Keep That Coffee Hot

The Big Heat (1953) - Lang

Gloria Grahame, ooh la la. Who does she remind me of? Julietta Macina if she was ever young and sexy, maybe? It's a very difficult task to make a ditzy girl sexy and she does it here.

The big heat tells a tough cop, Bannion (Glenn Ford) in a sewer city. While investigating a cop's suicide, for some reason, Bannion can't keep his big mouth shut so everyone around him ends up dead, including his wholesome beer and steak dinner sharing wife, blown up by the bigwig Lagana's goons.

Enter Debbie (Grahame), a pretty young thang that belongs to Lagana's right hand man Vince (Lee Marvin). She sticks with the busyhand because she likes money and mink coats. But after Vince gets a shakedown by Bannion, Debbie walks up to Bannion and they 'talk'. Vince in turn throws a hot coffee in her pretty face.

Morally mucky film by Lang where its straight-shooting protag unknowingly direct everyone to their demise in order for him to get to the big fish, The Big Heat is perhaps the dirtiest noir I've seen so far. And Grahame is there to make guys think dirty. Bravo.

Life During Wartime

Bad Day at Black Rock (1955) - Sturges

Macreedy (Spencer Tracy), a mysterious one armed man in black, comes to Black Rock, a small desert town in the West and starts asking questions about a Jap farmer named Komoko who is nowhere to be seen. The townsfolk are less than welcoming, even downright hostile. The local honcho Smith (Robert Ryan, On Dangerous Ground, Billy Budd) who seems to be in charge of everything, wants Macreedy disappear.

This tale of racism/blind patriotism in the post-war small town America presented in anamorphic widescreen, features some amazing desert vistas in day time as well as night exterior scenes. Ryan is as menacing as ever, even shooting down a woman in cold blood in order to keep his racist murder case dead and buried in Black Rock. We get to know Macreedy's retired vet story. Tracy keeps the righteous torch burning 'til the end. Sturges mixes elements of Western and noir and the result is spectacular. Ernest Borgnine and Lee Marvin appear as Smith's goons. I got a great kick out of watching the scene where Tracy karate chops Borgnine. Great stuff.

I'm half horse half alligator scene

Walk the Walk

Point Blank (1967) - Boorman






Walker(Lee Marvin) is double crossed by his buddy, Reese and girlfriend and left for dead on Alcatraz during a holdup. A year later, he is getting his revenge and wants his $93,000 share from the holdup. Aided by a man who wants to bring down the 'organization', Walker goes after Reese, Carter and Brewster to get his money with the help of perky Chris(Angie Dickenson).

Exercise in style, Point Blank packs more visual ideas in a minute than an average movie does in its entire length. With its frenetic editing and sound design from the get-go, John Boorman (Excalibur, Deliverance)'s cool filmmaking never loses its momentum. The self-awareness of this neo-noir makes it even more delicious:

I laughed out loud at the scene where Chris says bye too casually to Walker, after helping him out by almost sleeping with a man who makes her skin crawl.

In another scene:

Chris: What's your first name?
(pause)
Walker: What's your last?
(cut to the next scene)

Marvin's no smile antihero Walker is the definition of cool. As the man of principles, he is fearless and uncompromising. Point Blank is like hyper-stylized Dirty Harry movie but it definitely stands tall above the rest.