HOUSE OF NOIR

[Dewey1960]

ChiO - Thanks for an utterly fantastic take on an eerie slab of TV Noir!! Tourneur certainly doesn't seem to be hindered by the rigors and pitfalls of television, adapting his themes and visual ideas quite nicely to the small screen. Thanks for bringing this dark gem to the surface!

[JackFavell]

I haven't watched yet, but it sounds fantastic! Thank you for posting this Tourneur television show!

[Dewey1960]

Continuing on in this sinister vein of otherworldly TV NOIR,
the House of Noir presents "The Sixteen Millimeter Shrine"
from THE TWILIGHT ZONE. This eerie episode starred Ida
Lupino and was directed by Mitchell Leisen.
Submitted for your approval...at the House of Noir.
Part One
[youtube][/youtube]
Part Two
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Part Three
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[JackFavell]

Mitchell Leisen + Noir = HUH?

[Dewey1960]

Amazing, ain't it?

[Mr. Arkadin]

A recurring theme in Tourneur’s films is the issue of the integration of an outsider in the community. Here, there are two outsiders: Elva, cut off from her community and family, and Brian, cut off from life. Margaret and Miss Finch try through rationality to bring Elva into their reality, but she rejects those efforts. Similarly, Brian tries to make contact with Elva, but is rejected until she accepts his reality and, then, he rejects her.

Tourneur makes wonderful use of various juxtapositions: Elva, while Margaret is with her, complaining that she is alone; Brian reaching out to Elva and being told to leave her alone; a telephone line, a life line of sorts for Elva to contact people outside of her house, fallen on a grave and being now either a life line or a death line. Like the best of Tourneur’s film noir, NIGHT CALL blurs the line between reality and unreality, the rational and irrational, and respects the intelligence of the audience to decipher the film’s meaning(s).

I wanted to comment on this earlier, but did not have time until now.

An entertaining and engaging write up Mr. ChiO, of one of my personal favorites of the TZ series.

Much of Tourneur's best work deals with the supernatural to some extent, but as you carefully noted, this is a backdrop of contrast on which to explore human nature. Often, we find ourselves upset when personal desires are not met, but Elva's selfishness is perhaps one of the better examples of how destructive we can be to ourselves (not to mention others).