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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Werewillie Oleson" data-source="post: 336743" data-attributes="member: 8">Even if they aren't.Since the other film noir thread is exclusively FOX I decided to start another one.The plan is that there is no plan, I'm not going to seek out any titles or invest in DVDs, I'll just click on whatever pops up first on youtube.The first one to appear as a result of the "film noir" search is THE DARK PAST (1948)A psychoanalyst specialized in the criminal mind is taken hostage by one of those criminal minds and this is happening in a very beautiful and very American bungalow of sorts.I found it intriguing enough and didn't mind the commercial breaks every 10 minutes, but then 10 minutes became 8 minutes, 5 minutes, 3 minutes. It simply wasn't doable anymore so I've decided to avoid all movies uploaded by this channel.So much for unplanned, but anyway, the next one is CAUGHT (1949).[ATTACH=full]40158[/ATTACH]I failed to see what made this so noir-ish but I watched it anyway. It's a strange movie because there isn't anything in it that backs up its very premise (the trophy wife nightmare).Leonora Eames (Barbara Bel Geddes) is encouraged by her friend to make herself more presentable and then marry rich.That man is going to be Smith Ohlrig (ha!) played by Robert Ryan.It never becomes clear what kind of man Smith really is and he only marries Leonora to prove his doctor or therapist that he's wrong about - I don't even remember what, it was more like a throwaway comment.There's no chemistry between the future spouses, nothing about the characters or their motivations (if only I knew) that anchors it as a starting point from where it all goes wrong.Smith suffers from the rare condition of pseudo-heart attacks every time he...something/something not.Suddenly they are married (for love, from Leonora's point of view, well she literally says it) and she has, indeed, become Ohlrig's trophy wife.He acts very possessive because he can but it's no problem whatsoever when she moves to the city and basically starts a new life as a single woman. This was a big "huh?" moment for me.Then it's time for the actual romance between Leonora and doctor Larry (James Mason) and most of it is very watchable. I think their dancing scene is the highlight of this movie.He asks her to marry him and she wants to but then it turns out she's pregnant.Ohlrig grants her a divorce on the condition that he keeps the child. It struck me as odd that this powerful man had to bargain about anything in the first place, nevertheless the movie has now reached its final act of Big Drama.Except that the two men in Leonora's life don't do anything to progress the situation and Leonora herself hides in her bedroom.Gay housefriend Franzi (Curt Bois) tries to glue the narrative together but, alas, he also throws in the towel.Smith Ohlrig has one of his attacks, Leonora miscarries and that means she's free from her evil, possessive tycoon husband who never wanted her in the first place.This is a movie that constantly informs but never shows. The character of Smith Ohlrig is massively underused but the mansion, as every American movie mansion, looks gorgeous. The hallway is almost as big as entire Southfork.[ATTACH=full]40160[/ATTACH]I'm sure things can only get better from this point on, otherwise it's going to be a painfully short-lived film noir thread.</blockquote>

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