When the rich and the poor clash

Dead End (1937)

This is a very nice little film noir, even though film noir puritists might argue about it being a film noir in the first place. Well it's a drama involving criminal activities with cynical attitudes and quite a few noirish shots, so that's enough for me. Anyway the movie is set on the docks of East River in New York where the rich and the poor neighborhood divide sharing one block in between. That of course builds tensions between the two “classes” and sure enough things end up getting violent. The main couple of the movie is actually overshadowed by the supporting characters so much that their ordeals end up being just another story on the block. It's Humphrey Bogart's Baby Face Martin and the Dead End Kids who run the show in this movie. Not only are those characters more interesting, they are also played brilliantly. The themes in this one are just as valid today as they were back in the 30's, you could actually say they are even more relevant today as the rich keep getting richer and the poor are still poor. William Wyler does a great job at keeping the pace fast moving and the dialog sounds real enough to fool me. The cinematography is at points very straight forward, almost documentary like, which fits the story brilliantly, but then again there are some absolutely stunning noir like shots in there as well. Watching this now shows clearly that it's shot in the studio and the matte paintings were rather visible, especially as the DVD had a very nice image quality, that eats the realism a bit, but in the end it didn't matter much. There were some unintentionally funny moments, like when a guy gets killed the news about it is already in the papers around the block few minutes later and so on, but those are also partly the charm of old movies. Kind of like winking at the viewer not to over think it, it fits the story so just go with the ride. In the end this was a very good movie that has stood time amazingly well.

87%

Forbidden love stuck in an elevator

Elevator to the Gallows (1958)

Louis Malle's first feature length fiction movie is a very solid film noir. The plot is quite great with many layers, some being quite ingenious and others a bit too simple looking back at them now. The story is basicly about two couples and the people around them. First couple is a classic noir duo of forbidden love and a plan to murder the woman's husband in between. The second couple is a younger generation with rebel state of mind, similar to what you've seen in Godard's movies. Things of course don't go as planned and there are many twists on the way with the younger couple mixing up the plans of the other couple. The movie is overly passionate as usual for French movies of the time, this did bring out a bit of unintentional campy feel at times. Reminded me of all the parodies people do of the French cinema nowadays. The look is classic film noir and definitely nothing to complain there. The soundtrack is quite suiting and especially jazz fans will love it as it uses Miles Davis' music. The cast is quite good, though of course there are those overly portrayed emotions, but that's fitting to the era. All in all a solid film noir that suffers a bit from a few campy moments but still manages to shine out on others.
67%

Why would a man want to die?

The Killers (1964)

Remake of the 1946 film noir version with the same name. This is a great mix of classic film noir and the more modern crime drama. The cast is absolutely brilliant with Lee Marvin, John Cassavetes, Angie Dickinson, Claude Akins and even Ronald Reagan himself. But even those all-stars can't beat Clu Gulager who portrays his sosiopathic hitman character to near perfection. Based on Ernest Hemingways short story and Directed by Don Siegel. Can't possibly go wrong with that setup. And it doesn't. The story is quite simple, but behind the simple twist there's a bit more to it also. This was the third or fourth time I saw this and still it didn't bother at all that I knew what's going to happen. That's a sure sign of a great movie. Only bad thing I have to say about this is that I would have liked to see more time given to the hitmen as they are quite brilliant. Not that the flashback story would be bad in any ways, it's great as it is, but in addition to that a bit more space to them would have made this perfect. But then again, it's close enough as it is.
91%

Melville's cunning neo-noir

Le Doulos (1962)

Back to the BFI films. Next one was another great noir from Jean-Pierre Melville. I'm not going to tell anything about the story as it's one of those "less you know is better" so you could get the full thrill of the movie. Needless to say it's superbly done, beautiful shot and witty as you'd expect from Melville. There's some scenes of which film makers even today would be green of envy as they are so brilliantly crafted. The interrogation scene for example is one which is so close to brilliance I was simply stunned. The movie has more dialog than you'd expect in a Melville movie, but it certainly doesn't take anything away from it. It's still somehow beautifully muted yet quite striking. Not the best from Melville, but up there on the top of his films. Can't really say anything more, it's still a masterpiece in it's genre and a must see for every noir fan out there.
93%

Viva la resistance

L'Armee Des Ombres (1969)

Next one on the pile of BFI movies was Jean-Pierre Melville's take on the French resistance during the second world war. As always the movie looks stunning and the tense atmosphere is almost touchable. It's not the usual picture for Melville as this movie has quite a bit of dialog, but the muted noirish style is still present. It has a weird level of realism which at parts seems to become almost surreal. One of my favourite of Melville and all in all a lesson in atmospheric film making. A classic masterpiece.
98%

A French take on the American crime movie

Le Cercle rouge (1970)

Next one from the BFI films was Jean-Pierre Melville's classic heist movie. I had already seen this one many times and was about time I could retire my old crappy VHS version of it. Well not much to say about this, it's a brilliant noirish crime thriller that stands time perfectly. There's a few odd scenes I don't like as they seem to be a bit forced into the plot, like the two hitmen on the country road for example. But those don't matter so much as the movie is really stunning in all other parts. I especially love the coolly muted cinematography which brings it the dark noirish tone. Quite simply a masterpiece with a few dents on it.
90%

A forgotten masterpiece

Fallen Angel (1945)

My journey through the BFI films continued with this Otto Preminger's highly underrated film-noir classic. The movie is made flawless, it's just stunningly brilliant in every aspect. Sure it might not bring much new to the genre, but any other word than a masterpiece would be underrating to it. It's a story about a washout press agent Eric Stanton (Dana Andrews) who has his eye on a sultry waitress Stella (Linda Darnell). He comes up with a plan to get some easy money from a wealthy heiress June (Alice Faye) so he can please Stella to marry him. Needless to say things don't go as planned. The cast is stellar, with Linda Darnell taking the "femme fatale" role to a different level and Alice Faye making a really strong performance as the victim of the plot who turns out to be more than meets the eye. Even thou the movie focuses on Eric Stanton, the women really steal the show with their superb performances, which was a nice change. The movie looks stunning and it's crafted with such intelligence, control and style that it's quite close to perfection. Can't understand why this movie is left with so little notice as it's superior to most of the better known film-noirs. I would put it right up to the top of the genre with M, Touch of Evil, The Third Man, Sunset Blvd. and so on.
97%

Love, hate and God

The Night of the Hunter (1955)

Watched this classic again after a long time and apart from few odd scenes it has stood time really well. It was way ahead of it's time when it was released and the story was too much for the ultra conservative America. That's why it flopped at it's release, getting bad reviews and not many viewers. But as time went on and religious views changed it slowly became a classic. And it still works strikingly well. Being quite timeless as there's always people who use religion to do horrible things. Also not in many movies even today is Christianity portraided thru characters as versatile as in this one. There's the fanatic, the hypocrit, the naive and the "true" authenticity. Preacher Harry Powel, played brilliantly by Robert Mitchum, being the most shocking of them all. He does not pretend to be God's tool, he knows he is. His sword of truth is his switch blade which he gladly uses on anyone he deems an enemy. The movie is shot beautifully and some scenes are the kind you remember for ages, for example the car under water scene is just stunning. Even thou the themes of the story are quite horrifying there's still some humor in it too, most surprisingly really dark humor. One of my favourite classics and a must see for everyone.
100%