Author: Karen Hannsberry
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Dark Cinema: The Best Bits of Blondell
If you are of an age to remember an old Blue Bonnet margarine commercial from the 1960s, you'll know 'everything's better with Blue Bonnet on it.'Well, I apply that same line of thinking to one of my favorite pre-Code actresses: 'Every film's better with Joan Blondell in it.'Blondell appeared in more than 30 features from the pre-Code era including such classics as The Public Enemy (1932), but even in films that weren't classic, Blondell was a shining...
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Dark Cinema: Good Girls in Bad Company
The ladies of film noir, typically, are no ladies. More often than not, they're duplicitous dames, mercenary molls, and corrupt cuties, not a lady in the bunch.Still, for every rule, there's an exception, and there are numerous noirs featuring femmes who most decidedly do not fall into the 'bad girl' category -- I like to think of them as good girls in bad company. My favorite gals of this group just happen to also appear in three of my favorite noirs: Leave Her to Heaven...
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Dark Cinema: The Noirs of Kirk Douglas
What movies come to mind when you think of Kirk Douglas?Spartacus? Gunfight at the O.K. Corral? The Bad and the Beautiful?For me, without question, it's Douglas's body of film noir work. From 1946 to 1951, Douglas appeared in six film noir features, serving up striking and memorable performances in each. Whether he was playing a ruthless mobster, an inflexible lawman, or a spineless spouse, Douglas used his considerable talents to make an unf...
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Dark Cinema: Fatal Noir Femmes
There's a lot to love about film noir. The oh-so-quotable dialogue. The shadowy, rain-swept, urban locales. The edge-of-your-seat plot twists.But one of the best things about noir is the femme fatales. Beautiful, mercenary, conniving, intelligent, sexy, and always out for number one, the femmes of film noir were -- as my mother would say -- a whole 'nother thing. Film noir is practically brimming with these fierce femmes; like any noir lover, I have my favorites, and I have my rea...
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Dark Cinema: Character Spotlight - Mae Clarke in Waterloo Bridge
I would venture to say all movie fans have their favorite screen performances. Mae Clarke's portrayal of Myra Deauville in 1931's Waterloo Bridge is one of mine. In this first-rate feature directed by James Whale, Clarke infuses Myra with equal parts moxie, pathos, and charm, creating a character who is, for my money, one of cinema's most memorable.Set in England during World War I, this pre-Code film tells the story of Myra -- a chorus girl who turns to prostitution when...
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Dark Cinema: Noirs You Should Know
Double Indemnity. Laura.Out of the Past. The Postman Always Rings Twice. Gilda.Features such as these can almost always be found on 'best of' lists for film noir, and I'd venture to say most film lovers (even those who aren't noir devotees) have seen each of them at least once.But what of the great noirs that are unheralded and, all too often, unseen? There are countless first-rate pictures from this dark and shadowy era tha...
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Dark Cinema - Una Merkel: Saucy Sidekick
In her 1930s features, Una Merkel portrayed a variety of standout roles, including the shrill and frequently sobbing Sibyl in Private Lives (1931), the wronged girlfriend of David Manners in Man Wanted (1931), Jean Harlow's scheming secretary in Bombshell (1932), and a wisecracking chorus girl in 42nd Street (1933).She also portrayed some of the best pals a pre-Code gal could ask for -- characters who were not only loyal, dependable, and wise, b...
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