Summer of Darkness

[Janet]

This is a place for those of us who are taking the TCM Summer of Darkness course to talk about it, so we don't clutter up the TCM thread too much. It may be cheating to have our own discussion instead of going on the TCM boards, but THEY'RE NOT THE BOSS OF ME! Besides, I want to talk about other stuff than the Daily Dose of Darkness

Yesterday I had time so I decided to see what Noir TCM had available on demand. They didn't have much. I watched LA Confidential because I'd never seen it. I had heard it was good, but it was good in ways I didn't expect. What I really liked was the way it updated Noir conventions.

One of the aspects of Noir that I find easiest to grasp is the idea of a good person who finds himself in a corrupt world where the rules he is used to don't apply anymore. You would think that would be hard to pull off in our cynical times. But what LA Confidential did was just up the ante. Instead of good people shocked out of their beliefs/naïveté by evil, he took hard-boiled cynics and faced them with something so bad it shocked them out of their cynicism. I thought that was extremely effective.

So, what have you guys watched? Have you posted on the official boards? I haven't, but I suppose I should.

[livius drusus]

Excellent call to make a thread of one's own. I haven't posted on the official boards but I have followed the discussions.

Movie-wise, I binged like a crazy person this weekend and still only got halfway through Friday's offerings. I watched M, La Bete Humaine, The Letter, Stranger on the Third Floor and The Maltese Falcon. I was particuarly excited to see The Letter because of Bette Davis and, of course, my boyfriend Herbert Marshall. I'd only seen the clip of her shooting the guy in the beginning before. It was interesting to see a noir set on a plantation rather than in the urban jungle that is the more customary backdrop.

M I've seen before but not in ages and god I love Fritz Lang's visual language so much. It's like German Expressionism, Art Deco and Wes Anderson had a very unsettling baby. It was an excellent choice to kick off the course, imo, because it's like a transitional fossil between the crazed angled shadows of, say, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligary and those of noir classics like Double Indemnity. Stranger on the Third Floor was an interesting transitional piece, too. It was perhaps a little labored in its harkening back to Expressionism, but the way it was lit and shot made it a far better movie than the story ever could have done. It also brings noir fully into its urban context.

I didn't DVR LA Confidential because I've seen it very recently and I've probably watched it a dozen times anyway since I love it, own it and it's on cable all the time. Your point about cynics being shocked out of their cynicism is a good one that I hadn't thought about before. What about Ed Exley, though? He's cynical about other people's motivations and actions, but he's decidedly morally upright and doesn't think he needs to bend until very late in the movie.

[Janet]

I don't know about that. Exley is always a career person. Look at how he figures out exactly how to apply pressure to Hollywood Jack. He is an extremely cynical career man. He may have started with pure motives to get the men who get away with it, but even he knows he's gone far afield in climbing the ranks.

One thing I also like that I didn't mention is that they are all cynical in different ways. You have the excessive force guy, the career climber and the celebrity. It's like three different archetypes of corrupt cops who are all shocked at how the big fish really operate.

I didn't watch M again because I love it and own it and watched it recently. Same with The Maltese Falcon which I watched about two weeks ago. I've seen The Letter and La Bête Humaine before but it's been a while. I can watch all of them on the app, but I rarely feel like dealing with the tiny screen. I will make myself do it for Stranger on the Third Floor which is completely new to me.

[livius drusus]

I watched High Sierra last night. I liked it (Ida Lupino 4eva!), but it's unclear to me why it's classified as film noir, even a transitional one.

[BrotherMan]

I just watched Murder, My Sweet. Now, I only sort of understand what makes noir noir. And from my novice opinion it was a fantastic example of the genre. It went a long way reminding me of a couple of games that are said to be in the noir style.

The sequence where Marlowe was knocked unconscious and then drugged was fascinating. The game Max Payne almost completely used something just like this. As a game mechanic it was a bit tedious to play, but as part of the narrative for the character it was incredibly tense. There were a couple of times in the game where you, as Max, are unconscious and or near death. You have to walk along a narrow trail of blood to find a crying child. I don't explain it well as a lot of the details have been forgotten to me. But I swear it was taken from Murder, My Sweet.

As for the sequence in the movie, I loved every bit of it. The simple effects really did a number on me. And I got a good with the black pool transitions when Marlowe got knocked out.

And the story itself: It really had everything I've come to expect from a detective story. Even knowing that a person was up to no good or that a particular turn in the tale was going to happen, they were all so well done - so exemplary of the trope so to speak - that it didn't matter.

I only chose to record three movies today, and this was chosen because I saw Phillip Marlowe as the protagonist and that it wasn't Bogart playing him. It was great seeing someone else's take on the character.

[Janet]

I watched Born to Kill last night because I didn't like what was showing live. I had seen the second half of it before but didn't remember from the title. I found it hard to take this time, because they kept going on about how the male lead made every woman weak in the knees despite being an abusive asshole. In one of the earliest scenes he's described as someone who looks like he would wring your neck if you looked at another man, and the other two women all say how much they wish the could find a man like that. Yuck! Maybe if he had been played by someone as charismatic as Bogart I would have felt it, but this guy was a charisma vacuum. I still think it would have been yucky, though.

Maybe I'm just in a mood this week or maybe it's because TCM seems determined to show the lesser movies during prime time, but I'm not enjoying it like I thought I would. And I think part of the problem is the treatment of women. The women are always at fault. Even though the men aren't angels, the women are always worse. It's starting to grate. And the good women seem excessively helpless. It appears feminism is ruining noir for me. How sad.

[livius drusus]

I really enjoyed Nora Prentiss in large part because the eponymous lead character is surprisingly well-rounded. She's not evil, she's not to blame, she's not even misunderstood. She's just trying to live her life the best she can. Even when it all goes to hell, she's still on the level, as they so often say in old movies, and the tragic outcome doesn't take her down. You don't see a lot of that in Production Code movies.

Also Ann Sheridan is just great. She's a new favorite of mine.

[Janet]

I LOVED Nora Prentiss. I forgot it was part of this thing. It didn't feel very noir to me. That wife was straight up evil! I loved the rich lady who decided she was going to make Nora's store fashionable no matter what the bitties said.

[livius drusus]

That's a different movie, I'm afraid. Nora is a nightclub singer, and the lead's wife is uptight, but she's definitely not evil.

[Janet]

Man, now I can't remember the other movie. It was named for the female lead and I came in part way. It was more a melodrama, telling her whole life and I don't even remember the name of any of the stars. This is going to kill me.

[BrotherMan]

I FORGOT. The only thing I remembered to record in time was Get Carter.

[Janet]

Have you tried the TCM app? Also, I didn't get my Daily Dose of Darkness today. Maybe I'm being punished for not getting a perfect score on the quiz this week.

[BrotherMan]

I suppose I should try something new. The device I use the most, my phone, doesn't really have the horsepower for newer things. I keep meaning to trade up but circumstances don't allow that just yet. And my other device I usually use just for reading.

[BrotherMan]

The first I was aware of the existence of Key Largo was much long time ago. It was no earlier than 1981 that much I'm sure about. There was a new broadcast network coming into town and they had this heuge advertising push. They relentlessly used that song to encourage people to watch. And on a young suggestable bort like myself, it really really worked. I especially remember this time in my life also because it was a little sad. This was around the time my mom was in and out of hospitals a lot. I was supposed to be staying at a neighbor's house at the time. But I was determined to see what all the fuss was about with Bogey, Bacall and Key Largo. I busted out of my neighbor's prison and made my way home - in my mind's eye it wasn't even a quarter mile. And for all the fuss I made just to watch it, I don't remember anything about it. Part of it is because I got cold busted. I don't remember how much trouble I was in at the time or what my punishment was, if anything, other than causing consternation and worry to some really nice ladies.

It's been mumble-mumble years since then and only now, today, that I have actually, finally seen all of Key Largo. It doesn't match all the hype I built up in my head for it, but damn if it isn't one fine movie. I mean, it would have to be, right? Huston, Robinson in addition to Bogey and Bacall. If this couldn't be a success then nothing in the world ever could.

[Janet]

I like Key Largo, but Bacall's hair do is a LIE! I have tried on a number of occasions to wear that style and it doesn't stand up to a mild breeze, much less an impending hurricane.

I watched The Long Goodbye the other day. I guess I'm picking all the neo-noirs to watch on demand. I wasn't terribly impressed with Gould's take on Marlowe. The mumbling got on my nerves. I don't know that Marlowe is supposed to be as strong as Bogart played him, but I have a hard time accepting he was literally pussy-whipped enough to go out at 2:00am to buy cat food.

[Janet]

Has everyone kept up with this, or did you wane? I have been losing interest regularly. Some of the films have been great fun, but the relentless sexism of the femmes fatales got harder and harder to take. I actually blew it off all week until today. I watched all the Daily Doses on my lunch hour and then took the final. I wasn't sure I was going to, but since it was multiple choice and true or false and I'm a good test taker, I figured I might as well.

I didn't take any part in marking up the films. Did any of you do that? Was it fun?

I don't know if I mentioned it, but I keep finding the library's books on Noir left out on the reshelving cart. I figured one of the patrons was taking the course, but never knew who it was to talk to about it. Then I learned that the museum next door has stolen the idea and is having their own film noir class this fall, so it may have been their film curator looking at them.

So, in conclusion, I'm fairly burnt out on Noir right now. If I didn't have delightful things like Vincent Price's performance in His Kind of Woman to lighten the mood, I might have quit weeks ago.

[BrotherMan]

I've only been watching a few of the TCM shows. I didn't sign up for the class or nothing. I've been enjoying them for the most part.