FILM NOIR RAMPAGE Twitter thread! I just poured myself a Wild Turkey 101 Bourbon, a large Cherry Coke and tons of ice to post my homage to thirteen 40s&50s Noirs I absolutely love and, coincidentally,I have re-visited in the last 2 years.

I decided to post this thread after reading my buddy’s Phillip Engel’s sweet words for “Blast of Silence” (1961) and “The Big Combo” (1955).

So here are 13 high impact Noirs (9 posted today-and the last 4 tomorrow) I re-watched recently and absolutely loved again (oh-- Lizabeth Scott says hello from my fave Noir photo book. By Koval):

“I Wake Up Screaming”(H. Bruce Humberstone,1941) Breathtaking pace, neck-breaking twists and Noir souls in this awesome Betty Grable/Victor Mature psychological crime combo.Cinematography by ace Edward Cronjager, who also exceled in Technicolor in my adored “Desert Fury”,se below

“This Gun is for Hire”Frank Tuttle,1942). Just looking at the photos below of cold-eyes gun-for-hire Alan Ladd (as Philip Raven) and Veronica Lake of the Koval’s photo-book “Movie Stars Portfolio of the 40s” (a present from my dad decades ago)...

... you get an idea of the high-octane Noir we are dealing with here. There is no possible doubt Jean-Pierre Melville and Alain Delon were inspired in the impossibly cool portrait Alan Ladd makes of the ruthless killer for their "Le Samourai".

“The Phantom Lady” (Robert Siodmak,1944). Siodmak at its best. One of the most stylish and intense Noirs ever, with Woody Bredell as the cinematographer. 2 years later will also DOP’d the absolute masterpiece that was “The Killers”.

But the reason we all LOVE “The Pantom Lady” is Elisha Cook,Jr.’s hysterical drummin’ memento. Here he plays the epitome of the Noir small guy, ugly and sex-starved-- and consequently destroyed by his low instincts. Not very tall but what a gigantic actor and human being.

Nobody has to confirm Kubrick got Cook Jr. his “The Killing” job fascinated by this character in Siodmak’s movie. It is impossible not to see the connection here of a man lost in a planet named desire (or Ella Raines or Marie Windsor or...)

“Decoy”(J.Bernhard,1946).Romance made-in-hell with a superb Jean Gillie obssessed with grabbing the loot hidden by his criminal gangster fiancée after saving him from the gas chamber.Produced x poverty row Monogram Studios the ending at the swamp is as fatalistic as Noir can get.

The climax set up matches any Monogram B-horror movie. Unfortunately Gillie died shortly after, but this role puts her up there with the top femme-fatale of cinema.

“Desert Fury” (Lewis Allen,1947). Passions galore unleashed in this fabulous crime drama whose sexual intensity could give Pornhub a run for its band-with. Noir royalty triangle (Lizabeth Scott (Paula), Burt Lancaster (Eddie), John Hodiack (Tom) are --

on the road to perdition not only for their taste for racketeering casino money,but also because Tom is so infatuated with his partner Eddie that sees Paula as an obstacle for his romantic plans. No bromance here but pure full-fledged lust delivered by the always fantastic Hodiak

Glossy technicolor cinematography by maestro Edward Conjager.

“Ruthless” (Edgar G. Ulmer,1948). Love is a battlefield, and a criminal one here. A labyrinth of passions with some of the most cruel sharp-as-a-scalpel divorce-inducing dialogues ever written on Noir (oh yes), all wrapped in masterful Ullmer’s direction.

"Ruthless" is among my favorite Noir ever; intense, mean, cruel… ruthless indeed to the core. Ulmer and the casting are tops; however the highest point in the movie for me is Sydney Greenstreet playing the super-rich but henpecked fat-and-much-older-husband --

--whose traitorous trophy-wife (Louis Hayward) prefers the warm embrace of the new hustler in town (Zachary Scott) than hubbie’s pathetic wobbly approaches. Next step: crime apocalypse.

“Raw Deal”(Anthony Mann,1948) – Tough as nails Noir hero Dennis O’Keefe delivers big time as the protagonist in one of the most celebrated independent gangster-Noirs ever. And among the most violent also. A scarfaced John Ireland and Raymond Burr are the heavies, and John Alton--

comes up with one of his finest jobs as DOP. Coincidentally, yesterday I saw my other favorite pre-Perry Mason Raymond Burr baddie role: the cruel demonic gangster with a vengeance in Mann’s “Desperate”

“Thieves´Highway” (Jules Dassin,1949). Dassin’s American Noirs are all milestones of the genre. I love this one cause it gives one of the most layered and emotional works of Richard Conte’s career + it has Lee J. Cobb in it -- and it deals with a trucking company racket which--

makes it so dynamic and cool.

“Whirpool” (Otto Preminger,1950). Preminger’s vanguardist direction with Arthur Miller’s craft as DOP makes this film a top 10 on any list of 1950’s Noir. Gene Tierney plays one of her best roles as the wife-in-peril immersed unknowingly in a manipulative diabolical plan that --

can buy her a 1st class ticket to the cuckcoo's nest. With the great José Ferrer, whose ancestors immigrated from Catalonia to Puerto Rico(Ferrer means blacksmith in Catalan language). He is George Clooney’s grandpa, so this makes George Clooney-Ferrer a Catalan-American. Cool!

So see you tomorrow with the second batch of this "Noir Twitter Thread on a Rampage!" Now, the good stuff...