Here are the last films that played at Noir City 2024:
Plunder Road is a cheap road movie; but it’s a pretty good one. A few men and one woman set out to steal a load of gold from the US government. During the movie, you get to know the robbers, and their hopes. The only famous face in the movie is the perfect-for-noir face of Elisha Cook Jr’s.
Plunder Road
Hardly a Criminal. This Argentine crime story is somewhat difficult to follow. The protagonist (Jorge Salcedo) embezzles money from his employer. But to do it, he must spend six years in prison. There’s no certainty that he’ll get out with the money, or even with his hands.
Thursday, there was very little English dialogue. Both films in the double bill were in Italian (and, of course, set in Italy). Without Pity is set just after World War II. A prostitute and an African-American GI meet and fall in love. The not-yet-famous Federico Fellini wrote the screenplay.
Without Pity
I was disappointed by Bitter Rice. Poor people come to harvest rice. It’s part neorealism, part Italian Grapes of Wrath, and part women fighting over their men.
I wasn’t able to attend Noir City Friday. But I’ve already told you that John Huston’s The Asphalt Jungle is brilliant. I haven’t seen the second film that day, Symphony of a Massacre, so I can’t tell you anything about it.
The Asphalt Jungle
Saturday started with incredible Across the Bridge, and that was fantastic. Rod Steiger stars as a powerful capitalist who slowly loses his authority. On a train trip from the US to Mexico, there’s a dead man, people who refuse to drive him, and the saddest looking dog I have ever seen at Noir City. Brilliant!
Unfortunately, the Japanese film Zero Focus isn’t worth watching. The “serious” film’s tragic ending brought laughs.
Across the Bridge
On Saturday, I watched one of my favorites, the great French noir, Elevator To the Gallows. Laced with dark, ironic humor, the film cuts back and forth between a murderer trapped in an elevator, the murderer’s lover wandering the streets searching for him (Jeanne Moreau in her breakout role), and two young lovers enjoying a crime spree. And all of it is set to Miles Davis’s powerful jazz score. Read my Blu-ray review.
Strongroom closed Saturday with a punch. Not great, but it keeps you on the edge of your chair. Three criminals lock a bank manager and his secretary over Easter weekend. Too late, the criminals realize that the trapped bankers may die without enough air. The movie isn’t plausible, but exciting.
The Strongroom
The last real noir of the festival was Murder By Contract. A handsome and brilliant hitman (Vince Edwards) goes to LA for a job. But things don’t work out as they should. The movie was made for very little money, but it looks like something big.
Smog is in no way a noir. In this comedy of manners, an Italian attorney finds himself in Los Angeles, where he meets other ex-pats. The movie is often quite funny.
You can see most of these movies through the streaming services. But with a crowd, a giant screen, and the Grand Lake Theater, it’s just not the same.
Bayflicks 