Episode 443: Double Indemnity (1944)

Guest Co-Hosts: Kat Ellinger, Keith Gordon

Noirvember 2019 wraps up with Billy Wilder's Double Indemnity (1944). With a screenplay co-written by Wilder and Raymond Chandler and based on a story by James M. Cain, the film is one of the seminal works of film noir. It stars Fred MacMurray as fast-talking Walter Neff, an insurance agent who gets played for a dope by a dame. The dame in question, Phyllis Dietrichson, is played by the one and only Barbara Stanwyck. The two cook up an insurance scam to pay off big after they bump off her husband.

Keith Gordon and Kat Ellinger join Mike to discuss Double Indemnity, its 1973 TV remake, the adult adaptation Eruption (1977), Body Heat (1981), and the Body Heat/Double Indemnity mash-up, Jism (2003).

Listen/Download Now:

Listen to "Episode 443: Double Indemnity (1944)" on Spreaker.

Links:
Buy Double Indemnity on Blu-Ray
Buy Double Indemnity by James M. Cain
Buy Body Heat on Blu-Ray
Buy Jism on DVD
Read more about Dispatches from Elsewhere

Music:
Soundtrack by Miklos Rosza

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Episode 440: The Big Combo (1955)

Guest Co-Hosts: Jedidiah Ayres, Brian Hoyle

We kick-off Noirvember 2019 with a look at Joseph H. Lewis’s The Big Combo (1955). Written by Philip Yordan, the film stars Cornel Wilde as Lt. Leonard Diamond. He’s a cop with a soft spot for Susan Lowell (Jean Wallace), the main squeeze of Mr. Brown (Richard Conte). Diamond and Brown play a strange game of cat and mouse as Diamond seems to pursue justice while Brown is a psychopathic thug who thinks he’s anything but.

Jedidiah Ayres and Brian Hoyle join Mike to discuss the film and posit just what that big combo of the title can mean.

Listen/Download Now:

Listen to "Episode 440: The Big Combo (1955)" on Spreaker.

Links:
Buy The Big Combo on Blu-Ray
Read about Philip Yordan [PDF]

Music:
Shorty Rodgers & His Giants

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Episode 391: The Big Sleep (1946)

Special Guest: Dahlia Schweitzer
Guest Co-Hosts: Terry Frost, Eric Cohen

We continue our #Noirvember coverage with a discussion of The Big Sleep (1946). The first proper Philip Marlowe book by Raymond Chandler, it was the second appearance of Marlowe on screen, this time portrayed by Humphrey Bogart.

Eric Cohen and Terry Frost join Mike to discuss the pre-release version of Howard Hawks's film, how Bogart portrayed Marlowe, and the 1978 re-interpretation of the source material by Michael Winner.

Dahlia Schweitzer returns to The Projection Booth to discuss her upcoming book, L.A. Private Eyes.

Listen/Download Now:

Listen to "Episode 391: The Big Sleep (1946)" on Spreaker.

Links:
Buy The Big Sleep (1945/1946) on DVD
Buy The Big Sleep (Annotated Version) by Raymond Chandler
Buy The Big Sleep (1978) on Blu-Ray
Read more about Bogart and Hawks

Music:
"Du plomb dans la cervelle" - Max Steiner
"And Her Tears Flowed Like Wine" - Anita O'Day

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Episode 390: Murder My Sweet (1944)

Special Guest: Tom Williams
Guest Co-Hosts: Terry Frost, Eric Cohen

We continue our #Noirvember2018 coverage with the first in a trio of Raymond Chandler adaptations -- Edward Dymytrk’s Murder My Sweet (1944). Based on the second of Chandler's Philip Marlowe novels, Farewell My Lovely, the film stars Dick Powell "as you've never seen him before."

Terry Frost and Eric Cohen join Mike to discuss the 1944 film and the 1976 adaptation. Tom Williams, the author of A Mysterious Something in the Light; the Life of Raymond Chandler, provides insight on Chandler's career in and out of Hollywood.

Listen/Download Now:

Listen to "Episode 390: Murder My Sweet (1944)" on Spreaker.

Links:
Buy Murder My Sweet on Blu-Ray
Buy Farewell My Lovely by Raymond Chandler
Buy Farewell My Lovely on DVD
Read about Only To Sleep by Lawrence Osborne

Music:
"Farewell My Lovely" - Yeong-Wook Jo

Links:
Buy Raymond Chandler and Film by William Luhr

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Episode 353: Kiss Me Deadly (1955)

Special Guests: Max Allan Collins
Guest Co-Hosts: Kevin Heffernan, Andrew Nette

Based on the 1952 Mickey Spillane novel, Robert Aldrich's Kiss Me Deadly (1955) stars Ralph Meeker as Mike Hammer, a hard-boiled gumshoe who gets dragged into a mystery involving a glowing case, duplicitous dames, and two-fisted violence.

Max Allan Collins, director of Mike Hammer's Mickey Spillane, talks about his career and working on Mickey Spillane's posthumous work.

Writer Andrew Nette and Professor Kevin Heffernan join Mike to discuss paranoia, the cold war, and much more.

Listen/Download Now:

Listen to "Episode 353: Kiss Me Deadly (1955)" on Spreaker.

Links:
Buy Kiss Me Deadly on Blu-Ray
Buy Kiss Me, Deadly by Mickey Spillane

Music:
"Kiss Me Deadly" - Generation X
"Kiss Me Deadly" - Thee Jenerators

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Episode 324: The Lost One (1951)

Special Guests Stephen Youngkin
Guest Co-Hosts: Samm Deighan, Daniel Bird

In The Lost One (AKA Der Verlorene) (1951) we find Peter Lorre as Dr. Karl Rothe (AKA Dr. Karl Neumeister), working at a displaced persons camp after World War II. When a figure from his past, Hösch (AKA Nowak) (Karl John), appears at the camp the two men reminisce about their shared history during the war.

The film is a tense film noir by way of the German trümmerfilm (rubble film) and the only feature directed by Peter Lorre.

Daniel Bird and Samm Deighan join Mike to discuss The Lost One, Fritz Lang's M, and much more.

Download Episode Now:

Listen to "Episode 324: The Lost One (1951)" on Spreaker.

Links:
Buy The Lost One on DVD-R
Buy The Lost One: A Life of Peter Lorre by Stephen D. Youngkin
Buy Crime and Punishment on DVD
Keep up with Samm Deighan at Diabolique magazine
Listen to the Supporting Characters interview with Daniel Bird

Music:
"The Lost One" - Mette Henriette
"Lost One" - The Roots

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Guest Spot: Pickup on South Street (1953)

Mike guested on the Masters of Cinema Cast with host Tom Jennings to discuss Sam Fuller's Pickup on South Street.

From Masters of Cinema:

"If you refuse to cooperate you'll be as guilty as the traitors who gave Stalin the A-bomb."
"Are you waving the flag at ME?!"

Samuel Fuller's sensational film noir, Pickup on South Street casts a steely eye at America in the dawn of the Cold War, and brings 1950s New York City alive on the screen in a manner rarely equaled in the annals of film.

In one of his greatest roles, Richard Widmark plays Skip McCoy, a seasoned pickpocket who unknowingly filches some radioactive loot: microfilm of top-secret government documents. Soon after, Skip finds himself mixed up with federal agents, Commie agents, and a professional stool pigeon by the name of Moe (played by Thelma Ritter in her finest role this side of Rear Window).

With its complex ideology, outrageous dialogue, and electric action sequences, Pickup on South Street crackles in a way that only a Sam Fuller movie can, and is widely considered one of the director's finest achievements.

Download Episode Now:

Links:
Buy Pickup on South Street on Blu-Ray
Subscribe to Masters of Cinema Cast
Subscribe to Master of Cinema Cast on iTunes

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Episode 299: The Chase (1946)

Special Guest: Francis M. Nevins Jr.
Guest Co-Hosts: Maitland McDonagh, Cullen Gallagher

Noirvember 2016 concludes with a look at Arthur D. Ripley's The Chase (1946). Adapted by Philip Yordan from a Cornell Woolrich novel, the film tells the tale of Chuck Scott (Robert Cummings) a down-on-his-luck veteran who ends up working for gangster Eddie Roman (Steve Cochran) before falling for Roman's wife (Michèle Morgan) and stealing away with her to Cuba.

Cullen Gallagher and Maitland McDonagh join Mike to discuss The Chase, Cornell Woolrich, and more.

Listen/Download Now:

Listen to "Episode 299: The Chase (1946)" on Spreaker.

Links:
Buy The Chase on Blu-Ray
Buy Cornell Woolrich: First You Dream, Then You Die by Francis M. Nevins Jr.
Buy books from Maitland McDonagh
Read more from Cullen at Pulp Serenade

Music:
"Peter Lorre" - Satan's Pilgrims
"Peter Lorre" - Tony Miracle

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Episode 298: Stranger on the Third Floor (1940)

Special Guest: Stephen D. Youngkin
Guest Co-Hosts: Maitland McDonagh, Samm Deighan

Directed by Boris Ingster with a screenplay by Frank Partos , Stranger on the Third Floor (1940) defines the stylistic conventions that would come to be known as film noir. The movie stars John McGuire as a hot shot reporter and Margaret Tallichet as his best gal (who eventually becomes the protagonist). He's framed for a murder committed by the man only known as "The Stranger" (Peter Lorre).

Maitland McDonagh and Samm Deighan join Mike to discuss this first entry in the film noir pantheon as well as what it helped spawn. Author Stephen D. Youngkin joins the program to talk about the captivating Peter Lorre.

Listen/Download Now:

Listen to "Episode 298: Stranger on the Third Floor (1940)" on Spreaker.

Links:
Buy Stranger on the Third Floor on DVD
Buy The Lost One: A Life of Peter Lorre by Stephen D. Youngkin
Buy books from Maitland McDonagh
Hear more from Samm Deighan on the Daughters of Darkness podcast
Visit the Diabolique Magazine website

Music:
"Peter Lorre" - The Jazz Butcher

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Episode 297: Decoy (1946)

Guest Co-Hosts: Maitland McDonagh, Christa Faust

Difficult to find on home video for many years, Jack Bernhard's Decoy (1946) stands as a highly off-beat film noir in which Margot Shelby (Jean Gillie) plays the consummate femme fatale with designs on the $400,000 her lover, Frankie (Robert Armstrong), has hidden. She needs to break him out of jail in order to get her hands on the money and does so by allowing him to be executed, only to bring him back from the dead...

Writers Christa Faust and Maitland McDonagh join Mike to discuss this usual film.

Download Episode Now:

Listen to "Episode 297: Decoy (1946)" on Spreaker.

Links:
Buy Decoy on DVD (Film Noir Set)
Buy Decoy on DVD (Double Feature)
Read a great article about Decoy
Buy Maitland McDonagh's books
Visit the official Christa Faust website
Learn more about Peepland
Visit the Hard Case Crime website

Music:
"Femme Fatale" - The Velvet Underground & Nico

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Episode 245: Elevator to the Gallows

Special Guest: Nathan Southern & Jack Chambers
Guest Co-Host: Jedidiah Ayres

Noirvember continues as we consider Louis Malle's debut feature film, Elevator to the Gallows AKA Ascenseur pour l'échafaud, which stars Jeanne Moreau as Florence and Maurice Ronet as Julien. Shot in beautiful black and white and featuring a legendary improved jazz score by the great Miles Davis, Elevator to the Gallows questions the nature of self, love, and life as only Louis Malle could.

Our guests this week include Nathan Southern, author of The Films of Louis Malle: A Critical Analysis and Jack Chambers, author of Milestones: The Music And Times Of Miles Davis. Our guest co-host, Jedidiah Ayres, is a writer for page and screen.

Listen/Download Now:

Listen to "TPB: Elevator to the Gallows" on Spreaker.

Links:
Buy Elevator to the Gallows on DVD
Buy the Lift to the Scaffold soundtrack by Miles Davis
Buy The Films of Louis Malle: A Critical Analysis by Nathan Southern
Buy Milestones: The Music And Times Of Miles Davis by Jack Chambers
Buy Jewish Noir edited by Kenneth Wishnia
Visit Jedidiah Ayres's website
Buy some of Jedidiah Ayres's books
Follow Jedidiah Ayres on Twitter

Music:
"Love in an Elevator" - Aerosmith

Watch:
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Episode 194: The Burglar

Guest Co-Host: Duane Swierczynski

Originally slated for release in 1955, Paul Wendkos's The Burglar didn't hit theaters until 1957 when one of it's stars, Jayne Mansfield, had gained popularity. The film stars Dan Duryea as Nat Harbin, our titular burglar. He and his crew rob Sister Sarah, a Philadelphia spiritualist, of a pricey necklace.

We'll be talking more about the film, it's screenwriter -- David Goodis -- and the 1971 adaptation, Le Casse.

Listen / Download Now:

Listen to "TPB: The Burglar" on Spreaker.

Links:
Buy The Burglar by David Goodis
Buy The Burglar as part of the Columbia Pictures Film Noir Classics III
Buy The Burglar on DVD
Buy Le Casse / The Burglars on DVD
Visit the official Duane Swierczynski website
Buy some of Duane Swierczynski's books
Buy some of David Goodis's books
Listen to the Married with Clickers episode on The Burglar
Read more about the Cassidy's Girl movie
Visit a Jayne Mansfield fan site
Read more about the cinema of David Goodis
Buy David Goodis: A Life in Black and White by Philippe Garnier
Listen to our Shoot the Piano Player episode

Music:
"Le Casse" - Ennio Morricone
"Suey" - Jayne Mansfield
"Ma Non Troppo Erotico" - Ennio Morricone

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Episode 193: In a Lonely Place

Special Guests: Patrick McGilligan, Steven Rybin, Will Scheibel, & Steve Anderson
Guest Co-Host: Jared Case

Noir November continues with Nicholas Ray's In a Lonely Place. Based loosely on a novel by Dorothy B. Hughes, the film stars Humphrey Bogart as a screenwriter on the edge of madness and Gloria Grahame as the woman who tries to love him.

We're joined by Jared Case, Head of Motion Picture Collection Information and Access at the George Eastman House.

We conclude our interview with Patrick McGilligan as we discuss his book Nicholas Ray: The Glorious Failure of an American Director.

Listen/Download Now:

Listen to "TPB: In a Lonely Place" on Spreaker.

Links:
Buy In a Lonely Place on DVD
Buy In A Lonely Place by Dorothy B Hughes
Buy Nicholas Ray: The Glorious Failure of an American Director by Patrick McGilligan
Buy Lonely Places, Dangerous Ground: Nicholas Ray in American Cinema Edited by Steven Rybin and Will Scheibel
Visit the This Last Lonely Place website
Learn more about The George Eastman House
Support the Nicholas Ray Foundation
Visit the official Humphrey Bogart website
Listen to the Out of the Past podcast about In a Lonely Place

Music:
"In a Lonely Place" - New Order
"In a Lonely Place" - The Smithereens
"The Beast in Me" - Johnny Cash

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Episode 192: Detour

Special Guest: Noah Isenberg
Guest Co-Host: Richard Edwards

Noir November continues with a discussion of Edgar G Ulmer's Detour. Tom Neal stars as a down-on-his-luck musician who picks up the wrong hitchhiker (Ann Savage) in a tale of fickle fate, phones, and flashbacks.

We're joined once again by Professor Rich Edwards of the Out of the Past podcast and we spoke to Noah Isenberg, author of Edgar G. Ulmer: A Filmmaker at the Margins (9780520235779)

Listen/Download Now:

Listen to "TPB: Detour" on Spreaker.

Links:
Buy Detour on Blu-Ray
Buy Edgar G. Ulmer: A Filmmaker at the Margins by Noah Isenberg
Buy Detour (BFI Classics) by Noah Isenberg
Buy Detour on DVD
Buy Detour by Martin Goldsmith
Buy Edgar G. Ulmer: The Man Off Screen on DVD
Hear more of Rich Edwards at Out of the Past: Investigating Film Noir
Listen to the Detour episode of Confessions from The Dark City, a film noir podcast

Music:
"I Can't Believe You're in Love with Me" - Keely Smith
"I'm Always Chasing Rainbows" - Alice Cooper

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Episode 191: The Big Heat (1953)

Special Guest: Patrick McGilligan
Guest Co-Host: Jay A. Gertzman

We start off Noir November with a bang! It's Fritz Lang's 1953 flick The Big Heat, starring Glenn Ford as a straight-arrow cop who takes on corruption in Philadelphia.

Links:
Visit the official site for Jay A. Gertzman
Buy Fritz Lang: Nature of the Beast by Patrick McGilligan
Buy The Big Heat on DVD
Buy The Big Heat by William P. McGivern
Buy Destiny Express by Howard Rodman
Be sure to LIKE Pulp According to David Goodis
Buy Samuel Roth, Infamous Modernist by Jay A. Gertman
Read a great article on Fritz Lang

Listen/Download Now:

Listen to "TPB: The Big Heat" on Spreaker.

Music:
"The Big Heat" - Stan Ridgway

Watch: