Crawdaddy's "Random Thoughts" about Home Video, Film & TV (1 Viewer)

[Robin9]

The lovely Marsha Hunt is still with us. Her 105th birthday is in October.

Perhaps being blacklisted builds strength and resilience?

 

[Bert Greene]

I enjoyed Five Against the House, but I'd say it was on the periphery of noir rather than smack dab in the middle of it. Just my opinion. Brian Keith gave a very believable account of a former soldier suffering with PTSD. Funny that Jo Anne Greer supplied Kim Novak's singing voice since when she did Pal Joey with Rita Hayworth, Rita had Jo Anne's singing voice while Kim had Trudy Erwin do her song chores. Jo Anne sang in several films for Rita after her voice aged a bit (she had earlier used Nan Wynn, Martha Mears, and Anita Ellis as ghost doubles).

Always liked Nan Wynn, and wished she'd had more of a movie career. I think her most prominent film appearance might have been in "Pardon My Sarong" (1942) with Abbott and Costello, but she was in a small smattering of b-films like one made at Columbia spotlighting Ted Lewis. There was a Vitaphone musical short of "Freddie Rich and his Orchestra" (1938) in which she appeared, singing Maxine Sullivan's big hit of "Loch Lomond." It was included on one of those terrific Warner Archive musical-short collections. The clip of it used to be on YouTube, and maybe still is. It's pretty sublime.

Oh, and as for "Raw Deal" (1948), a real favorite of mine. Got the ClassicFlix blu when it came out.

 

[bujaki]

Perhaps being blacklisted builds strength and resilience?

And she got to spit on the grave of all those bastards. Although I think she was too much of a lady to have ever done that. May she still enjoy life!

 

[Robert Crawford]

It looks like TCM’s Alicia Malone had plastic surgery on her face? Or, is that just my imagination?

 

[SeanSKA]

It looks like TCM’s Alicia Malone had plastic surgery on her face? Or, is that just my imagination?

I hope not- she was gorgeous

 

[Robert Crawford]

This was playing on TCM this morning so I watched my 2009 WA DVD. IMO, an underrated movie with Cooper playing Biff Grimes and Fay Wray playing Virginia Brush. Of course, it was remade in 1941, as The Strawberry Blonde with Cagney as Biff and Rita Hayworth as Virginia. This 1933 film is much more serious without the comedy of the 1941 film. Cooper was good in the lead role and Fay Wray had her moments as the unappealing Virginia. Francis Fuller played Amy Lind, the role played by Olivia de Havilland in the 1941 film.

Yes, this movie was remade for a third time in 1948, as a musical starring Dennis Morgan, Janis Paige, Don DeFore and Dorothy Malone. I've never seen this film version in its entirety. It's been released on DVD by WA too.

 

[Robert Crawford]

I reviewed the 2018 Blu-ray here. It's a really fine movie, and I'll likely watch Eddie's intro, and then if the spirit moves me, I'll rewatch the movie, too.

TCM kind of screwed up the playing of Eddie's short film. Anyhow, I enjoyed watching the Blu-ray again with Jeremy Arnold's commentary. It's funny how Raw Deal came out the same year as Key Largo so Claire Trevor wins her Oscar for the second film. A personal all-time favorite actress of mine that I never get tired of watching her movies. If Barbara Stanwyck was the Queen of Film Noir, then Claire Trevor was a close second. I love them both!

It's still pretty amusing to me how Raymond Burr could play so many despicable "baddies" and be known today as Perry Mason.

 

[Matt Hough]

What a surprise after Raw Deal today! Eddie's own neo-noir!

 

[Robert Crawford]

What a surprise after Raw Deal today! Eddie's own neo-noir!

It sure was as I didn't know what was going on there.

 

[Matt Hough]

Yeah, they did screw up; meant for playing at the conclusion of Eddie's outro, not at the end of Raw Deal, and it did take me a minute to realize what was happening.

 

[Robert Crawford]

I'm not so sure that I agree with Eddie that a modern western made today can't be considered neo-noir if it has the necessary noir elements in it.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Summer Under The Stars

TCM Summer Under the Stars - August 1 - 31 Celebrating a different star every day during the month of August. #SUMMERUNDERTHESTARS

www.tcm.com

 

[Mark-P]

Am I the only one that has a tough time watching "Detour" (1945)? It's such a depressing 69 minutes.

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I just watched Detour for the first time, knowing nothing about it. It was a blind buy from the iTunes Criterion sale. I didn't find it depressing at all. And you know what?, without even knowing about the unreliable narrator theory, I actually came to that conclusion on my own, early on as when the guy who picked him up mysteriously wouldn't wake up and I thought, "oh he's repressing the memory that he killed the guy, isn't he?" The fact that the story is told in flashback as he is sitting in a diner contemplating what has just transpired, would lend credence to the theory that we're not getting the real story, but what he has convinced himself is true.

I had never heard of Tom Neal. I just read his bio on IMBD. Holy crap, life imitates art!

 

[Robert Crawford]

Any guesses as to who this actor is? One hint, he loss some weight so picture him heavier in the face.

 

[Mark-P]

Any guesses as to who this actor is? One hint, he loss some weight so picture him heavier in the face.

View attachment 147277

I couldn‘t identify him. Had to use the “who is that” app to find out who it was!

 

[Matt Hough]

Gene Hackman.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Gene Hackman.

Did you cheat?

 

[Matt Hough]

No, I saw him immediately. Didn't even give it a second thought.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Hackman back in 2008. He's now 92 years old.

 

[Robin9]

No, I saw him immediately. Didn't even give it a second thought.

You're quicker than I was. It took me about ten seconds. After two or three seconds, I thought I wasn't going to work it out. It's always the eyes, the chin and the jawline that provide the main clues.