I think I'll be reviewing on Sunday, but I should be done and ready to watch by Sunday evening. If not, Monday afternoon.
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Crawdaddy's "Random Thoughts" about Home Video, Film & TV (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Robert Crawford
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This weekend's "Noir Alley" movie is Crack-Up (1946) starring Pat O'Brien, Claire Trevor, Herbert Marshall, Ray Collins and Wallace Ford. Directed by Irving Reis. Another RKO film noir that I haven't watched in a good while. I'm looking forward to revisiting it and listening to Eddie's comments. No doubt, he's going to talk about the number of outfits, Claire Trevor wears in this film. One of my favorite actresses who starred in several film noirs. She's up there with Barbara/Ruby when it comes to film noir.
Updated TCM's Noir Alley 2025 Schedule:
01-11-25: Deadline at Dawn
01-18-25: Without Pity
01-25-25: Woman on the Run
03-08-25: The Velvet Touch
03-15-25: Gun Crazy
03-22-25: Clash by Night
03-29-25: Count the Hours
04-05-25: The Narrow Margin
04-12-25: The Steel Trap
04-19-25: The Set-Up
04-26-25: The Prowler
05-03-25: Riff Raff (1947)
05-10-25: The Killers (1946)
05-17-25: Touchez pas au grisbi
05-24-25: Cornered
05-31-25: The Big Steal
06-07-25: The Undercover Man
06-14-25: Crack-Up (1946)
06-21-25: Pale Flower
06-28-25: Sorry, Wrong Number
07-05-25: This Side of the Law
07-12-25: The Gangster
07-19-25: Intruder in the Dust
07-26-25: Rififi
09-06-25: He Ran All the Way
09-13-25: Sudden Fear
09-20-25: The Murderers are Among Us
09-27-25: Berlin Express
10-04-25: The Big Street
10-11-25: New York Confidential
10-18-25: Black Tuesday
10-25-25: Southside 1-1000
11-01-25: The Great Jewel Robbery
11-08-25: Blind Spot
11-15-25: High and Low
11-22-25: The Strip
11-29-25: Postmark for Danger
12-06-25: Cry of the City
12-13-25: TBA
12-27-25: Odd Man Out
While watching my 2010 DVD, I remembered Crack-Up was shown beforehand on "Noir Alley". It wasn't one of the first movies because the showing was at the end of 2018 which was the second year of "Noir Alley".
Mark-P
Senior HTF Member
I just watched "Fourteen Hours" for the first time. Fantastic movie, very tense and the camera angles and on location photography completely made me believe they were actually out on that ledge 15 floors up. The reason I came across this movie is because "High Society" is about to come out in 4K, so I was reviewing Grace Kelly's filmography, and discovered this was the only one of her movies I had never seen, or for that matter had even heard of. So I'm wondering, has this movie ever been featured on Noir Alley with a Eddie Muller introduction?View attachment 104949
Another Fox "film noir" directed by Henry Hathaway. This 1951 movie had so many young actors in it that would go on later to having bigger careers that I almost lost count of them. Of course, the big one is Grace Kelly making her film debut. Some other young actors were Jeffrey Hunter, Debra Paget, John Cassavetes, Brad Dexter, Ossie Davis and Joyce Van Patten. The movie's plot is about a young man contemplating suicide on a 15th floor ledge of a Manhattan hotel. During the course of this movie it takes pot shots at everybody including the cops, media, religion, psychology, taxi drivers, parenthood, hotel and the general mob mentality that exists in our society. Ironically, not much has changed in the 70 years since this movie was filmed. The world was a stinking place back then and it's even worse today.
The outstanding cast includes Richard Basehart as the troubled young man, Paul Douglas as the traffic cop who becomes the person that Basehart establishes a rapport with. Agnes Moorehead and Robert Keith played Basehart's parents and you can tell very early why Basehart had issues. Barbara Bel Geddes plays Basehart's former girlfriend. While Paget, Hunter and Kelly had supporting roles in this movie, but weren't really part of the main storyline. Watching the movie today, I think Hunter is kind of a creep in this movie so I kind of chuckle when Paget walks away with Hunter at the end of the film. A Ted Bundy situation.
This movie is quite dated, but it hits on several societal issues that are still prevalent today. Was the root cause of Basehart's problem in this film is due to him being gay and not being able to come to terms with that? I think so, but it's 1951, so that's the reason why they can imply it in this movie without being more explicit about his sexuality. There are some fine acting performances from Basehart, Douglas, Moorehead, Keith, Bel Geddes and Howard Da Silva as Douglas's superior officer. As somebody that doesn't like heights in my senior years, this movie does make you feel uncomfortable watching it today. The 2006 DVD offers a solid video presentation that matches my movie grade of 3.5 on a scale of 1-5.
It has never played on Noir Alley.
Wes Candela
Screenwriter
Mr. Crawford I didn’t know you had your own thread here,
You crack me up man this is great. I got a new thread to look on.
You go, brother
How do I crack you up?
Wes Candela
Screenwriter
Cause you’re funny man
I remember there was some person new user following you around threads commenting on every post you made
Eventually, you said
“, who asked you? Stop following me! “
I think I laughed for two straight minutes
Thus
You crack me up
It looks like the TCM app is down.
Wes Candela
Screenwriter
I see what I’ve done here.
I made it sound like the thread made me laugh.
I don’t know why I worded it quite that way, but the thread doesn’t crack me up
You make me laugh
The thread is great, I just didn’t realize you had one
It's one of those out of context things
Apologies if you took it the wrong way
Wes Candela
Screenwriter
Lethal Weapon
4K UHD
&
The Way of the Gun
4K UHD
thank you, Jesus
4K UHD
&
The Way of the Gun
4K UHD
thank you, Jesus
The other day, I received the 06-17-25 Kino Blu-ray release "Law and Order" (1932) starring Walter Huston and Harry Carey Sr. It's the first film version of the famous gunfight at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone Arizona. The source material was the novel "Saint Johnson" written in 1930 by W.R. Burnett. The names of the gunfight participants were changed in the novel and in the movies adapted from the novel. I think the name changes were due to avoiding being sued by Wyatt Earp's widow. Earp died in 1929, but his widow lived many years afterwards. The 1932 film was co-written by 26-year-old John Huston. After watching the movie twice with my second viewing listening to the audio commentary and watching a featurette about the film, I think it's a very good early talkie western that influenced many westerns filmed years afterwards. Some of the filmed sequences are pretty impressive for a 1932 movie, as well as the acting performance of Huston, Carey and the rest of the cast. The final gunfight was hard-hitting with its level of violence and its final death toll. What a final sequence for this Pre-Code western. For years, this was considered a lost film. The 2025 Blu-ray of this restored film earns a 4/5 Stars video presentation grade while my film grade is 4.5/5 Stars. I highly recommend this film as I enjoyed the movie even more so during my second viewing of it.
About six years ago, I watched the 2019 Shout! Factory Blu-ray release of the 1953 film version of "Law and Order" starring Ronald Reagan, Dorthy Malone, Alex Nicol and Preston Foster. This Technicolor western was filmed in 1952. At that time, I thought this western was okay as I recognized the Earp and Clanton storyline with the name changes back in 2019. Last night, I decided to revisit the Blu-ray and watch it again with its audio commentary. Knowing the history of the source material and the earlier film version, I still think the 1953 movie is just okay and it pales in comparison to the 1932 film version. Also, there are some major plot changes between the two film versions. So much so, I really do prefer the 1932 storyline. Watching both movies back-to-back, the 1953 film shrinks in comparison. Furthermore, there are some Technicolor misalignment issues with this 2019 Blu-ray. My video presentation grade is 3/5 Stars while my film grade is 2.5/5 Stars.
bujaki
Senior HTF Member
Robert, I don't know about the lost status of Law and Order (1932), since I saw at the Universal retro at MoMA. Granted, it was a screening that took place forty-some years ago, and it was not public. So maybe the fact that it hadn't been shown for a paying audience (or TV) classifies it as a lost film. But the film itself was not physically lost, just unavailable. Glad that it's finally been released for home viewing. MoMA showed it again last year in a restored version,
Does it really matter because the film is available now for all to see if they want to do so.
bujaki
Senior HTF Member
True, but just as RAH counsels against the abuse of the "restoration" word, the same rule should apply to "lost" when a film has been around. Now if it had just been rediscovered in a Czech archive, that would be a different story.
I'm looking forward to the disc, since I haven't seen the film in so long. One has to be grateful to Universal and Kino for making this release possible,
But you're right; it doesn't matter in the long run.
Bert Greene
Screenwriter
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My copy of "Law and Order" (1932-Univ) should arrive any day now. Looking forward to it. Oh, I've probably seen it five or six times over the years. But I'm dying to see it in a crisp, clear blu-ray print. The film was always pretty rare. I first saw it on a cable broadcast around 1982 or 1983, on the old USA Network. They had a small handful of very hard-to-see Universal titles that they ran back then, like "Fighting Youth" (1935), "The Big Cage" (1933), "Remember Last Night?" (1935), "King for a Night" (1933), and a few others. I tried taping most of them. Had no idea they would remain awfully scarce during the ensuing forty years. That Laemmle period of Universal is actually pretty interesting, but many titles remain rather impossible to see to this day. Some are quite shockingly grim, like "Afraid to Talk" (1932) and "Radio Patrol" (1932), from that same year as "Law and Order." Plus, I should also give a hat tip to "Rider of Death Valley" (1932), a pretty stark and heavy Tom Mix western. I'd be in rapturous joy if Kino could ever put that one out.
Listen I’m not a studio trying to sell home video products nor some so-called film historian/expert writing a book about classic films. We’re just talking here as regular people on a forum with a throwaway comment that can be easily ignored or forgotten because it’s not really important enough to quibble over.
This weekend's "Noir Alley" movie is "Pale Flower" (1964). Directed by Masahiro Shinoda. I've been meaning to watch this Japanese "Noir" movie for several years but never got around to it. This weekend, I'll rectify that by watching it on The Criterion Channel.
Updated TCM's Noir Alley 2025 Schedule:
01-11-25: Deadline at Dawn
01-18-25: Without Pity
01-25-25: Woman on the Run
03-08-25: The Velvet Touch
03-15-25: Gun Crazy
03-22-25: Clash by Night
03-29-25: Count the Hours
04-05-25: The Narrow Margin
04-12-25: The Steel Trap
04-19-25: The Set-Up
04-26-25: The Prowler
05-03-25: Riff Raff (1947)
05-10-25: The Killers (1946)
05-17-25: Touchez pas au grisbi
05-24-25: Cornered
05-31-25: The Big Steal
06-07-25: The Undercover Man
06-14-25: Crack-Up (1946)
06-21-25: Pale Flower
06-28-25: Sorry, Wrong Number
07-05-25: This Side of the Law
07-12-25: The Gangster
07-19-25: Intruder in the Dust
07-26-25: Rififi
09-06-25: He Ran All the Way
09-13-25: Sudden Fear
09-20-25: The Murderers are Among Us
09-27-25: Berlin Express
10-04-25: The Big Street
10-11-25: New York Confidential
10-18-25: Black Tuesday
10-25-25: Southside 1-1000
11-01-25: The Great Jewel Robbery
11-08-25: Blind Spot
11-15-25: High and Low
11-22-25: The Strip
11-29-25: Postmark for Danger
12-06-25: Cry of the City
12-13-25: TBA
12-27-25: Odd Man Out
I should be free tomorrow p.m. to watch Pale Flower which I'm pretty sure I've never seen.
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