Rare Film Noir: The Big Night and The Burglar

I didn't get to as many movies as I expected this week, just the Brattle's "Rare Film Noir" series. I worked late Monday and Thursday, so what I had planned didn't come off, and I wound up watching accumulated TV and soul-crushing baseball games. I'd really like to see the Sox go on a winning streak soon, since Arroyo's recent struggles and Wily Mo Pena's recent gigantic home runs are vindicating my claims that this was a darn good trade.

(Actually, I probably could have made La Dolce Vita last night, but it would have been close and I was kind of hungry when I got home, which meant I would have been really hungry by the time the three-hour movie ended)

I would have really liked if the Brattle had switched the movies' order (or I'd been able to bolt work in time to start two hours earlier); The Big Night is the shorter movie, and finishing at 10.45 rather than 11.00 with a half hour intermission rather than a forty-five minute one can seem like a world of difference. Still, this at least let me end the night on a better movie, as The Burglar is a whole lot more entertaining than The Big Night.

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Just when I thought I'd finished Fantasia with Samurai Commando Mission 1549 and Train Man, they go and send me five screeners, two and a half weeks after the festival ended! But, hey, why not - filmmakers and studios get their films booked at festivals to get exposure, so if the festival does this, it's helping them, it repeats the Fantasia Festival name in the media a little more, and it gives me something to write about. Not quite as good for all of us as having reviews ready by the time they'll show at the festival, but we're all still washing each other's backs, even if I don't particularly like a movie.

Aaanyway, to get back to the reviews: See Train Man if you can. It's really good. As of right now, 0 Fantasia reviews to do, 23 others.

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The Big Night

* * ¼ (out of four)
Seen 8 August 2006 at Brattle Theater (Rare Film Noir)

Somewhat below average noir with John Barrymore Jr. playing a teenager whose birthday party is interrupted by a sportswriter beating the crap out of his father. He wanders through the city looking for revenge and an explanation. Even at a short seventy-five minutes, though, the movie seems kind of flaccid - the stops between the initial beating and the confrontation with Al Judge just string the movie out; they don't really seem to build to anything. After that, it's cheap melodrama.

The Burglar

* * ¼ (out of four)
Seen 8 August 2006 at Brattle Theater (Rare Film Noir)

This, on the other hand, is a fun caper with Dan Duryea as a thief who pulls his crime off iwthout a hitch but has a little trouble with the getaway. It's got a ton of sex appeal from Jayne Mansfield and Martha Vickers, and a potboiler story that chugs along nicely. It's also got a neat opening, with a faux newsreel newsreel that the camera eventually pulls back from to reveal Duryea's character in the theater. I don't know that I've seen an earlier example of that kind of false start (the film was released in 1957), and it caught my eye.

It's really not that much deeper than The Big Night, but it's got a better cast, and you can start to see the start of later decade's more naturalistic styles here, even if it is still rather theatrical, too.