Noirvember 2023 - Rate the last noir you watched

Well made and delivered story with beautiful noir cityscape shots. The balance between drama and silly humor however was slightly off. In other words; less jokes would have strengthened the overall intensity and impact of the film.


Absolutely love the scene from the screenshot ^ 10/10 perfect!
Great film, Lancaster is one of the g.o.a.t. 's , but is it 'Noir' enough for my list?

Two more great noirs! Count me as a big fan of Burt Lancaster. One of these days I'm going to watch every movie he was in. If memory serves me his very first film was the noir The Killers.

Loved Ladd and Lake together in this, but got much too little of that. The last third, especially, just started to lose me. Still a good Noir, but not one that will stick with me or that I will return to.

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#JusticeForHamilton

The Whistler follows Earl C. Conrad (Richard Dix), a businessman that hires a hitman through a middleman to kill himself, as he hasn't been able to recover from the death of his wife. The twist comes when he realizes later that his wife is alive, but he has no way to contact the hitman to stop the hit since the middleman was killed as well.

This was an interesting watch that I found out about when looking for short film noirs (its runtime is just 60 minutes). The premise is really interesting and Dix is a competent lead. However, the way the hitman behaves really doesn't make much sense as he seems determined in completing the job, but still spins his wheels too much when the time comes for some odd reasons.

Regardless of that, the atmosphere is effective and most of the cast does a solid job. The whole "whistling" thing ends up being a weird red herring, and there are some odd developments in the second act that I don't think were that well executed, paired with an unnecessary love interest. However, the breezy runtime helps smooth the rough edges a bit.

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Fritz Lang double feature today. Very nice!


Love the plot here and Dana Andrews is very good. Gets a little too twisty at the end too quickly for me. I kind of loved where it went there. Just wish it would have taken a little more time with it.

I know we all kind of love the run times of these Noirs, but this has come up a few times for me. Where I wish the plot was drawn out a bit more.


Man, I really thought that I was going to absolutely love this through the first fifteen. Unfortunately, the rail yard and the family at the start fade a little too far into the background for me. I still thought this was really good. With a fun plot, just not the masterpiece I thought I was in for.

Act of Violence follows Joe Parkson (Robert Ryan), a former World War II POW determined to find one of his comrades, Frank Enley (Van Heflin), at all costs. The reason? It's one of those things that happened in the war that nobody understands, not even Joe or Frank; but that's one of the mysteries that this film holds on to for a while.

The film opens with Joe tracking down Frank to kill him, all while leaving us in the dark as to why. Frank seems to be a well-doing and renowned contractor in the housing business while it is evident that Joe is unhinged and dangerous. The film does a great job of just throwing us right in the middle of that crux without telling us all the details, so our allegiance tends to be with Frank. But this is something that might change as the film reveals more about Joe's reasonings.

I think that was my favorite thing about the film; how it manages to contrast and juxtapose these two characters, none of which are entirely free from blame or wrong-doing. For a 1940s film to present the complexity of those things that "happened in the war" and that we can't understand, it is quite something, and I like that the film never fully commits to any side. Neither Joe nor Frank are demonized or idolized, but are rather presented as two damaged individuals.

Ryan and Heflin are pretty solid in their roles, but I think my favorite performances were from Janet Leigh as Frank's wife, Edith, who has to handle Joe while also trying to understand the truth about her husband's past, and Mary Astor who plays a street-smart woman who stumbles upon Frank and also tries to understand what is happening and tries to help him in a different way.

But to go back to my initial point, I think the film's biggest success is how relentless it feels. Just like Joe, the film's pace rarely lets us catch our breath as we see this cat-and-mouse game unfold and these things that are impossible to understand are brought to light. Things that, just like Frank himself told his wife, we might never understand them ourselves.

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Thieves' Highway follows Nick Garcos (Richard Conte), who returns from World War II to his family in California, only to find that his father, a produce driver, was roughed up by a ruthless dealer called Mike Figlia (Lee J. Cobb). This resulted in Nick's father losing his legs and sets Nick on a path for revenge against Figlia.

Like many film noirs, the film does a great job of presenting the insurmountable stakes that our lead seems to be against. Perhaps a representation of the struggles and difficulties that veterans had to face upon returning home, Nick seems to have little chances to win. But he more than makes up for it with determination and guts as he stands up to Figlia.

Nick is also helped by Ed (Millard Mitchell), another driver that took up Nick father's truck, and Rica (Valentina Cortese), a local that Figlia might or might not be using against Nick. Conte is solid in the lead, but it is Cobb who easily shines as Figlia. His character moves seamlessly from fake amiability to sheer unscrupulousness and opportunism.

However, the film's pace is a bit dragged down by Ed's subplot, despite Mitchell's performance being pretty good. I also didn't like how the film handled the subplot with Nick's girlfriend, Polly (Barbara Lawrence) and how Rica serves as the rebound. I don't think the character of Polly was entirely necessary, or on the other hand, the romantic relationship with Rica.

Despite those flaws, the film was enjoyable with some nice twists and solid performances. The exchanges between Nick and Figlia were intense and featured some good dialogue ("your end of nothing is nothing") without it resorting into the stereotypes of antagonists, so I'll give it a fair shake.

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That is part of the closing statement offered by the police at the end of this iconic film noir. Perhaps the jungle/beasts metaphor is a bit on the nose, but that doesn't make it any less appropriate. Because if there's one thing the film succeeds is in transmitting the savagery and ruthlessness of this "asphalt jungle" where survival is of the fittest.

The Asphalt Jungle follows a group of criminals led by Doc Riedenschneider (Sam Jaffe) as they plan and stage the robbery of a jewel store that could leave them all set for life. To pull it off, he needs a safecracker (Anthony Caruso), a getaway driver (James Whitmore), and a "hooligan" (Sterling Hayden). But in this jungle, the predatory beasts are all over.

This is a film I had been hearing about for a long time, but somehow I hadn't been able to get to it. Now that I finally did, I can see what all the fuss is about. The Asphalt Jungle is a thrilling, sharply written crime film that doesn't pull its punches, which is best exemplified in the nature of its lead character, Dix Handley (Hayden), a 6'4" intimidating thug that's a chronic gambler and essentially a killer.

But, as many other similar films have done after, the film succeeds in making us root for Dix by pairing him against more despicable characters. In this case, slimy lawyer Alonzo Emmerich (Louis Calhern), who is not afraid to double-cross Dix and his men. Calhern's performance goes masterfully from confident and cocky to pathetic and pitiful, and it is probably my favorite from the film.

It is worth noting that Marilyn Monroe had a brief but crucial supporting performance as Emmerich's mistress, and she is very good in it ("What about my trip, Uncle Lon?"). The character of the Doc (Jaffe) also offers an interesting balance of heart and soul deep within the "predatory beasts" of this jungle. I might say it works even better than the background they try to give Dix, with the horse farm, which feels a bit forced.

But putting that aside, the real star here is Huston's masterful direction, mood, and atmosphere, and the snappy script. The Asphalt Jungle drags you deep within, along with the predatory beasts as they claw and fight each other, and makes you think: what if they take over?

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I agree. An almost impossibly unlikely story that wasn't helped by Kelly playing against type. Siodmak is one of the great noir directors, but this one was beneath him.

I should mention some years back I borrowed the Deanna Durbin Sweetheart DVD set (that's what it was called) from the library. Generally I liked her and she was pretty good but not in Christmas Holiday. She did make one other noir Lady on a Train (1945). It's not rated too highly but I remember liking it. I'll have to watch it again.

Not really noir and nothing to get too excited about.

So intense and so void of the usual noir trappings that this home invasion film is 20 years ahead of it's time. "Three escaped convicts move in on and terrorize a suburban household."...and it's surprising just how terrorizing they can be. Here Bogart isn't doing Bogart, he's a plain rotten and angry escaped murderer, who's just as likely to shoot the family as he is to let them live. Fine performances all around especially the great Fredrick March. Director William Wyler keeps it real, keeps it intense, no wonder this one is highly rated.