

Massimo Vener
Von Scerscen

2022-02-24
0
7.4A Martinique charter boat skipper gets mixed up with the underground French resistance operatives during WWII.
6.1A group of con artists stake their claim on a bogus uranium mine.
6.2An oil engineer surrounded by foul play helps an heiress bring in a well.
6.2A private detective foils the plans of villains attempting to take over Panamanian oil fields while he searches for a valuable map hidden in plain sight.
4.2An artist suffering from mental problems from his experiences during the war goes to Acapulco on his honeymoon. Soon young women are turning up dead in the area, and the ex-GI comes to believe he might be responsible, as he has long stretches where he can't remember anything.
After emerging victorious from the horrors of World War II, the U.S. eagerly pushed into a new era of optimism, hope, and success. But the shadowy and cigarette-stained B-side to the bright, shiny America emerged: the film noir. Made for cheap, these dark tales scratched at a different society, filled with twisted psyches and sinister motives. Filmmaker Tom Thurman teams up with film critic and narrator David Thomson to weave together a hypnotic collage of a dark world that influences our national identity to this day.
0.0Having run out of weed, Norville visits his close friend and drug dealer Gary, only to find himself ravelled in an absurd conspiracy that only he can get to the bottom of.
7.1Film Noir burrows into the mind; it's disorienting, intriguing and enthralling. Noir brings us into a gritty underworld of lush morbidity, providing intimate peeks at its tough, scheming dames, mischievous misfits and flawed men - all caught in the wicked web of a twisted fate.
5.9After the war, Matt Gordon returns to Singapore to retrieve a fortune in smuggled pearls. Arrived, he reminisces in flashback about his prewar fiancée, alluring Linda, and her disappearance during the Japanese attack. But now Linda resurfaces...with amnesia and married to rich planter Van Leyden. Meanwhile, sinister fence Mauribus schemes to get Matt's pearls.
Film noir, which enjoyed particular success in the 1930s and 1940s, is probably the most profound genre of classic Hollywood cinema. Eckhart Schmidt tries to show the background and developments and speaks, among others, with directors such as Richard Fleischer and Robert Wise as well as with "femme fatale" actresses. Filmmakers of the following generations explain how the style and themes of noir continue to shape cinema today.
5.0A former smuggler finds his missing wife in Hong Kong. Marion has fallen in with a bad crowd and is involved with narcotics and stolen government bonds, requiring Stuart to extricate her from her woes.
5.0A San Francisco lawyer uses a woman to lure a merchant seaman worth a legendary fortune.
5.7A meddlesome reporter sporting a young bride takes on a gang of modern day cattle rustlers. Donald "Red" Barry plays Dan Reilly, a newspaper reporter just returned to LA with his wife, photographer Margie (Marjorie Steele). Margie insists on taking pictures of everywhere they go, and so as she's walking into a butcher shop she poses for Dan - while at the same time three thugs make their way quickly out after beating up the proprietors. Soon Margie and Dan are involved in investigating an illegal meat operation that rustles cattle and forces butchers to buy it - or else. Dan gets beaten up a couple of times, but is undaunted in pursuing the great story - and hey, he's only got 64 minutes to do so, he'd best get cracking!
5.5A Counterspy in the US military is killed under suspicious circumstances. His friend, Jerry Baldwin, a Navy Commander, is assigned to replace him and stop a saboteur in a torpedo factory.
Short documentary on the film noir, Tension.
10.0When a new murderer in town travels through the phone, Detective Rick finds that all signs point to the culprit being a bear. But bears can't use phones. Can they?
6.7The first animated adaptation of the popular manga series, this pilot introduces the main characters of "Lupin the Third" with montages, presented through a short frame narrative illustrating a typical gang escape.
Documentary on the film noir Side Street with director Oliver Stone and critic Richard Schickel.