Where Danger Lives Posted by Mark on August 15, 2017

“You cannot be kind to congenital criminals like these. They would show you no mercy. Let them feel the full impact of the law.” Back in the days before the no-holds-barred speedway/parking lot that is Interstate 95, sun-seekers in their Nash Ramblers and Studebaker Champions trekke   read more

Where Danger Lives Posted by Mark on April 13, 2017

Hi everyone! I haven’t been very active lately, and the reason was just released by Fantagraphics this week. My newest book, Take That, Adolf! The Fighting Comic Books of the Second World War hit Amazon, Target, and bookstores on Tuesday. It's a full-color coffee table book that digs deeply in   read more

Where Danger Lives Posted by Mark on June 9, 2016

Lawrence Tierney’s hallowed reputation as the real-life embodiment of a film noir tough guy endears him to most movie fans and generally insulates him from criticism. Hard core enthusiasts often establish their noir bona fides by slinging stories of his off-screen exploits. He’s the cine   read more

Where Danger Lives Posted by Mark on May 18, 2016

It opens, this thing, on death row. A nameless penitentiary squats next to a river that turns over and over, churning like the guts of the suckers wasting away inside its walls. Three hours to go until the lights flicker and the warden once again flips the switch on the...   read more

Where Danger Lives Posted by Mark on October 3, 2015

Here’s a 30 poster set of film noir posters featuring the one and only Robert Ryan. Enjoy! Things have been really slow around here lately as I’ve been dedicating my time to my upcoming book — thanks for sticking around. I should be able to make an announcement about the...   read more

Where Danger Lives Posted by Mark on February 17, 2015

In order to understand how important typecasting was in classic Hollywood, how it could make or break a movie — even a cheap B picture with a twelve-day shooting schedule — look no further than Republic’s 1944 crime programmer Out of the Storm, starring Jimmy Lydon. Lydon gained fa   read more

Where Danger Lives Posted by Mark on October 18, 2014

At long last, a new countdown — a one-shot! Here are the thirty best US (or British) one-sheets for the films of Alfred Hitchcock. Given that Hitch directed more than sixty features I had hoped that this would be at least a fifty-poster countdown. But alas, many of the posters...   read more

Where Danger Lives Posted by Mark on August 23, 2014

I’m not much of a self-promoter so I promise to only do this once! My new book from Fantagraphics, Film Noir 101, has just been released. The book is available in stores and on Amazon, Barnes& Noble, Books-a-Million, and other sellers. It can also be purchased directly from Fantagraphics.   read more

Where Danger Lives Posted by Mark on July 12, 2014

I haven’t written much about Cleo Moore or Hugo Haas aside from an earlier essay on The Other Woman, in spite of seeing the lion’s share of their respective pictures. I’ve always intended to do some sort of magazine length piece about the director and his peroxide muse, but the...   read more

Where Danger Lives Posted by Mark on June 28, 2014

“Around the clock you will rescue children from unfit homes, neglectful parents, and crime provoking surroundings. On patrol of public parks, playgrounds, and schoolyards, you will keep a vigilant watch over safety of children. Our files tell a meaningful story of lost and despairing wrecks of   read more

Where Danger Lives Posted by Mark on May 21, 2014

Herbert Yates’s Republic Pictures sprung to life after the merger of several Poverty Row studios (Monogram, Majestic, Mascot, Liberty, Chesterfield, and Invincible) under Yates’s leadership. The studio began cranking out B pictures, and more or less thrived throughout the 1930s, 1940s, a   read more

Where Danger Lives Posted by Mark on March 27, 2014

Nobody could deliver a line quite like Dan Duryea. My favorite comes in 1949’s Manhandled, when his slimy, gum-chewing private detective brags, “You’re not talking to a cluck Charlie. You’re talking to a guy who knows all the angles.” It wasn’t his wittiest line,   read more

Where Danger Lives Posted by Mark on February 19, 2014

I’m beginning to appreciate the inventive ways that George Blair uses his camera so much that I find myself paying more attention to his technique than I am to the story he’s trying to tell. That’s not to say that Blair’s films are bad, because they certainly aren’t. Hi   read more

Where Danger Lives Posted by Mark on February 3, 2014

“To beat somebody with your fists doesn’t make you anybody. On the other hand, a shiv gives you real authority.” What a great line that is—hardboiled and hopelessly nostalgic. The character that says it in Republic’s Federal Agent at Large is a nervous twitch called   read more

Where Danger Lives Posted by Mark on October 30, 2013

I tend to celebrate B movies here, and I’m seldom as critical as I could be. But even I have to take my shots at The Clay Pigeon. Jim Fletcher (Bill Williams) wakes up in a military hospital with a blind man clawing at his throat his throat. A nurse...   read more

Where Danger Lives Posted by Mark on October 15, 2013

Here’s a large set of B movie babes (girls and posters, take your pick) to tide you over for a while. Here’s looking at you, Cleo Moore!Right click all you like, but please link back to me if you post any images on another site (especially Facebook). Oh, and if...   read more

Where Danger Lives Posted by Mark on September 9, 2013

Sorry I’ve been away for a while — a publisher has approached me about doing a film noir book (Yay blogging!) and it has been taking the lion’s share of my free time!Here’s a great set of posters featuring the inimitable Emma Matzo of Scranton, Pennsylvania — otherwise   read more

Where Danger Lives Posted by Mark on July 29, 2013

Film noir’s definition may be as elusive as ever, but we can say with confidence that noir confronted the harsh realities of the postwar world more immediately than other kinds of Hollywood films. With their smaller budgets, noir movies developed a penchant for low cost, “ripped from the   read more

Where Danger Lives Posted by Mark on June 16, 2013

“A woman like you needs a good beating at least once a week.” Park Avenue, the best schools, a rich family — Anne Baxter came up easy. Her grandfather was Frank Lloyd Wright, for pete’s sake. He built her a theater at age three, and by ten she knew she’d...   read more

Where Danger Lives Posted by Mark on May 18, 2013

“One false move and you’re in over your head” I tend to steer clear of prestige noir — there just isn’t much new to say about such films, and more often than not they wrap up in too neat a package. But in revisiting Where the Sidewalk Ends after a...   read more