Last Night in Soho (2021)

 

New acquisition: Sight & Sound

 

Reese Witherspoon

(ph: Cass Bird)

Bio:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reese_Witherspoon

New acquisition: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)

 

Twin Peaks (1990)

Force of Evil (1948)

 

An unethical lawyer, with an older brother he wants to help, becomes a partner with a client in the numbers racket.

Tough and downbeat Noir crime drama astonishes with its stark anti-capitalist stance and some quite memorable scenes.

Halliwell**: "Bleak and powerful melodrama, an attack on capitalism that is here personified by racketeers."

Maltin***: "Rock-solid film noir...Beautifully photographed (by George Barnes) and lit; this has become something of a cult item." 

Sirocco (1951)

 

They Live by Night (1948)

 

An escaped convict, injured during a robbery, falls in love with the woman who nurses him back to health, but their relationship seems doomed from the beginning.

Excellent tough and romantic crime drama relentlessly drives its narratives and its heroes into their own doom.

Halliwell*: "Well-made if basically uninteresting melodrama with a draggy romantic interest; its 'realistic' yet impressionist style drew attention on its first release, and it was remade in the seventies as Thieves Like Us." 

Maltin***1/2: "Director Ray's first film is sensitive, well-made story...Set in 1930s, it avoids cliches and builds considerable impact instead."

 

 

Hangover Square (1945)

 

A promising classical musician finds his life poisoned by a music hall dancer -- and by the strange gaps in his memory.

Unusual Noir melodrama nicely staged in period London has a quite unconvincing plot, but Laird Gregar is fascinating as the madman musician, and Bernard Herrmann's score is excellent as always.

Halliwell*: "This rather empty melodrama has almost nothing to do with the book from which it is allegedly taken, but the Hollywoodian evocation of gaslit London is richly entertaining and good to look at."

Maltin***: "Cregar (in his final film) is delicious...result is still entertaining, with superb Victorian London sets and evocative Bernard Herrmann score." 

The Great Buddha+ (2017)

 

The People Across the Lake (1988)

 

A city-slicker family, tired of the urban grime and crime, moves to a quaint little lakeside village. All seems like paradise - until corpses start showing up in the water.

OK TV horror flick never leaves the boundaries of the genre.  

Faye Dunaway

New acquisition: D.O.A. (1949)