Noirish Posted by John Grant on January 30, 2019

Shortly before Christmas 1999, in the parochial small town of Beauval, France — think of a latterday version of the village in Henri-Georges Clouzot’s Le Corbeau (1943) and you won’t go far wrong — 12-year-old Antoine accidentally kills his much younger pal Rémi. In terror a   read more

Noirish Posted by John Grant on January 27, 2019

Let’s try to be quick about this . . . Cordelia Gray runs a detective agency whose main source of income is finding lost pets. However, she’s hired to accompany actress Clarissa Lisle for a weekend on the small island of Courcy, off the Dorset coast, for a vanity performance...   read more

Noirish Posted by John Grant on January 26, 2019

US / 92 minutes / color with some bw / 6 Foot, Avva, John J. Kelly Entertainment, Saban Dir & Scr: Eshom Nelms, Ian Nelms Pr: Parisa Caviani, Brad Johnson, John J. Kelly Cine: Johnny Derango Cast: John Hawkes, Anthony Anderson, Octavia Spencer, Robert Forster, Clifton Collins Jr., Jeremy Ratchfo   read more

Noirish Posted by John Grant on January 23, 2019

vt Breakout UK / 96 minutes / bw / Colin Lesslie Productions, British Lion Dir: Don Chaffey Pr: Colin Lesslie Scr: Bryan Forbes, Frank Harvey Story: Death in Captivity (1952; vt The Danger Within) by Michael Gilbert Cine: Arthur Grant Cast: Richard Todd, Bernard Lee, Michael Wilding, Richard Attenbo   read more

Noirish Posted by John Grant on January 23, 2019

***A great account of a favorite movie of mine! Silver Screen Classics by Paul Batters ‘I want you to do something. I want you to get yourself out of the bed, and get over to the window and scream as loud as you can. Otherwise you only have another three...   read more

Noirish Posted by John Grant on January 21, 2019

David Lindsey is one of my favorite crime novelists. His A Cold Mind (1983), almost his first novel, represented a remarkable coming-of-age for the serial-killer genre. Mercy (1990) made him famous. But for me it’s his 1992 novel Body of Truth that’s most imprinted itself on my mind: al   read more

Noirish Posted by John Grant on January 19, 2019

US / 97 minutes / color / Short End, Silverline Dir & Pr & Scr: David Sporn Cine: Ben Wolf Cast: Brenda Price, D. James Reynolds, Morton Hall Millen, Paige Balitski, Jeff Paul, Bob Brown, Lesley Morris, Keith Miller, Robert Pemberton, Evan Lai, Christine Murray, Keely Barr. According to Wik   read more

Noirish Posted by John Grant on January 16, 2019

A mystery that’s tremendous fun to read even if, as a mystery, it’s not the greatest of shakes. Actress Tessa Crichton, Morice’s series detective, is recruited for the US run of a stage comedy that’s been a big hit in London’s West End, and accordingly travels to Washi   read more

Noirish Posted by John Grant on January 16, 2019

US / 90 minutes / color / Frontline, Montage, World International Dir & Scr: Randall Fontana Pr: Deverin Karol, Eric Weston, William Ewart, David Peters Cine: Rex A. Nicholson Cast: Gabrielle Fitzpatrick, Phillip Rhys, Brion James, Ed Lauter, Mark A. Sheppard, Steffen Gregory Foster, Sarah Wynte   read more

Noirish Posted by John Grant on January 16, 2019

US / 65 minutes / bw / RKO Radio Pictures Dir: Worthington Miner Exec Pr: Pandro S. Berman Scr: Francis Faragoh Story: Ein Mantel, ein Hut, ein Handschuh (1933 play) by Wilhelm Speyer Cine: J. Roy Hunt Cast: Ricardo Cortez, Barbara Robbins, John Beal, Dorothy Burgess, Paul Harvey, Sara Haden,...   read more

Noirish Posted by John Grant on January 13, 2019

I’ve read a couple of Mosley’s Easy Rawlins books over the years — I loved Devil in a Blue Dress, which is the one just about everyone’s read, and quite enjoyed the other one, title now forgotten — so I was enticed when I tripped over a copy of The...   read more

Noirish Posted by John Grant on January 12, 2019

I was saddened to learn the other day that writer Brian Garfield died at the end of last year at the fairly modest age of 79. Back in the day, I read quite a few of Garfield’s crime novels, and by and large very much enjoyed them. (The one about...   read more

Noirish Posted by John Grant on January 12, 2019

An unflattering remark about this novel the other day by a crime blogger whose judgments I generally enjoy reminded me I should read the book again: it’s been a very long time indeed since last I did so, my copy then being one of those old Victor Gollancz yellow-jackets (borrowed...   read more

Noirish Posted by John Grant on January 12, 2019

Brought up in an affectionless, distanced family, young Teddy has become an aesthete, a craftsman, an emotional cripple and a sociopath. Having as a child seen her mother murdered, Francine has had her life since then dominated by her controlling, obsessional, quack psychotherapist stepmother, Juli   read more

Noirish Posted by John Grant on January 12, 2019

US / 110 minutes / color / Electric Entertainment, Global Pictures Media Dir: Dean Devlin Pr: Dean Devlin, Marc Roskin, Rachel Olschan-Wilson Scr: Brandon Boyce Cine: David Connell Cast: David Tennant, Robert Sheehan, Kerry Condon, Carlito Olivero, Jacqueline Byers, Tracey Heggins, Robert P. Nagle,   read more

Noirish Posted by John Grant on January 9, 2019

UK / 59 minutes / bw / Major, Rank Dir: Peter Graham Scott Pr: John Temple-Smith Scr: Barbara S. Harper Story: Account Rendered (1953) by Pamela Barrington Cine: Walter J. Harvey Cast: Griffith Jones, Ursula Howells, Honor Blackman, Ewen Solon, Robert Raikes, John Van Eyssen, Philip Gilbert, Carl Be   read more

Noirish Posted by John Grant on January 5, 2019

UK / 108 minutes / color with some bw / Hidden City, ZDF, Channel Four, Film4 Dir & Scr: Stephen Poliakoff Pr: Irving Teitelbaum Cine: Witold Stok Cast: Charles Dance, Cassie Stuart, Bill Paterson, Richard E. Grant, Alex Norton, Tusse Silberg, Richard Ireson, Saul Jephcott, Michael Mueller, Mich   read more

Noirish Posted by John Grant on January 3, 2019

I date my personal fascination for the history of science to my encounter, during my early twenties, with Arthur Koestler’s monumental The Sleepwalkers (1959). In that book Koestler examined the emergence of Western science from the shadows of the Church-dominated centuries, focusing on Cope   read more

Noirish Posted by John Grant on January 2, 2019

vt A Beautiful Day UK, France, US / 90 minutes / color with some bw / Film4, BFI, Why Not, StudioCanal, Amazon, Lionsgate Dir & Scr: Lynne Ramsay Pr: Pascal Caucheteux, Rosa Attab, James Wilson, Rebecca O’Brien, Lynne Ramsay Story: You Were Never Really Here (2013; rev 2018) by Jonathan...   read more

Noirish Posted by John Grant on December 31, 2018

A reasonable haul of books for this closing month of the year, a high percentage of them being by female authors and a couple of the others being translations. I’m conscious that perhaps my reading during 2018 perhaps hasn’t been as diverse as in recent years, so it’s pleasing to...   read more