Endowed not only with a memorable title, Please Murder Me (1956) also delivers a semi-unique storyline that doesn't leave much need for guessing, but is entertaining throughout. Directed by Peter Godfrey, the cast does a fine job, including Raymond Burr, Angela Lansbury and Dick Foran. The trial scenes, and the tense conflicts alone make the film an underrated effort, worthy of more attention.
Craig Carlson (Raymond Burr) is a lawyer with some difficult news to break to his old War buddy, Joe Leeds (Dick Foran)...
Please Murder Me. 1956: Raymond Burr
He has fallen in love with Joe's wife, Myra (Angela Lansbury), and needs to request that they divorce, so he might marry her instead...
Please Murder Me. 1956: Angela Lansbury
Joe returns home and is shot and killed by his wife, though she claims it is self defense. Craig, as both lawyer and dutiful boyfriend, defends Myra in the trial...
Please Murder Me. 1956: Raymond Burr and Angela Lansbury
She is acquitted of all charges...
Please Murder Me. 1956: Raymond Burr
Further developments occur along the way, bringing Craig to the realization that Myra did indeed intentionally murder Joe. He also discovers the evidence of a third lover involved, and the motive of money for the widow. Most hurtful is the fact that Myra never really loved him, but rather, just needed his expertise in law to get her off the hook for the crime. He plots to even the score...
Please Murder Me. 1956: Raymond Burr and Angela Lansbury
Wrapped in guilt, Craig decides that the only way to get truly even with his former flame, and to make square with his dead friend, is to force her to murder him as well, allowing for a new trial...
Please Murder Me. 1956: Raymond Burr and Angela Lansbury
Please Murder Me. 1956: Raymond Burr and Angela Lansbury
Despite being made twenty years after the classic Film Noir period ended and being shot in color, Roman Polanski's Chinatown (1974) still managed to capture all the atmosphere and feel of it's forebears and hence has become a true heavyweight in the genre. Full of grit, sexuality, corruption and mystery, it is a tense masterpiece of 1970's Cinema.
He is hired by an impostor wife to investigate Mr. Mulwray, the Water and Power Commissioner for Los Angeles, who is suspected of cheating. Gittes' snooping reveals strange findings, and when Mr. Mulwray is found dead, he grows more suspicious and inquisitive. This leads him be involved with Mulwray's real wife, Evelyn (Faye Dunaway)...
Chinatown. 1974: Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway
Part of the mystery involves the building of a dam, the needless disposal of tons of the City's water supply during a major drought...
Chinatown. 1974: Jack Nicholson
and the purchase of acres of barren farmland surrounding Los Angeles...
Chinatown. 1974: Jack Nicholson
The web grows more dangerous as Evelyn's father, Noah Cross (John Huston), a powerful man, is increasingly implicated in the events...
Co-written and directed by Robert Benton, Twilight (1998) has all the hallmarks of great Film Noir, despite being made half-a-century after the peak period of the genre. Full of plot twists, dramatic cinematography, tense moments and good performances, Twilight is an underrated Gem. Paul Newman, Gene Hackman, Susan Sarandon and James Garner are all great in the lead roles... and a young Reese Witherspoon holds her own.
Harry Ross (Paul Newman) is an aging private detective...
Twilight. 1998: Paul Newman
He is hired to track down 17-year-old runaway Mel Ames (Reese Witherspoon)...
Twilight. 1998: Reese Witherspoon
Ross finds her in Mexico...
Twilight. 1998: Reese Witherspoon
Twilight. 1998: Reese Witherspoon
Twilight. 1998: Reese Witherspoon
Twilight. 1998: Reese Witherspoon
He brings her back, but she does not go quietly...
Twilight. 1998: Reese Witherspoon
Fast forward two years... Mel's parents, both wealthy actors, are grateful for Ross' discreet assistance and have hired him on permanently. Jack Ames (Gene Hackman) is now Ross' trusted friend, but he is dying of cancer...
Twilight. 1998
Catherine Ames (Susan Sarandon) openly flirts with Ross, and he finds it hard to resist her charms...
Twilight. 1998
Trouble emerges once again when Mel's ex-boyfriend (the one from Mexico two years prior) attempts to blackmail Jack Ames about a murder committed 20 years before. Ross enlists the help of his friend, retired Cop Raymond Hope (James Garner)...
Twilight. 1998: Paul Newman
but the web of confusion and misleads is growing denser, as Ross realizes that the situation is much more serious than it first appears...
