The Last Of Sheila (1973)

When Rian Johnson was doing the press rounds for Knives Out and discussing “Whodunnit” influences, one title he would offer, which I’d never even heard of before, was The Last Of Sheila (1973). It has the distinction of being written by actor Anthony Perkins and musical composer Stephen Sondheim, and apparently based on Sondheim’s love […]

The Immortal Story (1968)

The morning after I saw Mank at the cinemas, I was like Fincher Smincher, I want to watch me some Orson Welles! The Immortal Story (1968) was available to stream on Mubi and was the last film that Welles completed in his life time as a director, something he shot for French TV, hence the […]

Johnny Handsome (1989)

I’m a fan of Walter Hill and was in the mood for one of his neo-noir action thrillers. I once had an ex-rental VHS copy of Johnny Handsome (1989) that was my first viewing long ago and my memory was that it was a three star movie – good but maybe not essential. I found […]

The Stranger (1946)

The Orson Welles film, The Stranger (1946), which he directed and starred in, has always been around. Without a copyright holder, it’s long been in the public domain, and has shown up on public access TV, cheap DVDs, different streaming sites, and uploaded on YouTube. Held up as a classic film noir, the first that […]

The Drowning Pool (1975)

I was in the mood for some 1970s neo-noir and this fit the bill. Harper was a 1960s private eye flick starring Paul Newman as Lew Harper, a character from a series of Ross Macdonald novels. I saw it awhile back and I remember it intentionally reviving the 1940s Humphrey Bogart PI mould for a […]