Just finished watching this Film Noir on TCM. I laughed out loud at some of the dialogue. Hard boiled I guess is the best term. Performances by Widmark, Jean Peters and Thelma Ritter superb.

Growing up in a large metropolitan area it brought back lots of memories of the subway, and the living arrangements of the tarts,grifters, cops and pickpockets who inhabit the city. Samuel Fuller the director really understands these people.

Thanks for the heads up, watching on demand now.

Let me know what you think

It's Sam Fuller and that means it's worth the time to see it. Fuller was unique and truly so.

Cinematography by the highly capable Joseph MacDonald. He photographed other films noir- The Dark Corner, Call Northside 777, The Street with No Name (with Widmark), Panic in the Streets (also with Widmark).

I caught the last of it and it was pretty good.... interesting comment by the host at the end that Fuller when told by J. Edgar that he needed to redo the film to make Widmark a patriot told the director of the FBI what he could do with it.... seems that was end of the cozy relation ship between the FBI and the movie studio.

I've ordered Fuller's autobiography... " The Third Face" It was a few years ago that I realized the movie "The Big Red One" was a first person account by it's director Sam Fuller.

If you want to see another Sam Fuller film noir, check out House of Bamboo, which breaks the normal noir convention of B&W films shot in the Academy ratio. It's a color, widescreen film, and notable as the first American movie filmed in Japan after WWII. House of Bamboo is a remake of The Street with No Name and once again, the cinematographer was Joseph MacDonald.

Thanks for the heads up.

Enjoyed it very much.

And, in my opinion, this is Thelma Ritter's best performance.

"Look, mister, I'm so tired, you'd be doin' me a big favor if you'd blow my head off."

I'd love to know if her best lines came from Fuller's screenplay or Dwight Taylor's story. My money's on Fuller. His dialogue is rich and memorable.

"Listen, mister. When I come in here tonight, you seen an old clock runnin' down. I'm tired. I'm through. Happens to everybody sometime. It'll happen to you too, someday. With me it's a little bit of everything. Backaches and headaches. I can't sleep nights. It's so hard to get up in the morning, and get dressed and walk the streets. Climb the stairs. I go right on doin' it! Well, what am I gonna do, knock it? I have to go on makin' a livin'...so I can die. But even a fancy funeral ain't worth waitin' fer if I gotta do business with crumbs like you."

I have the Criterion DVD of this film. Looks like Criterion has it on sale right now.



Oh, and BTW- the guy Jean Peters is talking to- the guy named 'Lightning Louie'- is Vic Perry, who had a reputation as the world's greatest pickpocket. Here's some information about him.

Memorable performance by him in this film. That bit with eating the bowl of noodles and picking up the twenty dollar bill with his chop stix- you can bet your bottom dollar that that was all Sam Fuller's doing.

quote:

That bit with eating the bowl of noodles and picking up the twenty dollar bill with his chop stix- you can bet your bottom dollar that that was all Sam Fuller's doing.

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Yep. That had me laughing.