Film 1 – Beyond a Reasonable Doubt (1956). Fritz Lang’s final American film is a clever story well told, though somewhat lacking the mastery of style from his early career.
Film 2 – Le Samouraï (1967). Jean-Pierre Melville’s endlessly influential hitman noir is morally murky, suspenseful and largely built around how great Alain Delon looked in a coat and hat.
Film 3 – Laura (1944). Otto Preminger’s mannered but intriguing murder-mystery looks and sounds great, with striking performances from Gene Tierney, Dana Andrews and a young, sexy Vincent Price.
Film 4 – The Breaking Point (1950). In the second, less famous but more faithful adaptation of Hemingway’s To Have and Have Not, Michael Curtiz trades in romance for grit to largely good effect.
Film 5 – The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946). This knotty classic about murder, passion and the consequences of both is good-looking and well performed in an old-fashioned way (complimentary) that belies its twisted core.
Film 6 – While the City Sleeps (1956). Visually and thematically referring to Fritz Lang’s earlier work, here the German expat’s direction remains tightly controlled, though the script does too much telling rather than showing.
Film 7 – Naked Alibi (1954). A taut, dynamic and surprisingly brutal crime thriller with top-class work from Sterling Hayden and Gloria Grahame. As should be a given for everything I watch this month, it looks amazing too.
Film 8 – Out of the Past (1947). A soaring romance punctured by extreme darkness and cynicism that gets a lot of mileage out of Robert Mitchum’s physicality. Jacques Tourneur forever a master of atmosphere.
Film 9 – The Big Heat (1953). The best of Fritz Lang’s final career phase by some distance, this is a tough and uncompromising cops and gangsters picture with operatic flourishes.
Film 10 – Kiss the Blood Off My Hands (1948). This UK-set, US-shot postwar blackmail thriller doesn’t have many surprises in store, but is entertainingly played, particularly by Robert Newton at his slimy best. SSP
SSP Thinks Film 