Kiss me deadly 1955 - A terrific film noir with the famously enigmatic ending

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IMDB Rating: 7,7

Director: Robert Aldrich
Main Cast: Ralph Meeker, Albert Dekker, Paul Stewart, Juano Hernandez, Wesley Addy, Marian Carr

"Regarded by many critics as the ultimate film noir, and by many more as the finest movie adaptation of a book by Mickey Spillane, Kiss Me Deadly stars Ralph Meeker as Spillane's anti-social private eye Mike Hammer in the ultimate Cold War paranoia investigation. With macho 'bedroom dick' Hammer using any violence necessary, this darkest of 1950s films noirs sends him on a search for the 'Great Whatsit', an ominously incandescent box encompassing America's nuclear nightmares, as well as man's deepest fears about unpredictably explosive female potency. Starring Ralph Meeker as the brutal Hammer, Kiss Me Deadly is shot through with Aldrich's anarchic sensibility, from Cloris Leachman's desperate opening run along a pitch-black road to the final apocalyptic conflagration. While the film was dismissed by U.S. reviewers, the French Cahiers du cinéma critics praised Kiss Me Deadly's hysterically expressionist style and singular power, as then-critic François Truffaut declared Aldrich the revelation of 1955. Later rediscovered by American film buffs, Kiss Me Deadly has since assumed its rightful place in the film noir pantheon, and films from Alex Cox's Repo Man (1984) to Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction (1994) have paid homage to that evocatively glowing container. The apocalyptic climax is doubly devastating because we're never quite certain if Hammer survives (he doesn't narrate the story, as was the case in most Mike Hammer films and TV shows). Director Robert Aldrich and scriptwriter Jack Moffit transcend Kiss Me Deadly's basic genre trappings to produce a one-of-a-kind melodrama for the nuclear age. The 1998 restoration returned the final minute-and-a-half of footage to 35mm prints, dramatically altering the film's conclusion." - www.allmovie.com

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The big heat 1953 - Intense and powerful film noir classic

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IMDB Rating: 8,0

Director: Fritz Lang
Main Cast: Glenn Ford, Gloria Grahame, Jocelyn Brando, Alexander Scourby, Lee Marvin, Jeanette Nolan

"One of the later examples of American film noir, The Big Heat is also one of the genre's most underrated films. Director Fritz Lang utilized many of the elements typical to his other films: unseen yet gruesome violence, relentless pacing, and a hardboiled view of justice and revenge. The sad, realist film has an oppressive feeling of malignity. Glenn Ford is a perfect everyman cop, out for revenge against criminals as well as other cops. In this way, The Big Heat marks a significant transition between the crime movies of two different eras. Prior to the early 1970s, police dramas tended to pit police in very clear opposition to the men in the black hats, with the notable exceptions of On Dangerous Ground or The Big Combo. After the culture shock of the late 1960s and early 1970s, however, films like Dirty Harry, The French Connection and Serpico began an obsession with the ambivalent emotions that make a policeman and his department tick. In many ways, The Big Heat was a precursor for these films, both in theme and tone." - www.allmovie.com

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The big sleep 1946 - One of the most influential detective movies

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IMDB rating: 8,1

Director: Howard Hawks
Main Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, John Ridgely, Martha Vickers, Dorothy Malone

"The definitive Humphrey Bogart/Lauren Bacall vehicle, The Big Sleep casts Bogart as Raymond Chandler's cynical private eye Philip Marlowe. Summoned to the home of the fabulously wealthy General Sternwood (Charles Waldron), Marlowe is hired to deal with a blackmailer shaking down the General's sensuous, thumb-sucking daughter Carmen (Martha Vickers). This earns Marlowe the displeasure of Carmen's sloe-eyed, seemingly straight-laced older sister Vivian (Bacall), who is fiercely protective of her somewhat addled sibling. As he pursues the case at hand, Marlowe gets mixed up in the murder of Arthur Geiger (Theodore von Eltz), a dealer in pornography. He also runs afoul of gambling-house proprietor Eddie Mars (John Ridgely), who seems to have some sort of hold over the enigmatic Vivian. Any further attempts to outline the plot would be futile: the storyline becomes so complicated and convoluted that even screenwriters William Faulkner, Leigh Brackett, and Jules Furthmann were forced to consult Raymond Chandler for advice (he was as confused by the plot as the screenwriters). When originally prepared for release in 1945, The Big Sleep featured a long exposition scene featuring police detective Bernie Ohls (Regis Toomey) explaining the more obscure plot details. This expository scene was ultimately sacrificed, along with several others, in favor of building up Bacall's part; for instance, a climactic sequence was reshot to emphasize sexual electricity between Bogart and Bacall, obliging Warners to replace a supporting player who'd gone on to another project. The end result was one of the most famously baffling film noirs but also one of the most successful in sheer star power." - www.allmovie.com

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Arsene Lupin 1932 - The first screen pairing of the Barrymore brothers

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IMDB rating: 7,0

Director: Jack Conway
Main Cast: John Barrymore, Lionel Barrymore, Karen Morley, John Miljan, Tully Marshall

"John Barrymore plays a burglar and his brother Lionel Barrymore is the detective trying to catch him in this cleverly cast drama. An upscale thief who works under the name of Arsene Lupin is making the rounds of the homes of the wealthy and privileged, and Detective Guerchard (Lionel Barrymore) is determined to track him down. What he doesn't know is that the suave and sophisticated Duke of Charmerace (John Barrymore) is actually the man behind the robberies. Will Guerchard find out the thief's true identity before he can execute a daring theft from the Louvre Museum? Karen Morely co-stars as Sonia, the Duke's love interest.
When it debuted in 1932, the big news about Arsene Lupin was that it was the first screen pairing of the legendary Barrymore brothers. Modern audiences, who have had the chance to see them in several of their subsequent screen teamings, won't approach Arsene with the same sense of anticipation, but they'll likely find themselves quite entertained with the result, especially if they are fans of Raffles-type 'gentleman thief' stories. The screenplay of Arsene is solid, setting up the situations with skill and making sure that all of the parts are in their proper places. The writers do a fine job of keeping the audience guessing as to the identity of the title character until more than halfway into the film and it is only in the climax that the viewer is really certain that his guess is right. Jack Conway directs efficiently, with an eye on atmosphere and tension but also making sure that the appropriate light moments are given equal play. And he is very careful to spotlight 'the big show': the scenes in which John Barrymore and Lionel Barrymore share the screen and perform their own special brand of dramatic dueling. They're in beautiful form, sparring delightfully off of each other and giving their fans plenty to relish. All in all, Arsene is a treat for fans of light mystery entertainment." - www.allmovie.com

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(Arsene Lupin Double Feature: Arsene Lupin 1932 & Arsene Lupin Returns 1938)

Murder at midnight 1931 - Standard 30's murder mystery

Publicity picture of Alice White circa 1931

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IMDB rating: 5,7

Director: Frank R. Strayer
Main Cast: Aileen Pringle, Alice White, Hale Hamilton, Robert Elliott

"A sophisticated, expensively-dressed group of people gather in a spooky old mansion to watch the first performance of a play. The highlight of the production is a realistic on-stage murder, wherein the victim is shot point-blank, right through the heart, as the clock strikes 12. The audience applauds enthusiastically as the 'victim' falls dead, but the applause subsides and gives way to screams of terror when it turns out that the murder is for real! With everyone in the mansion under suspicion - including, naturally, the butler - the cops are baffled, and even more so when the primary suspect ends up as victim number two. 'This isn't a murder case, it's an epidemic!' moans one of the detectives. Intricately plotted, and with a genuinely surprising solution, Murder at Midnight is far and away superior to your average low-budget mystery. Poor 'blonde dumbbell' Alice White was often given short shrift by bluenosed reviewers who found her coarse, but she is really quite amusing in this above-average whodunit from Tiffany Productions, which came with surprisingly sturdy production values and a good screenplay by W. Scott Darling and director Frank R. Strayer. So good, in fact, that Darling used it again in 1939 as Mr. Wong in Chinatown and for the 1947 Charlie Chan mystery The Chinese Ring. Neither of the remakes, however, employed White, whose starring career fizzled in the early '30s." - www.allmovie.com

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The black camel 1931 - The earliest surviving film of the Charlie Chan series

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0021668/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
IMDB rating: 7,3

Director: Hamilton MacFadden
Main Cast: Warner Oland, Sally Eilers, Bela Lugosi, Dorothy Revier, Robert Young

"The Black Camel is one of the more watchable mystery films from the early 1930s, despite the fact that it suffers from many of the usual difficulties that one encounters in movies of this vintage. It is the earliest circulating (and perhaps existing) of Fox's Charlie Chan films and only the second movie to star Warner Oland as Chan. It does offer the treat of seeing Chan operating on his home turf, where he is a highly respected member of the police department rather than an interloper, and also of taking in Warner Oland's fresh, lively self-effacing performance as the police inspector - even the aphorisms, including the one referred to obliquely in the title ('Death is a black camel that kneels unbidden at every gate'), sound fresh, and in place of his Number One and Number Two sons, the comic relief is provided by a well-meaning but overly enthusiastic assistant (Otto Yamaoka) from the police force. It does have the drawbacks of many movies made in the early sound era, including a relatively immobile camera and shots that linger just a little too long for their own good, some stretches of dialogue (not involving the leads) that is enunciated just a little too carefully to let a scene flow smoothly, and a complete absence of background music except for source music (in this case, all Hawaiian). The main reason for the movie's lingering appeal today lies in the quality of the acting on the part of Oland and Bela Lugosi, and supporting players Murray Kinnell, Victor Varconi, and Sally Eilers - they're animated and interesting enough to keep the film moving, and it's fascinating to see Oland and Lugosi in such relatively youthful and unmannered performances, early in their careers. Because of the combination of the mystery - which is rooted in an unsolved Hollywood murder of the late '20s, and resounds with then-contemporary sensationalism about the dark side of the movie capital - and the extensive location shooting in Hawaii, this is a fun film to watch for a lot of reasons beyond what one would expect from a basic Charlie Chan movie. It also includes a very important scene depicting Chan's unofficial side, as an exasperated but loving family man, which distinguished the screen character from other sleuths of the period, and helped to make Chan a much more fully drawn character than critics usually acknowledge." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/the-black-camel-v85166/

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(Sorry, this time I couldn't embed the video)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mn-VkUp18Dw

The Bishop murder case 1930 - A very satisfying Philo Vance entry

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0020695/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
IMDB rating: 6,0

Directors: David Burton, Nick Grinde
Main Cast: Basil Rathbone, Leila Hyams, Roland Young, Alec B. Francis, George F. Marion

"Nine years before stepping into the role of Sherlock Holmes, Basil Rathbone essayed the character of S.S. Van Dyne's dilettante detective Philo Vance in The Bishop Murder Case. While the film is more of interest for curiosity value, it's not a bad detective movie. A large part of what is wrong with it is related to when it was made; in 1930, films were still trying to come to grips with sound. Like many other films from the era, Bishop is quite static - and the sound is so poor that the dialogue is frequently incomprehensible. It also suffers from 'acting schizophrenia', also not uncommon for the time, in which part of the cast is fairly comfortable with dialogue-centered acting, while another part is still acting as if in front of a silent camera. Fortunately, star Basil Rathbone belongs in the former category (as does the estimable Roland Young). Both turn in very good performances, Rathbone's of a quality that makes one wish he had been given the opportunity to make more Philo Vance films. With an imaginative use of 'natural' sound in the exterior scenes, The Bishop Murder Case is ultimately laid low by its molasses-slow pacing, though things become moderately exciting when the heroine is kidnapped in the last reel. The basic story of Bishop is quite solid and the screenplay is pretty good, but the direction is terribly sluggish. Nonetheless, fans of the detective genre - or of Rathbone - should definitely check this one out." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/the-bishop-murder-case-v85130/

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