Category Archives: Film Noir Friday

Film Noir Friday–Sunday Matinee: Fallen Angel [1945]

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Welcome! The lobby of the Deranged L.A. Crimes theater is open. Grab a bucket of popcorn, some Milk Duds and a Coke and find a seat.

Today’s film is an outstanding film noir from 1945, directed by Otto Preminger, FALLEN ANGEL. It stars Alice Faye, Dana Andrews and Linda Darnell.

IMDB says:

One night, drifter Eric Stanton is forced to disembark a San Francisco-bound bus because he has not paid the full fare. Eric is let off in the small town of Walton, and when he goes to Pop’s, a local diner, he finds Pop distraught over the disappearance of his beautiful waitress Stella. Retired police detective Mark Judd assures Pop that Stella will return, and soon she does appear, much to Pop’s relief. Eric then leaves and, after seeing a poster for a show by “psychic” Professor Madley, convinces Madley’s assistant, Joe Ellis, that he is friends with the professor. Ellis confides that ticket sales have been slow due to the influence of Clara Mills, the former mayor’s daughter, who has been telling her friends not to attend. Seeing an opportunity to make money, Eric goes to the Mills house the next morning, and asks the cynical Clara to give the professor a chance. Clara dismisses Eric, saying that the professor is a charlatan, but her lovely younger sister June is intrigued by Eric, and tells Clara that Madley is merely trying to make a living. June convinces her sister to buy tickets to the show, and soon many of the townspeople follow suit. 

ENJOY THE MOVIE!

Film Noir Friday: Somewhere in the Night [1946]

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Welcome! The lobby of the Deranged L.A. Crimes theater is open! Grab a bucket of popcorn, some Milk Duds and a Coke and find a seat. Tonight’s feature is SOMEWHERE IN THE NIGHT, 1946, starring Lloyd Nolan and Richard Conte.

TCM says:

A U.S. Marine recovering from a combat injury in a Navy hospital in Hawaii suffers from undiagnosed amnesia, and while others call him George Taylor, he has no memory of that man. Upon recovery from his wounds, George is transferred to the hospital at Camp Pendleton, California, and is eventually discharged, even though he still has no memory. He returns to his old civilian address at the Martin Hotel in Los Angeles, but no one recognizes him there. At Union Station, he exchanges a bag check he found in his sea bag for a briefcase, which contains a gun and a three-year-old letter to a man named George stating that $5,000 has been deposited for him in a bank account by Larry Cravat.

Amnesia, guns, and money!

Enjoy the movie!

Film Noir Friday–Saturday Matinee: City of Fear [1959]

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Welcome! The lobby of the Deranged L.A. Crimes theater is open! Grab a bucket of popcorn, some Milk Duds and a Coke and find a seat. Today’s feature is CITY OF FEAR [1959], starring Vince Edwards, John Archer, Patricia Blair, and Steven Ritch.

Last week it was “Ice Skating Noir”, this time it is “Nuclear Noir” (not actual subgenres to my knowledge). In this film, Vince Edwards breaks out of San Quentin with a cannister he thinks contains heroin worth thousands. It doesn’t. It contains radioactive material. It reminds me of KISS ME DEADLY [1955].

Films in the 1950s, no matter what the genre, were obsessed with radioactivity. This one gets bonus points for great shots of Los Angeles in this film.

Enjoy the movie!

Film Noir Friday–on Sunday! Big Town After Dark

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Welcome! The lobby of the Deranged L.A. Crimes theater is open! Grab a bucket of popcorn, some Milk Duds and a Coke and find a seat. Today’s feature is BIG TOWN AFTER DARK, starring Philip Reed and Hillary Brooke.

BIG TOWN was a successful radio show, and even a comic book. BIG TOWN recalls the days when reporters fought corruption–unlike today when they are more likely to participate in it.

TCM says:

After selling her novel, police reporter Lorelei Kilbourne, who has become disillusioned with her managing editor, Steve Wilson, quits her job at Big Town’s Illustrated Press newspaper and bids farewell to her co-workers. A new reporter must be found to replace Lorelei, but Amos Peabody, the ineffectual owner of the paper, does not want to hire his niece, Susan Peabody, who is trying desperately to get the job. Although Peabody asks Wilson to interview Susan and discourage her from quitting college, Steve defies Amos’s request and hires her to make Lorelei jealous. Steve soon becomes enamored of Susan and takes her out to dinner, after which she takes him to the Winners Club gambling hall to persuade him to join her in her crusade to close down all the gambling clubs in the city.

Noirvember: He Walked By Night [1948]

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Welcome! The lobby of the Deranged L.A. Crimes theater is open! Grab a bucket of popcorn, some Milk Duds and a Coke and find a seat. Tonight’s feature is HE WALKED BY NIGHT starring Richard Basehart, Scott Brady, and Jack Webb. It was during the making of this film that Jack Webb got the idea for DRAGNET.

The film is based on a true story, the Erwin “Machine Gun” Walker case, which I wrote about several years ago.

38gun

As of several years ago I have a personal connection to this movie. I was given the blue steel revolver that belonged to the screenwriter, John C. Higgins — it was a gift from his nephew, Eric, and I’m honored to own it. Higgins wrote the screenplays for T-MEN and RAW DEAL, two terrific films.

Film Noir Friday–Saturday Matinee: Undertow [1949]

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Welcome! The lobby of the Deranged L.A. Crimes theater is open! Grab a bucket of popcorn, some Milk Duds and a Coke and find a seat. Today’s feature is UNDERTOW, starring Scott Brady, John Russell, Dorothy Hart, Peggy Dow, and Bruce Bennett. Directed by William Castle.

TCM says:

After buying a half-interest in a small lodge near Reno, Tony Reagan, a recently discharged veteran, runs into Danny Morgan, an old friend from Chicago. Danny, who operates a Reno casino owned by Chicago racketeer Big Jim Lee, offers Tony a job, but Tony declines, stating that he gave up the “business” long ago. Tony shows Danny the engagement ring he plans to give Sally Lee, Big Jim’s niece and ward, and Danny, in turn, shows off the ring he has bought for his girl. Confident and carefree, Tony then helps novice gambler Ann McKnight win at the craps table. The next day, after he wires Sally that he will be seeing her soon, Tony boards the same Chicago-bound airplane on which Ann is traveling. Tony and Ann, a schoolteacher, spend the flight chatting, and Ann can barely hide her disappointment when Tony tells her about Sally. As Tony deplanes in Chicago, he is met by police detective Chuck Reckling, a childhood friend, who informs him that his captain, Kerrigan, wants to see him.

Film Noir Friday on Saturday Night: I’ll Name the Murderer [1936]

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Welcome! The lobby of the Deranged L.A. Crimes theater is open! Grab a bucket of popcorn, some Milk Duds and a Coke and find a seat. Today’s feature is I’LL NAME THE MURDERER (1936), starring Ralph Forbes and Marion Shilling.

The Puritan Pictures Corporation released this film. Puritan Pictures was founded by Sam Katzman, who was also the founder of Victory Productions, in 1935. In fact, Katzman ran both companies at the same time.) It was considered one of Hollywood’s “Poverty Row” studios. Also, like most small filmmakers, Puritan distributed other studios’ output as well. They were more successful in distribution, and by 1936 had abandoned filmmaking completely to concentrate on distributing Excelsior, C. C. Burr, Fanchon Royer and Sentinel pictures. Puritan was history by 1938; Katzman went on to greater renown at Monogram.

Enjoy the movie!

TCM says:

When nightclub singer Nadia Renee is murdered in her dressing room at Luigi’s, Broadway gossip columnist Tommy Tilton sets out to find the killer. The suspect with the most obvious motive is Tommy’s college friend, Ted Benson, who had a youthful liaison with Nadia, but is now engaged to the wealthy Vi Van Ostrum. Nadia had intended to wreck Ted’s marriage by publishing his old love letters, unless he paid her $10,000. 

Film Noir Friday: Midnight Manhunt [1945]

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Welcome! The lobby of the Deranged L.A. Crimes theater is open! Grab a bucket of popcorn, some Milk Duds and a Coke and find a seat. Today’s feature is MIDNIGHT MANHUNT (1945), starring Ann Savage, William Gargan, and Leo Gorcey.

Ann Savage appeared in four movies in 1945, one of them is tonight’s feature; another is DETOUR, a cult favorite. Her co-stars in MIDNIGHT MANHUNT are William Garagan and Leo Gorcey. Gargan,was a Academy Award-nominated actor known for’ THEY KNEW WHAT THEY WANTED, and his work on NBC radio and TV. You may recognize Gorcey from the DEAD END KIDS and the BOWERY BOYS.

Enjoy the movie!

IMDB says:

Master criminal Joe Wells is shot and left for dead in his hotel room. Wells rouses himself and wanders into the street before finally expiring in an alley next to a wax museum. Reporter Sue Gallagher, who lives upstairs from the museum, is first on the scene, and conceals the body among the wax exhibits in order to get a scoop. 

Film Noir Friday–Sunday Matinee: The Unseen (1945)

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Welcome! The lobby of the Deranged L.A. Crimes theater is open! Grab a bucket of popcorn, some Milk Duds and a Coke and find a seat. Today’s feature is THE UNSEEN starring Joel McCrea, Gail Russell, and Herbert Marshall.

The movie is an unofficial sequel to the THE UNINVITED (1944), which starred Ray Milland and Gail Russell, and based on a novel written by Ethel Lina White. Another of White’s novels was adapted for the screen and became Alfred Hitchcock’s wonderful film, THE LADY VANISHES.

Enjoy the movie!

TCM says:

On Crescent Drive in New Bristol, on a dark, rainy New England night, an elderly housekeeper named Alberta sees a man lurking inside the boarded-up house at Number Eleven, and is strangled by him in nearby Salem Alley. Young Barnaby Fielding watches the scene from his bedroom window at Number Ten, and retrieves Alberta’s gold watch. The murder is still unsolved when Elizabeth Howard arrives at the Fieldings’ to be the new governess for Barnaby and his sister Ellen. Barnaby is strangely devoted to their former governess, Maxine, who orders him to keep watch at night and leave his stuffed elephant in the window. Elizabeth finds the gold watch and gives it to Barnaby’s father David, but because he was suspected of killing his wife, who died in an automobile accident two years earlier, David is afraid to give it to the police.

Film Noir Friday on Saturday Night: Whistle Stop (1946)

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Welcome! The lobby of the Deranged L.A. Crimes theater is open! Grab a bucket of popcorn, some Milk Duds and a Coke and find a seat. Today’s feature WHISTLE STOP starring George Raft, Ava Gardner, Victor McLaglen, and Tom Conway.

Enjoy the movie!

TCM says:

TCM says: When Mary returns to Ashbury, the small town she left several years earlier, her first stop is the house she owns, where Molly Veech and her family now live. Before she left town, Mary was in love with Molly’s son Kenny, a loafer and a drunk, but was driven away by his lack of ambition. Mary is disappointed to learn that Kenny still has no job and spends his nights gambling and drinking. That night at dinner, Kenny is angered when Mary receives a large bouquet of roses from Lew, the owner of the town’s hotel and bar, and follows Mary to Lew’s club when she goes there to thank him.