We figured it was time to have a place to talk about Steve’s latest video subjects that do not have an UMR page.
(Visited 1,785 times)
We figured it was time to have a place to talk about Steve’s latest video subjects that do not have an UMR page.
BEST STILLS/LOBBY CARDS IN 1952 FILM NOIRS VIDEO
[3 views so far]
1/This Woman is Dangerous
2/Hoodlum Empire
3/The Green Glove
4/Man Bait
5/2 for Beware my Lovely
6/ALL for Affair in Trinidad – wow!
7/Deadline USA
8/2 for Clash by Night
9/Kansas City Confidential/The Secret Four
10/2 for Scandal Sheet
11/ALL for Narrow Margin
12/ALL for Turning Point
13/The Sellout-The first B movie I can today remember ever seeing.
14/ALL for the early-career pairing for Widmark and MM in Don’t Bother to Knock. I recently watched a documentary about Marilyn, and Dickie narrated it.
15/2 for Macao “We didn’t think much of him as an actor when he first came on the scene – but Robert Mitchum crept up on all of us.” – Katie Hepburn.
16/2 for Las Vegas Story. Tied down as a rather standard 2nd fiddle leading man to Betty Grable/Esther Williams/Rita Hayworth and others in the 1940-52 period Mature in the post 1952 period until the end of the 50s settled comfortably into the bracket of major stars such as Widmark/Ladd/Bogie/Mitchum who were very prolific in action/adventure tough-guy roles though of course Bogart Widmark and Mitchum would continue to explore the more serious side of acting.
17/The Steel Trap starring Joseph Cotton “the greatest American Actor of all time” according to Orson Welles. Joe was also a bit of a ladies’ man off-screen to boot: my Deanna became entranced with him when they made Hers to Hold [aka 3 Smart Girls Join Up] together in 1943.
18/2 for Sudden Fear. Glad to see Steve making it No 2 though I might have made it no 1 – there is almost a case for rating B movies separate from A ones.
19/Strange Fascination. In the early 1950s to us kids Cleo Moore and Hugo Hass were a strange partnership who made a series of weird films which we never went to. Alongside Strange Fascination they co-starred in One Girl’s Confession/Thy Neighbor’s Wife/Bait/ and The Other Woman. As well as starring in them Hugo wrote, produced and directed everything; a real all-rounder. He had made droves of films without Cleo and for example in 1950s movie Vendetta he supported Faith Domergue the mistress of Howard Hughes in real life and of course Vendetta was a Howard Hughes production And here’s trivia that you’ll probably see highlighted only here: Hugo’s part in Vendetta was a bandit called simply “Brando”. That was of course the year before Streetcar made the world conscious of The Great One Himself!
20/Sniper
BEST POSTERS 1952 FILM NOIRS VIDEO: FL=FOREIGN LANGUAGE VERSION
1/ALL for Night Without Sleep
2/Both for This Woman is Dangerous
3/ALL for Stolen Face – very classy posters
4/1st one for Hoodlum Empire
5/1st and FL one for Las Vegas Story
6/Captive City
7/ALL for Clash by Night
8/ALL for Kansas City Confidential aka The Secret Four
9/1st and FL one for Scandal Sheet
10/The Steel Trap
11/ALL for Man Bait – wow!
12/1st one for The Turning-for me the most disappointing Golden Holden film ever.
13/ALL for Deadline USA-The standard in this video is so high and even throughout that settling on the best 15 or 20 posters or sets thereof is difficult enough without trying to single out the one very best pictorial/set of pictorials; but the run of posters for Deadline USA so pleased me that I give in pride-of-place on balance though for me Strange Fascination gives Deadline a run for its money in the pictorial displays
14//Final 2 for Macao: in its day this movie was not well-received by a number of important critics and the film lost the equivalent of $7.5 million in 2022 dollars for RKO: but in 2005 critic Dennis Schwartz lauded the teaming and acting of Mitchum and Russell and went on to say “If you are looking for an underrated film noir gem—that somehow got swept under the rug—this is it.”
15/1st 2 for Sudden Fear: this is the movie that made me a big Crawford fan as even today I still consider it the most dominating acting by any female whom I’ve ever watched on screen. Although I was just 11 at the time I can even now vividly remember going into our Astoria to see it and when it ended coming out again transfixed.
16/FL ones for The Narrow Margin: for a long time considered the ideal B movie but some later critics suggested it had been overrated. However as I’ve always liked it I approve of Steve making it his No 1.
17/ALL for Strange Fascination – as indicated at 13 above fantastic stuff.
I have seen 17 top 1952 noirs.
Favourites are The Narrow Margin, Sudden Fear, Scandal Sheet, Kansas City Confidential, Clash By Night, Deadline USA, The Sniper, Don’t Bother to Knock, The Steel Trap, Affair in Trinidad, Macao, The Turning Point, The Las Vegas Story, and Beware My Lovely.
Other 1952 noir I have seen are The Green Glove, Hoodlum Empire and This Woman is Dangerous.
Favourite posters and stills are From The Narrow Margin, Sudden Fear, Kansas City Confidential, Deadline USA, Don’t Bother To Knock, The Steel Trap, Affair in Trinidad, Macao, The Las Vegas Story, and Beware My Lovely.
Hi Flora, 17 out of 25 is another impressive tally, I’ve seen 4. The Narrow Margin is a favorite, I’ve also enjoyed Macao, Don’t Bother to Knock and The Las Vegas Story. So many noirs I’ve missed (or forgotten seeing). Westerns was more my thing when I wasn’t watching sci-fi or horror as a kid.
Thanks for commenting, much appreciated.
Glad you liked the picture gallery. 1953 next friday.
BEST STILLS STEVE’s 1951 NOIRS VIDEO
1/Gambling House
2/1st one for Sirocco
3/Roadblock
4/Iron Man
5/The Klan!
6/Doris at the beginning of her movies heyDay – no pun intended!
7/House on Telegraph Hill
8/He Ran All the Way
9/14 Hours
10/1st one for His Kind of Woman
11/The Prowler
12/Cry Danger
13/2 for On Dangerous Ground
14/The Enforcer
15/ALL for Place in the Sun
16/The 13th Letter
17/Cause for Alarm
18/The Racket – one of the very first movies that I recall seeing advertised on a marquee. I was 10 at the time. I never actually saw the film itself until I became an adult and found it very complicated to follow.
19/Ladd in Appointment with Danger. His handful of 1950s film noirs were a shadow of his great stuff in the 1940s. His career might well have gone down the tubes early if he hadn’t gotten into a long and mostly profitable run of western/adventure movies in the 1950s decade. Historians reckon he ceased to be a very-top star in 1959.
20/ I was a Communist for the FBI- Star Frank Lovejoy had a short movie career from 1948-1958. He died young aged 50 in 1962 from a heart attack. He played mostly supporting roles and his two standout films were probably Vincent Price’s House of Wax and Bogie In a Lonely Place
BEST POSTERS in 1951 FILM NOIRS VIDEO
FL=Foreign Language versions
1/ALL for Gambling House
2/Both for The Hoodlum
3/FL ones for Sirocco
4/The Mob
5/ALL for Iron Man -Jeff’s 2nd year of stardom
6/FL ones for Ace in the Hole
7/1st 2 for 13th Letter
8/FL for Tomorrow is Another Day
9/He Ran All the Way
10/1st one for Two of a Kind
11/Lightning Strikes Twice
12/14 Hours
13/1st and FL ones for Cry Danger
14/Great FL ones for The Enforcer
15/ALL for Detective Story
16/1st one for Roadblock
17 The Prowler
18/FL ones for Ace in the Hole -gripping film
19/An exceptionally brilliant run of FL ones for Strangers on a Train
20/FL one for Place in the Sun which Orson Welles claimed was the “greatest film ever made about America”.
21/ALL for Ladd’s Appointment with Danger. One of the handful of noirs Laddie made in the 1950s. None were classics .