I watched at least part of Double Indemnity a year or two ago. Liked it a lot and really thought it stood out as a good film that should be as revered as the Maltese Falcon (which is good, but...
I watched at least part of Double Indemnity a year or two ago. Liked it a lot and really thought it stood out as a good film that should be as revered as the Maltese Falcon (which is good, but sort of a flawed film in the way the ending goes for the audience).
I really like The Big Sleep, which at least in the film version leaves some loose threads as well. But I think it has some of the best, as well as most humorous lines of any noir/crime film.
Young woman (Lauren Bacall): "Tall, aren't you?"
Marlowe (Bogart): "I didn't mean to be." ("Standing tall" is slang for being honest ... and he's not very.)
and also...
Marlowe (Bogart): "I don't mind if you don't like my manners. They're pretty bad. I grieve over them during the long winter evenings."
All the stuff Raymond Chandler came up with (or stole, as the case may be) is just great. I watched his The Lady in the Lake the other night and it was pretty good, too.
Good stuff all around, thanks for sharing this post!
There's no doubt in my mind that The Maltese Falcon is an excellent and important noir featuring Humphrey Bogart - - who was basically the answer to the question "What if noir could talk?"....
There's no doubt in my mind that The Maltese Falcon is an excellent and important noir featuring Humphrey Bogart - - who was basically the answer to the question "What if noir could talk?". However, Double Indemnity is a universal masterpiece that is in in another level entirely.
I'm not sure if The Maltese Falcon is more revered than Double Indemnity. It may be more influent in the sense that a lot of parodies and homages seem to draw inspiration from it. Just checked and Falcon has a lower score and a lower amount of ratings on IMDB. Not by much though.
I like that you mention dialogue. It seems that most of the noir online fandom is obsessed with cinematography to the detriment of other relevant aspects. I mean, sure, everyone loves a good chiaroscuro, but there is more to noir than penumbra and high contrast.
For me, the dialog is what really makes the stories be fully engrossing. A lot of movies I can do work while I "watch." With The Big Sleep, or noir-adjacent shows like Nero Wolfe, I'm fully...
For me, the dialog is what really makes the stories be fully engrossing. A lot of movies I can do work while I "watch." With The Big Sleep, or noir-adjacent shows like Nero Wolfe, I'm fully engaged and loving every minute of it. Nero Wolfe is one of my favorite shows and I think the Timothy Hutton stuff is perfect. If I won the lottery, I'd spend most of it on world peace. The rest would be a bribe to Timothy Hutton to make some more screenplays out of Rex Stout's 50+ books.
On that note, I've never read any of Raymond Chandler's books. It's something I'll have to do, but I think it'll be like Nero Wolfe where the version on screen is a perfected version of the story. But it'll be fun to visit the original material and see how things have changed and what the original development looked like. The internecine and WW2 era is also just really interesting and seeing English evolve is cool!
Well, one thing I noticed the one time I read Chandler was that (that one book) felt more like a collection of short stories that were somewhat independent from each other (although connected). So...
Well, one thing I noticed the one time I read Chandler was that (that one book) felt more like a collection of short stories that were somewhat independent from each other (although connected). So that can be either good or bad depending on the reader.
I watched at least part of Double Indemnity a year or two ago. Liked it a lot and really thought it stood out as a good film that should be as revered as the Maltese Falcon (which is good, but sort of a flawed film in the way the ending goes for the audience).
I really like The Big Sleep, which at least in the film version leaves some loose threads as well. But I think it has some of the best, as well as most humorous lines of any noir/crime film.
Young woman (Lauren Bacall): "Tall, aren't you?"
Marlowe (Bogart): "I didn't mean to be." ("Standing tall" is slang for being honest ... and he's not very.)
and also...
Marlowe (Bogart): "I don't mind if you don't like my manners. They're pretty bad. I grieve over them during the long winter evenings."
All the stuff Raymond Chandler came up with (or stole, as the case may be) is just great. I watched his The Lady in the Lake the other night and it was pretty good, too.
Good stuff all around, thanks for sharing this post!
There's no doubt in my mind that The Maltese Falcon is an excellent and important noir featuring Humphrey Bogart - - who was basically the answer to the question "What if noir could talk?". However, Double Indemnity is a universal masterpiece that is in in another level entirely.
I'm not sure if The Maltese Falcon is more revered than Double Indemnity. It may be more influent in the sense that a lot of parodies and homages seem to draw inspiration from it. Just checked and Falcon has a lower score and a lower amount of ratings on IMDB. Not by much though.
I like that you mention dialogue. It seems that most of the noir online fandom is obsessed with cinematography to the detriment of other relevant aspects. I mean, sure, everyone loves a good chiaroscuro, but there is more to noir than penumbra and high contrast.
For me, the dialog is what really makes the stories be fully engrossing. A lot of movies I can do work while I "watch." With The Big Sleep, or noir-adjacent shows like Nero Wolfe, I'm fully engaged and loving every minute of it. Nero Wolfe is one of my favorite shows and I think the Timothy Hutton stuff is perfect. If I won the lottery, I'd spend most of it on world peace. The rest would be a bribe to Timothy Hutton to make some more screenplays out of Rex Stout's 50+ books.
On that note, I've never read any of Raymond Chandler's books. It's something I'll have to do, but I think it'll be like Nero Wolfe where the version on screen is a perfected version of the story. But it'll be fun to visit the original material and see how things have changed and what the original development looked like. The internecine and WW2 era is also just really interesting and seeing English evolve is cool!
Well, one thing I noticed the one time I read Chandler was that (that one book) felt more like a collection of short stories that were somewhat independent from each other (although connected). So that can be either good or bad depending on the reader.