November 1947: Out of the Past

This is a film noir, but it starts off as like a 50s Tennessee Williams movie. But then you get all of the genre trappings: Flash-backs, gangsters, dames, beaches, repartee.

I’ve never realised how similar Robert Mitchum and Kirk Douglas are. They’re basically the same person. Mitchum is a bit more muscular, but otherwise they’re confusingly similar. I wonder whether that was the effect they were going for, or whether it’s the usual result of the casting director having a “type”.

This is a very well-regarded movie:

Out of the Past is considered one of the greatest of all films noir.[5][6][7] Robert Ottoson hailed the film as “the ne plus ultra of forties film noir”.[8]

I don’t quite get it. Nothing really sizzles here. I find myself being almost completely disinterested in Mitchum and his mysterious past. The cinematography isn’t particularly striking, and the dames aren’t compelling.

But I concede that I might be totally wrong about this one. It just didn’t hold my attention, so perhaps it’s really a masterpiece and I just kinda zoned out on the good bits? It’s possible.

Out of the Past. Jacques Tourneur. 1947.

Popular movies in November 1947 according to IMDB:

Votes	Rating	Movie
24312	8.1	Out of the Past
11481	7.4	Gentleman’s Agreement
889	7.4	It Always Rains on Sunday
523	7.1	Monsieur Vincent
618	7.0	The Lost Moment
236	6.9	Mine Own Executioner
251	6.8	Where There’s Life
1524	6.7	Daisy Kenyon
1571	6.5	The Fugitive
407	6.5	An Ideal Husband

This blog post is part of the Decade series.

October 1947: Green Dolphin Street

This has few votes on imdb so I assumed that it was a B movie. But this is an MGM high budget costume drama… with Lana Turner and Donna Reed.

And what costumes!

It was nominated for a handful of technical Oscars as well as Best Cinematography and was apparently quite popular upon release.

That it’s apparently mostly forgotten today isn’t very surprising. It’s… what’s the word… like totally lame?

There’s no rapport between the alleged lovers. Van Heflin is particularly problematic: When he first appeared I thought he was portraying a leering pervert of some sort, but then he turns out to be a hero or something?

The pace is glacial. It goes on for two and a half hours and seems to have enough drama for about half an hour. Were they going for a Gone is the Wind vibe?

I don’t know whether to admire or roll my eyes at the brazenness of the plot contrivance in the middle (involving a drunken letter).

The earthquake effects are really quite impressive.

This is a horrible movie, but I’ll up the dice on account of the earthquake scene. But beware!

Green Dolphin Street. Victor Saville. 1947.

Popular movies in October 1947 according to IMDB:

Votes	Rating	Movie
5367	7.8	Nightmare Alley
860	7.3	The Wistful Widow of Wagon Gap
1624	7.2	The Unsuspected
1030	6.9	Green Dolphin Street
764	6.8	Song of Love
341	6.7	The Exile
890	6.7	Forever Amber
244	6.6	Bowery Buckaroos
1059	6.5	Magic Town
269	6.5	Merton of the Movies

This blog post is part of the Decade series.

4AD 1990

Listen to 4AD 1990 on Spotify.

4AD head Ivo Watts-Russell has later said that he was going to shut down 4AD after ten years, but he didn’t because he felt an obligation to the bands. So instead 1990 turned into one of the busiest years ever, with 17 releases, and some of the biggest commercial successes in 4AD’s history.

Dead Can Dance released Aion, a release that I think converted anybody sceptical about them into fans. Pixies released Bossanova, which was very popular and the first release on 4AD I didn’t like since 1984. But Kim Deal from Pixies joined up with Tanya Donnelly from Throwing Muses and Josephine Wiggs and went into the studio with “producer” Steve Albini and came up with the Pod album, which I think is better than everything Pixies did ever combined.

And we got the first album from His Name Is Alive, which did much to ensure people sceptical of the other newcomers that 4AD was still spiffy.

And then there’s Cocteau Twins. Heaven or Las Vegas was their most commercial release ever, and sold a buttload of copies, and was also well-liked by old fans. Imagine that. But: During interviews Robin Guthrie had been saying increasingly dismissive things about Ivo, and he finally got fed up and released them from their contract out of the blue.

As was part of the pattern, after leaving 4AD they didn’t really do anything much worthwhile. People are still coming clean about whether they tolerated Four-Calendar Cafe or not.

Watts-Russell would start withdrawing from day-to-day running of the label (and the artists) after this. He had been very hands-on, from doing the A&R thing to signing bands to visiting them in the studio to overseeing the manufacturing, and that ended around this time. Perceived cohesion would start to dissolve over the next few years as other people at 4AD would start bringing in bands. The “4AD fan” thing would start to become a thing of the past. Which is perhaps a good thing? Or kinda melancholic. Take your pick.

1990

	CAD0002 Pale Saints — The Comforts Of Madness Way The World Is, You Tear The World In Two, Sea Of Sound, True Coming Dream, Little Hammer, Insubstantial, A Deep Sleep For Steven, Language Of Flowers, Fell From The Sun, Sight Of You (remix), Time Thief
	BAD0003 Lush — Mad Love De-Luxe, Leaves Me Cold, Downer, Thoughtforms (remix)
	BAD0004 Ultra Vivid Scene — Staring At The Sun Staring At The Sun, Three Stars (*** version), Crash (remix), Something Better
	CAD0005 Ultra Vivid Scene — Joy 1967-1990 It Happens Every Time, Staring At The Sun, Three Stars (remix), Special One, Grey Turns White, Poison, Guilty Pleasure, Extra Ordinary, Beauty #2, The Kindest Cut, Praise The Low, Lightning
	CAD0006 The Breeders — Pod Glorious, Doe, Happiness Is A Warm Gun, Oh!, Hellbound, When I Was A Painter, Fortunately Gone, Iris, Opened, Only In 3’s, Lime House, Metal Man
	CAD0007 Dead Can Dance — Aion The Arrival And The Reunion, Saltarello, Mephisto, The Song Of The Sybil, Fortune Presents Gifts Not According To The Book, As The Bell Rings The Maypole Spins, The End Of Words, Black Sun, Wilderness, The Promised Womb, The Garden Of Zephirus, Radharc
	CAD0008 His Name Is Alive — Livonia As We Could Ever, e-nicolle, If July, Some and I, fossil, E-Nicolle, Caroline’s Supposed Demon, Fossil, reincarnation, You And I Have Seizures, How Ghosts Affect Relationships, Darkest Dreams
	BAD0009 Pixies — Velouria Velouria, I’ve Been Waiting For You, Make Believe, The Thing (The Happening)
	CAD0010 Pixies — Bossanova Cecilia Ann, Rock Music, Velouria, Allison, Is She Weird, Ana, All Over The World, Dig For Fire, Down To The Well (remix), The Happening, Blown Away, Hang Wire, Stormy Weather, Havalina
	BAD0011 Cocteau Twins — Iceblink Luck Iceblink Luck, Mizake The Mizan, Watchlar
	CAD0012 Cocteau Twins — Heaven Or Las Vegas Cherry-Coloured Funk, Pitch The Baby, Iceblink Luck, Fifty-Fifty Clown, Heaven Or Las Vegas, I Wear Your Ring, Fotzepolitic, Wolf In The Breast, Road River And Rail, Frou-Frou Foxes In Midsummer Fires
	BAD0013 Lush — Sweetness And Light Sweetness And Light, Breeze, Sunbathing
	BAD0014 Pixies — Dig For Fire Dig For Fire (single), Winterlong, Velvety Instrumental Version, Santo
	BAD0015 Pale Saints — Half-Life Half-Life Remembered, Babymaker, Two Sick Sisters, A Revelation, The Colour Of The Sky
	BAD0016 Ultra Vivid Scene — Special One Special One, Lightning (72 b.p.m / 4 a.m.), Kind Of A Drag, A Smile And A Death Wish
	CAD0017 Lush — Gala Baby Talk, Thoughtforms, Scarlet, Bitter, Second Sight, Etheriel, De-Luxe, Leaves Me Cold, Downer, Thoughtforms (remix), Sweetness And Light, Breeze, Sunbathing, Hey Hey Helen, Scarlet (version two)

This post is part of the chronological look at all 4AD releases, year by year.

*) Missing from Spotify.

September 1947: Dark Passage

Wow! Bacall! Bogie! Agnes Moorehead! I haven’t seen this before? I don’t think so? Why!? It’s the most noir thing ever!

It’s an absolutely thrilling and riveting movie. The first-person camera in the first section of the film is amazeballs. The constant coincidences in the plot makes such paranoid sense.

It’s fantastic!

I’m not familiar with the director here, Delmer Daves, but I guess I’ll have to check out more of his films.

The only weak section in this movie is when we get to the denouement, where things just get kind of boring when we learn how everything happened. There’s still fabulous acting going on (yay Moorehead), but everything just makes too much sense.

Dark Passage. Delmer Daves. 1947.

Popular movies in September 1947 according to IMDB:

Votes	Rating	Movie
3597	7.7	Quai des Orfèvres
13482	7.6	Dark Passage
1647	7.4	Ride the Pink Horse
1423	7.1	Unconquered
602	6.9	Dreams That Money Can Buy
4741	6.8	Fun & Fancy Free
243	6.7	Heaven Only Knows
274	6.7	The Foxes of Harrow
1115	6.7	Railroaded!
325	6.6	The Unfinished Dance

This blog post is part of the Decade series.

August 1947: Life With Father

Technicolor! Irene Dunne! William Powell! Elizabeth Taylor!

This is not a noir!

Unfortunately, the DVD version seems to be sourced from a torrent copy of the movie at a bitrate of “there’s a bitrate?”, and the torrent was sourced from an NTSC broadcast, so it’s very pretty on my screen. It looks like it originally was, though, so that’s a shame. It was nominated for some technical Oscar awards…

So how did this movie end up on the 50-movie DVD box set that only has B movies? Let’s see…

Ah!:

Through a clerical error, Life with Father was not renewed for copyright and has fallen into the public domain.

Anyway, it’s a very amiable piece of period fluff. It’s not the kind of comedy you laugh out loud to a lot, but the Dunne/Powell scenes proceed in a very amusing fashion indeed.

The storyline (FSVO storyline) isn’t very thrilling, though. A bunch of folderol. With a Christian taint. It moves so slowly… but… it’s nice? I mean, I like it, but I’m not that enthusiastic.

I wonder whether Ingmar Bergman had this movie in mind when he made Fanny & Alexander.

Oh!

That sounds so familiar! I’ve that as a sample in a song somewhere… Hm… It must be Meat Beat Manifesto! From Armed Audio Warfare, perhaps? Storm the Studio?

Life With Father. Michael Curtiz. 1947.

Popular movies in August 1947 according to IMDB:

Votes	Rating	Movie
3340	7.8	Body and Soul
5427	7.5	Kiss of Death
3509	7.3	Life with Father
4637	7.1	The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
743	7.1	The October Man
3408	7.0	Song of the Thin Man
1931	7.0	Lured
359	6.9	The Romance of Rosy Ridge
223	6.7	Holiday Camp
432	6.7	Mother Wore Tights

This blog post is part of the Decade series.