Noirvember 2023 - Rate the last noir you watched

I love The Narrow Margin, as a big Marie Windsor fan, and also of Charles McGraw's. I think it's one of the greatest "B" noirs ever made. When I first saw it I was really surprised by the twist.

RKO was the best and most prolific of the noir studios, but Howard Hughes (who fascinates me) was pretty much responsible for the studio's demise, due to his goofy ideas, long delays, re-shoots, and firing or causing the retirement of 75% of the employees. By the time he sold the joint after 7 years in 1955 at a big profit, it had degenerated so badly that it couldn't recover, leading to its folding in 1960.

Spoilers***
I'm not one to complain about every conceivable plot hole because most movies have them to one degree or another. But with one lone detective (Charles McGraw) guarding a mob witness on a train to testify (Marie Windsor...you'd think that when he spots and confronts the two mob guys, he'd slap them into handcuffs on some charge or another for the duration of the trip, problem solved...well mostly as there was a third unknown gunman waiting to board the train. If he had subdued the first two we would be off our guard and yet there would still be danger to drive the movie forward when the 3rd gunman arrives. But instead the detective keeps having conversations with these bad guys. I'm surprised he didn't have lunch with them. The script problems are probably Hughes's doing.

Then we have Marie Windsor hold up in an adjacent room on the train and despite being warned to be quiet she plays a phonograph full volume which allows the bad guys to find her. Didn't she have anymore sense than that and didn't the cop have enough sense to take her phonograph away the first time he caught her playing it? It's a fun movie, Windsor is awesome but the script reads like a first pitch, it really needed polishing.

Laura rocks! Top ten finish?

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Letterboxd

#JusticeForHamilton

I can hope!

Knowing the mofo crowd, The Killing finishes ahead of it.

Laura is making my ballot. It was already in strong contention and after the third rewatch I love it even more.

The Blue Lamp (1950) is a nifty little police procedural that deserves a special mention for, among other things, reportedly being the first UK movie to be shot largely on location, as well as for introducing Dick Bogarde to many viewers before he became a big star in British cinema.

Storywise, it might seem a bit dated by today's standards, but in its time it served as a precursor to the "social realism" movement that would become more prominent in Brit cinema throughout the 50s and 60s.

Jack Warner's character would be later resurrected for the long-running TV series Dixon of Dock Green, which ran on the BBC from 1955 to 1976! (Sadly, nearly all of the episodes have been lost forever).

Nice write up @FilmBuff The Blue Lamp is one that I've not heard of before. Are you a fan of classic era noir?

I live for classic noir!

Cool. Did you see the 1st post in this thread? It has all the links to the noirs that were reviewed including the one you just posted.

And still way better than the GDT remake!

I haven't seen the remake of Nightmare Alley, but I did skim some of the reviews on IMDB and it seemed like people were saying visually it looked great, but was too long and not a well focused story. Does that sound about right?

Pretty much, the visuals are amazing, and it is much more explicit in terms of violence, but that doesn't make it half as engaging as the 1947 original.

Copper was surprisingly good in the GDT remake of Nightmare Alley, and of course it looked great, but yes, the original is better.
That’s not to say the remake is bad, just a bit inferior

I don't know if you're interested but I wrote a proper review of Nightmare Alley (1947). It's more in depth compared to what I just wrote.

My full review of Nightmare Alley (1947)

I got behind in posting here but I have watched a few more Noirs.

I watched both High Sierra and I Died A Thousand Times last week. I rate them both a 3.5 for different reasons. I thought I Died looked better and had better pacing. High Sierra better all around casting. The exception to the casting is Winters. One of those actors that I wish was in everything, she’s fantastic.

Found a gem in Lured. A Sirk Noir starring Lucille Ball, which was really great I thought. The mystery remains throughout and the characters were all really well written. This is a hidden gem for me and on Criterion Channel if you want to check it out. I gave it a 4.5.

I threw on Farewell My Lovely with Mitchum last night forgetting it was outside of the Noir window. Wouldn’t have had a chance to make either list for me anyway. It’s not horrible, but I think the balance act it is trying between modern and classic never really works. Kind of a bummer but glad I watched it. Gave it a 2.5.

Good! We still have 11 more days until the deadline of Feb 25th. I hope to squeeze in a bunch more by then.

I hear ya about Shelley Winters, if she's in a film I'm more likely to watch it. She's real good in I Died A Thousand Times and I thought Jack Palance had a lot of pathos. I think he's a much better actor than people remember which is probably because he usually played the tough baddie like in Shane. I like both of those movies alot, I think it's the tragicness of the story.

I'll try to watch that one. I seen it and reviewed here but like 8 years ago. I can't remember what the film was about and had forgot Sirk directed it. I'm sure I mentioned this before but Sirk is a top 10 director for me.