Today's Noir Birthday

[Andrew666]

Alain Delon turns 75 today. The French actor with the brooding good looks who starred in a number of pivotal films that charcterised French policiers in the 1960s

These included Rocco & His Brothers (1960) which is all about the love-hate relationship that brothers have, in particular the two who are fighting over prostitute Annie Girardot, one of whom will commit murder.



In Blazing Sun (1960), he played Tom Ripley - yes, the very same Talented Mr Ripley - in a French version of the Patricia Highsmith book that has yet to be bettered.

In The Big Snatch (1963), Alain teams up with France's Robert Mitchum - Jean Gabin - to carry out a raid on a Cannes casino. They're an unlikely pair, the battle-weary ex-con Gabin and the cocky, creative young pretender - but will the snatch work?

Le Samourai (1967) is Alain's and Jean-Pierre Melville's, the director's, masterwork. It starts with ten minutes of no dialogue that you can't take your eyes off as Delon, playing the ultimate professional hitman goes about his business. The film also features his wife Nathalie Delon



In The Sicilian Clan (1969), Delon teamed up once again with Jean Gabin and Lino Ventura for a hard-nosed look at Mafia infighting that would give the Godfather a run for its money. I saw it only recently and it hasn't aged a bit.



Melville joined with Delon again for Le Cercle Rouge (1970), a heist movie that featured ex-cons and was set in the seedy underworld. With hints of Reservoir Dogs, the movie also stars French legends Yves Montand and Bourvil.



Oh yes, when it comes to French crime noir, the sixties belonged to Delon - and Jean-Paul Belmondo of course.......

[SuperDanX]

Alain Delon is God. Happy Birthday Sir.

[David]

Happy birthday, Mr. Delon.

[Hard-Boiled-Rick]

Happy Birthday Boris Karloff (aka William Henry Pratt). At 123 years old…You are still Alive!

I shudder to think what my youth would have been like without your cinematic presence.

The Mummy (1931)


Frankenstein (1931)


Steve-O,
Did you edit this clip?

[Andrew666]

You've picked the Wong man there!

[Steve-O]

nope.... didn't edit it..

[Andrew666]

Wherever she may currently reside, let's wish a happy birthday today to pre-noir actress Kay Francis, one of my secret favourites for no real reason that I can explain. She would be 106 today.

I think it's because as a child I saw her opposite Ronald Colman in Raffles (1930) when it was shown one afternoon on the BBC - and loving the film, I loved Kay in the role of Gwen. She also made a strong impression opposite the excellent Paul Lukas in The Vice Squad (1931), Guilty Hands (1931) with Lionel Barrymore and the wonderful Trouble in Paradise (1932), a must-see with Miriam Hopkins, Herbert Marshall and directed by Ernst Lubitsch at the peak of his performance.



After a number of melodramas, she then stormed the heights again opposite Bogey in King of the Underworld (1939) and produced substantial performances in Woman In The Case (1945) and Shadow of Blackmail (1946).


Kay with Miriam Hopkins

[Andrew666]

Anne Baxter, whose birthday we celebrate today, had already established herself as a major actress with her role in The Magnificent Ambersons before she played the hysterical femme fatale in Guest in the House (1944) with Ralph Bellamy and Ruth Warrick.



Although courted more for dramatic roles rather than film noir, Anne did nevertheless make a strong impression in Alfred Hitchcock's I Confess (1953) with Montgomery Clift, one of Hitchcock's most under-rated little gems. She followed this immediately with Fritz Lang's The Blue Gardenia (1953) in which she herself suspects that she may be a murdress. Watching the two films together is a terrific experience - a bit like a Battle of the Directors competition - and a true education in cinematic technique. You can watch The Blue Gardenia here:



In Bedevilled (1955), she again plays a temptress. Fleeing from the scene of a murder, she is helped by a Catholic priest, whose vow of celibacy slowly appears to be unravelling......

In The Come-On (1956), she's in flirtatious mood alongside Sterling Hayden at his peak and in Chase A Crooked Shadow (1958), she was spot on as a sister whose dead brother turns up after ten years and is immediately welcomed by the family. Is she the only one who isn't crazy?



After that, there wasn't much more than TV and cameos - but for curiosity value, I would recommend her forgotten 'classic' Walk on the Wild Side (1962), which features Barbara Stanwyck as a lesbian, French legend Capucine, Laurence Harvey looking totally lost, and a mouth-watering Jane Fonda who is just perfect if you turn the sound down. A bit like an early Showgirls, for viewers with schadenfreude, it's almost too good to be true. Great retro trailer for the movie here:



Oh, I almost forgot her strange foray into the UK with Mix Me A Person (1962), a crime vehicle for British pop star Adam Faith, which at least showed he could act and helped him to launch a genuine acting career, culminating in the popular TV series about an ex-con called Budgie.

[Surly]

Yesterday was the birthday of Michèle Morgan, born in 1925. Morgan starred with Jean Gabin in Le Quai Des Brumes (Port of Shadows), a 1938 example of French poetic realism, a precursor to film noir. During the war she worked in Hollywood, and in 1946 she appeared in the The Chase with Robert Cummings.

[cigar joe]

Joyeux anniversaire Michèle!

[Harry Fabian]

The Chase is available at archive.org

[Surly]

I thought we might turn this into an ongoing all purpose noir birthday thread, instead of posting a separate listing for each celebrant.

Happy birthday to Bobby Driscoll (1937-1968), child star of THE WINDOW. Driscoll's own life took a noir turn in the 1950s when the actor became addicted to narcotics and served time in the slammer, and later died at the age of 31.

[Surly]

Also born on this day was Cathy Downs (March 3, 1924 – December 8, 1976). Downs appeared in the noir DARK CORNER (above) and the prison break film, FOR YOU I DIE (1947).

[Surly]

Actress Martha O'Driscoll had a ten year film career, from 1937 until 1947. O'Driscoll co-starred with Tom Conway in Criminal Court (44), and with Tom Neal in the murder mystery Blonde Alibi (46). Neither film is a noir, but starring with Neal in the same year as Detour counts for something. She also played Daisy Mae in L'il Abner (40), and appeared in The Fallen Sparrow (43) with John Garfield, and in the Universal monster mash-up, House of Dracula (45).

[Steve-O]

I thought we might turn this into an ongoing all purpose noir birthday thread, instead of posting a separate listing for each celebrant.

that's a good idea! However, for the big, iconic noir stars (leading men and ladies) or important noir supporting players (Dan Duryea for example), let's keep them separate threads. Only because it's useful to have seperate threads on bigger topics (and we already have some started...)

But everyone else celebrating birthdays can go in this thread...

[Surly]

That makes perfect sense, Steve-O, which is probably why I didn't think of it. This is now the 'supporting players thread'.

I don't think of Duryea as supporting, but I suppose that he was doing just that most of the time.

[Surly]

Long before she became the face of Folgers coffee as "Mrs. Olsen", Virginia Christine had a long career in film and television as a character actress and in B leads. In noir, Christine is the good girl Burt Lancaster drops for Ava Gardner in The Killers (above). She's quite striking as Princess Ananka, rising up out of a swamp in The Mummy's Curse (1944).


With Don Castle in The Invisible Wall (47).


The Mummy's Curse

[Surly]

Character actor Jay C. Flippen had a long career in film and television. He appeared in the notable noirs They Live by Night, Brute Force and The Killing(above). He also worked a lot in Westerns, including these three good ones directed by Anthony Mann and starring Jimmy Stewart: Winchester '73, Bend of the River, and The Far Country.


With Howard DaSilva in They Live by Night.

[Surly]

Phillip Terry in Born to Kill. Well, somebody had to play Claire Trevor's wealthy but wimpy fiancé. Wimpy, that is, compared to the violent psychotic she throws him over for, Lawrence Tierney.

[Surly]

Marguerite Chapman played femme fatale Marcia Manning in Mr. District Attorney (1947), with Dennis O'Keefe and Adolfe Menjou. She was also in Man Bait (1952) with George Brent and Diana Dors, and in Edgar G. Ulmer's bizarre B The Amazing Transparent Man (1960).