The next three days definitely include some major highlights for the continuing “Essential Noir” series at Film Forum. Today (for one day only) is a double-bill featuring one of the most iconic of all noir characters, Raymond Chandler’s great creation – private eye Philip Marlowe, and tomorrow and Thursday feature two films from the great director Fritz Lang.
If you’ve never seen neither The Big Sleep nor Murder, My Sweet, this is definitely a must-attend double-feature. Marlowe is our “hero” in both stories, and the performances by Humphrey Bogart and Dick Powell, respectively, are both very interesting. (Marlowe has been portrayed by many actors in many films throughout the years, but Bogart and Powell were the best.) When one thinks of Bogart, one basically thinks of Marlowe (at least when not picturing him as Sam Spade). He’s the tough-guy P.I., who’s a sucker for the lady but will ultimately always protect his own ass first. He basically moves forward without fear and maintains a personal honor that won’t allow anyone to take advantage of or make a fool of him. The Big Sleep, based on Chandler’s novel of the same name, adapted for the screen by the great William Faulkner, directed by the phenomenal Howard Hawks and including one of the earliest smoldering pairings (the second, to be exact) of Bogey and Bacall is one of the all-time great detective noirs.
For Powell, Marlowe was a huge departure. In fact, if one wants to recall the uproar among comic fans when Tim Burton cast Michael Keaton as Bruce Wayne in the first Batman, that’s probably what many people originally thought of Powell playing Marlowe. Bogart hadn’t yet played Marlowe (The Big Sleep came two years later), but his Sam Spade had basically set the bar for the potentially amoral detectives of the era. Powell was already a Hollywood star, but he was known as a song-and-dance man having starred in major musicals and comedies of the ’30s like 42nd Street, Gold Diggers of 1933 (and 1935 and 1937) and Christmas in July. Where Bogart appears gruff and rough, Powell’s Marlowe looks more dapper and smooth (even with the addition of a permanent five o’clock shadow). Nonetheless, Powell is riveting in Murder, My Sweet (an adaptation of Chandler’s Farewell, My Lovely). His tough guy banter simultaneously seems out-of-place coming from his mouth while always being believable. It’s a great performance in a very good film, and watching both the similarities and differences between Powell and Bogart by seeing Murder, My Sweet and The Big Sleep back-to-back is an opportunity that should not be missed.
(Tangential note: For another interesting take on Marlowe from the same period, rent 1947’s The Lady in the Lake directed by and starring Robert Montgomery. While not as good a performance as Bogart or Powell, Montgomery’s film is fascinating because it’s all told in the first person from Marlowe’s point-of-view. Yes, in fact, the camera only sees whatever Marlowe is seeing at the time. In fact, we only even see Montgomery as Marlowe when he sees himself in a mirror. When he gets knocked out, the picture goes blurry and then to black. It’s not the best movie, but it’s a fascinating experiment, and the discipline to actually shoot the film and tell the story this way is amazing.)
On Wednesday and Thursday, Film Forum shows The Woman in the Window and The Big Heat, two classic noirs from Lang who after his earlier German expressionistic work like Dr. Mabuse and Metropolis, made one of the earliest precursors to film noir in 1931 with M. So it should only be expected that Lang later became one of, if not the, greatest directors of the style with films like Ministry of Fear, Scarlet Street and While the City Sleeps. The Woman in the Window and The Big Heat are two of his best.
Personally, I prefer The Big Heat thanks to the purely sadistic performance from the great Lee Marvin. Glenn Ford is great as the detective hell-bent on revenge, and if you’re a stranger to Gloria Grahame, this film is as good a time as any to get acquainted.
The Woman in the Window is yet another good example of one of the best noir formulas: a guy (in this case a college professor played by the great Edward G. Robinson) winds up in the wrong place at the wrong time because of his fascination with a beautiful woman only to become entangled and targeted for murder. And this is why film noir is often simply “Murphy’s Law” come to life for many of its leading men.
Friday begins the final week of this phenomenal series at Film Forum, and it definitely goes out with a bang starting this weekend with the pairing of Sweet Smell of Success and Touch of Evil. Sweet Smell of Success definitely lives on the fringe of noir, and plenty of arguments against it being categorized as such make perfect sense. Touch of Evil, on the other hand, is often considered the film that closes out the “official” era of noir (often thought of as 1941-1958). Maybe it bears that reputation because it comes pretty close to perfecting the style (if that’s possible).
I’ll return to those two on Friday, but in the mean time, enjoy the four films they’re showing over the next three days, or rent them if you can’t get to Film Forum. They’re all worth your time.
Out of Focus 