Twelfth Night & Film Noir.

And it is still snowing. There's been snow on the ground for nearly the entire 12 days of Christmas. More on the way too. I'm pretty much stranded now. Last time I tried to go out I ended up sitting on my backside in the middle of the street and that was during an assisted transfer. Debbie walked it into work again today but was sent home as the snow thickened. My mum and dad almost got stranded on a backstreet, only to be rescued by some Bin Men (also stranded - btw calling them refuse collectors would raise a few eyebrows around here). No grit left. That's the big problem.
Christmas came and went so quickly this year. People complain about all the old movies on the television but I really like them. You can usually rely on the BBC to gather a bunch together and brand them a season. Seasons of ghost stories on BBC4 are my favourites but no such season this year. A nice season of old horror movies, or Bogart movies, anything like that will do. If the BBC was going to fail me I could always fall back on my Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes Boxset - then I really would be in bliss. This year though we have the Film Noir season. Looking at some of the titles I can see that some of the films barely qualify as being eligible but also there are some classics. And all shown on BBC2 in the early hours night owl slot with no pesky adverts to insert colour and light into the promised darkness.

1. The Reckless Moment - Joan Bennett. Nice to watch a youngish James Mason but not that great and not really noir.
   
2. Gilda - This one's a classic. Rita Hayworth does her femme fatale bit and Glenn Ford is top class as always.
3. Build My Gallows High - Robert Mitchum and Jane Greer. Another classic - some great dialogue and Mitchum is quite good.
4. Farewell My Lovely - This film rocks. Dick Powell takes over the role of Marlowe from Bogart. He's brilliant and the film is all you could want from a proper noir.
5. Dead Reckoning - I skipped this Bogart one as I'd seen it quite recently - Great noir though.
6. The Big Combo - No great shakes plot wise or performance wise but the cinematography is very striking. Some scenes are very memorable for their style.
   
7. On Dangerous Ground - I like the opening scenes of this one following the night cops on their rounds but the whole road to redemption via falling for the blind girl theme seemed a bit forced to me. Nice performance by Robert Ryan though.
8. They Live By Night - Didn't enjoy this one. Sort of a Bonnie & Clyde precursor.
9. Crossfire - Great post war movie with some super performances by Mitchum and co. On the face of it this is a murder mystery but the crux of the movie is the murder's motive - bigotry.

Sad to see the season finish. Now I have to go back to choosing my own viewing. And Basil never even made it out of the cupboard.