James Dalrymple

True story: I was playing this very track when I got a phone call from a PR person whose name was... Kowalski.

Funny that was one I was also expecting to see but didn't find. Great list though

Unwatched international film noir/neo noir An ongoing TBW list of international, ie, non-US, film noir/neo noir. By no means complete, a work in progress.

For those who really, really want to go down the international film noir/neo noir watch hole this #noirvember, check out my @letterboxd.social list of related films. By no means complete and, somehow, I doubt it ever will be.

letterboxd.com/andrewnette/...

nice,we can compare notes!

Very funny so far: "'Harold', said Edith, 'I simply do not know anyone who has a lifestyle. What does it mean? It implies that everything you own was bought at exactly the same time, about five years ago, at the most.'"

fabulous!

The hardback dust jacket of Anita Brookner's 1984 Booker prize winning novel Hotel du Lac, published by Jonathan Cape

Reading my mum's old hardback copy of this
💙📚 #booksky

Unfortunately everything else depends on good quality sleep rest, which is very sporadic for me

I still open birthday and Xmas cards expecting a tenner to fall out. It hasn't happened for 35 years, but I'm hopeful.

Story of my life!

A ★★★★ review of Murder, My Sweet (1944) RKO had a track record of turning out budget films that looked a million dollars. One of the keys lay in the casting. For Murder, My Sweet, they hired Dick Powell and Claire Trevor, two actors with in...

A rewatch for #Noirvember - Dick Powell is a revelatory Philip Marlowe in MURDER, MY SWEET - my Letterboxd review #FilmSky
boxd.it/aKBEPr

brill, have a good one

💪 you love to see it!

enjoy! (assuming your not just doing it because you don't want people bothering you while you are at work!)

The beatification of Martin Scorsese A new documentary series turns the director into a Hollywood saint – and dulls some of his brilliance

My new piece for @thenewworldmag.bsky.social

www.thenewworld.co.uk/john-bleasda...

Child of All Nations by Irmgard Keun (tr. Michael Hofmann) Born in Berlin in 1905, the German writer Irmgard Keun rose to prominence in the early 1930s with her striking novels Gilgi, One of Us (1931) and The Artificial Silk Girl (1932), both of which I lo…

New on the blog this week, I've written about CHILD OF ALL NATIONS by Irmgard Keun (tr. Michael Hofmann).

A striking coming-of-age story of exile in 1930s Europe, told through an engaging narrative voice. #GermanLitMonth #BookSky 💙📚

jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2025/11/18/c...

My Days of 58, by Bill Callahan 12 track album

It's a new Bill Callahan song, with a new Bill Callahan album to come. "I've been living too long in my head..."

billcallahan.bandcamp.com/album/my-day...

The long history of Chinese food in Britain The view that the British subsisted on overcooked vegetables until the Eighties is a tenet of faith for many, but the reality is more nuance...

What I find particularly interesting here is the insight that servicemen returned from war in the Pacific with a taste for Asian food. That's a useful corrective to the consensus view that the Fifties took place entirely in black and white.

Yes, I don't mind just letting a film like that wash over me. I don't have to understand everything to enjoy it

Yeah i definitely think I could crack this one in half an hour. The Big Sleep, I'm not so sure

noted, thanks Peter

I haven't, no. Mitchum in a tussle with Russell? Sold!

We're excited to report that at the 45th British Association for Screen Entertainment awards last week, we picked up awards for Watership Down (Best in Class: Bonus Features) and Seven Samurai (Best in Class: 4K UHD)! Thanks to everyone who has bought, contributed and supported our releases over the years.

Pretty amazing to see two releases from the BFI that I provided essays for won awards the other day

Out of The Past review by Barry Gifford “This is one of the most well-known noir melodramas, and deservedly so, because it's one of the best. The plot is overcompli-cated but it works largely due to the smooth interplay of the cast and the deft manner in which director Tourneur runs them in and out like substitutions in a football game, always keeping a fresh back in to carry the ball. Mitchum is making a new life for himself as Jeff Bailey, operating a filling station in a town in the Sierra foothills. He's courting a nice local girl and has a mute boy for an assistant. When a former crony passes through and recognizes him as Jeff Markham, private eye, the jig is up. The guy tells Mitchum the big boss, Kirk Douglas, for whom Mitchum once worked, wants to see him. Mitchum drives to Tahoe to see Douglas, and on the way relates his story to Ann, his girlfriend. Douglas had hired”

“Mitchum to track down his, Douglas's, mistress, Kathie (played by Jane Greer), who'd stolen $40,000 from him and skipped the country. Mitchum tound her in Acapuico, but fell for her and they ran off together to San Francisco to live, Mitchum believing her story that she hadn't stolen the money. But of course she had, and following a bizarre series of events she winds up back with Douglas, leaving Mitchum in the cold. Greer is great as the conniving, sexy bitch, a terrific liar who tries to convince Mitchum that Douglas is keeping her with him in Tahoe now against her will. When Douglas tries to frame Mitchum fora couple of murders (one committed by Greer), he goes back to the little town in the mountains. But Greer won't let him go. She persuades Mitchum to run off again with her but the cops come after them and they're killed. Mitchum has had his mute kid helper convey to Ann, Mitchum's nice girl, that he really loved Greer so that Ann can go on with her life, free of sad thoughts about him. This is all wildly improbable, as with most movies like it, but some of the scenes are absolutely brilliant and don't fade: most notably the Mexico sequence with Greer wrapping Mitchum around her finger, seducing him like some elegant reptile, repulsive but fas-cinating, swallowing him whole. Mitchum is a decent enough big lug, his sleepy expression disguising his excitement until Greer gives him the big bite and takes him down for the count. She's a spiky little vixen, sharp nails, eyes, edges. She sets up the picture so well, presenting herself as the sweetest piece of pussy in the western world, when it's obvious she's a super illu-sionist, doing more fucking with her mind than her body. A bad-news woman. No wonder Mitchum gets so disgusted, both with her and himself. He thinks he's not really good enough for the good Ann, and the only way he can square himself with himselis to throw her off him forever. The classic shot here is of a bad dame dragging a good man down, but I…

“moonlight, foggy Frisco; Greer makes a great Cobra Woman and Mitchum the perfect foil. Remade as Against All Odds with Jeff Bridges and Rachel Ward, a movie devoid of soul, in which Jane Greer plays Rachel Ward's mother. Tourneur did it right the first time.”

Out of the Past book cover - by Barry Gifford

Here’s Barry Gifford’s slightly off colour write up in the fun collection of noir reviews, appropriately titled…Out of the Past

seems pretty colourful to me: "the sweetest piece of pussy in the western world" 😆

yeah, it does a bit. Although it reminds me a little of the French (neo-)noir Elevator to the Gallows. Out of the Past make sense, but makes it seem like more of a strictly romantic melodrama

he he, they didn't like the name change?

Noted! Thanks John

Jeff: That's not the way to win.
Kathie: Is there a way to win?
Jeff: There's a way to lose more slowly.

I haven't seen that or the 1978 version of The Big Sleep. It's funny to think they were making those in parallel with the neo-noir of the New Hollywood