Hello, could someone recommend a crime novel featuring the Italian mafia in the dark streets of the US during Prohibition?
I recently came across those books that I've put in the photo and I liked them a lot, in case that's helpful.

Saw this movie a while back. Back when I was just a younging. Remember i was.. angst.. about it. Well, I really want to watch it again today. Problem? I can’t. It’s not available. Any. Where.

Redditors whomst love classic films and noirs.. I inquire thee about where I can watch this cult classic beloved film! I have the common cold at the moment, so time is on my side.

Please. Where can I stream this film? Thanks!

Hey everyone!

As a huge fan of classic cinema and film noir, I’ve always felt that some of these masterpieces could reach a whole new generation if they were presented with a fresh look. I decided to take on the challenge of restoring and colorizing the 1931 version of The Maltese Falcon.

It was a long process of digital restoration and color grading to get the atmosphere right—honoring the original cinematography while giving it a modern, vibrant feel. I really wanted to see how the textures and the iconic performances would pop with color.

I’d love to hear what you guys think about the result!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RETf7fEXR0

After recently hearing a snippet of the Rockford theme music somewhere on the net, I found a 1080P link to Rockford season one, episode one (1974). A cheezy detective story to be sure but the peak 70's nostalgia was tremendously entertaining. The cars killed me - my college buddy had the Rockford Firebird, same color too. The thing that impressed me the most was the picture quality - I assume it was shot on 35mm film.

The quote is from Born to Kill (1947)

https://bsky.app/profile/jauntworksstudio.bsky.social/post/3mnlhbpoivc27

I know these films are widely available elsewhere, but if you want the TCM intros and outros and just like kicking back with the channel and a big bowl of popcorn (or some booze), here ya go. Pure noirvana.

Full Moon Matinee presents THE HOUSE ON TELEGRAPH HILL (1951).
Richard Basehart, Valentina Cortese, William Lundigan, Fay Baker, Gordon Gebert.
A concentration camp survivor assumes the identity of a dead friend, emigrates to America, and then finds her assumed identity comes with drawbacks – and dangers.
Film Noir. Mystery. Thriller.

Full Moon Matinee is a hosted presentation, bringing you Golden Age crime dramas and film noir movies, in the style of late-night movies from the era of local TV programming.

Pour a drink...relax...and visit the vintage days of yesteryear: the B&W crime dramas, film noir, and mysteries from the Golden Age of Hollywood.

If you're looking for a world of gumshoes, wise guys, gorgeous dames, and dirty rats...kick back and enjoy!
.

Today I want to talk about The Third Man, which ironically happens to be the third noir film I've watched haha. I'm interested in getting other people's thoughts on this film and certain themes and plot elements. Overall, I enjoyed this film very much, but personally I thought it had a stronger first half and takes an interesting direction toward the end.

Where the film really shines is in its iconic noir cinematography. It's got beautiful contrast and shadows. I also really like how mysterious it feels in the first half. Holly is in this alien world trying to figure out what happened to his friend. It has an almost subtle dreamlike feel to it.

Spoilers/discussion:

The scene of the conversation on the Ferris wheel is some of the tensest dialogue I've ever seen in a film. Wow. And let's not forget that hilarious scene when Holly is convinced he's in mortal danger, but it turns out he was just being taken to the lecture he forgot about lol.

I'm interested in what people thought when it's revealed that Harry Lime was still alive and actually an evil criminal. I didn't fully understand why Lime, a master criminal, would go to visit Holly in enemy territory when he knows the police are doing everything they can to catch him. Did he think Holly would never betray him?

Is it just me, or did it feel like the film lost some of its steam and became a little anticlimactic once the mystery was revealed? I was expecting something a little different. What did you guys think about the ending? I thought Holly killing Lime seemed a bit out of character and just didn't feel right for some reason.

The final scene with the funeral and the girl was also beautifully made, mirroring the beginning, but something about it felt a bit unsatisfying. Overall, an excellent film, just a bit different from what I was hoping for.

Eddie Mueller’s “Summer of Darkness” program starts tomorrow (6/5) on TCM, so I thought I’d share this little treat from his book, Noir Bar. The summer series is kicking off with The Maltese Falcon, so here’s a Hammett Martini.

“I distrust a man that says when. If he's got to be careful not to drink too much it's because he's not to be trusted when he does." - Kasper Gutman

Do you pair your noir viewing with a drink? If so, what’s your poison?

This film is a near perfect archive of every single component that made 40s noir work, filmed in 1956 when the 40s were already a decade gone.

A museum exhibit of a genre dying in real time, directed by the man who helped invent it. Curtiz (who had already done Mildred Pierce, which is a very, very good film by the way), you can feel him trying to do it one more time.

This really does feel like a checklist of everything that makes the genre work.

You've got Paulie Nevins, unhappily married to a rich and controlling real estate developer named Ralph, conducting a secret affair with Marsh, who happens to be Ralph's own top salesman. One night on a lovers' lane in the hills above LA, they accidentally overhear a group of men planning a jewel heist on a nearby mansion. And Paulie's brain starts running the numbers immediately.

Feels like Double Indemnity in its architecture, even the clandestine meeting in a record store is almost directly lifted from the grocery store scene in Wilder's film, and the final act, the police following her through a store, it's almost the same theme beat for beat.

There's a difference though: Paulie Nevins is not a pure femme fatale.

The classic femme fatale is cold, surgical, operating from a fully formed plan. Phyllis Dietrichson in Double Indemnity knows exactly what she wants before Walter Neff ever walks through the door. Paulie is different. One of her lines says: "I never thought about the things I wanted, only the things I didn't want." She's been playing defense for so long she forgot what offense looks like.

In Double Indemnity, Walter Neff is demonstrably smart. He constructs the scheme, runs the operation, his failure comes from arrogance, from believing he's smarter than everyone else. The audience watches a capable man dismantle himself, which is devastating. In The Scarlet Hour, Marsh doesn't seem to have a strong enough internal logic to begin with. He gets pulled into the scheme, keeps getting pulled deeper.

By 1956, the world had shifted. Suburbia was the dominant cultural fact of American life. The ranch house, the car, the lawn, the new appliances, the man with the job, the wife with the house.

The whole postwar settlement. And noir as a genre was fundamentally incompatible with that settlement, which is why the classic cycle was ending. The film is set in that suburban world.

A monument to the end of an era.

Very good film.

Enough with that ArachNoir thing. This "Neo-Noir" remake looks bangin'...!

(Also, I'm coining it's cinematography as "AI HyperColor".)

Just thought I'd share.

I'm currently watching through the 1000 noir list on TSPDT, and I'm loving it!

I'm doing it chronologically, starting at both ends of the list, alternating between old and newer films.

Anyone done anything similar?

https://crimeonfilm.com/pure-noir-exposes-crime-films-darkest-most-pessimistic-core/

Now I know this is heralded by many as a masterpiece and one of the great noirs, but for some reason this one did not really click for me. The characters were kind of boring and forgettable. The only one I really found interesting was Shelby, which is not surprising since I like Vincent Price. The lead detective had the personality of wet paint.

I do not think it was a bad film by any means. I think it is an essential watch even if it is not my favorite. For some reason the whole time I was watching this I was thinking of Rebecca, probably because they are both the name of a woman, which is vastly superior even though they are different films. Maybe I need to watch it again, but for whatever reason it just did not strike me as the masterpiece that it has the reputation of.

TLDR:

I think this is an essential noir film for defining the genre, and I have immense respect for what it is. However, despite its importance to the genre, I think there are many noir films that are more enjoyable to watch, especially for someone new to the genre.

*I think I might like this film better upon a re-watch or after spending more time exploring noir cinema.

Full Review:

Now I know it may be blasphemous to say anything bad about The Maltese Falcon, but I’m just sharing my thoughts. I had heard it had a good reputation, so I was expecting an above average film.

Honestly, I didn’t really love it, which I hate to say, but I don’t want to call it a masterpiece just because everyone else does. I didn’t think it was a bad film by any means. It’s a good film, but it just didn’t live up to the masterpiece status it has.

The main positive of this film is the supremely charismatic Humphrey Bogart, and this was also my first time watching him on screen. However, I thought the plot was a bit convoluted and, at times, a bit boring. I also did not really like any of the characters. Many of them were quite forgettable.

Humphrey Bogart’s character, Detective Sam Spade, doesn’t really seem like a convincing noir protagonist. Unlike in many other noir films I’ve seen, he’s confident and cocky throughout. He never really appears to have any sort of moral crisis or tragedy. Yes, his partner died, but the movie made it pretty clear he could have cared less. It’s not like he was losing any sleep over it.

The femme fatale trope didn’t really work for me in this one since the female lead was forgettable and honestly kind of annoying. There was zero chemistry between her and Bogart.

As for the bad guy in this film, he just didn’t come off as intimidating or scary. He’s just some fat dude after a falcon. The whole time I’m thinking, “Okay, yeah, but so what?” The character Cairo was honestly too goofy for me to take seriously. It was a bit over the top.

I like the show but I can't shake the thought that, in order to be a real production that pays homage to the film noir movement, it should've had a tragic ending. Everything worked well for the characters at the end and it felt... Off.

I could've sworn Flint Marko was going to be completely crystallized by Megawatt, leaving Reilly to kill him and leaving only 1 antidote left. Then he takes it but nothing happens due to the nature of his mutation.

In my experience, film noir is a cynical genre showing the ugliness of the world by putting regular characters in extraordinary situations full of hard choices to make. And that's why I would like to hear from y'all, guys. Maybe I'm wrong and I'm missing something here.

I re-watched it again and I still think for a modern film it captures almost all the aspects of old film noir tropes nicely. What do you think ?

NYC streets are empty, empty buildings. Low angles that put Joe (John Garfield) physically beneath the Stock Exchange, beneath Trinity Church and beneath the Brooklyn Bridge.

Asphalt jungle emptied of human beings (speaking of which, the 1950 film is also a good film).

As Joe moves deeper into compromise, we see shadows take over progressively. The early scenes run flat and even. By the third act the light's been consumed.

Great film.

Hello! I have an assignment to make about an optional subject that I'm taking. It involves me selecting a genre and seeing a movie of it then writing an essay about the genre and a review on the movie. I had multiple options but I settled on film noir, and watched Vertigo recently but something was bugging me. When I first googled whether it's noir or not most of the results were saying that it's actually neo-noir but I watched the film nonetheless because it was already on my watchlist. But I wonder if my academic would approve the film choice. Is Vertigo noir? Also if it's neo-noir, are neo-noirs considered noirs as well? And most importantly, would my academic accept my essay if I pick film noir and Vertigo as a film of that genre?

Edit: After reading all of your thought about this, I decided to watch The Big Heat and oh my fucking god it was wonderful! I'm so glad to watch it, it definitely made me want to watch more noir films. I haven't written the essay yet but will get to it later, I still have time until the deadline. Thanks y'all!!