After running out of interest in current films and their juvenile subject matter, I've been renting many, many noirs, which I always knew about but had only seen a handful. It's been very enjoyable just as entertainment, but also for the changes in machismo & morality brought about by WW2. I'm also enjoying the look back at a slightly less ridiculous culture. Even when a guy screws up in these movies, they look noble. And this is definitely a movie where they guy screws up.
After seeing maybe fifteen noir films some of them begin to blur. The Big Combo is similar enough to Sidewalk that I couldn't remember which villain was in which, and I incorrectly thought this was the one with the gay henchmen (Whoops, that's Big Combo). It's hard to produce a moment that stands out, but there are some here. Two very nice pieces of camera work include; an interrogation in which the Lieutenent (Karl Malden) walks through a door and hits the perfect lighting cue, & a mobsters car arrives at a garage, proceeds into a car elevator (where the camera waits) and then exits on a different floor, all in one shot. Don Appel is great in a small role this.
Andrews has a rugged handsome face, put to it's best use in the The Best Years of Our Lives. He never overplays his hand, but he suffers photogenically. I do long for a villain that actually frightens me instead of just eliciting "Boos!" We've had 9 decades of that.
The DVD commentary is by Eddie Muller, an authority on noir films. He's occasionally boorish, but generally his remarks are funny, irreverent, insightful and much better than similar attempts at noir-commentary on "Postman Always Rings Twice" or "Out of the Past." I definitely appreciate the lesser-known noir titles he refers to (Underworld, Moonrise, The Prowler, The Man who Cheated Himself, Detective Story, Rogue Cop, Pushover, Shield for Murder, Private Hell 36, On Dangerous Ground, While the City Sleeps, The Big Heat etc.) and I'll keep my eyes peeled for them.
I actually prefer this to the previous Tierney/Andrews/Preminger vehicle "Laura." Thematically, it obviously influenced the creators of LA Confidential and Chinatown. And Insomnia seems to borrow a good deal of the set-up. Susan Alexander's apartment building exterior from Citizen Kane is reused here.
After seeing maybe fifteen noir films some of them begin to blur. The Big Combo is similar enough to Sidewalk that I couldn't remember which villain was in which, and I incorrectly thought this was the one with the gay henchmen (Whoops, that's Big Combo). It's hard to produce a moment that stands out, but there are some here. Two very nice pieces of camera work include; an interrogation in which the Lieutenent (Karl Malden) walks through a door and hits the perfect lighting cue, & a mobsters car arrives at a garage, proceeds into a car elevator (where the camera waits) and then exits on a different floor, all in one shot. Don Appel is great in a small role this.
Andrews has a rugged handsome face, put to it's best use in the The Best Years of Our Lives. He never overplays his hand, but he suffers photogenically. I do long for a villain that actually frightens me instead of just eliciting "Boos!" We've had 9 decades of that.
The DVD commentary is by Eddie Muller, an authority on noir films. He's occasionally boorish, but generally his remarks are funny, irreverent, insightful and much better than similar attempts at noir-commentary on "Postman Always Rings Twice" or "Out of the Past." I definitely appreciate the lesser-known noir titles he refers to (Underworld, Moonrise, The Prowler, The Man who Cheated Himself, Detective Story, Rogue Cop, Pushover, Shield for Murder, Private Hell 36, On Dangerous Ground, While the City Sleeps, The Big Heat etc.) and I'll keep my eyes peeled for them.
I actually prefer this to the previous Tierney/Andrews/Preminger vehicle "Laura." Thematically, it obviously influenced the creators of LA Confidential and Chinatown. And Insomnia seems to borrow a good deal of the set-up. Susan Alexander's apartment building exterior from Citizen Kane is reused here.