Veronica Lake captivated audiences in the 1940s with her peek-a-boo hairstyle, but she was much more than a decorative presence. On this episode of “The Online Movie Show,” film historian Geno Cuddy returns to discuss Lake’s place in cinema history.
Tag Archives: Film Noir
The Road to ‘Detour’
On this episode, “The Online Movie Show” takes a look at Edgar G. Ulmer’s 1945 film noir classic “Detour.” The guest commentator is writer and film noir expert Jeffrey Cintolo.
Back to the Wharf (Feng Ping Lang Jing) (2020) [Fantasia Film Festival 2021]
A teen who went on the run returns home fifteen years later and finds himself pulled back into what had him leave in the first place.
The Lady from Shanghai: A Noir Odyssey
This week, “The Online Movie Show” podcast takes a new look at Orson Welles’ “The Lady From Shanghai” through a film noir lens. Writer Jeffrey Cintolo is the episode’s guest.
Native Son (1951)
Few films have experienced a more tortured history than the 1951 version of “Native Son,” based on Richard Wright’s 1940 novel. While Wright’s work achieved best-seller status and would be adapted into a Broadway production by Orson Welles and John Houseman, Hollywood studios would only consider a cinematic version if the central character of a disenfranchised African American was changed into an ethnic white man. Continue reading
The Glory of Film Noir
It was a shadowy world of tough guys and tougher dames, where trust was routinely betrayed and gunfire ended differences of opinions. Writer Jeffrey Cintolo joins “The Online Movie Show” to discuss the classics of the film noir genre and its lingering appeal.
Trapped (1949)
Richard Fleischer’s 1949 thriller, made at the low-budget Eagle-Lion Studios, offers all of the virtues and all of the vices of the old-school B-movies. Mercifully, the film’s virtues ultimately turn this into a mini-triumph.
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The Bootleg Files: Christmas Holiday
BOOTLEG FILES 618: “Christmas Holiday” (1944 noir drama starring Deanna Durbin and Gene Kelly).
LAST SEEN: It is on YouTube.
AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: None.
REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: It is unclear what happened.
CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: It’s possible.
During the late 1930s and early 1940s, Deanna Durbin was the reigning teen queen of Universal Pictures’ musicals – which made her something of a big fish in a small pond, considering musicals were not really that studio’s forte. Nonetheless, audiences loved the pretty Canadian-born star with the peerless soprano singing voice, and Universal loved that audiences loved her. But the love did not extend to Durbin herself, who bristled at the saccharine persona created by her employers. She derided her screen image as “Little Miss Fixit who bursts into song,” claiming that films like “One Hundred Men and Girl” and “Mad About Music” created a corny image that “represented the ideal daughter that millions of fathers and daughters wished they had.”