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James Ursini
James Ursini (born May 10, 1947) is an American writer living in Los Angeles, and an educator. He received his master's degree in Theater Arts and a Doctorate in Film in 1975 from UCLA. He was born on May 10, 1947, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He has written and/or edited over a dozen books—most with Alain Silver and two with Dominique Mainon (''The Modern Amazons: Warrior Women On-Screen'' and ''Cinema of Obsession: Erotic Fixation and Love Gone Wrong in the Movies''). He is noted for his work on film noir with Alain Silver (''The Noir Style,'' ''The Film Noir Reader'' series, ''Film Noir,'' ''LA Noir,'' etc.) He has also done director studies on David Lean, Robert Aldrich, Preston Sturges, and Roger Corman and numerous DVD commentaries for Warner Bros., 20th Century-Fox, and the Criterion Collection. He has also produced several features and short documentaries as well as appearing in documentaries on film noir. DVD commentaries *''Boomerang'', with film historian Alain S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Western Pennsylvania, the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania behind Philadelphia, and the List of United States cities by population, 68th-largest city in the U.S. with a population of 302,971 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The city anchors the Pittsburgh metropolitan area of Western Pennsylvania; its population of 2.37 million is the largest in both the Ohio Valley and Appalachia, the Pennsylvania metropolitan areas, second-largest in Pennsylvania, and the List of metropolitan statistical areas, 27th-largest in the U.S. It is the principal city of the greater Pittsburgh–New Castle–Weirton combined statistical area that extends into Ohio and West Virginia. Pitts ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Edward Dmytryk
Edward Dmytryk (September 4, 1908 – July 1, 1999) was an American film director. He was known for his 1940s films noir, noir films and received an Academy Award for Best Director, Oscar nomination for Best Director for ''Crossfire (film), Crossfire'' (1947). In 1947, he was named as one of the Hollywood Ten, a group of blacklisted film industry professionals who refused to testify to the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in their investigations during the McCarthy era, McCarthy-era Second Red Scare, Red Scare. They all served time in prison for contempt of Congress. In 1951, however, Dmytryk testified to the HUAC and named individuals, including Arnold Manoff, whose careers were then destroyed for many years, to rehabilitate his own career. First hired again by independent producer Stanley Kramer in 1952, Dmytryk is likely best known for directing ''The Caine Mutiny (film), The Caine Mutiny'' (1954), a critical and commercial success. The second-highest-grossing fil ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Smart Money (1931 Film)
''Smart Money'' is a 1931 American pre-Code drama film produced and distributed by Warner Bros., directed by Alfred E. Green, and starring Edward G. Robinson and James Cagney. It is the only occasion Robinson and Cagney appeared in a film together, despite being the two leading actors, mainly portraying gangsters, at Warner Bros. studios throughout the 1930s. ''Smart Money'' was shot after Robinson's signature film '' Little Caesar'' had been released and during the filming of Cagney's breakthrough masterpiece ''The Public Enemy'', which is how Cagney came to play a supporting role. The supporting cast includes Evalyn Knapp, Margaret Livingston (the "Woman from the City" in F. W. Murnau's 1927 '' Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans''), and an unbilled but prominently featured Boris Karloff, who portrayed the monster in ''Frankenstein'' later the same year. The writing team of Lucien Hubbard and Joseph Jackson were nominated at the 4th Academy Awards in the now defunct Best Story c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The River's Edge
''The River's Edge'' is a 1957 film noir adventure, crime, and drama DeLuxe CinemaScope film directed by Allan Dwan and starring Ray Milland, Anthony Quinn and Debra Paget. The picture is based on the unpublished short story "The Higher Mountain" by Harold Jacob Smith. Location filming was done in Amecameca and Iztaccihuatl in Mexico. The supporting cast features Harry Carey, Jr. and Chubby Johnson. Plot Nardo Denning stops to fill up at a New MexicoThOverviewfor this film on TCM.com lists the location of the story—incorrectly—as Texas. It is New Mexico. gas station. He asks a lot of questions about Ben Cameron, a struggling rancher who married a pretty redhead after he returned from Korea. At the ranch, Meg, the redhead, wearing denim short shorts and pink mules, awkwardly empties a bucket from the porch. The bull breaks through a fence and bowls Ben over while he brands a steer. In the shabby little house, Meg takes a shower at the wrong time and is covered in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Panic In The Streets (film)
''Panic in the Streets'' is a 1950 American film noir directed by Elia Kazan. It was shot exclusively on location in New Orleans, Louisiana, and features numerous New Orleans citizens in speaking and non-speaking roles. The film tells the story of Lieutenant Commander Clinton Reed, an officer of the U.S. Public Health Service (played by Richard Widmark) and a police captain (Paul Douglas) who have only a day or two in which to prevent an epidemic of pneumonic plague after Reed determines a waterfront homicide victim is an index case. Co-stars include Barbara Bel Geddes (as Reed's wife Nancy), Jack Palance (in his film debut) and Zero Mostel – the latter two play associates of the victim who had prompted the investigation. The film was also the debut of Tommy Rettig, who played the Reeds' son. The film was released on DVD by 20th Century Fox as part of the Fox Film Noir collection, along with '' Laura'' and ''Call Northside 777'', on March 15, 2005. The score was composed ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Out Of The Past
''Out of the Past'' (billed in the United Kingdom as ''Build My Gallows High'') is a 1947 film noir directed by Jacques Tourneur and starring Robert Mitchum, Jane Greer, and Kirk Douglas. The film was adapted by Daniel Mainwaring (using the pseudonym Geoffrey Homes) from his 1946 novel ''Build My Gallows High'' (also written as Homes), with uncredited revisions by Frank Fenton (writer), Frank Fenton and James M. Cain. Its complex, fatalistic storyline, Chiaroscuro, dark cinematography, and classic ''femme fatale'' garnered the film critical acclaim and cult status. In 1991, the National Film Preservation Board at the Library of Congress added ''Out of the Past'' to the United States National Film Registry of “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” films. Plot Joe Stefanos arrives in Bridgeport, California, a rural mountain town, seeking Jeff Bailey, who owns a local gas station. Bailey is fishing with Ann Miller. They are in love. (Her lifelong friend Jim is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nightmare Alley (1947 Film)
''Nightmare Alley'' is a 1947 American film noir directed by Edmund Goulding from a screenplay by Jules Furthman. Based on William Lindsay Gresham's 1946 novel of the same name, it stars Tyrone Power, with Joan Blondell, Coleen Gray, and Helen Walker in supporting roles. Power, wishing to expand beyond the romantic and swashbuckler roles that brought him to fame, requested 20th Century Fox's studio chief Darryl F. Zanuck to buy the rights to the novel so he could star as the unsavory lead "The Great Stanton", a scheming carnival barker. The film premiered in the United States on October 9, 1947, then went into wide release on October 28, 1947, later having six more European releases between November 1947 to May 1954. As noted on the DVD commentary track by Alain Silver and James Ursini, ''Nightmare Alley'' was somewhat unusual among film noir in having top stars, production staff and a relatively large budget. The film was not a financial success upon its original release but ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lady In The Lake
''Lady in the Lake'' is a 1947 American film noir starring Robert Montgomery, Audrey Totter, Lloyd Nolan, Tom Tully, Leon Ames and Jayne Meadows. An adaptation of the 1943 Raymond Chandler murder mystery ''The Lady in the Lake'', the picture was also Montgomery's directorial debut, and last in either capacity for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) after eighteen years with the studio. As director, Montgomery's ambition was to create a cinematic version of the first-person narrative style of Chandler's Philip Marlowe novels.In the film, Marlowe's name is spelled "Phillip" – with two "L"s – in the opening credits as well as on his detective license. With the exception of a pair each of reflections in a mirror and direct addresses to the audience in character Marlowe is never seen: the balance of the film is shot from the point of view of the central character, seeing only what he does. MGM promoted the film with the claim that it was the first of its kind and the most revolut ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kiss Of Death (1947 Film)
''Kiss of Death'' is a 1947 American film noir directed by Henry Hathaway and written by Ben Hecht and Charles Lederer from a story by Eleazar Lipsky. The story revolves around an ex-con played by Victor Mature and his former partner-in-crime, Tommy Udo (Richard Widmark in his first film). The movie also starred Brian Donlevy and introduced Coleen Gray in her first billed role. The film has received critical praise since its release, with two Academy Award nominations. Plot On Christmas Eve, down-on-his-luck ex-convict Nick Bianco and his three cohorts rob a jewelry store. Before they can exit the building, however, the injured proprietor sets off his alarm. While attempting to escape, Nick assaults a police officer but is wounded and arrested. The Assistant District Attorney Louis D'Angelo tries to persuade Nick to name his accomplices in exchange for a light sentence. Confident that his partners in crime and his lawyer, Earl Howser, will look after his wife and two young daugh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Invisible Stripes
''Invisible Stripes'' is a 1939 Warner Bros. crime film starring George Raft as a gangster unable to go straight after returning home from prison. The movie was directed by Lloyd Bacon and also features William Holden, Jane Bryan and Humphrey Bogart. The screenplay by Warren Duff was based on the novel of the same name by Warden Lewis E. Lawes, a fervent crusader for prison reform, as adapted by Jonathan Finn. Plot Cliff Taylor is an ex-con who wants to go straight, but since being released from prison on parole, he finds it hard to find and hold a job due to his criminal past. Cliff's younger brother Tim is worried and increasingly disillusioned because he cannot afford to marry his girlfriend Peggy and fears he will not be able to honestly find a position for himself in the world. Afraid that Tim might end up leading a life of crime like himself, Cliff decides to help him find the money to settle down. He tells his family he has found a job as a salesman, but in reality he ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
House Of Bamboo
''House of Bamboo'' is a 1955 American film noir shot in CinemaScope and DeLuxe Color, directed and co-written by Samuel Fuller, and starring Robert Ryan. The other co-screenwriter was Harry Kleiner. The cinematographer was Joseph MacDonald. Plot In 1954, a military train guarded by American soldiers and Japanese police is robbed of its cargo of guns, ammunition, and smoke bombs. During the robbery, a U.S. Army sergeant guarding the train is shot and killed. Five weeks later, a thief named Webber lies dying in a Tokyo hospital, shot by one of his own cohorts during a holdup in which smoke bombs were used. U.S. Army investigators discover Webber was shot by the same P38 pistol that killed the sergeant during the train robbery. Webber is questioned by military and police investigators, who discover among his possessions a letter from an American named Eddie Spanier, who wants to join Webber in Japan after his release from a U.S. prison. Though Webber refuses to implicate his fellow ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hobson's Choice (1954 Film)
''Hobson's Choice'' is a 1954 British romantic comedy film directed by David Lean. It is based on the 1916 play of the same name by Harold Brighouse. It stars Charles Laughton in the role of Victorian bootmaker Henry Hobson, Brenda de Banzie as his eldest daughter and John Mills as a timid employee. The film also features Prunella Scales in one of her first cinema roles. ''Hobson's Choice'' won the British Academy Film Award for Best British Film 1954. Plot Henry Horatio Hobson is the autocratic proprietor of a moderately upmarket boot shop (boots, shoes and clogs) in 1880 Salford. A widower, Hobson is a notorious miser with three grown daughters: Maggie and her younger and less-dedicated sisters, Alice and Vicky. All three have kept house and worked in their father's shop for years without wages, and Alice and Vicky are eager to marry, and their intentions infect Maggie. Alice has been seeing Albert Prosser, a young up-and-coming solicitor, while Vicky prefers Freddy Beensto ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
