Read The Desert Sun to learn more of the festival's Dark City Players as they dig into noir.
"Noir czar" Alain Silver was on hand to present the second evening’s film, While the City Sleeps. He describes noir has being a fundamentally American genre, though said this film was directed by one of the most Germanic filmmakers, Fritz Lang.
Based on the story “The Bloody Spur,” this Manhattan murder mystery was especially fun for me as it is centered around a newspaper. At first glance, the newsroom doesn’t look that different with its sea of desks filled with busy reporters. However, the typewriters clicked a bit louder then, the only copies are carbon, the news wire was sent through a ticker rather than the internet, a columnist is seen wearing a fur coat and the editor chomps on cigars.
As a spoiled son inherits the paper, he forces three men to vie for the top dog position by competing in a race to solve a murder. For every man there’s a sneaky woman calling the shots, and everyone is willing to claw their way to the top. Even the good guys misbehave -– it’s a sliding scale. Cops and reporters work together on the job and use fiancés as bait, while later in the bar they laugh off infidelities. You can tell the one truly good character by the fact that she orders milk at the bar. This film is utterly delicious.
I’ve heard film noir described as comedic, and never is that more true than when you view one with an enthusiastic audience. So many innuendoes, so little time. The quotes were harder to keep track of tonight, as the lines flew a bit faster and received quick reply, but here’s my attempt at recording the zingers:
* “Shut your obscene face.”
* “I spent my youth and whisky on this job.”
* “I don’t like the walls in this room, I feel like they have sliding panels.”
* “The best thing to do before getting married is to find out as much as you can.”
* “Nice legs. What holds your stockings up?”
* “You don’t want a bride. You want an illiterate, common-law woman.”
* “Oh, you men, you’re all polygamists.”
* “I’m as honest as the day is long.” “The shortest day of the year.”
* “You expect me to say it’s love.” “When will you know?” “In about an hour or two.”
* “I wonder what nice people are doing tonight.”
* “Now she knows you won the Pulitzer prize for your writing.”
* “Nobody has such hands.” “How do you know?” “From experience.”
* “What’ll you two be drinking?” “Brandy.” “And a hemlock for me.”
* “I don’t want to be happy, I want y(ou).”
* “Shall I continue?” “Continue. I love to be sad.”
* “I haven’t had any sleep for two nights. Get your clothes off.”
* “I couldn’t buy you that explorer’s license; they never heard of such a thing. The best I could do was get you a hunting license.”
The film is chock full of fantastic actors: Dana Andrews, Ida Lupino, Vincent Price, Thomas Mitchell and Rhonda Fleming -- the latter in attendance at this screening. She’s still stunning, and very open and appreciative of her fans. She spoke of Lang telling everyone to get to dig down into their dark sides, and that she thought the film was pretty naughty. She claims she did many “weird” roles for a paycheck.
When cast for Spellbound, the role was that of a nymphomaniac. She didn’t know what that word meant and when she told her devout Mormon mother, they looked it up in a dictionary. Her mom was just relieved she wasn’t being typecast.
She wasn’t pleased when films began to shoot in color, and hated being a Technicolor queen. There was more fiddling and fussing with hair and makeup and whatnot. My kinda woman.