You know that sometimes annoying song about the “Twelve Days”? We’re using it to highlight 12 Christmas movies that fit the lyrics of the song, more or less…
REMEMBER THE NIGHT(1940; Barbara Stanwyck, Fred MacMurray, Sterling Holloway, Beulah Bondi; directed by Mitchell Leisen)
Dave is a graphic designer (www.dhdd.net) and movie lover, and the caretaker of “The 3 Benny Theater” (also known as his living room). The moniker was inspired by an extinct movie house–The 3 Penny Theater–and by his black Manx cat, Benny. Favorite films: North By Northwest, The Third Man and The Dekalog.
THE LINEUP (1958; starring Eli Wallach, Robert Keith, Richard Jaeckel, Mary La Roche; directed by Don Siegel; 75 min.; DVD with commentary, available from Netflix or from Amazon as part of a boxed set, “Columbia Film Noir Classics I”)
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IT WAS TOO BIG to be just another TV episode. In fact, it was “The manhunt they had to put on the giant-sized movie theater screen!” That tagline is referring to the popular television show of the same name, later known in syndication as San Francisco Beat. It had been on the air since 1954 when this feature-length version was made.
It’s 1958. We’re near Fisherman’s Wharf, when a porter grabs a suitcase from a disembarking passenger, (played by Raymond Bailey, famous as the banker, Mr. Drysdale, on The Beverly Hillbillies TV show). The porter tosses it in a cab, which quickly tears away, only to end up in a deadly crash. Mr. Drysdale is suspected when heroin is found inside suitcase. Is he guilty? Maybe, but police are on the case, and they think there are more people involved. Drysdale is brought in to face–you guessed it–“The Lineup”.
Right about here is where director Don Siegel loses interest in the cops. He turns his attention to the criminals, and the movie really finds its groove. In the freewheeling DVD commentary, noir expert Larry Muller and brazen author James Ellroy recount how director Don Siegel (DIRTY HARRY, THE KILLERS) had little interest in the show’s signature, DRAGNET-style police work, but instead wanted to focus on the crime and, especially, the more intriguing and complex lawbreakers.
The drug-trafficking trio of Wallach, Keith and Jaeckel have a mission to recover the drugs that other, unsuspecting travelers have carried to the city by the Bay. And they have no qualms about procuring them by any means necessary. Particularly in the case of the near-psychotic Wallach. But also with the more complacent but equally creepy Keith, who keeps a notebook in which he gleefully records victims’ last words. Jaeckel is the getaway driver–a young and immature hotshot.
As the killer named “Dancer”, Wallach displays an easy, genial nature on the surface, but in fact he has a rolling-boil of a temper that explodes into a furious rage against anyone who stands in his way, even children and men in wheelchairs. I can imagine Joe Pesci watching Wallach as he prepared for his “What’s so funny?” scene in GOODFELLAS. Method actor Wallach (97 years old, at this writing) starred in dozens of TV shows and movies.
Last but not least are the San Francisco locations. Besides the Wharf area, there’s the old police headquarters with it’s half-moon windows, the Customs House including its interior, the eerie, seaside Sutro Baths near the Cliff House restaurant, and a couple of half-completed freeways. A lengthy, tense finale foreshadows the classic car chase sequence in BULLITT (1968).
THE LINEUP is a fast-paced, cold-blooded film noir that, ironically, doesn’t hit its stride until it lets go of its TV show constraints. Hang on and enjoy the entertaining ride when it does.
Dave is a graphic designer (www.dhdd.net) and movie lover, and the caretaker of “The 3 Benny Theater” (also known as his living room). The moniker was inspired by an extinct movie house–The 3 Penny Theater–and by his black Manx cat, Benny. Favorite films: North By Northwest, The Third Man and The Dekalog.
ON THIS DAY in 1878, John Kehoe, the last member of the secret society of coal workers known as the “Molly Maguires,” was executed in Pennsylvania. Kehoe was portrayed by Sean Connery in the 1970 Martin Ritt film, THE MOLLY MAGUIRES, also starring Richard Harris.
You know that sometimes annoying song about the “Twelve Days”? We’re using it to highlight 12 Christmas movies that fit the lyrics of the song, more or less…
WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING(1995; Sandra Bullock, Bill Pullman; directed by Jon Turteltaub)
Dave is a graphic designer (www.dhdd.net) and movie lover, and the caretaker of “The 3 Benny Theater” (also known as his living room). The moniker was inspired by an extinct movie house–The 3 Penny Theater–and by his black Manx cat, Benny. Favorite films: North By Northwest, The Third Man and The Dekalog.
ON THIS DAY in 1770, composer and pianist Ludwig van Beethoven was born* in Germany. Beethoven’s life was dramatized in the 1994 film, IMMORTAL BELOVED, starring Gary Oldman. (*Baptismal date)
You know that sometimes annoying song about the “Twelve Days”? We’re using it to highlight 12 Christmas movies that fit the lyrics of the song, more or less…
COMFORT AND JOY(1984; Bill Patterson, Clare Grogan; directed by Bill Forsyth)
Dave is a graphic designer (www.dhdd.net) and movie lover, and the caretaker of “The 3 Benny Theater” (also known as his living room). The moniker was inspired by an extinct movie house–The 3 Penny Theater–and by his black Manx cat, Benny. Favorite films: North By Northwest, The Third Man and The Dekalog.
ON THIS DAY in 1944, the Battle of the Bulge–a major German offensive against the Allies–began, in the Ardennes forest, Belgium. This event was depicted in the 1965 film THE BATTLE OF THE BULGE, starring Henry Fonda and Robert Ryan.
You know that sometimes annoying song about the “Twelve Days”? We’re using it to highlight 12 Christmas movies that fit the lyrics of the song, more or less…
JOYEUX NOEL(2005; Diane Kruger, Benno Fürmann and Guillaume Canet; directed by Christian Carion)
Dave is a graphic designer (www.dhdd.net) and movie lover, and the caretaker of “The 3 Benny Theater” (also known as his living room). The moniker was inspired by an extinct movie house–The 3 Penny Theater–and by his black Manx cat, Benny. Favorite films: North By Northwest, The Third Man and The Dekalog.
ON THIS DAY in 1933, the 18th Amendment to the Constitution was repealed, thereby making it legal once again to manufacture, transport and sell alcohol. This event was depicted in the 1939 Raoul Walsh film, THE ROARING TWENTIES, starring James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart.
You know that sometimes annoying song about the “Twelve Days”? We’re using it to highlight 12 Christmas movies that fit the lyrics of the song, more or less…
HOLIDAY AFFAIR (1949; Robert Mitchum, Janet Leigh; directed by Don Hartman)
Dave is a graphic designer (www.dhdd.net) and movie lover, and the caretaker of “The 3 Benny Theater” (also known as his living room). The moniker was inspired by an extinct movie house–The 3 Penny Theater–and by his black Manx cat, Benny. Favorite films: North By Northwest, The Third Man and The Dekalog.
Good evening. We’re seeing a lot of the Master of Suspense these days, what with his self-titled movie currently playing at theaters. But we have always had the opportunity to catch his familiar face and form often over the years, right there during his cameo appearances in the very pictures he directed. We can identify that distinctive shape easily in those movies, but can you name the movie’s title? (In case you missed them: part 1 & part 2.)
(*The quiz title was inspired by Alfred Hitchcock’s North By Northwest:“Something wrong with your eyes?” “Yes”, says the sunglass-clad Roger O. Thornhill (Cary Grant), “They’re sensitive to questions”. In the hotel room of the fictitious George Kaplan, Roger spots a photograph of his kidnapper, Philip Vandamm, and says, “Oh, well, look who’s here!”.)
Dave is a graphic designer (www.dhdd.net) and movie lover, and the caretaker of “The 3 Benny Theater” (also known as his living room). The moniker was inspired by an extinct movie house–The 3 Penny Theater–and by his black Manx cat, Benny. Favorite films: North By Northwest, The Third Man and The Dekalog.
ON THIS DAY in 1911, a team of explorers led by Norwegian Roald Amundsen became the first to reach the South Pole. Amundsen’s expedition was documented in THE LAST PLACE ON EARTH, a 1985 made-for-TV series.
You know that sometimes annoying song about the “Twelve Days”? We’re using it to highlight 12 Christmas movies that fit the lyrics of the song, more or less…
ON THIS DAY in 1939, the Battle of the River Plate began; the first naval battle of World War II, and the only hostilities of the war in South America. The battle was dramatized in the 1956 Powell/Pressburger film, BATTLE OF THE RIVER PLATE, or PURSUIT OF THE GRAF SPEE.
ON THIS DAY in 1917, the Boys Town orphanage was founded in Nebraska by Father Edward J. Flanagan. The story of Flanagan’s home for wayward boys was dramatized in the 1938 film, BOYS TOWN, starring Spencer Tracy and Mickey Rooney.
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IT WAS TOO BIG to be just another TV episode. In fact, it was “The manhunt they had to put on the giant-sized movie theater screen!” That tagline is referring to the popular television show of the same name, later known in syndication as San Francisco Beat. It had been on the air since 1954 when this feature-length version was made.
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