Film noirs are famous for blurring the lines between good and evil – there are no classical “heroes” in the dark world of noirs. Force of Evil, though not as well-known as some of its peers, remains a stunning film noir nonetheless for its bleak, gripping, bitter and seedy depiction of life in post War-Big Apple, and an excellent apotheosis of the above truism. John Garfield, in the best role of his career, provided a tour-de-force performance as Joe Morse, a cynical, corrupt, self-serving and gold-digging lawyer who works for the numbers racket. He has come up with a brilliant plan that, by playing on people’s superstitions, will help in making the operation of mobster Ben Tucker (Morse’s employer) legal, while also earning him his first million-dollars in the process. However, the only catch of his ploy turns out to be his good-natured elder brother. And, as is common in this world of grime and greed, when things start going wrong, they do so in spectacularly devastating fashion, bringing about his nerve-racking fall from grace. His only salvation turns out to be a naïve young girl who he finds himself falling for. Ironically, the careers of director Abraham Polonsky and Garfield too suffered misfortunes soon after the movie’s release for their suspected Leftist leanings.
Director: Abraham Polonsky
Genre: Crime Drama/Film Noir
Language: English
Country: US
George Romero is considered the father of zombie flicks courtesy his iconic debut film Night of the Living Dead in particular and his “Living Dead” series in general. But, as happens in such case, the other works of such filmmakers tend to get lost – case in point, his pseudo-vampire film Martin. The shoddy look of this ultra-low-budget film and its moments of grisly violence might be off-putting to some, more so given its subject matter; but one shouldn’t be misled as this remains an interesting, intriguing and intelligent reworking of the vampire sub-genre. It’s protagonist is a shy and quiet young guy – the eponymous Martin. However, contrary to his demeanour, and as pointed out in the chilling opening sequence, he has a bizarre fetish for blood, maybe even necrophilia. Consequently one would imagine he’s a vampire. However, unlike those belonging to that mythical clan, he doesn’t satisfy any of the criteria that have come to define vampires, viz. being afraid of the cross, avoiding sunlight, possessing super-human strength, etc. That said, his uncle, in whose house (located in a dilapidated small town) he takes lodging, refuses to believe in Martin’s logic that there’s no such thing as “magic”, and this ultimately leads to a shocking finale. The movie is completely bereft of any stylization or artificially infused thrill-quotient; its matter of fact tone, leisurely pace and seedy picturisation are hence responsible for its nightmarish and haunting qualities.
Director: George A. Romero
Genre: Horror/Drama/Psychological Drama
Language: English
Country: US
Directed by Hollywood’s enfant terrible Samuel Fuller, The Naked Kiss was a heady concoction of noirish sensibilities, tabloid storytelling, psychological drama, social commentary and melodramatic kitsch – the movie is hence sure to create ambivalent reactions among most viewers. It starts off in spectacular fashion. The electrifying opening sequence shows a hooker, Kelly (played with delicacy and charm by Constance Towers) clobbering her pimp with a stiletto; most of the scene is shown through the pimp’s eyes, so it feels as if her fury and aggression are directed at the viewers! She escapes from her sordid life to a small, ‘clean’ town in order to start her life afresh. She has a lurid encounter there with the local sheriff. Eventually she does manage to make a decent living, and even falls in love with the town’s most eligible bachelor. However, she’s unaware of the grotesque blemish that he harbours, and consequently it’s not long before the details of her scandalous past travel all the way there to derail her best-laid plans to leave all her baggage behind. By the time the movie ends, you wouldn’t know whether you’ve been served something special or the director has blatantly manipulated you, but you’ll like the movie nonetheless – I guess that’s Sam Fuller for you.
Director: Samuel Fuller
Genre: Drama/Psychological Drama/Crime Drama/Neo-Noir
Language: English
Country: US
Inspired from Ingmar Bergman’s Scenes from a Marriage, Husbands and Wives is Woody Allen’s bitter yet poignant examination of marriage among middle-aged upper-middle class New York couples. One fine day Sally (Judy Davis) and Jack (Sydney Pollack) reveal to their best friends Judy (Mia Farrow) and Gabe Roth (Woody Allen) that they are splitting up. As they had seemed to be a happy couple, this casual revelation of their’s ends up in throwing the lives of the neurotic and intellectual Roth’s into complete disarray, as beneath the veneer of happiness, their relationship too has turned into one of blasé and unfulfillment. Filled with dark and edgy humour, caustic wit, pointed observations, and poetic irony, this searing critique is a brilliant dissection of the slow disintegration and falling apart of a seemingly happily married couple. Yet, for all the punches and jabs at mid-life crisis, and the foibles, infidelity and misdemeanours that populate marital relationships, the splendid script (along with superb performances and a heady dose of on-camera interviews) surprisingly also ensures that one does a bit of soul-searching as to finding the meaning of happiness – or at least contentment – in a severely lonely, urban milieu. Ironically, at the end, while Sally and Jack decide to get back, Gabe and Judy go their separate ways. Interestingly, the film also saw the public real-life splitting of Woody Allen and Mia Farrow; irrespective of what one of many inimitable cynical one-liners from Woody’s pen states (viz. “Life doesn’t imitate art, it imitates bad television”), life does imitate art, and vice-varsa.
Note: My recent review of the film can be found here.
Director: Woody Allen
Genre: Drama/Comedy/Urban Comedy/Social Satire
Language: English
Country: US
Doesn’t matter which way you look at The Big Heat – a frantic tale of obsession, a revenge story, a story of justice and redemption, or a dark chronicle of deceit and human corruption, the movie would emerge as a success – since this incredible noir worked in all these levels. Made nearly a decade after his masterly Scarlet Street, Fritz Lang’s The Big Heat remains a landmark work in this distinctive school of filmmaking. This gripping, hyper-violent (for its time) and nihilistic crime thriller is about a cop trying to get to the bottom of the suicide of another cop, against every kinds of odds possible – not just in the form of gangsters and thugs, but also his own department. However, when the antagonists kill his loving wife and his anger results in his suspension, he takes it upon himself to bring the psychotic mob-boss down – not just for justice, but also for vengeance. And in this hot pursuit he finds an unlikely help in the form of the mobster’s naïve but disgruntled moll. Great photography and crackling, staccato dialogues were just two of the many components of this fast-paced, hardboiled film. Foremost among those components were the excellent performances of Glenn Ford as the hell-bent-on-revenge-and-justice cop, Lee Marvin as the sinister villain, and Gloria Grahame as the woman-scorned.
Director: Fritz Lang
Genre: Crime Thriller/Film Noir/Police Procedural/Gangster Movie
Language: English
Country: US
There’s a fine line between artful eroticism and mere titillation. It sure was indeed titillating to see the gorgeous soon-to-be-50 Julianne Moore making out with Amanda Seyfried, the buxom beaut half her age; but suffice it to say, the Atom Egoyan film Chloe didn’t manage to create what we subjectively refer to as “art”. The film, which is a remake of the French movie Nathalie..., began well. The seemingly happy marriage of Catherine, a well-established doctor, and David (Liam Neeson), a respected music professor, is crumbling. The wife suspects that her husband is cheating on her with his young students, and employes Chloe (Seyfried), a high-class escort, to test her husband’s fidelity. Unfortunately, what seemed to be going towards being a gripping and intense urban examination of marriage and mid-life crisis, took a sharp turn to instead become a cautionary tale of lust and obsession – all hinging on a twist never properly integrated into the plot progression. The eponymous character of Chloe, who at the end forms the fulcrum that brings the fast-receding couple together again, wasn’t developed enough for us to appreciate the slow devastation she starts wreaking on the unsuspecting Catherine’s life. The character of the couple’s alienated son, too, was half-baked. The acting in the film, however, are good throughout, with Moore’s being standout performance.
Director: Atom Egoyan
Genre: Thriller/Psychological Thriller
Language: English
Country: Canada
