Halloween is over, Christmas is right around the corner and in the world of theatrical release movies hoping to make a splash in awards season are starting to role out but for old fashion movie fans November means it is the perfect time to roll out classic noir. Noir films are primarily thought of as crime movies. To be fair there is usually a crime involved even if the players are not criminals. For me noir encompasses all sorts unwholesome doings, criminal or not, by morally compromised characters. It is no coincidence that in the golden age of Hollywood when the production code was closely controlling what people could see for big studio movies creative filmmakers and studios trying to make a name successfully provided less seemly fare to audiences. I could write entire essays on noir and many have but instead I will just say that today I offer two gems that are on the surface complete opposites. First up Detour (1945) is about as low budget as you can get but packs a punch and Death of a Cyclist all the way from Spain is about as high brow as noir gets with a powerful political subtext. I hope you love watching them as much I did.
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To love film noir is to love Detour 🦛🦛🦛🦛 and if you haven’t seen it your in for a treat. Made by Producers Releasing Corporation one of the so called “Poverty Row” studios Detour on the face of things has next to nothing going for it. It has no big stars, no name director, an unremarked source material and it was made on a shoestring budget. So shoestring that the nicest set/prop is a car that reportedly belonged to director Edgar G. Ulmers. What makes Detour so great might actually stem from its low budget and lack of flashy elements. There are definitely “better” noir films, Out of the Past (1947) and Kiss Me Deadly (1955) to name a couple but even those masterpieces can only match Detour for being pure noir at heart. Detour is about how one man has his life completely ruined by a series of random circumstances and terrible choices in a relentlessly descending spiral of despair. The movie takes place as Al Roberts (Tom Neal) travels cross country from New York to Los Angeles and has his life completely ruined in the process. The film barely clocks in at over an hour so there is no fat on this one. Al is living in N.Y. and missing the love of his life who has moved to LA. so he decides to hitchhike cross country to join her. He gets picked up by Charles Haskell Jr. (Edmund MacDonald) a friendly enough guy but it turns out to be the worst mistake of Al’s life, or it would have been except a little bit later Al now driving Mr. Haskells car picks up fellow hitchhiker Vera (Ann Savage) and with that the wheels officially come off the proverbial car.
It would be a crime to give away more but rest assured that what comes next is at times jaw dropping lay shocking. Director Ulmer and screenwriter Martin Goldsmith are surely due some credit for how tightly made this movie is though reportedly the studio editing process seriously cut down what was actually shot. The real stars of this movie are leads Tom Neal and Anne Savage. Neal who narrates the whole movie, an inexpensive way of doing exposition, looks haggard and distraught from the first scene. You feel his pain but more importantly you feel his humanity and wince as he makes every possible wrong choice. Savage is even better turning in an awesome performance as a truly horrible person. I am a little surprised that her villainy slipped by the censors but one of the perks of the “Poverty Row” studios seems to have been that they got looked at a little less closely then the big studios. Even if the rest of the movie had stunk, and it very easily could have, Savages performance would be a must see. Detour has its flaws but it is the noir to the core: unrelenting, unsympathetic and unapologetical in stating that sometimes life just sucks. It was so much fun, I’m grinning just thinking about it.
Streaming on: Amazon Prime
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Noir movies conjure images of foggy streets, fedoras, smoking, sexpot dames and 1940’s Hollywood but noir can come from other decades and all around the world as this Spanish masterpiece from 1955 proves. Death of a Cyclist 🦛🦛🦛🦛 from writer/director Juan Antonio Bardem is in fact two movies in one. A brilliant noir and a searing social commentary. The noir is front and centre, the social commentary is more subtle and best viewed through the lens of history. The opening scene shows a lonely street and a solitary cyclist. A racing car and squealing brakes come next. We only see the after effects of the crash a subtly that reminds how effective unseen violence can be at conveying tragedy. The cyclist is not dead but the couple in the car leave him to die because they are having an affair and keeping it secret is worth more to them then the life ebbing out on side of the road. It is classic noir stuff but how the lovers Juan and Maria Bosé’s secret affair leads to callous disregard for human life fuels the social commentary. It is a masterpiece of an opening sequence. There are more brilliant sequences to come as the ill fated lovers navigate what comes next. Themes of guilt and lovers pulled in different directions but irrevocably tied together by their crime are movie staples. Part of what makes this script special is that what comes next does not include a detective or any kind of search for justice. The crime is not investigated instead the consciences of the two protagonists is what’s on trial. There is distinctly foreign flavour that goes beyond subtitles to this movie. It is also subtle where Hollywood noir is most often blunt. The performances are wonderful and also full of subtlety. Alberto Closas plays Juan as a man gradually succumbing to increasing feelings of guilt. Maria José is the opposite as she and we come to realize she is only conflicted about how much of herself she is willing to sell in order to maintain the comfort she is accustomed to. Lucia Bosé doesn’t play Maria José as if she is surprised by her own moral debasement but rather as a person committed to convincing themself that it is okay.
The third major player is Maria José’s cuckold husband Miguel (Otello Toso) who might be a lot more aware than he gets credit for. I loved how much ambiguity Toso brings to his performance, what Miguel knows and how he will deal with any knowledge he has becomes a central question. I was fascinated how Bardem intertwined the coverup of the affair and the murder through his protagonists eyes. It slowly dawned on me that they did not see things through the same value system as the viewer is meant to. Bardem avoids standing in conventional judgement of the characters and at the same time makes a movie that condemns them for their elitist, bourgeois, even fascist worldview. Fascist is the key word because this movie was made in Fascist Spain under the Sauron like gaze of Dictator Franco. Using the medium of noir is not just good filmmaking it is cover to allow the film to criticize the system the director lived and made the movie in. It is not all that subtle at times and it is surprising that some of it got past the censors. Sadly the intended master stroke of social commentary ending did not. I won’t discuss that here as it would give away the ending. Sufficient to say that even as is it is a brilliant noir ending. That’s how good this movie is. They gutted the ending and it is still great. I don’t know anyone else but the incomparable Orson Welles who managed that with The Magnificent Ambersons. Great noir requires great visuals and Bradem and his crew provide them is spades. Shot beautifully in black and white this movie has all the glamour B&W can bring and all the shadows you could wish for. My favourite scene is where Bardem let’s the soundtrack drown out the hushed conversations taking place between the major players at a party. The camera wanders around watching them observe each others conversations and the characters and viewers are both left to speculate at what is being said. Divine. Music like cinematography is a major mood builder and it is used to great effect in a scene where potential blackmailer “Rafa” (Carlos Casaravilla in a scene stealing performance) taunts Juan and Maria José in front of her husband with what he may or not know. The intermittent sound of tinny piano playing is effectively used to rake on the viewers nerves. It is as effective a use of music as I have enjoyed in a movie. Death of a Cyclist is a brilliant example of noir but knowing the movies origins will make you appreciate it more. The moral tale is timeless and universal but the tightrope Braden so skillfully walks to make a movieg criticizing fascism under fascist eyes is not. It is a good reminder that knowing the context of a movie impacts understanding and that the very best movies are entertaining but not only entertainment.
Available to rent on Apple TV
I could only find a Spanish trailer without English subtitles but gives you the feel of the movie.
Next week more noir coming your way. Until then happy viewing