Noirish Posted by John Grant on April 2, 2015

vt Burnt Offering US / 76 minutes / bw / Fox Dir: Frank Lloyd Scr: Bradley King, Leon Gordon Story: “Burnt Offering” (seemingly unpublished) by Harry Hervey Cine: John Seitz Cast: Elissa Landi, Paul Lukas, Warner Oland, Alexander Kirkland, Donald Crisp, Yola d’Avril, Ivan Simpson,   read more

Noirish Posted by John Grant on April 1, 2015

Here are the non-work books I read during March, complete with links to my usually pretty scrappy notes on Goodreads: The Forbidden Garden (1962) by Ursula Curtiss Death of the Demon (trans 2013) by Anne Holt The 7th Woman (trans 2014) by Frédérique Molay King’s Ransom (1959) by Ed McBain...   read more

Noirish Posted by John Grant on March 31, 2015

US / 68 minutes / bw / Tower Dir: Christy Cabanne Pr: Sig Neufeld Scr: Edward T. Lowe Jr. Story: The Red-Haired Alibi (1932) by Wilson Collison Cine: Harry Forbes Cast: Merna Kennedy, Theodore von Eltz, Grant Withers, Purnell Pratt, Huntley Gordon, Fred Kelsey, Arthur Hoyt, Paul Porcassi, John Vosbu   read more

Noirish Posted by John Grant on March 29, 2015

(1) I’m thrilled to pieces that my “Ghost Story” — so-called because it’s an sf story — has been selected by Rich Horton for his The Year’s Best Science Fiction & Fantasy: 2015 Edition. The complete table of contents is here; as you can see, I’m in some   read more

Noirish Posted by John Grant on March 28, 2015

UK / 83 minutes / bw / Gibraltar, Grand National Dir: Lance Comfort Pr: Charles A. Leeds Scr: Guy Morgan Story: He Was Found in the Road (1952) by Anthony Armstrong Cine: Stan Pavey, Eric Besche Cast: Derek Farr, Ella Raines, Donald Wolfit, Lisa Danielly, Karel Stepanek, Cyril Cusack, Olive...   read more

Noirish Posted by John Grant on March 25, 2015

UK / 74 minutes / bw / Hammer, Exclusive Dir & Story: Francis Searle Pr: Anthony Hinds Scr: John Gilling Cine: Cedric Williams Cast: Sidney James, Betty Ann Davies, Sheila Burrell, Hazel Penwarden, Anthony Forwood, Valentine Dyall, Courtney Hope, Lawrence Baskcombe, Mollie Palmer, Gerald Case.   read more

Noirish Posted by John Grant on March 22, 2015

This past week has seen a useful little review of Debunk It! on the blog Bea’s Book Nook and an interview with me, primarily about my interest in reading and occasionally writing crime fiction, on Marina Sofia’s blog Finding Time to Write: “What Got You Hooked on Crime, John Grant?   read more

Noirish Posted by John Grant on March 21, 2015

vt The Obsessed UK / 77 minutes / bw / Elvey-Gartside, Romulus, Independent Film Distributors Dir: Maurice Elvey Pr: Ernest Gartside Scr: Charles Frank, David Evans Story: The Late Edwina Black (1950 play) by Wm. Dinner and Wm. Morum (i.e., William Dinnie and William Murum) Cine: Stephen Dade Cast:   read more

Noirish Posted by John Grant on March 18, 2015

vt Fairy Finland / 12 minutes / color / Sarastus Dir & Scr: Joonas Einola Pr: Joonas Ranta, Sara Pekonen Cine: Jussi Einola Cast: Heini Haapaniemi, Simo Salo, Elli Maanpää. A few months ago I devoted an entry here to the independent Finnish neonoir feature movie Anni (2011 DTV), which...   read more

Noirish Posted by John Grant on March 14, 2015

vt The College Girl Murders; vt The Monk with the Whip; vt The Prussic Factor West Germany, Denmark / 84 minutes / color / Rialto, Preben Philipsen, Constantin Dir: Alfred Vohrer Pr: Horst Wendlandt Scr: Alex Berg (i.e., Herbert Reinecker) Story: The Terror (1927 play) by Edgar Wallace Cine: Karl...   read more

Noirish Posted by John Grant on March 12, 2015

A couple of blog interviews with me have appeared over the past few days in connection with my YA nonfiction book Debunk It!: How to Stay Sane in a World of Misinformation. One’s at Write All the Words and the other’s at Mother Daughter Book Club. There’s also a review...   read more

Noirish Posted by John Grant on March 11, 2015

vt Creature with the Blue Hand West Germany, Denmark / 87 minutes / color / Rialto, Preben Philipsen, Constantin Dir: Alfred Vohrer Pr: Horst Wendlandt Scr: Alex Berg (i.e., Herbert Reinecker) Story: The Blue Hand, or Beyond Recall (1925) by Edgar Wallace Cine: Ernst W. Kalinke Cast: Harald Leipnitz   read more

Noirish Posted by John Grant on March 7, 2015

US / 66 minutes / bw / Paramount Dir: Alexander Hall, George Somnes Pr: B.P. Schulberg Scr: P.J. Wolfson, Allen Rivkin, Manuel Seff Story: Jules Furthman Cine: Karl Struss Cast: James Dunn, Gloria Stuart, Shirley Grey, David Manners, William Harrigan, Vince Barnett, Johnny Hines, Jack La Rue, Kitty   read more

Noirish Posted by John Grant on March 5, 2015

* There’s a major Pre-Code blogathon coming up at  the end of this month, and I’m honored to be contributing a couple of the posts — on Red-Haired Alibi and Passport to Hell (both from 1932). The roster of contributions — only a small part of which is visible below...   read more

Noirish Posted by John Grant on March 4, 2015

US / 59 minutes / bw / Central, Columbia Dir: Leon Barsha Pr: Kenneth J. Bishop Scr: Edgar Edwards Story: “Face Work” (1936 Black Mask; vt “Angel Face”) by Cornell Woolrich Cine: George Meehan Cast: Charles Quigley, Rita Hayworth, Marc Lawrence, George McKay, Doreen MacGregor   read more

Noirish Posted by John Grant on February 28, 2015

UK / 55 minutes / bw / Craytic, Planet Dir: Peter Sykes Pr: Max Steuer Scr: Max Steuer, Peter Sykes Cine: Ian Wilson Cast: Paul Jones, Tom Kempinski, Robert Lloyd, Pauline Munro, Jimmy Gardner, Arthur Brown. After a Driver (Kempinski) pulls off the road to tinker with his car engine,...   read more

Noirish Posted by John Grant on February 28, 2015

Here’s a list of the books I’ve read for leisure this month, with links to my generally fairly scrappy Goodreads notes: All women again……..apart from Ben John and Douglas! Seems like another decent month. Ben and Douglas are both female too. John’s the solitary rogue ma   read more

Noirish Posted by John Grant on February 27, 2015

Silver Screenings “Ronald, quit photobombing my portraits.” Image: allposters.com Yay! We’re so excited for the two-day Madeleine Carroll Birthday Bash that starts tomorrow. Madeleine is an actress we’ve long admired, and we feel it’s time to honour her life and achievements. All the details of this   read more

Noirish Posted by John Grant on February 25, 2015

US / 86 minutes / bw / Great Commission, Continental Dir: Dick Ross Scr: John O’Dea Story: Why I Quit Syndicated Crime (1951 autobiography) by James A. Vaus Jr. Cine: Ralph Woolsey Cast: Bill Williams, Georgia Lee, Douglas Kennedy, Richard Benedict, Stanley Clements, Paul Picerni, Ric Roman, S   read more

Noirish Posted by John Grant on February 25, 2015

I discovered on Wednesday that my new book, Debunk It! — a YA guide to the application of critical thinking and the detection of, er, baloney — came out on Tuesday. Pam and I intended to have a sort of postdated bottle of bubbly but we forgot and had a...   read more