Human Desire, 1954 Original Half Sheet
Human Desire, 1954. Directed by Fritz Lang
Le Bete Humaine, 1938. Directed by Jean Renoir
Zola’s 1890 novel, La Bete Humaine, inspired two murderous film adaptations starring two of my ultimate super faves: Jean Gabin and Gloria Grahame. Too bad they weren’t in the same film.
Personally, I prefer the dark, steamy, gloomy, life is s*%t version filmed on location in Paris by Renoir in 1938 on the eve of World War II. Yes, I agree with the Criterati on this one. Jean Renoir rules.
The Blue Gardenia, original vintage half sheet
The Blue Gardenia, 1953, Directed by Fritz Lang
Based on the short story Gardenia , by Vera Caspary (Laura)
Fritz Lang, the monocle wearing “Master of Darkness” and director of the Steampunk masterpiece * “Metropolis” could also churn out some melodramatic clunkers.
Fritzy is SOOO Steam Punk!
After “fleeing” Berlin with all his moola intact, Fritzy decamped in Paris, then Hollywood in 1936. His first American film “Fury”, instantly cemented his auteur status.
In the years that followed, Lang, more than any other director, influenced the development of film noir style in America. Lang’s dour, depressing, dark depiction of life combined with the sheer volume of flickage set the mode. What set Lang apart from a lot of other dour, dark and depressing German directors was his ability to make his films suspenseful and watchable.
While The City Sleeps, Window Card
While The City Sleeps is based on a 1952 novel by Charles Einstein, The Bloody Spur. Charles Einstein is a famous “Einstein”. Not the smart Einsteins. Not the bagel Einsteins. The secret Hollywood Einsteins. One half-brother, Bob Einstein, is Super Dave Osborn, and the other half-brother, Albert Einstein, is Albert Brooks. Pretty Cool. Charles Einstein (no secret identity) was a Chicago sports writer that specialized in writing about gambling and baseball. But in 1952, he took a leap and wrote a book about the lurid Chicago Lipstick murders. At one murder scene the killer left a message scrawled in red lipstick:
For heavens
sake catch me
before I kill more
I cannot control myself.
The book was a mega- hit.
Hollywood came knocking. Fritz Lang signed a 2-picture deal with Einstein. However, by the time he and his screen writer were done in 1956, changes were made. Less emphasis on the murderer (John Barrymore, Jr.*), more on the rakish news crews.
Lang skewers the media mercilessly with his accomplished cast of newsy narcissists. By the end of the film most feel more sympathy for the wacko sex crazed killer than the line-up of back-stabbing reporters in a killer finding contest. So TMZ!
Woman in the Window, 1944, Window Card
The noir world is filled with dangerous femme fatales. Unscrupulous. Scheming. Seductive women. And the men? Just innocent putty in their hands. Often driven crazy by love, longing and jealousy to do things they would normally never do.
The scene: A stunning brunette temptress meets up with her agent for an afternoon rendezvous. A few hours later the lovers linger at her car before they separate for the day. Suddenly, her jealous husband appears and shoots her lover’s nuts off — Bang! Bang ! Bang!…
Opphs. I forgot. That’s Joan Bennett’s story — NOT the plot for Fritz Lang’s, The Woman in the Window. Oh well, sometimes it’s hard to keep all these story lines straight. Back to my tale.
Official PR version: Joan’s agent is recovering nicely from gunshot wounds due to this “mis-understanding”. Joan swears nothing was going on. They were just having a business meeting. After hubby spends some time in jail, the couple remain married another 14 years.
