Despite its historical inaccuracies, this movie is interesting for what it says about the perpetuation of the JFK/Mafia/Show Biz mythology. That mythology centers around the following myths that Hollywood cannot let go of (see The Irishman, JFK by Oliver Stone, and a few episodes of The Godfather of Harlem):
1. Joe Kennedy used the mob to influence the 1960 election to put his son over the top (true)
2. The CIA tried to hire the mob to do in Castro (true)
3. The mob murdered JFK (false)
Put all these and many others together and you have a historical yarn that is prone to exaggeration for entertainment's sake. A few other points: No way would the government grant Giancana immunity for his GJ testimony. A federal judge had no authority to remand Giancana to the Cook County jail. He would go to a federal facility. And lastly, Sam Giancana was an ugly fat guy. I guess the producers wanted some pizzaz. All in all though, an entertaining flick if you do not take it too seriously.
Reviews
22 Reviews
Crossfire
(1947)
Predictable But Worth A Watch
10 March 2024
Tough to pigeonhole this one. There are comments that suggest it was meant to be about gay/homosexual bigotry but would never have gotten past the censors. I doubt it. Would have never made any money is more like it. The anti semetic angle is a bit difficult to accept althought that is where the plot landed. Circa 1947, the overwhelming majority of Americans had never interracted with Jews except to read about their near extermination in Europe. There were pockets of Jew hatred but not large enough to make a dent in the American experience. The real prejudice that should have been the centerpiece of this movie was African Americans or Negroes as the term was understood back then. That bigotry was deep and omnipresent but I doubit it would have made it at the box office. So you go with a bad subtext and make up for it with great acting and a story line that at least appeals to post war veterans. Mitchum steals the show as a (what else?) laconic and cynical world weary GI who knows a thing or two about romance. In any event, stick with it.
Fallen Angel
(1945)
Bad Ending Where There Was So Much Potential
27 January 2024
Fallen Angel starts out as a typical B noir. Bad girl waitress(Linda Darnell)/sleazy charlatan (Dana Andrews) and innocent mark (June Mills). Andrews falls hard for Darnell and in order to strike it rich, pretends to fall in love with Mills, marries her for her money, with hopes of getting it all through a divorce. All goes awry when Darnell is murdered and then it turns into a third rate whodunit. The suspect is caught and Andrews and Mills live happily ever after. Left unsaid is how in God's name a man who is a professional con artist can, in the wink of an eye, be in love with a woman he planned on jilting through a sham marriage. The ending was put together at the last minute. There was enough material and character development to make this a respectable noir thriller but it becomes a huge letdown.
The Under Achievers
(1987)
Bad, Really Bad
19 November 2023
This movie is horrible. Not even funny in a perverse way. Watched it with my gf and her sister who are about 100 years younger than i am. Given the era, it is a horrible attempt at a copy cat of Animal House, Caddyshack, Up The Creek, Porky's, and, I guess, Nerds. Subtract the bad writing, even worse acting, and you have the genre performed on the cheap with no talent. How this got green lit is a reflection of Hollywood's very low opinion of its customers' IQ. I got halfway through and could not take it anymore. Do youself a huge favor if you are forced to watch it. Get drunk, high, and stand on your head while you watch it.
Johnny O'Clock
(1947)
All The Elements Of Noir Minus A Credible Plot
18 November 2023
Superb acting. Dick Powell is a smooth as silk casino operator trying to navigate his life through a maze of corruption and tangled romances. Lee J Cobb is an old school detective as wise to the world as the high end crooks he tries to outwit (and outwork). An obliogatory femme fatale who covers all the bases. The dialogue is first rate and contains the requisite tough guy lines of the era. You can almost imagine Bogart or Mitchum playing Johnny. I give it a 6 and not an 8 or 9 because the plot is a bit thick and twisted. Almost reminded me of The Big Sleep. Another point. A cop is found murdered at the beginning. It is treated as a petty offense. Back then, the cops would have been over that like white on rice. Every suspect would have gotten the 10th degree in the basement of the police station, corrupt cop or not. All in all, worth watching.
The Bribe
(1949)
An Un-noirish Ending
16 November 2023
I cannot label this one a noir as that term is properly understood. The music and dialogue are spot on as are the camera angles. The ending ruins it. The final scene of a noir film should be the good guy drowning in a slow burning sea of evil caused by the machinations of a femme fatale. Here, we have our love birds kissing in a romantic embrace while the final credits roll. Not exactly Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck in Double Indemnity or William Holden laying at the bottom of Norma Desmond's pool. Ava Gardner was poised for the kill but took the straight and narrow as opposed to the proverbial crooked road that Robert Taylor waxed so eloquent about.
Phantom Lady
(1944)
No Evidence To Prove Guilt
7 August 2023
Good acting and all the noir accoutrements but the central plot makes no sense. The prosecutor's sole evidence is that is a quasi fake alibi. Our protagonist denies committing the mruder and offers up an alibi that holds up except that he claims he was with a woman that witnesses say was not with him. So he was exactly where he said he was except he was alone. On that basis he is convicted!!! Amazing. The rest of the movie is an attempt (successful) to prove the existence of the "Phantom Lady." A very predictable type film of the era but worth watching. The whole production seems to be a poor man's version of a Hitchcock thriller but you be the judge.
Picnic
(1955)
Holden Is Too Old
20 May 2023
A very good but predictable movie. Holden is way too old for the part. He is in his mid 30's but looks much older. The contrast between him and his college pal Hal is so obvious that it drains a lot of the drama out of the film. Ditto for his attraction to Kim Novak. She is 20. Their relationship is almost scandalous. The mutual attraction is developed very quickly and lacks a sense of realism. A young girl, with beauty and charm, takes off with a train hitching loser like Holden, on a snap of the fingers, lacks credibility. The final scene with Holden standing atop a commercial railway car, is way over the top. That being said, I liked the movie. The supporting cast was first rate. Rosalind Russell,Susan Strasberg, Arthur O'Connell and Arthur Bailey, all add a sense of proportion to the flowery "goody too shoes" culture of the small Kansas town. Perhaps the original black and white verstion would have covered up Holden's age. All in all, watch it for the supporting cast.
It Just Keeps Getting Better
21 January 2023
I started watching this episode with low expectations only because the firs two seasons were so good. Tough to maintain the same level of excellence. But the show does it and then some. Some of the best writing ever. While the show is ostensibly about organized crime in NY during the 60's, the show takes it to another level with the black/civil rights/political angle that captures the racial boiling points of NYC during the 60's. Conspicous by his absense in this episode is Vincent D'Onfrio as Chin Gigante (away in prison). In terms of the genre, I would rate this show the equal of The Sopranos, Boardwalk Empire, and Ray Donovan.
Ray Donovan: The Movie
(2022 TV Movie)
Good But Could Have Been Better
8 February 2022
I am a great fan of this series. Had all the right elements and was not part of the woke culture. Ray's surviving all of the violence is a little over the top though. He gets beaten with a baseball bat, hit by a car, and shot and still survives. Really! But hey, look at it this way. A hell of a lot better than The Many Saints of Newark.
Camp Hollywood
(2004 TV Movie)
So You Wanna Be A Movie Star?
17 January 2022
Dark movie with some light hearted moments. Reminds me of men living in their cars who want to be professional golfers. I am sure there are other Hollwood movies that cover the same theme but this one doesn't rely on any gimmicks. You get a dose of reality like a shot of whiskey.
Crime of Passion
(1956)
NOT Pasion
29 December 2021
Warning: Spoilers
Many of the reviewers get it right but let's face it, cold bloodedly shooting your husband's boss because of an overlooked promotion and more money and prestige hardly qualifies as a "crime of passion." Substitute "calculation" for "passion" and you have the essence of this film.
Port of Shadows
(1938)
Low Budget But Interesting
27 November 2021
I watched this film in segments so i can think about it and return to view. It was made in 1938 so you have to put it in context. No fancy effects. Just a straight love story between a teenage girl and a complicated deserting soldier who fits the mold of a doomed noir leading man, Jean Gabin. I tried thinking of a metaphor and all I can come up with is sitting in a barren room drinking black coffee while watching it rain outside.
Myth & Mogul: John DeLorean
(2021)
They Left A Lot Out
12 September 2021
Interesting but incomplete. They leave out some very important facts that would have helped to understand this maniacal narcissist. First, he was married four times. His second marriage was to Kelly Harmon in 1969. She was 21. Her father was Tom Harmon, a former Heisman Trophy winner. Second, he was indicted for bankruptcy fraud in Detroit in the late 1980's and acquitted. Lastly, the son that is interviewed was adopted by Delorean when he was 14 months. There is no backstory to how and why he was adopted. Would have been interesting to know. And his New Jersey estate was later purchases by another celebrity/egomaniac/businessman, Donald Trump and converted into a golf course.
The Chair
(2021)
Pompous, self-important elites
27 August 2021
This is a great show. I am surprised the woke totalitarians have not tried to ban it. I am not an academic but this show confirms my darkest suspicions about what goes on in modern university life. As one professor noted years ago, disputes among faculty are so bitter and petty because they are so meaningless.
No Sudden Move
(2021)
Not As Bad As The Reviewers Claim
5 July 2021
I made the mistake of watching this film after I read the reviews and expected them to be accurate. Big mistake. The story line is convoluted but the acting and camera work is first rate. Fans of noir will appreciate it. As a humorous aside, Jon Hamm comes very close to morphing into Don Draper near the end as he accepts a bottle of high end booze for his government work.
Slow Burn
(2020)
Old Hat
28 March 2020
I consider myself a Watergate aficionado if there is such a thing. I lived through it all and in retrospect, instead of a grave threat to our constitutional form of government, it was more akin to the Keystone Cops. The series pays way and I mean way too much attention to Martha Mitchell, an almost comedic drunken nut case who happened to gold dig her way into marrying John Mitchell, a decent fellow with a weakness for women and liquid vices. Then there is Mabe, an aging California hippie, who had a political show on public radio and is convinced that Nixon caused E. Howard Hunt's wife's United Airlines flight to crash and kill her so she would not talk. Tin foil hat kind of stuff. On the flip side, a lot of good info on Liddy, Roger Stone, and John Dean. Maybe they should do another series on the way real professionals handled black bag corruption and chicanery: They could call it JFK And The 1960 Election, starring none other than Joseph P Kennedy as the Sevengali who orchestrated it all.
I dissent
10 February 2020
Sorry to rain on the parade but the plot is a little too cute. The story line relies on trickery as a substitute for good plot development. Both with the Axe and Rhoades angles, there is too much "what you see is not what is happening." Felt like I was watching a whodunnit where the cunning detective explains it all at the end. You can get away with it maybe once but not as a repetitive main feature. Sort of like getting hit with a surprise birthday party every year. But all in all 10/10 for the season. Here is a reverse spoiler. At about episode 4, I thought Taylor Mason was getting in over his head and would end up crushed in a proverbial Russian bearhug but it was not to be.
Predictable Fare
8 February 2020
I watched this movie last night for the first time. Almost 40 years later, what stood out was the glossing over or covering up of a simple historical truth: the would be opposition to a brothel would never have come a from fraudulent huckster/TV celebrity like Dom Deleuise's character but from the likes of Jimmy Swaggert or James and Tammy Baker and the Moral Majority. But to mollify any protest from Christian groups, the producers disguised Deleuis's character as a southern hick consumer advocate which just doesn't pass the smell test.
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