Showing posts with label Car Smash. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Car Smash. Show all posts

Three Silent Men (1940)

Three Silent Men (1940) is a Thomas Bentley directed pacifist surgeon and deadly weapon of war early nuclear threat war-themed innocent man accused of murder mystery courtroom largely farcical semi-serious pre-War style but intra-War produced drama noir low budget thriller intriguer, directed by Thomas Bentley and starring Sebastian Shaw, Derrick De Marney, Patricia Roc and Arthur Hambling, written by Jack Byrd and Dudley Leslie.

Cast A Dark Shadow (1955)

Cast A Dark Shadow (1955) is a psychopath targeting elderly widows black widower greed and murder English film noir suspenser tale of polished homicide with English cuppa tea undertones and dark shadows of psycho-style fifties persecution and cunning styled as a Limey film noir tale of manipulation and Freudian hang-ups drawing room crime thriller, directed by Lewis Gilbert and starring Dirk Bogarde, Margaret Lockwood, Kay Walsh and Robert Flemyng.

Jeopardy (1953)

Jeopardy (1953) is a super fast road John Sturges adventure psycho on wheels thriller woman chasing mad murderer chaser through Mexico car smash and trapped old man family adventure film noir from the earnest era of the early fifties and starring noir empress and all round actor supremo of the style Barbara Stanwyck, as well as a got getter outdoor Barry Sullivan, with none other than Ralph Meeker, a noir lover's actor as the murderous escapee of swagger and menace.

Jeopardy (1953) is a lean, 69-minute exercise in cinematic claustrophobia and moral ambiguity.

The Invisible Man (1933)

The Invisible Man (1933) is a mad scientist science fiction invisibility-themed Universal horror classic monsters franchise series franchise commencement classic of pre-Code cinema, horror, formative science fiction adventure and escapade drama adaptation of a classic grotesque romance novel from the late 1890s, speculating on the individual and social ramifications of a crazed and powerful narrative fantasy of invisibility.

In a crummy British village populated by simple superstitious beer loving vaudevillians there is a sudden and genuine spooking as dramatic imagery blasts across the snow stormed screen and a demanding and aristocratic stranger in wrap appears as some kind of local uber mensch among the peasants, settling himself in an inn in one of the best openings in cinema, one of the best of the 1930s, one of the best of all decades indeed.

13 West Street (1962)

13 West Street (1962) is a teenage tearaway paranoia trouble in suburbia late noir Alan Laddaholic rocket scientist street-titled film noir filler which veers into a confused admixture of home invasion noir, vigilante noir, teenage rebellion and juvenile threat noir, paranoid noir, car smash noir and an early entry into the American vigilante canon.

is the film that marked Alan Ladd's swan song as a leading man. And honey, let me tell you, this was not the grand finale one might have hoped for. Sure, it’s a decent movie—for its time—but the truth is, it’s hard not to see the wear and tear of Ladd’s years of excessive drinking and hard living, splashed across his face like a tired canvas. 

Thunder Road (1958)

Thunder Road (1958) is a free-wheeling and lurid hillbilly noir drama thriller about the moonshine business and a crazed item of uber-engine-block-rockin fun and double Mitchum-based racing madness and mannish boyhood aggression among the backwood backwaters of the moonshine states of Kentucky, North Carolina, and Tennessee in the late 1950s, with added cult-movie drive-in status and plenty machine action and moody maleness, old and young.

It's a noirish crime story with more than just a few late period swiping stabs at the style.

Boy must ya hate 1958 and this movie which opens with the banjo pickin moan of authority that complains millions of dollars are lost to the treasury through taxation each year by means of the power of illicit whiskey, boo hoo. Who cares!

On The Beach (1959)

On The Beach (1959) is a metaphenomenal post apocalyptic novel adaptation dark and empty gaze at the emptiness of post-nuclear life and the actual point of any kind of human existence, phrased beautifully in a Hollywood void of expression, most appropriate to the winding close of the existential age brought about by the cold Cold War reality of a life that is either radioactively poisonous, or sub marine.

On the Beach, written by Nevil Shute and adapted into a film by Stanley Kramer, stands as one of the most controversial and widely read books of its time. Both the book and the film are credited with significantly influencing the anti-nuclear weapons movement of the 1960s and contributing to the end of the nuclear arms race.

Woman in Hiding (1950)

Woman in Hiding (1950) is a woman against the world lousy husband flashback murder and female seeker hero film noir, starring Ida Lupino as a wife on the run, escaping from a murderous marriage and finding love on the run in the form of lackadaisical magazine and cigar seller Howard Duff.

Corporate villainy also appears in this car smashin chase and hide thriller in the form of Stephen McNally playing an industry boss who is going to be appropriate screen material for the 1950s, straight outta war and into world domination, starting with mob behaviour in the boardroom.

I would seem from the Wikipedia entry on Woman in Hiding (1950) that not everybody agrees that this is a film noir. The works that are cited are the super-seminal and all-ruling guide to the subject of film noir,  Raymond Borde and Etienne Chaumeton (2002). A Panorama of American Film Noir (1941-1953), and Ian Brookes Film Noir: A Critical Introduction

Walk Softly, Stranger (1950)

Walk Softly Stranger (1950) is a romantic drama with leanings into the film noir style. Perhaps also it is a film noir tale, with leanings towards the medium of romantic drama.

Either way, these are some quite unbearble tensions to place beside each other. Can love succeed against noir? Can noir defeat love and make a man abandon a loving partner, when offered a hat, cigarette, pistol and a package of money?

The idea in Walk Softly, Stranger may be to combine the two. The film dips into film noir territory in moments then swoops into romantic scenery on balconies, around extravagant Christmas trees and on the verandas of the rich.  The evil of the story is carried entirely by Paul Stewart who finds everything amusing and irritating, has a short temper and can't really follow the plan like the classic film noir weaker-willed heist partner who won't stick to da plan.