Where Danger Lives

  8.5.5 “C’MON DIANA, MAKE WITH THE TONSILS.” Believed to be a lost film for decades, 1945’s Why Girls Leave Home recently became findable for those who know where to look for such ...

http://wheredangerlives.blogspot.com/2020/12/why-girls-leave-home-1945.html

A BLACK WIDOW WITHOUT A MATE IS JUST ANOTHER SPIDER. A man is on the run through the wet, deserted streets of lower Manhattan. He scuttles into the shadows cast by a stairwell just as a pr...

http://wheredangerlives.blogspot.com/2020/05/no-questions-asked-1951.html

Ten years, 1,000,000 hits, and a book later!  Just about ten years ago, when this blog was in its infancy, I garnered some attention by counting down the 100 best film noir posters in a seri...

http://wheredangerlives.blogspot.com/2011/05/100-greatest-movie-posters-of-film-noir.html

This interview was originally published in The Comics Journal .  “I’m a terrible writer, is what it is,” Graham Chaffee tells me—but I don’t believe him. The cartoonist, who s...

http://wheredangerlives.blogspot.com/2020/03/a-chat-noir-with-graham-chaffee.html

Champion is usually described as a cautionary tale about the bitter price of ruthless ambition. Rubbish. The character of Midge Kelly is heroic, admirable, and downright glorious. A rotten...

http://wheredangerlives.blogspot.com/2009/12/champion-1949.html

“YOU CANNOT BE KIND TO CONGENITAL CRIMINALS LIKE THESE. THEY WOULD SHOW YOU NO MERCY. LET THEM FEEL THE FULL IMPACT OF THE LAW.” Back in the days before the no-holds-barred speedway/p...

http://wheredangerlives.blogspot.com/2017/08/highway-301-1950.html

Hi everyone! I haven’t been very active lately, and the reason was just released by Fantagraphics  this week. My newest book, Take That, Adolf! The Fighting Comic Books of the Second World War...

http://wheredangerlives.blogspot.com/2017/04/a-new-book-by-yours-truly.html

Lawrence Tierney’s hallowed reputation as the real-life embodiment of a film noir tough guy endears him to most movie fans and generally insulates him from criticism. Hard core enthusiasts...

http://wheredangerlives.blogspot.com/2016/06/bodyguard-1948.html

It opens, this thing, on death row. A nameless penitentiary squats next to a river that turns over and over, churning like the guts of the suckers wasting away inside its walls. Three hours ...

http://wheredangerlives.blogspot.com/2016/05/i-wouldnt-be-in-your-shoes-1948.html

Here’s a 30 poster set of film noir posters featuring the one and only Robert Ryan. The great actor bore little resemblance to many of the characters he played — though everyone knows he was ...

http://wheredangerlives.blogspot.com/2015/10/film-noir-movie-posters-robert-ryan.html

Talk about a sheep in wolf’s clothing. Two of a Kind, released by Columbia in 1951, is a perfect example of how a Hollywood ending can derail a promising noir. The premise is enticing: thre...

http://wheredangerlives.blogspot.com/2010/04/two-of-kind-1951.html

In order to understand how important typecasting was in classic Hollywood, how it could make or break a movie — even a cheap B picture with a twelve-day shooting schedule — look no furt...

http://wheredangerlives.blogspot.com/2015/02/out-of-storm-1948.html

AT LONG LAST, A NEW COUNTDOWN — A ONE-SHOT! Here are the thirty best US (or British) one-sheets for the films of Alfred Hitchcock. Given that Hitch directed more than sixty features I had h...

http://wheredangerlives.blogspot.com/2014/10/the-30-greatest-alfred-hitchcock-movie.html

I’m not much of a self-promoter so I promise to only do this once! My new book from Fantagraphics, Film Noir 101, has just been released. The book is available in stores and on Amazon , Barnes...

http://wheredangerlives.blogspot.com/2014/08/film-noir-101-is-here.html

I haven’t written much about Cleo Moore or Hugo Haas aside from an earlier essay on The Other Woman , in spite of seeing the lion’s share of their respective pictures. I’ve always inte...

http://wheredangerlives.blogspot.com/2014/07/over-exposed-1956.html

“Around the clock you will rescue children from unfit homes, neglectful parents, and crime provoking surroundings. On patrol of public parks, playgrounds, and schoolyards, you will keep a ...

http://wheredangerlives.blogspot.com/2014/06/women-from-headquarters-1950.html

Herbert Yates’s Republic Pictures sprung to life after the merger of several Poverty Row studios (Monogram, Majestic, Mascot, Liberty, Chesterfield, and Invincible) under Yates’s leadership. ...

http://wheredangerlives.blogspot.com/2014/05/50-extraordinary-noir-and-crime-posters.html

Nobody could deliver a line quite like Dan Duryea. My favorite comes in 1949’s Manhandled , when his slimy, gum-chewing private detective brags, “You’re not talking to a cluck Charlie....

http://wheredangerlives.blogspot.com/2014/03/the-bad-good-good-bad-guy-dan-duryea-in.html

I’m beginning to appreciate the inventive ways that George Blair uses his camera so much that I find myself paying more attention to his technique than I am to the story he’s trying to t...

http://wheredangerlives.blogspot.com/2014/02/end-of-road-1944.html

“To beat somebody with your fists doesn’t make you anybody. On the other hand, a shiv gives you real authority.” What a great line that is—hardboiled and hopelessly nostalgic. ...

http://wheredangerlives.blogspot.com/2014/02/federal-agent-at-large-1950.html

One of the joys of cultivating an interest in film history lies in the discovery of a marvelous yet forgotten film or filmmaker, such as Hugo Haas and his 1954 film noir The Other Woman. The...

http://wheredangerlives.blogspot.com/2010/03/other-woman-1954.html

I tend to celebrate B movies here, and I’m seldom as critical as I could be. But even I have to take my shots at The Clay Pigeon.  Jim Fletcher (Bill Williams) wakes up in a military...

http://wheredangerlives.blogspot.com/2013/10/the-clay-pigeon-1949.html

Here’s a large set of B movie babes (girls and posters, take your pick) to tide you over for a while. Here’s looking at you, Cleo Moore! Right click all you like, but please link back to me...

http://wheredangerlives.blogspot.com/2013/10/peroxide-posters-batch-of-b-crime.html

Sorry I’ve been away for a while — a publisher has approached me about doing a film noir book (Yay blogging!) and it has been taking the lion’s share of my free time! Here’s a great set...

http://wheredangerlives.blogspot.com/2013/09/film-noir-movie-posters-lizabeth-scott.html

Film noir’s definition may be as elusive as ever, but we can say with confidence that noir confronted the harsh realities of the postwar world more immediately than other kinds of Holly...

http://wheredangerlives.blogspot.com/2013/07/violence-1947.html