Tag Archives: noir

“No, I’ve always been a bartender.”

Posted on March 18, 2016 by phb256

Here is Jim and I talking about My Darling Clementine, John Ford’s classic Western. Jim brought up the noir connections, and there are many, but one we sort of missed was cinematographer Joseph MacDonald’s pedigree. The visual style of noir … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

“Don’t you tell me ’bout your law and order”

Posted on January 4, 2016 by phb256

The other day we watched Border Incident, Anthony Mann’s 1949 film which bridged his noir and western periods. I probably put it in my queue back during noir106, and it showed up on the eve of western106. All part of … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Tie Game

Posted on April 27, 2013 by phb256

About a week ago I ran across some interestingways to knot a tie, and I’ve been trying without success to do one of the knots. So it was a fortuitous coincidence that I saw the list of Youtube Film Noir Features in … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Poking the ruins

Posted on April 1, 2013 by phb256

Yesterday I wrote a little about some of the NoirMOOC material. Richard Edwards, who is running the MOOC, replied via Twitter: @phb256 thanks for the blog link! His best line in Arson Plus is about “ruins.” It’s a seed he … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Arson by night

Posted on March 31, 2013 by phb256

I made it my New Year’s resolution to read more Hammett, so it was nice that his short story, Arson Plus, showed up in the NoirMOOC. It’s Hammett’s first published story, and it’s not quite as hardboiled as Red Harvest. … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Detour

Posted on March 13, 2013 by phb256

Detour makes a nice little intro into film noir. All the basic ingredients are there: the femme fatale, the dark shadows, the flashbacks, the voice over narration, the out of control circumstances leading to certain doom… Except the circumstances are … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , | Leave a comment

The Set-Up: Round two

Posted on February 24, 2013 by phb256

Last week I blogged a bit about the film version of The Set-Up, so I thought I should take the time to read the book. The book and the film have similarities and differences, which Jefferson Hunter detailed far better than … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Crime rhyme

Posted on February 19, 2013 by phb256

Robert Wise’s The Set-Up is probably the only noir boxing film based on a poem. It’s a story about a fixed boxing match, starring legendary tough guy Robert Ryan as the fighter who’s supposed to take the dive. His manager, thinking … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , | 5 Comments

Double endings

Posted on October 7, 2012 by phb256

Chapter two of More Than Night is “Modernism and Blood Melodrama: Three Case Studies.” It analyzes The Glass Key, The Maltese Falcon and Double Indemnity. The end of the chapter has two publicity stills from the alternate ending to Double Indemnity. … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Shots and scripts

Posted on October 5, 2012 by phb256

Sometimes you can discover some pretty cool stuff in a library. The other day I found that we have a database called American Film Scripts Online, which contains the shooting script for Double Indemnity. Here’s the main killing scene: DIETRICHSON’S … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment