Noir City Film Festival 17 (2019)

It's that time of year again, Noir City! After the launch of my audio drama podcast, I no longer blog here, except now as it's a great space for recount my experiences at Noir City this year for future reference and remembrance.

I met some incredibly interesting and inspirational people like Imogen Smith, Meredith Brody, and Andy Wolverton (pictured with me below), had great movie-viewing time with friends, scored some good reading material, posed for a few fab photos (thanks Dennis Hearne) and saw some fantastic films!

Reading picked up this week at festival, bookstore, and library:

• Samuel Fuller's autobiography A Third Face
• Dashiell Hammett's biography: A Life by Diane Johnson
• Noir City Annual 2018
• Garbage: The Saga of a Boss Scavenger in San Francisco by Leonard Dominic Stefanelli

And most importantly, my goal of this post is to recall key things about each film so I don't forget everything I've seen--to recall the films I saw, what I liked and didn't, and make note of the films I didn't see and mark for future viewing.

Noir City 17 (2019)

Friday Jan 25th

• Trapped (1949) - viewed - dir: Richard Fleischer, with Lloyd Bridges, breaks him out of jail to finger the counterfeiters, solid noir.

• The File on Thelma Jordon (1950) - viewed - dir: Robert Siodmak, with Barbara Stanwyck is innocent of her aunt's murder? Liked it, solid noir.

Saturday Jan 26th

• The Well (1951) - missed (matinee) - dir: Russell Rouse, cinematography: Laszlo, black girl's disappearance and effect on racially mixed town. From talking to people that'd seen it, sounds very emotional and intense. Need to see.

• Detective Story (1951) - missed (matinee) - dir: William Wyler (The Good Fairy, Roman Holiday), with Kirk Douglas, William Bendix, Eleanor Parker (need to see more of her films). I really like Wyler, Douglas, and Bendix, so gotta check this one out!

• The Turning Point (1952) - viewed - dir: William Dieterle, with William Holden, Edmond O'Brien, Ed Begley, really liked the female actress Amanda Waycross, great scene of the henchmen scattering in a split second leaving the main bad guy alone with the cops. Great film, runner-up as my favorite of the festival.

• Angel Face (1953) - viewed/seen before - dir: Preminger, with Jean Simmons and Robert Mitchum, also with Herbert Marshall, is she crazy? Did she kill her parents? Really unnerving!

Sunday Jan 27th

• Pickup of South Street (1953) - viewed/seen before - dir: Samuel Fuller, with Richard Widmark, Jean Peters, and Thelma Ritter (no relation to John Ritter), film wanted by Feds taken from carrier's purse on train by pickpocket, really sad death of Moe the stoolie, learned that pickpockets are called "cannons" - FAVORITE of festival.

• City the Never Sleeps (1953) - viewed - dir: John H. Auer, with Gig Young (holy crap...25 years later he killed his wife and committed suicide, yikes!), Marie Windsor, and William Talman (famous for TV's Perry Mason, but in a few noir films in this festival) touted as an oddity--didn't strike me as odd, cop thinking about getting out gets a supernatural (?) partner played by Chill Wills--they never develop why this new partner doesn't exist, he doesn't really do the Jimmy Cricket or Clarence bit, but they try to do the Twilight-Zone bit at the end where everyone says the cop was working on his own that night. The cop accepts this without missing a beat and is meaningless. Entertaining enough, but flawed film, not a favorite.

Monday Jan 28th

• The Pushover (1954) - viewed - dir: Richard Quine, script: Roy Huggins, with Fred MacMurray and Kim Novak so obviously not wearing a bra (how did she get away with that?!) also with E.G. Marshall, fun and suspenseful film of cop trying to get away with the loot. Great film, another runner-up to festival favorite.

• Private Hell 36 (1954) - viewed - dir: Don Siegel, script: Ida Lupino and Collier Young, with Ida Lupino and Steve Cochran (from The Beat Generation and some great Twilight Zone episodes), dirty-cop theme, liked the guy who wasn't happy about begin roped into the theft (Howard Duff). Gavin reminds me the trailer he rented was number 36. Really great film, the heavy soft focus filter on Lupino seemed unnecessary. Stories where a good person gets roped into being an accomplice...find those hard to watch!

Tuesday Jan 29th

• Kiss Me Deadly (1955) - missed/seen before - dir: Robert Aldrich, script: A.J. Bezzerides from novel by Micky Spillane, with Ralph Meeker and Gaby Rodgers, bonkers story about the briefcase with the mysterious and very volatile contents. Fantastic film and I love Meeker at Spillane, but needed a day off from the festival (and important, final client call the next day with Punchcut, so needed to skip).

• Killer's Kiss (1955) - missed - dir/script: Kubrick, never seen this one and it would have been great to see on the big screen as I remember trying to watch on TV and was bored (but will try again), but I had to get a full nights sleep before work Weds so had to skip Tuesday's films.

Wednesday Jan 30th

• The Scarlet Hour (1956) - viewed - dir: Curtiz, with Carol Ohmart and Tim Tryon (never seen him in anything else, but she was in House on Haunted Hill and Spider Baby...and a film I've never seen The Wild Party, 1956, why have I never seen that film, sounds great!). This is the one where she is cheating on her husband (James Gregory of Barney Miller fame) and decides it'd be a great idea (and so easy too!) to highjack the thieves stealing jewels from an LA mansion. What chumps! The best part of the film was the best friend played by Elaine Stritch...she's sooo awesome! Solid film made better because of Stritch!

• A Kiss Before Dying (1956) - viewed - dir: Gerd Oswald, with Robert Wagner in this nasty film about a boy killing his preggers girlfriend to keep his life from being derailed. When the girlfriend shows up to class the next day alive was awesome and her sitting on the edge of the roof when you know he's going to push her any minute killed me! Amazed Robert Wagner didn't get typecast, but his good-looks and cold madness (as opposed to totally bonkers madness) probably protected him. Great film. Pretty darn satisfying ending.

Thursday Jan 31th

• Nightfall (1956) - viewed - dir: Jacques Touneur, script: Stirling Silliphant, with Aldo Ray and the adorable Anne Bancroft. Really liked the tough but sweet Aldo Ray, love his strange raspy voice and his very relatable emotions as a guy unfairly in the hot seat. And wow, Bancroft is so young! The scene she is modeling a beautiful gown and runs off the cat walk to alert her man to the danger lurking was a high point, as was the whirring blades of the slow moving snow plow...it's coming right at you! Another extremely satisfying ending! Another runner up, well... actually a tie as my show FAVORITE! 

 

• The Burgler (1956) - viewed - dir: Paul Wendkos, script: David Goodis, with Dan Duryea, Jayne Mansfield, and Martha Vickers (played crazy Carmen Sternwood in The Big Sleep). Despite a fantastic start with a tense jewelry heist within the 15 minutes it takes for the evening news to play out, and the victim walking back-and-forth in front of the open safe (camera POV from inside the safe), the film was a stinker! Oh boy...it lasted soooo long. The characters agonized over things that didn't make any sense and their motivation seemed off. Not a good film, was sooooo bored and glad when the end finally arrived.

Friday Feb 1st

• Touch of Evil (1958) - viewed/seen before - dir/script: Orson Wells, with Charlton Heston, Janet Leigh, and Orson Wells and Marlene Dietrich, brief appearance by Zsa Zsa Gabor and really weird character played by Dennis Weaver. Don't need to jog my memory for this film...seen so many times and it's soooooo fantastic! Still giving the favorite of festival to Pickup and Nightfall as few films can compete with Touch of Evil on many levels. Eddie talked about how two Wells' films bookmarked the noir era: Citizen Kane (1941) was a huge influence on the substance and style of noir, kicking off the era and Touch of Evil ending the classic noir era.

• Murder By Contract (1958) - missed - dir: Irving Lerner, with no one I'm familiar with except for Herschel Bernardi (Lieutenant Jacoby in Peter Gunn). Sounds super interesting, gotta check it out. 

Saturday Feb 2nd

• The Crimson Kimono (1959) - viewed (matinee) - dir/script: Samuel Fuller, with James Shigeta, Glenn Corbett, and Victoria Shaw (doesn't she look a bit like Sean Young?) --all amazingly attractive people. Really interesting film that focuses on the Japanese community in LA. Pretty good story about best friends in a love triangle working to solve a murder. The murder investigation didn't have enough to it, until the end to create the tension I think it needed to counter-balance the love angle...felt a bit weak and heavy-handed, but very heartfelt and interesting focus on the Japanese detective. Here's a link to an interesting article I'll be reading -- http://theretroset.com/a-controversial-crimson-kimono/ 

 

• Odds Against Tomorrow (1959) - missed/seen before (matinee) - dir: Robert Wise, with Harry Belafonte, Robert Ryan, Shelley Winters, Ed Begley, and Gloria Grahame. Seen this one and needed to get ready for the evening out for Andrea's birthday at Val's. Great film and tense with a distrustful and desperate trio of heisters. Worth seeing again at home.

• A bout de souffle (Breathless, 1960) - viewed - dir: Jean-Luc Godard with Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jean Seberg. Great, fast paced, character study of a petty criminal and the girl who falls for him. Eddie talked about a fact I didn't know (or remember?) that the jump cuts came out of Godard's need to shorten the film, so he cut sections of shots/scenes instead of cutting whole scenes to make up the time, and the jump-cut was born! Loved it!

• Psycho (1960) - missed/seen before - dir: Hitchcock, with Janet Leigh and Anthony Perkins. I've seen before but not for a long time and a clip I watched (in Serina's Noir City 17 clip film) didn't look familiar, so I really need to see again. I totally don't get worked up about "is it" or "isn't it" noir arguments and am behind Eddie that this film, at least the beginning, has traditional noir elements. Need to see again!

Sunday Feb 3rd

• Blast of Silence (1961) - viewed - dir/script: Allen Baron, with Allen Baron as the main character. Independent film shot on location in NYC from late noir or "neo-noir" period. This one is another tie with South Street. Like most low-budget films, a few shots like the character walking down the street lasts too long, but wow, overall I loved this story of a hit man who is desperately lonely and wants out. The story is that Peter Falk was going to take the lead role, but had to drop out, leaving the director to take the lead and he was fantastic, can't imagine anyone else in the role. 

• Underworld, U.S.A. (1961) - viewed - dir/script: Samuel Fuller, with Cliff Robertson, Dolores Dorn, Beatrice Kay, and Paul Dubov (frequent actor in Fuller films). Really great! I've technically seen it before, but I didn't remember most of it. Robertson's character gets revenge on the big-time crooks not by direct means, but by strategy, leading to their demise. Things don't end well for him, but he gets his revenge.

That makes 17 films out of 24! Happy I could go to the late shows this year, even if that did mean I'm under employed. 

So my watch list for 2019:

The Well

Detective Story

Killer's Kiss

Murder by Contract

Psycho

Thanks to Eddie Muller and the whole crew (see back page of program) for another fabulous festival! Highlight of my year!!

Projects Completed and in Progress

Well so much for New Year's Resolutions. How many times has it been said, so I don't feel so bad. I have been hoping to carve out time to blog more, although I have been keeping busy in 2012:

I've been attending a small writing club at least twice a month (been attending 2-3 times per month for four months now) with a small group of work-mates. It's been motivating and inspiring. I have not made a huge amount of progress on my writing progress, but I have been much more consistent, aka writing a little every week.

I completed an article for the Winter 2013 San Francisco Silent Film Festival. And I'm hard at work on a new essay for the Summer 2013 SFSFF! The program list will be announced on 5/23!

Helped Michelle for three of her four pop-ups, aka 20th Century Cafe preview

Teresa, Michelle, and me at the pop-up at State Bird Provisions

I read a bunch of books including the incredible memoir by Michael Tradowsky (found out about the book from his daughter Kirsten who I wrote about in this blog last year). His book is War Children is about growing up in a artistic, non-political family in Nazi Germany. I wrote a brief review on Goodreads.

I completed a video for Michelle's Kickstarter campaign. She reached her goal 12 days early! I received some nice compliments including one in the SF Weekly blog SF Foodie that said, "The Kickstarter page has more details about the café, but the real draw there is the sepia-toned, 1930's/40's video showing Polzine's trials and tribulations getting the place open. It's a fun watch that encapsulates the vintage feel she's trying to create in her café." Kickstarter page with video -- she's got 7 days to go...pledges over her goal will help buy an ice cream machine (you cannot believe the ice cream she makes!).

And I'm working on another video for her Kickstarter, for the last few days of the campaign - seriously, amazing ice-cream!

That's it for now.  A bit of catch up on my creative/project online diary...done and done!

Vincent Price, Art Expert

I came across the Facebook page for the website VincentPriceExhibit.com and it reminded me of two videos I'd found on online archives. I was only able to find one (embedded below), although now, like having a song stuck in your head, I have Vincent Price in my thoughts...

Vincent Price is one of my very favorite actors.


Vincent Price and Gene Tierney in "Dragonwyck" (1946)

I admire him for his acting skills as well as his varied interests and his enthusiasm for acting despite being typecast in horror roles in the later half of his career.


Price with Roger Corman on the set of "House of Usher" (1960)

His career began far from the b-films for which he's best known. He started in the theater, notably acting with Orson Welles' Mercury Theater in two productions and got his big break in film acting in Otto Preminger's Laura (1944).


Tierney and Price together for the first time in "Laura" (1944)

Reading the biography Vincent Price Unmasked: A Biography by James Robert Parrish and Steven Whitney (Drake Publishers Inc, New York, 1974) I learned of Price's passion for food and cooking (writing three cookbooks), for his dog Joe, as demonstrated in his book The Book of Joe: About a Dog and His Man (Doubleday & Co., Inc., 1962), and for art (writing four books on the subject).



He didn't just love art, but was interested in bringing art awareness to the general public. In addition to starting an art gallery, Little Gallery, open from 1943 to 1945, he lectured on art. In 1962 he created an art program for Sears, Roebuck and Co. Below is a 17 min video intended to educate Sears employees.


The Vincent Price Collection of Fine Art: An Informational Program Production (1960), film hosted at Internet Archive

I hesitate from reading Hollywood biographies as I rarely find them inspiring and are usually so sad and tragic. Vincent Price on the other hand seemed to be such a great sport, jumping into any project with zest and consequently lived an varied and fascinating life.


Image borrowed from Henson.com

More 1st Paragraphs

I really enjoyed the opportunity to type out the words of Ross Mcdonald, so I scanned my bookshelves again for another author. I have a soft spot for author Richard S. Prather and his detective Shell Scott.

Richard S. Prather in 1967, he looks so much like a Daniel Clowes' character!

I have no fewer than 15 paperbacks, most with fabulous covers—the element that first attracted me. These books are far more "pulpy" with an old-school obsession with the ladies, but charming none-the-less, with a silly sense of comedy and a dash of the absurd. Prather's first paragraphs are consistently pretty brief.

Upon typing them out it's clear that most of his books begin with a reference to a sexy dame to hook the reader. I assume this consistency enabled him to crank out 45 books in his career; all but six published in the 1950s and 60s.

*************

She looked hotter than a welder’s torch and much, much more interesting. – Case of the Vanishing Beauty, 1950

It’s a funny thing. If you were in the middle of the African veld and heard a couple of high notes from a hot trumpet, you’d undoubtedly think it was some animal sounding off. Or if there were a python hissing on one of the top floors of the Empire State Building, you’d probably think it was an office boy whistling through his teeth. – Everybody Had a Gun, 1951

She still had all her clothes on and was standing in the blue light from a baby spot when I came in, but I knew it wasn’t going to last because the way she was moving I could tell it was that kind of dance. I was glad it was that kind of dance. – Find This Woman, 1951

It was Bedlam, and Babel, and Baghdad galloping, and Lady Godiva in the middle naked as an artificial eye on a white-satin spread. And not a sign of a horse. – Bodies in Bedlam, 1951

The morgue in Los Angeles is downstairs in the Hall of Justice. It was seven o’clock at night, dark now, and Mr. Franklin stopped me when we reached the building’s entrance. “You go ahead,” he said. – Have Gat—Will Travel: 6 Shell Scott Stories, 1952-1956

I awoke in darkness, dull pain throbbing in my head, my side aching with each breath, and I lay quietly for a minute trying to remember where I was. A faint, slightly sickening odor of ether and disinfectants recalled the white-uniformed nurse, the too cheerful doctor. Now I remembered: Manning, Memorial Hospital in Seacliff. Room 48. Patient, me, Shell Scott, private detective, somewhat disabled. – Too Many Crooks, 1953

This was a party that Cholly Knickerbocker, in tomorrow’s Los Angeles Examiner, would describe as “a gathering of the Smart Set,” and if this was the Smart Set I was glad I belonged to the Stupid Set. – Strip for Murder, 1955 (tag line “Shell Scott invades a nudist camp”)

She had a seventy-eight-inch bust, forty-six-inch waist, and seventy-two-inch hips—measurements that were exactly right, I thought, for her height of eleven feet, four inches. – Take a Murder, Darling, 1958

He lay there in the silk-lined casket looking very waxy, but it was eight to five that he looked no more waxy than I. – Slab Happy, 1958

The Rand Brothers Mortuary was so beautiful it almost made you want to die. – Dig That Crazy Grave, 1961

She has eyes that sizzled and lips like flaming puckers, and a body flaunting the vital statistics you’d expect on a gal with such facial sizzle and smack, but she was not so bright she would give a dummy an inferiority complex. That was the kick in the pants—my pants, of course, since I was with her. – Dead Heat, 1963

They dug up Johnny Troy that day. – The Trojan Hearse, 1964

When I went through the front door of the Jazz Pad, Lilli Lorraine was singing in a voice filled with fever and the words hung in the smoky air like heat. – The Meandering Corpse, 1965

That say time will tell, and on Mrs. Gladys Jellicoe it had spilled everything. She was about fifty years old and quite well preserved: she looked like a mummy. Her eyes were the color of coffee with the grounds still in it, and her hair was the same interesting shade as her eyes; she had a face to unwind cuckoo clocks and a shape like an old girdle. – The Cheim Manuscript, 1969

I swung left into Mulberry Drive and headed back toward town, hoping Mayor Everson Fowler’s phone call to the local law had taken Sergeant Samuels and Officer Jonah off my tail for good. I was also hoping, with slight unease, that we’d been talking about the same people. – The Sweet Ride, 1972

Memoir Thoughts - "Bones, Blood & Butter"

I've been reading chef Gabrielle Hamilton's "Bones, Blood & Butter" and thinking about memoirs.

What compels someone to bare all, identifying thoughts that are so personal, so at risk for judgement? I put down the book with a realization that I know more of her inner thoughts than perhaps 99% of the people I love. I know so much and feel an intimate bond based solely on this knowledge, despite the fact that thousands of other people have also had this experience and despite the fact that it's unlikely I'll ever meet Ms. Hamilton.



I suppose although she's shared these stories and thoughts, she still keeps me (and her many readers) at a distance by virtue of the way I received this information - a book. I didn't hear these thoughts from her directly and unlike sharing between friends, there is no shared experience between the two of us, but simply a one-way, indirect connection. So although I know more of her inner life than I do my best friends or family, there is not the intimate connection, only the illusion of one.

All that said, I love her descriptions at the beginning of the book about the big party her family hosted each year and the traditions they created - all the tasks for the lamb roast and prepping the house and yard and the menu...



I hope soon to visit NYC and Prune (her restaurant in the Lower East Side). I think it will be odd if I catch a glimpse of Gabrielle and realize she's a complete stranger.

Photos above borrowed from http://bloodbonesandbutter.net

Thoughts on Writing, the Return to Blog!

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I’ve been attending a writing group and consequently I’m playing around with a story I have no intention of finishing, but I like the tinkering. This had led to thoughts of first sentences.

What makes a good first sentence? How much significance must it contain: just a tidbit or should it be literally dripping with meaning? I was drawn to my bookcases in search of good first sentences. After opening a few books to their first page, I was thinking about comparing the first sentences of books by the same author. There are few authors who I’ve collected more than a book here and there, especially since my aggressive culling of my library two months ago, the idea was to concentrate on only those books I needed in my possession and to visit my library more. I am a member of an amazing private library in downtown San Francisco, the Mechanics Institute Library. Just the name makes me swoon.

After scanning a few shelves I found six volumes, more honestly, paperbacks of Ross Macdonald (aka Kenneth Millar), that prolific mystery writer.

Here are his first sentences:

The cab turned off U.S. 101 in the direction of the sea. – The Moving Target, 1949

If you didn’t look at her face she was less than thirty, quick-bodied and slim as a girl. – The Drowning Pool, 1950

I was dreaming about a hairless ape who lived in a cage by himself. – The Doomsters, 1958

The law offices of Wellesley and Sable were over a savings bank on the main street of Santa Teresa. – The Galton Case, 1959

Coming over the pass you can see the whole valley spread out below. – The Wycherly Woman, 1961

It was August, and it shouldn’t have been raining. – The Far Side of the Dollar, 1964

* * * * * * * * * * *

Maybe this exercise doesn’t give the author a chance for a thought-out first impression. Perhaps the first paragraph would more interesting. Francine Prose in her book “Reading Like a Writer” quotes Rex Stout and his character Nero Wolfe: “A clever man might successfully disguise every element of his style but one—the paragraphing. Diction and syntax may be determined and controlled by rational processes in full consciousness, but paragraphing—the decision whether to take short hops or long ones, and whether to hop in the middle of a thought or action or finish it first—that comes from instinct, from the depths of personality.”

* * * * * * * * * * *

The cab turned off U.S. 101 in the direction of the sea. The road looped round the base a brown hill into a canyon lined with scrub oak. – The Moving Target, 1949

If you didn’t look at her face she was less than thirty, quick-bodied and slim as a girl. Her clothing drew attention to the fact: a tailored sharkskin suit and high heels that tensed her nylon-shadowed calves. But there was a pull of worry around her eyes and drawing at her mouth. The eyes were deep blue, with a sort of double vision. They saw you clearly, took you in completely, and at the same time looked beyond you. They had years to look back on, and more things to see in the years than a girl’s eyes had. About thirty-five, I thought, and still in the running. – The Drowning Pool, 1950

I was dreaming about a hairless ape who lived in a cage by himself. His trouble was that people were always trying to get in. It kept the ape in a state of nervous tension. I came out of sleep sweating, aware that somebody was at the door. Not the front door, but the side door that opened into the garage. Crossing the cold kitchen linoleum in my bare feet, I saw the first dawn at the window over the sink. Whoever it was on the other side of the door was tapping now, quietly and persistently. I turned on the outside light, unlocked the door, and opened it. – The Doomsters, 1958

The law offices of Wellesley and Sable were over a savings bank on the main street of Santa Teresa. Their private elevator lifted you from a bare little lobby into an atmosphere of elegant simplicity. It created the impression that after years of struggle you were rising effortlessly to your natural level, one of the chosen. – The Galton Case, 1959

Coming over the pass you can see the whole valley spread out below. On a clear morning, when it lies broad and colored under a white sky, with the mountains standing far back on either side, you can imagine it’s the promised land. – The Wycherly Woman, 1961

It was August, and it shouldn’t have been raining. Perhaps rain was too strong a word for the drizzle that blurred the landscape and kept my windshield wipers going. I was driving south, about halfway between Los Angeles and San Diego. – The Far Side of the Dollar, 1964

Rereading, certainly the single first sentences are easier to absorb and consider what set-up they might intend. Although I think I prefer the meatiness of the first paragraph. Macdonald seems to be pretty consistent with a paragraph of 2-3 sentences, with just a hint of promise of what's to come.



It's an interesting exercise to type out these sentences and consider the structure. I tend to get caught up immediately in a story and have trouble paying attention to the writing. I think I'll stick with mystery/detective fiction with my next author...who will it be?