Saturday, August 01, 2015

Film Noir/Blanc: TCM’s Friday Night Summer of Darkness

By David in TN

[NS: I apologize to David, who sent me this Thursday night, for not punctually posting it.]
 

Eddie Muller's final Friday Night Summer of Darkness is Friday night, July 31. His four films are Criss Cross, Brute Force, Desperate and The Asphalt Jungle.

Criss Cross is after The Killers, another Burt Lancaster portrayal of a sap who lets a woman lead him to his doom. It shows what Los Angeles and its population looked like in 1948.

Brute Force has Lancaster in a prison break movie. It's one of those films that makes you think, "I didn't know there were so many nice people in prison."

Desperate is a favorite of mine and a noir trope. A working man gets himself involved in a crime. Raymond Burr easily plays the heavy, several years before he became Perry Mason.

The Asphalt Jungle is possible the most famous noir Caper film and Marilyn Monroe's first major role.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks!I'm becoming the biggest film noir fan.

David In TN said...

Speaking of film noir, tonight (Saturday) at 11:`5 pm ET, TCM is running "The Lineup" as part of Eli Wallach night. This film isn't shown on TV often. It's a feature film version of the 50's TV show.

Shot on location, you can see San Francisco as it looked in 1957-58. Eli Wallach plays a great villain and there is the first great movie car chase.

Don Siegel directed. He directed Dirty Harry a dozen years later.

David In TN said...

Nicholas,

Eddie Muller has a new gig as a TCM Guest Host. Each Sunday morning at 10 am ET, Muller hosts a Film Noir. Tomorrow, Sunday April 30, it's "He Walked by Night" (1948), starring Richard Basehart.

This one is pretty good, based loosely on a true story, and is said to have given cast member Jack Webb the idea for the Dragnet TV series.

Every Sunday morning on TCM at 10 am ET on TCM, Eddie Muller hosts a Film Noir.