In 2014, I wrote an appreciation of Dario Argento’s 1970 giallo film, The Bird with the Crystal Plumage. In that post, I mentioned that while many have always considered it a given that the Italian director’s superb debut is based on The Screaming Mimi—a 1949 American crime novel by Fredric… Read more
Raymond Chandler’s novels featuring private investigator Philip Marlowe are perfectly ripe for film adaptation. The evocative atmosphere in those books, along with the memorable characters and suspense-rich plots, makes them ideal for transference to the big screen—particularly via the film noir style. Two of the better movies of that kind… Read more
There’s good news for English-speaking noir fiction enthusiasts who are late to the party in getting hip to Gallic/Belgravia Books’ series of English-translation versions of the novels by Frenchman Pascal Garnier (1949-2010). Gallic/Belgravia is now re-issuing Garnier’s edgy suspense tales in omnibus editions. Gallic Noir Volume 1, which was released… Read more
Help I Am Being Held Prisoner by Donald E. Westlake is a rediscovered crime classic from the MWA Grand Master returning to stores for the first time in three decades (available February 13, 2018). Hard Case Crime has done well in reissuing lost Donald Westlake classics. Westlake’s 361 and Memory… Read more
Although David Goodis (1917-67) led a fascinating life (fascinating to some of us, anyway), I’m not going to spend a lot of time here discussing his personal story. Instead, I’ll focus on his writing and some of the movies that were made from his novels. But a few notes on… Read more
I’ve been writing a series of posts on Criterion Collection film releases for this site. Some of the Criterion titles I’ve covered have been things like campy romps and low-budget oddities, but most of the movies in question are decidedly highbrow fare: critically acclaimed cinematic works directed by noted auteurs…. Read more
1967 was the year of the Summer of Love, but during that year, French filmmaker Jean-Pierre Melville (1917-73) put together and released a movie that couldn’t have been more removed from the splashy colors and free-love mood of the swinging moment in cultural time. Le Samourai is a stark, moody,… Read more
I originally planned this to be a Page to Screen article comparing Carl Theodor Dreyer’s (1899-1968) 1932 horror film Vampyr with In a Glass Darkly (1872), the collection of mystery stories penned by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu (1814-1873). The film is regularly noted as being based on the short fiction works,… Read more
Unchained Melody: The Films of Meiko Kaji by Tom Mes traces Meiko Kaji's career from its earliest beginnings as a teen model and tomboyish basketball fanatic to her critically-lauded and versatile performances onscreen (available September 12, 2017). Check out Brian Greene's appreciation piece on Meiko Kaji! In her most notable… Read more
I’m not sure if Criterion Collection is releasing a new edition of the 1980 movie Hopscotch because of the timeliness of the plot, but timely it is. A retired CIA agent who threatens to publish a book filled with leaked classified information … um, yeah, that kinda gels with the… Read more
