The Film Noir Thread! Gats, dames, and cheap hooch welcome.

[Ian Jane]

And some from The Hitch-Hiker.

[Ian Jane]

Some caps from The Stranger... (click'em and watch'em grow):

[Andrew Monroe]

I have the MGM disc of THE STRANGER and am pretty satisfied with it but that Kino could tempt me. I'd love to see some comparisons.

Barbara Payton had a rough life. She was the real life femme fatale at the center of the infamous Tom Neal/Franchot Tone fight - Neal, a former boxer (and star of DETOUR), beat the shit out of Tone, putting him in a coma and breaking his cheekbone and nose. Payton married Tone briefly and then went back to Neal. This sordid, public affair ruined both their careers. She was later arrested for bad checks and also prostitution. A near life-long alcoholic (both parents were also heavy drinkers), she died from liver failure. A sad story, she was a beauty and had genuine talent.

[Paul L]

I'll post some caps from each tomorrow, Paul.

Thanks, Ian!

[Richard--W]

My PLUNDER ROAD just arrived minutes ago from Amazon. Never seen it but it's on for tonight's viewing.

From here on out though it's importcds for all my Olive product.

How'd you like PLUNDER ROAD?

I've only seen TELL THEM WILLIE BOY IS HERE via a panned-and-scanned VHS tape, back in the early 1990s, but I remember being very impressed by it. I'd guess there's a decent DVD out in the US by now(?)

I'm a big fan of KISS TOMORROW GOODBYE. I think it's just as interesting as WHITE HEAT; the novel on which it's based, by Horace McCoy, is equally impressive.

I should read that book, one of these days. I think it's a better film than WHITE HEAT. After watching it I bought three other Barbara Payton films and rewatched her in BAD BLONDE in my Hammer Noir set 1, in Hammer's THE FOUR SIDED TRIANGLE, and in Ulmer's MURDER IS MY BEAT (1955). She really had something. But KISS TOMORROW GOODBYE is her best work. Her face is both busy and blank at the same time. She seems fearless. You get the feeling, watching her performances, that she was capable of breaking taboos and pushing boundaries further than any actress had gone before, if anyone had asked her.

Read my review of WILLIE BOY:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...F8&me=&seller=

You'd like this DVD-R very much, me thinks.
The price! when did that happen?

[Ian Jane]

I'll post some caps from each tomorrow, Paul.

[Paul L]

Just in case anyone was wondering, this is NOT the same transfer used on the Film Chest release. That transfer was pretty heavily DNR'd, this one is not. There's grain aplenty and a nice lack of waxy skintones.

I'm interested in this one, Ian. All of the DVDs I've seen have funky issues with contrast. The best release I've seen to date is the US disc from MGM, but even that release wasn't completely satisfying.

It's a very good film, quite underrated in my view.

I'm even more excited about Kino's Blu of THE HITCH-HIKER. I'll be buying that one first.

[Ian Jane]

Just in case anyone was wondering, this is NOT the same transfer used on the Film Chest release. That transfer was pretty heavily DNR'd, this one is not. There's grain aplenty and a nice lack of waxy skintones.

[Andrew Monroe]

I thought KISS TOMORROW GOODBYE - which I saw for the first time via the Olive BD - was great stuff. Cagney is actually more psychotic in this than he was in WHITE HEAT I think! He was at least a tiny bit sympathetic in HEAT but here he's just plain vile. The way he beats the shit out of Barbara Payton with that towel was shocking, even now. And speaking of Payton, what a tragic figure she was, she's very good in the film and is also truly beautiful. Interesting trivia - Ward Bond and Barton MacLane, so good as the crooked cops, are almost playing the reverse of the dogged, honest cops they played in THE MALTESE FALCON ten years earlier. Cagney's last gangster film but he sure as hell went out with a memorable, violent role. Too bad Neville Brand was only in the film for a few moments though.

[Paul L]

FORCE OF EVIL is unforgettable. Garfield's expression is what you see. Abraham Polonsky was still working with the same themes twenty years later in his second film, TELL THEM WILLIE BOY IS HERE (1969) which you must see if you haven't already. In-between Polonsky was blacklisted.

KISS TOMORROW GOODBYE -- don't you just love these over-the-top noir titles -- is up for tonight.

I've only seen TELL THEM WILLIE BOY IS HERE via a panned-and-scanned VHS tape, back in the early 1990s, but I remember being very impressed by it. I'd guess there's a decent DVD out in the US by now(?)

I'm a big fan of KISS TOMORROW GOODBYE. I think it's just as interesting as WHITE HEAT; the novel on which it's based, by Horace McCoy, is equally impressive.

[Richard--W]

FORCE OF EVIL is unforgettable. Garfield's expression is what you see. Abraham Polonsky was still working with the same themes twenty years later in his second film, TELL THEM WILLIE BOY IS HERE (1969) which you must see if you haven't already. In-between Polonsky was blacklisted.

KISS TOMORROW GOODBYE -- don't you just love these over-the-top noir titles -- is up for tonight.

[Paul L]

I rewatched FORCE OF EVIL yesterday, for the first time in years. I'd forgotten how bleak and uncompromising that film is. Garfield is excellent in it.

[Horace Cordier]

My PLUNDER ROAD just arrived minutes ago from Amazon. Never seen it but it's on for tonight's viewing.

From here on out though it's importcds for all my Olive product.

[Andrew Monroe]

I just ordered the very same films; also, AMBUSH AT CIMARRON PASS.

Be interested to hear about that one, Richard. I also tossed in RETREAT, HELL! with my order.

[Richard--W]

I just ordered the very same films; also, AMBUSH AT CIMARRON PASS.