Fallen Angel v. Where the Sidewalk Ends
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Fallen Angel
PierTwo — 19 years ago(February 02, 2007 05:16 PM)
Wondering which of these to start with. I own "Laura" and "Whirlpool" and I want to move on to some of the other Preminger noirs.
Which one of these two is best? It's hard to find rental copies of these movies, so I may have to buy them to see them. Any comments appreciated. Thanks. -
Noirdame79 — 19 years ago(February 27, 2007 08:16 PM)
I think they're both great, I have all four, but if you want something a little more conventional (noir wise, anyway), I'd advise you to watch "Where The Sidewalk Ends" first, then "Fallen Angel" - the latter is a bit more unconventional - right up there with another Fox noir, "Nightmare Alley".
Enjoy both!
http://vintagestars.proboards67.com -
PierTwo — 19 years ago(March 05, 2007 10:09 AM)
Thanks, Rose. I watched "Where the Sidewalk Ends" over the weekend - liked it a lot. I'm a noir fan, and "Sidewalk" is a really good one. A lot of the classic Noir elements are there - this one is in the "rogue cop" sub-genre, and it's terrific.
I love Preminger's long-take style. He consistently gets good performances from his actors - "Sidewalk" made me appreciate Dana Andrews more than any other film I've seen him in - including "Laura." "Sidewalk" is his show, really, whereas in "Laura" he's one part of an outstanding ensemble.
I've now seen three of Preminger's noirs, and they are all excellent - (though I found "Whirlpool" less compelling than "Laura" and "Sidewalk.") I am looking forward to "Fallen Angel" and will get that soon.
"Nightmare Alley" sounds interesting - not directed by Preminger, I think - I'll have to check that. The "Sidewalk" DVD lists a few other Fox Noir titles - any thoughts on "Call Northside 777" or "Panic in the Streets"? -
yardbirdsraveup — 19 years ago(March 06, 2007 04:21 PM)
"Panic in the Streets" is worth the watch. I saw it a couple of years ago and taped it off of TCM. Even though it is considered a Film Noir, it still lacks a lot of the camera work that was so essential to noir at the time, e.g., deep shadow effects complemented by severe camera angles, you know, "third shift cop" stuff! That aside, it is a well crafted film and it has a host of characters played by a fantastic cast; Richard Widmark, Zero Mostel and, in his very first film role, Jack Palance, the ultimate villain.
I also have a copy of "Nightmare Alley" (1947). Again, this is a great film that utilizes all of the ingredients of noir, namely, those nighttime affects, etc, etc! I've seen this film dozens of times and never tire of watching it. Ty Power is great, along with Joan Blondell. Again, this film is worth the watch. Another one that came out in 1947 was "Kiss of Death", starring Victor Mature. This one is highly recommended too for those into noir.
"Fallen Angel" and "Laura" are two of my favorite noirs. I waited years for the former to come on on VHS and DVD. Finally (!) the powers-that-be decided to market this masterpiece. If you like Gene Tierney and appreciate her beauty, "Laura" gets my vote. But, she is also great in "Whirlpool" and "Dragonwyck" which can be considered film noir, but then is totallly out of character due to the time it depicts. I would say that the noir influence in that film was a result of the popularity of this genre back in the late 40's.
One film I've always wanted to see was "Boomerang" (1947) starring Dana Andrews. Anyone know why this film was taken off the shelves in the DVD world? -
PierTwo — 19 years ago(March 08, 2007 01:06 PM)
Yardbird - thanks for your thoughts.
Re: "Boomerang" What I have read is that it was scheduled to be a Fox Noir Collection release in mid 2006, but because of rights issues that evidently arose late in the process, it was removed from the Fox list just before the scheduled release date. In fact, it seems a limited number of advance ordered copies got sent out - and some of them have been resold on e-bay for outlandish prices.
Reportedly, Eddie Mueller, the Noir specialist/historian who has done the DVD commentaries for a number of famous Noirs (like "Born to Kill" and "Where the Sidewalk Ends") wrote in The Sentinel Magazine that Boomerang has been removed from the Fox list and "anyone who got a copy before the recall has a collector's item." Not sure what he means by "recall," but I do know "Boomerang" was on the Fox list last May, and by December it was gone.
I've read about "Kiss of Death" and am very interested in it. Thanks for your views on that, and "Nightmare Alley" too. I plan to look into that one too.
I've been hearing that Preminger's "Angel Face" (with Robert Mitchum and Jean Simmons) is supposed to be great too. (Somewhat akin to "Leave Her to Heaven.") Any thoughts on "Angel Face" Yardbird, or anyone else? -
Noirdame79 — 19 years ago(March 09, 2007 06:41 PM)
Of the rest of the Fox Noir Line that I have seen, "I Wake Up Screaming", "Kiss Of Death", "The Dark Corner" and "The Street With No Name" are all really great. KOD in particular is very effective - it was filmed almost entirely on location rather than at on the Fox studio lot. Richard Widmark as the laughing killer in KOD is so effective - and chilling! Notice that in IWUS and TDC, the famous "street scene" music theme is used, just as it was in "Where The Sidewalk Ends". I loved that Dana Andrew's daughter Susan participated in the commentary for "Fallen Angel". He was so underappreciated as an actor.
What can I say, I love film noir!
http://vintagestars.proboards67.com -
Ipsissimus — 18 years ago(October 31, 2007 01:47 AM)
I much prefer Where the Sidewalk Ends; Eddie Muller's commentary on it is great. The best thing to me about Fallen Angel is Linda Darnell, who disappears far too quickly. Both good films, though.
"Baby, I don't care." -
freakyfelix — 16 years ago(June 20, 2009 02:25 PM)
"Where are the Sidewalk Ends" and "Fallen Angel" are both pretty great Otto Preminger film noir flicks. Hard to say which is better. One is a cop gone bad story and the other is a mysterious drifter story, so it's like apples and oranges. If I had to, I'd say Fallen Angel was slightly better because of Linda Darnell's mesmerizing standout performance.