kinda cool

Dead Reckoning

A 1947 movie from Columbia Pictures. Directed by John Cromwell. Script was by Stve Fisher and Oliver H.P. Garret from a story by Gerald Drayson Adams and Sidney Bidell.

Captain Warren "Rip" Murdock (played by Humphrey Bogart) and his bestie Sergeant Johnny Drake (played by William Prince) are enroute to Washington, D.C. from Paris under some mystery orders. Soon enough, though, they find out that Johnny will be awarded the Medal of Honor while Murdock will get the Distinguished Service Cross. Murdock is elated while Johnny is not quite vibing with all of that.

When their train makes a stop, Johnny uses the opportunity to run away. Murdock tells the army that he's gonna go after his BFF and bring him back. He decides to head on over to Gulf City, Johnny's hometown, and ends up getting a message from Johnny that they gotta talk. But Johnny never contacts him again . . .

Released a whole year after the triumph that was The Big Sleep, this is a pretty solid B-movie.

OFC, Bogart is THE star: he brings a realistic combination of world-weariness and hope for a better future that, combined with the superb dialogue, makes the film snap and crackle with energy. Most of the cast is really good as well.

The plot is convoluted enough to make it interesting w/o becoming too labyrinthine.


Do I have any criticisms?

Even though I think she's a good actress in most things, I couldn't quite rally behind Lizabeth Scott as Coral Chandler. Thing is, I'm not sure even Scott knew HOW to play her character. And so she was both femme fatale and heroine without making up her mind. Which makes me think that the role would've been a much better fit for someone else.

Interestingly enough, this seems to be the general sentiment as folks (even going back to 1947) felt, at best, lukewarm with her performance. *Hands*


Do I recommend it?

I do! Again, it's no The Big Sleep and Lizabeth Scott is no Lauren Baccall, but I was entertained. This movie is available for streaming on YouTube for FREE NINETY-NINE for the month of November IF you've got YT Premium, you'll be able to watch it w/o ads. I give it a 3.5 out of 5.


Queerness level:

There's a v. OJO line that Murdock tells another character abt his bond with Johnny that falls along the line of "he's the person I've loved the most."

Now, I wouldn't go as far as to say that the slash vibes are strong, BUT Murdock's devotion (in a manner of speaking) to Johnny does ring a little queer. IDK.


Le trailer

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The Amazing Mr. X (YouTube)

A 1948 horror noir from Eagle-Lion Films.

Christine (played by Lynn Bari) is a rich widow who believes that someone from the great beyond is trying to contact her. Janet, her sister (played by Cathy O'Donnell) repeatedly tells Christine that she's imagining things. They live in a big house by a cliff and the combination of the waves from the sea below and the wind results in strange noises.

However, Christine is not convinced. One night, she's walking down the beach, on her way to her boyfriend Martin's house (played by Richard Carlson) for dinner. She begins to hear the voices again. It puts her in a weird emotional moment. Just as she's starting to get a hold of herself, she runs into a guy named Alexis (played by Turhan Bey). This dude tells her that his powers led him to her and that he wants to help. He drops a few details abt her and her husband that he shouldn't know cuz he and Christine had never met before.

Afterwards, she asks Martin for a raincheck. After she calms down, he proposes to her. Once Martin leaves for his home, she begins to see and hear more stuff. She sits down with Janet and they agree to visit Alexis to see what he can do to help them.

A seance occurs…

This is an interesting movie in that it's half gothic horror and half film noir. There's the supernatural aspect including ghosts, seances, the idea of a love that goes beyond life and death, etc. Meanwhile, for the film noir, the main themes are obsession and fate. The cinematography (by John Alton) is moody AF.

All of the actors were fine (tho no one stood out for me.)


Do I have any criticisms?

Yeppers. I do feel that the story has uneven pacing after Christine and Alexis meet. Sometimes things take forever to happen, others things seem to speed up.

Even though this is mostly built as a film noir, IMO, it's more a gothic suspense movie. So I'm v. ??? as to why ppl keep bringing this movie up whenever someone asks for film noir recs. YMMV.

SPOILERS FOR THE ENDING

Perhaps I'm overthinking this, but I was disappointed by some aspects of the ending.

So the first half of the movie is abt Christine. But then, the plot jumps lanes and the focus shifts to another character all the way to the end. Which is odd. I wish the movie had been abt the other character to begin with.

Especially cuz I wanted some more info on Christine as the movie came into a close. She's been put thru the wringer psychologically speaking AND survives a truly dark moment. It's also hinted at (some 15-20 mins before the movie ends) that she's having suicidal ideations too. The rest of the characters don't seem concerned abt that? Given everything that happens to her, I don't see Christine having a happy ending.

IDK. It was unnerving cuz there's no closure to her character one way or another.

Do I recommend it?

#Unsure. It's not a bad movie, but I can't rec it as a full noir. So, I'm giving it a 2.1 out of 5.

Queerness level:

*Shakes head no*



Le trailer

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Farewell, My Lovely

A 1975 adaptation of Dashiell Hammett's novel by the same name.

Just like with The Big Sleep, I read that novel some 20 yrs ago. I've watched (and own in physical format) the 1944 movie that was originally titled Murder, My Sweet. That movie starred Dick Powell and Claire Trevor.

Out of the two versions, the 1944 adaptation is the more faithful one to the novel. So, when compared to the 1975 film, there are some differences, but the overall storyline remained mostly the same. Acting and plot are good in both.

In this movie, Philip Marlowe (played by Robert Mitchum here and Dick Powell in the 1944 movie) is a private detective in 1941. He's not doing great, but he's deffo busy. The bulk of his cases tend to be abt cheating spouses or (like it happens at the start of the movie) finding missing people.

As soon as he returns a teenage runaway girl to her parents, he gets 'hired' by Moose Malloy (a thug who has just been released from prison for robbing $80k from a bank 7 yrs prior.) Malloy orders Marlowe to find his sweetheart, a woman named Velma, who was a dancer at a seedy bar. So Marlowe starts snooping around. The more he works the case, the wilder the search becomes until he senses that there's a bigger thing happening he hasn't quite connected the dots yet.

This is a REALLY GOOD movie. Extremely classic noir featuring Mitchum's Marlowe who has a frenemies situation with the police chief and Charlotte Rampling--who, at that time, was 29 y.o.--as Helen. She's a v. sensual, rich, and bored housewife. It's interesting that everything from her styling to her affectation and her voice is v., reminiscent of 1940s Lauren Baccall. Rampling does a good job as the femme fatale. (For context, the fabulous Claire Trevor, who played the same role in the 1944 movie, was slightly better, but I digress.) Rampling and Mitchum have a slow-burning intensity that works well considering Rampling's doing the most she can to embody the 1940s vamp and Mitchum (who was in his late 50s) starred in a lot of those 1940s noirs. I liked their interactions. Even though Helen was a little too much at times. Girl was horny, lordy lorde. XD

There are 2 differences between the 1944 and 1975 versions.

1. Because this movie was filmed after the Code was struck down, ppl curse, there are plenty of boobs (such as a scene in which Marlowe opens doors while searching for someone and finds different groups of ppl in which all of the women are topless), and the violence is more graphic (again, bullet wounds, blood, ppl getting punched and slapped.).

2. Also certain details: a character got genderswapped, two characters never show up (they were main characters), and two new characters were created for the movie. It was a bit confusing, but it worked for me. Oh, and out of nowhere, a v., v. young Sylvester Stallone shows up as a secondary character that's a thug dude. It was hilarious to see baby!Stallone, IDK.

It's not a perfect movie. There was one character that had a connection to the Big Bad, but I didn't quite understand how this partnership worked.

Do I recommend it? YES! If you're a fan of film noir or crime movies in general, this one will be a treat for sure. Content Warning for a lot of racial slurs in some scenes, on-screen violence against women, and some graphic stuff. I'm giving it a 4.5 out of 5.

Queerness level

There's a female character who is v. explicitly a lesbian. However, she's also an abuser and overall terrible person.


P.S.: One funny thing abt this movie being filmed in 1975 but depicting 1941 is that it'd be as if a movie coming out in 2025 that was set in 1990. I was a teenager in 1991! WHAT IS TIME?! O__o


Le trailer

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