Second Run Showcase :: Can a Woman Commit a Sin When She is HYPNOTIZED? (April, 1951)

 

 

 
Though hamstrung a bit by the hypnotic hookum the villain uses to dupe our heroine into a murder frame-up, with the way director Otto Preminger paints her into a corner in Whirlpool, I wasn’t sure they were going to get the lovely Gene Tierney out of this airtight mess let alone how — but I encourage you all to find out for yourselves just how they do. Props to Charles Bickford as the well-seasoned detective in charge and Jose Ferrer’s despicable David Korvo belongs in the Film Noir Villain Hall of Fame.
 

The William Castle Blogathon :: Savage! Sinful! A Panorama of Passions and Violence! (June, 1954)

 

 

 

 
And here we have Cecil B. Demille on a Sam Katzman budget. E’yup, Slaves of Babylon is William Castle’s one and only biblical epic (– unless you count Rosemary’s Baby, but we’re getting ahead of ourselves just a bit), with his take on the tale of Daniel in the lion’s den mixed in with a plot to overthrow king Nebuchadnezzar as told in the book of No Not Really: Chapter 2: Verses 1-5.
 

 
This post is part of Goregirl’s Dungeon and The Last Drive-In’s The William Castle Blogathan, a week long tribute to the King of Schlock. Follow the linkage, Boils & Ghouls. It’s gonna be a great week. And stick around, as we’ll be showcasing Castle’s film career from its fairly normal beginnings through it psychotronic glory days. Stay tuned!

Slaves of Babylon (1953) Columbia Pictures / P: Sam Katzman / D: William Castle / W: DeVallon Scott / C: Henry Freulich / E: William A. Lyon / M: Henry Vars / S: Richard Conte, Linda Christian, Maurice Schwartz, Michael Ansara, Terry Kilburn

Paris Model (1953) American Pictures Company :: Columbia Pictures / P: Albert Zugsmith / D: Alfred E. Green / W: Robert Smith / C: William Bradford / E: W. Donn Hayes / M: Albert Glasser / S: Marilyn Maxwell, Paulette Goddard, Eva Gabor, Barbara Lawrence, Cecil Kellaway

For the Love of Film Noir :: She Was Hungry for His Love! Why Was He Afraid? (December, 1946)

 

 

 

 

 

This post is part of my rehash and continuation of the For the Love of Film Noir Blogathon originally held back in February of 2011. Thus and so, we will be heading down the rain-soaked streets and neon-drenched back alleys of Noirville again for the entire month of March. And along with all the old material migrating over from the old site, we’ll also be scattering around a lot of new stuff as well. Also of note, we’ll be posting them in chronological order to show how the genre evolved and progressed from the 1940′s through the late ’50s. And as an added bonus, I’ll be posting some vintage adverts to stuff I’ve always associated with the genre — cigarettes, booze and fashionable ladies.

Somewhere in the Night (1946) Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation / EP: Darryl F. Zanuck / P: Anderson Lawler / D: Joseph L. Mankiewicz / W: Howard Dimsdale, Joseph L. Mankiewicz, Lee Strasberg, Marvin Borowsky / C: Norbert Brodine / E: James B. Clark / M: David Buttolph / S: John Hodiak, Nancy Guild, Lloyd Nolan, Richard Conte, Josephine Hutchinson, Sheldon Leonard

The Night They Blew All the Lights in Las Vegas! (November, 1960)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
When Peter Lawford first approached Frank Sinatra about making Ocean’s 11, as the legend goes, Sinatra told him they should forget about the movie and just pull the heist off instead. Made at perhaps the absolute zenith of the Martini Machismo era they helped to create and define, the film had to be shot piecemeal around the collection of stars’ scheduled live performances — most notably Sinatra’s legendary run at The Sands, where his fellow Rat-Packers often joined him for what would eventually come to be known as The Summit. And in perhaps the ultimate meta-moment in screen history, as the film ends, Ocean’s crew moseys reflectively down a sidewalk with The Sands marquee visible behind them, emblazoned with its headlining act.
 

 
Ocean’s 11 (1960) Dorchester :: Warner Bros. / P: Lewis Milestone / AP: Henry W. Sanicola / D: Lewis Milestone / W: Harry Brown, Charles Lederer, George Clayton Johnson, Jack Golden Russell / C: William H. Daniels / E: Philip W. Anderson / M: Nelson Riddle / S: Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Peter Lawford, Joey Bishop, Angie Dickinson, Richard Conte, Akim Tamiroff, Henry Silva, Caesar Romero