Welcome to another free double bill of film noir

A Noirishing Feast Awaits

Come with me . . . 

TONIGHT’S  (from 8.30pm Friday, Hollywood time) double feature of film noir presents The Strange Woman (1946) and D.O.A.(1949) Both are good-quality prints and ad-free during their running times. In the tradition of cinemas past, the main feature D.O.A. will run second. Links to the films follow the reviews.

Grab your popcorn as I, your humble projectionist, crank up the projector for the first reel of The Strange Woman.

Eddie coils to strike in noir

ONE name won’t spring to the lips of critics naming the most accomplished classic noir actors. As you may recall, classic noir usually refers to stylised Hollywood crime films made from the early 1940s to the late 1950s. Robert Mitchum who is universally recognised as an essential noir anti-hero, or maybe ant-hero, responded to the exotic title of film noir in laconic noirish fashion. “We used to call them B-pictures,” he said.

       Humphrey Bogart is the other icon of male leads in noir acting. After this duo, the picture gets a little fuzzy with the names Sterling Hayden and Dick Powell likely to rise from the mist. Maybe Kirk Douglas. James Cagney, George Raft and Edward G. Robinson if you want to stretch it to the gangster guys. No Edmond O’Brien.

       Oh, yair, Edmond O’Brien. Eddie O’Brien. Forgot about him. O’Brien starred in maybe a dozen or more noirs, including four of the most famous, The Killers (1946) White Heat (1949) The Hitch Hiker (1953) and the movie we will enjoy later D.O.A. (1950). He also played Winston Smith in the first cinematic adaptation of George Orwell’s novel 1984.