Monthly Archives: May 2015

Film Noir Friday: Frenzy [1972]

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FRENZY2Welcome! 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 FRENZY, directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Jon Finch, Alec McCowen, and Barry Foster — it also features Billie Whitelaw, Anna Massey, Barbara Leigh-Hunt, Bernard Cribbins and Vivien Merchant.

Enjoy the movie!

Rotten Tomatoes says:

After several years of uneven efforts like Torn Curtain and Topaz, Alfred Hitchcock was back in form with 1972’s Frenzy. The plot concerns a rapist-murderer terrorizing London. The audience is unknowingly introduced to the killer early on, though suspicions are redirected to a more “obvious” suspect. Once viewers know which is which, the suspense lies in the fact that the police continue to suspect the wrong man.

 

https://youtu.be/xWEFDkIcQb4

Film Noir Friday: Lady Gangster [1942]

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lady gangster

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 LADY GANGSTER, starring Faye Emerson, Julie Bishop, Frank Wilcox and Jackie Gleason. LADY GANGSTER is a remake of LADIES THEY TALK ABOUT [1933] which is one of my favorite women in prison films. Both films are based on a play by Dorothy Mackaye who was an actress, writer, and former felon. She did time in San Quentin for her part in the beating death of her husband by her boyfriend. I covered the case in THE HOLLYWOOD TRIANGLE.

Enjoy the movie!

TCM says:

Dot Burton, an aspiring actress, helps a gang of bank robbers to hold up a bank. The men escape but the police are suspicious of Dot’s actions and arrest her. District Attorney Lewis Sinton asks Dot to turn state’s evidence, but she continues to plead her innocence. Radio broadcaster Kenneth Phillips sees a newspaper article about Dot’s case and broadcasts a statement lambasting the district attorney for arresting her while the real criminals go free. Sinton responds by suggesting that Phillips help in the investigation. He willingly agrees and begins by questioning Dot. Face to face, Phillips and Dot realize they know each other from childhood and Phillips arranges to have Dot released into his custody. Although Dot intends to go straight, when she overhears the other members of the gang plan to divide up her share of the stolen money, she hides the money from them.

https://youtu.be/k8CBtyDdfbQ

 

 

 

Film Noir Friday: The Lady Confesses [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.

Tonight’s feature is THE LADY CONFESSES, starring Mary Beth Hughes and Hugh Beaumont.

Enjoy the movie!

TCM says:

After she is paid a surprise visit by a woman claiming to be her fiancé Larry Craig’s long-lost wife Norma, Vicki McGuire makes a desperate call to Larry at the Club 7-11. Larry shows up at the club a few minutes after Vicki’s call, roaring drunk, and has a drink in club owner Lucky Brandon’s office. Larry then is cajoled into lying down on singer Lucille Compton’s dressing room couch and soon passes out. Two hours later, Larry is roused to answer a second call from Vicki, and on his way to the phone, he sees Lucky, a notorious playboy, slipping in through the back door. Despite the late hour, an anxious Vicki meets Larry to discuss Norma, who had disappeared almost seven years before, on the day that her divorce from Larry was to become final. After Larry assures Vicki that Norma’s threat to refuse him a divorce is merely a jealous whim, they drive to the house where Norma now is living. They find the house swarming with policemen and are told by homicide detective Capt. Brown that, earlier that evening, Norma was strangled to death.

https://youtu.be/wkninRN-Ky0