Celebrating #PrideMonth, an album a day.‬ 17. Philip Chaffin weaves 17 “Great American Songbook” classics into a gay man's love story. "From 'When I Marry Mr. Snow' to 'I Got Lost in His Arms,' a familiar story has never sounded so new." – NY Times. A favorite track: music.apple.com/us/album/its...

NEXT WED at #TheNoirCollective: A cop, a mobster – and the woman who stands between them. Joseph Lewis directs. John Alton dazzles. @tommykrasker.bsky.social & @ctmillion.bsky.social are cohosting THE BIG COMBO (1955) at 8 PM ET/5 PM PT, plus an encore showing with #FrightClub at 10 PM ET/7 PM PT.

One of Dieterle‘s masterpieces. It’s not even 7 AM here, so a little early for me to watch, but I have my DVR set. If anyone else is recording – or has access to tcm.com – and wants to do a watch party this weekend, I am happy to host. 😊😊 #TCMParty

Next Wed, June 17, at 8 PM ET/5 PM PT, Ginger Rogers, Steve Cochran and Doris Day star in a noir filled with uncomfortable truths. @willmckinley.bsky.social is hosting STORM WARNING (1950), a candid look at small-town America in the post-war years. Link to watch coming Monday. #TheNoirCollective

Celebrating #PrideMonth an album a day, spotlighting LGBTQ+ artists we’ve been privileged to preserve on disc. 1. @philipchaffin.bsky.social’s big-band tribute WHERE DO I GO FROM YOU? Chaffin and husband Tommy Krasker have been together 33 years. A favorite track: music.apple.com/us/album/ser...

I know nothing about MADAME SATAN, but I’m recording it overnight, and I’ll be hitting “play” tomorrow at 12 PM ET/9 AM PT for this special watch party. I kind of love this idea of taking films that air at outrageous hours and watching them with you all later on. See you then! #TCMParty #MadameSatan

I posted on Sunday about the Gold Medal Grandiflora rosebush that Philip picked up at a local nursery. At that time there was just one bloom. Now look at it. Everything’s coming up – well, you know… 😊 #bloomscrolling

This is one of the most deliriously gratifying threads I’ve read. Korngold’s music – and the sound he pioneered – is the music of our lives. Please read (and listen) if you love film music, or admire great artists, or enjoy redemption stories. And thanks again, Dan, for this fabulous look back. 👏

#TheNoirCollective #TheGlassWall

ONE HOUR till #TheNoirCollective watch party of THE GLASS WALL. Here are Vittorio Gassman and Gloria Grahame in a sexy publicity shot, and if you look closely, you can hear them murmuring, “Attend the watch party.” (Hey, I don’t make this stuff up. 🤷‍♂️) Link to watch: archive.org/details/the-...

This Wed at 8 PM ET/5 PM PT, I’m hosting #TheNoirCollective watch party of THE GLASS WALL (1953), starring Vittorio Gassman & Gloria Grahame. Enjoy the trailer. ⬇️ (Note: Shelley Winters – referenced in the trailer – was married to Gassman from 1952-54.) 😊 Link to watch: archive.org/details/the-...

Thanks so much for joining me.😊 Next Wednesday, another noir that’s timelier than ever. Refugee Vittorio Gassman is seeking asylum; the INS wants to send him home to face certain death. Can Gloria Grahame help save him? Join me as we try to break through THE GLASS WALL (1953). #TheNoirCollective

Reed and his wife eschew the local jazz sounds, preferring instead the big-band standard "I Know Why (And So Do You).” A neat way of alerting us that Reed is very much out of touch with his environment; hell, this is a guy who doesn’t even know his son’s adult friends. 🤷‍♂️😵‍💫 #TheNoirCollective

Paul Douglas as Capt. Tom Warren His bombastic, blue-collar persona made him an unlikely movie star, but he conquered Hollywood at age 42 in A Letter to Three Wives, and never looked back. Highlights included Clash by Night, Solid Gold Cadillac & The Mating Game. He died in 1959. #TheNoirCollective

Their stories – and Richard Murphy’s resulting screenplay – were timely. In addition to the pneumonic plague outbreak noted here, there had been bubonic plague in San Francisco only recently, and Albert Camus’s hugely successful The Plague had been published three years earlier. #TheNoirCollective

#PanicInTheStreets was based on a pair of story submissions from spouses Edward & Edna Anhalt: "Quarantine" and "Some Like 'Em Cold.” They won an Oscar for Best Writing, Motion Picture Story. (The working title was Outbreak, but Fox wanted something with more “popular appeal.”) #TheNoirCollective

Speaking of New Orleans, I’ve only been once, in 2005. Philip and I were having lunch at a restaurant, and an excited waiter said he recognized me from Sex and the City. He thought I was Miranda‘s boyfriend, Jerry Eigenberg. I got a free drink out of that. 😅 #TheNoirCollective

The writers tease us by having Mostel almost cross paths with Widmark and Douglas. They’ll pull this sort of visual gag again later on, even more brazenly. #TheNoirCollective #PanicInTheStreets

As we’ve seen (left), MacDonald loved using practical lighting when Palance was in the frame. Even when the lighting is faux-practical (right), look how MacDonald outlines Palance’s angular, almost cadaverous features: any wonder this film launched him to stardom? #TheNoirCollective

Zero Mostel as Fitch A popular nightclub comedian in the early ‘40s, he made his legit debut in Café Crown (1942), directed by Elia Kazan. Kazan set him on what should’ve been a lucrative film career by casting him in #PanicInTheStreets, but he was blacklisted a year later. #TheNoirCollective (1/2)

In the best running gag in the film, Blackie becomes convinced that the dead man must have “brought something in”. He did, of course, but not just contraband. #TheNoirCollective #PanicInTheStreets

Kazan brought cast and crew to New Orleans for a four-month shoot. The mayor gave him the run of the town. Kazan cast several local cops as extras, and filled 100 of 112 speaking roles with New Orleans natives – most with no acting experience. I’ll single out a few as they appear. #TheNoirCollective

Other than the theme played over the credits, there’s no orchestral scoring. But the soundtrack is full of music; we simply hear whatever is playing at the time: blaring from a jukebox in a coffee shop or a radio in a restaurant, or – like here – drifting through the night air. #TheNoirCollective

To ease the storytelling – and keep the body count down – Reed has an “anti-plague serum” that’s both antidote & prophylaxis. In reality, there’s no widely-available vaccine for pneumonic plague, which happily has become an incredibly rare disease in the US. Like measles. 😵‍💫 #TheNoirCollective

In a 1986 interview, Widmark recalled that Palance got into character by using Mostel as a punching bag. Mostel was so covered in bruises after the first week of shooting, he had to go to the hospital. We’ll have more scary Palance stories as we go along… 😳 #TheNoirCollective #PanicInTheStreets

(3/3) But beyond that, Reed’s own lack of communication skills – and occasionally condescending manner – seem destined to do him in. Here, it takes a stranger to help him get his message across. Reed is so closed off, he can’t grasp the concerns of the people he needs to reach. #TheNoirCollective

Part of what makes #PanicInTheSteeets an effective noir is the futility factor: wherever Reed turns – to law enforcement, to professional journalists, to everyday citizens – he’s met with suspicion; no one grasps the gravity of a lethal airborne disease. #TheNoirCollective (1/3)

Although #PanicInTheStreets was critical to Widmark’s emergence as a leading man, he’s far from your typical “hero.“ He’s more a noir protagonist: curt and at times condescending, argumentative and even self-pitying. Oh, shoot, I forgot to ask: your favorite Widmark performance? #TheNoirCollective

Arthur Tong as “Cabin Boy” While shooting an early scene, Kazan spotted Tong – a photographer for the Vieux Carré Courier – running an errand and invited him to be in the film. This scene aboard the Nile Queen was the only one not filmed in New Orleans, but in Gulfport, MS. #TheNoirCollective

Do you want to suggest that people switch over to bsky.app/profile/did:.... You can mention that none of my posts are coming through.

Guy Thomajan as Poldi Kazan's longtime dialogue director in NY, Thomajan filled that function on East of Eden and On the Waterfront, as well as acting in Boomerang! and Viva Zapata! His best-remembered roles are probably Danny in The Breaking Point and Artoff in The Pink Panther. #TheNoirCollective

Pat Walshe as Pat Character actor and circus performer, best remembered as the head of the Winged Monkeys in The Wizard of Oz. When Kazan discovered Walshe was living in New Orleans, he had this role expressly written for him, to demonstrate Blackie‘s warmer public persona. #TheNoirCollective

OMG "almost cadaverous features"... Your writing Tommy!!! ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ #PanicInTheStreets #TheNoirCollective

(2/3) That said, it’s unlikely that anyone back then thought, “And this movie will play even better when the country has actually *experienced* a plague,” but well, here we are, and indeed it does. #TheNoirCollective #PanicInTheStreets

(3/3) Details that in 1950 seemed designed only to promote conflict – mistrust of elite scientists; people motivated more by self-interest than the public good; the gov’t withholding key information; officials breaking the very rules they’re enforcing – have played out vibrantly. #TheNoirCollective

#PanicInTheStreets works today in all the ways that it worked in 1950. Widmark and Douglas are effectively paired; Kazan and MacDonald’s location shooting heightens the atmosphere, sense of dread and potential horror; and Jack Palance makes an electrifying screen debut. #TheNoirCollective (1/3)

ONE HOUR till #TheNoirCollective watch party of PANIC IN THE STREETS, starring Richard Widmark. Since this film – like Streetcar – is set in New Orleans and directed by Elia Kazan, this clip from The Simpsons should give you a good idea what to expect. Link to watch: archive.org/details/pani...

This Wed at 8 PM ET/5 PM PT, I’m hosting #TheNoirCollective watch party of PANIC IN THE STREETS (1950), with Richard Widmark, Paul Douglas and Barbara Bel Geddes, plus Jack Palance in an electrifying debut. Enjoy the trailer. ⬇️😊 Link to watch: archive.org/details/pani...

NOIRISTAS, WE NEED YOUR HELP! #TheNoirCollective would love to host a watch party of UNDER THE GUN (1951), starring Richard Conte, Audrey Totter and Sam Jaffe, but the only copies we can find are grainy or incomplete. Does anyone have access to – or know where we can find – a better copy? Thanks!

Margaret Sullavan was #BOTD, so maybe this is a good time to mention that my very first film essay was about Sullavan, one of my favorite actresses to grace the films of Classic Hollywood. If you’d like to read the essay, it’s here. 😊 thatsallsiknow.blogspot.com/2024/05/marg... #FilmSky 🎥

#TheNoirCollective returns next Wed, as does Richard Widmark. A dedicated scientist battles government inaction, public mistrust, even threats to his life – all to stop a deadly pandemic. Only in the movies, right? 😉 @tommykrasker.bsky.social hosts PANIC IN THE STREETS. Link to watch coming Monday.

Next week, another #WidmarkWednesday, as a dedicated scientist battles government inaction, public mistrust, even threats to his life – all to stop the spread of a deadly pandemic. Yeah, I know: only in the movies, right? I’ll be hosting PANIC IN THE STREETS (1950). Join us! 😊 #TheNoirCollective

Tonight at 8 PM ET, TCM airs #TheGunfighter, the best Western of 1950. How can I state that with certainty? Because in 2024, I watched every freaking Western of 1950 – 114 of them – and wrote an essay. If you’re as odd as I am, you might enjoy: thatsallsiknow.blogspot.com/2024/11/west... 😊 #TCMParty

This Wed at 8 PM ET/5 PM PT, I’m hosting #TheNoirCollective watch party of SO EVIL MY LOVE (1948), a tale of seduction, deception, blackmail and butchery. Enjoy the trailer. ⬇️😊 Two links to watch. The crispest is ok.ru/video/264181.... But this version is also very good: archive.org/details/1948...

This Wednesday, at 8 PM ET/5 PM PT, @tommykrasker.bsky.social is hosting our watch party of SO EVIL MY LOVE (1948). We’ll be leaving it to Tommy to make further announcements. We hope you’ll join us, and in the meantime, be sure to check out the trailer below. #TheNoirCollective

#TheNoirCollective returns next Wed, May 6, with the gaslight noir SO EVIL MY LOVE. Seduction, deception, blackmail, butchery – and a great homme fatale. I’m hosting, and will be dressed in suitably Victorian attire. (You’ll just have to trust me on that one.) Link(s) to watch coming on Monday. 😊

ONE HOUR to #TheNoirCollective watch party of DARK CITY (1950), which made Charlton Heston a star. It’s stylish, suspenseful & great fun. Two available links to watch. The clearest is at ok.ru/video/104759.... If you prefer Internet Archive, this will do quite nicely: archive.org/details/dark....

It’s your ONE HOUR call. 😊 #TheNoirCollective