Noir Nirvana isn’t found amid literary swells and hoity-toity art connoisseurs — but in the trenches of humble Eagle-Lion Films, where Richard Fleischer, Lloyd Bridges and a hotter-than-hot Barbara Payton steamed up the streets of Los Angeles circa 1949. The Film Noir Foundation experts give us an expertly curated slice of hardboiled crime — Eddie Muller dubs it ‘To Live and Die in L.A.,’ but in the year that the Reds took over mainland China, and the Ussr exploded its first Atom bomb.
Trapped
Blu-ray + DVD
Flicker Alley
1949 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 78 min. / Street Date December 17, 2019 / 39.98
Starring: Lloyd Bridges, Barbara Payton, John Hoyt, James Todd, Russ Conway, Robert Karnes, Stephen Chase, Tommy Noonan, Douglas Spencer.
Cinematography: Guy Roe
Film Editor: Alfred DeGaetano
Original Music: Sol Kaplan
Written by Earl Felton, George Zuckerman
Produced by Bryan Foy
Directed by Richard Fleischer
The Film Noir Foundation has done it again — the non-profit has...
Trapped
Blu-ray + DVD
Flicker Alley
1949 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 78 min. / Street Date December 17, 2019 / 39.98
Starring: Lloyd Bridges, Barbara Payton, John Hoyt, James Todd, Russ Conway, Robert Karnes, Stephen Chase, Tommy Noonan, Douglas Spencer.
Cinematography: Guy Roe
Film Editor: Alfred DeGaetano
Original Music: Sol Kaplan
Written by Earl Felton, George Zuckerman
Produced by Bryan Foy
Directed by Richard Fleischer
The Film Noir Foundation has done it again — the non-profit has...
- 12/17/2019
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Armored Car Robbery
Directed by Richard Fleischer
Written by Earl Felton, Gerald Drayson Adams et al.
U.S.A., 1950
The subject of a common argument amongst film lovers pertains to a given movie’s length. Was the movie too short, too long or just the right length? The easy answer is, naturally, that it depends on the film and what story the screenwriter and director want to tell. Said easy answer is but an open door to many other directly related questions, the most crucial being ‘How well do the screenwriters and director go about telling said story during the specified running time?’ That is where the real debate lies. Movie A required more time to flesh out character arcs, to which one can reply that, on the contrary, movie A is long enough as is. The shorter the film, the more economical the creators must be, although if done right,...
Directed by Richard Fleischer
Written by Earl Felton, Gerald Drayson Adams et al.
U.S.A., 1950
The subject of a common argument amongst film lovers pertains to a given movie’s length. Was the movie too short, too long or just the right length? The easy answer is, naturally, that it depends on the film and what story the screenwriter and director want to tell. Said easy answer is but an open door to many other directly related questions, the most crucial being ‘How well do the screenwriters and director go about telling said story during the specified running time?’ That is where the real debate lies. Movie A required more time to flesh out character arcs, to which one can reply that, on the contrary, movie A is long enough as is. The shorter the film, the more economical the creators must be, although if done right,...
- 7/7/2012
- by Edgar Chaput
- SoundOnSight
As I sit and look for something to watch, Groundhog Day pops up. A fun, fantastic
film that everyone enjoys. When others discuss time travel in relation to Back to
the Future, the time parodox discussion often passes over Groundhog Day…not any
more.
A cult classic comedy/drama starring former Saturday Night Live Alumi, comedic icon
Bill Murray. In the film, Murray plays Phil Connor’s, a disgruntled weatherman sent
to Puxatony, Pa to cover the Groundhog Day festivities. Unfortunately, Phil is
forced to relive the same day, getting stuck in a time loop…..but for exactly how
long?
First, let’s get to know the term Time Loop – Used mostly as a plot device in
Science Fiction (Doctor Who and Tru Calling used Time Loops), creating a
reoccurence/restart in time, after a few hours or maybe a day (as used in Groundhog
Day) with most losing memory of what happened.
film that everyone enjoys. When others discuss time travel in relation to Back to
the Future, the time parodox discussion often passes over Groundhog Day…not any
more.
A cult classic comedy/drama starring former Saturday Night Live Alumi, comedic icon
Bill Murray. In the film, Murray plays Phil Connor’s, a disgruntled weatherman sent
to Puxatony, Pa to cover the Groundhog Day festivities. Unfortunately, Phil is
forced to relive the same day, getting stuck in a time loop…..but for exactly how
long?
First, let’s get to know the term Time Loop – Used mostly as a plot device in
Science Fiction (Doctor Who and Tru Calling used Time Loops), creating a
reoccurence/restart in time, after a few hours or maybe a day (as used in Groundhog
Day) with most losing memory of what happened.
- 2/2/2012
- by Rob Dimension
- The Liberal Dead
Animal Kingdom
DVD & Blu-ray, Optimum
With the cinemas stuffed with movies about toys or superheroes, people who like their films to have dialogue that goes a little deeper than "Run!" and "Noooo!" can get their fix with this quietly stunning Australian crime drama.
Based on the lawless antics of Melbourne's Pettingill family, here renamed Cody, we're introduced to them when estranged 17-year-old family member Joshua (played by assured newcomer James Frecheville) calls for help when his mother overdoses. Soon it transpires that having a heroin-addicted mother is a relatively normal and safe way of life compared to the even more deadly routines the Codys live by day to day. The brothers of the family are in a constant battle with the police, winding them up so much that both sides ignore the law and play by high-stakes rules. He may be of the same blood, but Joshua is not cut from the same criminal cloth,...
DVD & Blu-ray, Optimum
With the cinemas stuffed with movies about toys or superheroes, people who like their films to have dialogue that goes a little deeper than "Run!" and "Noooo!" can get their fix with this quietly stunning Australian crime drama.
Based on the lawless antics of Melbourne's Pettingill family, here renamed Cody, we're introduced to them when estranged 17-year-old family member Joshua (played by assured newcomer James Frecheville) calls for help when his mother overdoses. Soon it transpires that having a heroin-addicted mother is a relatively normal and safe way of life compared to the even more deadly routines the Codys live by day to day. The brothers of the family are in a constant battle with the police, winding them up so much that both sides ignore the law and play by high-stakes rules. He may be of the same blood, but Joshua is not cut from the same criminal cloth,...
- 7/8/2011
- by Phelim O'Neill
- The Guardian - Film News
"It's not uncommon for movies to drop out of circulation and simply disappear, as fans of Deep End will attest," begins Ryan Gilbey in the Guardian. "Barely seen since its release in 1971, the film concerns Mike (played by John Moulder-Brown), a floppy-fringed 15-year-old who becomes dangerously infatuated with Susan (Jane Asher), his co-worker at the public baths. What's unusual about this prolonged absence is that it should have befallen a film so passionately admired. The influential critic Andrew Sarris thought it measured up to the best of Godard, Truffaut and Polanski. The New Yorker's Penelope Gilliatt called it 'a work of peculiar, cock-a-hoop gifts.' If something as venerated as Deep End can sink, what hope for the rest of cinema?"
Some, at least. After all, Jerzy Skolimowski's film, kept off screens for decades due to rights issues, has been restored and will screen tomorrow night at London's BFI Southbank,...
Some, at least. After all, Jerzy Skolimowski's film, kept off screens for decades due to rights issues, has been restored and will screen tomorrow night at London's BFI Southbank,...
- 5/3/2011
- MUBI
The past several years have seen a resurgence in interest in the Film Noir genre, not just in recreations via a host of films, but in the classics that started it all. That interest has spawned a series of releases on DVD, and The Film Noir Classic Collection Vol. 5 is filled with treats.
You might expect that we would be reaching by the time we got to the fifth installment, a set with eight films, but in some sense the opposite may be true here.
While not the biggest names in the genre, the set gives us some true favorites, as well as some great actors.
Cornered (1945):
From England to continental Europe to Buenos Aires, ex-rcaf pilot Dick Powell stalks the Nazi collaborator who murdered his bride. But one fact constantly surfaces during his quest: no one can describe the mysterious man. Joining Powell in the film shadows are...
You might expect that we would be reaching by the time we got to the fifth installment, a set with eight films, but in some sense the opposite may be true here.
While not the biggest names in the genre, the set gives us some true favorites, as well as some great actors.
Cornered (1945):
From England to continental Europe to Buenos Aires, ex-rcaf pilot Dick Powell stalks the Nazi collaborator who murdered his bride. But one fact constantly surfaces during his quest: no one can describe the mysterious man. Joining Powell in the film shadows are...
- 7/28/2010
- by Marc Eastman
- AreYouScreening.com
Film Noir Classic Collection: Vol. 5, has dusted off eight films of the celebrated genre and adapted them to DVD format. Collections like these, which bring older films to newer light, are godsends regardless (to a degree) of which films are selected, because as timeless as some of these stories and performances might be, the barrier of being stuck in an old format can bury them forever. And these stories deserve to be told. If you watch a few well made noir thrillers you will no doubt see the seeds that were planted in the heads of crime-thriller filmmakers the likes of Martin Scorsese or Michael Mann. Though there are better films in the noir genre that this collection could have culminated, there are also a lot worse. Any fan of noir films or old mysteries and thrillers will be pleased at what this box set has to offer.
Desperate (1947)
Directed...
Desperate (1947)
Directed...
- 7/20/2010
- by Ryan Katona
- JustPressPlay.net
There seems to be no exhausting the raw eyeball pleasure to be had from old-fashioned handmade (or semi-handmade, or whatever) animation, and we may be well living through a pop renaissance of it.
The eruptions below the Pixar/Dreamworks budget tier have been spectacular and international, beginning perhaps with 2003's "The Triplets of Belleville," learning from Miyazaki, Oshii, Aardman and the Quays, moving on to Kim Moon-saeng's "Sky Blue," machinima, "The Corpse Bride," "A Scanner Darkly," "Persepolis," "Coraline," "Waltz with Bashir," "Fantastic Mr. Fox," "Mary & Max," "Sita Sings the Blues," "Fear(s) in the Dark," "The Secret of Kells," and now the Belgian nonpareil "A Town Called Panic."
The variety of toolboxes and styles at work seem limitless (the seductive but uniform look of pure 3D computer animation is getting tiresome just as other approaches proliferate), but it's the personal engagement that makes most of the films sing.
Many of...
The eruptions below the Pixar/Dreamworks budget tier have been spectacular and international, beginning perhaps with 2003's "The Triplets of Belleville," learning from Miyazaki, Oshii, Aardman and the Quays, moving on to Kim Moon-saeng's "Sky Blue," machinima, "The Corpse Bride," "A Scanner Darkly," "Persepolis," "Coraline," "Waltz with Bashir," "Fantastic Mr. Fox," "Mary & Max," "Sita Sings the Blues," "Fear(s) in the Dark," "The Secret of Kells," and now the Belgian nonpareil "A Town Called Panic."
The variety of toolboxes and styles at work seem limitless (the seductive but uniform look of pure 3D computer animation is getting tiresome just as other approaches proliferate), but it's the personal engagement that makes most of the films sing.
Many of...
- 7/20/2010
- by Michael Atkinson
- ifc.com
The weekend’s here. You’ve just been paid, and it’s burning a hole in your pocket. What’s a pop culture geek to do? In hopes of steering you in the right direction to blow some of that hard-earned cash, it’s time for the Fred Weekend Shopping Guide - your spotlight on the things you didn’t even know you wanted…
(Please support Fred by using the links below to make any impulse purchases - it helps to keep us going…)
Shout Factory has settled into a pleasantly clockwork schedule of releasing new sets, but I still greet Mystery Science Theater 3000: Volume Xviii (Shout Factory, Not Rated, DVD-$59.97 Srp) with delight, because it means more episodes have made it out. This go round, we get Lost Continent, Crash Of The Moons, The Beast Of Yucca Flats, and Jack Frost. Bonus materials include new intros from Kevin Murphy & Frank Conniff,...
(Please support Fred by using the links below to make any impulse purchases - it helps to keep us going…)
Shout Factory has settled into a pleasantly clockwork schedule of releasing new sets, but I still greet Mystery Science Theater 3000: Volume Xviii (Shout Factory, Not Rated, DVD-$59.97 Srp) with delight, because it means more episodes have made it out. This go round, we get Lost Continent, Crash Of The Moons, The Beast Of Yucca Flats, and Jack Frost. Bonus materials include new intros from Kevin Murphy & Frank Conniff,...
- 7/16/2010
- by UncaScroogeMcD
DVD Links: DVD News | Release Dates | New Dvds | Reviews | RSS Feed
Insomnia I just posted my review of this Blu-ray and while this isn't exactly a personal favorite, fans of this film will particularly enjoy this release. The film looks and sounds great and it comes with a solid group of special features, especially Chris Nolan's commentary, presented in the order he shot the film. You can read my full review right here. Universal Catalog Blu-ray
Alpha Dog / Assault on Precinct 13 / In Bruges This is a decent trio of films although I have no real desire to watch Alpha Dog again and Assault on Precinct 13, while fun, could be replaced by just about any other action thriller you may already have in your collection. But, In Bruges, if you don't already own this one now is the time to pick it up. It's a great film and a ton of fun.
Insomnia I just posted my review of this Blu-ray and while this isn't exactly a personal favorite, fans of this film will particularly enjoy this release. The film looks and sounds great and it comes with a solid group of special features, especially Chris Nolan's commentary, presented in the order he shot the film. You can read my full review right here. Universal Catalog Blu-ray
Alpha Dog / Assault on Precinct 13 / In Bruges This is a decent trio of films although I have no real desire to watch Alpha Dog again and Assault on Precinct 13, while fun, could be replaced by just about any other action thriller you may already have in your collection. But, In Bruges, if you don't already own this one now is the time to pick it up. It's a great film and a ton of fun.
- 7/13/2010
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.