TV and Movies

[Oznell]

Saturday midnight Eastern, and Sunday 10:00 a.m. Eastern, TCM:

"The Woman on the Beach"   Robert Ryan, Joan Bennett, Charles Bickford, Nan Leslie

NOT to be confused with Joan Crawford/Jeff Chandler's enjoyable sudser "Female on the Beach".

What a treat, with three of my all-time favorite noir actors.  AND, directed by Jean Renoir, ("Grand Illusion";  "The Rules of the Game") considered among the greatest of all film directors.

Robert Ryan is a Coast Guardsman stationed on a California beach, involved with a blonde woman who closely resembles an eerie presence in a recurring dream that torments him.  He glimpses beautiful, married Joan Bennett on the beach he patrols, and becomes increasingly entangled in her seemingly bohemian life and that of her husband, blind, embittered artist Charles Bickford....

True to its director, this film has a haunting, almost unreal quality, quite unlike most of American film noir.  So much of the emotional texture is conveyed by undercurrents.  Very French!  I found it confounding and riveting the first time I saw it, and the three principals do full justice to the seething drama.

Interesting side note--  Yes, illustrious director Jean Renoir was the son of the painter Pierrre Auguste Renoir, and as a baby and child was a subject of some of his father's paintings. Wiki shows a portion of one of the paintings with little Jean as a child:

[IMW]

Robert Ryan and Robert Mitchum are neck and neck for 

me as favs. Ryan has such an expressive face, such pathos. Great man in real life.

I’m once again in your debt @Oznell for a great 👍🏿 piece of movie 🎥 info!

[golding76]

Enticing as all get-out!

Thank you for another good one, oznell.

[Judaline]

@Oznell  What a beautiful painting!

And yes, I had it confused with Female on the Beach, thinking, 'now I KNOW Joan Crawford was in that!' what's going on? Thanks for 'splainin'.

[GingerPeach]

@Oznell 

What a special treat to read your insight about everything that finishes and complements this movie.  Why you don't have a blog is a mystery to me! 

Quite some time ago you were kind enough to share a list of California beach movie noirs on these boards but silly me, I misplaced it.  And the search feature here is not that much help.  I would guess this movie would make that list, too.  Or is that just too obvious?  

[spiderw]

From your description, this movie sounds like one I will DVR and enjoy.  I too like Robert Ryan and I always thought Joan Bennett was beautiful.  Add Bickford in and the casting is complete.  

[Judaline]

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@spiderw wrote:

From your description, this movie sounds like one I will DVR and enjoy.  I too like Robert Ryan and I always thought Joan Bennett was beautiful.  Add Bickford in and the casting is complete.  

Wait a minute, isn't Robert Mitchum in this??? ETA whoops, no he isn't. No wonder you didn't mention him~

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[Oznell]

@GingerPeach,  I think I've located that list of California coastal noirs you were mentioning.  It occurs in a discussion we were all having on another one, "Julie",  with Doris Day and Louis Jourdan.  It's not exactly in a crisp "list" form, but at least several of the films get mentioned so hope it helps!

https://community.qvc.com/t5/TV-and-Movies/quot-JULIE-quot-DORIS-DAY-LOUIS-JOURDAN-4-00-A-M-MONDAY-E...

P.S.  Boy I hope I haven't confused anyone.  At first I linked to the wrong discussion.  Now I have the right one, above, whew!

Can't remember if I had added "Mildred Pierce" to the loose category of coastal noir.  It was so evocative of southern California culture of the time-- and remember her incredible Forties'  "moderne" beach house in that one?  I know there are some others I'm not thinking of, rats... 

[GingerPeach]

Thank you, @Oznell 

I have now transferred these titles to a list I'll refer to and/or update from time to time.

Now I'm also wondering if there are any recent noir-type films using that theme.  I just realized we don't hear a lot about current noir movies. Or is that just me not paying attention?

[Oznell]

Oh, I think there are, @GingerPeach.  I pay so little attention to films coming out now, with only a few exceptions, that I don't know what current ones would fall into that genre.  Most Hollywood films of the last couple of decades come out of a mindset, and way of looking at the world that I find quite foreign, and in some cases, actively repellent.

But let's see, after the classic film noir period (roughly 1940 till around 1958 or 1959) I can think of a few excellent examples which could be called California noir, maybe--  how about "The Player",  and "Chinatown",   "L.A. Confidential",  and "Body Heat"...

Would Tarantino's movies fall into that category-- I've never seen any of his...

Edited to add--  Oh, just realized that "Body Heat" is not set in California, it's set on the tony east coast of Florida.   Let's call it "Lake Worth Noir", ha.