Author: Kendahl Cruver

  • Inspired by Film Noir at TCM Classic Film Festival

    Though there were only three films noir programmed at the 2015 TCM Classic Film Festival: Too Late For Tears (1949), Reign of Terror (1949) and Nightmare Alley (1947), they were among the most popular choices of festivalgoers. The first two played to full capacity houses, with many in line turned away. These played a second time, once again to packed houses, as TBA (To Be Announced) selections on the final day of the festival. Hopefully TCM will note this audience p...

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  • Dark Cinema: Pre-Codes at the TCM Classic Film Festival

    While I was only able to attend half of the six pre-code films scheduled during the TCM Classic Film Festival 2015, I was delighted so many were on the program. The selections were diverse, and included a musical, horror, drama and comedy selections. In a year where there was some controversy over the inclusion of newer films such as Out of Sight (1998) and Apollo 13 (1995), TCM showed its loyalty to good old-fashioned black and white with this line-up.I have my ...

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  • Dark Cinema: Gable and Crawford - The Great Pre-Code Love Affair

    'Our relationship was private, between us. It was a glorious affair, and it went on longer than anybody knows. It was sublime...' -Joan CrawfordHepburn and Tracy. Bogart and Bacall. Crawford and Gable? You don't hear those last two names paired as much as those before them. Their partnership isn't nearly as legendary, most likely because none of the eight films they made together were true classics. But there was no hotter pair in pre-Code films, and this was partly becau...

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  • Dark Cinema - Belita: Noir Ice Queen

    Beautiful, haughty, serene--the actress, ballet dancer and ice skater Belita often seemed to be living in her own melancholy world. She was like a disappointed debutante, carving out a lonely existence among people more ordinary than she. The multi-talented star made her name as a child ballerina and competitive ice skater, but she is also remembered today for the eleven films she made in bit, supporting and feature roles.Among the best of these films is a trio of noirs she made f...

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  • Dark Cinema: Breaking the Typecasting Mold

    During the studio age, stars were all about persona. They'd find their type, whatever thrilled audiences, and for the most part they'd stick to it throughout their careers. Call it typecasting, or playing to strengths, but very few performers were able to completely break away from the images that brought them fame.One big exception is Dick Powell. He started his screen career as a boyish crooner, and he was wildly popular as the lead in a series of kaleidoscopic Busby Berkeley mu...

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  • Dark Cinema: Ladies in Exotic Exile

    Sex, crime, drugs, alcohol, and a young woman who is vulnerable to it all, put them in an isolated location, add a little heat, and morals melt away. At least that seemed to be the way studios reasoned in the pre-Code era. Never before or since have so many glamorous ladies found themselves in such exotic screen peril than in the steamy, lurid dramas made during this period. These movies tend to be bleak, but they are also packed with fascinating characters and provide a great showcase for th...

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  • Dark Cinema: Holiday Noir

    The season of good cheer can be as dark as it is merry. It is a time of crowded stores, a hectic pace and maybe even a bit of loneliness. Sometimes a heartwarming holiday flick just doesn't fit the mood. The antidote? A healthy helping of noir. Check out these films that view the holiday season from the dark side: They Live...

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  • Five of a Kind: The Odd Life of the Dionne Quintuplets

    If the Dionne quintuplets had been born today, they would have been reality television stars or a YouTube sensation. However, there's nothing in modern life that can compare to the sensation the girls created when they became the first recorded quintuplets to live beyond infancy. Yvonne, Annette, Cecile, Emilie and Marie Dionne were born to poor farmer, Oliva-Edouard, and his wife Elzire in the village of Corbeil, Ontario, Canada in 1934. Arriving two months early, it was assumed ...

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  • Dark Cinema: Color Noir

    When we think of film noir, dark, foggy streets and shadowy black and white cinematography often come to mind. That look is as closely tied to the genre as its fatalistic themes. Noir is about more than gloomy grey alleyways though. Sometimes it pops with juicy, lurid color. It seems so wrong to film the darkest moments of the human soul in rainbow hues, until you realize the bleakest tale is often of the evil that unfolds in broad daylight. What could be more jarring, and effecti...

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  • Pre-Code Obsession: Journalistic Pre-Codes

    Next to gold diggers and mustachioed cads, journalism was one of the most popular on-screen professions during the pre-Code era. Fast-talking reporters livened up early sound films, freeing them from the stiff feeling plaguing many pioneering talkies. In movies like Broadway transfer The Front Page (1931), a crackling newsroom comedy, Hollywood seemed to finally understand how to make sound pop. Newspapers were a bigger, more competitive business in those pre-Internet and...

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