HO, HO, HOmicide: Holiday Noir–Mr. Soft Touch [1949]

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.

We are celebrating the holidays over the next few days with holiday themed noir movies.

Happy Holidays!

Tonight’s feature is MR. SOFT TOUCH, starring Glenn Ford, Evelyn Keyes, John Ireland, Beulah and Percy Kilbride.

At Christmas time in San Francisco, Joe Miracle steals $100,000 from the River Club, which he used to own. After evading his pursuers, Joe hides out with Victor Christopher, the brother of his dead partner Leo, and Victor’s wife Clara. Clara has purchased a berth for Joe on the next ship leaving the city. The ship, however, will not depart until the following night. While Joe is trying to decide where he will hide until then, the police demand to search the apartment. At first Joe believes they are looking for the stolen money, but learns that they want to arrest Victor for disturbing the peace and beating Clara. When the police mistake Joe for Victor and arrest him for the night, Joe believes that his problems are solved, but Jenny Jones, a social worker, persuades the judge to give Joe a suspended sentence. 

Film Noir Friday: Farewell My Lovely [1975]

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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 FAREWELL MY LOVELY, starring Robert Mitchum and Charlotte Rampling.

Enjoy the movie!

TCM says:

This, the second adaptation of Raymond Chandler’s novel is much closer to the source text than the original, ‘Murder, My Sweet’, which tended to avoid some of the sleazier parts of the plot, but still concerns private eye Philip Marlowe’s attempts to locate Velma, a former dancer at a seedy nightclub, and the girlfriend of Moose Malloy, a petty criminal just out of prison. Marlowe finds that once he has taken the case events conspire to put him in dangerous situations, and he is forced to follow a confusing trail of untruths and double crosses before he is able to locate Velma.

Film Noir Friday: Railroaded [1947]

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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 RAILROADED  directed by Anthony Mann who also directed such film noir greats as: Raw Deal, T-Men, Border Incident, and Side Street. The film stars John Ireland, Sheila Ryan, Hugh Beaumont, Jane Randolph. Enjoy the film!

TCM says:

As New York beautician Clara Calhoun, whose shop is a front for a bookmaking operation, closes up for the night, she gives a silent signal to two masked gunmen lurking outside. The gunmen then burst into the shop and start to rob Clara and her unsuspecting assistant, Marie Westin, of their betting money. When a policeman happens by and interrupts the robbery, one of the robbers, Duke Martin, shoots him in cold blood. Before dying, the officer shoots and wounds the other robber, “Cowie” Kowalski. After fleeing in a laundry truck, Duke leaves Cowie at a doctor’s house, reminding him of their plan to implicate Steve Ryan in the crime. Later, when Clara and Marie are questioned by detectives Mickey Ferguson and Jim Chubb, Marie describes both robbers as black-haired, while Clara insists that the “shooter” had sandy hair. Clara’s version is believed, and soon the sandy-haired Steve Ryan, who routinely drives the laundry truck and whose Navy scarf was found at the shop, is brought in for questioning.

Film Noir Friday: Raw Deal [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, RAW DEAL, starring Dennis O’Keefe, Claire Trevor, Marsha Hunt, John Ireland and Raymond Burr.

Enjoy the movie!

TCM says:

Joe Sullivan, who is serving time in prison for his role in a robbery, is visited by two women. First by his lawyer’s assistant, Ann Martin, who appears to have more than a legal interest in him, and then by his girl friend, Pat Regan. During the visit, Pat informs him that he is to be broken out of prison that evening. Unknown to Joe, the escape has been engineered by sadistic Rick Coyle, the thief for whom Joe took the rap, in the hope that Joe will be killed, thus allowing Coyle to retain Joe’s share of the robbery. However, Joe makes a successful escape and is driven away by Pat, but bullet holes in the gas tank force them to abandon the car.

 

The Good Die Young [1954]

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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 GOOD DIE YOUNG [1954], the film stars Laurence Harvey, Gloria Grahame, Richard Basehart, Joan Collins and John Ireland.

Enjoy the movie!

TCM says:

Three good men – a broken boxer, an American veteran trying to win back his mother-dominated wife, and an air force sergeant married to a faithless actress – are corrupted by Miles Ravenscourt, an amoral “gentleman.” Because they need money, they let Miles lure them into his scheme to rob a postal van with a large cash cargo.