Noirvember!

I watch film noir year round, but Noirvember was a great time rewatch or discover some gems of the genre. I’ve listed some favorites below in honor of Noirvember.

Now, Eddie Muller has a list of his favorite noir films on his website, and I highly encourage you to take a peek. For those of you who aren’t aware of Eddie Muller, he’s been coined the “Czar of Noir” by my good friend, James Ellroy (I hope you know who he is, if you don’t, go read Black Dahlia and L.A. Confidential, and everything else he’s ever written!). Back to Eddie: he’s the host of TCM’s Noir Alley and leads the charge for the Film Noir Foundation and the preservation of film noir. I had the pleasure of meeting Eddie at a Film Noir Festival held in Colorado—what a great time and what a great bunch of movies they screened.

So, after reading Eddie’s list of favorite noir films, why should you care about mine? I have some crossover with his list (how could I not?), but these are some favorites from the classic film noir era that socked me in the gut. Some of these films will be obvious and well-known, while others have be new to you. I’m also not hung up on what is pure film noir, and maybe some of these don’t check the noir box for you.

What you’ll notice is the crossover with actors and directors with these films. You’ll see actors and actresses like Robert Ryan, Lizabeth Scott, Edward G. Robinson, Joan Bennett, Ann Sheridan, Ray Milland, Dan Duryea, and others show up quite often, but I don’t mention them below—even if they’re in the films I listed!

I know I probably left off quite a few, but this is just a quick list off the top of my head. Let me know some of your favorites!

• He Walked By Night, T-Men, Raw Deal - any time you have John Alton’s lighting (also see The Big Combo), and Anthony Mann’s directing (even if uncredited as in He Walked By Night), you have instant film noir.

• The Big Sleep, Maltese Falcon, The Glass Key, Murder, My Sweet, Dead Reckoning - okay, a couple of these have Bogart, and they’re close to noir. The books were written by Hammett, Chandler (Farewell, My Lovely was filmed as Murder, My Sweet), and Goodis - all hardboiled or noir-like. They may not be pure noir, but they come close.

• Double Indemnity, The Postman Always Rings Twice, Mildred Pierce - With James M. Cain’s novels as the inspiration—the man wrote dark and flawed characters as good as anyone—it’s film noir. Double Indemnity is right at the top of my list of the all-time best films period.

• In A Lonely Place, Ride The Pink Horse - These are great films, and the novels were written by Dorothy B. Hughes—she wrote noir as well as anyone. Dark, disturbing characters, especially in the Bogart film with Gloria Grahame (a film noir fixture) of the same name. While the film differs a little from the novel, this is one of those few instances where the film and the novel are of equal greatness.

• D.O.A. - Edmund O’Brien. A great premise, which I won’t spoil. O’Brien was in a few others like 711 Ocean Drive (and he’s in The Killers, listed below).

• The Killers, Criss Cross, Phantom Lady - Robert Siodmak is another great film noir director, and two of these films star Burt Lancaster. The Killers was based on the Ernest Hemingway short story, but don’t miss Criss Cross—it has Yvonne deCarlo who is absolutely wonderful.

• Sunset Boulevard, Lost Weekend, Double Indemnity, Ace In The Hole - yes, Double Indemnity is listed twice, this time because it’s directed by Billy Wilder—a versatile director who did screwball comedies just as well as directing film noir. All those films are classics. You won’t be disappointed in any of those films, and they’re all so different, yet still noir!

• The Big Heat, The Blue Gardenia, Scarlet Street, The Woman in the Window, Clash By Night, Ministry of Fear, Human Desire - Fritz Lang. Anything directed by Fritz Lang is going to be disturbing. He casts Lee Marvin, Glenn Ford, Gloria Grahame, and Barbara Stanwyck to name a few—all known for their noir roles. His earlier stuff helped film noir become a thing: Metropolis and M—Peter Lorre in his creepiest of his many creepy roles.

• Gilda - directed by Charles Vidor and with Rita Hayworth in what I think is her signature role. Also has Glenn Ford, another film noir staple (see The Big Heat).

• Night And The City, Pickup on South Street - Richard Widmark’s in these, and he’s great.

• Asphalt Jungle - directed by John Huston (also on this list with Maltese Falcon), with a young Marilyn Monroe along with Sterling Hayden—another film noir regular, what a great tough guy.

• Sweet Smell of Success, Brute Force, Criss Cross, The Killers - Burt Lancaster is menacing and overbearing in Success. You could do worse than explore some of these Burt Lancaster roles. Pure noir.

• Laura - the novel was written by Vera Caspary (as was the Blue Gardenia), they are worth reading as well as watching. This is a haunting film with some cool twists and has a great cast: Dana Andrews, Gene Tierney, Clifton Webb, and Vincent Price. It’s directed by Otto Preminger, who also directed The Man With The Golden Arm, starring Frank Sinatra—a noir film depicting drug addiction.

• Out Of The Past - Robert Mitchum in one of the definitive noir films with Kirk Douglas and Jane Greer. Talk about a man who could take over a film. Also check out Night of the Hunter, Crossfire, The Big Steal, Where Danger Lives, and The Racket.

• Kiss Me Deadly - Ralph Meeker was such a great Mike Hammer - Mickey Spillane was not a fan of this film, but it’s so much fun, and watching Mike Hammer get in over his head and opening Pandora’s Box is amazing and the inspiration for many many moments in subsequent films.

• The Narrow Margin - Dana Andrews and another film noir staple—Marie Windsor. Takes place mostly on a train! Trains appear in quite a few noir flicks, including a few on this list.

• The Third Man, Lady From Shanghai, Touch of Evil, Niagara, Shadow of a Doubt - okay, these are Orson Welles and Joseph Cotten. The first three all with Orson Welles, and Niagara featuring Marilyn Monroe, while Shadow of a Doubt was directed by Hitchcock (not really a noir director, but a couple of his might qualify (such as Vertigo—though that one’s in color even if the overall tone qualifies). Like Gilda, it’s hard to not watch Rita Hayworth in any role!

• Gun Crazy - this is a 1950 Bonnie & Clyde or Natural Born Killers—only better! Too bad the production code got in the way of what could have been, though it makes for more creative choices.

• They Drive By Night, Private Hell 36, High Sierra, The Hitch-Hiker, The Big Knife - all of these have Ida Lupino in them. Lupino was a Hollywood pioneer, a female director in the studio system. She’s great as an actress of director. A couple of these also have Bogart.

• The Killing - great cast, caper film directed by Kubrick.

• Detour - ugly from start to finish. Horrible people doing horrible things.

• One more: Nightmare Alley - carnival noir with Tyrone Powers in, to me, his best performance.

Noir Fatale Mass Market Edition!

I received my author copies of the mass market edition of Noir Fatale, a national bestseller, in which my story, A String Of Pearls, appears! Thank you, Baen Books! The mass market joins the hardcover, ebook, and audio editions!

Here’s a little about Noir Fatale from Baen’s website:

NEW SCIENCE FICTION, URBAN FANTASY, AND MYSTERY STORIES WITH A NOIR THEME FROM BEST-SELLING AUTHORS LAURELL K. HAMILTON delivering an Anita Blake series story, LARRY CORREIA, penning a Grimnoir series adventure, an original Honor Harrington series tale from DAVID WEBER, AND MORE.

The silky note of a saxophone. The echoes of a woman’s high heels down a deserted asphalt street. Steam rising from city vents to cloud the street-lit air. A man with a gun. A dame with a problem . . .

NOIR.

From the pulpy pages of Black Mask Magazine in the 1920s and '30s, through the film noir era of the 1940s, to today, noir fiction has lured many a reader and movie-goer away from the light and into the dark underbelly of society. Names such as Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, and James M. Cain; titles like The Big Sleep, The Maltese Falcon, The Postman Always Rings Twice . . . these have inhabited our collective consciousness for decades. Humanity, it seems, loves the dark. And within the dark, one figure stands out: that of the femme fatale.

Here then, Noir Fatale an anthology containing the full spectrum of noir fiction, each incorporating the compelling femme fatale character archetype. From straightforward hardboiled detective story to dark urban fantasy to the dirty secrets of futuristic science fiction—all with a hard, gritty feel.

As Raymond Chandler said, “Down these mean streets, a man must walk who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid.” Because, as these stories prove, doing the right thing doesn’t necessarily mean you get the big bucks or the girl. But you do the right thing anyway.

A Few Recommended Espionage Books

It’s no secret I’ve spent most of my career working counterespionage and counterintelligence (it’s in all my bios and I appear publicly as a Special Agent of the FBI). i get asked what my favorite espionage/spy novels are enough that I thought I’d share a few. I’m also adding a couple of non-fiction titles. This is not an exhaustive list by any means, but off the top of my head (so don’t rake me over the coals if I left off one of your favorites!). Plus, I’m always on the lookout for other titles, so feel free to name a few for me!

Some thoughts on espionage and spy stories: One thing that has always irked me is most spy novels (movies, TV shows, etc.) tend to glorify the spy, or at least follow the spy closely and have us cheer them on. What we don’t typically find in entertainment is the process of catching a spy or perhaps using the spy as an unwitting participant in a larger game, making the spy believe they are working for us, when in fact we’re using the spy to pass information we want country x to believe—a disinformation campaign. For me, that type of story is way more interesting than one where we follow a spy around hoping they won’t get caught. Those stories are suspenseful and full of tension, of course, but catching a spy can be as equally suspenseful and tense.

In no particular order:

• Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy - John le Carre’ - why? Well, it’s a book, TV series (with Alec Guiness!), and a film which deal with an insider threat. Someone inside is the spy and the intelligence service is trying to catch the insider. Great stuff. I enjoy the George Smiley books a great deal, and would also toss in The Spy Who Came In From The Cold (also a great film with Richard Burton).

• The Miernik Dossier - Charles McCarry - McCarry’s been called the American John le Carre’, and is often compared to him. But he’s really his own thing—like le Carre’ he was a professional, and that’s probably where the comparison comes into play. The Paul Christopher series is for you if you’re interested in the way U.S. intelligence services operate.

• Slow Horses - Mick Herron - I love this series, Slough House, which is a dumping ground for British Intelligence Agents who have screwed up. I love that premise, and Herron is a wonderful story teller (also a great guy—I was on a panel with him once and chatted with him at the bar afterward).

• The IPCRESS File - Len Deighton -in the films he’s called Harry Palmer (played by Michael Caine), but try the first three books: IPCRESS, Horse Under Water, and Funeral In Berlin. Unlike the erudite, well-educated, people inhabiting other espionage novels, Deighton’s protagonist is more blue-collar, which makes some of the interactions with other characters so much fun.

• The Mask Of Dimitrios - Eric Ambler - if you can find Epitaph For A Spy, go for that one, too. These are books published in the 1930s, but don’t let that deter you! I’d say Ambler’s books have a bit of the Hitchcock type character who’s out of his depth or the wrong person in the wrong place at the wrong time.

• The 39 Steps, John Buchan — this one was originally serialized way back in 1915! This is a man on the run type thriller. There’s a Hitchcock film of the same name, if you’d rather watch than read. It’s a quick read, but again, this is a man who at first appears as if he’s in over his head, but puts the best interests of his country before his own. World War I was already raging when this was written, so it was timely to say the least.

• Our Man In Havana - Graham Greene - he also wrote the screenplay for The Third Man, an excellent film. Also check out The Confidential Agent and The Quiet American.

• Daniel Silva - He’s best known for his Israeli art restorer who also happens to be a spy and assassin. If that doesn’t do it for you, try his first book: The Unlikely Spy - this takes place during World War II and focuses on the Allied attempt to obfuscate the D-Day landings.

• Ashenden — W. Somerset Maugham — not a novel, but a collection of loosely related short stories about a British agent.

There are so many more, and I’m sure there are more modern examples, but I’m so drawn to the past that I tend to stick with those for the most part. I purposely left off James Bond, but there are a couple Fleming books that aren’t completely outlandish—From Russia With Love, Moonraker (this film is outlandish, but the book is not!), Casino Royale. Oh, and then there’s Alan Furst—oh, and many, many more. I’ll stop. And for science fiction and fantasy fans there are espionage/spy novels there, too—but that’s a different list.

I do have a couple non-fiction recommendations.

• The Spy And The Traitor - Ben Macintyre - the story of a KGB official who spied for the British. Macintyre’s other books are almost equally as fascinating. There’s also one on Kim Philby and some others on WWII deception campaigns.

• The Sword And The Shield, The Mitrokhin Archive and the History of the KGB - fascinating insight into how Mitrokhin spent years amassing KGB documents and handing it over to the Brits.

There are a great many non-fiction books on spies and tradecraft, especially World War II and Cold War. I think I’ll create another list of films and TV shows—though many of the novels above were made into films or TV shows, so you could track them down and likely find others while you’re at it.

Let me know some of your favorites!

Why you should give screwball comedies of the 1930s a try

I thought since we were headed into a weekend, it’d be neat to look at screwball comedies and their continued relevance, especially today. Now, before you dismiss this because I’m talking about “old” movies, or “black and white” movies, or movies with a bunch of dead people I’ve never heard of, consider this question: What was the first film to sweep the 5 major categories at the Academy Awards?

Answer: It Happened One Night, a screwball comedy starring Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert, and directed by Frank Capra (a director that displayed a wide range and is responsible for so many classics). It Happened One Night won Best Film, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay. Only two other films achieved this: One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest and Silence of the Lambs.

Screwball comedies of the 1930s are more relevant today than most people realize. In fact, I bet many people don’t know exactly what I’m talking about when I write the words screwball comedy. This isn’t the Three Stooges and not The Marx Brothers, not really, but a few of their MGM films might come close. Their are comedic detective films as well, something like The Thin Man — so much fun, but not exactly screwball.

This type of comedy came about during the Great Depression and carried through into the early 1940s. People needed an escape, like we do today. Please put aside any so-called “modern” notions and sensibilities. Of course some of these films will have outdated ideas, situations, and so forth, but these films will surprise you. Why? So many of these films, like My Man Godfrey, starring William Powell and Carole Lombard dealt with real issues, issues of economic class and the little everyman or everywoman against the government. They tackled issues, take His Girl Friday—Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell, for instance, they’re reporters who trade crackling dialogue while trying to save a man from execution. You wouldn’t think a film like that would be funny, but it’s wonderful. A dark screwball? Try Arsenic & Old Lace - again, it’s Cary Grant!

My Man Godfrey: the film opens with a group of rich people taking part in a scavenger hunt. One of the “items” they must find and bring back what they call a “forgotten man”, basically a homeless man. William Powell (The Thin Man) plays this “forgotten man” who lost everything in the stock market crash. The family that “finds” him for the scavenger hunt decides to hire him as their butler as sort of a good deed. They see him as a homeless man, but he’s more than that, and in teaches the family a lesson in how to treat people with respect.

These films transported the viewer into funny situations with some serious social commentary. You get actors like Cary Grant (not just a handsome face, but a mainstay of these comedies) and Jean Arthur or Carole Lombard or Myrna Loy (also mainstays of this sub-genre) looking silly while trying to win over their love or prove a point to someone with money and power or social standing. Another thing I love about these is the way they toyed with the Production Code—these films ran circles around the code. By today’s standards these films would seem tame (as far as sexual conduct, violence, etc.), but for that time and for having to abide by the “Code”, these films had to be more clever and subversive. I think it took more creativity to make a film back then. Even Hitchcock made a screwball comedy: Mr. & Mrs. Smith, with Robert Montgomery and Carole Lombard!

These directors were versatile (directing in all sorts of genres: drama, noir, comedy, action, thriller), and they were big names: Frank Capra, Billy Wilder, Howard Hawks, Preston Sturges, and the list goes on and on.

I could go on and on, but I’ll list a bunch of films, these are all fun if you can get past the black and white and get over your hangups with their “old fashioned” ideas. These are fun and they have a message! Try a few out!

Radio Interview: Joy on Paper

I was interviewed by the wonderful PatZi a couple of weeks ago. I met PatZi at Bouchercon in Dallas back in November and was invited to be a guest on her radio program. Her syndicated radio program, Joy on Paper, is for writers and those who dream of writing. She’s interviewed over 500 authors and VIPs of the publishing world. Some of the writers she’s interviewed are Lee Child, Sue Grafton, David Baldacci, Sara Paretsky, and Lawrence Block!

She’s an engaging host with great energy and was a joy to speak with on the radio. We had such a good time I ended up staying on air with PatZi for two segments.

Here are links to the Joy On Paper webpage as well as the interview!

Joy on Paper

Interview