Yes, Gilda is really, really noir. Check out the homoerotic subtext. An exquisitely dressed man who just happened to be wandering around on a seedy dock and saves Glenn Ford from angry sailors he's just fleeced with dice. This man has a cane with a sword tip that extends from the tip- his "little friend" he calls it. Watch how he handles the cane. The phallic imagery is less than subtle.

When Mundson brings home Rita Hayworth and Glenn Ford finds out, listen to the dialogue, Mundson is homosexual and needs a trophy wife for a front. Glenn Ford (Johnny Farrel) is bisexual and goes for Hayworth, too. None of this was allowed by the Production Code, so the film makers found ways to portray these things indirectly.

Uncle Pio is a hoot. Watch the scene where someone runs into the bathroom to commit suicide. His expression when he comes out of the bathroom

And yes- Cornered. WWII film noir, indeed. Postwar disillusionment. Looks like all the films in tonight's lineup take place in South America.

Gilda's "are you decent" scene is great. Reminds me of the "you know how to whistle, dontcha, Steve" scene from To Have and Have Not.

Classic.

Next up on Noir Alley:
Out of the Past.
Classic Noir. I think Rhonda Fleming is hot. And still kicking at 93.
And Kirk Douglas is still around too.

"There's a scene from the movie Out of the Past where Robert Mitchum has been sent down to Mexico to pick up Bad Girl Jane Greer, who shot Kirk Douglas and stole 40 Grand from him. Mitchum has seen her in a bar, and you take one look at him as he sees the woman, and you know he's going to flush his fucking life down the toilet for this woman. In the chaste manor of '40s melodrama, they meet a couple of times for a drink, speak elliptically, and they end up on the beach one night and the waves are breaking, and they're holding each other and she says to him, You don't want me. You don't need me. I shot Kirk Douglas. I stole 40 Grand from him, I'm bad, I'm evil, you don't want me, you don't need me; and Mitchum draws the woman to him and says Baby I don't care. And that's it, essentially, for me." - author James Ellroy, as quoted in Film Noir Reader, pg. 317, regarding the influence of film noir on his writing.

Next Sunday:
Phantom Lady
Pretty dark. And a famous drumming scene with Elisha Cook, Jr.

Next up this morning is High Wall. Audrey Totter never looked better. This film features a technique that was a great fad in 1947- subjective camera- which means the camera takes on the view point of one of the characters. Totter made love to the camera twice in '47 and both films had the very capable Paul Vogel as cinematographer; High Wall and Robert Montgomery's interpretation of Chandler's Lady in the Lake. Dark Passage, also from '47, employed subjective camera and is by far the best of the bunch using this technique. Possessed, also from 1947, starring Joan Crawford, employed subjective camera in a few scenes.

The small, handheld 35mm motion picture cameras that were developed in the years leading up to and during WWII made handheld shots more practical -such as the handheld Arriflex camera which was captured from the German Luftwaffe and used so effectively by cinematographer Sid Hickox for Dark Passage. That's right- a substantial portion of one of the Bogey/Bacall films was photographed using the spoils of war.

This thread has made me wish I knew more about film noir. When I was young we only watched movies thst were positive. I Think watching "the thing" and "psycho" was my introduction to horror / thriller. I also snuck in some Carey Grant movies and everything by Stuart, Wayne, Flynn etc.

I have seen the Maltese Falcon and loved it (my only known Noir movie) and Casablanca is one of my favorites. So none of these movies you guys talk about are familiar to me but I would like to watch them. I need to put together a plan of finding these on TCM to record on sunday morning.
Quick question. When I worked in the AV library as an undergrad in the 80's a nice 'ol lady donated a beta machine. We did not use them but as I cleaned it and prepared to give it away I found a tape in it. It was Gaslight with Ingrid Bergman.
I loved it so much I did a get together with some friend's and we had gathering and watched it again.
Is gaslight noir? Or just mystery thriller?

Next up:
T-Men.
Arguably non-noir but its Anthony Mann.
For those who remember the old Lassie TV shows, prepare for a shock.

T-Men was the first collaboration between Mann and the incomparable John Aton. I can't think of any Mann/Alton film that's not film noir.

Remember, there's only one essential element of film noir, and that's Borde and Chaumeton's "unusual and cruel atmosphere", and T-Men has that in spades. There are quite a few films noir shot in the semi-documentary style. Call Northside 777 comes to mind.

And Mann carried over noir to the old west. Winchester 73 and The Naked Spur with Jimmy Stewart.