SOME ESSENTIAL ESSENTIALS: THESE WOMEN CAN BE FATALE

I’m upset. On Tuesday I mentioned how much I wanted to get down to Film Forum this week in order to see (for the first time) Pickup on South Street and This Gun For Hire this week, but unfortunately my schedule didn’t permit me to get to either. While it’s always better to see these films projected, at least they’re on DVD so I can still catch-up on them, and so should you.

The “Essential Noir” series continues this weekend feature two double-bills with the sexiest (and therefore, in the world of noir most dangerous) and notorious femmes fatale in the history of the style. Today and tomorrow is a double feature of The Postman Always Rings Twice and The Lady From Shanghai.

If you’ve only seen the 1981 remake of Postman with Jack Nicholson and Jessica Lange, for shame. The original film with John Garfield and Lana Turner is a far superior movie. Sure, the later film has some more graphic sex scenes (read: any!), but the innuendo and subtext inherent in the 1946 movie is far more interesting. The original Postman is one of the all-time great noirs and shouldn’t be missed.

Nor should The Lady From Shanghai, directed by and starring Orson Welles opposite an unusually blonde, but still stunningly gorgeous, Rita Hayworth. Shanghai definitely has its flaws, and as far as Welles’ noir films go, it doesn’t hold-up as well as his brilliant Touch of Evil 11 years later (which will screen next weekend), but Hayworth’s quintessential femme fatale is more than reason enough to see what is still an exceedingly fun murder mystery.

Sunday and Monday bring two more classics featuring dangerous women, including Hayworth’s best-known role and film, Gilda. Gilda follows the most traditional noir format: a down-on-his-luck guy (either a former criminal, insurance agent, detective, newspaper man, etc.) who doesn’t always make the right choices falls in love with some woman who already “belongs” to some rich guy or big crime boss. There’s usually a murder or at least the plotting of one, and often it’s the woman’s guy. Trouble ensues, usually for our anti-hero. In this film, Hayworth is the worst kind of trouble for Glenn Ford.

Showing alongside Gilda is one of my all-time favorite noirs, The Killers which is notable for being a fascinating expansion, and adaptation, of an Ernest Hemingway short story as well as being the feature acting debut of the great Burt Lancaster. The story is told primarily in flashback as insurance investigator Jim Reardon (played by the phenomenal noir vet and unfortunately all-but-forgotten Edmond O’Brien) tries to learn about the death of “The Swede” (Lancaster). Mixed up in all of this is the mysterious and drop-dead gorgeous Ava Gardner playing cold and maniacally brilliant Kitty Collins. If you’ve never seen Gardner (the woman who Frank Sinatra could never resist), try her here. Besides, you should see the real thing before you see the Kate Beckinsale imitation in The Aviator next week.

If you don’t live in New York or can’t get to Film Forum on Sunday or Monday, I highly suggest you Netflix (or whatever other rental method you might use) the DVD of The Killers. The Criterion Collection double disc set is absolutely phenomenal and features not just the 1946 Robert Siodmak version but also the 1964 Don Siegel-directed treatment of the same Hemingway story. The two movies have virtually nothing in common other than the basic set-up created by Hemingway’s short story. Another great feature on these discs is the 19 minute student short film directed by Russian master Andrei Tarkovsky in 1958. The Tarkovsky short is the only actual film that is a straightforward and completely faithful adaptation of Hemingway’s story.

Meanwhile, I’m not actually on the Film Forum payroll, in case you were wondering, but I’m so grateful for the brilliant programming there that I’ll shill for them anytime. And right now, it’s important to keep in mind that along with this great series, they have held over both Days of Being Wild and Notre Musique. Film noir, Wong Kar-Wai and Jean-Luc Godard all at the same theater? It’s enough to make any cinephile swoon.