Blade Runner (1982)

In Ridley Scott's dystopian vision of futuristic Los Angeles, Blade Runner (1982), Harrison Ford plays a "Blade Runner;" A sort of policeman charged with eliminating "replicants," who are human-appearing androids that are forbidden to be on the suface of the Earth. This is, in my personal opinion, the greatest science fiction movie ever made. In addition, it is a splendid example of the neo-noir style.

Harrison Ford brings an exquisite moral ambiguity to the character of Richard Deckard, a man who is tired of killing and hates his job, but cannot find a way to escape it.

Sean Young plays Rachael, struggling with her identity, haunted by memories that may not be her own and afraid that she will discover she is a replicant.

Rutger Hauer is brilliant as Roy Batty, the replicant leader, willing to fight and kill for the chance to live.

Edward James Olmos is Gaff, the cynical detective who leaves little origami figures wherever he goes and who ropes Deckard into one final Blade Runner task.

Daryl Hannah is Pris, the "basic pleasure model" who seduces J.F. Sebastian into providing access to the Tyrell inner sanctum and the replicants' creator.

The beautiful but deadly Zhora is played by Joanna Cassidy.

Joe Turkel as Dr. Eldon Tyrell, the creator of the Nexus series of replicants.

J.F. Sebastian, who works for Tyrell, and whose hobby is the creation of android toys, is played by William Sanderson.

The cinematography in this film is nothing less than gorgeous. The bluish haze of the city, dirty, wet and gritty, contribute to the noirish atmosphere and the brilliant use of shadow and low camera angles lend it a familiar tone to those familiar will the noir tradition. This is not CGI, either. It was made in 1982, so the effects are all achieved through models.

This is neither space opera nor post apocalyptic horror story. It is detective noir set in a grim unappealing future cityscape. It's also a love story, but a story of lovers afraid of what the truth about themselves might be. Most of all, this is a philosophical treatise on what it means to be human and the questions each of us have about life. How long will I live? Why must I die? What happens when I die? Does my creator care? At the end of the film we are left wondering if the replicants are human, and if Deckard himself is a replicant. Scott raises more questions than he answers, and critics are still debating the many layers of meaning in this film.

Another Birthday Girl, Kay Francis (1905-1968)

The House on 56th Street (1933)

Give Me Your Heart (1936)

Kay Francis is one of my favorites, and not only because of her striking looks and wonderful fashion sense. So often, one hears stories of Hollywood actresses marrying men who frittered away all their money, left them practically penniless and then divorced them. The ones that avoid that pitfall often find their own ways of gaining the valuable experience of poverty in their old ages. Not Kay Francis. Not by a long shot! She always lived well, but well within her means and saved her money and invested it in sensible ways and left an estate of over $1 million, most of which went to Seeing Eye, Inc, to train dogs for the visually impaired. The lady had class.

People often spoke of her speech impediment, she could not pronounce the letter "R" and was known around the Paramount lot as "the wavishing Kay Fwancis." I've listened carefully to her movies and have never been able to detect it myself.

Now, strictly speaking, Ms Francis was not a film noir star, in the main. Her great period was the pre-code era, but I'm a big fan of those films as well, so there!

"A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines."

-- Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

Man Wanted (1932)

Crossfire (1947)

Memorable, not only for it's dark and brooding atmosphere, (in this world, it seems always night) and for the fact that it was Gloria Grahame's first soiree into the world of Film Noir, Edward Dmytryk's Crossfire (1947) is the screen adaptation of Richard Brooks' The Brick Foxhole.

The novel dealt with the murder of a homosexual, but Hollywood was NOT prepared to go there in 1947, so the movie substitutes antisemitism to preach against. Because of the war, hating jews had become a lot less respectable than it had been heretofore.

Perhaps because of this substitution, the film gives us no explanation of why Robert Ryan's character hates jews. It seems that any group could have been the object of his wrath. This is counter to the usual tendency in movies, where motivations are considered essential, but may be the most true-to-life aspect of the film. The fact that this is purposeful is indicated in Robert Young's tale of his Irish grandfather's long ago murder at the hands of bigots.

This movie has a lot going for it. The cinematography is just marvelous, but it's the characterizations that are the meat of the matter. Robert Young, as the moralizing detective does a good job of keeping his pipe-smoking character, saddled with delivering the movie's earnest message, this side of pompousness. Robert Mitchum gives a spot on performance as the placid survivor, whom war has tempered but not destroyed. George Cooper is the shell-shocked young basket case, (what we would consider a victim of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder today) and, like many suffering from this condition, is taunted and branded as a coward by his fellow soldiers. He has become utterly self-loathing and fears the return to normalcy. He is the obvious candidate for the frame-up.

Robert Ryan is truly spine chilling. What a performance! He creates a frighteningly convincing portrait of an ignorant, violently unstable bigot, repleat with phony geniality, bullying, and resentment of anyone with advantages he lacks.

Gloria Grahame nearly steals the movie with her two scenes. Bleached-blonde, cynical and caustic. She looks ready to barf when Mitchell (George Cooper) tells her that she reminds him of his wife, but his wistful sincerity manages to penetrate her hard defensive shell, and she dances with Mitchell in a deserted courtyard, then offers to cook him spaghetti at her apartment.

Adding little to the plot, but much to the atmosphere as the compulsive liar who might or might not be Gloria Grahame's husband, Paul Kelly, delivers a wonderful performance, approaching the surreal. At one point, he says to George Cooper, "You know what I told you? All those things I just told you? They're all lies."

Ginny: (Gloria Grahame) [to Mitchell's wife (Jacqueline White)] Okay, where were you when he needed you? Maybe you were someplace having beautiful thoughts. Well, I wasn't. I was in a stinkin' gin mill, where all he had to do to see me was walk in, sit down at the table and buy me a drink.

Happy Birthday, Veda Ann Borg (1915-1973)

In The Fearmakers (1958)

Veda Ann Borg was a character actress of the 30s and 40s, mostly in "B" features playing man-hungry sexpots. She was never a big star, but was always memorable. You may remember her in her last film role as Blind Nell in The Alamo (1960). She was born on this day in 1915 in Boston.






Two Yanks in Trinidad (1942)


with Basil Rathbone on the set of Confession (1937)


with Richard Arlen in Accomplice (1946)

with Richard Arlen in Accomplice (1946)

Happy Birthday, Loretta Young (1913-2000)

Born to Be Bad (1934)

Along with such wonderful pre-code fare as The Magnificent Flirt (1928), Platinum Blonde (1931), Play-Girl (1932), They Call It Sin (1932), Midnight Mary (1933) and Born to Be Bad (1934), Loretta Young was in such Films Noir as The Stranger (1946) and The Accused (1949).

Platinum Blonde (1931) with Robert Williams

Director Edward H. Griffith, Tyrone Power, Loretta Young, Adolphe Menjou, Charles Winninger on the set of Café Metropole (1937)


with Una Merkel in Midnight Mary (1933)

Dead Reckoning (1947)

This is, in my humble opinion, one of the defining examples of the film noir style. I may not be entirely objective in this, as I am always a sucker for a Bogart picture, but I think it has everything: Bogart as the tough guy anti-hero on a quest for truth and vengence; Lizabeth Scott as the quintessential femme-fatale who the hero falls for, but is never entirely sure of; Morris Carnovsky as the wealthy and corrupt villain; The wonderful Marvin Miller as Krause, his sadistic bodyguard; Charles Cane as the tough but fair detective. Bogart's narration through the first half of the film is another element of the noir style and adds a lot to this effort. All in all, Dead Reckoning is not to be missed.

The Killer That Stalked New York (1950 ) and other diseases

Just in time for the new year, I managed to pick up a case of the crud that had me feeling very ragged yesterday. At first I thought it might be food poisoning, but I developed a fever later on, along with the typical joint aches that indicate it is probably a stomach virus. In a bit of serendipidy, TCM was running a 1950 "medical" noir that I had never seen before: The Killer That Stalked New York (aka The Frightened City) with the, increasingly less lovely as the movie progresses, Evelyn Keyes. She plays a woman who smuggles some diamonds into the country from Cuba, along with a case of smallpox, and unwittingly spreads disease and death wherever she goes.



Just what you want to see when you are feeling sick. :)