jgcole

Sin City, Frank Miller, Robert Rodriguez,and Quentin Tarantino (special guest director), 2005

Frank Miller's comic book comes to life in a movie that has all the elements of noir but none of the sensibilities. It's quite a leap from the gritty realism of noir to comic book figures who are just affectations of the basic noir characterizations, but this one isn't shy about making the attempt. And it has all the elements: voice-over, tough guys, dangerous femmes, hard-boiled dialog, fringe characters, the 'bad part of town,' nihilism, and a dark ending that resolves nothing.

The film makes no apologies about being a comic book which is, after all, a big part of its appeal for its fans. And the cast is top notch with more beautiful women than I can remember seeing in a film - ever. And the tough guys - there are three of them - are tough like only comic book characters can be (those guys can either take a punch or they were shot with really small bullets). But, really, they all come off as cheap knock-offs of noir characters. But hey, it's a comic book.

And the movie is lots of fun. Jessica Alba's cowgirl bar top dance is a great Hollywood moment as she pulls off something that can't be easy: very effectively playing a stripper without taking her clothes off. There really is no plot just three loosely woven story lines but it really doesn't matter. This film caters to adolescent male fantasies about violence and women.

But the movie is what it is. The real problem is that Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino think that violence is funny. And that's not noir

The '70s, being perhaps the most creative decade in modern cinema, produced some obscure stuff and No Wave is pretty obscure. I can't say this is great film making, but it sure is great that people made stuff like this.

Amateur actors plus a bad script can be a pretty deadly combination but this film is interesting enough to warrant curiosity among those interested in the No Wave/post-punk era in New York City. Poe's style is artistic with long takes (too long) that includes some good night scene shots of New York street life that remind of early Godard, and a great severe angle shot of the World Trade Center. But, if nothing else, Poe certainly had a finger on the pulse of New York's underground c.1977. There are some great live club performances highlighted by a nihilistic punk/mosh pit beat up of our protagonist at CBGB's.

The budget was reportedly $5,000 (I believe it) which along with the amateur actors and location shooting on the streets, resulted in the worst sound I've heard in a film. The dialog was often inaudible. But the music track wasn't and is worth watching the movie for: electronic/tonal pieces, very good acoustical numbers, and the live performances. Most of the actors were undoubtedly Poe's friends or art students or, I don't know, maybe just runaways he found in Times Square. But he did have a couple of pros: Debbie Harry (she was probably the best actor and had only one scene) and New York underground actress Patti Astor.

Also this film has a running time of 90 minutes, not 77 as IMDb says. The film is not in great shape and I don't see the UCLA Film Archive doing a restoration of it any time soon.

This 1964 remake of director Robert Siodmak's 1946 masterpiece again uses Ernest Hemingway's short story as the catalyst for a crime story: A man learns that there is a contract out on him. He is about to be killed but accepts it passively, not attempting to save his own life. The man in question is Johnny North. Johnny gets involved with a dangerous dame and lets her talk him into participating in a robbery. The robbery goes wrong, the money disappears, and all things point to Johnny as the culprit. But Johnny is consumed by guilt and betrayal and has lost the will to go on, the will to live. Like the original, much of the story is told in flashbacks but in this one it's from the killers point of view. Lee Marvin plays Charlie, one of the killers hired to do the hit on Johnny North (played by John Cassavetes) and Charlie wants to know why a man doesn't run, why he allows himself to be killed. He also wants to know what happened to the money from the heist. Johnny doesn't have it and the guy who hired him didn't ask him to find it. That's not right and Charlie sets out to find out what happened and where the money is.

This film is part of an impressive lineup of '60's crime and detective stories that came out after the end of the film noir period - Harper, Point Blank, Bullitt. This one was originally shot for television and was intended to be the first feature length made for TV movie. But director Don Siegel, who wanted the job in 1946, made a film that he had to know would never get past the censors. And, of course, it was rejected by NBC after completion because it was unsuitable for TV audiences. And the film looks like it was made for TV. The cinematography seems a bit uninspired with rather flat color and stark set designs and some really bad process shots. But while it visually lacks the moody film noir feel of the 1946 version, there is no lack of bad behavior, violence, misogyny, corruption and greed.

Marvin was great in this film and Clu Gulagar was the perfect psycho-killer sidekick to Marvin's understated thinking thugs' thug. Angie Dickinson plays Sheila Farr, the gun moll that Ava Gardner played in the 1946 original and is every bit the sociopath that Gardner's Kitty was and just as fatal. Angie was a very good looking girl and her star was on the rise in '64. They had her in a collection of sexy dresses that showed off a wonderful physique and of course she had that hair going. And in his last screen role (though he wasn't done acting), Ronald Reagan plays Jack Browning, the head of the criminal organization that pulls off the heist. Of course this went against type for Reagan who usually played sympathetic roles and, really, it is hard to picture Reagan as a criminal mastermind. Anyway, the affable Reagan was unsure about playing a bad guy. He later said it was a mistake for him to take the part and felt bad about the famous scene where he slaps Angie - hard! Angie also gets roughed up by Gulagar and Marvin in a scene in Sheila's hotel room and later said that she thought they were too enthusiastic and that Marvin actually scared her. She said she would never work with him again but relented a few years later when she played opposite him in Point Blank. She has a scene in that one where her character gets some free shots on Marvin and Angie hits him like she means it.

All in all it's a fun movie and definitely worth a view. If you've seen the 1946 version you'll find that while it pales in comparison, it is different enough to still be enjoyable. And if you haven't seen the original you'll find this an entertaining film. Either way it is an interesting look at the state of the television art c.1964 and just what wouldn't get past the censors.