Noir Alley

[ElCid]

Testing one two three adding a new post to this topic so it comes up when you log in. This is the thread. Navigation is killing me. It’s much more complicated than the one that shut down.

No fear, it will get easier. I felt that way too but I am warming up to it. Every post gets a front and center. There is something good in that. The first look in the morning gives you the most recent posts. It's like reading the morning paper, you don't know what you'll get. If you are not into breaking news, you can always descend to a favorite thread below. There are some folks who are participating in in the Trivia and Games that I don't remember seeing before (as I frequented some of them over there). The are posting because they have been introduced to them by the "morning newspaper." Knowing your post will get at least a front page exposure is good, even though it may go unliked, unthanked, UnFunnied, and Unquoted. At least it had a moment in the sun, though perhaps for not long. In Sight means In Mind. All this which presupposes there is value in Community.

I'm not missing the TCM Board, which is almost shocking to me. On that Board, individual threads are insular, they get a "local" appearance but remain unknown to the general crowd, i.e. no inclusion. Which may not be a good thing, I am thinking just now that if all the Political posts on TCM had been funneled through a Recent Topics thread, i.e. the front page potentially viewed by all) like we have here, the political threads would not have lasted long, the general outcry may have been to strong. Favorite threads that may or not may turn into "cliques" (made of members who go to one thread or maybe a few and nowhere else.) Hell rages in the political threads which drives folks away from the good threads in Off-Topic TCM. And there have two or three already who have told me that they never knew of my Classical Music Thread because they did not know it was even there.. The genre threads were a series of ghost towns. There were some who used it but I would opine not that many. I didn't post down there because I was under the impression that there was a lack of traffic. Now if all those posts had been housed in a forum where each post was front page fodder, then

I think a lot of people, myself included, avoided all the genre threads because there were so many of them. Sometimes I would go to one and find out no one had posted in months, if not years.

[EP Millstone]

. . . Favorite threads that may or not may turn into "cliques" (made of members who go to one thread or maybe a few and nowhere else.) . . .

Yeah, I never got why some TCM Message Board members never ventured beyond one topic/forum.

There was a Great Big Wide Wonderful World of topics on the TCM Message Boards. But some folks just stayed in one or two "clubs" where they "held court" and fraternized in cliques.

[laffite]

. . . Favorite threads that may or not may turn into "cliques" (made of members who go to one thread or maybe a few and nowhere else.) . . .

Yeah, I never got why some TCM Message Board members never ventured beyond one topic/forum.

There was a Great Big Wide Wonderful World of topics on the TCM Message Boards. But some folks just stayed in one or two "clubs" where they "held court" and fraternized in cliques.

Well, they were following their own interests, I guess. I am not dissing your comment. You are absolutely right. I am remiss perhaps in using "cliques" which is a pejorative term. I was pushing the idea of the virtues of this system at SSO may prevent (not maliciously) insular habits because the Recent Topics could at least offer a view of something new (if they even care to look )

[Hibi]

Is there anyone interested in discussing Walk Softly, Stranger????

[laffite]

Is there anyone interested in discussing Walk Softly, Stranger????

I probably forfeit my comments because I didn't mind the ending. In the outro, Eddie thought that the ending might have come when Cotton got into the car with the three men. That was my thought too, and as it happened. They might have had a couple of mop up scenes to ease out of story. Though it was not hard to believe from the start that Cotton was bad guy, I still liked the way they peeled the onion and let us see him evolve. I wonder if a correct reading would have had him foreshadow his badness in some small way that would have in accordance in the principle of that convention. IMO Cotton might not have been the best actor for the job. I was curious what he was going to do Valli. She could have been exploited for big bucks. To see him actually fall in love here is a misdirect of sorts, and leads to the unpopularity of the ending. it was nice though to see her smile for a change and I liked the way she looked at the nightclub, with glamorized but skimpy hairdo. I hated her regular hairdo but that was conventional for the time. Paul Stewart is very good. He showed more depth than Cotton, imo. I don't know if I have ever seen Spring Byington so real. Way to go, Spring. This is the second time in a row (or within the last three weeks) where there has been a change at the end. The other that political film from Spain. I liked the the scene that they went for him though it might have a little cheesy for a really food Art film.

What did you think, Snoopy?
I didn't watch it. I was in my house reading War and Peace.

[laffite]

Is there anyone interested in discussing Walk Softly, Stranger????

I probably forfeit my comments because I didn't mind the ending. In the outro, Eddie thought that the ending might have come when Cotton got into the car with the three men. That was my thought too, and as it happened. They might have had a couple of mop up scenes to ease out of story. Though it was not hard to believe from the start that Cotton was bad guy, I still liked the way they peeled the onion and let us see him evolve. I wonder if a correct reading would have had him foreshadow his badness in some small way that would have in accordance in the principle of that convention. IMO Cotton might not have been the best actor for the job. I was curious what he was going to do Valli. She could have been exploited for big bucks. To see him actually fall in love here is a misdirect of sorts, and leads to the unpopularity of the ending. it was nice though to see her smile for a change and I liked the way she looked at the nightclub, with glamorized but skimpy hairdo. I hated her regular hairdo but that was conventional for the time. Paul Stewart is very good. He showed more depth than Cotton, imo. I don't know if I have ever seen Spring Byington so real. Way to go, Spring. This is the second time in a row (or within the last three weeks) where there has been a change at the end. The other that political film from Spain. I liked the the scene that they went for him though it might have a little cheesy for a really good Art film.

What did you think, Snoopy?
I didn't watch it. I was in my house reading War and Peace.

I didn't mind the ending, either, because it was the proper ending for a romantic drama, no matter how unlikely. I missed Eddie's intro, so I don't know if he discussed why he considers it noir. "Good-looking man redeemed by the love of a good woman": I won't say that that's every woman's dream, but it's common enough that many a story has used it.

Eddie was giving away a lot in the intro. I had to stop and skip to the movie but came afterwards to finish the intro.. In the intro he distinguished the 'near miss' and 'total misfires' as well as the good noirs. He makes clear that this one was a TM. He spoke well of the movie before the ending, noting that the shifts from noir and romance "and back again" was not badly done, calling it "engrossing." But he parts way with the ending, saying "nobody liked the ending." He didn't get too precise and so did not reveal the exact ending of the movie. But he made clear it was a "disaster."If you saw the outro you know all about the Howard Hughs, the shelving of the movie out of disgust, and it's first issue after "The Third Man" was released which, as you know, starred the same two stars, trying to make the public think that WSF was just made.

Eddie also it was easy to figure out that Cotton was a bad guy because of his shifty eyes. I said earlier that Cotton did not foreshadow his dark side well enough and I stand by that, though Eddie's remark is not totally lost on me.

[Hibi]

Once again, thanks Eddie for the spoilers in the intro! What's with him lately??? I left the room but I could still hear a bit of it. Should've thought to hit the mute button instead. As it turned out I didn't much care as I didn't like the movie. Not just the ridiculous ending. I found it slow and just not engaging. I couldn't get over the change in Valli. She looked like almost a different person from The Third Man. The romance felt forced and unconvincing. Once whiney Paul Stewart showed up I threw in the towel. UGH! The movie started out so well too. What a misfire. I can see why it bombed.

[ElCid]

This week-ends feature is Mr. Soft Touch with Glenn Ford, Evelyn Keyes and John Ireland. Sounds familiar, but not sure if I have seen it or not.

[jamesjazzguitar]

This week-ends feature is Mr. Soft Touch with Glenn Ford, Evelyn Keyes and John Ireland. Sounds familiar, but not sure if I have seen it or not.

Mr. Soft Touch setting is Christmas time. A very light hearted noir with good chemistry between Ford and Keyes. Ireland is somewhat wasted as a news reporter (I wish he had played one of the hood).

[laffite]

I didn't know who I was looking at. Later learning her name I recognized the name but had no idea what she looked like. I kept thinking of Marie Windsor or Deborah Kerr, but even I knew that it was neither of them. What a good looking woman. Glenn Ford was stellar. He can sure carry a movie, no offense Evelyn. I love that name. I agree with James, John Ireland is a surprise in that role. They had him wear glasses as if that was going to fix it. And James is also right about the chemistry, I was identify so much with Glenn because she was so sophisticated and a trifle uppity and I like women like that. But they have to have a face like that. The next time a woman asks me what my beliefs are I'll just say let's say my beliefs are among the missing I am distracted right now because I lifted money from these dumb teenagers who said they were gambling in order to buy a getaway car and they want their money back. Did anyone else like the fake wife? So loyal and dependable. I took down the trash. Jenny Jones? Jenny Jones? A literary name! Too bad Snoopy isn't here. He would know but he's abroad. Did anyone notice Ray Teal? Uncredited. There was a lot of good will messaging. Community Chest! I have heard that one in a while. And a hero who just keeps on giving.

[Cinemaspeak59]

City of Fear (1959) This was featured a while back on Noir Alley. It’s a noir with bigger stakes than falling under the spell of a beautiful woman, and having her seduce you into doing away with her rich husband. City of Fear takes off as a convict breaks out of jail with a canister he believes contains heroin that he can sell and make a fortune. Instead, it contains Cobalt-60, radioactive material that airborne will wipeout Los Angeles. A good performance is turned in by Vince Edwards as the twitchy escaped prisoner. City of Fear has a nice blend of monochrome on-location L.A. scenery, and studio sets. A classic noir interior is the police station, and cityscape vistas of L.A. at night are heady. Look for product placement as well, such as a Texaco gas station, Firestone tires, and Motorola Geiger counters. As Eddie Muller stated in his intro, the low budget in no way diminishes the quality of the film. Oh, and that small point about how a low-level hood could possess Cobalt-60? Well, it’s casually mentioned, and mentioned no more, that the government was using it to experiment on prisoners. As Eddie said, if City of Fear were made in 1979, then we have a completely different movie.

[ElCid]

Mr. Soft Touch was better than I remembered. Thought it was interesting that the author just kept rewriting the same plot and the studios kept on buying them. But it worked well. Nice bit of Christmas noir.

[Thompson]

Mr. Soft Touch looked to be a drag to me, with Glenn Ford playing the angsty hang dog character with some stupid soft touch. Hey - I was wrong. Ford was great! Like Laffite I was mesmerized by his performance. He was really good. Sure there were some plot problems but who cares. There is another reason why this movie works — the music. Not once during the film was I aware of the music. That to me is remarkable. That’s the way it should be. This guy Heinz Roemheld has quite the reputation. Evelyn Keyes was great as well. There was that chemistry. You can always tell when the kissing scene comes up between the two leads and you sense the actors hate each other.

[Thompson]

I also really liked the Santa switcharoo at the end, and the smashed up windshield and another scene with a big bullet hole in the side window, Ford behind the wheel.