Monthly Archives: November 2012
Movie Quote of the Day – House by the River, 1950 (dir. Fritz Lang)
Stephen Byrne: Don’t you realize, Marjorie, your reading the manuscript has solved everything? You know, I met Emily on the stairs. She was coming down from her bath. She’d used your perfume. She looked rather pretty and I wanted to kiss her, but she got frightened and screamed. I had to stop her screaming! I didn’t mean to kill her. I hardly touched her, but I didn’t realize how easy it would be. So very easy.
Film Noir Treasures from the 1940s Coming to DVD From TCM and Universal Studios Home Entertainment
This news comes just in time for Noirvember! How perfect. I’ve seen all three of the films coming out on this set and I can’t recommend them enough. Also included in this press release is the five films that Film Noir Foundation founder and president Eddie Muller will be showing during his stint as guest hot with Robert Osborne on TCM in January. Two of the five films I’ve seen and the other two are ones I’ve been dying to see. Actually, the two films that Eddie has picked that I have seen I saw because of him! One at TCMFF12 and the other during Noir City X. I see a pattern emerging.
Movie Quote of the Day – Cry Danger, 1951 (dir. Robert Parrish)
Darlene LaVonne: You drinkin’ that stuff so early?
Delong: Listen, doll girl, when you drink as much as I do, you gotta start early.
Movie Quote of the Day – The Reckless Moment, 1949 (dir. Max Ophüls)
Martin: She’s lucky to have a mother like you.
Lucia Harper: Everyone has a mother like me. You probably had one, too.
Oscar Vault Monday – Dead End, 1937 (dir. William Wyler)
Continuing with Noirvember, I decided to write about a proto-noir, William Wyler’s Dead End. This is a fabulous example of crime cinema, coming at the end of the thirties and a wave of films like Scarface and The Petrified Forest. Dead End takes a look at the life of several residents who live in tenements located below luxury apartments built for the view of the picturesque East River. The film was nominated for four Academy Awards, though it didn’t win any: Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Supporting Actress Claire Trevor and Best Picture. The other films nominated for Best Picture that year were The Awful Truth, Captains Courageous, The Good Earth, In Old Chicago, Lost Horizon, One Hundred Men and a Girl, Stage Door, A Star Is Born and winner The Life of Emile Zola.
Movie Quote of the Day – Clash By Night, 1952 (dir. Fritz Lang)
Mae Doyle D’Amato: Home is where you come when you run out of places.
From The Warner Archive: Lili, 1953 (dir. Charles Walters)
The Warner Archive recently released a newly remastered DVD of the six-time Oscar nominated 1953 film Lili starring Leslie Caron and Mel Ferrer. This is a film I had been meaning to watch for years and I am so glad I finally got to see it. It’s a simple film and a sweet one, yet somehow it is never saccharine. It’s almost like a children’s book come to life, except that there are a few scenes – especially at the beginning – that are quite dark. I think this is a film that could have fallen into an overly melodramatic trap, but Walters tackles the subject with such a light touch, the result is nothing short of magical.
Movie Quote of the Day – The Set-Up, 1949 (dir. Robert Wise)
Stoker: Yeah, top spot. And I’m just one punch away.
Julie: I remember the first time you told me that. You were just one punch away from the title shot then. Don’t you see, Bill, you’ll always be just one punch away.
Movie Quote of the Day – He Ran All The Way, 1951 (dir. John Berry)
Mrs. Robey: If you were a man, you’d be out looking for a job.
Nick Robey: If you were a man, I’d kick your teeth in.
Movie Quote of the Day – Detour, 1945 (dir. Edgar G. Ulmer)
Vera: That’s the greatest cock-and-bull story I ever heard. So he fell out of his car? Say, who do you think you’re talking to? A hick? Listen mister, I’ve been around, and I know a wrong guy when I see one. What did you do? Kiss him with a wrench?
the diary of a film history fanatic 