Kick-Back Friday: August 2009 Archives

Out of the Past (1947): Classic, classic, CLASSIC noir. Right up there with Double Indemnity. Cigarette smoke will be coming out of your speakers.

Does Robert Mitchum, as an ex-"detective," deserve redemption, or he is consigned to a damned life with a very bad girl? Nice scenes are created, in particular, between Mitchum and Kirk Douglas (in his second film), who plays Mitchum's off-and-on mob employer.

Better-than-average commentary is also provided on the DVD by noir expert James Ursini.

N.B. 1984's Against All Odds was the flop remake.

Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975): An early film by Australian director Peter Weir (Witness, Master and Commander); based on the novel of the same name (which was falsely believed to be based on a true story). Three popular students and their teacher go missing during an otherwise idyllic school outing on St. Valentine's Day in the year 1900. The cryptic solution has something to do with a wrinkle in the time-space continuum—which Weir alludes to, but never fully divulges, in his portrait of the dreamlike event and its traumatic aftermath.

The Friends of Eddie Coyle

(1973): Robert Mitchum is Coyle, a burnt-out arms dealer in Boston who tries to play snitch in exchange for a lighter upcoming sentence. But his friends (with finger quotes in full effect) may or may not be better at the ratting game. With Peter Boyle, Alex Rocco (Moe Greene in The Godfather), Richard Jordan, and Steven Keats. Directed by Peter Yates (Bullitt, Breaking Away).

Merely by example, old-schooler Mitchum could teach a thing or two about naturalistic acting to any method whippersnapper.

A twofer—for two entertaining, but seriously flawed, movies.

Ne le dis a personne (Tell No One) (2006): Francois Cluzot (who could easily pass for Dustin Hoffman's cuter, younger brother) is a pediatrician suspected of killing his wife. The truth of the matter, however, is impossibly complicated in this are-we-done-yet French blockbuster. I'll eat my hat if an American remake is not in the works.

Transsiberian (2008): If you can get past Woody Harrelson's caricature of a goofball American tourist and the preposterous climax, Transsiberian effectively conveys the intense discomfort of en-masse, international travel in very tight quarters. Especially effective are Emily Mortimer as Harrelson's rehabilitated wife; Eduardo Noriega as the hot, dangerous Spaniard; and Kate Mara as his young American girlfriend. Also Ben Kingsley offers one of his usual, engaging performances, this time as a Russian police detective.