#cry danger

"The script was tailored precisely to budget, confined to barrooms, bookie joints, and a wonderfully seedy trailer park. Much of the picture was shot in and around downtown Los Angeles, including at Union Station, on Bunker Hill, and on Fort Moore Hill."

Grab your valentine and join us for NOIR CITY Seattle, February 14-20—this year at SIFF Cinema Downtown. This year’s program shines a spotlight on women whose cinematic legacy is entwined with the rise of film noir. Twelve of the 18 films screening will be presented on glorious 35mm including the Film Noir Foundation’s restoration of Cry Danger as well as a new 4K restoration of Robert Siodmak’s Phantom Lady. Many of the films star the actresses profiled in Muller’s 2002 book  Dark City Dames: The Wicked Women of Film Noir,  which is being reissued in April 2025 in a newly revised and expanded edition.

FNF founder Eddie Muller will present all screenings February 14-16, with local noir experts and authors Vince and Rosemarie Keenan taking over hosting duties February 17-20. Enjoy their expert takes and tidbits of film noir facts in their introductions each evening!

Join us on Opening Night, starting at 5:30 p.m., for a special performance by the Dmitri Matheny Quintet, performing jazz from the silver screen. Lyrical flugelhornist Matheny will be joined by his all-star band prior to the screening of The Narrow Margin. A NOIR CITY Seattle tradition not to be missed!

I was...disappointed to find that I only have like, 5 Noirs that I haven't already talked about / hinted at, and one of them is a Bogart (thus not super-suitable for the "mention some off-brand noir"-s thing I wanted to do -- but yeah, "To Have And Have Not" -- if you want more Noir that reminds you of "Cassablanca", but want some not-everyone-knows-the-plot and more grit)

And then I wanted to do a Good Job about talking about them, but that translated to Not Doing It.

So here ya go, my half-assed writeup of some Off Brand Noirs I saw a long time ago, the Republic Pictures studio series:

Cry Danger (1950): Dick Powell is a bookie who gets out of jail part-way through his sentence for a huge holdup/murder he didn't commit, when someone randomly alibies him out. He then starts wandering around town, hitting up the gangsters he knows, to find out where the money from the holdup went. Bits of it remind me of "Blue Dhalia", some good "rattling all the interested parties, see what shakes loose"

Cry Vengeance (1954): Ok, now we're getting bleak: a scarred Mark Stevens, after serving a long sentence for a crime he didn't commit, after a car bomb blew up his wife and child (writing this down it sounds stupid -- but I think it was something like, the bad guys spun it like the bomb attempt was cuz he was mobbed up), tracks the mob boss behind it all to Alaska, where he's now in hiding (oh also the mob boss also has a young child). As you can imagine, this is less fun than "Cry Danger". Will Mark go over the edge and take revenge? Will Mark get gunned down by the mob boss's Bleach-Blond Psycho Henchman (that's a good minor noir character archetype, which is also seen in "D.O.A."... actually, if you haven't seen the original "D.O.A.", forget all these movies and just see that, it's fucking phenomenal; "Can't take it in the belly! Yeah, he can't take it there")

Cry Danger (1951) Robert Parrish