Posted by Notcot on May 9, 2012 in
Noir
Director Billy Wilder (Sunset Boulevard) and writer Raymond Chandler (The Big Sleep) adapted James M. Cain’s hard-boiled novel into this wildly thrilling story of insurance man Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray), who schemes the perfect murder with the beautiful dame Phyllis Dietrichson (Barbara Stanwyck: kill Dietrichson’s husband and make off with the insurance money. But, of course, in these plots things never quite go as planned, and Barton Keyes (Edward G. Robinson) is the wily insurance investigator who must sort things out. From the opening scene you know Neff is doomed, as the story is told in flashback; yet, to the film’s credit, this doesn’t diminish any of the tension of the movie. This early film noir flick is wonderfully campy by today’s standards, and the dialogue is snappy (“I thought you were smarter than the rest, Walter. But I was wrong. You’re not smarter, just a little taller”), filled with lots of “dame”s and “baby”s. Stanwyck is the ultimate femme fatale, and MacMurray, despite a career largely defined by roles as a softy (notably in the TV series My Three Sons and the movie The Shaggy Dog), is convincingly cast against type as the hapless, love-struck sap. –Jenny Brown
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Tags: barbara stanwyck, billy wilder, course, dialogue, director billy wilder, Dog, double indemnity, edward g robinson, Fatale, Femme, fred macmurray, husband, insurance, insurance investigator, insurance man, insurance money, investigator, james m cain, jenny brown, masters, Raymond Chandler, Series, shaggy dog, softy, Sons, story, sunset boulevard, today, Type, walter neff
Posted by Notcot on May 6, 2012 in
Noir
In his introduction to the The Best American Noir of the Century, James Ellroy writes, “noir is the most scrutinised offshoot of the hard-boiled school of fiction. It’s the long drop off the short pier and the wrong man and the wrong woman in perfect misalliance. It’s the nightmare of flawed souls with big dreams and the precise how and why of the all-time sure thing that goes bad.†Offering the best examples of literary sure things gone bad, this collection ensures that nowhere else can readers find a darker, more thorough distillation of American noir fiction. James Ellroy and Otto Penzler, series editor of the annual The Best American Mystery Stories, mined one hundred years of writing — 1910-2010 — to find this treasure trove of thirty-nine stories. From noir’s twenties-era infancy come gems like James M. Cain’s “Pastorale,†and its post-war heyday boasts giants like Mickey Spillane and Evan Hunter. Packing an undeniable punch, diverse contemporary incarnations include Elmore Leonard, Dennis Lehane, Patricia Highsmith and William Gay, with many page-turners appearing in the last decade.In his introduction to the The Best American Noir of the Century, James Ellroy writes, “noir is the most scrutinised offshoot of the hard-boiled school of fiction. It’s the long drop off the short pier and the wrong man and the wrong woman in perfect misalliance. It’s the nightmare of flawed souls with big dreams and the precise how and why of the all-time sure thing that goes bad.†Offering the best examples of literary sure things gone bad, this collection ensures that nowhere else can readers find a darker, more thorough distillation of American noir fiction. James Ellroy and Otto Penzler, series editor of the annual The Best American Mystery Stories, mined one hundred years of writing — 1910-2010 — to find this treasure trove of thirty-nine stories. From noir’s twenties-era infancy come gems like James M. Cain’s “Pastorale,†and its post-war heyday boasts giants like Mickey Spillane and Evan Hunter. Packing an undeniable punch, diverse contemporary incarnations include Elmore Leonard, Dennis Lehane, Patricia Highsmith and William Gay, with many page-turners appearing in the last decade.
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Tags: american mystery, collection, dennis lehane, drop, Fiction, heyday, james ellroy, james m cain, Man, mickey spillane, misalliance, Mystery, Noir, noir fiction, offshoot, one hundred years, otto penzler, packing, page turners, patricia highsmith, Pier, punch, Series, treasure, treasure trove, trove, william gay, woman, wrong man, wrong woman
Posted by Notcot on Apr 7, 2011 in
Noir
Director Billy Wilder (Sunset Boulevard) and writer Raymond Chandler (The Big Sleep) adapted James M. Cain’s hard-boiled novel into this wildly thrilling story of insurance man Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray), who schemes the perfect murder with the beautiful dame Phyllis Dietrichson (Barbara Stanwyck: kill Dietrichson’s husband and make off with the insurance money. But, of course, in these plots things never quite go as planned, and Barton Keyes (Edward G. Robinson) is the wily insurance investigator who must sort things out. From the opening scene you know Neff is doomed, as the story is told in flashback; yet, to the film’s credit, this doesn’t diminish any of the tension of the movie. This early film noir flick is wonderfully campy by today’s standards, and the dialogue is snappy (“I thought you were smarter than the rest, Walter. But I was wrong. You’re not smarter, just a little taller”), filled with lots of “dame”s and “baby”s. Stanwyck is the ultimate femme fatale, and MacMurray, despite a career largely defined by roles as a softy (notably in the TV series My Three Sons and the movie The Shaggy Dog), is convincingly cast against type as the hapless, love-struck sap. –Jenny Brown
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Tags: 1944, barbara stanwyck, billy wilder, course, dialogue, director billy wilder, Dog, Double, double indemnity, edward g robinson, Fatale, Femme, fred macmurray, husband, Indemnity, insurance, insurance investigator, insurance man, insurance money, investigator, james m cain, jenny brown, Noir, Raymond Chandler, Series, shaggy dog, softy, Sons, story, sunset boulevard, today, Type, walter neff
Posted by Notcot on Jan 1, 2011 in
Noir
Director Billy Wilder (Sunset Boulevard) and writer Raymond Chandler (The Big Sleep) adapted James M. Cain’s hard-boiled novel into this wildly thrilling story of insurance man Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray), who schemes the perfect murder with the beautiful dame Phyllis Dietrichson (Barbara Stanwyck: kill Dietrichson’s husband and make off with the insurance money. But, of course, in these plots things never quite go as planned, and Barton Keyes (Edward G. Robinson) is the wily insurance investigator who must sort things out. From the opening scene you know Neff is doomed, as the story is told in flashback; yet, to the film’s credit, this doesn’t diminish any of the tension of the movie. This early film noir flick is wonderfully campy by today’s standards, and the dialogue is snappy (“I thought you were smarter than the rest, Walter. But I was wrong. You’re not smarter, just a little taller”), filled with lots of “dame”s and “baby”s. Stanwyck is the ultimate femme fatale, and MacMurray, despite a career largely defined by roles as a softy (notably in the TV series My Three Sons and the movie The Shaggy Dog), is convincingly cast against type as the hapless, love-struck sap. –Jenny Brown
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Buy Now for [wpramaprice asin=”B000MGB0RY”] (Best Price)
Tags: barbara stanwyck, course, dialogue, director billy wilder, Dog, double indemnity, double indemnity dvd, edward g robinson, Fatale, Femme, fred macmurray, husband, insurance, insurance investigator, insurance man, insurance money, investigator, james m cain, jenny brown, Noir, Raymond Chandler, Series, shaggy dog, softy, Sons, story, sunset boulevard, today, Type, walter neff
Posted by Notcot on Apr 18, 2010 in
Noir
Tags: Average, Cain, Chandler, Dark, dark legacy, Dashiell, dashiell hammett, FILM, Hammett, James, james m cain, James M. Cain
Buy, legacy, Noir, novels, rating, Raymond, Raymond Chandler, Reviews, roots