The other day I wanted to watch a movie, but I was too tired. My eyelids were heavy as barbells. I wasn’t really sleepy, just too tired to focus on a movie. I put the movie on and got comfortable, closing my eyes. Yes, film is a visual media, but it is also a sound … More Listening to the Movies
Reimagining a few old classics with the downbeat 1970s vibe… If Cary Grant had romanced Grace Kelly and really stolen her jewels and broken her heart, but escaped to live a tortured life – it would have been a 1970s version of To Catch a Thief. If Humphrey Bogart had been shot and killed while … More Film Romance in the 1970s
The Goodbye Coast is a new novel by Joe Ide, author of several other books of mystery. Here, he takes gumshoe Philip Marlowe and moves him from the 1940s to present day. Ide made a deal with the Raymond Chandler Estate, owner of the Marlowe character to write him as a suavy and hip private … More Noir: Philip Marlowe Reimagined (The Goodbye Coast)
This blog is a companion to my “Almost Noir” posting. I listed Eddie Muller as a noir expert, he is a film historian, host on TCM and keeper of the noir genre. Muller published a fascinating book on film noir, Dark City: The Lost World of Film Noir, in 1998, and has updated and expanded … More Dark City: Film Noir
Private detectives or private eyes, as they were stylishly called in Golden Age of Hollywood, have been screen heroes and anti-heroes since the early days. Sherlock Holmes, Sam Spade, Hercule Poirot, Philip Marlowe, Mike Hammer, Lew Harper, Nero Wolfe, V.I. Warshawski, Peter Gunn, Joe Mannix, Jim Rockford, Thomas Magnum – all fictional detectives for hire. … More Night Moves Revisited
My Three Sons or The Absent Minded Professor, these are the images that most people have of Fred MacMurray. He actually had a film career that began in the 1920s, gained featured parts in the mid-1930s and was once the highest paid film actor. MacMurray started as a saxophone player, something that would reappear in … More Fred MacMurray
One of Humphrey Bogart’s most famous films, and the one where he flirts with Lauren Bacall whenever they are on screen. This has always been Casablanca Lite, in my book. Both films have heavy atmosphere, quirky characters, a piano-playing pal, Nazis, a world-weary American who doesn’t want to dirty his hands with current politics. To … More To Have And Have Not (1944)
What can you say about this classic film that hasn’t been said in the past 70 years? It’s a spectacular film of greed and betrayal, the loss of sanity and the outer bounds of trust. Shamefully, I admit to only recently seeing the film from start to finish. I’ve watched it twice now, simply to … More The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
Humphrey Bogart had a prolific and legendary film career. He had 82 film credits so there were many films to consider. He specialized in no-nonsense, hard-boiled roles where he usually wielded a gun and you didn’t dare backtalk him. Dames tended to fall hard for him, but he often had no patience or time for … More Favorite Bogart Films
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