By David in TN
friday, july 21, 2023 at 8:19:00 p.m. edt
TCM’s Film Noir of the Week Saturday Night-Sunday Morning at Midnight and 10 a.m. ET is Andrew L. Stone’s Julie (1956), with Doris Day, Louis Jourdan, Barry Sullivan and Frank Lovejoy.
Film Noir Guide: “This disaster starts with Day gaily singing the title song. You might think you’re about to enjoy one of her many light romantic comedies, so you keep looking for Rock Hudson’s name among the credits. But, alas, it’s nowhere to be found. Instead, you see Louis Jourdan and Barry Sullivan, and it soon dawns on you that you’re watching a ‘suspense’ film.
“Jourdan plays a nutcase who killed Day’s first husband so he could marry her. She’s discovered his secret, and now he wants to kill HER. Sullivan plays a friend who helps her hide from her stalker husband, and noir veteran Lovejoy is an ineffective cop.
“Will Jourdan succeed in killing Day? Day is narrating, so you figure it out. What starts as a lame suspense thriller takes a sudden turn approximately an hour into the film and becomes Airport, with Day at the controls of a runaway airliner. Yawn.”
David in TN: Another weak selection by Red Eddie Muller. In his outro last week, Eddie said he is a big Doris Day fan.
N.S.: Julie was nominated for two Oscars: for best original song, and best original screenplay—by none other than Andrew Stone! Stone, who lived to be almost 97 (1902-1999), started working for Universal just after the Great War, and once he graduated to director-screenwriter, specialized in weird hybrids (e.g., combining Gilbert & Sullivan with a crime picture) in A and B pictures, so Julie was apparently normal for him. Weird hybrids were pretty common early in the Sound Era, as everybody was re-learning picture-making, but how someone could continue having a successful career making schizoid movies during the mid-50s is a mystery to me.
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3 comments:
jerry pdx
Samuel Little gets a mention by two Washington Post writers, but it's not the kind of attention they give to White serial killers:
https://getpocket.com/explore/item/the-perfect-victim?utm_source=pocket-newtab
This is one of those articles that shows some of the differences in how the media treats White serial killers vs. black serial killers. The writers of the article are not trying to Little or understand what motivated him but to blame (White) society for failing to protect against him. Since Little's victims were (primarily) non White women or on the margins of society, that society didn't care about them going missing. Something the recent initial hysteria about Carlee Russell seems to disprove. Check out this paragraph:
“If these women had been wealthy, White, female socialites, this would have been the biggest story in the history of the United States. But that’s not who he preyed upon,” said criminologist Scott Bonn, who has written extensively about serial killers.
Waitasecond...If victims being street people or non White mean a serial killer doesn't get as much attention, then why did Dahmer and Ridgeway get turned into superstars? Didn't seem to occur to the authors of this article.
Sure, if Little had been able to murder 93 White, wealthy socialites the story would have been bigger but there's no way Little would have been able to kill that many women in that social class because they weren't going to jump into a car with him thinking he was a john, or because he offered them some crack. However, if Samuel Little was a White man and had the same number and type of victims, it would have been the biggest story in the history of the United States.
The writers are actually on to something, in a way, but the protection afforded to Little was because he was black and it was woke White liberals that protected him. If White society is to blame, it's that segment of White society, not the Whites that want to hold blacks responsible for their behavior.
Media isn't interested in black underbelly crime--there's so much of it--a great deal of it vile and violent.Negro nightly news could easily fill a half hour of various black crime EVERY NIGHT,but have chosen to ignore it.Who decided that?Holt is the main editor,but he's in sync with Brian Roberts the ceo--who is a pro-black liberal and has stated so.
--GRA
TCM's Film Noir of the Week Saturday Night-Sunday Morning at Midnight and 10 a.m. ET is Anthony Mann's Desperate (1947) with Steve Brodie, Audrey Long, Raymond Burr, Douglas Fowley, Jason Robards Sr.
Film Noir Guide: "Newlywed truck driver Brodie unwittingly becomes involved in a warehouse robbery after being hired by mobster Burr to do a hauling job. During the robbery, Brodie alerts a passing patrolman, who is killed in a shootout with Burr's brother. Brodie gets away but Burr's brother is caught by the cops."
"Burr tries to get the trucker to take the rap by threatening his pregnant wife (Long), so Brodie and Long go on the lam. Unfortunately for them, Burr, whose brother has been sentenced to death, has hired a shady P.I. to find them. Robards plays a crafty detective who uses brodie as bait, hoping to reel in Burr and his gang."
"This is director Mann's first film noir and it's as hard-boiled and violent as they come. Brodie is excellent as the hapless war hero whose main concern is for his wife and newborn child. Burr, as usual, is a terrific villain."
David In TN: This is a recycled entry, previously shown on Noir Alley in 2018. A very good one. Raymond Burr in one of his best "Heavy" roles. As a bonus Saturday Night before Desperate, TCM shows Billy Wilder's Double Indemnity (1944) at 8 p.m. ET and Lawrence Kasdan's Body Heat (1981) at 10 p.m.
On Monday at 11 a.m. ET TCM shows The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946), This is the ultimate film noir. The protagonist (John Garfield) sees the sexiest woman he's ever seen (Lana Turner) at the beginning. At the end, he's about to be strapped into the gas chamber at San Quentin.
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