The First Poliziottesco* (*Developed during Italy's turbulent Years of Lead (Anni di Piombo), the films reflected rising crime rates, political terrorism, and public distrust in state institutions. The term itself playfully merges polizia (Italian for police) with the Americanized suffix -esco (meaning "-esque") Wiki)
Director Steno (as Stefano Vanzina he was an Italian satirist, cartoonist, and writer/director of popular comedies, often starring Totò or Bud Spencer).
Written by Steno and Lucio De Caro. Cinematography by Riccardo Pallottini (known for Sword and Sandal flicks, Spaghetti Westerns, Sci-Fi and Spy Films), and Music by Stelvio Cipriani (a few of his pieces used in Grindhouse2007).
The film stars Enrico Maria Salerno as Commissario Bertone (L'uccello dalle piume di cristallo) . Mariangela Melato (Swept Away, The Seduction of Mimi) as Sandra, Mario Adorf (Station Six Sahara. I Knew Her Well. The Red Tent) as District Attorney Ricciuti, Franco Fabrizi (I vitelloni, Nights of Cabiria, Witness in the City) as Francesco Bettarini, Cyril Cusack as Former Superintendent Stolfi, Laura Belli as Anna Maria Sprovieri, Jürgen Drews as Michele Settecamini, Piero Tiberi as Mario Staderini, and Corrado Gaipa as L'avvocato Armani the lawyer.
Story
We watch as a 1968 Alfa Romeo 1750 Berlina police interceptor descends a hill. From the looks of some of the foliage turning brown, it's probably mid October.
Commissario Bertone gets out and asks the guy manning the reception desk for Mr. Stolfi. He replies that Stolfi is doing a TV interview.
Stolfi is giving some spiel about Pinocchio, and complains about psychiatrist's and sociologists creating problems for law enforcement, but the gist of it all is that he thinks something radical has to be done about the crime situation.
Here starts a flashback.
We cut to a green police Alfa Romeo Alfetta Berlina with a blue "bubble gum machine" racing through the streets of Rome.
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| Franco Fabrizi as Bettarini on rt. |
L'avvocato Armani is already at the police station. Bettarini just got off on a technicality. The press is there to interview Bettarini. While the press is rattling questions at Bettarini, Commissario Bertone sort of in the Dirty Harry mold is noticed and gets questioned also by Sandra a red haired press reporter and he complains about scum like Bettarini, can wiggle out from justice.
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| Mariangela Melato as Sandra |
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| Enrico Maria Salerno as Commissario Bertone |
This is what Stolfi was "admiring."
Cut to the title sequence.
Here, is where we get the first sample of what this film does very well, gritty cinematography.
It puts you there. Not only in the streets in the heart of Rome, but also right into the action. The excellent editing, achieves realistic chase sequences that take us also through back streets and dirt back alleys past deserted warehouses that never see tourists.
We race down the service roads that ring the Leonardo da Vinci International Airport, and past deserted boatyards on the Tiber River delta by the Fiumicino where it joins the Tyrrhenian Sea.
We get signature "Roman Noir" shots of very atmospheric and gritty depictions of very early morning / first light Rome, along with moody Roman nights that are also equally mesmerizing thanks to Riccardo Pallottini's cinematography.
The title sequence begins with Mario Staderini wearing a brown sweater diving and Michele Settecamini wearing a jean jacket riding on a 750cc Moto Guzzi V7 through the Rome traffic.
We cut to a husband wife outside the serranda (a locking roller shutter) to their jewelry shop. The husband is crouched down, unlocking it and then he slides it up.
Two painters take a morning coffee break by sitting down up against the corner of the building nearest Mario on Moto Guzzi.
The police are notified and all units are on the lookout for them. A patrol car spots them heading towards them and blocks the street. The two cops get out with rifles trained on Mario and Michele but when seeing the they are just two kids they hesitate.
Anybody the police find riding on a Moto Guzzi are pulled in a questioned. Michele has Anna Maria drive to a deserted boat salvage yard and they break into to the boathouse.
Michele climbs up into a cabin cruiser covered with a tarp and orders Anna Maria into the cabin.
When she gets into the cabin Michele tells her to strip naked.
Anna Maria at gunpoint complies. He tells her to throw he clothes to him. He doesn't want to rape her he just wants to prevent her from escaping.
Back at police headquarters we again see Sandra and other reporters who are hoping for any scoops on the latest killings. We also see Bettarini once again brought in for questioning. He was found with a gun matching the caliber used in the jewelry heist killing. He calls his lawyer and gets instructions over the phone on how to bait the cops into violating his rights in a fight. He lays the phone down on the desk while the lawyer records what happens. He gets the results he wants. After a meeting between Bertone, D.A. Ricciuti and L'avvocato Armani he is again set loose.
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| Corrado Gaipa as L'avvocato Armani the lawyer. |
Bertone invites the press on a sort of tour of the Roman high crime and red light districts. This sequence actually uses a Roman tour bus, with Commissario Bertone acting as the tour guide.
The next say the police receive a call to go to an auto wrecking yard where they find the junkman severely beaten. He tells the cops that two other cops did it to get info on who he lent his Moto Guzzi to.
At the hospital he gives out Mario's name and where he lives to District Attorney Ricciuti. They bring in Mario's mother and sister. His sister is a prostitute and her mother keeps the books.
It all goes Noirsville when we see Mario in the company of vigilante cops getting taken for a ride.
Mario is tied to an iron ring in the Il Parapetto, and executed. It's the first execution of the squad and Commissario Bertone has to deal with, and there's more to come
So Bertone has to deal with not only this execution squad and the kidnapping of Anna Maria by Michele but also now the loyalty of his men.
Noirsville
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| Mario Adorf as District Attorney Ricciuti with Mariangela Melato |
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| John French Sloan |
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| Emil Kosa Jr. |
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| Leslie Peterson Sapp |
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| Theo Michael |
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| Martin Lewis |
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| Preston Blair |
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| Carl Brenzke |
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| Terence R. Rogers |
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| Giorgio de Chirico |
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| Jack Vettriano |
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| Danny Galieote |
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| Harry Weisburd |
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| T. S. Harris |
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| Kim Cogan |
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| Brent Lynch |
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| Casey Baugh |
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| Reginald Marsh |
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| Edward Hopper |
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| Jindra Noewi |
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Want to suggest a Lost Noir?
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All Films Noir( + influences & reflections back)here.
Janine Lenon and Steve Hollister inAroused(1966)Directed by Robert Siodmak (The Phantom Lady The Suspect, The Spiral Staircase, The Killers, Criss Cross and more).
Written by Richard Murphy and an uncredited Ben Hecht. Based on Henry Edward Helseth's novel.
Cinematography by Lloyd Ahern Sr (The Brasher Doubloon) ., Music by composer Alfred Newman.
This is one of the Street Scene Noir. Street Scene was composed by Alfred Newman in 1931 for the film with the same title which was based on a state play. It functions as one of unofficial signature tunes for New York City used as the score for five 20th Century Fox Film Noir all set in New York City, its styled after George Gershwin's 1924's Rhapsody in Blue d which defines New York City's Jazz Age.
The other four Fox Noir are Kiss of Death, I Wake Up Screaming, Where the Sidewalk Ends, and The Dark Corner.
The film stars A lot of Classic Noir Vets Victor Mature (I Wake Up Screaming, The Shanghai Gesture, Killers Kiss, My Darling Clementine, Las Vegas Story) as Lt. Vittorio Candella, Richard Conte (The Spider, Call Northside 777, Thieves Highway, Highway Dragnet, and of course The Godfather) as Martin Rome, Fred Clark (Ride The Pink Horse, The Unsuspected, White Heat, Sunset Blvd.) as Lt. Jim Collins, Shelley Winters (A Double Life, Larceny, A Place In The Sun, The Raging Tide, Harper) as Brenda Martingale.
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| Victure Mature as Lt. Candella |
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| Richard Conte as Martin Rome |
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| Fred Clark as Lt. Collins |
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| Shelly Winters as Brenda Martingale |
With Betty Garde as Nurse Frances Pruett, Berry Kroeger (Gun Crazy) as W. A. Niles, Tommy Cook as Tony Rome, Debra Paget as Teena Ricante, Hope Emerson as Rose Givens, Roland Winters as Ledbetter, Walter Baldwin as Orvy, June Storey as Miss Boone, Tito Vuolo as Papa Rome, and Mimi Aguglia as Mama Rome.
Story
We cut to a hospital bedside. A 29 year old adult. Martin Rome, is lying on white sheets, eyes closed. A figure stands next to him
We pull back and see that a priest is giving the Last Rites to Martin Rome. Rome's whole family is crowded around his mother, father, siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins, its a cliché Italian American tableaux right outa central casting.
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| Mimi Aguglia as Mama Rome and Tito Vuolo as Papa Rome |
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| Tommy Cook as Tony Rome and an uncredited actor as his sister |
After these visual intros, we cut to Lt.'s Candella, and Collins entering into a white anteroom. Candella in deference to the family has his hat in hand, Collins is more unrestrained and he's already in the ward with the ongoing ceremony.
A nurse intercepts them and reads them the patients details we find out Martin's name, age, and address, blood type, knife wound in shoulder, she adds in "no further record." Collins explodes.
Collins[loudly]:No record!
He gets schussed by a family member who comes up behind him. Collins comes back into the anteroom.
Collins:For five years he's pulled every trick in the book. Tonight he holds up a restaurant and kills a cop. No Record.
Nurse:I mean no further medical record.
Candella and Collins attend the end of the ceremony.
We immediately cut now to a figure of a shadowy woman at the other end of the empty hospital ward. She enters the ward. Its Teena Martin's girlfriend, and she approaches Martin. Here Newman gives us a riff on Santa Lucia as a "love" leitmotif. If it was Irish wiseguys we'd probably hear Danny Boy.
This is a good example of how you hit a Classic Noir run time. Cut out all useless exposition for everybody. i.e. backstories, side stories, etc. It's all done using cinematically using stereotypes and visual clues.and it's all accomplished within the first five minutes. The actors hit their marks and say their lines.
Back to Martin and Teena, lol, you wonder or not if its actually Tina in the novel.
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| Debra Paget as Teena Ricante |
Anyway they talk. They're an "item." She asks Martin why did he have to shoot, why did he have to kill. They kiss and then are interrupted by the nurse, who discreetly leaves.
We cut to Collins sitting on a bench, Candella coming up the stairs and the Nurse joining them. She asks if she bills the police department for the operation and then mentions that he's going to be operated in a few moments adding something along the lines of as soon as Martin's wife is done comforting him.
He has no wife. Candella and Collins followed by the nurse rush into the ward. Save for Martin in his bed the ward is empty.
Cut to the nurses station. W. A. Niles is asking desperately to see Martin Rome before his operation. He wants to exonerate one of his clients by having Martin confess to the crime.
Candella and Collins come up behind Niles. Niles and the Lt.'s exchange hellos. Then Niles explains that he needs to talk to Rome so that Rome can exonerate his client in the de Grazia killing.
They let him ask Martin who tells Niles to go fry, he then passes out unconscious from whatever the nurse gave him in prep for the operation.
The operations to remove the bullets are successful, and once Martin is back out of danger he gets visited by Candella and Collins once again.
Here again is and example of how they made classic Noir. No shots of operation, or its conclusion. No scenes of anxious family or even the cops enquiring about Martin, just boom on to his recovery with Candella seeing a headline in the paper and then cutting to Candella and Collins grilling Marin at the hospital.
They question him about a ring they took off him.
He tells them he won it in a crap game. It turns out to be one of the jewelry items from the de Grazi heist. Martin again repeats his innocents claiming he's already going to the chair so why would he lie about it.
Candella asks again about the girl that visited him and Martin does a double take answering,
"what you mean that wasn't an angel."
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| "What you mean that wasn't an angel." |
"what you mean that wasn't an angel."
Martin is moved to a prison hospital. There he makes friends with Orvy a trusty who shows him how to unlock the hospital cell door with just a spoon. .
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| Walter Baldwin as Orvy |
It all starts to go Noirsville after Candella reads Martin a list of all Martin's girlfriends and he reads Teena Riconti's name last. It all Martin can to do control himself. Once Candella splits Martin starts calling for Orvy.
Orvy tells Martin that he has to fix things up first and gets him a visitors card for the exit guards and then brings him the spoon to open the lock. Martin puts on his trench coat and hat and makes his way out of the prison ward and out into the streets of NYC.
ASK EDDIE returns this Thursday!ASK EDDIE streams this Thursday, July 9, 7:00 pm PT on the Film Noir...
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| 3rd Ave el? |
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| Noel Toy - Forbidden City Stripper |
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| New York Noir - Mob Hit - Umberto "Albert" Anastasia - October 25, 1957 - Ventilated in the barber shop of the Park Sheraton Hotel - 56th Street and 7th Ave. - Midtown Manhattan. |
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| Humbert's Museum 42nd Street |
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| New York Noir - Vincent "Mad Dog" Coll - Put down at a drug store at 8th Ave and 23rd Street Manhattan - On the morgue slab. |
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| Third St. Tunnel - City of Angels - |
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| How Noir of Her - Peter Gowland |
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| O. Winston Link? |
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| A would be starlet? How Noir of her... |
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| Barbara Nichols - How Noir of her.... |
Noir Italian Style - First flashback in Italian Neo NoirPasqualino Settebellezze (Seven Beauties) 1975 with Giancarlo Giannini, Piero Di Iorio, and Elena Fiore - Enjoy!!!
Directed by Claude Autant-Lara
Written by Jean Aurenche and Pierre Bost and it was based very loosely, on the short story "La traversée de Paris" by Marcel Aymé.
The Cinematography was by Jacques Natteau, The Music by René Cloërec. Sets by Franstudio, Saint-Maurice, Val-de-Marne, France
The film stars Jean Gabin (an Original French Noir vet) as Grandgil, the painter, Bourvil (a standup comedian, radio personality, and actor - La grosse caisse, The Longest Day, Le Cercle rouge) as Marcel Martin, an unemployed taxi driver.
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| Jean Gabin as Grandgil |
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| Bourvil as Marcel Martin |
Louis de Funès as Jambier, the grocer, and Jeannette Batti as Mariette Martin, wife of Marcel. Jacques Marin as the owner of the restaurant, Saint Martin.
Story
The credits run over establishing shots using World War II newsreel and archival footage of a German military parade down the Champs-Élysées in Paris and various shots of life under the occupation.
This segues to a Metro entrance where a blind violinist sits at the top of the stair. He's playing La Marseillaise the French national anthem.
Out of the subway we see Marcel Martin and his wife Mariette and they split apart to let the officer past them. Mariette remarks that the violinist is brave and chastises Marcel, that he wouldn't do it.
They head to a wine and groceries store. There's a line of folks waiting to get in. However the wife of the proprietor comes out and announces that she has nothing left to sell.
Under German occupation in WWII, Parisians survived on a strict system of vouchers. Bread, various meats, cheeses, fats (butter, oil, lard), sugar, milk, eggs, chocolate, and flour were rationed. So Parisians faced severe malnutrition, because a lot of the agricultural output was requisitioned to feed the occupying German army. These rations provided barely the basics and many turned to foraging and also to the thriving black market to survive. This is a story of Paris and the black market.
Mariette and Martin walk past the line and stop at a side door to an alleyway. Here, Mariette informs Marcel that she'll meet him later at the restaurant.
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| Jeannette Batti as Mariette Martin |
Marcel enters the shadowy alley and knocks upon the side door to the store.
In the basement, Marcel takes out his accordion, and the store proprietor Jambier and his father remove a hog from a wicker basket. While Marcel plays fast and loudly the others grab the squealing hog wrestle it to a board tie it down and cut its throat.
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| Jacques Marin owner of the restaurant, Saint Martin. |
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| Lampe Pigeons above center |
This, is also the first instance, where we get discussions and encounters that illustrate the various ways folks coped during the occupation.
"La Traversée de Paris broke new ground with its use of dark humour, its depiction of cynical black-market trade, its portrayal of collaborators as ordinary people and by refraining from portraying any part as innocent victims. Later critics have noted that this picture of the era is far more nuanced than the conventional ones." (French Cinema: From Its Beginnings to the Present - Fournier Lanzoni, Rémi (2002))
These encounters are repeatedly sprinkled throughout the film with various positions expressed on various subjects.
Mariette, is just announcing aloud to all in the restaurant that the secret police are the worst, "They're cops, cops."
About this time when Mariette says "They're cops cops," the outside door opens and a stranger walks in through the opening attracting the attention of all. He's stocky and wearing a pre-war style English sport coat with suede elbow patches over a dark shirt and and an ascot.
Not your typical clientele. His mane is Grandgil. Two of the patrons at the bar beside Mariette and Marcel get up and immediately leave.
Grandgil: Good evening all. [looks around and sees the Lampe Pigeons] No lights?
Bartender:Its not 7 o'clock yet.
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| No Alcohol |
Grandgil: I'll have a calvados* in the dark. (*apple and pear brandy)
Bartender:No alcohol
Grandgil:No lights, no alcohol, can I at least wash my hands, no?
Bartender:Down there [nods towards the lavatory].
Grandgil walks towards the loo, and once he passes Marcel he looks at the Bartender who shrugs. Is he a cop? Then Grandgil calls out.
Grandgil:Hey patron, you don't have any soap?
Bartender[to Gandgil]:I don't sell any soap.{to Marcel and Mariette] That's not going to work twice.
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| That's not going to work twice |
About that time two uniform cops come in and order two soups. Mariette overhears that they are looking for someone who stole coal from a barge. Mariette heads to the kitchen dropping off a pakage of pork kidneys asking the cook the grill them. Then she goes to find Grandgil and gives him the bar of soap to wash his hands telling him the police are looking for a guy with coal dust on his hands.
About that time two uniform cops come in and order two soups. Mariette overhears that they are looking for someone who stole coal from a barge. Mariette heads to the kitchen dropping off a pakage of pork kidneys asking the cook the grill them.
Then she goes to find Grandgil and gives him the bar of soap to wash his hands telling him the police are looking for a guy with coal dust on his hands.
She wipes some soot off his face with her handkerchief. About this time Marcel comes looking for Mariette and sees her with Grandgil. Acting a bit jealous, he escorts Mariette back to the bar mentioning that he wants to catch a movie tonight because without Letambot he can't carry 100 kilos across Paris by himself.
Mariette tells him has other plans, which increases Marcels insecurity. Marcel continues to press Mariette about her plans.
Grandgil comes back to the bar. Walks around Marcel and Mariette and leans on the bar next to a policeman. He makes small talk with them as they finish their soups and walk back out side.
The bar owner places a coffee in front of Grandgil. Marcel walks over and asks Grandgil for the bar of soap back, he explains to Grandgil that everything that's hers is mine. Grandgil hands over the soap and thanks Mariette. She puts it in her purse, circles around Marcel and is heading for the door. Marcel runs after her.
Marcel catches her right as she is opening the door.
Marcel:That enough Mariette.
He tells her that another man would have smacked her already. He threatens that if she goes through that door, she won't see him again.
Mariette:That sounds to good to be true.
Marcel squeezes her arm and she squeals. and he argues that he takes her to the movies when he can, and she eats every day and when it comes to feelings you couldn't find a better man. That sets mariette off.
Mariette:What are you thinking, that I can't find a passionate man? I have plenty to choose from.
Marcel:And choose them in the bathroom? Do you think I didn't see you two? [slaps her]
Mariette cries out and stomps out of the restaurant.
Our view cuts back and everyone has been watching the dustup. Marcel turns around everyone is looking at him. He struts back into the restaurant like John Wayne, makes a formal washing of his hands declaring, "That settles that!"
He then pauses for a sec yells Mariette and then runs back out into the darkness of the street. He yells her name again she's out of sight.
Marcel:wait a minute, I want to talk with you.
Grandgil; I'm listening.
Marcel:Its rather confidential, would you like a drink?
Grandgil; Yes
They sit at a table, Marcel asks if he'd like a white wine. He orders two. Then sits and asks Grandgil, if he's doing anything tonight? He asks Grandgil if he's strong. Grandgil shrugs. He tells him he has a job that pays 300 francs. Grandgil looks impressed. Marcel cautions him that there's some risk involved.
Marcel asks him if he wants dinner and they dine on the grilled kidneys and drink red wine with their diner. Marcel informs Grandgil that he invited him to dinner, because he thought he was meeting Mariette.
Grandgil tells him Mariette is not his type, don't worry. Lastly, Marcel explains that he could be arrested and he doesn't know if he'll rat on him. Marcel then states that you don't even know my name, to which Grandgil replies "Martin."
Here we cut to Marcel and Grandgil walking the blackout streets of Paris. Grandgil asks where are we going, Marcel tells him he doesn't need to know.
They come to the alley entrance that leads to the side door of the wine and grocery shop. Marcel gets Grandgil in by explaining the grocer that they have worked together before.
The grocer takes them back down to the basement and begins to wrap the various cuts in muslin, while Marcel stuffs the pieces into the suitcases. When Marcel finds out that they have to carry the pig from Rue Poliveau to Rue Lepic about 6-7 kilometers, with cops and Germans everywhere, he demands more money.
Grocer Jambier:I'll give you a break, 450 francs, 900 for the two of you.
Grandgil [to grocer]: Tell me, this is number 45, isn't it?
Grocer Jambier: Why do you ask?
Grandgil : For no reason, I already know, Mr. Jambier, 45 Rue Poliveau. 5th Arrondissement of Paris.
Marcel [to Grandgil: Quiet! [to grocer] We are talking seriously. [to grocer]
Grandgil [louder]: For Mr. Jambier 45 Rue Poliveau, me I'll take 1000 francs.
Marcel : Ignore him give me 900 francs and I'll arrange it with him.
Grandgil once again repeats Jambier, 45 Rue Poliveau and announces the price is now 2000 francs. Grandgil cuts open a sack of beans that spill out o the floor. Then Grandgil goes over to a Christmas ham and starts slicing on it. The grocer gives in giving Grandgil the 2000.
As Marcel and Grandgil begin to climb out of the cellar, Grandgil yells out drops the suitcases he's carrying and tells Jambier that they are heavier than he thought and he wants 2000 more francs. Jambier refuses and Grandgil starts yelling Jambier, louder and louder until Mrs Jamier pokes her head down into the cellar and tells them to be quite they can hear you everywhere.
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| Louis de Funès as Jambier |
Jambier peels more bills off his wad and gives them to Grandgil.
They take off into Noirsville Paris.
Noirsville
Claude Autant-Lara crafted an interesting Noir that explored the dark side of the occupation that was a more realistic telling of how the populace coped with rationing and blackouts rather than those that came before.
The original short story had quite a different ending, a real Noir denouement. So, from watching the film you wonder if Autant-Lara was originally playing it straight, and going for that.
Without reading the short story, you get the idea that maybe the Mariette / Grandgil subplot, and the scene where Grandgil, is overheard by Mariette suspiciously speaking German on the phone to someone, and then relaying that info to Marcel was originally going to be a leadup to the short story's deadly confrontation at Grandgil's apartment. (BTW that phone call was to a German friend of Grandgil who he was curiously asking who the author of the German poem he recited earlier was).
Gabin and Bourvil are great together, and there are a lot of the studio sets used that give us a surreal, expressionist, representation of Paris for most of the film. The archival establishing shots of the occupation and the closing shots of the liberation along with the epilog at Gare de Lyon, Paris were obviously filmed on location. 7.5-8/10
From IMDb -
8/10
Marché noir.
I can think of no other director at the time with the exception perhaps of Julien Duvivier, who would have dared to make this film other than the 'bourgeois anarchiste' Claude Autant-Lara.
The subject of black market profiteering during the Occupation together with the suggestion that French resistance was anything but unified was strictly taboo but its hard-hitting honesty struck a chord with Gallic audiences and the film was a huge success. Even the arrogant young critic of Cahiers du Cinéma, Francois Truffaut, one of this director's staunchest detractors, was surprisingly full of praise, citing the film's 'insistent ferocity.'
The black market is matched by the black humour of the screenplay by Pierre Bost and Jean Aurenche, adapted from Marcel Aymé's story. Even Autant-Lara could only go so far however and the original story's grim ending has been changed to one that is far happier.
The popularity of the film must surely lie in Autant-Lara's casting of the two protagonists Jean Gabin and Bourvil. This was their only film together and the pairing is inspired. Bourvil's innate naiveté contrasts with Gabin's world-weary cynicism and their artistry is superlative.
The film is also of great interest technically as the pair's eight kilometre curfew-defying odyssey across Paris carrying four cases stuffed full of black market pork, is filmed almost entirely in the studio but this works courtesy of Max Douy's sets and Jacques Nattier's 'noirish' lighting. Indeed the lighting of the scene where Martin and Grangil are arrested reminds one very much of German Expressionism.
There are no heroes here, just fallible human beings with all their vices and virtues, trying to survive as best they can. Everyone has to eat after all and as George Bernard Shaw observed: "There is no love more sincere than the love of food'.
brogmiller
Mar 1, 2022
Nicolas M
A small film exercise i did in school with a couple of friends. I'm uploading it because I'm very attached to this crappy short i did. First time I've used a jib/crane.
The audio recordings were so bad we had to dub the whole thing.
The New Frisco Club - I Want To Live (1958)
The print edition of NOIR CITY Magazine No. 46 is now available to purchase from Amazon:...
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| Double D - Dallas - Unknown |
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| Unknown Model - How Noir of her |
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| Fred W. McDarrah |
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| Unknown Model - How Noir of her |
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| Unknown Model - How Noir of her |
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| Unknown Model - How Noir of her |
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| Unknown Model - How Noir of her |
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| Audrey's Hot Dog Stand - Los Angeles - 1961 - William Claxton |
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| Unknown Model - How Noir of her |
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| Unknown Model - How Noir of her |
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| 1964 London - "topless" dress - Rudi Gernreich. |
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| Summer with Monika (Sommaren med Monika) - Ingmar Bergman |
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| Unknown Model - How Noir of her |
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| Unknown Model - How Noir of her |
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MILES DAVIS - JEANNE MOREAU in Elevator to the Gallows
House by the River is a 1950 American crime film noir directed by Fritz Lang and starring Louis Hayward, Lee Bowman and Jane Wyatt. A drifter-like outsider gets pulled into a tense situation connected to money, influence, and a troubled web of personal motives around a riverside community. As relationships sharpen into alliances and suspicions, investigators and opportunists begin circling, and what seems like ordinary leverage turns into something darker. The story plays out as a tightening chain of misunderstandings and pressure, where every attempt to control the narrative raises the stakes—until the characters are forced to choose between protecting their image and confronting what they’ve helped set in motion. More top picks at: https://filmnoirnow.live
And the winner is…Here are the winners of the FNF’s NOIR CITY Magazine #46 donation...
Who woulda thunk it? Here we got basically a precursor to The Taking Of Pelham One Two Three(1974) in La Gross caisse aka The Big Swag.
Morton Freedgood under the pen name John Godey published Taking of Pelham... in 1973, it was a best seller. Now I can only speculate from things I've garnered by using the google machine.
Check this out "Le Poinçonneur des Lilas"is a French song written, composed and performed by Serge Gainsbourg, he recorded it in June 1958, This was also Gainsbourg's first big hit. Our main character in the film Louis Bourdin a poinçonneur (a ticket puncher) whistle's it. La grosse caisse could obviously be partly inspired by the song.
The song is about a bored ticket puncher to whom the passengers pay no regard "There's no sunshine in this Metro station, A strange vacation, To kill the boredom in my vest, I've extracts from Readers Digest."
La Gross caisse is about Louis a bored "loveable schmoe" poinconneur at the Quai de la Rapée station who is a connoisseur of pulp fiction detective novels, and magazines which he reads between trains. He's also an aspiring pulp fiction writer himself.
"...I'm working like a slave Down in this cave."
"I've had enough I've had it with this bullshit Down in this cesspit"
"The day will come I'm sure When I will get away to something more I'll take a car a plane a train a yacht"
Louis writes what he knows about and that's the Metro. He writes his novel with a homophonic pun in its title "Rapt à la RATP" (rapt means abduction and R.A.P.T stands for Régie Autonome des Transports Parisiens or equivalently in English Paris Autonomous Transport Authority).
Louis writes about a disgruntled R.A.P.T. poinconneur who plans the hijacking of the "money train," which consisted of two Sprague-Thomson tractor motor cars either a T 35 or a T 37. a RATP robbery. Louis has meticulously logged the details of the nightly passage of the money train timetable, and the number of guards and just how it could be flawlessly hijacked by making it stop at the abandoned Arsenal station and taking it over. Then with the hijack crew in place, diverting the money train after its last collection stop at Quai de la Rapée station.
Once it leaves Quai de la Rapée it comes to a switch to a spur line which went to a platform for what was called The Finance line which was another separate single narrow-gauge track. The "finances" were unloaded at the platform to this narrow gauge train on "finance track." It's entrance was protected by an armored door. Beyond the door the narrow gauge train ran to the safes located in the cellars of the R.A.P.T. administration building on Quai de la Rapée.
Directed by Alex Joffé (Riff Raff Girls, Fortunat)
Story by Renée Asseo (Joffé's wife) , Luc Charpentier, Geno Gil, and Alex Joffé. Screenplay by Alex Joffé with additional dialogue by Pierre Lévy-Corti.
Cinematography by Louis Page (Inspector Maigret), Music by (Jean Marion).
The film stars Bourvil (La Traversée de Paris, The Longest Day, Le Cercle rouge) as Louis Bourdin alias Louis Le Normand.
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| Bourvil as Louis Bourdin |
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| Paul Meurisse as Paul Filippi |
Bourvil was a French actor, standup comedian, radio personality, and singer best known for his roles in comedy films playing "gentle and well-meaning characters who were often a bit obtuse or naïve," (wiki) sort of like a French C.C. Baxter played by Jack Lemmon in The Apartment.
Paul Meurisse (Les Diaboliques, Le Deuxième Souffle, Army of Shadows) as artistic mob mastermind Paul Filippi, Françoise Deldick as Angélique former "Miss Subways," Daniel Ceccaldi (Stolen Kisses, That Man From Rio) as station master Felix Pignol, Henri Piégay as Luc, and .
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| Daniel Ceccaldi as Felix Pignol and Françoise Deldick as Angélique |
Story
The film Starts with the credits running over a Paris Metro system map where station marker lights are sequentially lighting up along one of the lines.
Bastille Station lights up and, this cuts to the Bastille station agent walking on a platform towards a train. He's carrying a white canvas bag, Which he hands off to the train.
Here we get a V.O. telling us that
V.O.: For 10 years head ticket puncher Felix Pignol at station la Rapée saw the money train arrive at 0:49 AM. It was (Sprague-Thomson) motorized carriage 517 with the daily takings of the 300 stations on the way to the treasury of the RAPT with on board 600 million worth of change. The carriage was jokingly called "the Big Swag...."
The motorized carriage pulls up to the switch at Dubon, then heads into the spur to the platform of the narrow gauge line to RAPT headquarters.
V.O.: And it had been transformed into a mobile vault. Three money collectors divided the bills and coin into various steel draws. An easy job. La Rapée was the last station before the treasury of the RAPT that was located in a basement 900 meters further along.
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| La Rapée |
Its the last train of the night and end of shift. the train departs. We watch as poinçonneurs Angélique "Miss Subways" and Louis get ready to split. Angélique goes out of her booth and jumps on a coin operated weight machine.
In the weigh machine mirror she checks her makeup. Louis hops around on the opposite platform like he's not dressed for the cold.
Louis: Angélique, a drink? My treat.
Angélique:I can't tonight.
Louis:Then you won't know how it ended. The ending will be extremely tense. Hadley Chase* will get a big fight.
(*René Lodge Brabazon Raymond, known by his pen name James Hadley Chase, was an English author of crime fiction. He is one of the best known thriller writers of all time.)
Angélique:Tell me tomorrow Mr. Bourdin.
Louis:Bye beautiful.
Louis looks at his watch and heads down stairs. There he tries to get Felix Pignol to have a drink, he also wants to read him some of his latest novel. Felix keeps making excuses as he locks up the station for the night.
We thencut to a large bookshelf with a huge pulp paperback library, next to an aquarium with goldfish. Sitting at a desk Louis is putting the finishing touches to his novel.
Louis says aloud "A good... catch!" He then prints FIN the END. It was six months of work and 325 pages. On the cover under his title he writes Roman Policer, and then starts to write Louis Bourdin, but crosses it out and comes up with a nom de plume le Normand.
Here we get a series of humorous interludes about Louis' finished manuscript. Conversations between Angélique and Louis, Louis and Felix and then Louis and a receptionist at The Series Somber MRS publishing house. Louis is feeling full of himself and its visually spoofed with him levitating in his booth.
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| levitating |
All the RAPT employees begin to kid him about being an author. We next get a sequence at Louis' apartment. He gets a knock on his door its a classified mail delivery. Its his novel with a rejection letter telling him its not realistic. Its repeated with various juxtapositions with more rejections and more kidding by his fellow workers.
On the last rejection, he corrals the postman by refusing to hand him his signed receipt, and recites to him his story. When he reaches the end. Louis asks him if its unrealistic.
Mailman: They'll be very happy with this holdup.
Louis:Publishers?
Mailman: No, crooks.
We can almost see a lightbulb click on in Louis' head and it starts going Noirsville.
We cut to shots of La Santé Prison. Then to the outside of prison gate, by a cafe. Louis is sitting on his bicycle watching the release of prisoners. He's trying to figure out who to approach. The first releasees seem harmless but the last is a giant. He follows the giant into the cafe.
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| La Santé Prison |
Here we get another humorous sequence where the giant sits in the back of the cafe and orders everything on the menu except the beans. Louis sits down near him and is just appalled at watching him eat. Basically a excon whose had nothing but prison food for four years.
Eventually up at the bar he slips the envelope with the plan in the giants jacket pocket, but once he is successful with that task, he overhears a toast to Paul Filippi a true criminal mastermind who is being released tomorrow.
Louis then tries to pick the giant's pocket to retrieve the plan but the giant catches him with his hand in his pocket and kicks him out of the cafe.
The next day Louis is in the France Soir newspaper morgue flipping through back issues until he finds the story of Filippi being not prosecuted and scheduled for release.
Once Paul notices Louis' tail he asks his driver to see if he can ditch him. The Caddy eventually pulls up to Bowling de Paris fancy schmancy bowling alley. But they did not shake Louis who buzzes by.
In the bowling alley Paul meets with confederates. One tells him about a job to rob the Bank of Africa. Paul tells him another bank, its too boring and walks off.
Paul heads down to one of the alleys and is about to bowl when one of his men announces that there's that man again. We see Louis walking around the alley trying to look nonchalant.
Paul stops. Takes off his jacket, and gives some orders momentarily laying his jacket over the back of a chair. Louis sees this and while Paul is bowling and schmoozing with the people he knows, Louis slips another outline of the plan into Paul Filippi's jacket pocket.
Louis splits but is confronted by Philippi's men and thrown out. While this is going on Paul finds the envelope and opens it and starts reading.
Outside the bowling alley when Louis comes to the street, another of Paul Filippi's men tail him in a 1965 Fiat 600 D all the way to La Rapée station.
Paul Filippi: Sit down, dear Le Normand. Your detective story is very good. Authors often don't know what they are writing about, but you do. [to one of his men] Get us a drink.
[Back to Louis] If there was an underworld award, you'd get it. But you'll also get one from the Quai des Orfèvres. I drink to the success of your novel, we'll make it a best seller. [Paul and Louis drink their wine]. That mobile vault was very amusing. 600 million in notes, very fascinating. What gave you the idea to write this novel?
Louis:I thought of it myself. I kept seeing the money train. It stops at La Rapée each night. If you'd take the subway more often you'd get around more.
Paul Filippi: My dear Le Normand you should see the propositions people make me every day. Incredible. Boring banal stuff. But your story's original completely different, even poetic.
Louis:So you'd publish my book if you were a publisher?
Paul Filippi: You bet. Thank god those idiots didn't publish it. Besides except for the publishers nobody read it, right? Are you sure?
Louis:Very sure.
Paul Filippi: Your description of disloyal employee Pignol is very realistic. Your style reminds me of the best Anglo-Saxon specialists of the genre. Hemingway, did he influence you?
Louis:Nobody helped me, its all mine. I write alone.
Paul Filippi: One more question, why did you pick me, I'm not the only one, am I?
Louis:You're well known. I've read everything about you in France-Soir. You have guts
Paul Filippi: Thankyou. I'm the only one in Europe who can do what you wrote with style. You understand we checked come things.
Louis:No problem. I made nothing up. I calculated it all. [Pulls papers with figures out from under a blotter and hands it to Paul. who flips through it]
Paul Filippi: Admirable, you're the Douanier Rosseau of the detective novel, and I'll be you're Apollinaire, I'll make you famous. [talking to his men] You could learn something from this. Lets see. Do you know how much a hundred franc note weighs?
[looks at his men who have blank looks on their faces] 8 milligrams. You thought of everything the weight of the bags, the speed, an overlay of the switches. So meticulous. Such professional insight. Only one important matter remains. What percentage do you want?
Louis:I don't want anything.
Paul Filippi: In the theater world its 12%.. Is that acceptable.
Louis:Its government money. I won't touch it.
Paul Filippi: Artists don't like to talk about money. Let me be you're impresario, you won't regret it.
Louis tells Paul that he has to get up a 5AM. Paul excuses himself, and takes Louis' notes to prepare. In parting Paul tells Louis that "We don't know each other. We've never met. You'll only hear from us in the papers. Good night."
Louis:What do you want with Pignol. What are you thinking?
Paul Filippi [flipping open the novel]: Page 58. I quote, "When the money collectors saw Pignol, the opened the doors without worrying, the gangsters quickly went inside with their machine guns. If Pignol doesn't cooperate we can't do it.
Louis:Pignol's a colleague. I used his name he doesn't know anything about it.
It really goes Noirsville when Paul tells Louis that the money collectors know you, as well as Pignol.
The next day Paul shows up at La Rapée station and tells Louis that the station masters key is the same at all 300 stations, and he expects him to be at the rehearsal at Arsenal station tonight with the key.
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