Happy November, or, as Phoenix Art Museum is calling it, NOIRvember. This weekend PhxArt wraps up a quick series of great Hollywood “film noirs.” The genre is often defined as crime films seen more from the point of view of the criminal than the cop (except in the not uncommon cases where the cop is a criminal). Really, it just means a cool crime film, usually though not always in black and white, often though not always with “hard-boiled” narration.
The PhxArt series concludes at 8 p.m. Wednesday, November 19, with The Killing, Stanley Kubrick’s fine, brutal 1956 caper thriller about an ill-fated racetrack robbery with Sterling Hayden, Colleen Gray and the ever-luckless Elisha Cook, Jr. Then NOIRvember closes at 8 p.m. on Saturday, November 22, with, arguably, the original noir: John Huston’s 1941 The Maltese Falcon.
This was, at any rate, the earliest of the five movies to which the French critic Nino Frank applied the term “film noir” back in 1946 (the others were Laura, Murder, My Sweet, Double Indemnity and The Woman in the Window). It’s also one of the best of its kind, whatever name you choose to call the genre.
Adapted from Dashiell Hammett’s 1930 novel, it’s the tale of how San Francisco gumshoe Sam Spade (Humphrey Bogart) gets caught up with a ring of shady characters obsessed with obtaining the title McGuffin, a figurine of a bird of incalculable value. Spade is (or poses as) a tough, cynical, amoral sort, and holds his own against the gang: oh-so-vulnerable femme fatale Brigid O’Shaughnessy (Mary Astor), fussy Joel Cairo (Peter Lorre), nervous young “gunsel” Wilmer Cook (Elisha Cook, Jr. again) and jolly, lethal gentleman-thief Caspar Gutman (Sydney Greenstreet).
Every one of these performances and several others in the film – like Lee Patrick as Sam’s loyal secretary Effie – is an instant classic; if they seem like stereotypical stock figures to modern audiences, it’s because they were largely responsible for establishing the stereotypes. This is the quintessential screen incarnation of Bogart’s pure tough guy persona; he works here without the gallant, romantic side he shows in Casablanca.
Under Huston’s amazingly confident direction – it was his directorial debut – these actors make the near-opaque exposition that they spew at each other a pleasure, whether you can follow it or not. There’s little real action; much of the movie consists of the characters describing (often dishonestly) stuff that’s already happened. Yet the film maintains its tension and wit throughout; on its own terms it’s close to perfect.
Tickets for the two evening shows are $8 (free to museum members); go to phxart.org for details.
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Spooky movie season has wound down; time now for holiday movies. Thanksgiving flicks form a smaller subset of this category than Christmas movies, but there are a few worth revisiting (my annual favorite is Gurinder Chadha’s What’s Cooking? from 2000). This coming week, the Majestic Tempe 7 offers another sweet and funny one: Planes, Trains and Automobiles.
In light of our country’s ongoing travel woes, this hit from 1987, written and directed by John Hughes, might strike a particular chord. It stars Steve Martin as Neal, an executive trying to get from a business meeting in New York to his home in Chicago in time for Thanksgiving dinner.
As you might guess, the trip is not smooth sailing. Fate throws Neal together with Del, a friendly but obnoxious traveling salesman played by the great John Candy. The two encounter wacky miseries on the road as they creep toward the Windy City, and the clock creeps ever closer to turkey dinnertime.
This episodic movie is sentimental, and like many Hughes films, it carries a whiff of his unapologetic sense of the suburban upper middle class as an aspirational paradise. But Planes, Trains and Automobiles squares off two of the greatest comic actors of their generation. Martin’s huffy irritability is funny in itself, but also a perfect foil for Candy’s relentless, maddening yet lovable good cheer. Their chemistry is undeniable, and their struggle is undeniably relatable.
Planes, Trains and Automobiles plays at 7 p.m. 7 p.m. Tuesday, November 18, at Majestic Tempe 7. Go to majesticphx.com for details.
