Crawdaddy's "Random Thoughts" about Home Video, Film & TV (2 Viewers)

[Matt Hough]

With all the talk about Crime Wave, I pulled it up on the TCM app today and watched it. Obviously, this is one of the few Noir Alley presentations I hadn't seen (occasionally I'd either forget to record the broadcast or my DVR didn't do as it was programmed), so I watched the whole thing and really got involved in it. Gene Nelson was surprisingly sensitive and very good. And the app also offered separately Eddie's beginning and ending comments, so I did get to see the entire presentation which made my afternoon.

 

[Robert Crawford]

With all the talk about Crime Wave, I pulled it up on the TCM app today and watched it. Obviously, this is one of the few Noir Alley presentations I hadn't seen (occasionally I'd either forget to record the broadcast or my DVR didn't do as it was programmed), so I watched the whole thing and really got involved in it. Gene Nelson was surprisingly sensitive and very good. And the app also offered separately Eddie's beginning and ending comments, so I did get to see the entire presentation which made my afternoon.

It’s now one of my favorite film noirs. The audio commentary by Eddie and James Elroy is excellent and very funny. They go into great depth about the location shooting and the film’s actors.

 

[Robert Crawford]

I didn't like "The Dragon Murder Case" (1934) as much as the William Powell film. It was okay, but I'm glad I finally watched the entire film that I have seen in bits and pieces over so many years. Warren William is fine in the role, but they wasted Margaret Lindsay in her role. Next up is the cranky "The Bishop Murder Case" (1930) starring Basil Rathbone as Philo Vance. I've seen this movie beforehand, but it's my first DVD viewing of it.

 

[Robert Crawford]

This morning I was sampling "Air Force" (1943) on the TCM app and it looked beautiful. I wonder if Warner Archive will release this on Blu-ray. If they do, I'll buy it first day available as I love this film.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Noir Alley showing “Too Late for Tears” (1949) tonight and tomorrow. Eddie’s comments should be excellent as it was his Film Noir Foundation that was very involved in this film’s restoration. His associate Alan K. Rode did the audio commentary on Flicker Alley’s Blu-ray release.

 

[Robert Crawford]

One more thing, there are two documentaries on the Blu-ray about "Too Late for Tears" in which we have Eddie Muller, Alan Rode, Julie Kirgo, along with one of Dan Duryea's sons in them. The docs reminded me about the 2003 docs Eddie did on Lizabeth Scott and Dan Duryea that are on the Image 2004 DVD. Anyhow, I listen to the Blu-ray's audio commentary today. Very informative and without a doubt some of those details will be covered by Eddie tonight, particularly about the restoration, Roy Huggins, Lizabeth Scott and Dan Duryea.

Again, the Production Code weakens the movie versus what was in the book.

 

[Robert Crawford]

I didn't like "The Dragon Murder Case" (1934) as much as the William Powell film. It was okay, but I'm glad I finally watched the entire film that I have seen in bits and pieces over so many years. Warren William is fine in the role, but they wasted Margaret Lindsay in her role. Next up is the cranky "The Bishop Murder Case" (1930) starring Basil Rathbone as Philo Vance. I've seen this movie beforehand, but it's my first DVD viewing of it.

Again, I always found "The Bishop Murder Case" (1930) really cranky with some terrible acting and dialogue. A couple of interesting things about "The Bishop Murder Case" is the appearance of Delmer Daves as an actor before he turned to directing and writing full-time. Based on his performance in this film, thank god he turned to directing. The second interesting thing was that throw away line from Roland Young towards Basil Rathbone about him being Sherlock Holmes. Also, this film was made in 1929, but was released in 1930.

 

[Matt Hough]

Noir Alley showing “Too Late for Tears” (1949) tonight and tomorrow. Eddie’s comments should be excellent as it was his Film Noir Foundation that was very involved in this film’s restoration. His associate Alan K. Rode did the audio commentary on Flicker Alley’s Blu-ray release.

I've never seen this one, so I'm looking forward to it tomorrow during lunch (if I have power; we're supposed to get snow).

 

[Robert Crawford]

I've never seen this one, so I'm looking forward to it tomorrow during lunch (if I have power; we're supposed to get snow).

You're in for a treat. You can understand why Eddie loves this film. There are a couple of actors/roles in the film that Eddie doesn't talk about in his comments that caught my attention way back when I first saw this film. The Blu-ray is really a big improvement over the DVD so a shoutout to Scott McQueen for doing an excellent job with this restoration especially considering the film elements he had to work with.

Lizabeth Scott has always been a favorite of mine since I first saw her movies on TV back in my junior high school days. God, I loved that husky voice of hers and her unique speaking style. These black and white films don't do justice to her beautiful green eyes. It's too bad her career was ruin by some sleazy magazine. Dan Duyrea is another favorite, but he first caught my attention not for his great film noir roles, but those films he did with Jimmy Stewart that were right up my alley during my childhood.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

I was excited to hear that Crack Up was based on a short story by one of my favorite writers; Fredric Brown. I have many collections of his short stories, but did not have "Madman's Holiday," which this was based upon. Madness is a familiar theme for him, as my favorite short story of his is "Come and Go Mad." I also have a collection called What Mad Universe. We discussed him in the The Outer Limits thread because both the episode "Fun and Games" and the subsequent Star Trek episode "Arena" seem to be inspired by his short story of the same name (Arena). I hope he was compensated for the many times his stories were adapted or copped for features and series.

I'm not as familiar with Pat O'Brien's oeuvre, but I very much enjoyed his subtle performance here. He definitely underplays the dialogue in a much more naturalistic way than others in this same era. It was fun to read Robert's revelation that Claire Trevor's put-on accent in the penny arcade was native to her. Her outfits and hats are pure Hollywood diva at this point, but she's always good. I had never seen Raw Deal before the Noir Alley airing earlier. That's a great one.

I get that this film was a bit too complex and the topic a bit too pretentious perhaps for the commercial audience at the time, but it was still fun to see a Noir in the more unlikely setting of the art world. And I happen to like the Dali everyone at the museum was laughing at. I live about an hour from the Dali museum in St. Petersburg, and it is well worth a visit if you're ever in the area, and I promise that whomever owns all those paintings, and the gift shop, are laughing all the way to the bank.

I got around to watching Crack-Up yesterday via the TCM app. Overall, a pretty good noir, although I though the story did seem to drag a little -- probably seemed that way due to the rather complex plot. I did think that the motivation of the villain was rather weak:

Spoiler

Ray Collins character said he just had to possess those paintings. However, he could never display them, so it seemed rather strange that he would go through all that trouble and murder people just to hide the paintings forever. Of course, money/greed couldn't have been used as the motivation, either, as he could never sell the paintings, since they supposedly no longer existed

 

[Matt Hough]

You're in for a treat. You can understand why Eddie loves this film. There are a couple of actors/roles in the film that Eddie doesn't talk about in his comments that caught my attention way back when I first saw this film. The Blu-ray is really a big improvement over the DVD so a shoutout to Scott McQueen for doing an excellent job with this restoration especially considering the film elements he had to work with.

Lizabeth Scott has always been a favorite of mine since I first saw her movies on TV back in my junior high school days. God, I loved that husky voice of hers and her unique speaking style. These black and white films don't do justice to her beautiful green eyes. It's too bad her career was ruin by some sleazy magazine. Dan Duyrea is another favorite, but he first caught my attention not for his great film noir roles, but those films he did with Jimmy Stewart that were right up my alley during my childhood.

It was a very enjoyable movie with some surprises along the way that caught me completely unawares.

Just as I predicted, I lost power today for almost 5 hours (during that time, the temperature inside my house dropped ten degrees because it was so cold and miserable outside) due to an ice storm that left about 2 inches of ice on roads, powerlines, trees, etc. that aren't much accustomed to snow and frozen precipitation. I was about 25 minutes from finishing the film when my house died, so as soon as everything came back on, I went right back to it and finished. Couldn't believe Eddie didn't talk about Don DeFore (who was second billed!). I was also amazed that by the end, one could almost feel compassion for Dan Duryea's character. And had the Production Code not been in force, I'm sure Lizabeth would have gotten away with it.

 

[CarlosMeat]

I love Film Noire generally. One thing though and that is so many have a twist. Individually they are all very different but unfortunately so much of the suspense and tension can't be had on multiple viewings. A small thing and not that I haven't watched a lot of them more than once but once you know the twist....

 

[Robert Crawford]

I love Film Noire generally. One thing though and that is so many have a twist. Individually they are all very different but unfortunately so much of the suspense and tension can't be had on multiple viewings. A small thing and not that I haven't watched a lot of them more than once but once you know the twist....

That isn't the case for me.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

For me, it depends on how good the film is beyond "the twist". Usually there is enough there that I enjoy so knowing "the twist" doesn't stop me from repeat viewings. Occasionally that's not the case -- one example for me is the more modern film The Sixth Sense. I had that figured early in the film the first time I saw it, and a 2nd viewing was enough to last me a lifetime. I cannot think of a noir film, though, where that is the case.

 

[Mark McSherry]

I was excited to hear that Crack Up was based on a short story by one of my favorite writers; Fredric Brown. I have many collections of his short stories, but did not have "Madman's Holiday," which this was based upon.

Haffner Press is reprinting all of Fredric Brown's non-sf short fiction in chronological order. So far, two volumes have been released. No announcement yet on Volume Three, but "Madman's Holiday", a 1943 novella, could be included. If not, a future Volume Four would.

 

[Robert Crawford]

After sampling this early last week and determining it looks better than the 2007 DVD, on Monday I watched in its entirety "Air Force" (1943) on the TCM app/iTunes. One of my favorite "War" films of all-time that I first watched on TV back in the 1960s when I was very young either in second or third grade. Just a great film to me that tells the story about a B-17 named "Mary Ann" and her crew during the early stages of the WWII out in the Pacific. The film starts off in San Francisco when the Mary Ann departs for Hickam Field in Hawaii on December 6th, 1941. They arrive in Hawaii during the Pearl Harbor attack, but without any ammunition they have to land at an auxiliary field. From Pearl Harbor they go to Wake Island and then to the Philippines flying except for refueling just about three consecutive days and nights. The film is based on an actual event in which a squadron of B-17's arrived at Pearl Harbor during the actually attack. After that it pretty much is dramatic licensing as a somewhat propaganda film that I still find highly entertaining.

Howard Hawks directed this film and it won the AA for Best Film Editing. It was also AA nominated for Best Writing/Screenplay, Best Effects/Special Effects and Best Cinematography/Black & White film, What a great cast of actors with my man John Garfield being the only real star in the film.

John Ridgely
Gig Young
Arthur Kennedy
Harry Carey
Charles Drake
George Tobias
Stanley Ridges
James Brown
Moroni Olson
Edward Brophy

 

[Robert Crawford]

Speaking of my favorite WWII "War" films, I found this film poster of it that I never seen beforehand. Man, I would love to have this on Blu-ray. Oh well, the HD stream will have to do for now.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Arriving today in the mail is "The Last Command" (1955). It's been years since I last watched this holy grail movie of mine. It never made it to DVD, but Kino has released it on Blu-ray. This is an immediate watch for me so straight from my mail box to my Oppo 203. I'll let you guys guess what this film is about. Guess which part Arther Hunnicutt plays in the film? IMO, he was better than the Duke in that same role in 1960.

 

[Robin9]

Arriving today in the mail is "The Last Command" (1955). It's been years since I last watched this holy grail movie of mine. It never made it to DVD, but Kino has released it on Blu-ray. This is an immediate watch for me so straight from my mail box to my Oppo 203. I'll let you guys guess what this film is about. Guess which part Arther Hunnicutt plays in the film? IMO, he was better than the Duke in that same role in 1960.

Mine's on its way but hasn't arrived yet. I'm impatient because I haven't seen this film for at least twenty years and I remember thinking it was really good.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Tonight's Noir Alley is "Talk about a Stranger" (1952) with George Murphy, Nancy Reagan, Billy Gray, Lewis Stone and Kurt Kasznar. I've never seen this film before so I'm looking forward to seeing it. It's only 65 minutes long and was directed by a director I don't know much about. However, it does have the great John Alton as cinematographer.