Official Film Noir on Blu-ray Thread

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by javy

Which films are the bottom two pics from?

The picture with Barbara Payton (*whistle*) is from Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye, which is available on Blu-ray from Olive Films.

The picture with Dan Duryea is from Black Angel, which is currently only available on DVD.


Sadly for everyone, Barbara Payton had a rather horrific downward life trajectory. It's too bad, because I'd love to have seen her in more films.

[SeanJoyce]

Scorsese's Cape Fear is cheap, schlocky and totally grounded in fantasy. De Niro is a top-5 actor for me but his Cady is a loutish cartoon.

Give me the Peck/Mitchum any and every day. Mitchum uses his overwhelming physicality and steely persona to create a character with gravitas that is genuinely frightening and somebody you think could actually exist. Peck is giving us his "principled everyman" shtick but when he was one of the best at doing it, what's there to complain about?

I look at the original Cape Fear as 1 of the 3 great Hitchcock movies that the master didn't direct (the other 2 being Night Train to Munich and Charade, in case anybody cares.) The welcome presence of Martin Balsam and the stirring score by Bernard Herrmann only reinforce the parallels.

J. Lee Thompson struck out quite a bit but with Cape Fear he smacked it out of the park.

[javy]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

The picture with Barbara Payton (*whistle*) is from Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye, which is available on Blu-ray from Olive Films.

The picture with Dan Duryea is from Black Angel, which is currently only available on DVD.


Sadly for everyone, Barbara Payton had a rather horrific downward life trajectory. It's too bad, because I'd love to have seen her in more films.

Thanks. Yeah, Barbara Peyton . I cannot believe I have never seen Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye. I'm ordering it now.

[lemonski]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

The picture with Barbara Payton (*whistle*) is from Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye, which is available on Blu-ray from Olive Films.

It's actually from Trapped (1949) with Lloyd Bridges. Strictly B-noir, but not a bad film.

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

Sadly for everyone, Barbara Payton had a rather horrific downward life trajectory. It's too bad, because I'd love to have seen her in more films.

She made a few average films in the 50's, Four Sided Triangle and Bad Blonde, plus the supremely awful yet curiously enjoyable Bride of the Gorilla with Raymond Burr. I tracked most of them down and watched them for, uh, research purposes.

[nitin]

Originally Posted by lemonski

It's actually from Trapped (1949) with Lloyd Bridges. Strictly B-noir, but not a bad film.



She made a few average films in the 50's, Four Sided Triangle and Bad Blonde, plus the supremely awful yet curiously enjoyable Bride of the Gorilla with Raymond Burr. I tracked most of them down and watched them for, uh, research purposes.

Murder is my Beat is also worth watching, despite not being anything great.

[rocknblues81]

Originally Posted by SeanJoyce

Scorsese's Cape Fear is cheap, schlocky and totally grounded in fantasy. De Niro is a top-5 actor for me but his Cady is a loutish cartoon.

Give me the Peck/Mitchum any and every day. Mitchum uses his overwhelming physicality and steely persona to create a character with gravitas that is genuinely frightening and somebody you think could actually exist. Peck is giving us his "principled everyman" shtick but when he was one of the best at doing it, what's there to complain about?

I look at the original Cape Fear as 1 of the 3 great Hitchcock movies that the master didn't direct (the other 2 being Night Train to Munich and Charade, in case anybody cares.) The welcome presence of Martin Balsam and the stirring score by Bernard Herrmann only reinforce the parallels.

J. Lee Thompson struck out quite a bit but with Cape Fear he smacked it out of the park.

The characters in the original lack depth, and the potrayal of the Bowden family isn't realistic at all. It's basically a killer stalking The Cleavers. I guess it reasonated with people of that time, but the flawed characters and family dynamics in the remake are far more realistic now.

[Arch Stanton]

Originally Posted by SeanJoyce

Scorsese's Cape Fear is cheap, schlocky and totally grounded in fantasy. De Niro is a top-5 actor for me but his Cady is a loutish cartoon.

Give me the Peck/Mitchum any and every day. Mitchum uses his overwhelming physicality and steely persona to create a character with gravitas that is genuinely frightening and somebody you think could actually exist. Peck is giving us his "principled everyman" shtick but when he was one of the best at doing it, what's there to complain about?

I look at the original Cape Fear as 1 of the 3 great Hitchcock movies that the master didn't direct (the other 2 being Night Train to Munich and Charade, in case anybody cares.) The welcome presence of Martin Balsam and the stirring score by Bernard Herrmann only reinforce the parallels.

J. Lee Thompson struck out quite a bit but with Cape Fear he smacked it out of the park.

The original Cape Fear is deeply average. The Scorsese film IS schlock, but it's much more interesting in terms of characters and family dynamics. I know which one I'd rather watch.

[MassiveMovieBuff]

Originally Posted by Arch Stanton

The original Cape Fear is deeply average. The Scorsese film IS schlock, but it's much more interesting in terms of characters and family dynamics. I know which one I'd rather watch.

I visit this thread frequently and I've rarely seen films that are made past the 60s get praised on this thread. It seems to be a thread more for films made between the 40s-60s. I could have missed those posts as well though.

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by lemonski

It's actually from Trapped (1949) with Lloyd Bridges. Strictly B-noir, but not a bad film.

Oops. I stand corrected. I recognized her from Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye, so I jumped the gun.

[SeanJoyce]

Originally Posted by MassiveMovieBuff

I visit this thread frequently and I've rarely seen films that are made past the 60s get praised on this thread. It seems to be a thread more for films made between the 40s-60s. I could have missed those posts as well though.

I disagree with that, as I feel that there's a lot of love for post-60s noir.

And I hope you don't take offense to this but you admitted to not having seen the (far superior) original, so should probably withhold your opinion here.

[nitin]

Originally Posted by MassiveMovieBuff

I visit this thread frequently and I've rarely seen films that are made past the 60s get praised on this thread. It seems to be a thread more for films made between the 40s-60s. I could have missed those posts as well though.

Well actual film noir is generally considered to be from that 40s-late 50s era so that shouldn't be surprising in this thread IMHO.

My 2 cents re Cape Fear is that both versions are very good but flawed films with their own sets of pluses and minuses.

[SeanJoyce]

Originally Posted by rocknblues81

The characters in the original lack depth, and the potrayal of the Bowden family isn't realistic at all. It's basically a killer stalking The Cleavers. I guess it reasonated with people of that time, but the flawed characters and family dynamics in the remake are far more realistic now.

To each their own, I suppose. I think the original has atmosphere in spades while Mitchum gives us one of the most frightening yet charismatic villains ever. The egg-bursting scene has far more bravura than anything the remake does 30 years onward.

Scorsese's movie is like a grand guignol freakshow, where reality is absurdly heightened and "flawed dynamics" are inflated to hyperbolic levels. And that's to say nothing of De Niro's histrionic performance, where he sets the over-the-top bar in scene one and spends the rest of the movie trying to vault over it.

"COUNSLA!!!!

[javy]

Originally Posted by SeanJoyce

To each their own, I suppose.

Absolutely.

[MassiveMovieBuff]

Originally Posted by SeanJoyce

I disagree with that, as I feel that there's a lot of love for post-60s noir.

And I hope you don't take offense to this but you admitted to not having seen the (far superior) original, so should probably withhold your opinion here.

It's rare though.

I don't know what me not seeing the original yet has anything to do with discussing the remake. I never even made any comments whatsoever about the original. Just giving props to the remake.

[blkhrt]

Originally Posted by lemonski

She has to be bad, bad, bad - so it's Gloria Grahame for me



Only in a couple of noirs, and nowhere near the best star, but worth a picture anyway - Barbara Payton



Male - probably someone people don't immediately think of, Dan Duryea. He was in so many films noir as a sleazy, greasy, bad guy and he was always fantastic at it.

If anyone hasn't already done so, you should go listen to the You Must Remember This episodes about Gloria Graham and Barbara Payton. They are both fascinating.

[javy]

Originally Posted by blkhrt

If anyone hasn't already done so, you should go listen to the You Must Remember This episodes about Gloria Graham and Barbara Payton. They are both fascinating.

I love your avatar. Great film, one of my faves.

[MassiveMovieBuff]

Originally Posted by SeanJoyce

I disagree with that, as I feel that there's a lot of love for post-60s noir.

And I hope you don't take offense to this but you admitted to not having seen the (far superior) original, so should probably withhold your opinion here.

Well I've just watched the original so now that I've earned my right to post I agree completely with what Rocknblues81 and Arch Stanton said. I felt the original was pretty dull frankly. There wasn't one interesting character and I thought the acting was surprisingly bad. I won't even say that Scorsese's is far superior but it literally blows the original out of the water (no pun intended). Scorsese improved on the original in every way and De Niro's Cady was much more threatening and intimidating.

[javy]

Originally Posted by MassiveMovieBuff

...Scorsese improved on the original in every way and De Niro's Cady was much more threatening and intimidating.

"Check out the bible counselor, the book between Esther and Psalms". To me this is the exact opposite of schlock. It's brilliant and I love it.

[MassiveMovieBuff]

Originally Posted by javy

"Check out the bible counselor, the book between Esther and Psalms". To me this is the exact opposite of schlock. It's brilliant and I love it.

Absolutely agreed. There are so many great layers to Scorsese's version. Its one of Nolte's best performances as well.

[The Great Owl]

I'm enjoying the above conversation.

Some college friends and I went to see Martin Scorsese's Cape Fear when it opened in theaters in 1991, and I liked the movie so much that I went to see it again not long after that.

A couple of months later, though, I rented the original 1962 film, and it made me forget all about the Scorsese version. I was blown away at how much better I liked Robert Mitchum's performance, and at how brutal the movie was for an old black-and-white film.

It goes without saying that the Blu-ray of the 1962 film was a day one purchase for me.

I should probably give the Scorsese film another go, since, honestly, I've barely thought about it since I first saw the original. If for nothing else, I'd like to see the cameos from Gregory Peck and Robert Mitchum with a renewed appreciation.