The Urban Condition with B-Town

B&B Presents: Noir in the Key of B

Just found out that BJ had no plans to hold a movie night this week; for shame. But have no fear, cuz Brendan while posting late still wants to make it happen.

SUNDAY (as in tomorrow) AUG. 6th


7pm The Maltese Falcon (1941): Yes, John Huston’s directorial debut which adapted Dashiell Hammett’s classic noir novel to the screen and served as the launch pad for a then still relatively unknown Humphrey Bogart. The film became the archetype for the hardboiled private detective story and only existed because the 1930s pre-code version couldn’t be re-released due to sexual content. Bogie plays Sam Spade, a PI hired by femme fatale Brigid -Mary Astor. I have not seen this movie since I was six or seven - there is photographic evidence that after seeing the Maltese Falcon I had a fedora wearing Popeye candy cigarette smoking stage until I was nine – and may burst into glee with seeing it again.


9pm Brick (2005): Brendan, played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt,- from 3rd Rock, a sharp outsider is thrust into the noir underworld of high school when he investigates the disappearance and death of his ex-girlfriend, Emily. The gritty noir directorial debut of Rian Johnson is self conscious of its roots. Dialogue, while swift and smooth, sounds like it’s out of those dramas of the 30s/40s. The soundtrack is eerily entertaining. And, who can resist a main character based on Bogart who shares the same name as you.

posted by B-Town @ 12:53 p.m.