It’s New Year’s Eve, the final day of a most, er, dramatic year, and this is my 79th and final post of 2024. It's also the time when some of my fellow bloggers review their accomplishments, perhaps name a “Book of the Year,” and make prognostications about what’s coming up in 2025 that are hopefully vague … Continue reading EVE OF POSSIBILITIES: Looking Back on ’24 and Forward to ’25
Film Noir
“A strange and dangerous experiment in love and murder” THE NOIRVEMBER ’44 DRAFT
Fresh off our Columbo Distaff Draft, the Three Musketeers (we have got to come up with a better name for ourselves – maybe I’ll have a contest!!) didn’t have to think hard to arrive at our next topic. The glorious sub-genre of cinematic mystery known as film noir has a history as dark and complex as the … Continue reading “A strange and dangerous experiment in love and murder” THE NOIRVEMBER ’44 DRAFT
NOIR ’44 – The Draft Is Coming!
I have a couple of new projects coming up on the blog - – one for viewing and the other for reading - with which I hope you’ll all get involved. Today’s all about movies – we’ll talk about the reading in two days. Fresh off our Distaff Columbo Draft, the Three Amigos – Sergio Angelini, Nick … Continue reading NOIR ’44 – The Draft Is Coming!
CRY WOLF NO MORE: The Window (1949)
Stupid head cold! It came on me on Tuesday, and so far it has made me miss a haircut, a massage, a night at the theatre, and forty bucks for COVID tests. (Fortunately, I have tested negative – twice!) I hate being sick! I hate NyQuil, and daily bowls of chicken soup, and drowning my … Continue reading CRY WOLF NO MORE: The Window (1949)
POLITICS AS USUAL: The Hollywood Blacklist (1947-1958)
I talk to my mother every night on the phone, and invariably, we get around to the news of the day. It wears my mother down, and she moans, “What a world, what a world we live in today!” That’s when I have to remind her, ever so gently, that the world isn’t so very … Continue reading POLITICS AS USUAL: The Hollywood Blacklist (1947-1958)
GIRL GONE NOIR: The Saga of Veronica Mars
“We used to be friends a long time ago/But I haven’t thought of you lately at all . . . “ I recently returned from a week in Los Angeles, and boy, did the City of Angels treat me well! Sondheim at the Hollywood Bowl! Edward James Olmos at the Aero Theatre! I breakfasted with friends … Continue reading GIRL GONE NOIR: The Saga of Veronica Mars
PAT ON THE BACK: Meeting (Some of) My 2022 Goals
“There is no Frigate like a Book to take us Lands away . . . “ These words by Emily Dickenson were emblazoned on the bookplates my grandparents gave me when, at an early age, I declared my love for reading. I pasted them into every volume I owned and used up my stock long ago. … Continue reading PAT ON THE BACK: Meeting (Some of) My 2022 Goals
“Inhuman, indecent, and the quintessence of gruesomeness . . . “Our Final Noir Triple-Bill
For our final 1950’s film noir class, our teacher Elliot Lavine handed us three films, and all I can say is . . . nobody said making it to the end in a noir world would be easy. First of all, these films are not all late examples; rather they span most of the decade, from 1953 – 1958, so you … Continue reading “Inhuman, indecent, and the quintessence of gruesomeness . . . “Our Final Noir Triple-Bill
AS GOODIS AS IT GETS: The Burglar and Nightfall
It takes a special person to write noir . . . a bitter, lonely person plagued with disease and/or mental illness, awash in booze and/or drugs, who somehow manages to produce these dark nuggets of gold before dying in some horrible, lonely, bitter fashion. Ah, the life of a writer! Don’t you wonder how Dashiell Hammett, Raymond … Continue reading AS GOODIS AS IT GETS: The Burglar and Nightfall
NOIR IN THE KEY OF KUBRICK: The Killing and Killer’s Kiss
Stanley Kubrick is an auteur who can irk me no end. There is always beauty in his formalistic layout of shots, but there can be coldness, too. He was also the slowest of the classic directors, sometimes taking years to put a film together. His career spanned roughly the same amount of time as that … Continue reading NOIR IN THE KEY OF KUBRICK: The Killing and Killer’s Kiss
