Three Odd Film Noir

By definition all film noir are odd, but we have recently watched three that are Odd (note capitalization).  In January the Criterion streaming channel has a whole bunch of films we would like to see, so we have now watched 6 films in a row leaving January 31st.  Most recently have been three "B" pictures worth noting, all in beautiful b & w.  Most recent came The Man I Love, a 1946 film directed by Raoul Walsh and starring Ida Lupino.  Though it has some soap opera moments, this drama jumps all over the place, telling three stories during the course of the movie.  What is most interesting about this film, however, is how strong a woman Lupino is.  The film centres on her, and she handles the part with a solid type of acting seldom seen in female characters, especially in the noir genre.  She is tough and tender, smart and talented, as she sings her way into top nightclubs.  She falls for a down and out jazz pianist, and they almost make a go of it.  By the end it appears as if they are not totally washed up, but still might manage to get together later.  Robert Alda plays the owner of the nightclub where Lupino sings, and manages to create one of the creepiest creeps who ever crept into a movie.  A dizzy blonde, mother of twin babies and wife to husband Johnny, also manages to upset audiences with her lifestyle.  An unusual film, and worth a peek for Lupino's performance.

Leaving Criterion January 31st. 

 

Before that came Pickup Alley, a 1956 film starring Victor Mature as a globetrotting cop on the trail of bad guy Trevor Howard, who is being assisted by Anita Ekberg.  A few things make this film unusual for a film noir.  First of all, it is filmed in Cinemascope.  Secondly, we get to travel the world, instead of only staying in New York or LA.  The sleazy film title has nothing to do with this film, made fun because the police are looking for Trevor Howard but don't know what he looks like.  London, Paris, Rome, and Athens all feature somewhere in this fairly fast paced thriller.  Sadly, Mature hardly makes it as a hero cop.  He seems to do very little acting in this film, going through his lines like an amateur.  Ekberg is, of course, rather cute, though her part is not very demanding.  Can she act?  We would hardly know for sure from this film.

 

Leaving Criterion January 31st.

Earliest of the three came Human Desire, an American Fritz Lang directed remake from 1954 of La Bete Humaine, from a story by Emil Zola.  Glenn Ford stars as a passenger train engineer who runs headlong into trouble when he falls for a married woman, played by Gloria Grahame.  Her overbearing husband, played by Broderick Crawford, is a jealous man, and an alcoholic who lets off too much steam and is fired from his job at the railroad yard.  The film, especially at the very beginning, features some of the worst background matting this viewer has ever seen.  Glenn Ford guides his train through the mountains, across bridges, and into tunnels, though when the camera pans to him we see Midwest flat farmland in behind him out his cab window.  Weird.  Ford is mostly emotionless in this picture, hardly acting at all.  Grahame is okay as she goes through the motions of loving Ford to help her get rid of her husband.  We learn that her past is a sordid one, beginning when she was 16.  Will Ford, freshly back from Korea, kill her husband for her?  Good tension is built up to this climax.  I much prefer the earlier French film starring Jean Gabin, but this one has its moments.

Leaving Criterion January 31st. 

 

In local news, I did some fun things this week.  Last Sunday I went ice skating for the first time in 14 years.  Public skating at the local arena is on Sunday at 5 pm.   I managed to skate for 30 minutes without falling or crashing into someone (It was rather crowded).  Seniors can skate on Wednesday afternoons, but our schedule is currently too filled with medical appointments, so I will stick to Sundays for now.  On Tuesday morning I dropped Deb off at her physio appointment (for TMJ) in Amherstburg, then went on to walk a segment of the local rails to trails path.  It was a very cold day (about 25 F) with a nasty little breeze, but once I was into the forest it was okay.  It was strange to be walking here in January, but we had had no snow.  The marsh was frozen over and could have been travelled on skates.  We haven't gone above 30 F for nine days now, and some of the nights have been bitter.  Then on Thursday morning I went over to Dr. Seski's home and put in an hour on his incredible 7' Fazioli piano.  I was able to run through my entire program, and it went pretty well.  He played a Brahms Intermezzo for me.  I may be back into the piano group on occasions when they have smaller gatherings.  Last time there were only three of them.

 

From my trail walk on Tuesday morning.  The marsh is frozen solid.

 

Tonight (Friday) it is snowing, our first real snow event this season.  We might get 2" or a bit more, so we should awaken to a white winter wonderland.  If so I will take some pics tomorrow morning and add them here. 

 

Mapman Mike

 

Early January

This is the time of year that Winter usually cranks up the volume.  While it has been rather chilly here of late, and will remain so for the foreseeable future, it has not been Earth-shattering.  We are at about seasonable temps for this time of year, though the snow is still missing.  One of those giant winter storms is currently passing well south of us today.

 

Our New Year celebrations began last Tuesday night as we watched London UK ring in the new year with their usual spectacular fireworks at and in the London Eye.  New Years day we listened to a very long opera by Rameau, his Hypolyte and Aricie.  I gave myself two presents for this holiday, one of them being a 27 CD set of the Rameau operas.  This is part of my music education I have been neglecting for too long.  I love his harpsichord works, and have even performed several of them.  But his operas are his crowning achievement, and though not fully appreciated in his time, are now seen as the masterworks that they are.

 

In gaming news we have played some Bob Ross, Scrabble, and a Dr. Who card game recently.  The card game is a good game, but the rules are written so poorly that one has to play several times to fully catch on.  We continue to make progress with Tengami, the Japanese paper folding PC game, and I finished playing a much older game.  My 2 CD set of Road To India was damaged, so it became a bit frustrating.  With the help of online saved game files I was able to skip over parts that didn't play well, to finally conclude the game.  I managed to save the girl.  It's a pretty lame game.

 

Back to self-bought presents: my 2nd purchase was a new set of ice skates.  I used to skate a few times a year as a teacher, as the kids would go to the local arena monthly in winter for skating time.  Which means that the last time I was on ice skates was 2010.  Anyway, I am going to a public skating event this afternoon at our newest local arena. and am really looking forward to it.

 

In film news, there are three to report on.  At the beginning of each month the Criterion Channel posts which films are leaving at the end of the month, and which are just arriving.  We usually concentrate on the leaving list.  Some months there are only a few of interest, but this month the list is long and quite interesting.  So for now we are watching Criterion channel films leaving on January 31st.  Mubi does a similar thing, but for now we are all caught up there.  First up was Deja Vu, a SF film by Tony Scott, Ridley's younger brother.  Denzel Washington plays an ATF agent investigating a terrorist act in New Orleans (creepy timing).  As he is drawn deeper into the case, he is inducted into a special team that can see events as they happened four days earlier.  Now they can catch the killer.  But Denzel wants to do more; he wants to prevent the bombing of the ferry in the first place.  This is a classic big budget Hollywood thriller, with insane car driving, lots of violence, terrific special effects, and fine acting.  The SF twist makes it all bearable, though the plot eventually ends up with more holes in it than Swiss cheese.  No matter, it's just a fun roller coast ride.  Hold on and enjoy the best you can.

 

Leaving Criterion Jan. 31st. 

 

John Turturro has a large presence on Criterion, including giving short intros to films they show there.  We watched one of his directed films, Romance and Cigarettes from 2005.  Produced by the Coen Brothers, it is John's 3rd directorial effort.  It's a delightfully odd comedy/musical, with several pop songs (two by Tom Jones, one by Springfield, etc.) serving as musical dance numbers in the middle of the story.  It is quite an engaging film and well acted.  It stars James Gandolfini and Susan Saradon as a middle aged couple breaking up.  He is having an affair with a red-haired Kate Winslet, who is using a hilarious flat Midlands accent.  Their three daughters have formed a rock band and they practice in the backyard.  It's a difficult task to describe the film, but it resembles Dennis Potter's Pennies From Heaven, only funnier.  Highly recommended.

Leaving Criterion January 31st. 

 

I was attracted to a 1952 film called Strange Fascination.   Written, directed, produced, and acted by Hugo Haas, it's the old story of a concert pianist leaving Europe to try and conquer America.  He has a rich female patron, and begins his tour in Columbus, Ohio, as he attempts to work his way towards Carnegie Hall.  He plays Chopin.  He meets a very young bleached blonde, and they seem to hit it off.  She is a nightclub dancer heading to New York, where they meet up again.  They fall in love and get married, and after that his career seems to fall apart.  A Midwest flood forces cancellation of the rest of his tour, and he goes broke.  They live in a small room together, but his jealousy keeps her indoors and away from jobs she could have.  This tragedy manages to somehow avoid all the cliches that films about pianists have, as well as films about a young bleach blonde wife to a much older man.  She does love him, and she is a decent person.  To cash in on an insurance policy, he sticks his hand in a printing press machine.  Life can't get much worse.  except his wife leaves him and he pines for Europe again.  In the final scene he is playing one-handed boogie woogie in an AA meeting for a bunch of sobering up skid row men.  But wait, at the very end, his original patroness appears at the door... and smiles at him.  He smiles back.  End of movie, about as happy an ending as could be imagined for this film.  An odd film worth a look.

Nowhere near as sleazy at it looks.  Leaving

Criterion Jan. 31st. 

 

Mapman Mike

 

 

2024: A Glance Back

It was a year of loss and gain.  Wars and terrorism continue to plague mostly innocent civilians, including a horrendous Christmas market attack in Europe, and, only 3 hours into the new year, another similar one in New Orleans.  One of the biggest losses for the world in general is probably seeing Trump 6 days from the White House, winning the US election and leaving much of the civilized world aghast at what is to come.  There is no doubt that 2025 will be an interesting year, if more than a bit depressing.  It will be another year of horrible climate news, as lives and property continue to take a beating from nature's warnings that we seem not to heed.  Though there are few complaints here at the Homestead, places we love and care about are suffering badly.  The UK really took a series of hits from the climate this year, as did the US, Spain, South America, and many other locations.  California had record fires yet again, and the year turned out to be the world's warmest on record.  What is Trump's answer to all this?  Drill baby, drill.  Pump even more oil out of the ground and send it into the atmosphere.  Many times I am glad to be an old duffer; sitting around and watching the planet die will not occupy me for too many more years, at least.

 

Between Deb and I we lost 3 family members this year.  My dad passed away in March, Deb's sister during the summer, and a well-like uncle, my mother's brother, died this autumn.  I have one remaining aunt, and my mother and brother surviving me (and two lovely nieces).  Deb has one older sister still chugging along.  And while my overall health has been okay and I continue to stay fit, my bout with kidney stones really knocked me for a loop.  Hope that never happens again.  And Deb's health has hit a few bumps in the road as well.  Most telling is her inability to hike up mountains, due to some mystery condition yet to be determined.

 

R to L: Dad, Mom, Stephen, Mapman.  Probably late 70s.  Taken at the Miller house on Lake Ramsay. 

 

R to L:  My grandfather Whitehead, born in Newcastle.  He lived till 96.  Uncle Jimmy, died at 33 in a car accident.   Recently deceased Uncle Bill.  An unknown spirit hovers behind Uncle Bill.  Don't remember noticing that before.  This was Jimmy's wedding to Ida (1974?). 

 

2024 was farewell to Deb's oldest sister, Sharon.  Left of her is Lois, Deb's mom, and Deb.
 

And now from the front.  Likely taken in the mid to late 90s (?).   We were on a local winery tour.

But we continued to travel!  After six long years we finally returned to New Mexico, and enjoyed one fine hike in the Manzano Mountains.  More visits are in the planning stages.  We undertook two road trips (not counting two trips to Sudbury), one in the deep south and one in the west.  Our first trip to New Orleans saw us visit four new states together, including Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida.  We hit the state highpoint in those states, as well as visited some major archaeological sights.  In addition we had time to hit some New Orleans attractions.  We flew to New Orleans and rented a car, thus creating a road trip as well as a visit to a major new city.  Our western trip saw us conclude a trip began in 2023.  We had to abort that trip when Deb took a bad fall in Oklahoma, with an already broken wrist.  But 2024 allowed us to complete the journey, which saw the Texas highpoint also summited.  Our return to New Mexico was taken as a good omen.

 

Our road trip from New Orleans took us to Montgomery, AL, the true beginning of the civil rights movement in the US.  This statue commemorates Rosa Parks' famous bus ride. 

 

The GPS route of my climb atop Guadalupe Mountain.  It is the highest point in Texas, and one of the biggest hikes I have ever undertaken.
 

Aside from returning to New Mexico again in 2025, we hope to get back to London UK and Vienna at least one more time in the near future, and possibly undertake a visit to a major new (for us) European city, such as Berlin.  We have access to direct flights from Detroit to several seductive sounding cities as well. 

 

Meanwhile there are two movies to mention, both of them SF.  The Quatermass Experiment is a 2005 tv bit of flotsam from the UK that should never have been made.  Why follow a 1950s SF story so closely in 2005?  The story of Britain's first manned mission to outer space makes no sense today.  We've been there for nearly 70 years now, and this creaky rehash of a strange life form overtaking the mission and causing havoc on board and back home, works only as a 1950s story.  If it's supposed to be the 1950s, then we were fooled.  Quatermass stories are a favourite of mine, and I much rather would have had a new story rather than this dated rehash.  David Tenant and Adrian Dunbar do there best, but the actor that plays Quatermass (Jason Flemyng) is flat and hardly credible as the great man.  Probably best avoided.

Showing on Prime.

 

Turning to Arrival, from 2016, we come across a major SF film that had somehow escaped our view until now.  It is showing on Paramount, to which we recently subscribed.  This, my friends, is one of the top first contact movies ever made, and is possibly the best one.  When 12 gigantic starships land on Earth at different locations, the world is turned upside down.  Directed by Denis Villenueve from a story by Ted Chiang, this one pushed all the right buttons for great SF viewing.  Louis Banks is played by Amy Adams, a linguist tasked by the US military to communicate with the giant and mysterious heptapods.  While I have read better novels of first contact throughout my Avon/Equinox SF Rediscovery series, it is hard to find a better film on the subject.  Watch as Louise learns how to deal with the present by learning an alien language that allows her to see into her future actions.  A totally remarkable and unmissable film, and worth more than a single viewing.

Streaming on MGM.

 

Wishing anyone who stops by here a very prosperous and Happy 2025!  Good luck with that--I think you will need it.

 

Mapman Mike