Mitchum Noir

    Most of us would rate him as one of the great Noir leads as his face fits the role of a doomed loser.

                                                   Friends of Eddie Coyle

Blood on the Moon

                                                           Crossfire

                                                     Night of the Hunter

Out of the Past 

                                                         The Yakuza

                                                    Story of GI Joe

No Exit Noir

              No Exit Press is a publishing imprint which has always been a reliable source over the years of everything from Jason Starr and James Sallis all the way back to Paul Cain's 1933 Hardboiled landmark Fast One.

                                  Willeford, Bunker and other notables in between.

They Shoot Horses Don't They ?

         For a moment i saw Gloria again, sitting on that bench on the pier. The bullet had just struck her on the side of the head ; the blood had not even started to flow. The flash from the pistol still lighted her face. Everything was as plain as day.

They shoot horses don't they ?
Horace McCoy
1935

Big House Noir

             Although not all of these examples are specifically Noir they all tell us the significance of the anti-hero's freedom.

Straight Time

Brute Force

The Prophet

The Getaway

Night of the Hunter

Dead Man Walking

                                                           The Killers

Cool Hand Luke

The Criminal

I Want to Live

Birdman of Alcatraz

Armee Des Ombres

In Cold Blood

Last Picture Show

         The 1971 classic directed by Peter Bogdanovich shows various lives within the uncertain atmosphere of a fading small town in 50s Texas is not a Noir but might just qualify as a Film Gris. It's shot in superb black & white by Robert Surtees and has a sad and at the same time raunchy background. Many have noted the influence of the director's heroes Orson Welles and John Ford in his portrayal of the flat windswept landscapes and it's desolate appearance.

All Night Gas

       His introduction to Hattiesburg was an all night gas station on highway 49 where a lone teenager-slash-halfwit was capturing 'pinching' bugs attracted by the bright lights and coralling them in a bucket of sand he kept inside his little glass booth, a diversion he favored because, as he said, he liked to watch the bugs kill each other.

Double Down ; Reflections on Gambling and Loss
Frederick and Steve Barthelme
1999

image

Peter Helck

New Releases

                 Early previews of these new releases indicate they may be worth looking out for.

                                               Gary Oldman as George Smiley