Noirvember 2023 - 30 days of film noir

[Veum]

FILM NOIR 

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FilmNoir

 

Quote

“You need cops, venetian blinds, lots of smoking, hats, sweat, dead-end streets, guys who know all the angles except for the one that ends up sticking out of their backs. Sirens of the automotive and female kind."

 

 

Private Detective? Check. Femme Fatale? Check. Chiaroscuro lighting? Check. This is Film Noir.

The Films
Every time you watch a film, post your rating and thoughts on the film and be sure to use spoiler tags when appropriate. Hopefully everyone can discover a new dark alley to wander down or an irresistible femme fatale that just blew into town.

 

 

[Veum]

 

District Attorney Challenge 

 

+repeat watch

*1st time watch

 

1940’s

01 *High Sierra (1941) ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ 

02 *Black Angel (1946) ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

03 *The Third Man (1949) ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ 

04 *The Big Sleep (1946) ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ 

05 *The Undercover Man (1949) ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ 

06 *The Killers (1946) ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ 

07

08

09

10

 

1950’s

01 *I, The Jury (1953) ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

02 *Killer’s Kiss (1955) ⭐️ ⭐️ 1/2

03 *The Killing (1956) ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ 

04 *The Mob (1951) ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ 

05 *Big house, U.S.A. (1955) ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ 

06 *99 River Street (1953) ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ 1/2

07 *Sweet Smell of Success (1957) ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ 1/2

08

09

10

 

Extra Case Files

01 *Underworld U.S.A. (1961)️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ 

Edited November 15, 2023 by Veum

[Veum]

Noirvember 2023 - 30 days of film noir

 

*High Sierra (1941) ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ 

*1st time watch! 

Humphrey is magnificent as Roy Earle, since out of prison he has a job to be done…. He actually has 2 personalities to me a soft heart and a harden exterior! Ida is great as the dame that comes along and Pard the pooch goes along also!! 🎬

 

 

Edited November 3, 2023 by Veum

[Veum]

Noirvember 2023 - 30 days of film noir

 

Black Angel (1946) ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ 

*1st time watch! 

A slow moving whodunit with a hard-drinking husband being rejected, a blackmailing wife involved with several men, a wrongly convicted man who is accused of murder with his wife trying to help him out by finding the responsible killer. We are introduced to a club owner of a swanky nightclub who seems rather suspicious a lot of the time and there is the detective that does not find the right person until it is too…enjoyed the era sets, locations and clothing of this time (I always do), the acting was good enough but not what I was exactly hoping it to be. 

 

 

[Veum]

Fri Nov 3

 

Killer’s Kiss (1955) ⭐️ ⭐️ 1/2

*1st time watch!

A washed up prize fighter comes to the aid of a nightclub dancer in this seedy looking area, she happens to live across from him in one of these one room dives, she is being harangue by her older gangster boss and then all hell breaks loose… a really odd noir for me though, hmm. 

 

Sat Nov 4

 

Noirvember 2023 - 30 days of film noir

 

The Killing (1956) ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ 

*1st time watch!

A heist on a racetrack from some lowly crooks is the plan and what a plan it was but this is what finally happened….

Very enjoyable film with exquisite shots from the master Kubrick, highly recommend!  🎬

[Veum]

Noirvember 2023 - 30 days of film noir

 

The Third Man (1949) ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ 

*1st time watch!

 

Writer Holly Martins travels to post-war Vienna to look up his friend Harry Lime who offered him a job only to find out he has been killed. Martins seems to think this is not really an accident but his friend was murdered. Lots of running around and the real action starts in the last frame but I find this too slow and some of it uninteresting for my taste although the cinematography was great, meh 
 

 

 

[Veum]

Noirvember 2023 - 30 days of film noir

 

The Big Sleep (1946) ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ 

*1st time watch!

 

Philip Marlowe (Humphrey Bogart) the hard-broiled P.I. is hired to find out a blackmail case and runs into many a crooked people including blackmailers, murders and thugs, oh and their is this devy of beautiful girls that seem attracted to the private eye, especially one of the sultry daughters Vivian (Lauren Bacall) who catches Marlowe's eye… highly recommended! 

 

 

[Veum]

Noirvember 2023 - 30 days of film noir

 

The Mob (1951) ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ 

*1st time watch!

 

Police detective Damico (Broderick Crawford) has been suspended after witnessing a mob-style execution but looses him. He has a chance to redeem himself by the chief of police and go undercover as a longshoreman who has a record from New Orleans to find the mobster killer Blackie Clay who controls the rackets around the longshoreman.

To my surprise we even see the great Charles Bronson as a longshoreman and another great Ernest Borgnine as a thug… enjoyed this film tremendously my ‘cup of tea’! 

 

 

[Veum]

Noirvember 2023 - 30 days of film noir

 

Big House, U.S.A. (1955) ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ 

*1st time watch!

 

Some ruthless convicts plan an escape from prison bringing with them a extortionist who has hidden $200,000 in Colorado’s Royal Gorge National Park and these dangerous thugs find out their own destiny… a exciting cast with the likes of Broderick Crawford, Charles Bronson and Lon Chaney, Jr. and the cinematography is gorgeous! 

 

 

[Veum]

Noirvember 2023 - 30 days of film noir

 

Underworld U.S.A. (1955) ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ 

*1st time watch!

 

This is a story of revenge, as a young boy witnesses his father being murdered by 3 gangsters. He infiltrates the mob to bump off the gangsters with some unlikely help from a beautiful dame and a D.A. Tolly (Cliff Robertson) in the end wants to…

 

 

 

[Veum]

Noirvember 2023 - 30 days of film noir

 

The Undercover Man (1949) ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ 

*1st time watch!

 

Frank Warren (Glenn Ford) as a Treasury Department Agent takes on a mob boss that has not paid his taxes while also intimidating and killing innocent people not to talk.

 

 

[Veum]

Noirvember 2023 - 30 days of film noir

 

99 River Street (1953) ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ 1/2

*1st time watch!

 

An ex prize fighter turned cabbie’s wife is having an affair with a jewel thief who promises her the world when she turns up dead and placed in the cabbie back seats the boxer is in a real fix…

 

 

[Veum]

Noirvember 2023 - 30 days of film noir

 

The Killers (1946) ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ 

*1st time watch!

 

 

A film with multiple breakup episodes where we follow 2 killers looking for a man nicknamed the “Swede” (the wonderful Burt Lancaster) in a small town and in various flashbacks we find out the background of the “Swede” who was a former ex-boxer who befriends a very shady character named Colfax and becomes smitten with his much younger girlfriend Kitty (the beautiful Ava Gardner)… a lot of the story is told through an insurance investigator (Edmond O’Brien) and we find out what this caper is all about with….

 

 

Edited November 12, 2023 by Veum

[Veum]

Noirvember 2023 - 30 days of film noir

 

Sweet Smell of Success (1957) ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ 1/2

*1st time watch!

 

In a town (NYC) of dirty cops, powerful politicians, beautiful women on hand that are in and out of smoky nightclubs is a powerful newspaper columnist J.J. Hunsecker (Burt Lancaster) and a down and dirty press agent Sidney Falco (Tony Curtis) who will do anything to impress J.J. who has been assigned to break-up his beautiful sisters romance with a jazz musician… the ambience is fantastic but the one-liners and immoral tactics can only take me so far in this film.