What Talkies Are You Watching?

[Mrs. Danvers]

Glad to find another Jonathan Winters fan.

In regards to Roadhouse I can't recommend this movie enough. It one of the quirkiest film noirs ever made. And also if you get the DVD it has a most excellent commentary by Edddie Muller and Kim Moran, who are both well respected film noir historian and a barrel of laughs to boot.

I've been a big fan of Richard Widmark as ever since he pushed the old lady in the wheel chair down the stairs in Kiss of Death 1947. What a break out performance as the maniacal Tommy Udo with that CRAZY laugh.

From DVD Beaver and excellent web site with lots of pictures too.

Roadhouse ~DVD Beaver website

“This slam-bang melodrama of troubled love, murder and unique revenge in a sleazy nightclub” (Cue) is a noir classic filled with “suspense” (Los Angeles Times), “dramatic punch” (Motion Picture Herald) and a “macabre demonstration of a wildly jealous man who is bent on ruining two lives” (The Hollywood Reporter).

Jefty Robbins (Richard Widmark) owns a road house near the Canadian Border which is managed by his playboy buddy Pete Morgan (Cornel Wilde) and cashier Susie Smith (Celeste Holm). After a trip to Chicago, Jefty brings back Lily Stevens (Ida Lupino), a chanteuse with whom he is obviously smitten. At first Pete is loathe to hire another one of Jefty’s girls but Lily proves her talent is worth the paycheck. When Jefty goes on a hunting trip with some pals and prepares to ask Lily to marry him, Pete and Lily share some intimate time together and realize they are in love. The news sends Jefty into a psychopathic tailspin. He devises a plan to frame Pete and manically begins a game of endless torture and brutality, making “the lovers suffer and suffer – until their cup of bitterness runs over” (Daily News)!

Here's a still from a bowling scene at Jefty's Roadhouse. I know that is what I wear when I go bowling!!! Ida seems to just have a permanent cloud of cigarette smoke encircling her head.

IDA.jpg (103.48 KiB) Viewed 4004 times

[Kitty]

Deb, you're really making me want to explore noirs!!! I'll seek this one out and report back soon.

[Mrs. Danvers]

Deb, you're really making me want to explore noirs!!! I'll seek this one out and report back soon.

Oh excellent, you've warmed the cockles of my heart. I know some people really can't stand the cheesy dialogue, but for some of us that is one of the main draws of the genre.

"She's a 60-cent special. Cheap, flashy, and strictly poison under the gravy." (The Narrow Margin)

There are so many excellent noirs but some real corkers.

Born to Kill
Murder My Sweet
Laura
Double Indemnity
The Narrow Margin

[donnie]

I've been a big fan of Richard Widmark as ever since he pushed the old lady in the wheel chair down the stairs in Kiss of Death 1947. What a break out performance as the maniacal Tommy Udo with that CRAZY laugh.

You know, I recognize his face and name, but I don't know that I've ever seen him in anything. But even from that brief scene, I can detect that there's something special there. There are some actors that seem to have an uncanny ability to rivet your attention immediately.

“This slam-bang melodrama of troubled love, murder and unique revenge in a sleazy nightclub”...

That does indeed sound like one worth checking out!

Of the list above, I've only seen Double Indemnity, but that's a classic, indeed. I'd never have believed Fred MacMurray could have been so chilling.

And hey Deb, have you seen one called Destination Murder (1950)? I watched that one recently.

[Mrs. Danvers]

I've been a big fan of Richard Widmark as ever since he pushed the old lady in the wheel chair down the stairs in Kiss of Death 1947. What a break out performance as the maniacal Tommy Udo with that CRAZY laugh.

You know, I recognize his face and name, but I don't know that I've ever seen him in anything. But even from that brief scene, I can detect that there's something special there. There are some actors that seem to have an uncanny ability to rivet your attention immediately.

“This slam-bang melodrama of troubled love, murder and unique revenge in a sleazy nightclub”...

That does indeed sound like one worth checking out!

Of the list above, I've only seen Double Indemnity, but that's a classic, indeed. I'd never have believed Fred MacMurray could have been so chilling.

And hey Deb, have you seen one called Destination Murder (1950)? I watched that one recently.

Did you like it? It's hard to explain the attraction of these dark, dreary, gloomy, glum movies, they are peopled with disreputable characters with no functioning moral compass, they inhabit dark shadowy places and not just physically in dark corners, but you know they have plenty of dark places in their minds as well.

I just looked up Destination Murder it looks like a decent movie. And I like Hurd Hatfield, ever see The Picture of Dorian Gray 1945. That's most def on my top ten list, my top ten list of movies has more like about 50 movies on it.

Oh Richard Widmark. Shame on you Donnie.

Here's one for anybody's list:

Night and the City 1950, it's a British film noir and has a stellar cast. Richard Widmark and Gene Tierney. Tierney herself was in quite a number of excellent noirs. Two of note, Laura and Leave Her To Heaven
https://youtu.be/zC6V_UZmB48

Leave Her To Heaven is a color noir and that's the only thing cheery about this picture. Tierney plays one of the most morally bankrupt characters ever brought to the screen.

Hey and we get Cornell Wilde again too, he was Roadhouse. Vincent Price is also in Leave Her To Heaven, he was also in Laura with Gene Tierney.

https://youtu.be/27cVqvP9QmQ

[donnie]

Wow, thanks for that info! A color noir...hmm... somehow can't imagine it. And I didn't realize Vincent Price was in any of these. Although does seem like he would be a perfect fit.

I liked Destination Murder, although from a strictly quality standpoint, it's probably not a great movie (I'm often a poor judge)—and some of the plot does strain credibility. But I liked it well enough to download for rewatching. The nightclub scenes were interesting—especially that unique combo performing! And Hurd Hatfield was very good.

Tell me if you think this right: One thing that may appeal to people about noirs is that it's a glimpse into another world, whose characters, motives, locales, incidents are all entirely foreign to their own experience—and thus fascinating. though they wouldn't want to be a part of it. Nice (?) place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there. )

[Mrs. Danvers]

Well they are certainly denizens of a different world.

A lot of it for me is purely nostalgia. As a child of the 1950s everything is so familiar to me and I must find rotten people acting on their every bad idea and invariably coming to a bad end as good entertainment. They really are morality plays, people never get away with anything. And as so often happens, hapless men are always getting in over their heads with evil women. It's nine times out of ten the femme fatale's who are the baddest of the bad. Most of the men are portrayed as chumps. Even Gumshoes and Private Dicks fall prey.

I like the atmosphere the films create on a visual level. I love the shadows. And the stories themselves echo the darkness.

If I need feel a good movie, I'll put on Laura or Murder My Sweet,The Postman Always Rings Twice or Born to Kill.

[Kitty]

We just watched Citizen Kane

Just watched Citizen Kane for the first time. It was pretty good, but some parts made me ask questions.

[donnie]

Oh, what a masterpiece that thing is! What questions did you have? It's been a long time since I've watched it, so I may not recall exactly what you're referring to, though.

[Kitty]

Oh, what a masterpiece that thing is! What questions did you have? It's been a long time since I've watched it, so I may not recall exactly what you're referring to, though.

► Show Spoiler

why would they throw an antique sled in a fire? Wouldn't they have an estate auction? If Kane loved Susan, don't you think he'd have bequeathed his estate to her, even though they'd divorced? Also what in the world was the screaming cockatoo transition toward the end?Oh, by the way I was flabbergasted at the end when they named Agnes Moorehead as his mother. I noticed her acting and beauty, but didn't realize it was her until it was announced at the end. I think she's spectacular. Why did he force Susan to sing opera when she clearly said that she loved to sing but didn't think opera was her thing?
Boy, wasn't Orson so sexy back then? I mostly know him as a hairy older person. I kind of think that the whole thousand hour long newsreel in the beginning was unnecessary, and there sure were a lot of title cards in the beginning for a 1941 film.