Today's Noir Birthday

[Surly]

As Wikepedia put it, "Signoret's sensual features and earthy nature led to type-casting and she was often seen in roles as a prostitute." She walked the streets in Max Ophul's La Ronde (1950) and Jacques Becker's Casque d'or (1951). She was in Gunman in the Streets (Frank Tuttle, 1950), Thérèse Raquin (Marcel Carné, 1953), Les Diaboliques (Henri-Georges Clouzot, 1954), Army of Shadows (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1969), and many other films.

[Steve-O]

Attachment 293
Fly-by-Night (1942) with Richard Carlson

By the time noir rolled around in the 1940s, actress Nancy Kelly was relegated to B pictures such as Women in Bondage (1943), Double Exposure (1944), The Woman Who Came Back (1945) and Follow That Woman (1945). She was in Fly-by-Night (1942) with Richard Carlson, enjoyable early nonsense from Robert Siodmak. (Under our proposed noir rating system of hard to soft boiled, this would be "runny") Her most famous role is that of the mother of Patty McCormack, The Bad Seed (1956). She was the older sister of actor Jack Kelly.

Attachment 294
In The Bad Seed

Fly-By-Night was a big hit a few years ago during a rainy afternoon at Noir City. I think that's one (a light Hitchcockian comedy) went over well with a crowd rather than watching at home at 3am. A remember a woman next to me at noir city asking who that actress was. At the time I had no idea. Nancy Kelly is forgotten but she had some excellent comic skills.

The Bad Seed is another that's so close to noir. I -- as a noir fan -- appreciate both of them.

[Steve-O]

As Wikepedia put it, "Signoret's sensual features and earthy nature led to type-casting and she was often seen in roles as a prostitute." She walked the streets in Max Ophul's La Ronde (1950) and Jacques Becker's Casque d'or (1951). She was in Gunman in the Streets (Frank Tuttle, 1950), Thérèse Raquin (Marcel Carné, 1953), Les Diaboliques (Henri-Georges Clouzot, 1954), Army of Shadows (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1969), and many other films.

Les Diaboliques:

[Arthur Bannister]

As Wikepedia put it, "Signoret's sensual features and earthy nature led to type-casting and she was often seen in roles as a prostitute." She walked the streets in Max Ophul's La Ronde (1950) and Jacques Becker's Casque d'or (1951). She was in Gunman in the Streets (Frank Tuttle, 1950), Thérèse Raquin (Marcel Carné, 1953), Les Diaboliques (Henri-Georges Clouzot, 1954), Army of Shadows (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1969), and many other films.

A couple other of Signoret's French noirs worth pursuing: DEDEE D'ANVERS (Yves Allegret, 1948) and MANEGES (Yves Allegret, 1950), and the noirish IMPASSE DE DEUX ANGES (by Jacques Tourneur's dad Maurice, 1948) which also stars Paul Meurisse, her co-star in LES DIABOLIQUES.

[Surly]

Fly-By-Night was a big hit a few years ago during a rainy afternoon at Noir City. I think that's one (a light Hitchcockian comedy) went over well with a crowd rather than watching at home at 3am.

I also saw it at NOIR CITY-- in my case CHICAGO. It was fun.

[Surly]

The Asphalt Jungle

Strother Martin is most closely associated with Westerns, several of them classics like The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) and The Wild Bunch (1969) -- he was a favorite of director Sam Peckinpah. His first fim roles were uncredited bits in The Damned Don't Cry and The Asphalt Jungle (1950), and his other noirs were Kiss Me Deadly (1955), Brainstorm (1965), and Harper (1966).


With Ralph Meeker in Kiss Me Deadly

[Surly]

With George sanders and Sidney Blackmer in Quiet, Please: Murder

Today Richard Denning is probably most famous for starring in The Creature From the Black Lagoon and for playing the third wheel in An Affair to Remember. Perhaps he's also an answer in Trivial Pursuit for being Lucille Ball's husband on radio in the precursor to I Love Lucy. In Noir, Denning played the nice guy, a thankless task if ever there was one. He appeared in The Glass Key (1942), No Man of Her Own (1950), The Glass Web (1953), The Crooked Web (1955), and Girls in Prison (1956). He usually played the lead in Bs like Insurance Investigator (1951), Caged Fury (1948), and Harbor of Missing Men (1950). One intriguing curiosity I'd like to see is Quiet Please: Murder (1942), a Nazi spy film set in a library, with George Sanders as an armchair psychoanalyst. On TV, Denning played a detective on Mr. & Mrs. North (amateur) and Michael Shayne (private), and later got a tan as the governor on Hawaii 5-0.


As Michael Shayne with Lola Albright

[Surly]

David Janssen is The Fugitive. Nuff said.






With Vera Miles

[Dark Corner]

Richard Denning's Quiet Please Murder was shown on TCM or Fox Movie last year. It is not that good of a copy, but any interesting movie. I always like George Sanders in anything. If you want a bad copy, just to see it let me know.

[Steve-O]

With George sanders and Sidney Blackmer in Quiet, Please: Murder

Today Richard Denning is probably most famous for starring in The Creature From the Black Lagoon and for playing the third wheel in An Affair to Remember. Perhaps he's also an answer in Trivial Pursuit for being Lucille Ball's husband on radio in the precursor to I Love Lucy. In Noir, Denning played the nice guy, a thankless task if ever there was one. He appeared in The Glass Key (1942), No Man of Her Own (1950), The Glass Web (1953), The Crooked Web (1955), and Girls in Prison (1956). He usually played the lead in Bs like Insurance Investigator (1951), Caged Fury (1948), and Harbor of Missing Men (1950). One intriguing curiosity I'd like to see is Quiet Please: Murder (1942), a Nazi spy film set in a library, with George Sanders as an armchair psychoanalyst. On TV, Denning played a detective on Mr. & Mrs. North (amateur) and Michael Shayne (private), and later got a tan as the governor on Hawaii 5-0.


As Michael Shayne with Lola Albright

Find Quiet Please Murder. If you like that drool George Sanders stuff that you'll like it. Denning is a fairly boring presence in everything he's in but some of his films like Quiet Please Murder and No Man of Her Own are good. He's in 49th Man too (Salt Water taffy smuggled to NYC to make a Nuclear Bomb!)

[Steve-O]

David Janssen is The Fugitive. Nuff said.

Well, I'll also say see the noir-tinged Cult of the Cobra (service men heckle a religious ceremony overseas and is cursed by a woman who turns into a snake. A dumbed down Cat People perhaps?) and the swinging 60s neo-noir Warning Shot too... all kinds of guest stars makes me think it was a pilot for a TV show.

[Surly]

Well, I'll also say see the noir-tinged Cult of the Cobra (service men heckle a religious ceremony overseas and is cursed by a woman who turns into a snake. A dumbed down Cat People perhaps?) and the swinging 60s neo-noir Warning Shot too... all kinds of guest stars makes me think it was a pilot for a TV show.

Yes, there's more to Janssen. I have heard of but have yet to see Cult of the Cobra and Warning Shot. And Janssen was also the TV Richard Diamond and insurance investigator Harrry O-- but to me he'll always be Dr. Richard Kimble, the Fugitive.

[Surly]

I Was a Communist for the FBI

Bronx born Frank Lovejoy had a voice made for radio, where he starred as Chicago newspaper reporter Randy Stone on Night Beat. In films Lovejoy lent able support In a Lonely Place (1950), fell apart to The Sound of Fury (aka Come and Get Me) (50), pretended he was Red in I Was a Communist for the FBI (51), went for a ride with The Hitch-Hiker (53), pointed as the Finger Man (53), worked The System (53), and was stuck in The Crooked Web (55). On television Lovejoy reprised his role of Randy Stone on Night Beat, was the Man Against Crime (56), and had The Adventures of McGraw (57-58).

[JCharles]

I Was a Communist for the FBI

Bronx born Frank Lovejoy had a voice made for radio, where he starred as Chicago newspaper reporter Randy Stone on Night Beat. In films Lovejoy lent able support In a Lonely Place (1950), fell apart to The Sound of Fury (aka Come and Get Me) (50), pretended he was Red in I Was a Communist for the FBI (51), went for a ride with The Hitch-Hiker (53), pointed as the Finger Man (53), worked The System (53), and was stuck in The Crooked Web (55). On television Lovejoy reprised his role of Randy Stone on Night Beat, was the Man Against Crime (56), and had The Adventures of McGraw (57-58).

CDs with episodes of Nightbeat can be obtained from Radio Spirits. Good examples of radio noir. He also was in Shack Out On 101 with Lee Marvin and Keenan Wynn, an anti-Red noir that's an absolute hoot. A must-see if you haven't checked it out.

[Surly]

He also was in Shack Out On 101 with Lee Marvin and Keenan Wynn, an anti-Red noir that's an absolute hoot. A must-see if you haven't checked it out.

Yeah, it's a hoot. Marvin is just called "Slob".

[Surly]

T-Men


Raw Deal

Dennis O'Keefe's noir credentials are secured by starring roles in Anthony Mann's T-Men (1947) and Raw Deal (1948). The beefy O'Keefe is also in Lady Scarface (1941), Hangmen Also Die! (1943), The Leopard Man (1943), Dishonored Lady (1947), Mr. District Attorney (1947), Walk a Crooked Mile (1948), Cover Up (1949), Abandoned (1949), Woman on the Run (1950), The Company She Keeps (1950), Chicago Syndicate (1955), and Inside Detroit (1956) and other films.


with Allison Hayes in Chicago Syndicate

[Surly]

The Amazing Mr. X

Happy birthday to Turhan Bey, who turns 90 today. Bey was typically cast in "exotic" roles in costume dramas, often those of Maria Montez. Of Turkish and Czech descent, Bey had a run as a suave foreigner, playing Japanese in Unseen Enemy, Egyptian in The Mummy's Tomb (both 1942), and who knows what in The Gay Falcon (1941), The Falcon Takes Over (1942), and Parole, Inc. (1948). Of course, Noir buffs know him as The Amazing Mr. X (1948), also known as The Spiritualist, directed by Bernard Vorhaus with cinematography by John Alton.

[Surly]

"The Man of a Thousand Faces", Lon Chaney. His films still have the power to move and disturb. This is where categories like Noir become meaningless to me. Chaney is beyond genre--he was a genre. Had he made films through the thirties, no doubt he would have overshadowed Karloff. If he had worked in the forties, he would have kicked ass in noir, too. One of the most unique and powerful actors in the history of film.

[Surly]

Jack Webb (April 2, 1920 – December 23, 1982) will always be Sgt. Joe Friday, and the driving force behind the highly mannered police procedural that was Dragnet. First on radio, then television and film, Dragnet grew out of Webb's role as a technician in a police crime lab in He Walked by Night, a semidocumentary film noir. On radio Webb was also Pat Novak: for Hire, Jeff Regan, Investigator (aka The Lion's Eye), Johnny Modero, Pier 23, played cornet in Pete Kelly's Blues, and was One Out of Seven. In film Webb was in Sunset Boulevard and Dark City, and directed Dragnet and Pete Kelly's Blues.

[Steve-O]

Jack Webb (April 2, 1920 – December 23, 1982) will always be Sgt. Joe Friday, and the driving force behind the highly mannered police procedural that was Dragnet. First on radio, then television and film, Dragnet grew out of Webb's role as a technician in a police crime lab in He Walked by Night, a semidocumentary film noir. On radio Webb was also Pat Novak: for Hire, Jeff Regan, Investigator (aka The Lion's Eye), Johnny Modero, Pier 23, played cornet in Pete Kelly's Blues, and was One Out of Seven. In film Webb was in Sunset Boulevard and Dark City, and directed Dragnet and Pete Kelly's Blues.

I like that he's in the GREAT He Walked By Night. It's a model for Dragnet too... but most (if not all his stuff) leaves me cold.. Dark City, Appointment with Danger and Sunset Blvd are the other exceptions.