My wife has become a noir addict. I don’t know the cure. Anyway, we’re about halfway through Noir City 2024. I’ll tell you about the films that I really liked.
Victims of Sin was by far the best film I’ve seen at the festival this year. A beautiful singer/dancer gets pregnant – a major mistake in 1950’s Mexico. Raising a child and fending pimps, life is difficult. A very dark story. Eddie Muller – Film Noir Foundation founder – told us that in 1950’s Mexico, performers were expected to have no home life. The story involves a baby in a garbage can, pimps, multiple murders, and a life in prison. The music makes you want to dance, but the story makes you cry. A new 4K Restoration!
I love trains, and there’s a lot of them this year at the Noir City depot. In Union Station, William Holden and Barry Fitzgerald try to save a kidnapped blind girl. It’s a fun movie, with a powerfully scary ending.
Cairo Station is not the Egyptian version of Union Station. No one has enough money to do a kidnap scheme. For most of the film, you get to meet the people who live around the station. But a newspaper hawker (played by the director, Youssef Chahine) develops a very dangerous sexual yearning.
I’ve already written about Odd Man Out. So, I’ll just remind you what I think about it:
This Irish film from 1947 could easily be made in today’s Palestine. The police can always enter a house without being asked. James Mason stars as the leader of the underground Irish Republican Army. After killing a man by accident, the police are breaking their backs to get him. Unfortunately, the film drags near the end, thanks to Robert Newton’s overacting. Double billed with Victims of Sin (Victimas Del).
On Sunday, Noir City played two films, both inspired by the same novel by French writer, Émile Zola. The first film, The Human Beast (in French, La Bête Humaine), was directed in 1938 by Jean Renoir (who also takes a part). The American version, Human Desire, was directed by Fritz Lang in 1954.
The American version should be better than it is. It was directed by Fritz Lang, starred Glenn Ford and Gloria Grahame – the team that brought us The Big Heat! What’s more, it deals with the very real issue of spousal abuse. And to top it off, all the main male characters work for the railroad, and the movie appears to have a love affair with trains. And yet, with all those good points in its favor, it’s nowhere near as powerful as it should have been. But the older, French version has deeper characters. Besides, it stars Jean Gabin and Simone Simon. Both are good, but Renoir’s version is the better film.
Monday, I saw Black Tuesday. Yes, with a title like that, the film should have been screened on Tuesday. But it’s a powerful, short bulldog of a movie starring Edward G. Robinson. He, and several other criminals, need to get out of prison before their executions.
But that was not the only jailbreak that happened at the Grand Lake Theater Monday night. The Hole (Le Trou) is a French 1960 prison escape film that’s considered a masterpiece in France. If you ever need to break out of prison, watch this film first.
Tuesday night, Noir City will screen at They Made Me a Fugitive, with Aimless Bullet (Obaltan). I’ll tell you about it after I see it.
Bayflicks 