tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24200494.post4531977949113198256..comments2024-03-29T00:35:44.002-04:00Comments on Nicholas Stix, Uncensored: TCM’s Film Noir of the Week Saturday Night-Sunday Morning at 12:15 and 10 a.m. E.T. is Pepe le moko (1937); Sunday Night at 8 p.m. ET, TCM Broadcasts Robert Wise’s I Want to Live! (1958), Starring Susan Hayward in Her Oscar-Winning Role as Prostitute-Murderer Barbara GrahamNicholashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12372393717833610657noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24200494.post-62078510301733680782021-05-14T18:11:19.269-04:002021-05-14T18:11:19.269-04:00TCM's Film Noir of the Week Returns! This week...TCM's Film Noir of the Week Returns! This week's entry Saturday Morning-Sunday Night at Midnight and 10 am ET is Orson Welles' Touch of Evil (1958 Extended Version. It features Charlton Heston, Janet Leigh, Orson Welles, Joseph Calleia, Akim Tamiroff, Marlene Dietrich. <br /><br />Film Noir Guide: "The honeymoon of a Mexican detective (Heston) and his American bride (Leigh) gets cut short when a bomb planted in a car on the Mexican side of the border explodes on the American side, killing a wealthy American and his stripper girlfriend. A legendary gringo detective (Welles) takes charge of the investigation, quickly fingering a Mexican national for the crime. Heston hangs around long enough to learn that Welles' investigation tactics are somewhat shady if not downright illegal. The corrupt American cop must resort to extreme measures to keep his Mexican counterpart quiet. Meanwhile, Tamiroff, the American brother of a Mexican crime lord, attempts to blackmail Heston into dropping the charges against his brother by photographing Leigh in a compromising situation. Dietrich plays a Mexican gypsy, Welles' former girlfriend. Look for cameos by Joseph Cotten as a police doctor, Zsa Zsa Gabor as the owner of a strip club, and Mercedes McCambridge as a butch biker."<br /><br />"While Heston may seem miscast as a Mexican cop, he actually turns in a fine performance, avoiding the use of a phony accent. Calleia is excellent as Welles' loyal partner, who is so blinded by his devotion to the man who once took a bullet for him that he's oblivious to Welles' crimes. But it's Welles, at his biggest and grubbiest, who deserves top honors, playing an egocentric, obese, racist, alcoholic cop, who long ago learned to rationalize his phony arrests."<br /><br />"Forty years after the film was made, changes that were requested by Welles in his now famous 58-page memo to Universal studios, written after the studio shot additional scenes and re-edited the film. Unfortunately, studio execs ignored Welles' impassioned pleas. the 1998 director's cut, with its subtle changes, improves the already near perfect film. Some film historians point to Touch of Evil as the last film of the classic noir period."<br /><br />Some years ago Eddie Muller intro'd Touch of Evil and wailed that Ricardo Montalban should have played to lead instead of Charlton Heston. Without Heston the studio wouldn't have financed it. <br /><br />In the novel, the film is supposedly based on, the Heston character is an American with the San Diego DAs office. His wife is a Mexican from a wealthy family south of the border. Welles reverses this with an honest Mexican law enforcement officer married to an American woman contending with a corrupt American cop. <br /><br />David In TNhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15749838323613927456noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24200494.post-45228425465695838812021-03-27T21:37:45.456-04:002021-03-27T21:37:45.456-04:00She was guilty. She started the ball rolling by tr...She was guilty. She started the ball rolling by tricking her way into the house of the older woman who was targeted. Even if she did not actually kill she is more guilty as she was the instigator.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24200494.post-65964268620444643302021-03-27T16:39:19.149-04:002021-03-27T16:39:19.149-04:00The piece in now-destroyed Crime Library on Barbar...The piece in now-destroyed Crime Library on Barbara Graham was book-length and written by Clark Howard, author of Zebra (1979), on the 1970s NOI murders. I believe Howard wrote it as a true crime book but couldn't find a publisher. So it ended up at Crime Library. It would be nice if somebody would publish it. David In TNhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15749838323613927456noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24200494.post-73494997028453099942021-03-27T15:17:12.987-04:002021-03-27T15:17:12.987-04:00"Reporter Gene Blake, who covered Graham'..."Reporter Gene Blake, who covered Graham's murder trial for the Los Angeles Daily Mirror, dismissed the movie as "a dramatic and eloquent piece of propaganda for the abolition of the death penalty." Los Angeles Herald-Express reporter Bill Walker also exposed the inaccuracies of the film in his article in the April 1959 issue of Cavalier, "Exposing Hollywood's 'I Want to Live' Hoax", and in a 1961 book titled The Case of Barbara Graham.<br /><br />Graham was portrayed by actress Lindsay Wagner in a 1983 TV movie of I Want to Live!"<br />--WikipediaAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com