Free films put the noir into film noir

Take a walk on the dark side

A NOIR blending violence, sentimentality, and comedy may struggle for balance and Johnny One-Eye (1950) certainly does.

I could not recall having seen this movie before and I was expecting the Johnny in the title to be a gangster, somebody sprouting wise-cracks and New York slang, given the movie is based on a Damon Runyon short story. A fair way into the movie we find Johnny is not a gangster, not even a person.

Films show it's murder being a man

Another noir double bill

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Now an audiobook HERE

I HAVE ALWAYS BEEN a sucker for narration in noir, especially if it is done in a deep bass voice like Reed Hadley’s in T-Men (1947). A Hollywood actor since 1938, Hadley had an uncredited role as narrator of Buffalo Bill (1944) followed with a credit for narration of the financially rewarding House on 92nd Street (1945), a documentary-style fictionalisation of the FBI cracking a major spy ring. A wit once said the only “ism” Hollywood believed in was plagiarism and, in 1947, we had Hadley narrating, T-Men about Treasury agents cracking a major counterfeiting ring.