Talking classic movies with Mal MacDonald: Film Noir

In a time when internet streaming services have made a wealth of entertainment available at the click of button, Mal MacDonald makes his living sourcing and selling unique and hard-to-find movies and memorabilia.

His business REEL Memories has a catalogue of thousands of titles, many of which you will have trouble finding online or anywhere else.

After taking us through his picks of Epics and Biblical blockbusters last week, Orange City Life caught up with Mal again, this time to talk about film noir classics.

So what exactly makes a movie film noir?

Film Noir was a unique period done mainly through the 40s, into the 50s, and there was a few that spilled over into the 60s… but it was mostly the 1940s and 1950s film period where we find these classic film noir films. By the late 50s interest had waned, and Westerns and Adventure films were coming into the fore. And films were then starting to be turned out in colour, the noir films were mostly black and white of course.

These films have that great look with the shadows, that unique dark look, the moody low key lighting they used to get that sort of effect… if you've seen it once you will remember it. It goes back to some of the earlier film makers in France, Germany and other foreign films — like the original Nosferatu and films like that, Frits Lang’s Metropolis they all have that moody dark look, shadow on the wall, the lighting and everything is brilliant!

Let’s get to it and go through some of your favourite film noir titles.

One of the all-time classics is a Paramount film from 1944 – Double Indemnity, it’s one of my favourites. Staring Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward G. Robinson  — he was a top actor you see him in a lot of the Bogart films he was a big star in Brother Orchid and Little Caesar — but Double Indemnity, that is one of the all-time classics.

Then there’s The Naked City, 1948 with Barry Fitzgerald— which was later remade into a TV series. A lot of that was filmed out on location in New York, I think from memory. But a lot of these films usually were done out on the back lot of the studio.

Another little gem is a 1945 flick called Detour starring Tom Neal and Ann Savage.

The Big Clock, that's another gem with Ray Milland and Charles Laughton. As the name implies, the film centres around a big clock in the centre of the town which is the final sequence at the end of the movie.

There is a great James Stewart movie called Call Northside 777. James Stewart investigates this chap who was sent to prison for murder. He's about to get executed and Stewart tries to prove the guy innocent. It also features Richard Conte - he was in a lot of these types of films.

Cry of the City with Victor Mature. He was a bit of a he-man he was in a lot of those muscle films, the roman sword and sandal films, but he was in a number of very good film noir films. In Cry of the City he’s alongside Richard Conte and Shelley Winters, who’s been around forever, you might remember her from the Poseidon Adventure. It was based on the story of two chaps who took different paths in their lives.

Another one that stands out (and not to be confused with the Robert Redford version, which was made years later) is the Allan Ladd film The Great Gatsby, now that was Alan Ladd and Betty Field, Macdonald Carey and Shelly Winters again, Barry Sullivan and Ruth Hussy.

And this movie kicked Alan Ladd off to fame, you might remember a film This Gun's for Hire. This is a classic, early Alan Ladd where he got his start off with Veronica Lake. Now Veronica Lake was sort of the second coming of Lauren Bacall, she had that Bacall look with her hair swept over the side of her face and this is about a hitman, who turns good at the end… Most of these films they had to have that Hollywood ending where good would overcome evil — don't forget in this period of filmmaking there was the Hollywood Code, so you couldn't see a bad guy getting away with it, they might have got away with one or two, but most of the time the baddie has to end up dead.

Another great one was a movie called The Killing and it was rather unique. It was an early Stanley Kubrick film with Sterling Hayden, who was a character actor that was in a lot of these types of films and adventures and westerns, also Coleen Grey and Vince Edwards. This was a 1956 film about a racetrack robbery which goes awry.

A lot of these films especially the 50s ones have a lot of that 50s paranoia with the atomic bomb. There’s all the sci-fi films that had all these monsters coming out of the desert and stuff like that, well that also spilled over into some of the film noir movies like Kiss Me Deadly, which was a 1955 film with Ralph Meeker, Albert Decker and it's about a PI who uncovers a mysterious container. But there were films with plots to take over America and plots to do this and to do that.

The Phantom Lady, which came out the same year as Double Indemnity and that had Franchot Tone, Ella Raines, Regis Toomey and it was about a man convicted of murdering his wife.

There are just so many great movies! This was the peak of Hollywood, the 40s and 50s where it all started. A lot of people, and people older than me, would remember these movies very fondly.

Mal can be contacted by email reelmemories@outlook.com or by phone 0419 979 773. He also has a Facebook page where he shares images from his extensive stock of classic and genre movie posters.