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| New York Confidential (1955) | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Jun 15 2011, 05:47 AM (449 Views) | |
| rodney | Jun 15 2011, 05:47 AM Post #1 |
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Charter Member
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General run of the mill story of the downfall of a crime family, albiet told very well. Well acted by Broderick Crawford and a generally great cast including Anne Bancroft and Marilyn Maxwell. The VCI box says that this is one of the holy grails of film noir, but I don't see it as a noir film at all....just a better than average told crime drama. I could go on about the plot, but there's no real point. We've all seen this basic movie a thousand times. This one is worth seeing though. Just don't go in expecting a lost classic. |
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| JazzGuyy | Jun 15 2011, 01:31 PM Post #2 |
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Balcony Gang, Foist Class
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I thought it was pretty good. Certainly a little better than average. |
| TANSTAAFL! | |
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| Frank Hale | Jun 15 2011, 02:39 PM Post #3 |
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Balcony Gang, Foist Class
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The problem, of course, is not particularly the film (entertaining and well done as far as it goes: a further 50’s expansion of on-screen violence and an early example of organized crime types posing as regular Joe’s), but the expectations raised by VCI’s rather silly marketing. And not an isolated example. Their recent “Hell Harbor” disc, exuberantly advertised as “pre-Code”, featured re-release prints with PCA numbers indicating complete compliance with the Code. Oh, well. Lupe Velez did look pretty good in those dresses. |
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| rodney | Jun 18 2011, 06:06 AM Post #4 |
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Charter Member
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I agree. The problem is less what the movie IS and more what I was led to believe it was. I enjoyed it, just didn't think it was anything close to a lost noir classic. |
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| JazzGuyy | Jun 18 2011, 07:12 AM Post #5 |
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Balcony Gang, Foist Class
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Part of the problem is that there is quite a diversity of opinion as to what a noir is. Of course, my definition is the right one.
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| TANSTAAFL! | |
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| panzer the great & terrible | Jun 18 2011, 01:05 PM Post #6 |
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Mouth Breather
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We all have our own ideas of what noir is, but the genre, if it is a genre, was named for the French Serie Noir: paperbacks with black covers of just about every kind of American crime novel whether or not depicting fedoras, rainswept streets, high-contrast lighting or double dealing dames. As time went on American critics identified certain films as "typical noir," which gave rise to lists of noir qualities. In other words, the definition evolved over time and I suspect is still evolving, and is now very different from the definition in France, its place of origin. In Italy, the same sort of novels had yellow covers, giving rise to a film genre called giallo, which in America is defined quite differently from noir, partly because giallo films came later, were in color and never really caught on here. Why France and Italy decided to do without the lurid covers we remember may indicate snobbery, laziness, and/or stinginess. Edited by panzer the great & terrible, Jun 18 2011, 01:19 PM.
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| Life is just a bowl of cherries, it's too mysterious, don't take it serious... | |
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