A Dash of Film Noir: The Big Heat

Hey you mugs welcome back to Day 2 of A Dash of Film Noir Week and I thought this one was a doozy but definitely a keeper.  It’s got it all baby, with a torrid affair, mob involvement and cops turning a blind eye hoping to sweep it under the rug but our hero says, “Nothing doin.”  So stop bumping yer gums, call in the buzzer and no chiseling allowed.  This is The Big Heat.

A flatfoot with a heart of gold.

Mike Lagana: Prisons are bulging with spoilers who wonder how they got there.

Sergeant Dave Bannion (Glenn Ford of Gilda, 3:10 to Yuma, Cowboy, It Started with a Kiss, Cry for Happy and Superman) is a fair and honest guy with a badge.  A straight palooka you could say.  Ahem…sorry that is far too fun to get immersed in.   Bannion is called in on a homicide but seems more to the point suicide of his fellow officer Tom Duncan.  What appears to be an open-and-shut case due to his bad health, Bannion is contacted by the late officer’s mistress Lucy Chapman (Dorothy Green of It’s a Wonderful Life, In a Lonely Place, Oklahoma!, Ride Beyond Vengeance and The Todd Killings) who claims that Duncan’s happy marriage was not so and he had a second home to go to which was out of his pay grade.

Bannion visits the widow Duncan and asks about the second home and how Tom could afford such a thing.  Widow Duncan scolds Bannion and demands he leave.  No sooner does he get back to squad his Lieutenant reams his butt claim he is under pressure from the higher ups who want to close the case.

Baby doll with the bedroom eyes.

Our hero tries to explain to his wife how the system he has worked so diligently is failing and most of the cops are in crime boss Mike Lagana’s back pocket but by God he is gonna uphold justice if not the law. Lucy Chapman is found at her apartment dead after being slapped around and burned with cigarette burns.  Bannion bursts in on the case even though it is not his or even in his jurisdiction.   Heading home from that fruitless endeavor Bannion gets threatening calls to his house and stomps over to Mike Lagana’s house and tears him a new one verbally.  Lagana warns Bannion he has gone too far and he is not accustomed to be harassed in his own home.  

 Bannion ignores the further warnings to stay off the case and the mob dynamites his car killing his wife along with it.  Feeling as though there is little justice being handled in his wife’s homicide; Bannion chucks his badge and goes on his own to handle Lagana and his lickspittle Vince Stone (Lee Marvin of, Attack, Pillars of the Sky, The M Squad, Dirty Dozen, Donovan’s Reef and The Killers) and show them a thing or two about a thing or two.

I have a few comments about this film now.  Film in 35mm Spherical and of course recorded in mono the pace setting of this film is so fluid and no lag inbetween.  Our hardnosed cop fits the bill and I absolutely love Lee Marvin as a cold blooded gunsel.   At an hour and 30 minutes folks this is worth the viewing.

Dammit honey, you knew you couldn't drive a stick!

A Dash of Film Noir

Well folks welcome to the blog and I am managing to give the page a touch of class by offering up a week that does not involve blood and ichor strewn about the place.  Nifty, right?   I thought that for the week we would have a dash of film noir instead.  So we will have a round of gang violence, maybe a bank robbery or diamond heist, a few gunsels with their channeled thug mentality and a hard boiled police or P.I. or two.

Baby, this world is our oyster.

This happens to be one of my favorite genres and I came to the conclusion to explore titles I myself have not encountered before and that way we all get to enjoy something.  It will be a refreshing change from zombies, vampires and copious amounts of T & A.   Frankly I believe we could all benefit from that so without further adieu we will start the week of Film Noir.

Philip Marlowe Week: The Pencil

Alright you cats and kittens pay attention.   We are back with more of that low down peeping tom Philip Marlowe.   Now that mug was on a milk run sneaking and peeking for a wandering husband when our shamus gets a ring up from a cop buddy Lt. McGee to hand something that needs a little muscle.  So roll up your sleeves, make sure that 38. snub has been cleaned and oiled.  This is The Pencil.

Gentleman caller or snoop? You decide.

Philip Marlowe: It was a hot damp August day and you couldn’t keep your neck dry with a spoiler.

Chasing after a wayward husband at the discretion of his client Marlowe feels like he is cooling his heels, chomping at the bit for some real work but you take the cases you have been given and you never look twice at the cabbage upfront.   Boy this slang is addictive.  Marlowe makes his way to the Wilcox Ave station because McGee (Billy Kearns of Purple Noon, The Trial, Playtime and Marathon Man) drops another referral in his lap.  Seems a bookmaker skimmed the wrong stack and now the mob want to grease the guy and collect their percentage.  The mob is funny that way.   Sal was sent a pencil from this organized crime syndicate signifying they are gonna rub him out with a couple of hired torpedoes.   This guy needs protection until he can breeze out of town, possibly out of the country.  

Starting crooning like Gene Austin or scram.

Marlowe makes an appearance to his client Mrs. Yeager (Lucy Lee Flippin of Annie Hall, Police Academy 2: The First Assignment, Flashdance and A Perfect World) to tell her husband is out of the picture and naturally she takes the truth very well.  While left ranting, raving and foaming at the mouth like a mad dog, Marlowe takes his cue to vamoose and head into the office.   Grabs a rod in case there is more heat than the day is long he heads out to meet his client at the Hotel Bennett but laughing boy shows up, dishes out 5000 gees and starts barking orders.  

His newest client Sal Vaccaro (David Healy of Joe 90, Patton, Supergirl and Labyrinth) cooked the books so much you think he had a Webber Grill and score more clams than Pismo Beach.   Marlowe offers a better hideout at the Hotel Rex; a dingy dive that doesn’t bother with a credit check to let you in while he rustles up some transportation out of the country.  

Afternoon Miss, I'm selling a subscription of me.

Now I just have a few tidbits and observations about this episode.   This is the first episode of Season 1 and it also introduces Marlowe’s main squeeze and Gal Friday Annie Riordan (Kathryn Leigh Scott of Dark Shadows, House of Dark Shadows, The Great Gatsby, Brannigan, The Greek Tycoon and Voice of the Heart), a no nonsense gal with some street smarts, a heart of gold and eyes on our shoofly.  The plane that brought the hit men into town is oddly enough a Lockheed Constellation and is an anachronism given they were not used in service until 1943.   PLANE OF THE FUTURE!!!!  What was common then was either a Boeing or Douglas DC-2 but I just thought it was a fun fact and not stepping on toes.

Philip Marlowe Week: Blackmailers Don't Shoot

Alright mugs lissen up.  This booze swilling sleuth with a knockout right hook is hot on the case, see? What he don’t know is in this card game the deck was already stacked against him…Er sorry I really just enjoy that colorful chatter…ahem this time around in 1986 Home Box Office (HBO to youse chumps) began developing Raymond Chandler’s (Novelist of Farewell, My Lovely, Double Indemnity, Murder, My Sweet, The Big Sleep and Lady in the Lake) short stories into 45 minutes of hardboiled detective action!  What’s hard boiled mean?  Sheesh you been living under a rock?  Hard boiled is a term for Crime Fiction commonly police drama but more often enough a private investigator.   With that being said, This is Blackmailers Don’t Shoot.

Alright you ask for directions next time!

It was a spoiler. A blonde to make a bishop kick a hole in a stained-glass window.

In this town you can’t always pick and choose your clients; especially when rent is due.  Marlowe (Powers Boothe of The Emerald Forest, Extreme Prejudice, Nixon, Frailty, Deadwood, 24 and Justice League) is keeping his eyes on a dame who may be in trouble.  A new high society gal actress with a twinkle in her eye and name of Rhoda Farr (Melody Anderson of Flash Gordon, Dead &Buried, Firewalker and Jake and the Fatman).  Seems his client feels her life is in danger due to her lifestyle of champagne and wild nights on the gossip column. 

Dishy but comes off colder than a penguin on an iceberg.

No sooner is Marlowe on the case he is threatened by a big shot director to be tossed out on his ear to have a gunsel brandish a rod to put two in his liver.  Not afraid of a little roughing up, Marlowe feels it is best to check in with his client local racketeer mob boss Lucky Landrey (Allan Royal of Night Heat, Falcon Crest, They Came from Outer Space and Bloodknot) who can’t make the scene with her on the news pages but the couple are still bananas about each other in spite of Farr’s career.

Now I have just a few highlights about the episode itself.  While most of the locations are around Sunset Blvd and Paramount studios, the atmosphere is was truly captures this time piece.  The speakeasy belonging to Johnny Tango, the gorgeous cars of the era fully restored to factory look and appeal, bungalows of Piscane Blvd opted for scenes rather than the usual rental spots all encompassing this look into another time and place.  The posh threads to the slinky dresses, the glitz and glamour are but an understatement to the dark and dreary storyline complimenting one another so well.

How in the Sam Hill did I get caught up in this?

  

The screen treatment from Raymond Chandler’s short story was managed by collaboration of writers Jeremy Hole (Control, Diamonds, Night Heat, Emily of New Moon and Verdict in Blood), Jesse Lasky Jr. (Secret Agent, Reap the Wild Wind, Samson and Deliah and The Ten Commandments) and Pat Silver (Pirates of Tortuga, Crime and Passion, Land Raiders and Forbidden Sun).    They captured the very essence of Chandler’s grimy drab world and gave it life to the small screen.

  Powers Boothe is the pinnacle Philip Marlowe in that he is not overtly handsome and looks as though he could handle himself in a scrape.  Not down playing Humphrey Bogart’s portrayal in the Big Sleep at all, I simply found Boothe to be the right man for the gig.

Film Noir Week

Alright you cat and kittens, perk yer ears to the sky or I am liberal to write youse a message with my Chicago typewriter, see?

Line please.

We will be taking in the sights of some of the most impressive pieces of Film Noir and so long no one's got a beef about it we'll have a ball.  Film Noir is described as a dark and bleak look on American crimes and detective films.  The gig is like so; a backdrop of mistrust, paranoia and loss of innocence.  Primarily these film were created during WWII to show the exploits of underworld figures taking advantage of the cops being skeleton crews whilst they dabbled in their future enterprising endeavors.  Bootlegging, racketeering and protection scams was not uncommon.

 The hard boiled detective was a popular theme as was either a cop that bent the rules to win the day or a private dick that had no problem about handling things his own way.  The Femme Fatale was popular in this genre as she was commonly a woman of striking beauty and a corrupt mind willing to put some hapless dope into harm's way to get her own end.  Lazy or rotten politicians would find policemen of their same ilk and keep investigations quick and easy without ruffling feathers.

So let's clip this clam bake into high gear already.

Why I ougtta..

Sydney Pollack Week: The Yakuza

Subete no kon’nichwa!   Welcome to the continuation of Sydney Pollack Week and have we hooked quite a whopper today.  A story of ill-gotten gains, family struggles, honor and the willingness to follow through, this film marks for an interesting dive into Western and Eastern culture clash.  So shoes off, serve the one next to you and do not hog the spicy tuna roll.   This is The Yakuza.

That is not a happy camper.

Spoilers are as much a gift as a curse…

George Tanner (Brian Keith of Arrowhead, The Parent Trap, The Quest, Hooper, Sharky’s Machine and Hardcastle and McCormick) runs the L.A. docks and foolishly got into bed with the Yakuza (Japanese Mafia), fell behind on payments and now they demand tribute or they will kill his daughter.  Tanner calls his old army buddy Harry Kilmer (Robert Mitchum of Undercurrent, El Dorado, Out of the Past, Cape Fear, River of No Return and The Big Sleep, a private eye that is well immersed in Japanese culture.  Tanner is counting of the life debt of one Tanaka Ken (Ken Takakura of The Path of the King, Golgo 13, Mushuku, The Homeless, Hakkodasan and Black Rain) to lead Kilmer around, defeat the Yakuza and save the girl.   Dusty (Richard Jordan of Rooster Cogburn, Logan’s Run, The Mean Season, Alibis and The Hunt for Red October), Tanner’s personal bodyguard will be traveling with Kilmer as well but he looks to be no more than a gunsel.  Like the man said, “The cheaper the crook, the gaudier the patter.”

Boomstick plus one!

Yeah two guys will be doing all this.  Infiltration, sabotage and a high count of homicide is on the order of the day.    I will also assigning Harry Callahan, John McClain and possibly Martin Riggs for this otherwise insane plan!

To abide an old debt to Tanner, Kilmer must go back to Japan and over 20 years of hurt, remorse and obligation.  During the occupation of Japan, MP Kilmer discovered a black market purchasing of American medical supplies by Eiko Tanaka (FYI Tanaka is the most common surname in Japan.  Think Smith or Jones) who he fell in love with, they romance and he even looks after her daughter Hanako as if she were his own, but for reasons a dopey Western round eye cannot fathom, she cannot marry him.  Sad and bitter Kilmer went back to the states, worked as a cop and then a shamus.   Tanaka Ken is former Yakuza and now a brilliant swords master teaching Kendo in a prestigious institute Kendo Hall in Kiyoto.

This film is a hybrid of Japanese discipline, honor with a smattering of American cynicism.  The story is simple yet elegant, the camera work from day to night is dolly tracked, handheld, long crane shots  and decent pan zooms of which is all hallmarks of a Sydney Pollack movie all shot on a Panavision anamorphic lens 35mm.   With solid collaborations with writers Paul Schrader (Taxi Driver, American Gigolo, Raging Bull and Affliction) and Robert Towne (Chinatown, Heaven Can Wait, The Firm, Mission: Impossible and Mission: Impossible II) this flick has as much action as there is dialogue. 

Blam!

A little side note, I started snickering seeing one of the Yakuza reading a Manga.  Comic books are for kids, buddy.     This thriller is bloody, gunfights and katana a plenty.  This is an interesting mesh of the cultures of honor and violence that both the Americans and the Japanese are capable; it also shows heart, spirit and the willingness to overcome great obstacles.   This film deserves the same restoration love that Peckinpah's The Getaway and Friedkin's French Connection did.   I find no faults in this film with the exception it is now over.

Before They Were Stars: Darkman

Hey all! We travel further into Before They Were Stars week and let us focus on a fellow who started as he called it a bit actor in some impressive films such as Excalibur, Krull and The Bounty.  So I thought we would reflect on his first lead role.    So get your popcorn and soda, enjoy your comfy chair.  This is Darkman.

Spoilers operate from the shadows…

Director Sam Raimi (The Evil Dead, Evil Dead II, The Quick and the Dead, For Love of the Game, The Gift and Spider-Man) gathers a team of writers such as: Chuck Pfarrer (The Jackal, Red Planet and Virus), Ivan Raimi (Easy Wheels, Army of Darkness, Spy Game and Spiderman 3) Daniel Goldin (Out on a Limb and Stephen King’s Dead Zone) and Joshua Goldin (Out on a Limb, Wonderful World and Outlaw Country) collaborate to create a good, decent man and break him slowly.    With the haunting composure of Danny Elfman (Batman, Beetlejuice, The Flash, Batman Returns, Army of Darkness, Batman: The Animated Series, Tales from the Crypt and Mars Attacks) a gang war is spreading over the territories and land is being snatched up left and right no matter what the cost.   To what end you may ask?   We then shoot over to Doctor Peyton Westlake’s (Liam Neeson of Excalibur, Rob Roy, Schindler’s List, Gangs of New York, Love Actually, Batman Begins and Taken) laboratory as he and his assistant Yakitito (Nelson Mashita of Rising Sun, Independence Day, Drive and NYPD Blue) are attempting to create an artificial skin that would replace skin graphs and deep tissue burns, the catch is they cannot seem to get it to last beyond 100 minutes of exposure to light.   

So close to this discovery that would benefit humanity he discusses the experiment with lawyer girlfriend Julie Hastings (Frances McDormand of Raising Arizona, Mississippi Burning, Hidden Agenda, Fargo, Primal Fear, Wonder Boys and Almost Famous) whose pesky need for the truth may have uncovered some unsavory acts in zoning laws for the newest construction by Louis Strack (Colin Friels of Water Rats, Dark City,The Book of Revelation, BlackJack: Dead Memory, BlackJack: At the Gates and BlackJack:Ghosts) would appear to not only Strack Industries is accountable for bribes but in league with a nefarious criminal Robert G Durant (Larry Drake of L.A. Law, Dr. Giggles, Prey, Darkman II: The Return of Durant and The Beast) on this lucrative land grab scheme to net millions.  

Durant and his boys hit Westlake’s lab, pummeling and disfiguring him as well as killing Yakitito blowing up Westlake’s lab sending him in a fireball out to sea.   He awakes in the hospital but the explosion has altered him.  40% of his body is covered in burns and to cease him from having pain the doctor( Jenny Agutter of Logan’s Run, The Man in the Iron Mask, Equus, Dominique, An American Werewolf in London and MI-5) does a procedure to block the nerve endings are greatly damaged in the fact he can hardly feel anything.   With this in mind, he feels as though he is going through sensory deprivation and is easily angered causing a huge surge of adrenaline within him giving him uncharted amounts of strength.  Little point of observation, I swear one of the visiting doctors looks like John Landis (director of Animal House, An American Werewolf in London, The Blues Brothers and Coming to America).   

Afraid, ruined and broken, Westlake attempts to continue his research if not to be reunited with Julie but to take revenge on Durant and his cronies.   With all his equipment and synthetic skin at his abandoned factory (must be New York, the heroes and villains always find an abandoned factory) the ready he plots and schemes how to best destroy the men that took his life. 

You get the feel of a hybrid of a 1940’s radio show based on the villains’ dialogue but the seamy underbelly of a 1980’s graphic novel all jumbled together.  With influences like the Looney Tunes, Three Stooges and Marvel Comics is it any wonder this film is as insane as it is well constructed.  We get old favorite POV views as well as; Gunsight POV, Ram-o Cam and Shaky Cam as well.   Raimi of course keeps to his favorites to work with and we do get an appearance of Bruce Campbell, his brother Ted Raimi and Dan Hicks; you just gotta keep them eyes peeled. Over the top villains, a tormented hero and of course, the dame with the gams it’s a fun and bizarre ride.

Season 1: The Story Begins

Normally I am not a huge USA network fan.  I skim through it every so often for series in repeat or marathons on episodes I have missed and generally do not care for films that have been censored and neutered to make less offensive.   So in 2007, I heard on the IMDB grapevine that a new show is coming out I do a brief scan and it looks interesting, I watch the first 3 episodes and it becomes captivating so grab your cell phone, your Sig Sauer and prep your lies.  This is Burn Notice Season 1.

The review you are about to read may contain spoilers and above all else is "need to know" information that is classified…(okay I was having fun that last bit).

Series creator and head writer Matt Nix (Burn Notice and The Good Guys) devised a complex series of episodes outlining a spy’s life of point and counterpoint.  Who are enemies and who allies are and lastly who blurs in between those lines.  To cap off this series is one Michael Westen (Jeffery Donovan of Touching Evil, Hitch and The Pretender) who narrates throughout the chapter.  At first I feel like it was unnecessary and just let the show unfold as it is but after a few episodes I got the feeling that the narration is integral to the action and scenes.  While conducting a little hush money transaction to a ruthless warlord in order to smooth diplomacy to warring nations, Westen’s alias has be compromised and is cut loose from any back up.  The warlord’s men proceed to beat him and he comes up with a decent lie to formulate a plan of escape. 

 Making his way to the agency plane he passes out and wakes up in a cheap hotel in Miami where he is greeted awake (by a light boot in the bruised ribs) by former girlfriend and IRA terrorist Fiona Glenn Anne (Gabrielle Anwar of Scent of a Woman, The Three Musketeers, Things to Do in Denver When You’re Dead)   Given all his assets and money are frozen he has to seek operating funds elsewhere and speaks to former SEAL and friend Sam Axe (Bruce Campbell of Evil Dead, The Adventures of Brisco County Jr., Spiderman)   Michael has to figure out who set him up and who he can turn to for help.   Family is always a good choice unless you are a Westen.  Mother, Madeline Westen  (Sharon Gless of Cagney and Lacey) could teach the KGB a thing or two about manipulation but she has a good heart and should have blacken lungs from how often she chain smokes.

This show feels like an action movie.  The fight choreography is a very similar approach to the Bourne Trilogy.  Very fluid motion and it does not feel staged.   Car chases have such precision; it is mind boggling.  The gun fights are intense.   Which each new scene you get the sensation that this conspiracy against one capable man is very elaborate and a far bigger puzzle than Michael has put together thus far and it is only going to get worse before it gets better for him.   As for the viewer, if you appreciate a well rounded cast, good writing and impressive story telling then give this show more than the once over.  You just might be pleasantly surprised.