known individual entered the Italian directorial foray having worked on the script for the movie Once Upon A Time In The West, that man was Dario Argento, the movie in question was L’ Ucell dale piume di cristallo (Bird With The Crystal Plumage), a visually stunning piece of filmmaking that went more than pushing the limits between movies and art. Shot with big empty looking wide frames, Argento’s movie focussed more on what you thought you saw rather than what you actually did. It was this view that took his 1975 movie Profondo Rosso (better known in the English speaking world as Deep Red) into the big time. It’s casting of popular British actor David Hemmings opposite Italian acting royalty Daria Nicolodi proved an invitation too desirable to resist, and it’s just as well they did. In all my years I have never encountered anyone who does not agree that Deep Red is a great movie. It’s opening scenes including a rather brutal murder seen from a piazza become engrained in your brain as one of the most memorable murders in the movie industry.

The wonder of Deep Red is intense, from its very tight knit comedy, moments of horror, and a storyline so cleverly put together that even though the eagle eyed might identify the killer from the offset and you are in reflection clearly shown the murderer, you kind of don’t see the killer, asa result you guess to the very end who it might be, even though subconsciously you have already been told.

Chi l’ha vista morire? AKA Who Saw Her Die? Made in 1972 pairs of brutality with beauty and disgust. The story of a vicious child killer is combined by a pretty disturbing view of life in Venice, and a hauntingly beautiful score by Italian composer Ennio Morricone. Starring ex James Bond George Lazenby, the movie is quite amazing to watch, curious and compelling. The same director Aldo Lado, the year previous to this bought an ingenious thriller to cinemas, in Short Night Of The Glass Dolls a man is murdered, but his death is by paralysis, a drug in fact that give the impression of death to the outside viewer. The victim however is very much alive, but unable to let anyone know, in his mind he tracks back through recent events trying to identify his killer.

The Strange Vice Of Mrs. Wardh inspired Quentin Tarentino when making his movie Kill Bill, in the movie a woman played by Edwige Fenech has a secret in her love life, but secrets are destined to lead in death. This movie was the most American looking of the Giallo films, although it clearly is Italian.

Rings Of Fear and What Have They Done To Your Daughters? Both deal with the teenage sex industry, and rather the exploitation of schoolgirls for the pleasure of sexual gratification of the rich; but whereas American and English movies are only just scratching the surface with these sort of movies, Italy was doing so 30 years ago.

Dario Argento returned to Giallo in the early 80’s with the movie Tenebrae, a story of revenge thats roots lay heavily in the past. Tenebrae like Deep Red was influential in its style, and desirable in its beauty, with vivid red colours (especially in shoes) and the most imaginative murders you could think of Tenebrae is the ideal place to end my starting suggestions into the world of the Giallo movie.

In Giallo murder is never straight forward, each director/writer would go out of their way to deliver something more elaborate and horrifying than the predecessor, from heads being pulled off by elevators, to odd sculpture murders. While movies like Fragment Of Fear, Blow Out, and Malice might try to capture the magic of Giallo, this is a unique style that it most definitely Italian, but don’t take my word for it, check it out for yourself.

• 1931

  • M

    Prototypical noir directed by Fritz Lang and starring Peter Lorre. In German with English subtitles. This is a German Expressionist film about a child murderer and is essential in helping viewers see the influence of German Expressionism film upon subsequent noir films in America.

• 1934

  • They Made Me a Criminal

    Interesting early noirish film directly by Busby Berkeley starring John Garfield as boxer on the lam and Claude Rains as his pursuer. The film begins in the corrupt city but soon makes the leap to the undefiled country where Garfield gets involved with the Dead End Kids who are working on a farm. Sunny noir.

• 1936

  • The Wrong Road

    Young lovers noir directed by James Cruze (The Great Gabbo, I Cover the Waterfront). Lionel Atwill wants the stolen $100,000 back but wants to help the misguided thieves even more. I’ve always believed in you kids from the very start.” See also You Only Live Once, Gun Crazy, They Live by Night, Side Street, etc.

• 1939

  • Convict’s Code

    Lambert Hillyer’s parolee noir. Falsely-accused ex-football star “Whiz” Tyler (Robert Kent) gets out of prison and wants to clear his name. Cinematographer Arthur Martinelli’s uses Expressionistic shadows to advantage. See Fritz Lang’s American noirs You and Me and You Only Live Once.



• 1944

  • Bluebeard

    Edgar G. Ulmer’s tale of horror. Perhaps thematically a noir but, though atmospheric, not a noir visually. John Carradine is the murderer who strangles the women he “paints.”

  • Lady in the Death House

    Steve Sekeley directed this film, most notable for its use of flashbacks. Its title (and thus basic situation) is its most noirish aspect. Stars Jean Parker who was also featured in Ulmer’s Bluebeard.



• 1945

  • Detour

    Ulmer’s noir masterpiece. Exemplary noir both in look and in theme. With Tom Neal as the hapless sap Al Roberts and Ann Savage as Vera, the femme fatale. Nasty noir.

  • Scarlet Street

    Fritz Lang’s remake of Jean Renoir’s La Chienne (The Bitch) from 1931. Scarlet Street is a wonderful noir starring Edward G. Robinson, Joan Bennett, and Dan Duryea. Though sanitized in the Hollywood way, this is true gutter noir. Even the ending irony is dark.

  • Strange Illusion

    Not to be confused with Anthony Mann’s noir Strange Impersonation of 1946. This is Edgar G. Ulmer’s Hamlet noir. A dream warns the young protagonist that his mom shouldn’t remarry, particularly the man who murdered his father. “Mother, no! This man isn’t Father!”

• 1946

  • Shock

    Evil doctor noir starring Vincent Price and Lynn Bari. Directed by Alfred L. Werker (He Walked by Night).

  

  • The Stranger

    Orson Welles directs and stars along with Loretta Young and Edward G. Robinson in this New England, disguised-Nazi noir. Compare to Hitchcock’s Shadow of a Doubt (1943), the prototypical sunny noir compromised by the shadow of foreign menace.

  • The Strange Love of Martha Ivers

    Outstanding cast (Barbara Stanwyck, Kirk Douglas, Lizabeth Scott, and Van Heflin—all to have significant careers in noir films) in Lewis Milestone’s psychologically complex noir.

• 1947

  • My Favorite Brunette

    Parody noir with Bob Hope, Dorothy Lamour, and Peter Lorre. Directed by Elliott Nugent.

  • The Red House

    Absolutely fascinating though unconventional psychological noir starring Edward G. Robinson (Scarlet Street, The Stranger) and Judith Anderson and directed by Delmer Daves. Creates a noir atmosphere out of country sunlight.

  • Fear in the Night

    Hypnotism noir directed by Maxwell Shane and starring DeForest Kelley (aka Dr. “Bones” McCoy of Star Trek) and Paul Kelly (Crossfire, The File on Thelma Jordan, Side Street). Voiceover. Mirrors. Visually stylish. “All the evidence points to me!” theme. Plausible villain. From a Cornell Woolrich story. See Black Angel, The Blue Dahlia, The Blue Gardenia, etc.



• 1948

  • He Walked by Night

    Police (Jack Webb) pursue cop-killer (Richard Basehart) noir. Directed by Alfred L. Werker. Compare the ending of He Walked by Night with the ending of Carol Reed’s The Third Man out the following year. Its documentary nature also bears comparison with Jules Dassin’s The Naked City (also 1948).

  • The Amazing Mr. X

    Con-man noir with Turhan Bey, Lynn Bari (Shock), and Cathy O’Donnell (They Live by Night). Outstanding cinematography by John (“It’s not what you light – it’s what you DON’T light”) Alton. Directed by Bernard Vorhaus.

  

  • Inner Sanctum

    Twilight Zone noir—turns on a mystical prediction. Gritty sizzle noir directed by Lew Landers. With Charles Russell and Mary Beth Hughes (The Great Flamarion).

  • The Scar or Hollow Triumph

    Deeply ironic noir with Paul Henreid and Joan Bennett (Scarlet Street). Well directed by Steve Sekeley (Lady in the Death House).



• 1949

  • Jigsaw

    Fletcher Markle’s socially-conscious film about a conspiracy of extremists. Considered noir by some but lacks characteristic noir plot, characters, look, and tone. Stars Franchot Tone (The Man on the Eiffel Tower). Notable for multiple cameos by famous Hollywood actors and actresses (John Garfield, Henry Fonda, Marlene Dietrich, Burgess Meredith…) who supported the film’s moral and political viewpoint.

  • Port of New York

    Drug smuggling New York noir with Yul Brynner with hair. Directed by László Benedek. See Borderline.

  • Impact

    Impressive noir from Arthur Lubin starring Brian Donleavy, but it’s the women who dominate this film: Ella Raines as Marsha Peters, Anna May Wong as Su Lin, and Helen Walker, despicably delicious as Irene Williams. The film is Shakespearean in its ABA structure, the “green world” being Larkspur, Idaho, and San Francisco as the frame city.

  

  • D.O.A.

    Edmund O’Brien (The Killers, White Heat , The Hitch-Hiker) poisoned and dying in San Francisco as the film opens, the action of the movie is the search for the identity and the motive of his killer. Classic noir from Rudolph Maté.

  • Too Late for Tears

    Bryon Haskin directed this femme fatale noir that has Arthur Kennedy and Dan Duryea (Scarlet Street, Black Angel, The Great Flamarion) up against the deadly avarice of Lizabeth Scott (The Strange Love of Martha Ivers).

• 1950

  • The Second Woman

    Underrated noir with Robert Young and Betsy Drake. Atmospheric and psychological like The Red House. Chandleresque twists. Directed by James V. Kern.

  

  • The File on Thelma Jordan

    Barbara Stanwyck (The Strange Love of Martha Ivers, Double Indemnity, Clash by Night) as a femme fatale who grows a soul. With Wendell Corey as another of the helpless noir males who succumb to females whose hearts are in the wrong place. Directed by Robert Siodmak.

  • Borderline
    

    William A. Seiter noir about drug trafficking stars Claire Trevor (Murder, My Sweet; Born to Kill; Raw Deal,) working for the police. She gets involved with two criminals: Raymond Burr (Raw Deal, Pitfall, The Blue Gardenia) and then Fred MacMurray (Double Indemnity). Begins as noir, transforms to comedy. “It Happened One Noir.” See The 39 Steps.

  

  • Quicksand

    Irving Pichel’s unrelenting noir starring Mickey Rooney whose lust for Jeanne Cagney leads him to theft to feed her greed. Also with Peter Lorre (M, Quicksand, My Favorite Brunette, Beat the Devil). Downward-spiral noir. See also Detour, Pitfall, The File on Thelma Jordan, etc.

  

  • Panic in the Streets

    Chase noir with Richard Widmark (Kiss of Death, Road House, Night and the City, No Way Out, Don’t Bother to Knock, Pickup on South Street) as the chaser and plague-ridden Jack Palance (Sudden Fear) as the chased. With Barbara Bel Geddes, Paul Douglas and Zero Mostel. Directed by Elia Kazan.

  • The Man on the Eiffel Tower

    Paris chase noir directed and starring Burgess Meredith. With Charles Laughton as Georges Simenon’s Inspector Maigret and Franchot Tone as the Nietzschean villain Johann Radek. Compare Radek with Harry Lime in Carol Reed’s Viennese noir The Third Man, also 1949.



• 1951

  • Cause for Alarm!

    Brilliant Loretta Young film, noir because of its nightmarish, noose-tightening plot. Directed by Tay Garnett (The Postman Always Rings Twice¬). A subset of sunny noir; one might call it suburban noir.

• 1952

  • Kansas City Confidential

    John Payne taking revenge against the men who framed him: Jack Elam, Lee Van Cleef, and Neville Brand under the leadership of Preston Foster. The gang doesn’t know each other. They’ve always worn masks! Coleen Gray as the love interest. Outstanding noir. Iconic images abound.



• 1953

  • Beat the Devil

    Parody noir scripted by Truman Capote. Only slightly more serious than My Favorite Brunette. Top notch cast (Humphrey Bogart, Jennifer Jones, Gina Lollobrigida, Robert Morley, Peter Lorre), top notch director (John Huston).

  • The Hitch-Hiker

    Wonderful noir directed by Ida Lupino, star herself of many classic noir films (High Sierra; They Drive by Night; On Dangerous Ground; Road House; The Man I Love; Beware, My Lovely; and her own directorial effort The Bigamist). The small cast all brilliant: Edmond O’Brien (The Killers, White Heat, D.O.A.), Frank Lovejoy, and William Talman as Emmett Myers, the psychopath kidnapper who sleeps literally with one eye open.



• 1954

  • Suddenly

    Psychotic-killer noir starring Frank Sinatra as John Baron, would-be presidential assassin. With Sterling Hayden (The Asphalt Jungle, The Killing) as the good guy. Small town noir. The infiltration of big city evil. Anticipates The Rifleman.

All films are available on the internet.

See
The Internet Movie Database

for detailed information on individual films.

Stills by Bill Yarrow from public domain versions of the films

This information is current as of April 30, 2008