Movie Review: Raw Deal


Raw Deal is a film noir from 1948, directed by Anthony Mann who has directed a number of noir films before he moved on to Westerns.

Raw Deal has a very good plot, which incorporates many different plot devices into an hour and twenty minutes of dynamite. The main plot is a prison break but there is also a love triangle and a revenge theme thrown in for good measure.

Dennis O’Keefe is our protagonist who is in prison for taking a rap for crime boss Rick Coyle played by Raymond Burr. The film starts out with him talking in the visiting room with his legal caseworker played by Marsha Hunt. As she leaves, Claire Trevor playing our protagonist’s girlfriend is waiting to visit. We see the attraction and jealousy that will push this love triangle. A prison escape is planned with Coyle’s help, but Coyle knows his friend will never make it, at least that is his plan. When our protagonist escapes, he doesn’t have anywhere to hide out, so he goes to his caseworker’s house. Soon our love triangle goes on a road trip, trying to get away from the police and meet up with our crime boss who owes our hero $50,000. What woman will win our hero’s heart? Will he get away? Will he get his $50,000?

This is a very good little film worth watching for film noir fans. Though all three leads are well done, I have to say Raymond Burr is the stand out in this film for me. The scene where he throws a flaming liquid onto a female night club goer is one of the most vicious scenes I’ve seen in a while. Does this scene foretell his characters own fate?

World War II-Set Neo-Noir ‘Shanghai’ Finally Gets U.S. Release



Five years after it bowed in China, Shanghai, director Mikael Håfström’s neo-noir set during the Japanese occupation of China in World War II, will finally see theatrical release in the United States, The Weinstein Company has announced. Though it hit Chinese theaters in the summer of 2010, the film has never been released stateside; TWC is giving it a limited theatrical run starting August 21, 2015.

The film follows American Naval intelligence agent Paul (John Cusack), who visits the city in December, 1941 to investigate the murder of his friend Connor (Jeffrey Dean Morgan). His investigation leads to involvement with both Japanese occupying authorities and with the Chinese resistance, culminating in a deadly confrontation just as the Pearl Harbor attack draws the United States into the war. Along with Cusack and Morgan, Gong Li, Chow Yun-Fat, David Morse, Ken Watanabe, and Franka Potente also star.

Written by Hossein Amini…

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Review: The Unfaithful






Article: The Father of ‘Tartan Noir’

Here is an interesting article on William McIlvanney and his Laidlaw books. I don’t know much about McIlvanney or these books, but this article made me want to read them soon.

Written by Allan Massie for the Wall Street Journal it is worth reading. Here is the link to the full article:

Review: House of Games

David Mamet’s directorial debut is House of Games, a classic neo noir from 1987. Mamet has made some amazing neo noir films through out his career and this first one definitely qualifies.

This film starts out with Margaret Ford, played by Lindsay Crouse(Mamet’s wife at the time). Ford is a psychiatrist and author who is fairly well-known from her book. We see this in the opening scene when she is approached by a stranger who turns out to be a fan that wants her book signed. We see Ford meet with a patient in prison and a friend and colleague at a restaurant. This shows how busy and driven she is. She then meets a patient in her office who has a gambling addiction. He states he owes a bookie $25,000 and if he doesn’t pay by tomorrow, they are going to kill him. Ford goes to meet the bookie named Mike at a pool hall called House of Games. She meets Mike played by Joe Mantegna who is charming and said her patient owes him $800, not $25,000. He offers to forgive the debt if she helps him in a poker game. She does and soon the games begin. Mike is a con man and Ford is fascinated by him and his crew. She decides she would like to follow them around and learn from them for a new book project.

The twists and turns continue in one entertaining scene after another. Mamet’s usual gang of actors make appearances throughout the film like Ricky Jay and William H. Macy.

This film was suppose to be a big budget film with bigger stars, but Mamet decided to direct himself and use his wife and friends as the actors instead. Given that, distributor Orion only released the film in 4 theaters and it basically went straight to video and a television release. Over the years it has found an audience and even received a Criterion DVD release. This film is worth your time if you are a fan of film in general. It is a unique experience where you feel your watching a live play rather than a film in some sense. The language and conversation between the characters is precise and unique. The plot seems to be a very tight con man story,  until the very end where everything falls apart and feels very real.

Favorite Tidbit: This film has already been remade twice! One from Hong Kong and one from India. I have not seen either of these, but it would be interesting to compare all three.

50 International Film Noir Classics That Everyone Should See

I’ve only seen a handful of these films and only heard of about half of them. I look forward to seeing a bunch of these films in the future.


We’ve been spending our summer with private eyes, femmes fatales, and shady gangsters while studying the classic film noir canon with TCM (see our “Into the Darkness” course study group to join in). This week, MoMA will kick off another noir celebration with their Mexico at Midnight film series, highlighting the “ciné negro” from our friends down South.

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