Noir 101. The Essentials. Crime Wave. Really? If this little policier from Warner Bros. (filmed in 1952, released in ’54) isn’t part of your vocabulary then it needs to be; and considering it was finally released on DVD a few…
Read more →Film Noir
Jane Russell: On the Dark Side
Guest blogger Karen Burroughs Hannsbery writes: When I think of film noir fatales, Jane Russell is not necessarily the first name that springs to mind. Known mainly for her singing and comedic talents, as well as her voluptuous figure and…
Read more →It’s Not a Threat, It’s a Promise: Film Noir Quotes Part II
Previously on MovieFanFare guest blogger Karen Burroughs Hannsberry presented an assortment of her favorite film noir quotes. Today she’s back with more of her favorite selections of hard-boiled dialogue: You gotta love the language of film noir. Hard-boiled, cynical, straight…
Read more →Film Noir: From Heroes to Heels, Favorite Film Noir Quotes
Guest blogger Karen Burroughs Hannsberry writes: Film noir, arguably, offers some of the best quotes in all cinema. Along with noir’s distinctive characters, shadowy presentations, labyrinthine plot tangles, and cynical, hopeless tone, it is the hard-boiled dialogue that makes it…
Read more →Robert Mitchum in The Yakuza: The Strange Stranger
“When an American cracks up, he opens a window and shoots up a bunch of strangers. When a Japanese cracks up, he closes the window and kills himself.” – Richard Jordan in The Yakuza The Yakuza (1974) has a pretty…
Read more →14 Hours (1951): Guest Review
14 Hours is a great, suspenseful, noir type film. The film is based on the story “Man on a Ledge” and according to the folks at Fox, the film is actually based on an incident in 1938 in which a…
Read more →Out of the Past (1947): Movie Review
Guest blogger Dave writes: If you watch only one film from the noir genre in your lifetime, make sure that one film is Out of the Past (1947). Every fundamental element used in the making of a great noir film…
Read more →Sabotage (1936): A Forgotten Hitchcock Gem
Guest blogger Kim Wilson writes: I recently wrote a review of The 39 Steps, and based on the comments it elicited I came to the conclusion that Alfred Hitchcock’s pre-Hollywood films are often overlooked or even forgotten. I’m sure there…
Read more →The Lady from Shanghai (1947): A Guest Movie Review
Guest blogger Richard Finch writes: What a dilemma The Lady from Shanghai provokes. Orson Welles is in my directors’ pantheon, so I want to like the movie more than I do. Individual parts of it contain moments of great brilliance,…
Read more →I Was a Communist for the FBI (1951)
In 1945 John E. Rankin, the long serving, bombastic, and racist congressman from Mississippi stated “one of the most dangerous plots ever instigated for the overthrow of this government has its headquarters in Hollywood … the greatest hotbed of subversive…
Read more →