The Film Noir Thread

oh excuse me, I think I am in the wrong room, I will just log out & come back after awhile.....then..

John-O wrote:
Your kids have good taste.

I agree but I don't think I'll tell them you said that. When they were little I used to tell my oldest son when we were arguing about something that my head was bigger, hence my brain was bigger, and so I was smarter. He said, "Dad, Tyrannosaurus Rex, great big head, little tiny pea brain".

I do agree with a lot of what you said about Sin City. In truth some parts of it worked better for me than other parts. I think really mostly just the Bruce Willis cop character comes off as a noir character for me. How about that? Can you have a noir charcter in a non noir film? The film "The Sand Pebbles" is not film noir but the Steve McQueen character is just so tragic and no matter what he does he's doomed. To me that's kind of a noirish character.

OK I came back, is this Noir 101?

Since you reference the movie "Sin City" and refer back to Frank Miller's original comic series
Miller himself refers to it being a Hard-boiled influenced fiction along the lines of Dashiell Hammett
with graphic violence & sex.

You make a good point bringing in the "Hard-boiled" genre. Since both genres take place in a morally ambivalent universe populated by morally questionable characters, I think many people put films in the Noir genre that more properly belong in the Hard-boiled category.

I think the defining difference is that a character makes a definite moral choice. Like John-O mentioned, its often regular people who make one small, ethical lapse and find themselves essentially doomed because of it. Hence, the abundance of "femme fatales"in the genre. See Double Idemnity, Body Heat, The Killers, etc.

The hard-boiled genre usually involves characters who are well aware of the amoral nature of their universe. They are usually neither regular nor innocent. Which is why I usually put most films featuring any kind of detective or PI in the hard-boiled category rather than noir.

What's great about classic noir is to watch a character become progressively "darker" as they lose their moral bearings. Of course, the great black and white directors could actually make a character progressively darker as the film progressed. Not as easy in color. Go back and watch the three film noirs listed above and watch how the lead character changes from beginning to end of the film. You're not going to see that in the hard-boiled genre.

Not so sure I agree on The Sniper and Taxi Driver. These characters actually start the film morally darker than the world around them. I would consider them psychological thrillers, along the lines of Fritz Lang's "M" or most Hitchcock films. Did you notice that the lead detective in The Sniper is named Frank Kafka? Love that little bit.

On 2010-01-29 21:54, khan_tiki_mon wrote:

Can you have a noir character in a non noir film? The film "The Sand Pebbles" is not film noir but the Steve McQueen character is just so tragic and no matter what he does he's doomed. To me that's kind of a noirish character.

It's interesting, just as classic Film Noir followed the decades of the Great Depression and WWII, we got a whole slew of "unhappy ending" movies with their own doomed protagonists during the time of the Vietnam War and Watergate. Not Film Noir per se in terms of visual style but definitely sharing the same cynical attitude.

Here's some examples:

1. Sand Pebbles - Even though the film is about a U.S. Navy gunboat patrolling the rivers of 1920's China, it was seen as a statement of U.S. involvement in Vietnam. It was pretty prophetic for 1966. Steve McQueen's last dying words are "I was home... What happened? What the hell happened?!" (On a side note, my uncle was an extra in the film. He played a kitchen coolie.)

2. Bonnie and Clyde - The 1960's version of "They Live by Night" with doomed lovers meeting their final fate.

3. Easy Rider - Wyatt and Billy's search for America (financed by a coke score for Phil Spector !!) ends with them getting blown away by 2 rednecks in a pick-up truck.

4. Mean Streets - Forget "Goodfellas","Casino", and "The Gangs of New York", this was Martin Scorsese's true mob masterpiece.

5. The Conversation - As previously noted by TikiHardBop.

On 2010-01-29 22:41, Atomic Tiki Punk wrote:

Since you reference the movie "Sin City" and refer back to Frank Miller's original comic series
Miller himself refers to it being a Hard-boiled influenced fiction along the lines of Dashiell Hammett
with graphic violence & sex.

Dashiell Hammett ?? !! In Frank Miller's dreams. I'd say it was closer to the writing of Mickey Spillane.

Frank Miller was at the top of his game in the 1980's but lately I think he's turned into a hack. He single-handedly destroyed the reputation of Will Eisner's "Spirit" character with that shitty movie.

On 2010-01-30 08:19, TikiHardBop wrote:

....I think many people put films in the Noir genre that more properly belong in the Hard-boiled category.

....Which is why I usually put most films featuring any kind of detective or PI in the hard-boiled category rather than noir.

Interesting point. I'll bet you're more of a fan of late 1940's Noir vs. 1950's Noir. I'll wager that "Detour","Scarlet Street","Nightmare Alley","Out of the Past", and "Criss Cross" are high on your list. They all feature doomed characters led astray by femme fatales (although "Nightmare Alley copped out with a semi-happy ending.)

Actually I consider Hard-boiled as more of a sub-genre of Noir rather than as a separate category. I follow your point but I can't see films based on Raymond Chandler's writings (i.e. P.I. Phillip Marlowe) falling outside of Noir.

John-O - you know your movies. I agree with you completely on the "Sand Pebbles". That movie gets me everytime I see it. Has to be one of the most doomed characters ever. Okay, how about this one? "Lord Jim" with Peter O'Toole - happy ending or unhappy ending. The film ends with the death of O'Toole's character.

Here is my 2 cents,

The Hard-Boiled genre's roots are literary, also known as Detective fiction around the 1920s then on to the 40s & 50s, this predates Noir,
What would become the Film Noir style cinematically speaking, was started in the cinema in the late 30's thru 1940's with Hard-Boiled crime stories.
but it would be the end of World War Two & the many returning soldiers, unsure of bright futures, now cynical & facing the realities
of life after wartime that permeated this attitude in Hollywood, bringing morally ambiguous, cynical, darker stories & mostly unconcerned with happy endings.

Hollywood's classic film Noir period is generally regarded as stretching from the early 1940s to the late 1950s. Film Noir of this era is associated with a low-key black-and-white visual style that has roots in German Expressionist cinematography, while many of the prototypical stories and much of the attitude of classic Noir derive from the Hardboiled school of crime fiction that emerged in the United States during the Depression.

See Ftitz Lang & F. W. Murnau and a bit later Billy Wilder for heavy German influence's on the Proto-Noir beginnings.

Edgar Allan Poe's tale "The Cask of Amontillado", published in 1846. Poe created the first fictional detective (a word unknown at the time) as the central character of some of his short stories (which he called "Tales of Ratiocination")
One of the early developments started by Poe was the so-called locked room mystery in "The Murders in the Rue Morgue".

Modern Hard-Boiled/Detetive fiction started with the magazine "Black Mask". The magazine was founded in 1920 by H. L. Mencken and George Jean Nathan; in the early 1920s, Dashiell Hammett and Carroll John Daly began writing for Black Mask, and the identity of the magazine became more sharply defined when the editorship was taken over in 1926 by Captain Joseph T. Shaw. Shaw encouraged a high standard of colloquial, racy writing, favouring 'economy of expression' and 'authenticity in character and action’, all of which are important features of the hard-boiled style

Spearheaded by writers like Dashiell Hammett (1894 - 1961), Raymond Chandler (1888 - 1959), Jonathan Latimer (1906 - 1983), Mickey Spillane (1918 - 2006)

So Hard-Boiled fiction influenced film Noir.........

(Edited for spelling)

[ Edited by: Atomic Tiki Punk 2014-09-01 05:20 ]

I guess I have a couple more cents worth...

"The Classic Film Noir period" started when the big studios needed more B-Movies to fill the movie theaters
up till the late 1960's, later in the Midwest states, when you went to the movies you got a double feature
The main movie or A-Picture was the headline & the B-Picture was the second feature

With small budgets, short shooting schedules and much less studio interference & a pool of contract actors to choose from, Directors
would figure out ways to get the job done, By using creative lighting, sparse sets, even using available light sources such as street lights
or a single lit light bulb would get rather stark & dramatic scenes, using shadow & light in place of a costly sets,would establish a mood
& save money.

while a large cast and extras were out of the question, small stories that favored small budgets were the order of the day.
Directors & Writers were encouraged to be creative, so we got more style & dialog in these B-Movies.

At this time these kind of movies did not have an actual genre name other than "Crime" movies

(Film Noir (literally 'black film or cinema') was coined by French film critics (first by Nino Frank in 1946)
The term film noir would not become commonplace in international critical circles until the publication
of the book Panorama du film Noir Americain (1955) by Raymond Borde and Étienne Chaumeton)
But it wasn't until 1973 that The New York Times first used the term that would then became common in the United States.

[ Edited by: Atomic Tiki Punk 2014-09-01 05:19 ]

On 2010-01-31 20:33, Atomic Tiki Punk wrote:

The Hard-Boiled genre's roots are literary, also known as Detective fiction around the 1920s then on to the 40s & 50s, this predates Noir...  

You're right ATP, Hard-Boiled fiction gave birth to Film Noir. I stand corrected. It's similar to how the Polynesian "Pre-Tiki" aesthetic of the original Trader Vic's and DTBC spawned classic Tiki-style. (See, I try to work in the Tiki angle whenever I can.)

I'm taking my name off this thread right now. :)

I will however argue that detectives, private eyes, docu-dramas, and heist plots can fall into the Film Noir genre if some noir elements are present. That doesn't always include femme fatales, doomed characters, or an unhappy ending (although that is my favorite Noir.)

[ Edited by: JOHN-O 2010-02-01 09:50 ]

John-O, I agree with you Noir was not limited to one kind of story, crime & revenge, Hard-boiled characters
femme fatale's were just common in the genre, but as you know movies like "Sweet smell of success" & "Ace in the Hole"

fit the Noir template as well.

These were characters dramas that were not afraid to go to the darker places.

[ Edited by: Atomic Tiki Punk 2010-02-01 11:47 ]

Actually if you think about it, Film Noir and Tiki-style have a lot in common. I'm surprised this comparison hasn't been brought up before.

Like Tiki, Film Noir was an unacknowledged Mid-century "style" which at the time didn't garner a lot of respect (as ATP, pointed out, most were low-budget B-pictures). It took a European (in this case a French film critic) to first recognize it as a specific style and to coin a term for it. Film Noir literally means dark or black film.

It really wasn't until a decade or so after the fact, that American film students and critics developed a real appreciation for these movies and Film Noir became and widely-accepted and respected film genre (although some would argue Film Noir is more a mood or style). This led to newer films being made which unabashedly referred to themselves as "Neo Noirs".

[ Edited by: JOHN-O 2010-02-01 13:54 ]

See I did not go crazy once, but I am just waiting for my chance....

As for Neo Noir, I find it interesting how it has found its way into Science Fiction & film
I first came accross an overt Noir influence in Cyberpunk Fiction, starting with William Gibson in the 1980's

Then at the same time in movies like Blade Runner & even more so in the Philip K. Dick book
which the movie was based on,"Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep"
which is more of a Hard-boiled detective story with quite a bit of humor set in the future.

The 1980's was a golden age for the graphic novel which embraced Noir & Hard-Boiled fiction, Frank Miller started writing Sin City in the late 80's

a Very good example of this influence is "The Matrix"
I will leave listing others to another post.

ATP: Thanks for the synopsis on hard-boiled pre-dating noir. For once, I refrained from going there. Being an engineer with a scientific background, I have a bad habit of wanting to put everything in its full context. If you ask me if the sun is shining, I tend to say "Well, we're going to have to go all the way back to the Civil War..."

John-O has a good point with the tiki analogy. Just because a bar has tiki torches and bamboo doesn't mean it's a classic tiki bar. I tend to look at films the same way -- just because it has noir elements doesn't mean that it's true noir. Most films people mention as "neo-noir" have elements of noir, mostly in visual style, but they don't fit the classic definition. For example, a common theme of Hitchcock's was the average, innocent man getting involved in the machinations of amoral characters. Although certainly a characteristic of noir, his films don't follow the classic noir pattern and are known as thrillers or psychological thrillers rather than noir.

Combining those two thoughts, film noir and Hitchcock have become so part of the "language" of film that it's probably impossible to even tell a morally dark story without referencing either one.

And I said "most" films with a PI or detective don't fit classic noir, not all. John-O's mention of the classic "Out of the Past" is a perfect example of a true film noir that features a PI.

And I have a hard time imagining "The Matrix" being noir. Actually, it's probably anti-noir. Neo (Greek for "new") is a classic savior character bringing order and morality back to a chaotic and immoral universe.

In the end, it (hard-)boils down to a case of battling definitions. Some people have a more strict definition than others. If Busby Berkley or "The Wizard of Oz" fits your definition of noir, go crazy.

TikiHardBop,
I refer to only the first Matrix moive & only the story elements that take place "in the matrix.
Also watch how the scenes are composed visually, for some reason the directors choose to abandon this look in the following movies.

Personally, outside of the wire work and the now cliche' "bullet time" photography, I find that the less I think about The Matrix, the better. Between Keanu's wooden acting to the moronic story ("farming" humans for power?), I could probably write a decent sized essay on how much I hate The Matrix. Which is a shame, because I loved, loved the Wachowski's previous film "Bound"."You don't wanna shoot me, Vi. Do ya. Do ya? I know you don't."

I gotta agree with TikiHardBop on the Matrix, to me it's more of a Jesus allegory than anything else. For me, cyber-punk Noir begins and ends with "Blade Runner". How are you going to top that? It's just like with period Neo-Noir and "Chinatown".

ATP, does a Golden Apple veteran like you follow crime comics? (I refuse to use the term "graphic novel") I LOVE this series:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criminal_(comics)

Also if anyone is interested, the Nuart in West Los Angeles is having a British Noir festival this weekend:

http://www.british-weekly.com/?p=1138

I'm embarrased to admit this, but I've never seen "The Third Man". This looks to be a good opportunity.

And TikiHardBop, about Busby Berkeley being Noir... I was KIDDING. :)

I have not seen that comic John-O, BUT YOU MUST SEE the Third Man!

On 2010-01-31 18:05, khan_tiki_mon wrote:

John-O - you know your movies. I agree with you completely on the "Sand Pebbles". That movie gets me everytime I see it. Has to be one of the most doomed characters ever. Okay, how about this one? "Lord Jim" with Peter O'Toole - happy ending or unhappy ending. The film ends with the death of O'Toole's character.

Nope, haven't seen it.

I'm gonna add it to my list, but to be honest, I'm not a big fan of Mr. "Larry of Arabia". :)

Lord Jim is a good movie, but does not fall into the noir catagory.
The Third Man is listed as one of the best Noir, Spy Movies in alot of top 10 lists.

But it is just a great movie!

I didn't mean to suggest that "Lord Jim" has anything to do with film noir. It certainly doesn't. It was mentioned that their was a period in Hollywood where movies could be made without an obligatory happy ending. I was asking what people thought of the ending of "Lord Jim". Happy or unhappy?

On 2010-02-05 19:24, khan_tiki_mon wrote:
I didn't mean to suggest that "Lord Jim" has anything to do with film noir. It certainly doesn't. It was mentioned that their was a period in Hollywood where movies could be made without an obligatory happy ending. I was asking what people thought of the ending of "Lord Jim". Happy or unhappy?

I would say Heroic

I would agree - heroic. When I first saw the movie as a youngster I really enjoyed it but I thought the ending to be unhappy. I saw the movie again many years later and I appreciated the ending much more. It's about redemption, commitment, and responsibility.

John-O: I knew that. I was being funny myself. :)

Noir City is back at American Cinematheque !! That's the Egyptian Theater on Hollywood Blvd.

This year's gem is a restored version of "Cry Danger" (1951).....

"One of the most wicked and witty revenge yarns of the original film noir era is also an amazing tour of mid-century downtown Los Angeles."

http://www.americancinematheque.com/archive1999/2010/Egyptian/Film_Noir_ET2010.htm

And Rhonda Fleming is actually scheduled to be there !!

[ Edited by: JOHN-O 2010-03-23 18:43 ]

Does "Breaker Morant" qualify? I thought it was pretty noir.

I'd put Breaker Morant in with (anti-)war films, along with Paths of Glory and The Naked and The Dead. The leitmotif of innocents caught in the machinations of war is strongly analogous to film noir. The important distinction is that noir usually centers around an innocent who makes a single moral lapse which leads to their downfall. War films tend to feature an innocent brought to ruin by the simple act of being in the military.

Since "Breaker Morant" is a true story, historical court room drama that takes place during the Boer Wars.
it really does not fit into the Noir catagory,but squarely in "Courtroom Drama"

Edward Woodward is truly great in this movie, as is the whole cast, it is really a 4 star movie!

OK. How about "Natural Born Killers"? Is the Robert Downey, Jr. character "innocent" enough in his thinking he could scoop what he thought was the story of the century and still survive unscathed?

Well it would be consistent with Noir's long-running doomed "couple on the run" theme.....

1. They Live By Night (1949)
2. Gun Crazy (1949)
3. Bonnie & Clyde (1967) - Some say Noir, some say not.

For that I might classify it as Neo-Noir. I hated the movie though. Like "Sin City", there was too much cruelty and violence for my tastes.

The Robert Downey Jr. "Ace in the Hole" angle is interesting. It's been a while since I've seen the movie.

[ Edited by: JOHN-O 2010-03-29 12:05 ]

Just skip it and go straight to "Ace in the Hole"

Billy Wilder expanded the range of what was Noir with this movie, by including social commentary as subtext.
it was considered to cynical & dark when it was released.

These films fit motif of the non-conformist(s) being persecuted by society. This goes back ages -- anybody remember Romeo and Juliet, or even the story of Christ? They usually contain a character or two who are tempted by the non-conformist hero to join in the rebellion against society -- and must suffer or die for the act. And I must admit that there are strong parallels with (my) definition of classic noir, I'm kind of against classifying them as noir. I would put these examples in the hard-boiled crime definition - a superset of noir that does include elements of noir.

But not all films that fit the non-conformist being persecuted by society fit the hard-boiled crime definition. For example, the previously mentioned "Romeo and Juliet","Spartacus","Cool Hand Luke".

I do agree on "Ace in the Hole" being noir, though. My wife is a reporter and it rings so true even to this day.

P.S. One of my favorites in this motif is "The Vanishing Point"

On 2010-03-29 11:58, JOHN-O wrote:
For that I might classify it as Neo-Noir. I hated the movie though. Like "Sin City", there was too much cruelty and violence for my tastes.

Except for the fact that I don't hate, I'm with you there. I wouldn't watch it again. Same with "Ghost Dog" and "Pulp Fiction", but "NBK" was particularly troubling.

Just saw The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, the first film in
The Millenium Trilogy from Sweden
Explosive acting debut from new Femme Fatale actress Noomi Repace
right up there with the girls from Run Lola Run and Le Femme Nikita

David Fincher is doing the american remake of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.

I am a fan of Film Noir also. I started taping movies off TV back in the early 80s and have a large collection of mystery, detective, and film noir. I started trying to collect detective movies like Charlie Chan, Mr. Moto, Michael Shayne, Philo Vance, etc. When I started collecting Tiki and Hawaiian stuff I paid more attention to ones I had with Hawaii or Tiki bar scenes (Hell's Half Acre, Jungle Heat, A Guy Named Joe, Forbidden Island, etc.) I am a big fan of the Dick Powell movies "Cornered" and "Murder My Sweet". TikiG....I have a copy of Man In The Dark & John O....I have most of the movies on your wish list. If anyone is looking for something, shoot me a pm or email....

Dick Powell ?? I just saw "Cry Danger" last month at the Film Noir festival at the American Cinematheque (Egyptian Theater) in Hollywood. He starred it in along with Rhonda Fleming. Just when you think you've seen all of the Noir classics, an "undiscovered" gem like this is screened. It was recently restored by the UCLA Televison and Film Archive.

I don't want to spoil the film for anyone (in case it gets released on DVD) but it's probably one of the best Noirs that I've ever seen. It had all of the classic Noir elements, not to mention some of the snappiest dialog this side of "Double Indemnity" and "Sweet Smell of Success". Credit, the screenwriter William Bowers who was also responsible for the co-bill "Tight Spot".

Rhonda Fleming attended the event and spoke of her experiences. At 87, she still oozed classic movie star glamour !!

"Hell's Half Acre" is high on my to-see list. I think it's the only classic Noir to have taken place in Hawaii. Bongo, did they actually shoot scenes there ?? I've never heard of "Forbidden Island". Cool title, I must research it.

[ Edited by: JOHN-O 2010-05-14 18:37 ]

I will have to see Cry Danger, missed that one, lots of praise there John-O.

Hell's Half Acre was all shot in Honolulu except one short scene in San Francisco (probably a Hollywood set). Don Beach was technical adviser. The rare book "Hawaii In The Movies" 1898-1959 confirmed my suspicions that "Chet's Hawaiian Retreat" was actually Don The Beachcomber's. There is about 20 minutes of exteriors & interiors of DTB. Key Luke from the Charlie Chan series is also in it. Jungle Heat was filmed entirely on Kauai and the bar at the Coco Palms hotel and features a score by Les Baxter. Forbidden Island was filmed at Silver Springs in Florida except the "Phillipine Bar" scenes that according to Martin Denny (he is Marty the piano player in the bar) those scenes were shot at Trader Vic's in Honolulu.

Cry Danger is excellent!

Well it looks like none of the movies mention are in print at the moment
Checked Netflix & Amazon.com, anyone have any info on future releases?

I can do a trade on anything you are looking for.

I tried to find more background on ""Jungle Heat and "Forbidden Island". Not much, but here's a couple of images...

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050579
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052818/

Bongo, would you really consider these Noirs, or are they more Tropical-based mystery thrillers? At any rate, they're significant for their Tiki/Exotica connection. (ATP, they might also be available via grey market bootleg.)

I really want to see "Hell's Half Acre" on the big screen. The "Czar of Noir" Eddie Muller mentions it in book "Dark City" so I definitely consider that film Noir. Also I've seen it listed on the bill for major Film Noir festivals. American Cinematheque is doing their Tiki film festival next month so I can only hope it might qualify and show up on the bill.

Here's some images. Check out Marie Windsor in the B&W still below. She a major "Dark City Dame". :)

"A woman who believes her missing husband is in prison in Hawaii on a murder charge travels there to see if it actually is him. However, he escapes before she sees him, when he hears that his current girlfriend has been murdered. The wife searches the slum area of Honolulu known as Hell's Half Acre for him, he searches for his girlfriend's killer, and his gangland associates are looking for the two of them."

Bongo, do you ever make it out to the Tonga Hut? Maybe owner Jeremy can be talked into doing a "Tiki Noir" film festival some night using your tapes.

Dude, you know what I really want a copy of? That rare Hawaii film book you have. :) I'm going to see if it's circulating in the LAPL system.

[ Edited by: JOHN-O 2010-05-16 10:58 ]

Just in time for Halloween how about the Noir/Horror movies.

I just watched "Curse of the Demon" from great Noir Director: Jacques Tourneur (Out of the Past)
it is a horror story made in the Noir style with cast Dana Andrews & Peggy Cummins

The restored version is "Curse of the Demon" but was also released under the title "Night of the Demon" in an edited version.

synopsis:
Dr. John Holden ventures to London to attend a paranormal psychology symposium with the intention to expose devil cult leader, Julian Karswell. Holden is a skeptic and does not believe in Karswell's power. Nonetheless, he accepts an invitation to stay at Karswell's estate, along with Joanna Harrington...

Quotes
Dr. John Holden: Sit down. Your generosity is becoming overwhelming as it gets closer to ten o'clock. You're staying with me, Karswell. You've sold your bill of goods too well, because I believe you now. I believe that in five minutes something monstrous and horrible is going to happen. And when it does, you're going to be here so that whatever happens to me will happen to you.

I saw this as a kid but had little memory of it except for the monster, a really top notch effort.

Time to brake out the Val Lewton movies!

How about Foreign Noir,In this case Japan.

From the late 1950s through the sixties, wild, idiosyncratic crime movies were the brutal and boisterous business of Nikkatsu, the oldest film studio in Japan.

In an effort to attract youthful audiences growing increasingly accustomed to American and French big-screen imports, Nikkatsu began producing action potboilers (mukokuseki akushun, or “borderless action”) that incorporated elements of the western, comedy, gangster, and teen-rebel genres from stylistically daring directors as Seijun Suzuki, Toshio Masuda, and Takashi Nomura.

Criterion just released these in the USA

I Am Waiting
Koreyoshi Kurahara 1957

In Koreyoshi Kurahara’s directorial debut, rebel matinee idol Yujiro Ishihara stars as a restaurant manager and former boxer who saves a beautiful, suicidal club hostess (Mie Kitahara) trying to escape the clutches of her gangster employer.

Rusty Knife
Toshio Masuda 1958

In Toshio Masuda’s smash Rusty Knife, Yujiro Ishihara and fellow top Nikkatsu star Akira Kobayashi play former hoodlums trying to leave behind a life of crime, but their past comes back to haunt them when the authorities seek them out as murder witnesses.

Take Aim at the Police Van
Seijun Suzuki 1960

At the beginning of Seijun Suzuki’s taut and twisty whodunit, a prison truck is attacked and a convict inside is murdered. The penitentiary warden on duty, Daijiro (Michitaro Mizushima), is accused of negligence and suspended, only to take it upon himself to track down the killers.

Cruel Gun Story
Takumi Furukawa 1964

Fresh out of the slammer, Togawa (Branded to Kill’s Joe Shishido) has no chance to go straight because he is immediately coerced by a wealthy mob boss into organizing the heist of an armored car carrying racetrack receipts.

A Colt Is My Passport
Takashi Nomura 1967

One of Japanese cinema’s supreme emulations of American noir, Takashi Nomura’s A Colt Is My Passport is a down-and-dirty but gorgeously photographed yakuza film starring Joe Shishido as a hard-boiled hit man caught between rival gangs.

On 2010-05-14 18:58, Atomic Tiki Punk wrote:
I will have to see Cry Danger, missed that one, lots of praise there John-O.

Not on DVD and screening on Fri, March 18th at...

Billy Wilder Theater
Courtyard Level, Hammer Museum
10899 Wilshire Boulevard (intersection of Wilshire and Westwood Boulevards)
Los Angeles, CA 90024

http://www.cinema.ucla.edu/calendar/calendardetails.aspx?details_type=2&id=441#screening_1572

With 1951 costar Rhonda Flemming in person no less !!

This is a fantastic little known Film Noir gem. :)

Any other fellow Noir Tikiphiles going to check this out other than CalTiki and me ??

If so, it's pre/post cocktails at Musso's. :)

This thread is no fun anymore ever since Atomic Tiki Punk got kicked off TC. :(

[ Edited by: JOHN-O 2011-03-31 17:59 ]

What a great thread John-O! sorry I did not find this earlier.

I am still catching up with the suggested movies on John-Os thread
"Kiss Me Deadly" was just released on Blu-ray from Criterion
one of my favorites that influenced a few other movies like "Pulp Fiction" & "Repo Man" etc.

CTiT