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Best Of The Past

A Walk Among the Shadows

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grayscale photography of people walking on walkalator
Photo by David Yu on Pexels.com

By Rick Bretz

Films released in the early days of Hollywood, specifically from the 40s, 50s and later give the audience a snapshot from the past.  Films that are set in the era when they were filmed, show us cars, clothes, storefronts, street signs and everything retro that people like.   Granted, many people from the buying public prefer cutting edge electronics, cars, and technological breakthroughs.  Some consumers choose the past and everything associated with it such as classic cars, vintage houses, timeless music, and furniture from the 19th and 20th Centuries.  It’s like looking at old photographs of your grandparents and seeing all of the old stuff in the pictures.

The classic Film Noir movie gives you all that.  Presented to us for our viewing pleasure are old cars, small-town street fronts, New York City in the 1950s, classic furniture, street lingo as it was uttered back then, and one more thing.   That would be the feature that is difficult to find in today’s movies–black and white photography shot to perfection in the best contrast shots ever seen on film.

With this in mind, here are some of the best Film Noir movies and why they are still popular today.

 

1. Gun Crazy, released in 1950

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0042530/?ref_=nv_sr_1?ref_=nv_sr_1

Gun Crazy is one of the best of all time.  The movie title may not be politically correct for today’s politically charged environment, but it perfectly sums up the film.  It’s about Guns, Guns, Guns, and Guns–and not the kind of gun show you see at the gym.  This is about people who like guns, what people do with guns, people who like people who like guns and obsessiveness. The kind of obsession that makes you love crazy.  The title characters portrayed by John Dall and Peggy Cummins, who is considered an all-time favorite Femme Fatale, demonstrate this so well you almost wish a psychiatrist was handy so they could see one in the middle of the movie. Cummins is sensational in this movie to the point that until her passing recently, she was invited to many seminars and Film Noir retrospectives to talk about the role. That’s saying something considering there are many brilliant actresses in the Film Noir genre.

John Dall loves guns, is a crackerjack shot and also loves the Peggy Cummins’ character, Annie Starr, who also can handle the iron with the best of them.   You can see within the first few minutes after the film credits scroll away that Annie’s gunplay is top-notch and hits her targets whether it is a man or a cigarette in someone’s mouth.  Annie Starr loves guns, worships money.    Annie Starr should have a stop sign draped around her neck but Dall would run through it anyway without tapping the breaks.   As the movie races along, the movie’s finish line doesn’t disappoint.

 

2. Double Indemnity, released in 1944

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0036775/?ref_=nv_sr_1?ref_=nv_sr_1

It has Barbara Stanwyck in it.  Enough said.  Well, it also starts out like many Film Noir classics with the audience realizing that something didn’t go well. From the moment Fred MacMurray walks in the door and sees Barbara Stanwyck at the top of the staircase, the audience knows he’s in trouble.  You also know that because of the narration MacMurray provides when he starts dictating within the first few moments of the movie.  The movie’s dialogue is classic for the double entendre back and forth between Stanwyck and MacMurray.  I never saw speed signs the same way afterward.  The toxic relationship between the two principle characters is just one part of the movie.  The other significant character is Edward G. Robinson’s portrayal of the insurance investigator. It’s a classic story in several ways and worth seeing just for Stanwyck and MacMurray’s relationship.

 

3. Out of the Past, released in 1947

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0039689/?ref_=nv_sr_1?ref_=nv_sr_1

Starring Robert Mitchum, who could be called one of the kings of the genre, and Jane Greer, another actress revered by the Film Noir community.   Just to make sure it’s a classic, the movie also has Kirk Douglas as a major figure in the storyline.  The movie has a strong supporting cast including Dickie Moore who doesn’t say a word in the movie but through his relationship with Mitchum’s character and his acting ability tells the audience all it needs to know.  Jane Greer, known as The Queen of Film Noir, works her magic (incredible eyes even in black and white) on Mitchum and he tosses aside his job of finding Jane Greer and the money.  Mitchum’s decisions catch up to him with the past interloping on his present good fortune.

 

4. The Killing, released in 1956

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0049406/?ref_=nv_sr_4?ref_=nv_sr_4

An early Stanley Kubrick directorial effort starring another Film Noir favorite, Sterling Hayden.  This is an example of meticulous planning gone wrong due to unforeseen circumstances.  Compartmentalizing responsibilities and parsing out information for those who need to know is one way of planning a heist.  It makes you wonder if there is a perfect crime and how much planning should be involved if human nature is unpredictable. The story takes the audience on a ride and you find yourself rooting for Sterling Hayden all the way.

I AM big…It’s the pictures that got small–Norma Desmond

 5.  Asphalt Jungle, release in 1950

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0042208/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

Another Sterling Hayden Film Noir classic.  This one is another heist gone wrong but also involves a lawyer who is cash strapped due to his infidelities and other choices.  This film is also remembered for Marilyn Monroe’s early screen performance as the “other” woman.  Sterling Hayden portrays Dix Handley, the muscle behind the crime caper.  Louis Calhern is the lawyer who finances the operation with an intent to double-cross.  Like most film Noir classics, it all goes bad but the way it goes wrong for everyone is the fun part of watching the movie.  The best acting turn is Sam Jaffe as the brains of the whole operation with one weakness that gets him at the end.

 

6. Pick Up on South Street, released in 1953

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0046187/?ref_=nv_sr_4?ref_=nv_sr_4

A Sam Fuller film, this would be higher on the list if not for the many outstanding films in the genre.  Thelma Ritter as Moe Williams is a character in the movie that many can identify with as someone living a day to day existence trying to get one more paycheck to survive.  She remarks at one point in the movie how tired she is, looking at her performance you believe every word she is saying.  She was nominated for an Academy Award four straight times including this role and you understand why.  She almost steals the film like she almost did in the James Stewart, Alfred Hitchcock vehicle, Rear Window. Richard Widmark’s main character light’s the firecracker at the beginning of the movie by pickpocketing the wrong victim’s purse on the subway.  The events unfold with Widmark not yielding to any intimidation from both sides of the law enforcement aisle.  He straddles both sides and gets some revenge so that, in the end, the anti-hero can call his own shots with help from  Jean Peters, the girl he pickpockets on the subway at the beginning.

film noir art

7.Kiss Me Deadly,  released in 1955

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0048261/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

The movie opens not in the gritty city, but on a deserted highway in the middle of nowhere with a lady in distress trying flag a car down for a ride.  Ralph Meeker as Mike Hammer sees her and stops and that’s where it all begins.  Hammer wakes up two weeks later in a hospital room and must figure out what happened, why and who is responsible.   Strother Martin with his eccentric one of a kind delivery is in the movie.  Strother Martin as in the same Strother Martin from “Cool Hand Luke” and “what we have here is failure to communicate” movie fame.

 

8. Touch of Evil, released in 1958

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052311/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

Another Orson Welles classic, this film is a class in photography work, tracking shots, and how to use natural sound.  The whole story of how they produced one of the longest tracking shots in movie history. The customs agent guard at the gate kept blowing his lines and they had to do the whole thing over again and again.  Finally, the tracking shot was finished just before sunrise because Marlene Dietrich plays a memorable character and says the famous line about Welles’ character, “He was some kind of man…what does it matter what you say about people.” The film is legendary just because of the backstories associated with the production and editing process after the film was in the can.  The film is confusing in some places because of a couple of reasons, Welles wanted it to be confusing and because of the studio executives butchering the editing process.

 

9. The Killers, released in 1946

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0038669/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

Adapted from a short story by Ernest Hemingway, this is the movie that catapulted Ava Gardner and Burt Lancaster to stardom.  It also has Edmund O’Brien in it to keep the story flowing as the insurance investigator Jim Reardon.  William Conrad shows up at a diner and eats up the screen in a bad guy portrayal that is memorable. Conrad and Charles McGraw, another Film Noir mainstay, show up at the diner and start harassing everyone in the place and even give the guy behind the counter a hard time just for good measure.  They are looking for Swede Anderson played by Burt Lancaster.  They want to find him and they are not going to ask questions first.

 

10. Sunset Boulevard, released in 1950

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0043014/?ref_=nv_sr_2?ref_=nv_sr_2

Sunset Boulevard is memorable for two reasons:  the audience knows how it will end because of the first shot and because of William Holden’s narration and the other is Gloria Swanson and her portrayal of Norma Desmond.  Many actresses turned down the role before Gloria Swanson accepted it.  Swanson portrays the character to the max as a fading star trying to hold on to her last bit of fame and dignity.  This movie threw some rocks directly at the whole Hollywood glass menagerie.  The script took a magnifying glass to how people are used and then thrown out like trash at the end of their careers.  As Norma Desmond retorts to Holden in one scene, “I AM big…It’s the pictures that got small.”  The film has Buster Keaton, Jack Webb and Eric Von Stroheim in it as well as other stars from the silent era who didn’t have a place in talkies.  The director Billy Wilder enjoyed poking the movie industry with his script he co-wrote with Charles Brackett and D.J. Marshman.  To give the movie an even more surreal feel, Cecille B. DeMille shows up in a cameo to throw out some needling remarks about Norma Desmond.

 

Film Noir showed up in American movie theaters after World War II.  With two World Wars behind them, the Korean War in progress and the Cold War about to heat up, the late 1940s and 1950s movie-going public wanted darker, gritty, realistic stories with even darker personalities.  Positive, delightful story conclusions were still being made but audiences also wanted stories without cheerful conclusions.   The audience preferred to take a walk down a dark alley and because of that some of the best movies of that time period were produced.

Honorable Mentions: Detour, Sweet Smell of Success, Criss Cross, They Live by Night, The Maltese Falcon. 

Notable Links:  http://www.openculture.com/freemoviesonline

 

Best Of The Past

Ranking the Decades

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by Rick Bretz

Some citizens of the world during certain decades have to deal with more adversity than others if war breaks out or the economies move into a recession or depression.  Wars caused by leadership and diplomacy failures cause a heartache as well as a depletion in a generation’s men and women who could have the answers for curing disease and making the world a better place.  Economic depression is caused by a number of factors including the malaise of industry captains and government officials. When these people who are educated by the world’s finest institutions neglect  to act by exercising preventative measures society bears the burden.

Some decades are better than others but some are more tumultuous than others.  It occurred to me the other day that if I had to rank the decades in order according to how much chaos and achievement occurred during that time period,  this is list I would compose.   To keep the list a short one, I am ranking the decades from the time period of 1900 to 2010.   Otherwise, I would have to include the Roman, Greek, Egyptian, Chinese, British,  Russian, and Mongol empires and I am sure I am leaving a few out.

My criteria:

Tumultuous Events

Effect on subsequent decades

Significant Figures in History

Demonstrations and protests against the Vietnam War (1)

  1. 1960-1969

Reason for Rank:  There was so much going on during this decade it’s a wonder that the world didn’t have a collective stroke from the stress endured by the population.  The Cold War, The Vietnam War, Nuclear build up and testing, the Middle East tensions, The Iron Curtain, North Korea and South Korea, the election and assassination of John F. Kennedy, the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy, the Assassination of Martin Luther King, the assassination of Malcolm X, civil rights marches, the Freedom Riders in the south, tensions in Europe, South American coups, the Cuban Missile Crisis and Fidel Castro and the list goes on and on.   While these historical events were playing out, we managed to put a man on the moon, create some of history’s enduring works of art, literary classics and cinematic masterpieces.  Sometimes chaos can bring out the best as well as the worst in human kind.

As Orson Welles said in “The Third Man”.

In Italy, for thirty years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love, they had five hundred years of democracy and peace – and what did that produce? The Cuckoo Clock. So long Holly

 USS_Arizona_(BB-39)_Panama_Canal

  1. 1910-1919

Reason for Rank:  When an event such as “The Great War” appears in a decade, you have to rank it high. Additionally, the Russian Revolution shocked the world in the decade and it was felt for several decades to come because it influenced foreign policy and caused several wars after World War II.  In addition, naval power advanced with aircraft carriers and the further development submarines.  The industrial revolution moved forward and the population of cities grew.  The Panama Canal was finished in this decade, changing the way products were shipped from one side of the continent to the other. The decisions from this decade, like the Treaty of Versailles, had a negative effect on countries two decades later.

 

  1. 1940-1949

Reason for rank:  Hitler and the Nazi regime’s rise to power brought on World War II and cruelty that equaled violence and destruction documented during the medieval age.  World War II dominated the decade followed by the rebuilding of several major cities.  The testing of the nuclear bomb and using it to force Japan’s surrender forever altered the diplomatic landscape. The cold war followed the end of the Second World War.  The end of the decade saw tension increase to the point of North Korea invading the South in June of 1950 to start the Korean War, where two countries still remain proxies for a higher stakes game diplomacy between super powers.  The formation of the United Nation, headquartered in New York.

 

  1. 2000-2010

Reason for rank: Terrorism on a global scale, the war in Afghanistan and Iraq. The Hinting down of Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden. Immigration in North America and Europe. The proliferation of social media.  The used of social media and the internet for business models; Amazon, Apple, etc.  The use of smart phone for communicating.

 

  1. 1930-1939

Reason for rank: The depression, the election of FDR and the New Deal socialist policies. Hitler’s election to Germany’s ruling party, the invasion of Austria, Poland, and other Eastern European countries, the annexation of the Sudetenland and the invasion of France, beginning World War II.  Japan’s military build-up, the invasion of Manchuria, the Nanking Massacre and many other aggressions.  The Hoover Dam was completed.

 

  1. 1900-1909

Reasons for rank: This decade featured President Teddy Roosevelt taking on monopolies and creating labor laws to curb the power of large corporations.  Roosevelt, a proponent of taking care of the land and its wildlife in it, oversaw legislation for many natural parks that we enjoy today.

 

  1. 1970-1979

Reasons for rank: The decade saw the end of the Vietnam War under the Nixon administration after being escalated by the Johnson power brokers.  The Watergate conspiracy played out on America’s television screens.  Nixon resigned, President Gerald R. Ford became the first President not be elected.  Jimmy Carter was elected. The Russian invasion of Afghanistan start their long stay there.   The Shah of Iran was deposed and because of the United State support for the Shah, the Iranian hostage crisis lasted until President Ronald Reagan’s first inauguration day.

 

  1. 1920-1929

Reasons for rank:  The decade began with silent movies and ended with sound on film, the talkies.  It began with unprecedented economic growth and wealth accumulation.  The motor car or automobile was having an impact on society and how people socialize with one another.  The Hoover Dam was planned as well as other engineering projects.

berlinWall

  1. 1980-1989

Reasons for rank:  Low on the list because there wasn’t that much upheaval compared to other decades. The most significant event was the destruction of Berlin Wall and the fall of communism in the Eastern Bloc countries, opening up the Iron Curtain in front of the Soviet Union whose communist ideology would fall later on.

 

  1. 1990-1999

Reason for rank: Some may rank this decade higher due to the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 in addition to the Persian Gulf War after the invasion of Kuwait by Iraqi forces. A significant event but because we had to revisit the Iraq after the turn of the century, this isn’t high on my list.  Also, the Soviet Union was on a path to dissolution in the later 1980s, the next decade just made it official.  The election of President Bill Clinton also was significant due to his influence in subsequent decades.  The dissolving of Yugoslavian states resulted in genocide that had to be dealt with by UN Forces.  The ethnic cleansing was an event that should have been prevented and stopped by the United Nations.  This was one of the reasons the UN was formed after World War II but it failed in this mission.

 

 

 

Notable Links:

https://www.thoughtco.com/20th-century-timelines-1779957

https://www.infoplease.com/yearbyyear