Cash on Demand

Cash on Demand (Tubi) is a 1961 British Hammer Film Productions film noir starring Peter Cushing. It takes place during the Christmas season. It seems little known now but is well-reviewed.

via Daily Motion:

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I have accumulated quite a few little trees through the years. Some stay out all year while some get put away with Christmas decorations. Here are some of them:

Beware, My Lovely

Beware, My Lovely is a 1952 film noir starring Ida Lupino and Robert Ryan. It takes place during the Christmas holiday season. Available on YouTube or embedded below.

via Internet Archive:

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I have in the past framed a few Christmas cards to use as decorations, and this is one of those. The angels were bought in a local gift shop back in the early 1990s. This year I have these on the buffet in our dining room.

Dark Waters (1944)

Dark Waters is a 1944 American Gothic film noir starring Merle Oberon. I'm watching it because it has Elisha Cook, Jr. in it, and today is the anniversary of his death in 1995 at the age of 91. Before he died following a stroke he was the last surviving cast member of The Maltese Falcon, which might be his most well-known role. He's one of my favorites. I watched this movie on YouTube, embedded below. You can also watch it on Internet Archive.

Black Angel (1946)

Black Angel is a 1946 film noir directed as his final feature by Roy William Neill and starring Dan Duryea, June Vincent and Peter Lorre, with Broderick Crawford. The director died of a heart attack at the age of 59 later that same year. I saw this movie recommended on a list of little-known films noir one should make time for, so I made time. Peter Lorre is always an attraction.

via YouTube:

Slant Magazine says it "plumbs a world rife with deviousness, desperation, greed, and betrayal..." TCM has information. DVD Talk says, "If not a classic, it's still a good picture that provided Dan Duryea with a chance at stardom, for the first time playing the pivotal role..."

The Killing (1956)

The Killing is a 1956 film noir directed by Stanley Kubrick and starring Sterling Hayden and Elisha Cook, Jr. Cook is a favorite with us. Rodney Dangerfield has an uncredited role in this, his first film. A lesser known noir, it deserves more attention and is well worth watching.

free via YouTube, but it's "age-restricted" for some reason so you'll have to click through to YouTube to watch it:

Roger Ebert has it on his list of Great Movies. Filmsite calls it "a stylish but stark film noir crime drama, and the definitive heist-caper movie". The Criterion Collection calls it "one of Hollywood’s tautest, twistiest noirs". Turner Classic Movies has an overview. Rotten Tomatoes has a 96% critics concensus score.

I'm drinking my usual cuppa coffee (no whitener, no sugar):

Please share your own drink and join us at the T Stands for Tuesday blogger gathering.

Crime Wave

Crime Wave is a 1954 American crime/film noir starring Sterling Hayden and Gene Nelson. Charles Bronson is in this credited as Charles Buchinsky. It takes place during the Christmas holiday season.

via Internet Archive:

Noir of the Week concludes a positive review with this: "It’s a cheap, but delicious buffet of everything noir buffs hunger for — and the final few frames make for one hell of a dessert. It should be on many of those ubiquitous top-ten lists".

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I used to post more personal reflections on the blog but gradually drifted away from that somehow. During this new year I am going to try to share a bit more. We are still observing the larger Christmas season here, and that won't end 'til Twelfth Night. Epiphany is January 6th, and we'll have put all our Christmas decorations away by then. But for now, it's still Christmas. Happy Days of Christmas to you and yours! Savor the season. Enjoy each moment.

Sweet Smell of Success

Sweet Smell of Success is a 1957 film noir (I mean there are only about 3 movies that meet all the criteria for films noir) drama film starring Burt Lancaster and Tony Curtis. I watched it on Amazon Prime, but it's also available free on Tubi.

trailer:

Film Site opens their article with this: It is

an acerbic, dynamic and intense film that exposes the diseased under-side of New York City's glamorous night life, revealing brutality, capriciousness, greed, evil, psychological violence, corrupt American ambition, betrayal and cynicism. The taut, little-seen, menacing, late film noir classic is the first American film of Scottish director Alexander Mackendrick, better known for Ealing Studios light comedies such as Man in the White Suit (1951) and The Ladykillers (1955).

Rotten Tomatoes has a critics consensus score of 98%. Roger Ebert has it on his list of Great Movies.

99 River Street

99 River Street is 1953 film noir.

via Internet Archive:

Noir of the Week says, "The story is a knockout." DVD Talk highly recommends it. Rotten Tomatoes has a critics consensus score of 100%.

Here's a screenshot from early in the movie:

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See the coffee cups on that table in the background? Please share your own drink-related post and join me at the T Stands for Tuesday blogger gathering.

The Hitch-Hiker (1953)

The Hitch-Hiker, based on a true story, is a 1953 American film noir (so they say, but I see it more as a straight crime thriller) co-written and directed by Ida Lupino and starring Edmond O'Brien. It is the first American mainstream film noir directed by a woman.

via Youtube:

Deep Focus Review says, "The Hitch-Hiker most of all, uncovers [the director's] interest in the idyllic American Dream as a crumbling façade, behind which the individual is suppressed." Senses of Cinema has interesting background information. Rotten Tomatoes has a critics concensus score of 93%.

Hollow Triumph

Hollow Triumph is a 1948 crime film (usually classified as noir, but I don't see it) starring Paul Henreid and Joan Bennett. This is worth watching for the actors alone. It doesn't disappoint. I watched it on Amazon Prime, but it's also available at this Internet Archive link and on YouTube:

Pale Flower

Pale Flower is a 1964 Japanese film noir yakuza movie. A tragic story -it's film noir, after all.

via Internet Archive:

Criterion calls it a "cool, seductive jewel of the Japanese New Wave". High on Films says it's "Shinoda’s first masterpiece, a film that chronicled the existential dread of a middle-aged yakuza". Senses of Cinema says, "Pale Flower/Kawaita hana is both a genre movie and an art movie. It is a contemporary yakuza film, made at the start of the golden age of the genre (which lasted from 1963 to 1973)".

Roger Ebert has this on his list of Great Movies and says,

"Pale Flower" is one of the most haunting noirs I've seen, and something more; in 1964 it was an important work in an emerging Japanese New Wave of independent filmmakers, an exercise in existential cool. It involves a plot, but it is all about attitude.

Rotten Tomatoes has both critics and audience consensus scores of 91%.

I Wake Up Screaming

I Wake Up Screaming is a 1941 film noir starring Betty Grable, Victor Mature, Carole Landis, Laird Cregar, and Elisha Cook.

via Internet Archive:

Rotten Tomatoes has a critics consensus score of 86%.

Here's a screenshot from the movie for the T Stands for Tuesday blogger gathering:

Danger Signal (1945)

Danger Signal is a 1945 film noir starring Faye Emerson and Zachary Scott. I watched it online at this link. There are so many great films noir out there I'm not sure why you'd want to see this one. It's better than nothing, but that's never the choice, is it.

trailer:

Rotten Tomatoes has an audience rating of 41%.

The Strange Affair of Uncle Harry

The Strange Affair of Uncle Harry is a 1945 film noir directed by Robert Siodmak and starring George Sanders. Those two names are enough to watch the movie for. I watched it on YouTube:

DVD Talk says it "should have been a celebrated classic. It's a perfect little picture of its kind, with impressive performances and an intriguing theme. But it couldn't find its way around a censorship problem..." The Spinning Image says, " Sanders had one of his best roles as the downtrodden but polite title character." Rotten Tomatoes has a concensus score of 80%.

Fear (1946)

Fear is an hour-long 1946 film adaptation of the main plot of Fyodor Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment. I watched it on Tubi.

Where Danger Lives says it is "an inventive, exciting, and thought-provoking little movie" despite its flaws. TCM has an overview.

The Judge (1949)

The Judge is a 1949 film noir. I watched it on YouTube, but it's in the public domain so readily available.

TCM has an overview.

Raw Deal

Raw Deal is a 1948 American film noir crime film directed by Anthony Mann and starring Dennis O'Keefe, Claire Trevor, Marsha Hunt, John Ireland, Raymond Burr, and Whit Bissell.

via Internet Archive:

Senses of Cinema has an in-depth article that says in part, "It’s one of those noirs where you hold your breath, where its tension gets your heart rate up almost so you can hear it beating" and "It is this heavy, claustrophobic air, as thick as the fog that crowds the city streets and captured so iconically by Alton, that makes Raw Deal such a masterful example of noir. That fog has become famous..." and noting that "With all of its visual achievements, Raw Deal is notable, too, for its use of female voiceover."

Time Out says, "The action is sharp, the characterisation vivid" and calls it "A fine noir thriller, product of the dream marriage between Mann's direction and John Alton's camera." Rotten Tomatoes has a critics concensus score of 100%.

Stranger on the Third Floor

Stranger on the Third Floor is a 1940 film noir starring Peter Lorre and John McGuire. Elisha Cook Jr. is also in this, and it's always good to see him. Whether or not it's actually noir is debatable, but that's what Wikipedia says.

Noir of the Week calls it "The Film that Gave "Birth" to the Style called Film Noir". Time Out calls it "a remarkable film". DVD Talk calls it "a masterpiece in miniature." Rotten Tomatoes has a critics consensus score of 86%.

Blast of Silence

Blast of Silence is a 1961 neo-noir that takes place during the Christmas holiday season.

Blood Simple

Blood Simple is a 1984 neo-noir crime film directed by Joel and Ethan Coen (their directorial debut), and starring John Getz, Frances McDormand (her feature-film debut), Dan Hedaya, and M. Emmet Walsh. I watched it on HBO Max. This film is listed in the book 1,0001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, and I'm finding the films on this list to be well worth seeking out.

trailer:

BBC says, "Intriguing, clever, and often surprisingly funny there's plenty to please in this thriller, that remains fresh and original." Roger Ebert says, "The genius of "Blood Simple" is that everything that happens seems necessary. ... Step by inexorable step, logically, one damned thing leads to another." Rotten Tomatoes has a critics concensus score of 94%.

This scene at the bar is from early in the film and came from Film Grab:

Please post something drink-related and join me at the T Stands for Tuesday blogger gathering hosted by Bleubeard and Elizabeth.