Movie review - "Crack Up" (1946) **1/2

 Good tough Pat O'Brien noir directed with enthusiasm from Irving Reis and a confusing plot with an art element - I'Brien is an art critic. Decent cast including Herbert Marshall and Claire Trevor.

Movie review - "52 Pick Up" (1986) ***

 One of the better films from Cannon Picture it's pretty grim. Roy Scheider is a businessman blackmailed by three genuinely interesting villains over an affair he's having with Kelly Preston. Scheider refuses to go to the police and as a result Preston dies, wife Ann Margret is raped, and both almost die. He doesn't get much come uppance to be frank.

Nice to see Ann Margret in a decent film but her part isn't much. Scheider is fine, John Glover and Clarence Williams are superb, Robert Trebor good too. I love how Glover is into the financial books.

Movie review - "The Breach" (1970) *** (warning: spoilers)

 Solid Claude Chabrol. Stephanie Audran is an ex stripper whose useless husband hits their kid so she whacks him with a frying pan. His rich parents seek to get the kid. The story is solid, plotting keeps you guessing. Most of the story is carried by Jean Pierre Cassell as the dodgy prat hired by rich dad to spy on Audran.

I thought more was going to happen with the nice doctor and nice lawyer who helped Audran. I loved the boarding house of odd types - the three old gossips who eventually help her, the actor who comes through, the landlady Annie Cordy, her boozy husband, their simple daughter.

Quite a full on plot where Cassell arranges for his nude model girlfriend Catherine Roubel - always topless and gagging for sex - to sexually assault the simple daughter while watching porn.

A little silly in places but fun. It helps it's based on class so the conflict is powerful and inherent.

Movie review - "Roadhouse" (1948) *** (re-watching)

 I was in the mood for this - some low rent melodrama with Ida Lupino in a Joan Crawford role hooking up with Cornel Wilde despite Richard Widmark. Everyone is young and hot Lupino wears a swimsuit and sings off key. Celeste Holm impresses though her character should've done more. Wilde teaches Lupino how to bowl.

Movie review - "I Walk the Line" (1970) **

 One of that trilogy of Tuesday Weld films she made when she turned down Bonnie and Clyde etc.

This should be good. Greg Peck as a sheriff in the south tempted by hot little Tuesday Weld, whose family are moonshiners. That's easy to grasp - it needs to be about his temptation, corruption, fall.

But it doesn't quite work. There's no sex. Weld's got plenty but not Peck - he's too solid. It needs to be about the temptation and corruption of a man. Needs more sleaze and crime.

Ralph Meeker brings it, as her dad. Ditto Charles Durning. They know what movie they're in. But Estelle Parsons is too white trash as the wife - the only contrast is she's old and less attractive, when it really needed to be she was lady like. Peck is never believable as someone new to town. They should have rewritten the movie for him - played it as an out of town liberal snob who gets seduced, wrecks his life.

The film really needed to be made in the late 1950s when it would've been properly sleazy.  Also Peck needed to have his life destroyed more at the end - to die, or go to prison or something. The movie pulls its punches.

Weld is good but she'd been playing these roles for too long and was getting older. The film could've been more rejigged for their ages and personas. 

Movie revie - "The Nice Guys" (2017) ***1/2

 Fun, easy, loved the period detail. Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling in fine form, ditto Angourie Rice. Maybe it would've been more popular had Crowe and Gosling been more different - they are both tough guys.

Movie review - "Rising Sun" (1993) **

 Stylishly directed by Phil Kaufman, who likes a bit of female nudity in a good cause and that's on display here. Michael Crichton didn't like the changes Kaufman made to his book - I haven't read it for a while. It's a whatever mystery with some nudity and 90s silliness (Wesley Snipes shakes Japanese by escaping to the hood).

Snipes and Sean Connery bring a lot of star power. Ray Wise is entertainingly sleazy and Tia Carrere is sweet. Kevin Anderon's bouffy hair is entertaining. Cary Tagawa is always reliable.

The mystery isn't very involving. The stuff on the Japanese take over of the economy has been stripped so there's not much point. The film got dumber as it went on. It was as though Kaufman was a little too cool for school adapting this. 

I didn't really like it. Connery and Snipes are both genuine stars though. That helps. 

Movie review - "The Dark Corner" (1946) **1/2 (re-watching)

 Some pleasures. Photography. Noir atmosphere. Clifton Webb. Too close to Laura. Mark Stevens trying to be Dana Andrews. Lucille Ball full of life though miscast. William Bendix fun.

Radio review - "Three O'Clock" (1949) ***

 Solid set up - Van Heflin decides to blow up his cheating wife, his house gets robbed and he gets locked at home, he realises the wife is innocent. The denoument feels vaguely unsatisfactory.

Fun in joke where Van Heflin refers to someone seeing The Three Musketeers at the movies - he was in it. Heflin is a strong actor and gives a fine performance.

From a Cornell Woolrich story. 

Movie review - "The Big Combo" (1955) ****

 Fantastic film noir from director Joseph Lewis and writer Phil Yordan, made for Yordan's company in association with Cornel Wilde's. The movie established Wilde as a producer which extended his career; he gives one of his best performances too as a cop driven to take down Richard Conte (replacing Jack Palance at the last minute but Conte's superb). Jean Wallace is excellent as Conte's traumatised wife, while Helene Stanton almost steals the movie as Wilde's sexy, lonely girlfriend, aware her boyfriend is hung up on Wallace.

Very strong support cast - Brian Donlevy as henchman number one, with Lee Van Cleef and Earl Holliman as henchmen two and three (who sleep in the same room).

Beautifully shot, dynamically directed. Amazing sequences such as Wilde being tortured and Donlevy being shot. Did Yordan actually write this one? If so he should be very proud. 

Movie review - "Mulholland Drive" (2001) ****1/2

 Excellent neo noir with Naomi Watts stunningly good. Everything clicks. Fresh faces, handling, dead bodies. Story makes sense.

How good is it Ann Miller got a decent role? 

Movie review - "The Chase" (1946) *** (re-watching)

 Beautiful photography. Great turns from Peter Lorre and Steve Cochran. Nice atmosphere. Robert Cummings is interesting. So is the film. It hops around. The "it's all a dream" stuff is silly but writer Yordan makes it work by turning it into PTSD. Michele Morgan is weak. The film builds to a tragic ending and whimps out by being happy.

Movie review - "Suspense" (1946) ***

 Monogram's first "million dollar movie" didn't need to cost that much - it's a rather stock, albeit entertaining noir about a drifter (Barry Sullivan) who works for a rich man (Alfred Dekker) and falls for the man's wife (Belita) and murder results. It reminded be of The Chase also written by Phillip Yordan. Belita was a skater though and there are lots of skating production numbers - it's a noir with skating. Which is different. 

And director Frank Tuttle tries and does a neat job. Nice mood. Sullivan is fine, and Belita ordinary off the ice, but they're trying too - Bonita Granville is too young really but very good as Sullivan's ex and I liked Dekker and Eugene Pallette (Dekker's offsider).

Stylish and moody. Belita isn't one of the great noir heroines but I liked it. Yordan's script is simple yet effective. 

Movie review - "Trixie" (2000) **

 Emily Watson doing Americana, a security guard and aspiring private detective. Her accent and malaprprisms get on the nerves as does the... I don't know, the "whatever" of it all. She investigates a crime, has some entertaining chats with Nathan Lane, has a romance with Dermot Mulroney, interrogates Nick Nolte, hangs out with Brittany Murphy who would be better in the lead.

I liked Murphy and Nolte and the movie got better. But - whatever. 

Movie review - "Love at Large" (1990) **1/2

 After half an hour I was ready to write this off but then Elizabeth Perkins starts interacting with private eye Tom Berenger - she's another private investigator - and the film lights up. It never quite gets there - Rudolph keeps setting his films in la la land when they should just be based on some sort of reality. But he allows actors the chance to shine - Ann Archer has fun as a femme fetale and Perkins is lively so is Berenger and Kate Capshaw. 

Movie review - "Trouble in Mind" (1985) **1/2

 Alan Rudolph's success with Choose Me made it a little easier for him to raise finance for his next movie, this neo-noir about a man out of prison (Kris Kristofferson) whose paths cross with a couple (Keith Carradine, Lori Singer).

This is two movies really - a more serious noir, with Kristofferson kicking ass and falling for Singer, and gangsters - and a campier way out one with Carradine having wacky hair and Divine playing a gangster (quite well). The tone isn't quite right it feels inconsistent.

Singer is lovely, Carradine has a ball, Kristofferson isn't bad, Genevieve Bujold feels a little under utilised. The movie doesn't quite work tonally but I enjoyed the love story with Singer and Kristofferson and the violent bits do keep things going.  

Movie review - "Night Editor" (1946) *** (warning: spoilers)

 This was meant to be a series but you can kind of see why it didn't result in one - it's low concept (journalists read out stories). Fine for radio anthology, not for recurring series.

This has a strong story - William Gargan is a cop cheating on his wife with a dame. They see a murder. He has to investigate it. He can't reveal what he saw.

That's strong. So is Janis Carter as the married rich woman, aroused by violence, who stabs Gargan. The film really should have ended with him dying.  Gargan isn't quite handsome enough for his role but plays pain well. Jeff Donnell (a female) does what she can as the ever lovin' wife.

Some decent support players wonderful photography. Columbia's B section was strong. The device of using journalists talking about it wasn't necessary. 

Movie review - "Crime and Punishment USA" (1959) **1/2

 Launched George Hamilton. Roger Corman had money in it. Interesting rather than good. Good things about it - photography, ambition. Felt a little like Night Tide  - low budget, jazz, art hosue links. George Hamilton's performance and character all over the shop - sometimes arrogant, other times idiot, sometimes sympathetic. Why does Mary Murphy's hooker go near him?

Best moments are when the cop interrogates him. Also the creepy guy who leches after Hamilton's sister is effective. But the film is tonally inconsistent. And has too many characters to service - the sister, the mother, the guy, Hamilton's friend. It feels undefrcooked. 

Still, worth watching. 

Book review - "Slayground" by Richard Stark (1971)

 So much better than the film it's not funny. Brilliantly tight, gripping account which starts with Parker in a robbery - dodgy driver crashes, Parker seeks refuge in a fun park, is seen by corrupt cops and crooks who figure out he's got money so don't turn him in but go after the money. So it's a siege story.

Why didn't they film this instead of stupid stuff about killing a nine year old girl and being killed off one by one (here he kills a gangster which annoys a crime lord but that's so much better). In the film Parker (called Stone) was a whimp, an idiot, who only shoots one person. Here he's a complete bad ass.

I guess there's a lot of internal action but you could add a character for Parker to talk to. 

Movie review - "Calcutta" (1947) **** (rewatching)

 Just really loved this. Backlot Calcutta. Full of allusions to Casablanca and The Maltese Falcon. There's even a Sydney Greensteet type - a woman. Gail Russell's sweet femme fetale grows on me every viewing. I didn't mind June Duprez. William Bendix great. Perfect Alan Ladd vehicle. Love how he assume's he'll investigate the murder of his friend and the boss of the airline shrugs it off.