tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4797087968104121636.post5237784253226119694..comments2023-05-21T03:16:13.000-07:00Comments on Down These Mean Streets: Decoy (1946)Margot Shelbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06580855468061590981noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4797087968104121636.post-64631327200512581332022-11-25T09:13:15.223-08:002022-11-25T09:13:15.223-08:00I loved your post, Margot -- several of your lines...I loved your post, Margot -- several of your lines had me laughing out loud in appreciation. It's really such a shame that we didn't see more of Jean Gillie -- who knows what noir heights she might have scaled!Karenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06493001808546059821noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4797087968104121636.post-80786969071291962402018-09-06T11:04:31.662-07:002018-09-06T11:04:31.662-07:00Instead of Nevill Brand Yvonne gets Rory. Lucky gi...Instead of Nevill Brand Yvonne gets Rory. Lucky girl.<br />Yes, Colin's blog is very good. I know Comanche Station and also saw Seven Men From Now not long ago.Margot Shelbyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06580855468061590981noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4797087968104121636.post-19034706468931021982018-09-06T08:23:38.419-07:002018-09-06T08:23:38.419-07:00Margot-my comment was merely in jest-my warped sen...Margot-my comment was merely in jest-my warped sense of humour :)<br />No Frontier Gal had it so bad with lugs like Neville Brand and Emile Meyer slugging it<br />out to win their favour in RAW EDGE.<br />Good to see you over at Colin's and that you enjoyed RIDE LONESOME-check out COMANCHE STATION<br />(if you have not already) Scott is superb in that one and the ending is heartbreaking to say<br />the least.john khttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07080168531365446977noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4797087968104121636.post-21014991867912100532018-09-05T15:53:56.129-07:002018-09-05T15:53:56.129-07:00I love Rory. I've seen Raw Edge, it's fun....I love Rory. I've seen Raw Edge, it's fun. Frankly, I don't think feminism has really any business in Westerns. It's revisionism and as such unnecessary.<br /><br />I've never even heard of Date With Death or Liz Renay. I looked it up and it would be a nice find. Roadblock is good.Margot Shelbyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06580855468061590981noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4797087968104121636.post-26290152026828107742018-09-05T10:31:41.123-07:002018-09-05T10:31:41.123-07:00Margot, I guess I must be the only Herbert Rudley ...Margot, I guess I must be the only Herbert Rudley fan on the planet.Apart from DECOY and THE SCAR<br />I also like his work in several Westerns. I think I read somewhere that you are rather fond of<br />Rory Calhoun..if so try RAW EDGE..I guess you could call it an Anti Feminist Western. Anyway,<br />in that film Rudley tries to turn 1840's Oregon into a sort of Medieval Fiefdom,whereby the<br />first "unattached" female becomes the "property" of the first man to claim her-Rory to the<br />rescue. The film is as loopy as it sounds but also great fun,too bonkers to be offensive.<br />I really have to find A DATE WITH DEATH a lost Noir with a considerable reputation from Harold<br />Daniels who made the much more well known and impressive ROADBLOCK. As Walter has pointed out<br />elsewhere,leading lady Liz Renay's life played like a real life Noir-involvement with gangsters,<br />incarceration. Despite all this Liz did manage to survive until she was 80.<br />Finally,I can only second Walter's comment on your fine wordsmithing.john khttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07080168531365446977noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4797087968104121636.post-52598813089105150172018-09-04T16:45:44.029-07:002018-09-04T16:45:44.029-07:00I really have to find Persons in Hiding.
Though I...I really have to find Persons in Hiding. <br />Though I like Randolph Scott, I haven't seen Man in the Saddle. Of de Toth's Westerns I think I've only seen Ramrod.<br /><br />I think it's easier to find out something about the motivations of the villains in Gangster movies. There we often find short prologues of the early lives of the gangsters-to-be and why they became what they are. I guess Depression era tales really went in for that. I always like that. Noir in general seems to dispense with that. Margot Shelbyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06580855468061590981noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4797087968104121636.post-38026282945917699392018-09-04T16:25:36.077-07:002018-09-04T16:25:36.077-07:00Margot, always a pleasure to read your write-ups, ...Margot, always a pleasure to read your write-ups, which are food for thought afterwards. I would like to say that your writing is one feast after another. Continue being a keeper of the feasts.<br /><br />It appears that your fine wordsmithing has caused John Knight to think about the early experiences and upbringing of the femme fatale and how that makes them who they are, or what they want to be. Good points John.Walter S.https://www.blogger.com/profile/02507750468123235383noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4797087968104121636.post-50672374234013888532018-09-03T15:41:12.517-07:002018-09-03T15:41:12.517-07:00I don't think Rudley was a bad actor, not at a...I don't think Rudley was a bad actor, not at all, it's just that he didn't have too much screen presence. But he did kill her in the end.Margot Shelbyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06580855468061590981noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4797087968104121636.post-29555316541068918502018-09-02T08:37:21.989-07:002018-09-02T08:37:21.989-07:00As I mentioned elsewhere I liked the way Gillie...As I mentioned elsewhere I liked the way Gillie's ruthlessness is honed by her early poverty<br />growing up in a Northern (UK) Mill Town.<br />It got me thinking about other personal faves where the female protagonist's behaviour is somewhat<br />justified by earlier experiences.<br />In the sublime,sadly unheralded PERSONS IN HIDING the magnetic Patricia Morison had a dirt poor<br />background.A visit,while on the lam,to her folks humble abode,well shack actually,bears this out.<br />The scene strongly echos the similar scenes in the much later BONNIE & CLYDE.<br />Here we have the classic hard working mother and bone idle father.<br />The only compassion Morison shows to anyone in the film is towards her mother.<br />Considering it's the depression Morison is not doing that badly-she has a descent job in an<br />up-market beauty salon and a regular (boring) boyfriend. The problem is Morison craves the<br />expensive trappings of her up-market clients. What Morison craves mostly is the purfume<br />"Tantalising" which costs a fortune for a tiny bottle.<br />Morison's quest to get Tantalising at any cost eventually leads to her downfall.<br />Another film with the hard working mother-drunken lazy father is MAN IN THE SADDLE a superior<br />Andre de Toth Western. I would hesitate to call MAN IN THE SADDLE a Noir Western although it<br />does have classic Noir elements;and then some.<br />MAN IN THE SADDLE is a pretty big budget affair-the sort of Western that made Randolph Scott<br />one of Hollywood's biggest draws 1950-1953.<br />Joan Leslie has broken off her relationship with tall handsome Scott and is set to marry<br />less tall,less handsome Alexander Knox.The only problem is Leslie has insisted their relationship<br />be purely platonic-she will be the perfect "trophy wife"<br />Too add to all of this Knox is the ultimate control freak if a neighbour part owns a bit of land<br />or water Knox either forces them to sell or drives them off.<br />He employs swaggering gunslinger Richard Rober to eliminate Scott.<br />Rober cannot get to work quickly enough; on Knox's wedding night Rober points to the stairs<br />leading up to Leslie's bedroom stating that Scott while alive will always be a presense<br />on those stairs. Knox thinking Leslie might relent for once on their wedding night is left alone<br />with a bottle of booze until the taunting Rober arrives on the scene. It's bad news for a control<br />freak when the only thing he cannot have,which Scott has had already, is a physical relationship<br />with his own wife.<br />When Leslie's drunken father arrives at the wedding Leslie gives him short thrift-after all<br />the scoundrel abandoned the family leaving the hard working mother to bring up Leslie and her<br />siblings alone,resulting in her early death.<br />Leslie's rejection of her no good father does not go overlooked by Knox who admires his new<br />bride's ruthless streak.<br />Leslie is however not a Femme Fatale she is just a gal from a dirt poor background trying to<br />better herself in the male dominated Old West.<br />MAN IN THE SADDLE is far and away the best of 6 De Toth Scott Westerns.<br />The film has at times stunning scenery and expertly staged action scenes so there's plenty here<br />for traditional Western fans. De Toth likes to bring different elements into the mix-his film<br />is basically about strong women; he uses power symbols like fetching leather strides or<br />has them brandishing riding crops.I also like the telling scene on a stairwell where Leslie seems<br />to literally tower over her ex-lover Scott.<br /><br />john khttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07080168531365446977noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4797087968104121636.post-62845490886516480042018-09-02T07:55:43.875-07:002018-09-02T07:55:43.875-07:00As this very fine blog is a recent discovery,for m...As this very fine blog is a recent discovery,for me,I'm now trawling through the back pages to<br />discover what I have missed.I certainly love what I'm finding.<br />Sensational write up of this Monogram jewel!<br />The only issue I would beg to differ on is that I thought Herbert Rudley was outstanding.<br />That early scene in the rest room as he peers into the mirror-there's nothing in his eyes-this<br />dude is emotionally dead.<br />Also that scene near the end of the film where Rudley tells Gillie "I could kill you"<br />bearing in mind he is very drunk. Gillie-total control freak that she is actually hands her<br />gun to the poor sap-she has to know that she has total control over him despite the fact he could<br />blow her away.Sadly,by this time poor Rudley's will is gone,totally.An exceptional scene in an<br />awesome movie.<br />john khttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07080168531365446977noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4797087968104121636.post-88839682761782583592018-01-25T09:14:26.987-08:002018-01-25T09:14:26.987-08:00To me this is the best of Poverty Row. This and De...To me this is the best of Poverty Row. This and Detour.Margot Shelbyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06580855468061590981noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4797087968104121636.post-88116076331312741572018-01-25T03:23:41.769-08:002018-01-25T03:23:41.769-08:00Great Review, makes me want to dig it out of the p...Great Review, makes me want to dig it out of the pile and watch it again ;-).cigar joehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10247683034889027958noreply@blogger.com