Repost of last night’s #NoirChecklist for the morning Noiristas! #TheStrip #TCMParty #NoirAlley

#NoirChecklist for #TheStrip: -Narration and flashback -Wrongly accused protagonist -Oily gangster boss -Good girl gone bad vs other good girl -Nightclub band number(s) -Odd crooner number -And here’s a dance number -Plot more threadbare than Mickey Rooney’s wedding suit #TCMParty #NoirAlley

#NoirChecklist for #TheStrip: -Narration and flashback -Wrongly accused protagonist -Oily gangster boss -Good girl gone bad vs other good girl -Nightclub band number(s) -Odd crooner number -And here’s a dance number -Plot more threadbare than Mickey Rooney’s wedding suit #TCMParty #NoirAlley

I'm not liking Stan's chances with Jane. And here Edna's practically bursting out of her bullet bra every time he's around. #TheStrip #TCMParty #NoirAlley

I was going to refresh my drink... but there's another Sally Forrest dance number! #TheStrip #TCMParty #NoirAlley

Pages flying off the calendar while everybody waits around for Mickey to finish that drum solo... #TheStrip #TCMParty #NoirAlley

OK, fun fact for the Mickey Rooney haters out there: in old school cameraman slang, a very slow zoom or dolly camera movement is known as a creep. When it's a move of short duration, it's known as a "Mickey Rooney", because it's a little creep. #TheStrip #TCMParty #NoirAlley

OK, I had no idea that Uncle Charley croaked out...er, introduced "A Kiss to Build A Dream On" to the world. #TheStrip #TCMParty #NoirAlley

If there's anything I try to avoid, it that same old slap-happy jive. #TheStrip #TCMParty #NoirAlley

"Basin Street Blues" became a signature song for trombonist and vocalist Jack Teagarden when leading his own bands. Teagarden had shorter arms than most trombonists, so to compensate, he developed incredible embouchere, creating his trademark super mellow tone. #TheStrip #TCMParty #NoirAlley

Here, hold my cigarette tray, I've got to do a floor show with three busboys! #TheStrip #TCMParty #NoirAlley

Now we're talking- Satchmo! #TheStrip #TCMParty #NoirAlley

Nightclub sign montage- Drink! #TheStrip #TCMParty #NoirAlley

And now the jump-in-a-random-car meet cute between Stan and Jane (used the very next year in #SinginInTheRain, if memory serves.) #TheStrip #TCMParty #NoirAlley

The old traffic accident meet cute between Stan and Sonny. #TheStrip #TCMParty #NoirAlley

Although he only shot a couple of noirs- including Act of Violence- #TheStrip cinematographer Robert Surtees shot a few other movies you might have heard of: Ben-Hur, Oklahoma, King Solomon's Mines, The Graduate, The Last Picture Show, and The Sting, among others. #TCMParty #NoirAlley

Eddie talking about drinking games. He knows his audience. #TheStrip #TCMParty #NoirAlley

Some impressive fence-climbing stuntwork by Nicholson in the flood channel scene. #TCMParty #Chinatown

"Russ Yelburton" is right up there with "Art Vandelay" in the fake name pantheon. #TCMParty #Chinatown

The rowboat scene and the orange grove scene are the two scenes shot by original #Chinatown cinematographer Stanley Cortez, who was too slow and old school for Roman Polanski. He was replaced by John A. Alonzo, who had a background in documentaries and working quickly with natural light. #TCMParty

One of the brilliant things about #Chinatown is how it immediately establishes the #noir setting (that it is about to upend) by cribbing the opening scene of #TheMalteseFalcon, with a mysterious woman (who might be an imposter) visiting the office of a cynical, tough-talking PI. #TCMParty

An interesting fact is that Keyes always addresses Neff as "Walter", but Walter always calls him "Keyes." I remember being surprised upon finding out that his first name was Barton. #DoubleIndemnity #TCMParty

OK, I've never considered this since I always get swept up in the film, but do we think Keyes deliberately planted the memo recording where he vouches for Walter, knowing that Walter will find it while snooping? #DoubleIndemnity #TCMParty

I love how Keyes always says, "I bet she drinks from the bottle." I need to remember that one. #DoubleIndemnity #TCMParty

"I saw Lola three or four times that week... She said, little boy, gonna make you a maaan..." #DoubleIndemnity #TCMParty #WrongSongItsAMovie

I'm going to start going around saying, "I'm a Medford man, Medford, Oregon, and I mean what I say...etc" just to see how people react. #DoubleIndemnity #TCMParty

Wasn't "Tangled Up In Crutches" an old Dylan song? #DoubleIndemnity #TCMParty

So many #noir tropes in #DoubleIndemnity that my last #NoirChecklist for it only covered the first half hour: -Monotone narration -Sap protagonist -Entire story is a flashback -Wisecracking maid -The femme fatale to beat all femme fatales -More innuendo than an Italian proctologist #TCMParty

OK hold up, you’re telling me the lead-in to #NoirAlley Saturday night is a double bill of #DoubleIndemnity and #Chinatown? A classic #Noir vs #NeoNoir clash of titans? Now that’s what I call a #Noirvember to remember! #TCMParty

MGM Exec #1: I'm not sure what to do with #EleanorPowell; we don't have any projects that fit her... MGM Exec #2: I know, let's put her in supporting roles in Red Skelton movies! #TCMParty #LadyBeGood

My first day off in quite a while happens to coincide with Ellie Powell day on #TCM… #TCMParty #BornToDance

"I wouldn't admit this to anyone but you, but I drink too much... Wanna go flying?" #TCMParty #WrittenOnTheWind

This weekend I saw two great film restorations at the SF Silent Film Fest, held this year at the fabulous 1941 Art Deco Orinda Theater: Clarence Brown’s THE TRAIL OF ‘98 and KOHLHEISEL’S DAUGHTERS, directed by Ernst Lubitsch and introduced by film historian (and my old teacher) Joe McBride #TCMParty

#NoirChecklist for #HighAndLow: -No nonsense head cop -Kidnap and ransom demand -Two-timing…male secretary? -Key scene on a train -Wipes between scenes keep it moving -Plot twist midway through -Gabby incinerator guy -Nonstop police procedural-ing, but in Japanese #TCMParty #NoirAlley

Kurosawa had to be influenced by the frequent color tinting of silent films for that pink smoke scene. #TCMParty #HighAndLow #NoirAlley

Newspaper headline montage (of sorts): Drink! #TCMParty #HighAndLow #NoirAlley

Uncle and Auntie ain't sleeping, kid. #TCMParty #HighAndLow #NoirAlley

Gondo just getting physically ill after tossing 30 million out the window, as one does. #TCMParty #HighAndLow #NoirAlley

Newspaper headline montage (in Japanese): Drink! #TCMParty #HighAndLow #NoirAlley

The cops and others in the first act of #HighAndLow are staged in carefully blocked master shots like a Rembrandt painting. #NoirAlley #TCMParty

"I want to pay, but I can't! You don't understand!" I've tried this line down at the Mercedes dealer, but it didn't work there. #TCMParty #HighAndLow #NoirAlley

This room where everyone is gathered in #HighAndLow looks like the mid-60s Japanese version of the apartment in Hitchcock's #Rope. #NoirAlley #TCMParty

Some actors you look at and just know that their visage puts them beyond being just another actor; they are instead a MOVIE STAR. Toshiro Mifune is one of those actors. #HighAndLow #NoirAlley #TCMParty

Mad Men, Japan Edition #HighAndLow #NoirAlley #TCMParty

Eddie just dropping his impressive-sounding Japanese pronunciation like it's nothing on #NoirAlley #HighAndLow #TCMParty

Work obligations have kept me from my regular #NoirAlley rounds of late, but I'm back in the saddle with the ol' #NoirChecklist tonight for #KurosawaNoir in #HighAndLow ! #TCMParty

I recall there was actually a Milton Bradley board game made of #TheIpcressFile. I think my parents bought it after seeing the movie. #TCMParty

My youth watching Hitchcock movies on late night TV gave me a warped sense of the likelihood of ordinary citizens being swept up into complicated murder plots, picaresque international intrigue, or spectacular falls from high landmarks. #NxNW #TCMParty #NorthByNorthwest

Martin Landau said he made a deliberate choice to play henchman Leonard with a gay subtext in #NorthByNorthwest #TCMParty #NxNW

Cary Grant shirtless- Drink! #NxNW #TCMParty