Episode 17: Gun Crazy

02/15/06 • 42 min

Out of the Past: Investigating Film Noir

What good is it to be a sharpshooter when there's no war on? If you want to understand the sense of impotence and angst that defined the postwar generation, "Gun Crazy" is a case study. With a deft and almost whimsical touch, Joseph Lewis sketches a country in transition--uncertain whether to gratify its thirst for heroism or its hunger for things, big things, lots of things. The film also signals a dramatic transition in filmmaking. In a giant stride, it seems to have one foot in the silent film era (think Murnau's "Sunrise") and the other in the New Wave (think Godard's "Breathless"). A must-see for anyone wanting to understand the evolution of noir. This podcast is brought to you by Clute and Edwards of www.noircast.net. To leave a comment on this episode, or make a donation to the podcast, please visit "Out of the Past: Investigating Film Noir" at outofthepast.libsyn.com.

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Episode 16: The Grifters

This is perhaps the most noir of all neo-noirs. Never has 1990 Los Angeles looked and sounded so much like 1950 Los Angeles. While Stephen Frears sets Jim Thompson's source novel at the time the film is made, he carefully trims away modern LA. The film moves between the Bryson Apartments, the racetrack, and scenes on a train. Gone are the glitter and glitz of modern downtown and its skyscrapers. In their place are the greed and grift that have always been the motor driving the City of Angels--forces so strong they tear families to shreds and answer prayers with death. This podcast is brought to you by Clute and Edwards of www.noircast.net. To leave a comment on this episode, or make a donation to the podcast, please visit "Out of the Past: Investigating Film Noir" at outofthepast.libsyn.com.

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Episode 18: The Set-Up

As crisp and fluid as a boxer's footwork, Robert Wise's editing turns a lightweight script into the heavy-hitting drama "The Set Up." Art Cohn's screenplay is a very Hollywood adaptation of a 1928 poem by Joseph Moncure March. The poem is a shot to the gut--a powerful meditation on race that shows a black American is never in for a fair fight. The 1949 screenplay is the flyweight story of a down and out white fighter who thinks he's one punch away from glory. But Robert Wise and Robert Ryan prove that any story, when told masterfully, can pack a punch. The whole gritty-grimy world is boiled down to one arena, and one man's fight with fate becomes the story of us all. This podcast is brought to you by Clute and Edwards of www.noircast.net. To leave a comment on this episode, or make a donation to the podcast, please visit "Out of the Past: Investigating Film Noir" at outofthepast.libsyn.com.