TV and Movies

[Oznell]

4:00 a.m. Eastern:  "Julie"  Doris Day, Louis Jourdan, Barry Sullivan

@nanny24's invaluable thread already drew our attention to "Doris Day" day on TCM, but I wanted to just highlight one of Doris' gripping suspense films appearing in the wee hours.  DVR it, and you'll have something riveting to curl up with on a rainy afternoon!

This is what I call "California coastal film noir".  In this gorgeous seaside setting, newly married Doris (her first husband committed suicide) is slowly coming to realize that handsome second husband Louis Jourdan is a fraud and a psycho. 

Just watch TCM's trailer here and you'll get drawn in. We see crisply attractive Doris, with her sporty blonde crop, run from the country club to her equally sporty convertible, tearing off, but not before Louis grabs on and takes over the wheel in a wild, psychotic, terrifying ride.  We learn he had had one of his jealous outbursts and Doris almost can't take it any more...

http://www.tcm.com/mediaroom/video/205825/Julie-Movie-Clip-I-Only-Meant-To-Frighten-You.html

Sunny Doris was so effective in roles like this, her vulnerability and shaking terror so evident.  She was exposed to some abusive situations early in her career, and I have wondered if she "drew" on those in creating some of her performances in noir and suspense.  Louis Jourdan is also very deft and insinuating in his role as her mercurial, exploitative and scary husband.

Barry Sullivan is the good friend who Doris leans on in fleeing her hellish circumstances-- a terrific player like Sullivan almost wasted in this, (he would have been fantastic as the husband as well) but somebody has to play the reliable good guy!

Watch for the scene in an airplane where plucky Doris shows us just what she's made of!   

[Ruby Laine]

Thanks!  I’m DVRing Midnight Lace, and now I’m setting it for Julie. Thanks also to @nanny24. 

ETA, and thanks to @Goldengate8361. 

[GingerPeach]

Now there's a film I'd be tickled to shoot updated photos for.  Although, of course, present-day photos of that area are readily availalble.

@Oznell, what other films might you categorize as "California coastal film noir"?  Sandpiper comes to mind as "California coastal" but not so much "noir."

[Oznell]

Oh, good question, @GingerPeach.  Another that immediately springs to mind is one of my favorite noirs, "The Reckless Moment" with Joan Bennett and James Mason.  The location in a small California town on the sea was so integral to the story...

Let's see, there's another Joan Bennett noir, the one with Robert Ryan and Charles Bickford.  I had to look the title up-- it's "The Woman on the Beach".  Good one.

Then there's the lurid and compulsively watchable "Female on the Beach" with Joan Crawford and Jeff Chandler.  I have that on DVD.

I know there are others, but currently drawing a blank.  Maybe somebody'll help us out?

[Oznell]

OK, I was just refreshing my memory on line!  I would add "Kiss Me Deadly" and "In a Lonely Place" to the sub-genre.  Arguably, they belong more to the huge category of general "southern California noir", but each had coastal or beach scenes that were important to the plot, and the pervasive 'beachy' so. California culture I think makes them qualify. 

At least that's my story and I'm sticking to it!  I am rolling around a few others in my mind too, but with more tenuous claims to the genre, perhaps...

[GingerPeach]

Thanks!  

I've checked DVD availability on Netflix and sadly the only one currently available is Bogart's In a Lonely Place.  

I have noted them and will make a point to put them on my TCM to-be-notified email list.  Thanks very much, @Oznell

Did you ever tell us how long you've studied movies?  You have clearly invested a lot of time and interest, and all to great advantage.

ETA:  I think we ought to each write Eddie Muller so he might consider including these films in future noir showings.  None of them are currently scheduled to be shown.  Darn.  There is something about "noir on the beach," California or elsewhere.

[Oznell]

I agree, @GingerPeach, there's something about that kind of noir that is even more tantalizing...

I haven't really studied film, per se.  Although I audited a course a few years ago at our local university.  That was huge fun, b/c we viewed selected vintage films in class, and then discussed.  But my interest in classic movies way pre-dated that, going back to my own teenage years. 

I've not been systematic about it, just haphazardly caught films here and there over the course of life, like most people.  A few film critics and writers I've read and liked have been Pauline Kael, John Simon, of course Eddie Muller, ha.  They often have different world views, so I haven't always agreed with their assessments, but it's enriching to get informed opinion, from whatever source...

[GingerPeach]

Thank you for sharing your history with film, @Oznell  we are all so lucky you have chosen to share the richness and depth of your knowledge with us here.  

I caught most of Julie last night as for some reason I couldn't sleep.  Unfortunately, I did want to see more of the Monterey area and that first half hour is what I missed.

In any event, I found it pretty terrific that the movie showed the police as being sensitive to her situation and going out of their way due to the police captain's work (my, he was effective!).  All too often in early depictions of spousal abuse in movies and tv, police are sort of mamby-pamby about the whole thing.  One thing they did not get right:  even in 1956 a spouse could waive spousal privilege, especially in criminal cases.  So she could definitely have testified against her husband should it have gone to trial.

For the curious, here's a copy of Stanford Law Review from 1956:  https://www.jstor.org/stable/1226624?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

[Oznell]

Wow, fascinating aspect of law, @GingerPeach-- I would never have known that.  Neither did the filmmakers, apparently!  I DVR'd since I haven't seen the movie in ages, and can't wait to watch and note that part.

Hope you get to see that first half hour at some point.  Love the way they photographed that rolling coast, the jaggedness and those wind-bent looking trees...  it's a nice contrast to the manicured loveliness of the country club, which I think I read is the one at Pebble Beach?

Did you at least get to see the modern, rustic house they lived in by the sea, with the fabulous views?  That must

have been REALLY hard for "Julie" to leave behind...

[GingerPeach]

Thanks, @Oznell

My career was in law, so I like to check things out to the extent I can.  (Not as a lawyer; a paralegal.)  Also, I tend to research.  It's kind of part of me.

No, I didn't see their Carmel house, and I simply adore Carmel.  I used to go there all the time, just for a day trip.  Now, it's a bigger deal to drive that far.  Darn infirmities!  

About a year ago I took the DVR recorder back to the cable company since I was going to move, but the move is on hold indefinitely so I think I need a replacement.  Especially now since I've signed up for TCM.  Yes, hmm, that is happening this week.