Noir City Notebook 2
Jul. 16th, 2007 05:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
saavedra77The idea of technicolor film noir strikes a lot of people as a contradiction in terms, and, yet, how else to classify these two ...?
Desert Fury (1947): Nevada gambling-den princess Paula Haller (Lizabeth Scott) threatens the longtime partnership and domestic arrangements of outrageously (for '40s Hollywood) gay gangsters Eddie Bendix (John Hodiak) and Johnny Ryan (Wendell Corey), tempting apparent bi-guy Bendix with the prospect of lots of straight-lovin'. Deadly rivalry ensues. In technicolor. Oh, yeah, and Burt Lancaster's in it.
Leave Her To Heaven (1945) spins the tale of Ellen Berendt (Gene Tierney), a murderously possessive wife who will destroy her husband's family and alienate her own in order to monopolize his affection and attention. Interestingly, Ellen's obsessions are echoed in the structure of the story itself, in which she is basically the only well-developed character. You could also argue that Ellen's detachment from reality is reflected in the film's visual style, dominated as it is by a surreally bright, hallucinatory color palette.
Next: Something really lightweight.
Desert Fury (1947): Nevada gambling-den princess Paula Haller (Lizabeth Scott) threatens the longtime partnership and domestic arrangements of outrageously (for '40s Hollywood) gay gangsters Eddie Bendix (John Hodiak) and Johnny Ryan (Wendell Corey), tempting apparent bi-guy Bendix with the prospect of lots of straight-lovin'. Deadly rivalry ensues. In technicolor. Oh, yeah, and Burt Lancaster's in it.
Leave Her To Heaven (1945) spins the tale of Ellen Berendt (Gene Tierney), a murderously possessive wife who will destroy her husband's family and alienate her own in order to monopolize his affection and attention. Interestingly, Ellen's obsessions are echoed in the structure of the story itself, in which she is basically the only well-developed character. You could also argue that Ellen's detachment from reality is reflected in the film's visual style, dominated as it is by a surreally bright, hallucinatory color palette.
Next: Something really lightweight.
