Noirish Posted by John Grant on February 25, 2019

Somewhere in the desert wastes of Texas there’s this small town called Caesura, population currently just under 50. Colloquially those who know of Caesura call the place the Blinds, because the people living in pseudonymity there are, so to speak, the personifications of blind files — t   read more

Noirish Posted by John Grant on February 25, 2019

Well, not in person, you understand. Instead Pam and I went to the 38th or 39th (I’m uncertain) Oscars Night party thrown here in New Jersey by Lucille and Sam Juliano of the tremendous “cinema, music, opera, books, television, theater” site Wonders in the Dark. A surprising number   read more

Noirish Posted by John Grant on February 23, 2019

US / 30 minutes / bw / Paisano, CBS Dir: Jacques Tourneur Pr & Scr: Edmund Hartmann Characters: Erle Stanley Gardner Cine: Lucien Andriot Cast: Billy Pearson, Benay Venuta, Maurice Manson, Maggy Mahoney (i.e., Margaret Field), Judith Bess Jones, Sheila Bromley, Don Megowan, Movita, Alison Hayes,   read more

Noirish Posted by John Grant on February 22, 2019

Dorothy B. Hughes is a name familiar to fans of film noir from the movies that were based on her novels: The FALLEN SPARROW (1943) dir Robert Fellows, with John Garfield and Maureen O’Hara as leads, RIDE THE PINK HORSE (1947) dir Robert Montgomery, with Montgomery and Wanda Hendrix as...   read more

Noirish Posted by John Grant on February 20, 2019

US / 60 minutes / bw / Universal Dir: Leslie Goodwins Assoc Pr: Frank Gross Scr: I.A.L. Diamond, Stanley Davis Story: Geheimnis des Blauen Zimmers (1932 screenplay) by Erich Philippi Cine: George Robinson Cast: Anne Gwynne, Donald Cook, John Litel, Grace McDonald, Betty Kean, June Preisser, Regis To   read more

Noirish Posted by John Grant on February 19, 2019

Chastity Riley is a public prosecutor in Hamburg, recently promoted sideways because she managed to put her boss behind bars and, while trying to shoot a bad guy in the leg, rather catastrophically (for him) missed by a few inches. Now she’s been put in charge of witness-protection issues in   read more

Noirish Posted by John Grant on February 17, 2019

A truly savage satire of corruption in Mexican society but most especially among the Mexican police, Tequila Blue is strong meat that’s most definitely not for everyone. Carlos Hernandez is a Mexican cop and therefore (according to the novel) a crook — he has to be in order to survive,   read more

Noirish Posted by John Grant on February 16, 2019

US / 66 minutes / bw / Universal Dir: Kurt Neumann Pr: Carl Laemmle Jr. Scr: William Hurlbut Story: Geheimnis des Blauen Zimmers (1932 screenplay) by Erich Philippi Cine: Charles Stumar Cast: Lionel Atwill, Gloria Stuart, Paul Lukas, Edward Arnold, Onslow Stevens, William Janney, Robert Barrat, Muri   read more

Noirish Posted by John Grant on February 14, 2019

A few months ago I watched — and was very much taken by — the BBC miniseries based on this novel, so the next time I saw the latter for sale I snatched up a copy. On balance I enjoyed the novel, to which the TV adaptation is remarkably faithful...   read more

Noirish Posted by John Grant on February 12, 2019

vt Ha’khata’im; vt Poprzednie Zycie Israel, Poland / 109 minutes / color / Metro, Artomas, Ars Veritas, Sunshine, United King, Orion, Samuel Goldwyn Dir & Scr: Avi Nesher Pr: David M. Milch, David Silber, Avi Nesher, Moshe Edery, Leon Edery, Ruth Cats Story: Can Heaven Be Void? (2003) by Baruch   read more

Noirish Posted by John Grant on February 10, 2019

James Whitehouse, a junior minister in a Conservative British government and secure in his place because of his long-time friendship with the prime minister — since they were schoolboys at Eton together and through their years at Oxford — is clearly a child of privilege. He’s also   read more

Noirish Posted by John Grant on February 9, 2019

France / 87 minutes / bw / UGC, Les Films Sirius, Les Productions Jacques Roitfeld, Belmont, Eléfilm, CFDC Dir: Michel Deville Pr: Jacques Roitfeld Scr: Nina Companeez, Michel Deville Story: Main Pleine (1959) by Pierre-Vial Lesou Cine: Claude Lecomte Cast: Eddie Constantine, Pierre Brasseur, George   read more

Noirish Posted by John Grant on February 9, 2019

This is the third of Jussi Adler-Olsen’s Department Q novels that I’ve read — the others being The Keeper of Lost Causes and A Conspiracy of Faith — and I feel that I’ve developed a sort of love-hate relationship with them: on the one hand, they’re extremely   read more

Noirish Posted by John Grant on February 6, 2019

US / 95 minutes / color / Frederic Golchan Productions, Leonard Hill Films, NBC Dir: Charles Correll Pr: Frederic Golchan Scr: Robert Nathan, Robert Rosenblum Story: In the Deep Woods (1989) by Nicholas Condé (i.e., Robert Nathan and Robert Rosenblum) Cine: James Glennon Cast: Rosanna Arquette, Anth   read more

Noirish Posted by John Grant on February 4, 2019

When mainstream novelists tackle the genres they can run the risk of reinventing the wheel, and — although Lethem has past form with detective/noir fiction, in the form of Motherless Brooklyn, which I’ve owned for years but, shame on me, haven’t yet read — to a certain exten   read more

Noirish Posted by John Grant on February 2, 2019

US / 54 minutes / bw and color / Unit 10, Bernhard Dir & Pr: John Donne (i.e., Donn Greer) Scr: Gertrude Steen (yeah, right) Cine: uncredited Cast (according to IMDB): Sheri Jackson, Julia Blackburn, Roger Gentry, Janice Kelly, Donn Greer (voice). Others may tell you that Alice in Acidland...   read more

Noirish Posted by John Grant on February 2, 2019

Although there’s a brief frame supposedly narrated by Mozart’s youngest son, Franz Xaver, this novel takes the form of a memoir written by Mozart’s elder sister, Nannerl. Having forsaken her own musical ambitions in order to care for her father, Leopold, and having been married of   read more

Noirish Posted by John Grant on January 31, 2019

A somewhat below-par selection of books this month in that, while I enjoyed two or three of them quite a lot, none of them had me singin’ and dancin’. Fingers crossed I’ll be luckier in February. The links are as usual to my Goodreads notes, although in fact everything has...   read more

Noirish Posted by John Grant on January 30, 2019

US / 67 minutes / bw / Columbia Dir: Charles Barton Pr: Wallace MacDonald Scr: Robert D. Andrews Cine: Benjamin Kline Cast: Peter Lorre, Rochelle Hudson, Robert Wilcox, Don Beddoe, George E. Stone, Kenneth MacDonald, Charles Middleton, Stanley Brown, Earl Gunn, Addison Richards, Sam Ash, Eddie Laugh   read more

Noirish Posted by John Grant on January 30, 2019

Let’s face it, this novel is absolute garbage. But it’s also a tremendous page-turner that I had difficulty setting aside whenever other duties called — like work and sleep. While normally I just jeer when book blurbs compare the contents to The Da Vinci Code, in this instance I c   read more