85 minute running time so the right length … I’d seen this before and forgot about it … original story is about some Marines killing a fellow soldier who is gay … censors wouldn’t allow that so they turned it into a pic about anti-Semitism with a soldier killing a civilian Jew … story doesn’t really work, but Robert Ryan plays a great bad guy … once again a heavy-handed morality tale … John Farr recommended, but doesn’t make my top movie list.
… Jewish people living off the fat of the land
98 minute running time, so the perfect length … prison pic … Burt Lancaster plays the big handsome dummy … I wonder if Dassin was gay because there are a lot of half naked men in this … again, heavy-handed moralizing accompanied by the Miklós Rózsa hit-you-with-a-club score … lot of neat prison scenes though, esp. the attempted prison break at the end, but the social justice aspect rankled .. John Farr recommendation … I’m glad that I saw it but I can’t recommend it, not a top one-percent-er.
Munsey knows his job, and he does his job.
96 minute running time, so the perfect length … movie adaptation of a stage play, shot on a Warner Bros. set (not in the Keys) … once again the scrawny weasel Bogart (who’s good in this one) and the beautiful Bacall (her smoker’s voice makes me swoon) … kind of an interesting story, mobsters and good people stuck together in a hotel during a hurricane … heavy-handed moralizing though … Edward G. Robinson can’t really pull off the crime boss thing, he’s too short and fat … other mobster “Ziggy” better, but the forced hilarity among mob guys ruined things … John Farr recommended this … I’m going to hold off from giving it a recommendation until I see more from ‘48.
One Rocco more or less isn't worth dying for.
This is cut out of the longer, though still tiny, concert … but it’s the best track, so…. she’s stunningly beautiful and can sing to boot, wow.
And a teenage fantasy … can’t see the backup singers here… astonishing performance, just… perfection. Been waiting awhile for someone of Amy Winehouse’s caliber to appear.
One more … Be Honest:
100 minute running time … they found two actors shorter than Bogart for this one: Peter Lorre and Elisha Cook Jr. … another convoluted story that wasn’t that interesting, I don’t know why Farr (and everyone else) recommends it… it certainly doesn’t make my cut.
The stuff that dreams are made of.
94 minute running time … some good Hammett-like dialogue, but weak-chinned Dick Powell is no good as Philip Marlowe, and the story (Farewell, My Lovely) was pretty dumb and convoluted … John Farr recommended this one, but it doesn’t make my cut.
Fei-ts'ui jade is extremely valuable.
100 minute running time so the right length … dumb story though … Bogart and Bacall … the short, scrawny weasel (age 44) and a beautiful young woman (age 19!) with a weird, wonderfully deep smoker’s voice … as I’ve said, I can watch Lauren Bacall at length (though I don’t want to hear her sing), but I’ve never understood Bogart’s sex appeal. The story is not good enough here, even though John Farr recommended it, the movie certainly doesn’t make my top list.
You just put your lips together and blow.
79 minute running time which means it was tightly made … this was better than usual … snappy dialogue, decent story of a prisoner on the lam, hunting down a traitorous partner, two women vying for his love, yep, film noir once again … Raymond Burr and his mile-wide shoulders plays the other bad man … it wasn’t a great movie, but it’s good enough to get a green-go rating given the paucity of truly great movies from the 1940s. John Farr liked it too.
Chiseling little doll face
92 minute running time … glorifying U.S. Treasury agents … going after counterfeiters who use paper made in Chynar (where the stuff was invented after all). The best part about this movie was the actor who played Moxie, Charles McGraw. He’s the first guy in all these noir pictures I’ve been watching who actually comes across as tough and dangerous. John Farr recommended this, but it wasn’t good enough to make my cut … give it a pass.
The nature of the business is business, Mr. Harrigan.
112 minute running time but felt about four hours long … in fact I quit watching this after 20 minutes … it was terrible, and the first real clunker that John Farr has recommended. Not thrilling, not suspenseful, not interesting, just bad. I imagine quite a few people walked out of the theater back in 1964.
Guys on phone not riveting
