What's the consensus on Murder, My Sweet; Lady from Shanghai; Murder by Contract.

Three of my favorites that haven't really been brought up.

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‘The Lady from Shanghai’ is a typical film noir featuring a conflicted protagonist with a shady past, who is seduced by a femme fatale and gets involved in a convoluted plot about adultery and murder. Rita Hayworth is fantastic, some individual scenes are great (such as an acerbic argument between Bannister, his wife and Grisby) and the famous ending in a maze of mirrors is simply brilliant. Still, individually great elements don’t necessarily make a great movie and ‘The Lady from Shanghai’ is decidedly less than the sum of its parts.
The relative failure of 'The Lady from Shanghai’ can be blamed on writer, producer, director and actor Orson Welles. Of course, it is true that this movie as well as all other post ‘Citizen Kane’ Hollywood movies by Welles suffered from studio interference – in this case, Welles was asked to include more glamour shots of Rita Hayworth and include a scene in which she would sing a song. However, the studio can hardly be blamed for ‘The Lady from Shanghai‘s incomprehensible plot and intrusive, flowery voiceover. I concede that convoluted and even nonsensical plots as well as extensive voiceovers are staples of the film noir style, which usually don’t bother me. But ‘The Lady from Shanghai’ makes it seem at first as if the plot truly mattered, hints at dark secrets which aren’t really there and then messes it up big time. The voiceover simply isn’t hardboiled enough and Orson Welles’s delivery makes it seem as if he was too much in love with hearing his own voice. Actually, in contrast to Rita Hayworth, Orson Welles’s acting is terrible in general. He is never believable as a tough Irish sailor and comes across as a rather smug screen presence.
Overall, ‘The Lady fro Shanghai’ isn’t bad and individual aspects make it well worth watching, but it had the potential to be great or at least very good, which it just isn’t. Above-average 6/10

CRY DANGER (1951)
The Film Noir Foundation, along with our colleagues at the UCLA Film & Television Archive, recently restored this Dick Powell thriller. Powell had a special way with a wisecrack, and was also one of the most astute independent producers in the business. Cry Danger was his film all the way, and he showed off his savvy by hiring wondrous wiseacre Bill Bowers to pen the original screenplay, and giving Oscar®-winning editor Robert Parrish his first directing gig. Sure, noir is supposed to be dark and nihilistic, but a great cast spewing Bowers' dynamite dialogue proves it can be incredibly fun as well. I dedicate this showing to the late, great Nancy Mysel, who supervised the restoration of this film, a project we both savored.

People dont' mention it too often,

the 15th Annual Festival Of Film Noir starts Friday in Hollywood.

apparently there were a couple 3-D noirs in the 50s!

http://www.americancinemathequecalendar ... rk-inferno

may have to check them out

the 15th Annual Festival Of Film Noir starts Friday in Hollywood.

apparently there were a couple 3-D noirs in the 50s!

http://www.americancinemathequecalendar ... rk-inferno

may have to check them out

Duryea could make anything good.

An unemployed, drunken photographer (Dan Duryea) returns to his Bunker Hill apartment and is greeted by his wife and daughter who are leaving him for good. A heartbreaking odyssey transpires on the streets of downtown L.A. with a desperate Duryea, in one of his finest screen performances, attempting to save both his family and himself. Beautifully helmed by John Reinhardt with Mary Anderson, Gordon Gebert and Ross Elliott.

did you know there was a made for tv remake of Winchester '73 with Duryea?