Search
-
Recent Posts
- Blowback: late 1960s and 1970s pulp and popular fiction about the Vietnam War
- Book review: Thailand’s Movie Theatres – Relics, Ruins and the Romance of Escape
- Melbourne launch details for Sticking it to the Man: Revolution and Counterculture in Pulp and Popular Fiction, 1950-1980
- Pulp Friday: Cruising
- “The Horror Never Leaves My Mind”: Ian Sharp’s ‘Who Dares Wins’
- The Evil Touch talk at the Australian National Film & Sound Archive
- “There is no phone ringing, dammit!” Projection Booth episode 422 : The Omega Man
- Early praise for Sticking it to the Man: Revolution and the Counterculture in Pulp and Popular Fiction, 1950-1980
- The weird and wonderful history of the Logie Awards
- A Time For Violence: Stories with an Edge
Categories
- 60s American crime films
- 70s American crime films
- 80s American crime films
- 90s American crime films
- Adrian McKinty
- Albert Dekker
- Andre De Toth
- Angela Savage
- Angie Dickinson
- Anthony Zerbe
- Asian noir
- Australian crime fiction
- Australian crime film
- Australian noir
- Australian popular culture
- Australian pulp fiction
- Australian television history
- Ava Gardner
- Beat culture
- Belmont Tower Books
- Bill Hunter
- Black pulp fiction
- Blaxsploitation
- Book cover design
- Book Reviews
- British crime cinema
- British pulp fiction
- Bryan Brown
- Burt Lancaster
- Carter Brown
- Charles Durning
- Charles Willeford
- Chester Himes
- Christopher G Moore
- Christopher Lee
- Cinema culture
- Coronet Books
- Crawford Productions
- Crime Factory
- Crime Factory Publications
- Crime fiction
- Crime fiction and film from Africa
- Crime fiction and film from Cambodia
- Crime fiction and film from China
- Crime fiction and film from India
- Crime fiction and film from Indonesia
- Crime fiction and film from Japan
- Crime fiction and film from Laos
- Crime fiction and film from Malaysia
- Crime fiction and film from Mexico
- Crime fiction and film from Scandinavia
- Crime fiction and film from Singapore
- Crime fiction and film from South Korea
- Crime fiction and film from Thailand
- Crime fiction and film from the Philippines
- Crime Fiction and film set in Vietnam
- Crime film
- David Goodis
- David Peace
- David Whish-Wilson
- Dennis Wheatley
- Derek Raymond
- Don Siegel
- Don Winslow
- Donald Westlake aka Richard Stark
- Dystopian cinema
- Emerging Writers' Festival
- Ernest Borgnine
- Eurocrime
- Fawcett Gold Medal Books
- Femme fatale
- Fernando Di Leo
- Filipino genre films
- Film Noir
- Forgotten Melbourne
- Garry Disher
- Gene Hackman
- George V Higgins
- Ghost Money
- Giallo cinema
- Gil Brewer
- Girl Gangs, Biker Boys and Real Cool Cats: Pulp Fiction & Youth Culture, 1950-1980
- Gloria Grahame
- Gold Star Publications
- Gunshine State
- Heist films
- Horror
- Horwitz Publications
- Humphrey Bogart
- Ian Fleming
- Interviews
- James Caan
- James Crumley
- James Ellroy
- James Woods
- Jim Brown
- Jim Thompson
- Jo Nesbo
- Joel Edgerton
- Joseph Losey
- Kerry Greenwood
- Kinji Fukasaku
- Larry Kent
- Lee Marvin
- Leigh Redhead
- Lindy Cameron
- M Emmet Walsh
- Mad Max
- Mafia
- Malla Nunn
- Martin Limon
- Megan Abbott
- Melbourne International Film Festival
- Melbourne Writers Festival
- Men's Adventure Magazines
- Michael Caine
- Michael Fassbender
- Monarch Books
- Ned Kelly Awards
- Neo Noir
- New English Library
- Newton Thornburg
- Noir Con
- Noir fiction
- Non-crime reviews
- Oren Moverman
- Ozsploitation
- Pan Books
- Parker
- Paul Newman
- Peter Boyle
- Peter Corris
- Peter Strickland
- Pulp fiction
- Pulp fiction in the 70s and 80s
- Pulp fiction set in Asia
- Pulp Friday
- Pulp paperback cover art
- Qui Xiaolong
- Raymond Chandler
- Red Eagle (Insee Daeng)
- Richard Conte
- Robert Aldrich
- Robert Mitchum
- Robert Ryan
- Robert Stone
- Roger Smith
- Rollerball
- Roy Scheider
- Rural noir
- Sam Hawken
- Samuel Fuller
- Science fiction and fantasy
- Scripts Publications
- Simon Harvester
- Snowtown
- Snubnose Press
- Spies
- Stanley Baker
- Sterling Hayden
- Steve McQueen
- Sticking it the the Man Revolution and Counter Culture in Pulp and Popular Fiction 1950 1980
- Stuart Rosenberg
- Sydney Lumet
- Tandem Books
- Tart noir
- Tartan Noir
- Ted Lewis
- Toni Johnson Woods
- True crime
- Vicki Hendricks
- Victor Mature
- Vintage mug shots
- Vintage pulp paperback covers
- Wallace Stroby
- War film
- Westerns
- Woody Strode
- Yakuza films
- Yaphet Kotto
Nothing but noir
Recommended reading
- Angela Savage
- Bitter Tea & Mystery
- Celluloidwickerman
- Cinebeats
- Cinema Retro
- Confessions of a Mystery Novelist
- Dead End Follies
- Detectives Beyond Borders
- MidCenturyCinema
- Rupert Pupkin Speaks
- The Cultural Gutter
- The Last Drive In
- The Passing Tramp
- The Rap Sheet
- Thrilling Detective
- Unlawful Acts
- We Are the Mutants
The lurid world of pulp
- American Pulps
- Bear Alley
- Bloody, Spicy, Books
- Comics Down Under
- Everything second hand
- Existential Ennui
- Greenleaf Classic Books
- Killer Covers
- Lost Classics of Teen Lit 1939-1989
- Men's Pulp Mags
- Mporcius Fiction Log
- Paperback Warrior
- Pop Sensation
- Pulp artists
- Pulp Covers
- Pulp Crazy
- Pulp International
- Pulp Magazines Project
- Realms of the Night
- Rough Edges
- Science Fiction and Other Suspect Ruminations
- Sin Street Sleaze
- Spy Guys and Gals
- Temple of Schlock
- The department of Afro American Research Arts & Culture
- The Dusty Bookcase
- The Haunted World of Richard Sala
- The Moon Lens
- The Nick Carter & Carter Brown Blog
- The Paperback Film Projector
- The Pulp & Paperback Fiction Reader
- Too Much Horror Fiction
- Treasures and Musings @ Modern Graphic History Library
- Vault of Horror
- Vintage Romance Novels
- Welcome to the Pan Paperback
- Yellow and Creased
- Zontar of Venus
Tag Archives: Walter Hill
MIFF report back #2: The Neon Demon
It is easy, indeed, tempting, to over analyse Nicolas Wendig Refn’s latest film, the fashion satire/psychological horror The Neon Demon, currently showing at the 2016 Melbourne International Film Festival. It is a film that doesn’t stand up to too close a critical scrutiny. It is also one that, as far as I am concerned, did not require it as a condition of my enjoyment.
Jesse (Elle Fanning) is the latest in a long queue stretching back into the last century, of wide eyed female ingénues fresh off the bus/plane/train and desperate to make it in Tinsel Town. She has her sights set on cracking the cutthroat world of high fashion modelling. In an industry where nineteen is considered on the verge of being past it as a working model, her non-surgically enhanced natural beauty is enough to make even the most jaded photographer stand up and pay attention.
It is not long before Jesse is taking part in fashion shoots and modelling clothes on major catwalk shows, much to the intense chagrin of other models Gigi (Bella Heathcote) and Sarah (Abbey Lee), also out to do what ever it takes to succeed and incredibly jealous of Jesse’s meteoric rise. Gigi and Sarah are also insecure, bitchy, cynical and angry, further alienating them from Jesse, who exudes an air of clam self-confidence and poise. … Read more
Posted in 70s American crime films, 80s American crime films, Giallo cinema, Horror, Melbourne International Film Festival
Tagged Abbey Lee, Bella Heathcote, Blood and Black Lace (1964), Day of the Locust (1979), Drive (2011), Elle Fanning, Jenna Malone, Karl Glusman, Keanu Reeves, Mario Bava, Melbourne International Film Festival 2016, Mulholland Drive (2001), Neon Demon (2016), Nicolas Wendig Refn, Show Girls (1995), Suspiria (1977), The Eyes of Laura Mars (1978), The Grasshopper (1970), Valley of the Dolls (1967), Walter Hill
The Don Siegel Rule
I had to give it a name, so I called it the Don Siegel Rule.
I was watching Charley Varrick recently, the 1973 heist film directed by Siegel, starring Walter Matthau as an ex-crop duster and stunt pilot turned bank who, along with his long suffering girlfriend, Nadine, and unreliable partner, robs a small bank in New Mexico. Unbeknownst to Varrick, the bank in question is actually a front for the mob. In response, the mob sends a hit man (played by Joe Don Baker) after him.
It’s a terrific little heist film. Tough in all the right places, just enough action and suspense to keep you interested, without the kind of over the top action gimmicks similar films exhibit these days. Matthau is terrific as the hangdog loner, Varrick.
Anyway, it got me thinking. There may be bad Siegel films out there, but I haven’t seen them.
Siegel was the king of the intelligent B movie (a title he shares with directors such as Walter Hill). His films have enormous energy and pace, but they also have an economy. Watching Siegel’s films, time and again he’s been able to get above obvious budget and script limitations to tell a gripping story.
The journeyman director cut his teeth making Westerns and noirs in the late forties and early fifties, and then pretty much excelled at whatever genre he tried.… Read more
Posted in Angie Dickinson, Crime film, Don Siegel, Heist films, Lee Marvin, Michael Caine
Tagged Charles Bronson, Charley Varrick (1973), Dirty Harry (1971), Don Siegel, Donald Pleasence, Hell is For Heroes (1964), Invasion of the Body Snatches (1956), Janet Suzman, Joe Don Baker, John Vernon, Lalo Schifrin, Lee Remick, Michael Caine, Point Blank (1967), Robert Siodmak, Telefon (1977), The Black Windmill (1974), The Killers (1946), The Killers (1964), Walter Hill