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We’re still malingering in the last gasp of the classic period of American film noir. Just a suspicious group of gees in slouch hats and trench coats, clogging up the exit doorway of the decade of the 50s. Sorry about that. But it’ll be worth it. We’re going to take a look at a film that is completely in the genre but misses many of the elements most commonly associated with the form. The protagonist isn’t a cop. Not a double-dealing lawyer, nor a private detective. Get this --- the protagonist is a public relations flack. Can you imagine? There’s no flashback. No femme fatale. No voice-over to set our bearings. No one‘s shot or ends up in jail or the big house. However, our subject is full of dread, nihilistic forms, ducking and weaving to hold back fate --- but fate won’t be denied. It’s a set of the most blood-thirsty, conniving, desperate humans you’d ever want to meet --- or prefer not to meet. You choose. Plus, the dialogue is so sparkling and magical, it snaps off the screen and circles the air around your head, hanging there, to be lightly grasped and quoted endlessly. It takes place in the shadowed, dark night of New York City, the big, dirty city. It’s the Hecht – Hill – Lancaster production release of 1957 by United Artists of Sweet Smell Of Success. Whereas we’ve spent a good deal of time on the directors of the recent pod subjects, we’ll redress that by focusing on the writers, the dark cinematography from a genius of the trade, and a cast of favorites in front of the camera. And oh yeah --- Tony Curtis plays a serious role. Really.

Website and blog: www.thosewonderfulpeople.com
Bluesky: @wonderfulpeople.bsky.social

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We do enjoy discussing the foundational effect modern directors have on their films --- the whole auteur theory of the style and technique of a director in producing idiosyncratic work. And in film noir, there are plenty of directors who made their reputation in film and the establishment of their hallmark style within the genre. In the last few months, we’ve visited several such directors who drove deep into the style of film noir --- some later branched out into other work while keeping their significant style. Others plowed a furrow mostly in noir and in retrospect furthered the recognition of the genre itself. To name but a few, we’ve recently clocked in Fritz Lang, Anthony Mann, Robert Siodmack, and Jules Dassin. You might add Otto Preminger, Jacques Tourneur, and the great Billy Wilder. They brought their characteristic feel to noir and contributed to the idea of the director as author of the entirety of the film --- all else subsumed to their vision.

But one of the more impactful and deeply moving of films noir was authored by a director who was an auteur before the phrase was created. A director who was famous and notorious in film – making from his first feature onward. The first feature delivered, by the way, at age 25. A proclaimed genius of film. Many have recognized his first film as perhaps among if not the greatest film in history. He had a nodding acquaintance with films that would be known as noir in later years --- but they merely reflected the fantastic and magical way he saw film and created with cinema. His style was seen across many genres and subject areas --- but it was especially valid for film noir. He was a natural in the movement. His name --- George Orson Welles.

Website and blog: www.thosewonderfulpeople.com
Bluesky: @wonderfulpeople.bsky.social

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Nice little film noir survey you got here --- be a shame if something happened to it… If you’ll indulge us, we’re going to swing for the fences a bit this month and try to tie up three threads in noir. The first is that some gee goes against the mob, usually a cop. But, and second --- it’s got to be a cop who’s not as straight as an arrow, he (always he) has to have a bend to him --- to be as nihilistic as the mob he knocks up against. Finally, playing havoc with the bad girl, femme fatale character. We saw some of that last month in Raw Deal, in which Claire Trevor evolved from the fatal woman to the good woman, to the sorrowful woman. Some performance. We’ll try to examine another novel noir character flip in this month’s offering and hope it meets with your approval. Be a shame if something happened to your nice little podcast… We have some misgivings about the vehicle for all of this thread tying --- the protagonist is not our favorite actor --- not by a long shot. But the other characters are wonderfully fleshed out, and the director is one of the mainstays of the genre, helping to bring the Expressionism of his youth to full flourish on film in the US during the classic period of noir. It’s 1953’s The Big Heat, from actual big studio Columbia.

Website and blog: www.thosewonderfulpeople.com
Bluesky: @wonderfulpeople.bsky.social