Frayed Necktie

         I watched him as he came up the mezzanine steps to the credit department, studying his worn suit , his frayed necktie, his scuffed shoes. Knowing, even as i waved him to a new account booth - with the very first question that i asked him - that he was on the sour side. And feeling a surly happiness in the knowledge.

Jim Thompson
A Flaw in the System
1957

image 
Strangers on a Train
1951

Unconsumated Shadows

In the Mood for Love
Wong Kar Wai
2000

Ellroy on Hammett

                 Detective work was a job. Writing was a job. The craft within both was The Manoeuvre. The workday Hammett stealth-walked through was one of laudanum-guzzling grifters and bent cops susceptible to night sweats and visions.

                                          ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
            The Manoeuvre was steeped in drudge work punctuated by brief bursts of action. Read files, tail, surveill. Write reports, proffer bribes, track down suspects and on occasion risk danger.
                              ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
           Take The Manoeuvre, exalt it's language and turn it into popular fiction.

The Poet of Collision
James Ellroy
The Guardian
Sept 2007

The Error is Hers

           I much prefer it when a woman discards me. Then i am sure that the error is hers.

Charles Bukowski

image
Ellen Auerbach
reblogged from Howtoseewithoutacamera

Fast Car

You got a fast car

But is it fast enough so you can fly away ?

You gotta make a decision

Leave tonight or live and die this way

Fast Car
(Chapman)
Tracy Chapman
1988

image Inge Morath
Reno 1960
Magnum Photos

Carny Noir

             Like most carny folk i don't like people as people but only as marks. Somebody you can trim for a dime, a buck or a bundle. If you break them down and feed them to me one by one, then maybe there will be a few i like as individuals. But not when they flow past you like bawling cattle. Who needs a stampede ?

Carny Kill
Robert Edmond Alter
1966

image
Nightmare Alley 1947

Bridges-Go-Round

Through the Night

              Basically i'm for anything that gets you through the night - be it prayer, tranquilizers, or a bottle of Jack Daniels.

Frank Sinatra

image
Patricio Suarez
reblogged from Midnightmartinis

Robert Burks

Strangers on a Train

Vertigo

The Wrong Man

North by Northwest

Rear Window

The Trouble with Harry

Marnie

Birds

Dial M for Murder

I Confess

Torn Curtain

To Catch a Thief

Night Has a Thousand Eyes

        Each unto himself has his own world that he looks out upon, and though someone else were to stand on the selfsame inch of ground your feet were placed upon, guided by chalk marks, he would not see the same things you did. There would have been two different views there not just one. Or is there any world at all i wondered, out there before us as we look upon it, may it not be inside, behind the eyes, and out front nothing, just a blank infinite ? But madness lurked along that trail and i quickly turned aside.

Night Has a Thousand Eyes
Cornell Woolrich
1945

image
Fritz Goro
reblogged from Calumet412

Mona Lisa

          Neil Jordan's 1986 London Noir with gritty performances from Hoskins, Cathy Tyson and Michael Caine could perhaps be seen as the British version of Taxi Driver.

Bad Juju

         The left one's the hospital, the right one's death. The right one steals your life while the left steals your breath. These hands are bad juju and the bad boogaloo, they're the teeth of the demon as he slides down the flue.

James Ellroy

drawing
Detlef jumpertz

Hungry Heart

Got a wife and kids in Baltimore, Jack

I went out for a ride and i never went back

Like a river that don't know where it's flowing

I took a wrong turn and i just kept going

Hungry Heart

(Springsteen)

Bruce Springsteen

image
Jack Delano

The World

                 The world was in her heart already, like the small spot of decay in a fruit.

Graham Greene
The Power and the Glory
1940

image Bob Peak
reblogged from Noirwhale

Beauty in the Shadows

Andre Kertesz

Berenice Abbot

Louis Faurer

Robert Frank

Todd Webb

Paul Wolff & Alfred Tritschler

Dorothy Bohm

images reblogged
from Undr

La Femme Infidele

One of the most celebrated Noirs from the man described as French Hitchcock, Claude Chabrol , featuring the legendary Femme Stephane Audran.

Cool November Evening

                Watching the boxing matches from Mexico
                on tv while sitting in bed
                on a cool November evening
                Had a great day at the track, picking 7 of 9, two of
                them long shots
                No matter, i am watching the fighters
                as in the front row two fat men talk to each other,
                paying no attention to the boxers
                who are fighting for their very existence as human
                beings
               

Mexican Fighters
Charles Bukowski
2003

drawing Yulia Kozlova
reblogged  from Behance.net

Russell Harlan

Guilty Bystander

Riot in Cell Block 11

Witness for the Prosecution

Gun Crazy

Day of the Outlaw

Ramrod