Gotta love that title! Producer Walter Mirisch’s small-scale Monogram noir was once assumed lost, but now it’s making its home video debut on Blu-ray. A luckless young entertainer finds himself neck deep in murder trouble, when an unbreakable string of circumstantial evidence points directly at him. As the date of his execution nears, the only way his desperate wife can help him is to encourage the detective on the case to think he has a chance with her. Taken from a Cornell Woolrich story, the show tries hard despite its low budget — we can almost feel Mirisch behind the scenes, making sure the picture has heart and sincerity.
I Wouldn’t Be in Your Shoes
Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1948 / B&w Color / 1:37 Academy / 71 min. / Available at Amazon.com / Street Date July 20, 2021 / 21.99
Starring: Don Castle, Elyse Knox, Regis Toomey, Charles D. Brown, Rory Mallinson, Robert Lowell, Dorothy Vaughan, Steve Darrell,...
I Wouldn’t Be in Your Shoes
Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1948 / B&w Color / 1:37 Academy / 71 min. / Available at Amazon.com / Street Date July 20, 2021 / 21.99
Starring: Don Castle, Elyse Knox, Regis Toomey, Charles D. Brown, Rory Mallinson, Robert Lowell, Dorothy Vaughan, Steve Darrell,...
- 7/13/2021
- 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
Yes, it is a perfect title for a horror picture, but it belongs to an early film noir -- or as we discover, a murder thriller that previews the classic '40s noir visual look. Victor Mature is the man on the spot for a killing, Betty Grable and Carole Landis are a pair of sisters in danger, and Laird Cregar is the creepiest police detective in the history of the force. I Wake Up Screaming Blu-ray Kl Studio Classics 1941 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 82 min. / Street Date November 1, 2016 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95 Starring Betty Grable, Victor Mature, Carole Landis, Laird Cregar, William Gargan, Alan Mowbray, Allyn Joslyn, Elisha Cook Jr. Cinematography Edward Cronjager Art Direction Richard Day, Nathan Juran Film Editor Robert L. Simpson Original Music Cyril J. Mockridge, Harold Barlow Written by Dwight Taylor from the novel by Steve Fisher Directed by H. Bruce Humberstone
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
My,...
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
My,...
- 10/29/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
By John M. Whalen
All struggling young reporter Mike Ward (John McGuire) wants is a break. He needs money so he can move out of his crummy room in a three story boarding house, get his own place, and marry his girl, Jane (Margaret Tallichet). His break arrives when he becomes the star witness to the murder of Nick, the owner of Nick’s Coffee Pot, a neighborhood eatery right across the street from where he lives. The newspaper he works for gives him a raise and assigns him to cover the murder trial. At first he and Jane are elated about Mike’s turn of fortune, and they began planning their future. But soon Jane wonders if the young man Mike is going to testify against, a young cab driver named Briggs (Elisha Cook, Jr.), is really the killer. “He’s so young,” she says. Her attitude begins to...
All struggling young reporter Mike Ward (John McGuire) wants is a break. He needs money so he can move out of his crummy room in a three story boarding house, get his own place, and marry his girl, Jane (Margaret Tallichet). His break arrives when he becomes the star witness to the murder of Nick, the owner of Nick’s Coffee Pot, a neighborhood eatery right across the street from where he lives. The newspaper he works for gives him a raise and assigns him to cover the murder trial. At first he and Jane are elated about Mike’s turn of fortune, and they began planning their future. But soon Jane wonders if the young man Mike is going to testify against, a young cab driver named Briggs (Elisha Cook, Jr.), is really the killer. “He’s so young,” she says. Her attitude begins to...
- 8/17/2016
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
John Flynn's The Outfit (1974), a brutally efficient bit of business based glancingly on Richard Stark’s procedurally inquisitive and poetic crime novel of the same name, is a movie that feels like it’s never heard of a rounded corner; it’s blunt like a 1970 Dodge Monaco pinning a couple of killers against a Dumpster and a brick wall. I say “glancingly” because the movie, as Glenn Kenny observed upon The Outfit’s DVD release from the Warner Archives, is based less on the chronologically unconcerned novel than an idea taken from it. On the page Stark's protagonist, the unflappable Parker, his face altered by plastic surgery to the degree that past associates often take a fatal beat too long to realize to whom it is they are speaking, assumes the detached perspective of a bruised deity, undertaking the orchestration of a series of robberies administered to Mob-run businesses...
- 6/5/2016
- by Dennis Cozzalio
- Trailers from Hell
Val Lewton, Russian émigré turned horror master, was a reporter, pulp novelist and MGM publicity writer before moving into film. He spent the 1930s as David O. Selznick’s story editor, directing second unit work on A Tale of Two Cities (1935) and script doctoring Gone With the Wind (1939), warning Selznick it would be “the mistake of his life.” While not Hollywood’s most prescient man, Lewton’s professionalism earned Selznick’s respect, and their collaboration led to Rko offering Lewton a producing job in 1942.
Rko was reeling from Orson Welles’ The Magnificent Ambersons, an expensive flop forcing a refocus on low budget films. Charles Koerner headed the studio’s B Unit, envisioning a horror series inspired by Universal Studio’s successful franchises. Where Universal culled from established literature (Dracula, Frankenstein), Rko worked from Koerner’s whim: he created a title and left the filmmakers to handle trivia like plot and characters.
Rko was reeling from Orson Welles’ The Magnificent Ambersons, an expensive flop forcing a refocus on low budget films. Charles Koerner headed the studio’s B Unit, envisioning a horror series inspired by Universal Studio’s successful franchises. Where Universal culled from established literature (Dracula, Frankenstein), Rko worked from Koerner’s whim: he created a title and left the filmmakers to handle trivia like plot and characters.
- 10/6/2015
- by Christopher Saunders
- SoundOnSight
In a novel effort to stress that film noir wasn’t a film movement specifically an output solely produced for American audiences, Kino Lorber releases a five disc set of obscure noir examples released in the UK. Spanning a near ten year period from 1943 to 1952, the titles displayed here do seem to chart a progression in tone, at least resulting in parallels with American counterparts. Though a couple of the selections here aren’t very noteworthy, either as artifacts of British noir or items worthy of reappraisal, it does contain items of considerable interest, including rare titles from forgotten or underrated auteurs like Ronald Neame, Roy Ward Baker, and Ralph Thomas.
They Met in the Dark
The earliest title in this collection is a 1943 title from Karel Lamac, They Met in the Dark, a pseudo-comedy noir that barely meets the criteria. Based on a novel by Anthony Gilbert (whose novel...
They Met in the Dark
The earliest title in this collection is a 1943 title from Karel Lamac, They Met in the Dark, a pseudo-comedy noir that barely meets the criteria. Based on a novel by Anthony Gilbert (whose novel...
- 8/24/2015
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Simone Simon in 'La Bête Humaine' 1938: Jean Renoir's film noir (photo: Jean Gabin and Simone Simon in 'La Bête Humaine') (See previous post: "'Cat People' 1942 Actress Simone Simon Remembered.") In the late 1930s, with her Hollywood career stalled while facing competition at 20th Century-Fox from another French import, Annabella (later Tyrone Power's wife), Simone Simon returned to France. Once there, she reestablished herself as an actress to be reckoned with in Jean Renoir's La Bête Humaine. An updated version of Émile Zola's 1890 novel, La Bête Humaine is enveloped in a dark, brooding atmosphere not uncommon in pre-World War II French films. Known for their "poetic realism," examples from that era include Renoir's own The Lower Depths (1936), Julien Duvivier's La Belle Équipe (1936) and Pépé le Moko (1937), and particularly Marcel Carné's Port of Shadows (1938) and Daybreak (1939).[11] This thematic and...
- 2/6/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Many genres that Hollywood used to rely on for lots of hits have long since fallen by the wayside. Zoe finds out what happened to them…
Hollywood, the world's entertainment factory, has, for the past one hundred years, been producing films that have been enjoyed by audiences around the world. And in that time, a lot has changed, society, technology, fashions, tastes, and lifestyles, all of which Hollywood has continued to accommodate.
It's come a long way from its humble beginnings in the days of melodramatic, black and white, silent films with somewhat crude production methods. Hollywood has evolved into something more sophisticated and streamlined. But with so much change in such a fast paced industry, have some genres fallen behind? Or is it the case that these too have simply evolved into something more sophisticated and subtle?
Musical
The musical is arguably the most uplifting and escapist genre to...
Hollywood, the world's entertainment factory, has, for the past one hundred years, been producing films that have been enjoyed by audiences around the world. And in that time, a lot has changed, society, technology, fashions, tastes, and lifestyles, all of which Hollywood has continued to accommodate.
It's come a long way from its humble beginnings in the days of melodramatic, black and white, silent films with somewhat crude production methods. Hollywood has evolved into something more sophisticated and streamlined. But with so much change in such a fast paced industry, have some genres fallen behind? Or is it the case that these too have simply evolved into something more sophisticated and subtle?
Musical
The musical is arguably the most uplifting and escapist genre to...
- 8/4/2011
- Den of Geek
Another sad entry in the criminal history of British barbering! For it is a remarkable fact that any time the protagonist of a Brit flick reaches for the straight razor or scoops out a handful of Brylcream, his fate is sealed and the gallows awaits. One need only think of Uno Henning in Anthony Asquith's luminous-black slice of English expressionism, A Cottage on Dartmoor (1929), or Eric Porter in Compton Bennett's Daybreak(1948), a British answer to French poetic realism and one of the saddest films ever made (reviewed for The Forgotten here).
Both those films represent clear (and successful) attempts to transplant essentially foreign modes of film-making onto British soil. On the Night of the Fire (1939) is something different: it gathers together all the key elements of the classic American noir, and plays them out in an unusual working class and regional setting, but it does so before Hollywood had encoded those genre principles.
Both those films represent clear (and successful) attempts to transplant essentially foreign modes of film-making onto British soil. On the Night of the Fire (1939) is something different: it gathers together all the key elements of the classic American noir, and plays them out in an unusual working class and regional setting, but it does so before Hollywood had encoded those genre principles.
- 2/17/2011
- MUBI
By David Savage
One of the most anticipated genre film festivals on the North American circuit is Noir City, the annual San Francisco Film Noir Festival, hosted at the glorious Castro Theatre – itself a cinematic landmark and “character” in countless movies filmed in the City by the Bay. This year’s edition, with the theme of “Who’s crazy now?” kicks off January 21st and runs through the 30th, 2011. Over the 10 day span, a tantalizing lineup of twenty-four films will be screened – including three brand new 35mm prints funded by the Film Noir Foundation, High Wall (1947); Loophole (1954) and The Hunted (1948).
“We show films you can’t see anywhere else,” said Noir City co-founder and noted film historian Eddie Muller over the phone from his Bay Area home. “We are the only festival that goes out of its way to preserve rare titles, then uses those proceeds to restore other rare titles.
One of the most anticipated genre film festivals on the North American circuit is Noir City, the annual San Francisco Film Noir Festival, hosted at the glorious Castro Theatre – itself a cinematic landmark and “character” in countless movies filmed in the City by the Bay. This year’s edition, with the theme of “Who’s crazy now?” kicks off January 21st and runs through the 30th, 2011. Over the 10 day span, a tantalizing lineup of twenty-four films will be screened – including three brand new 35mm prints funded by the Film Noir Foundation, High Wall (1947); Loophole (1954) and The Hunted (1948).
“We show films you can’t see anywhere else,” said Noir City co-founder and noted film historian Eddie Muller over the phone from his Bay Area home. “We are the only festival that goes out of its way to preserve rare titles, then uses those proceeds to restore other rare titles.
- 1/2/2011
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
Craig here with another Take Three
Today: Peter Lorre
Take One: When you're strange...
Lorre did Stranger on the Third Floor (1940) because he owed Rko Pictures two days work; just enough time to fit in a slippery six-minute cameo role, though top-billed, as the titular stranger. Boris Ingster's B-movie has been long thought to have kick-started Film Noir - though some point to The Maltese Falcon, also starring Lorre - and the long, angular and accusing shadows from M have certainly followed Lorre to '40s New York; he's hiding in them again, under stoops, around stairwells, sporting a foppish white scarf and fixing passers-by with his signature beady glare (think Steve Buscemi playing Quentin Crisp). Lorre's cypher-like stranger could just be the real killer responsible for several throat-slit murders witnessed by reporter Mike Ward (John McGuire), the blame for which has landed at cabbie Joe Briggs' (Elisha Cook Jr.) feet.
Today: Peter Lorre
Take One: When you're strange...
Lorre did Stranger on the Third Floor (1940) because he owed Rko Pictures two days work; just enough time to fit in a slippery six-minute cameo role, though top-billed, as the titular stranger. Boris Ingster's B-movie has been long thought to have kick-started Film Noir - though some point to The Maltese Falcon, also starring Lorre - and the long, angular and accusing shadows from M have certainly followed Lorre to '40s New York; he's hiding in them again, under stoops, around stairwells, sporting a foppish white scarf and fixing passers-by with his signature beady glare (think Steve Buscemi playing Quentin Crisp). Lorre's cypher-like stranger could just be the real killer responsible for several throat-slit murders witnessed by reporter Mike Ward (John McGuire), the blame for which has landed at cabbie Joe Briggs' (Elisha Cook Jr.) feet.
- 7/12/2010
- by Craig Bloomfield
- FilmExperience
Look up on that marquee. Whose name do you see? László Löwenstein! Then you shake your head and wonder, “Who is László Löwenstein?” To film audiences around the world and until the day he died, he was known as Peter Lorre, one of my favorite actors and sadly not enough people know him apart from the Looney Tunes caricature that, while pretty brilliant, doesn’t show a fraction of his acting ability.
Today is a special day because his birthday is June 26th and he would be a ripe 106 years old. So here at the Criterion Cast, I would like to share with you my top 10 Peter Lorre films that I just absolutely adore. This isn’t a definitive list, so if you have any suggestions yourself, please list them down below in the comments section.
10. The Raven (1963)/ The Comedy of Terrors (1964)
Are these great films? Not at all, to be honest.
Today is a special day because his birthday is June 26th and he would be a ripe 106 years old. So here at the Criterion Cast, I would like to share with you my top 10 Peter Lorre films that I just absolutely adore. This isn’t a definitive list, so if you have any suggestions yourself, please list them down below in the comments section.
10. The Raven (1963)/ The Comedy of Terrors (1964)
Are these great films? Not at all, to be honest.
- 6/27/2010
- by James McCormick
- CriterionCast
Our look back at the history of the American B-movie takes in the 40s and 50s, which saw the emergence of Mr Roger Corman...
"From Out of Space... A Warning and An Ultimatum!" Tagline for The Day The Earth Stood Still (Robert Wise, 1951)
The term B-movie is perhaps most synonymous with the 40s and 50s era of Hollywood. At this stage the label was sometimes used as derogatory slang for cheapo movies with stale dialogue, unknown actors and old sets. But most movie lovers remember something magical about these classics. Whether it's watching Cat People when you were a kid, or Ed Wood's hilarious cult oddities as a teenager, they stay with you forever.
Rko were renowned for their horrors around this time, thanks to screen writer and producer Val Lewton. His production team made the aforementioned Cat People (1942), as well as I Walked With A Zombie (1943) and Stranger On The Third Floor...
"From Out of Space... A Warning and An Ultimatum!" Tagline for The Day The Earth Stood Still (Robert Wise, 1951)
The term B-movie is perhaps most synonymous with the 40s and 50s era of Hollywood. At this stage the label was sometimes used as derogatory slang for cheapo movies with stale dialogue, unknown actors and old sets. But most movie lovers remember something magical about these classics. Whether it's watching Cat People when you were a kid, or Ed Wood's hilarious cult oddities as a teenager, they stay with you forever.
Rko were renowned for their horrors around this time, thanks to screen writer and producer Val Lewton. His production team made the aforementioned Cat People (1942), as well as I Walked With A Zombie (1943) and Stranger On The Third Floor...
- 3/23/2010
- Den of Geek
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