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Thieves' Highway
''Thieves' Highway'' is a 1949 film noir directed by Jules Dassin. The screenplay was written by A. I. Bezzerides, based on his novel ''Thieves' Market''. The film was released on DVD as part of the Criterion Collection in 2005. Plot A war-veteran-turned-truck driver Nico "Nick" Garcos arrives at home to find that his foreign-born father, a California fruit farmer, has lost his legs and was forced to sell his truck. He learns that his father was crippled at the hands of an unscrupulous produce dealer in San Francisco, Mike Figlia. Garcos vows revenge. Garcos goes into business with Ed Kinney, who bought the Garcos truck, and drives a truckload of apples to San Francisco, where he runs into Figlia when his truck is immobilized with a suspiciously cut tire, blocking Figlia's busy wholesale stand, and cannot be towed. Figlia hires a streetwalker, Rica, to seduce and preoccupy Nick in her room while his men unload the apples without Nick's permission. Figlia later pays Nick fo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jules Dassin
Julius "Jules" Dassin (December 18, 1911 – March 31, 2008) was an American film and theatre director, producer, writer and actor. A subject of the Hollywood blacklist in the McCarthy era, he subsequently moved to France, and later Greece, where he continued his career. He was a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the Screen Directors' Guild. Dassin received a Best Director Award at the Cannes Film Festival for his film ''Du rififi chez les hommes''. He was later nominated for an Academy Award for Best Director and Best Writing, Story and Screenplay – Written Directly for the Screen for his film ''Never on Sunday'', and was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical for his Broadway production of ''Illya Darling''. Biography Early life Julius Dassin was born on December 18, 1911, to Bertha Dassin (née Vogel) and Samuel Dassin, a barber, in Middletown, Connecticut. His parents were both Jewish immigrants from Odessa, Russian empi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dana Andrews
Carver Dana Andrews (January 1, 1909 – December 17, 1992) was an American film actor who became a major star in what is now known as film noir. A leading man during the 1940s, he continued acting in less prestigious roles and character parts into the 1980s. He is best known for his portrayal of obsessed police detective Mark McPherson in the noir '' Laura'' (1944) and his critically acclaimed performance as World War II veteran Fred Derry in ''The Best Years of Our Lives'' (1946). Early life Andrews was born on a farmstead near Collins in southern Mississippi, the third of 13 children of Charles Forrest Andrews, a Baptist minister, and his wife Annis (''née'' Speed). The family subsequently relocated to Huntsville, Texas, the birthplace of his younger siblings, including fellow Hollywood actor Steve Forrest (born William Forrest Andrews). Andrews attended college at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville and studied business administration in Houston. During 1931, he ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1949 Films
The year 1949 in film involved some significant events. Top-grossing films (U.S.) The top ten 1949 released films by box office gross in North America are as follows: Events *April 26–June 21 – Ealing comedies ''Passport to Pimlico'', '' Whisky Galore!'' and ''Kind Hearts and Coronets'' are released in the UK, leading to 1949 being remembered as one of the peak years of the Ealing comedies. *November 15 – Following the prior year's Supreme Court decision in ''United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc.'', Paramount Pictures is split into two separate companies with the creation of Paramount Pictures Corporation for production-distribution and United Paramount Theaters for the theater operations. *December 21 – Cecil B. DeMille's ''Samson and Delilah'', starring Hedy Lamarr, Victor Mature, George Sanders, Angela Lansbury, and Henry Wilcoxon, receives its televised world premiere at the Paramount and Rivoli theatres in New York City. The film opens in Los Angeles on Janu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michael Sragow
Michael Sragow (born June 26, 1952 in New York) is a film critic and columnist who has written for the ''Orange County Register'', ''The Baltimore Sun'', ''Film Comment'', ''The San Francisco Examiner'', ''The New Times'', ''The New Yorker'' (where he worked with Pauline Kael), ''The Atlantic'' and ''Salon''. Sragow also edited James Agee's film essays (for the book ''Agee on Film''), and has written or contributed to several other cinema-related books. Career Sragow attended New York University and Harvard University, where he majored in history and literature. Sragow began his career at ''Boston Magazine'', and went on to become the film critic for ''Rolling Stone Magazine''. From 1985 to 1992, he was the lead film critic for ''The San Francisco Examiner''. Commencing in 1999, he was a film critic for salon.com, and commencing in 2001, he was a film critic for ''The Baltimore Sun''. In March 2013 he became the first film critic in a decade for the ''Orange County Register'' in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Modernist Film
Modernist film is related to the art and philosophy of modernism. History It came to maturity in the eras between WWI and WWII with characteristics such as montage, symbolic imagery, expressionism and surrealism (as featured in the works of Luis Buñuel, Fritz Lang and Alfred Hitchcock) while Postmodernist film – similar to postmodernism as a whole – is a reaction to the modernist works of its field, and to their tendencies (such as nostalgia and angst). Modernist cinema, "explored and exposed the formal concerns of the medium by placing them at the forefront of consciousness. Modernist cinema questions and made visible the meaning-production practices of film."''Beginning Postmodernism'', Manchester University Press: 1999 by Tim Woods The auteur theory and idea of an author producing a work from his singular vision guided the concerns of modernist film. "To investigate the transparency of the image is modernist but to undermine its reference to reality is to engage with the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pulp Noir
Pulp noir is a subgenre influenced by various " noir" genres, as well as (as implied by its name) pulp fiction genres; particularly the hard-boiled genres which help give rise to film noir. Pulp noir is marked by its use of classic noir techniques, but with urban influences. Various media include film, illustrations, photographs and videogames. In film Whereas film noir directly involves characters living bleak existences to accomplish a goal with odds against them, pulp noir often portrays a grittier, one-man army. Typically, the main character has no distinguishing abilities, but can hold ground against seemingly impossible odds. Pulp noir locations are often seedy, run-down and degradated urban landscapes, where the lack of law, morals and even the proliferation of crime and drugs are common themes. Another common trend in pulp noir is the glorification and/or demonization of its urban locations. Examples *'' Cat People'' (1942) *''Double Indemnity'' (1944) *'' Detour'' (1945) ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hollywood Blacklist
The Hollywood blacklist was an entertainment industry blacklist, broader than just Hollywood, put in effect in the mid-20th century in the United States during the early years of the Cold War. The blacklist involved the practice of denying employment to entertainment industry professionals believed to be or to have been Communists or sympathizers. Actors, screenwriters, directors, musicians, and other American entertainment professionals were barred from work by the studios. This was usually done on the basis of their membership in, alleged membership in, or sympathy with the Communist Party USA, or on the basis of their refusal to assist Congressional investigations into the party's activities. Even during the period of its strictest enforcement, from the late 1940s through to the late 1950s, the blacklist was rarely made explicit or easily verifiable, as it was the result of numerous individual decisions by the studios and was not the result of official legal action. Neverthel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
