Thursday, August 28, 2008

Out of the Past

Dir: Jacques Tourneur, 1947, bw (9.3*)

Jacques Tourneur's film is the epitome of film noir, even though only half of it occurs at night. Robert Mitchum (never better) is a small town gas station owner in the Owens Valley of California, east of the Sierras, when a passing stranger lures him back into his past association with criminal Kirk Douglas, in only his second film. The story revolves around a femme fatale, naturally, Jane Greer in a brilliantly understated performance - she was just 22 but was studio owner Howard Hughes' girlfriend at the time. You know when its tense because the main characters fire up a cigarette each time! Essential for noir buffs, often considered the quintessential film of that genre.
Quote: The view's only nice if you have someone to share it with.

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These are the individual film reviews of what I'm considering the best 1000 dvds available, whether they are films, miniseries, or live concerts. Rather than rush out all 1000 at once, I'm doing them over time to allow inclusion of new releases - in fact, 2008 has the most of any year so far, 30 titles in all; that was a very good year for films, one of the best ever.



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