"Phantom Lady" -- the nightclub scene with Elisha Cook Jr. as
the
frenzied drummer, musically making love to Ella Raines. Truly
a classic!
"DOA." The great "S.S. Jive" nightclub scene when Edmund
O'brien gets
slipped the Mickey while Big Jay McNeely writhes on the
ground with his
tenor. Best scene of the pic ...
"Man With The Golden Arm." I would say this pic is pretty
noir, as
Sinatra plays a junked-out loser who deals blackjack, and is
also a
failed wannabe drummer. He blows it at the audition for a big
band.
"Detour." Tom Neal's a two-bit piano man, in search of his
singer
girlfriend, who's gone to Hollywood to "make it."
Unfortunately, he runs
into Ann Savage along the way.
"Kiss Me Deadly." The awesome reverse title credit sequence
with Nat
King Cole singing underneath.
"Sweet Smell of Success." Marty Milner is the jazz guitarist
leader of
the Chico Hamilton quintette, who's dating Burt Lancaster's
sister.
Weasel Tony Curtis is recruited to break up the
romance.
"The Conversation." (neo-noir) Hackman's character plays
saxaphone.
And of course, all truly "pure" Noir ('45-'50) is littered
with numerous
"girl singers," smoky cocktail lounges, and exotic mambo
groups ...
Dave
--
"Fate, or some mysterious force, can put the finger on you or me for no good reason at all."
-- Tom Neal, "Detour"
# # To unsubscribe, say "unsubscribe rara-avis" to majordomo@icomm.ca. # The web pages for the list are at http://www.vex.net/~buff/rara-avis/.