Jason gives an important update on...the lack of updates here

My regular readers...if there are any left...may have noticed I haven't posted anything here since around last June.

Yeah, I've been busy, both personally and in my day job, and I don't care to elaborate. So I decided to scale back. At least for this year, I'm only guaranteeing coverage when I'm accredited press at a film festival. When I'm a paying customer, I get to sit back and enjoy the movies without worrying what I'll write about them. Even when something really impresses me--like Peter Jackson's THEY SHALL NOT GROW OLD--if the muse doesn't strike, I'll keep my thoughts to myself...and to my personal friends (remember having actual conversations in person, not just shouting into the online void?)

So the next time I guarantee I'll be writing regularly will be Cinequest, March 5-17. Before that, you can see me in person at Noir City and SF Indiefest, where I'll be reprising my starring role of "guy who sits in front row center for damn near every movie." And occasionally, if the muse strikes, I might write about a movie here or there.

Speaking of...I've gotta tell you about this amazing movie I saw at Noir City last weekend. THE WELL (1951) is a simple story of a little girl trapped in a well. And it's inspired by a true story of a child who was trapped in a well in a small Northern California town (the movie was shot in Marysville and Yuba City.) But the movie takes a daring approach, by making it a story of a little black girl trapped in the well, and the racial suspicions that boil over when she goes missing. A white guy (Harry Morgan of M*A*S*H back when he was still going by Henry Morgan) who was just passing through town was spotted talking to her and buying her flowers. But without evidence of wrongdoing, the sheriff doesn't want word getting out. But it gets out anyway. And people talk, and suspicions grow into outright violence. I don't think I've ever seen a film that deals with race issues in quite this way, and it couldn't be done today (and not just because of the off-putting casual use of the N-word.) It's important that this is a peaceful, liberal town where races have gotten along so far. It's not the deep south with a history of slavery and lynchings, this is good, liberal Northern California. But while the races get along fine when everything is good, put in some fear and suspicions run wild on both sides until it's a full blown race riot.

Just as importantly, when the truth is discovered, the whole town comes together to rescue her, in a final reel that features heavy machinery and amazing camera work by Ernest Laszlo. But there's still the way everyone is side-eyeing each other. You can tell that in some ways this town will never fully recover. Not from a child trapped in a well, but from what they all did to each other.

Frightened parents and the town sheriff look to rescue a little girl

Oh, and I've still been keeping up my tally of total minutes spent watching movies. The total is now up to 493,419 minutes.

Jason goes to Noir City--Closing Day

Not closing night, since I caught the matinee shows, but let's jump right into them.

WICKED WOMAN (1953): I started with the B picture, because that's just how I roll. Billie Nash (Beverly Michaels) rolls into town on a bus. With barely any money she rents a room in a boarding house and immediately starts looking for a job. Her neighbor Charlie (Percy Helton) is clearly taken with her, and she simultaneously rebuffs and takes advantage of that. She does get a job as a waitress in a bar where she catches the eye of the bartender/owner Matt Bannister (Richard Egan.) Too bad he's married. But good thing that his wife Dora (Evelyn Scott) is a raging alcoholic and Matt doesn't approve. So they start a little affair, with the end goal being to dump his wife, sell the bar, and run away to Mexico (where, presumably, she will dump Matt and live off his money.) One little wrinkle, they need Dora's signature to sell the bar, and it's too much of a sentimental cause for her (it belonged to her father.) So the plan gets more elaborate, until it's cracking at the seams. What could be a super-sleazy story is elevated a great deal by Beverly Michaels, who plays Billie not just as a scheming woman, but one who is desperate and finding her way to survive however she can. It's the world that was wicked before this woman was.

THE BIG HEAT (1953): And then I ended the festival on a high note with this Fritz Lang classic. It starts with the suicide of a cop, Tom Duncan. Honest cop Dave Bannion (Glenn Ford) investigates, and it's an open-and-shut case of suicide until the mistress (Dorothy Green) claims otherwise. Investigating further, it seems Duncan had a significant second source of income, but the guys upstairs are quick to but a stop to any investigation of corruption (because, of course, the corruption goes all the way to the top.) He doesn't heed any warnings to drop it, and when a car bomb that's intended for him instead gets his wife, he's on a personal mission to nail the bastards who did it. A twisting tale of revenge and justice, with Glenn Ford as the upright hero, the wonderfully vile Lee Marvin as the second in command baddie, and Gloria Grahame as his ditzy girl and occasional punching bag who fights back at just the right time (to huge applause from the audience.) A great way to end another great Noir City festival. 

Total Running Time: 167 minutes
My Total Minutes: 468,015

Jason goes to Noir City--Day 9

Still splitting time between Noir City and SF Indiefest. Last Saturday I only caught the matinee in Noir City.

SOUTHSIDE 1-1000 (1950): A crackin' good story about counterfeiters and the Secret Service going after them (trivia, the Secret Service didn't start out primarily as bodyguards for public officials. They started as a law enforcement agency specializing in tracking down counterfeiters.) An ace counterfeiter (Morris Ankrum) actually created the fake plates in San Quentin prison. That's the start of the case, as agent John Riggs (Don DeFore) goes undercover as Nick Starnes, working his way all the way up to the boss man...er...woman, Nora Craig (Andrea King.) Passion ignites, but justice trumps passion for the valiant and dedicated men of the Secret Service.

THE UNDERWORLD STORY (1950): And then what's better than dangerous Dan Duryea. In a similar setup to ACE IN THE HOLE he plays a disgraced newspaper reporter looking for another shot with a small town paper. (His name is Mike Reese, who I kept hearing as "My Crease," a possibly intentional play on words indicating what an asshole he is.) Of course, he's Dan Duryea, so he's over-the-top cynical and scheming, buying a share of a small-town paper, making him a business partner of the highly skeptical Cathy Harris (Gale Storm.)  But he ends up on the right side, defending a poor innocent girl Molly Rankin of murder (Mary Anderson, in unfortunate and cringe-worthy blackface.) Sure, he's only doing that to sell papers and advertising, but at least he's on the right side and has the town behind him. Unfortunately, that can change pretty quickly, as the father of the deceased happens to be a big-time newspaper publisher (Herbert Marshall,) and pretty well connected to the mob (in the person of Howard Da Silva.) And even though he knows Molly is innocent, he's still going after her rather than let the truth out, because...[no spoilers here, I've already spoiled enough.] Anyway, what's stranger than Dan Duryea being on the right side? Staying there, on principles, and taking a beating and becoming a hero by the end. Still a scheming son-of-a-bitch, but at least this one time, a heroic one. Now that's a pleasant surprise.

Total Running Time: 164 minutes
My Total Minutes: 467,604

Jason goes to Noir City--Day 8

I hear I missed some great stuff Thursday while I was at Indiefest. I like to think all the Noir City denizens (Noir Citizens) missed out on something great, too. You just can't be everywhere at once.

But I was back in Noir City Friday night for a double bill.

THE ACCUSED (1949): A depressingly timely film, one that's right in place with the #MeToo movement, "Me, too" meant not just that you had been harassed or assaulted, but that you had killed your attacker in self-defense and then tried to cover up the evidence. Loretta Young plays Dr. Wilma Tuttle, a psychology professor. One of her students, Bill Perry (Douglas Dick) offers to drive her home, but instead they end up on a secluded beach where he starts to get a little too forceful. And she fights back, successfully, and makes it look like an accident. Pretty soon Lt. Ted Dorgan (Wendell Corey) is on the case, and Perry's guardian Warren Ford (Robert Cummings) is hanging close by. And both of them kind of fall for her (especially Ford.) Of course, this whole time she was acting in self-defense, so even as the evidence starts damning her, she has a solid defense (I'm no lawyer, but I assume self-defense was a pretty good excuse, even in 1949.) But then the ending is a little off-putting, with more of a note of "darn, we'll never convict her because she's pretty and sympathetic" rather than "attempted rapist got what's coming to him." Ah, the fun and pitfalls of judging films by the standards of different time periods.

THE THREAT (1949): And then Charles McGraw, being evil and nasty. He plays Red Kluger, an escaped convict from Folsom prison who has sworn revenge on the cop and DA who put him there. The cop is brave, smart, and dashing Detective Ray Williams (Michael O'Shea,) the DA Barker MacDonald (Frank Conroy.) Along for the ride is a showgirl, Carol (Virginia Grey) who Kluger suspects ratted him out. And so he gets them all and keeps them captive in a remote shack in the middle of nowhere, beating and torturing them because a quick death is too kind. You know, a real feel-good family film, full of tension and testosterone, but relying on a smart woman to save the day.

Total Running Time: 167 minutes
My Total Minutes: 467,440

Jason goes to Noir City--Day 6

Just one film last Wednesday night. I needed to get to bed early for work on Thursday.

THE UNSUSPECTED (1947): Claude Rains is always excellent, and his distinctive voice is put to great work as a suave radio mystery show host Victor Grandison. His secretary is found hanging from a chandelier in his private office. It's officially ruled a suicide, as he had no apparent motive to kill her, and he's an upstanding member of society with a reputation beyond repute. He is...unsuspected. Well, there's a convoluted story that I couldn't possibly recap now. I'll just say the twists and turns are fantastic, but mostly it's the performance of Claude Rains that makes this such a delight. Especially the ending.

Running Time: 103 minutes
My Total Minutes: 467,112

Jason goes to Noir City--Day 5

2 more films last Tuesday.

THE BLUE DAHLIA (1946): An Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake classic. Ladd plays Johnny Morrison, a navy man just back from the war with his two best buds, Buzz (William Bendix) and George (Hugh Beaumont.) Johnny surprises his wife Helen (Doris Dowling) who has taken to partying and drinking in his absence. After he throws the guests out, they have a fight. She reveals horrible things, like their son Dickie didn't die from an illness, it was a car accident when she was driving drunk (don't drive drunk, people!) She has also been having an affair with Eddie Harwood (Howard Da Silva,) the owner of a nightclub, The Blue Dahlia. After threatening her, Johnny leaves, and eventually runs into Joyce (Veronica Lake,) a passing motorist who offers him a ride. The next day, Helen is dead. And of course, Johnny is the prime suspect. Fantastic twists, some unbelievable coincidences that aren't really coincidences (like Joyce is actually Eddie Harwood's wife) makes for a wonderfully convoluted whodunit. Lots of fun.

NIGHT EDITOR (1946): Here's what I said about it back when it played at Noir City 2009:

And finally, Night Editor which Eddie Muller introduced as "clunky". That was an extreme understatement. It has a ridiculous framing device, being told late one night in a newspaper office, as the editor tells the inside story of a small old piece of news (it was originally a radio play, and later a TV series, but this was the B-movie in between). This time he tells the story of a cop who's always working the night beat. And by "working", I mean sneaking off with his rich, socialite mistress. One night while making out in a secluded place, they witness a murder. Problem is, he can't come forward without admitting his affair. Trouble's worse when an innocent guy is convicted and sentenced to the chair. But he collects "evidence" to put the wrong guy away. All is going well, until the murderer provides a perfect alibi--the rich mistress who's now dating him. Almost as sleazy as it is clunky. But still, I regret nothing.

Yeah, that sums it up pretty well. Still sleazy, plus an ending that was kind of sweet. Maybe less clunky on multiple viewings. But most importantly, I still regret nothing!

Total Running Time: 164 minutes
My Total Minutes: 467,009

Jason goes to Noir City--Day 4

Two more on Monday, let's just jump right in.

CONFLICT (1945): Bogart killing his wife, what's not to love? And in a reversal of roles, Sydney Greenstreet plays the hero--a psychiatrist with an expertise in the criminal mind. Richard Mason (Bogart) has a very good reason for killing his wife (Rose Hobart)--he's in love with her sister (Evelyn Turner.) So there's an elaborate, fool-proof plan. But soon after the murder (framed to look like an accident on a windy mountain road) he starts receiving disturbing messages that she might actually be alive. Like most fool-proof plans, it's one small detail that will eventually trip him up. But the twists, turns, and suspense are great along the way.

JEALOUSY (1945): And then some good B noir trashiness. An alcoholic writer, his spunky taxi-driving wife, and the man who is smitten with her. Things will, of course, go bad--murderously bad for the husband, and bad for the rest of them when they are the obvious suspects. Gustav Machatý directs with a flair and visual style that shows what could have been if he hadn't been relegated to these low budget pictures after the scandalous ECSTASY (1933.) Lots of fun.

Total Running Time: 157 minutes
My Total Minutes: 466,845

Jason goes to Noir City--Day 3

Catching up on the last week. Last Saturday Noir City offered two badly wounded films, and a tantalizing teaser of a possible reconstruction in the works.

DESTINY (1944): So I did this in reverse order, with the B movie first. But in this case that's the right way to do it, because this started out as the opening segment of Julien Duvivier's anthology film FLESH AND FANTASY (not his original title.) Universal chopped it off and gave it to Reginald Le Borg (a decidedly lesser director) to fill out to B feature length. So it starts with a pretty uninspiring )(okay, laughably bad) story of a patsy, a bank robbery, and a getaway. Appropriately named Cliff Banks (Alan Curtis) is the patsy, an ex-con tricked into being the getaway driver. Not trusting the law to give him a fair shake, he's on the run in a small rural village. And then it turns into an entirely different movie when he runs into Jane Broderick (Gloria Jean,) a blind daughter of a farmer. She has a special, magical relationship with nature (this is when it stops being a Le Borg movie and turns into a Duvivier.) Nature provides for her, inspires trust in Cliff, and then protects her when he breaks that trust. A strange hybrid of the lowest B noir and some poetic magic realism. Add a tacked on framing device that completely changes the point of everything, and it's a shambling corpse that you can see once had a pretty strong heart.

FLESH AND FANTASY (1943): So FLESH AND FANTASY kind of picks off where DESTINY...might have left off if it hadn't been butchered. And a completely unnecessary "hammer the point home" framing story is tacked on, with Robert Benchley and David Hoffman. The less said of that the better. This is an anthology film all about fate, fortune telling, dreams, and whether you truly are the master or your own life. Originally in 4 parts but like I said part 1 became DESTINY. In part 1 (really part 2,) on Mardi Gras an ugly, bitter woman Henrietta (Betty Field) wears a beautiful mask and woos the student she's had a crush on, Michael (Robert Cummings.) They have a lovely evening, but at midnight she must return the mask, with surprising and sweet results. In part 2 (really 3,) Edward G. Robinson plays a skeptic who is unimpressed with a palm reader's remarkably accurate predictions. That is, until they continue coming true. And then he just has to know what that prediction the palm reader was too afraid to tell him actually was. Turns out, that also comes true in a very ironic way. Based on an Oscar Wilde story. And finally, in part 3 (really 4,) Charles Boyer plays a famous tightrope walker. He's famous for his "drunk on the tightrope" act, and for jumping from one rope to another--without a net. But when he has a dream where he falls and dies, he loses his nerve. Then he meets the woman he saw in his dream (Barbara Stanwyck) and starts really falling apart...by falling in love. But can dreams really control his fate?

So the highlight of all of this was Eddie Muller's revelation that there is a project in the works, hopefully, to restore Duvivier's original film. And I would eagerly watch that.

There was also a lot of discussion among Noir Citizens about whether Duvivier's film is "really noir." Normally I'm kind of bored by those debates. I'll give it to you that by any narrow definition, no this probably isn't "Noir." But you know what, you can go to Burger King and get french fries, which last time I checked are neither burgers nor kings. So unless you get equally worked up over that, just shut up an enjoy the cinematic meal.

Total Running Time: 159 minutes
My Total Minutes: 466,689

Jason goes to Noir City--Day 2

4 great Film Noirs (Films Noir?) on Saturday. And for the first double bill, I did them in reverse order.

For the first trashy B, we went to the library with QUIET PLEASE, MURDER (1942.) In the opening scenes, Jim Fleg (George Sanders) murders a librarian and steals a one of a kind book--Richard Burbage's original copy of Hamlet (Burbage was the first actor to ever play Hamlet.) But Fleg isn't just a thief, he's a master forger. Why sell the original, when he can sell 50 fakes to all the rich rubes, who can't even report him because they'd be confessing to knowingly buying stolen goods. But his associate Myra Blandy (Gail Patrick) sells to one particularly dangerous man, Martin Cleaver (Sidney Blackmer,) who happens to be an antiquity collector for the Germans, and doesn't need to go to the cops when he finds he's been swindled. Throw in the trustworthy investigator Hal McByrne (Richard Denning) a possible romance, a double-cross, a hostage situation, and an timely air raid siren, and it's a recipe for one insane night in a library. And I happened to speak to a couple of current and former library workers afterwards, and one assured me that's exactly what it's like to work in a library, and the other told me that some of it was not that realistic.

And then the classy A, THIS GUN FOR HIRE (1942.) Alan Ladd stars as a Raven, a hard-nosed, ice-cold assassin in San Francisco. He completes a job for one Willard Gates (Laird Cregar) who pays him with hot money--it's been reported as stolen from Nitro Chemical in L.A. So there's a cat-and-mouse game, and Raven pulls Miss Ellen Graham (Veronica Lake) into it by pure chance. She's a singing magician, and Mr. Gates side job is running a nightclub. He just hired her to a gig in his club in L.A. Meanwhile her boyfriend Michael Crane is a detective from L.A., who was on vacation in San Francisco until he got a call about hot money being passed in San Francisco so he's on the case. You know, for how hard-nosed this movie is about making a cold-blooded assassin the hero, there's a lot of goofy coincidences and other silliness in it. But at the core it's a tense cat-and-mouse thriller with an international espionage angle. And it's awesome.

Then a nice break, a couple of classy cocktails, and time for the evening double-bill. This time in the proper order.

The first classy A was Alfred Hitchcock's SHADOW OF A DOUBT (1943.) A story about Uncle Charlie (Joseph Cotton,) a beloved uncle who turns out to be a really evil guy (as someone who loves being an uncle, and being evil, this really spoke to me. Note: I'm nowhere near as evil as Joseph Cotton in this film.) Little Charlie (Teresa Newton) adores her Uncle Charlie. Heck, she's named after him, they're practically twins. In fact, just when she's hoping he'd visit, and goes to the telegraph office to wire him, they get a telegraph from him that he'll be coming to visit them, in Santa Rosa, California (oh yeah, it's another one of Hitchcock's Bay Area films!) This is a rare and wonderful Hitchcock film that is driven by character arc, not by plot. It's all about little Charlie learning...well, not exactly hard evidence, but suspicious things about Uncle Charlie. Especially when a detective Jack Graham (MacDonald Carey) shows up and tells her that he might be a man they're looking for in a nationwide manhunt. But then, there's also a guy out in Boston who might be the man. At first she can't believe it. But then...small bits of circumstantial evidence start piling up. Hitchcock really has fun with his characters in this one. Like the little know-it-all sister who reads two books a week. Or the father and his best friend who entertain themselves with an endless stream of hypothetical murder plots (perhaps a comic stand-in for Hitchcock's own imagination.) The ending is thrilling, but it's the journey that makes this movie a delight.

And then the final film, which I refuse to call trashy. It's a disturbingly timely story of fascism (from the time when we knew fascists were the bad guys,) ADDRESS UNKNOWN (1944.) Max Eisenstein (Morris Carnovsky) and Martin Shulz (Paul Lukas) are best friends and business partners, running an art gallery in San Francisco and dining on traditional German food. And they are close to becoming family, as Shulz's son Heinrich (Peter van Eyck) is going to ask Eisenstein's daughter Griselle (K.T. Stevens) to marry him. But when they arrive, they announce they've decided not to get married. It would be too disruptive to Griselle's ambition to be an actress. So they go with the original plan. Max stays in San Francisco and runs the gallery. Shulz moves back to Germany to procure art for the gallery. And they swap their children. Heinrich stays with Max and helps him in the gallery. Griselle goes with Martin (and his wife an many small children) to Germany, where she has opportunities to start her acting career. All is good...and then that Adolf Hitler guy comes into power. Max asks Martin about him, that gets the attention of one Baron von Friesche (Carl Esmond) who urges him to set Max straight about how he's restoring German pride. The friends become increasingly estranged as Martin joins the party for the sake of his career, and then out of cowardice. Things really go bad when Griselle (who changed her name to Stone for the marquee) is revealed to be Jewish, and there's a murderous riot at her premiere. Then things get really, really dark and deadly serious. It was a low budget B movie, but director William Cameron Menzies proved to be courageous and innovative, in a movie that took Nazis--and cowardice in the face of them--to task, at a time when that was a pretty important.

Total Running Time: 334 minutes
My Total Minutes: 466,530

Jason goes to Noir City--Opening Night

My favorite city in the world, and it only exists for 10 days a year. Actually, come to think about it, you could also say that about my other favorite city in the world. But that's not important right now. What's important is Noir City is my happy place right now...at least until next weekend, when it conflicts with Indiefest and I have to make some hard choices.

Eddie was looking dapper, bourbon was flowing, Miss Noir City was in fine form--and fine voice, as one third of the pre-show musical entertainment, The Century Sisters. And for that matter, so was Victoria Mature, Victor Mature's...surprisingly young daughter (not granddaughter) helping Eddie introduce the first film.

I WAKE UP SCREAMING (1941) kicks off the "Classy A" half of the program. Victor Mature stars as Frankie Christopher, a promoter who is wanted for murder. Seems that a girl he groomed for stardom was found murdered, with him standing over the body. He swears he just found her there, but top cop Ed Cornell (Laird Cregar, looking creepy and menacing) knows he's guilty. He just needs the time to prove it. And Frankie just needs time and a few breaks to prove he's innocent. This is early in the Noir movement (the next 10 days will take us from 1941 up to 1953) but it's got all the elements right from the beginning. Twists, fear, deception, hot dames who might be bad news or might be the best thing ever. And the great cinematography that plays with the shadows. Plus...a lot of creepy scenes where one character breaks into another's bedroom and wakes them up. That's just wrong, man!

AMONG THE LIVING (1941) and the other half of the program is the "Trashy B." (by the way, the two titles together--"I WAKE UP SCREAMING AMONG THE LIVING"--would make a movie that I already want to see.) B pictures are shorter, cheaper, and always a lot cheesier than the As. And this one borders on the ludicrous.... Check that, it's on the other side of the border with ludicrous. Mr. Raden, a grand industrialist who built the town of Radentown, has passed away. His son, John Raden (Albert Dekker,) has returned to town for the funeral, and also to open up the old mill and get people back to work. But there's a little family secret not even he knows of. His twin brother Paul (also Albert Dekker) is still alive. The family doctor Ben Saunders (Harry Carey) faked the death certificate when he was 10, buried an unknown child's body in his grave, and kept Paul locked in a secret room of the old family home for 20 some years, because...reasons, I guess? Anyway, Paul is a little mentally unstable, ever since he tried to break up an incident when dad was beating mom. Screams set him off, and he covers his ears and goes nuts. And when he finds out that dad was buried next to mom, not far away as his negro servant Pompey (Ernest Whitman) said, he goes on a bit of a rampage. News spreads that there's a murderer on the loose. Meanwhile Paul goes into town with a wad of money and absolutely no wits. He meets a nice girl Millie (Susan Hayward) and tries to be nice. But...bad things happen. Let's just leave it at that. I know this is kind of an abrupt end to this post...but not nearly as abrupt as the end of the movie.

Total Running Time: 149 minutes
My Total Minutes: 466,196

Jason comes back from hiatus

I know I said I'd be back in 2018, and here it is nearly a month in. I don't think I explicitly said I'd be back at the beginning of 2018, but that was the intention. I didn't account for how busy the beginning of each quarter is for me.

Anyway, I've seen a small handful of movies since I went on hiatus. Of course, I finished of Another Hole in the Head and the Silicon Valley Jewish Film Festival (both fun festivals, and frustrating that they're at the same time. But I think the entire crossover audience of Jewish films and horror fans is...me.)

I caught THOR: RAGNAROK, which was hilarious is excellent the Taika Waititi way I hoped it would be.

COCO made me cry. OLAF'S FROZEN ADVENTURE made me wretch.

I spent a lot of time with silent films, mostly at my beloved Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum, but also at the glorious Castro for SF Silent Film Fest's Day of Silents.

THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI deserves all the praise it's getting, and none of the baffling backlash.

Of course I saw STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI--twice. It also deserves all the praise and...very little of the backlash. But then, I didn't feel that way until after the second screening. I didn't get all of what Rian Johnson was going for the first time. Also, I have to say that scene--you know the one I'm talking about--is just about the greatest thing ever put on cinema. I'll always call it the "Oh, SHIT!" scene, because the first time I saw it, on opening night (thanks to a good friend who scored some tickets) when that scene came up, the movie was silent and the audience was silent save for one guy who yelled out, "Oh, SHIT!"

And the night before taking off to see my family in Anchorage, AK, I celebrated a Noir City Xmas with Eddie Mueller, MANHANDLED, and ALIAS BOSTON BLACKIE.

And then earlier in 2018, I kicked it off with a little Midnites for Maniacs tribute to Gus Van Sant. TO DIE FOR is hilarious and provocative, a great satire on celebrity culture, with a faux-documentary format that it seems every sitcom is copying now (no, it didn't start with THE OFFICE, it at least goes back to 1995. And then Van Sant's controversial shot-for-shot remake of PSYCHO (1998.) I'll admit I was one of the snobs who didn't care to see it back then because, heck, the original is already perfect (I am a big fan of remaking shitty, forgotten movies, though.) But I do remember my sister and cousin seeing it, and saying they liked it better than "the black and white version." I chalked it up to them being young and stupid, but.... Okay, it might still be unnecessary, since the original is still perfect. But it's also a good movie, and good movies are totally necessary. I'm happy I finally saw it.

Oh, I saw THE SHAPE OF WATER. Yeah, that chick totally has sex with a fish-dude. And it's an exciting story about love, acceptance, and the Cold War. But what really excited me about it was...she lives upstairs from a theater! Oh my God! I wanna live upstairs from a theater! Especially a grand movie palace! Why aren't there apartments above the Castro?

THE POST is...pretty good. I can't say there's anything particularly wrong about it. But here's a sampling of what I was thinking when I watched it:
Man, Meryl Streep is a great actress. Yup, that's totally Meryl Streep being a great actress playing...what's her name, the owner of the paper. Yup, in this movie The Washington Post is owned by Meryl Streep.
Man, Tom Hanks is a great actor. Yup, that's totally Tom Hanks being a great actor playing...what's his name, the editor of the paper. Yup, in this movie The Washington Post is edited by Tome Hanks.
Hey, that's Bob Odenkirk and David Cross, from MR. SHOW WITH BOB AND DAVID. They're both playing serious roles. They've both played serious roles before. I don't know if I've seen them do that together, though. They probable have. But still, it's weird that Bob and David are doing scenes together but it's not a Mr. Show sketch.
Hey, remember when Tom Hanks was a comic actor, and then he made the leap into serious drama with PHILADELPHIA? Tom Hanks is in this movie, too. Maybe Bob and David are hoping some of that magic rubs off on them.
Boy, they're really, really hammering the point that it's bad for the President to attack the press. They seriously hope Trump will watch it...but even if he does there's no chance he changes his tune.
A whole lot of other thoughts....
...
And somewhere near the bottom...
...
The Pentagon Papers.

I had more fun at Niles, included the long-awaited DVD release of our brand new (a couple of years old) silent film, BRONCHO BILLY AND THE BANDIT'S SECRET. Stop by the museum and pick yourself up a copy.

And finally, I'm currently in Noir City. But that deserves it's own post.

My Total Minutes:466,047

Jason goes to Noir City--Closing Night

The last 2 movies of our multi-decade overview of heist films, and they were pretty awesome.

BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU'RE DEAD (2007): So this one I'd actually seen before, and actually blogged before. Normally when that happens, I like to go back, copy-paste my review from before, and take a look at whether I still feel the same about the movie. And then I read what I wrote...

Ugh. Who is that despicable person who glossed over this fantastic movie to talk about Marisa Tomei's tits (and to insult Philip Seymour Hoffman's body?) I am ashamed I wrote that.

But now, with the benefit of another decade of cinephilia inside me, I can notice the great acting. I can see the flashback structure and the influence of Kubrick's THE KILLING. I can see how a large part of the movie is dedicated to dumping on the Hank character (Ethan Hawke.) As an aside, my favorite line of the film is when Gina (Tomei) admits to Andy (Hoffman) that she's been having an affair with his brother Hank, and he says "Really, Hank?" and she just says "Yeah,...Hank" in this really resigned way like 'I know he's a loser and a cry-baby, but still....'

Oh, and the brutal family dynamic, punctuated with literally shattering flashbacks. This movie is brilliant. So much so that Marisa Tomei's tits are nearly the least interesting things in the movie. They are nice tits, though.

VICTORIA (2015): And finally, we end with a movie that could only be filmed digitally. The film is a single, 138 minute take, in real-time with no edits. Victoria (Laia Costa) is a Spaniard in Berlin, about to have a wild and terrifying night. She starts out partying in the clubs, and is about to head home early for a good night's sleep before opening the café in the morning. But she meets an odd group of strange and lovable guys. They seem nice enough, they like to party and have a good time, and one of them is celebrating his birthday. So she stays up a little longer with them. And then a little longer. They drink, they smoke a little pot. The birthday boy goes a little overboard and passes out.... Which is a problem, because now they have no driver for the heist they're about to pull, at the behest of a pretty damn ruthless gangster. Yeah, this night is going to take a pretty dark turn, and the morning isn't going to be much better.

With real-time movies it's always hard not to have some slow moments, and the story takes a little while to get going. But the cast is great and the technical achievement is amazing. It certainly pushes the boundaries of what can be done in cinema.

Total Running Time: 255
My Total Minutes: 415,802

Jason goes to Noir City--Day 9

The penultimate day. Four films on Saturday

CHARLEY VARRICK (1973): We start with Walter Matthau as the titular character, originally intended for Clint Eastwood (and there's a little inside joke in the movie about that.) He's a small time crook. A former stunt pilot and semi-current cropduster, he's "The Last of the Independents" (which was the working title of the movie) until big pesticide companies forced him out. So he robs small banks for a few thousand at a time to get by. And he's got a small gang of professionals working with him. But not everything goes right on the job that opens the film. First, his wife gets shot and doesn't survive. Which gives us a chance to see how even when he's heartbroken Charley never stops being smart. Rather than shed a tear he just thinks a moment, and burns her body with the getaway car (burning the car was always part of the plan.) And when he and his surviving partner make it home to his trailer, they realize they made a pretty big score. For some reason, the small bank is Tres Cruces had over $750,000 in it. But Charley's smart. He figures out pretty quick why they had so much money--it was a drop off of mob money before they launder it overseas. So they've got a big problem, and it's not that the cops are after them. Charley is smart, but I won't say if he's smart enough to escape both the law and the cosa nostra. Interestingly, Clint Eastwood turned the role down because he said the character had no redeeming features. Perhaps it's just Matthau's friendly face, but I think he brings something redeeming to the role.

THE BRINK'S JOB (1978): Perhaps the only guy who can be as lovable a crook as Walter Matthau is Peter Falk. And he plays Tony Pino, a small-time crook in Boston who, with the help of a few fellow small-time crooks (including Peter Boyle, Warren Oates, and Paul Sorvino) pulls of the "Crime of the Century." Based on real events, after hilariously screwing up a caper in a gumball factory--a sequence that establishes these guys as certifiable morons--they take a look at the Brink's warehouse and armored trucks. And the brilliant thing he notices is that their security is actually kinda shitty. They've been coasting on their reputation. They're security is lax because it's never tested because nobody would be idiotic enough to try to rob Brink's. But Tony's gang is just idiotic enough. Wonderfully silly, hilarious, near slapstick film noir in the vein of BIG DEAL ON MADONNA STREET.

Oh, one thing of note, both of the first two movies included scenes of the main characters (Matthau and Falk) drinking milk. Once you start noticing stuff like that, you just can't stop.

SEXY BEAST (2000): Now we jump ahead a couple of decades, I assume because there was just nothing worth playing from the 80s and 90s. But you can't argue that SEXY BEAST doesn't belong. Ray Winstone is Gal, an old English mobster who is happily retired in Spain. And then he gets a call from Don Logan, an insistent and menacing Ben Kingsley. He's got a job for him, and he can't say no. Oh, he spends over half the movie saying no, but Don Logan just won't let him. Seems like  their old friend the even-more-menacing Teddy Bass (Ian McShane) knows of a vault with state of the art security and a whole load of valuables that are just begging to be liberated. Plus he's kind of got a personal beef with the bank manager, a cocky son-of-a-bitch he met at an orgy. Logan might just be convincing enough to pull Gal out of retirement. Great menacing performances, bloody violence, and a vicious caper. 

I'm going to pause for a moment and note that while earlier in the week we were safely ensconced in a world where the bad guys never got away with it in the end, we're now well into the era where sometimes they do. That's part of what makes surveying a genre over the decades so interesting.

THE AURA (EL AURA) (2005): And finally, we ended the night with this Argentinian piece of brilliance. Ricardo Darin plays a taxidermist with wild ideas for heists he never puts into action. He also has a photographic memory, and is prone to seizures. And, although he enjoys taxidermy, he hates blood. Which makes a hunting trip with his friend a really odd choice. And things turn pretty bad when he accidentally shoots Dietrich, their guide. Nobody else knows, they just think Dietrich has gone away. And our taxidermist hero does a little poking around and discovers that Dietrich was planning the perfect crime--robbing the armored truck carrying the profits from a local casino. And he meets Dietrich's partners in crime. And being a quick-witted bullshitter, he puts himself into the caper as Dietrich's confidant, leading the perfect crime he's always wanted to pull. Too bad he doesn't know what the heck he's doing. And he's followed everywhere by Dietrich's dog, who has the most accusatory face I've ever seen on a dog. Director Fabián Bielinsky tragically passed away of a heart attack after making just NINE QUEENS and this movie. I'll have to go find and watch that one, and then I can fully, properly mourn the loss of such potential.

Total Running Time: 438 minutes
My Total Minutes: 415,547

Jason goes to Noir City--Day 8

Eddie described this double bill as the ugliest films in this year's Noir City. I prefer the term "gritty" but the point is well taken. With few exceptions, you're not watching these movies for aesthetic pleasure.

BLUE COLLAR (1978): Harvey Keitel, Yaphet Kotto, and an outspoken Richard Pryor star as a trio of blue collar auto workers. They work hard, and are squeezed by both management and the union--although they are loyal union men. Seems they barely have time, money, or energy for the occasional coke-and-hooker party. And it seems that's by design. Those in power want you to fight each other, not work together to better yourselves. Anyway, they come up with a plan to rob the safe at the union local safe. It's a good plan, and not hard to execute, as security is nearly non-existent. Problem is, they don't find much cash. But they do find evidence of wrongdoing, which they turn into blackmail material. Paul Schrader (the writer of TAXI DRIVE) made his directing debut with this explosive, uncompromising, working class political thriller that's still relevant today. And it shows the kind of dark, uncompromising vision that's kept him from being more commercial and has made Hollywood kind of a difficult place for him (as evidenced by his work on THE CANYONS)

STRAIGHT TIME (1978): And then Dustin Hoffman plays Max Dembo, an ex-con who just wants a job, an apartment, a girlfriend, a chance. But his parole officer (M. Emmett Walsh) gives him a hard time, just because he got a hotel instead of going straight to the halfway house. He's convinced to let him stay in an apartment if he can find a job before the end of the week. An he does, looks like Max might actually have a fine future. He even has a girlfriend--Jenny (Theresa Russell) a girl from the employment agency who hooked him up with a job. But the parole officer still gives him a hard time. Although Max is clean, his friend Willy (Gary Busey) had shot up in his room, and when he finds evidence he locks Max in jail and leaves him there for days because he's just "too busy." So as he's driving Max back to the halfway house, Max snaps, steals the car, strips the officer and handcuffs him to the side of the road. And then just goes on crime spree, dragging Jenny along (completely willingly) and getting his friends involved in bad, bad way. It's a powerful view of how humiliation and the fragile male ego is the root of him slipping back into crime. He was ready to go straight, as long as people let him have his dignity. But once he's crossed, and insulted, he goes off. And he knows he's doing the wrong thing, and he does it anyway. And that's the functional definition of noir, even if it's noir in the 70s.

Total Running Time: 228 minutes
My Total Minutes: 415,109

Jason goes to Noir City--Day 7

We've moved on to the 70s. Further from classic "noir" territory, but still great heist films.

THE TAKING OF PELHAM 123 (1974): I can't believe I'd never seen this before. This film is amazing. I don't think there's ever been a better match of humor and tension in the history of cinema. It's the kind of movie that could only work in New York. Walter Matthau plays transit policeman Zachary Garber in a frankly ridiculous but now iconic plaid shirt and yellow tie. With an attitude I can only describe as "New Yorkish" he makes his way through his job, Shows a visiting Japanese contingent around, and generally keeps things running smoothly. That is, until a gang led by "Mr Blue" (Robert Shaw) hijacks a train (the titular Pelham 123) and holds the passengers for ransom. I love how Garber handles the situation over the radio, relaying information to and from multiple parties. This is a man who knows how to handle a gun, but also knows that words are his best tools. And as tense as the situation is, he knows blowing up will destroy that best tool. So while everyone else is shitting their pants, he's the calm in the eye of the storm. I see a bit of Buster Keaton's great stone face in that (if the great stone face had kindly jowls, and didn't rely on physical comedy.) The mayor (Lee Wallace, adding more comedy) agrees to pay, but how will the robbers get away. It's not like there are a lot of ways to escape via subway train? Well, they've got that figured out, too. But Garber and the NYPD are pretty smart as well. And the ending scene, once again comedy and tension come together perfectly.

THUNDERBOLT AND LIGHTFOOT (1974): And then for unconventional buddy movie pairings, how about Jeff Bridges and Clint Eastwood? The directing debut of  Michael Cimino (DEER HUNTER, HEAVEN'S GATE) is a weird, weird heist film. Bridges is Lightfoot, a long-haired goofy drifter, who steals a car from a dealership and almost runs over Clint Eastwood's character, an old criminal who was posing as a preacher before one of his gang tracked him down and tried to kill him. Later in the movie he'll get the nickname Thunderbolt when he tells Lightfoot of his old gang and how they robbed the Montana armory with a 20mm cannon with armor-piercing shells. It was in the papers, and they had dubbed the robber "Thunderbolt." Anyway, his old gang thinks he crossed them and took all the money. Fact is, it was hidden in a small one-room schoolhouse. And the site of that is now a new, modern schoolhouse and he has no idea where the money is. So when the old gang gets back together (especially George Kennedy as Red Leary) they're kind of upset. It's Lightfoot who has the crazy idea to just rob the armory again, using the exact same plan--hell, it worked before? A weird, weird heist film, with some strange characters and a lot of homoerotic subtext. Oh yeah, as part of the heist they need Lightfoot to get in drag and seduce a guard. Very funny, and a very, very odd ending.

Total Running Time: 219 minutes
My Total Minutes: 414,881

Jason goes to Noir City--Day 6

I skipped Tuesday to be at the Cinequest media launch, but I was back at it on Wednesday for a couple of Alain Delon flicks.

ONCE A THIEF (1965): Delon, in his first English language role, plays Eddie Pedak, an ex-con who is now living straight with his loving wife (Ann-Margret) and their daughter. But a Chinatown store was robbed with his m.o.--the same model car, same sheepskin jacket, even the same gun that he shot a cop with way back when (allegedly, the case was dropped for lack of evidence.) So that same cop, Mike Vido (Van Heflin) busts him. But then Eddie walks when the witness doesn't identify him. Seems like a frame job. And sure enough, enter Eddie's big brother Walt (Jack freakin' Palance!) and a couple of his no-good friends. They want Eddie to help them with a job. Specifically, a job to rob the warehouse where he works as a truck driver (or worked...he was let go after Vido arrested him in front of his boss.) So Eddie's trapped between his brother and the cops. And like they say, once a thief, always a thief. Ann-Margeret is always lovely, but not given much more to do than be the hysterical wife, especially when their daughter is in danger. Oh yeah, and it's all shot in San Francisco, which just makes it extra cool.

THE SICILIAN CLAN (1969): Hey, one of the nice things about Noir City drifting into the 60s and 70s is you can start to see some nudity in these films. And Delon seduces his way through a number of fine ladies. He's Roger Sartet, a young mobster who is taken in by the titular Sicilian clan, in an opening escape caper that was brilliant and humorously executed. Lino Ventura plays the policeman chasing him. And that chase goes from Paris, to Rome, to New York. But he's got the mob looking out for him, so the cops never really get close. Meanwhile, they plan an elaborate jewel heist, culminating in the hijacking of a transcontinental airliner. And (as is the noticeable pattern in these heist films) they pull it off. They get away with it. Except for one little error. See, I said that Sartet likes the ladies. Well, if one of those ladies is the mob patriarch's wife.... Sartet soon finds himself in New York with no backup, and has to return to Sicily... At just over 2 hours, this is a movie that takes its time in between tense and explosive scenes.

Total Running Time: 229 minutes
My Total Minutes; 414,662

Jason goes to Noir City--Day 4

I had a very early meeting on Tuesday, so I only stuck around for one film on Monday. But I can't say no to Kubrick, so I had to see...

THE KILLING (1956): Early Kubrick, already showing a mastery and vision that helped him redefine what is possible in cinema. Sterling Hayden plays the lead--the leader of gang of thieves who plan a daring robbery of a racetrack. A narrator explains the complicated chronology, as this movie jumps around in time and repeat scenes. Most notably, in the grand, complicated heist itself, that day is repeated from the view of all the main players in the heist. Which is an excellent way to give the audience an omniscient perspective one little piece at a time, and without some forced scene of the crooks around the table explaining the plan. It also allows it to be carried off with grace and comedy. But as exquisitely as everything is planned, there are always little pieces you can't account for. Like a meddling wife, or a little yapping dog. Like in practically all these movies, pulling off the heist is one thing, but escaping with the loot proves impossible. And in this case, in one of the most beautifully cinematic "fail" moments ever.

Running Time: 85 minutes
My Total Minutes: 414,433

Jason goes to Noir City--Day 3

Two movies on Sunday. I caught the early show so I could go home and get a good night's sleep. I must be getting old

RIFIFI (1955): It means fisticuffs. It means tough-guy posturing. It means trouble. And it has become synonymous with perfect heist films. Heavily influenced by THE ASPHALT JUNGLE, it was quite a treat to watch these two takes on a very similar story play out just days apart. Tony le Stéphanois (Jean Servais) is recently out of prison. He meets up with some old friends, who try to convince him to come in on a quick smash-and-grab job for jewelry in the show window of the famous jeweler Mappin and Webb. But he's got a better idea--go for the safe. And they pull it off, in a brilliantly tense 32 minutes with neither music nor dialogue (and people don't believe me when I say silent movies are actually still being made all the time, you just don't realize it because they're in between all that talking.) But their still human, and humans make mistakes. In this case, the safe-cracker Cesar (played by director Jules Dassin when the original actor dropped out due to contract problems) has a weakness for women, and that gets the whole thing blown. And the ending...another magnificently tense scene featuring a car chase and a little boy...wow.

THE BIG RISK (CLASSE TOUS RISQUES) (1960): Abel Davos (Lino Ventura) is a wanted man in Italy. So he makes plans to escape back to France with his wife and children. To raise funds for this adventure, he and his partner commit one more brazen theft, one in which a few people die. And once in France, he starts calling on old friends and asking for favors. But his friends aren't all that trustworthy, and he's already living on the edge, so as friends drop out, he's backed further and further into a corner. His motto is "never give ground" but eventually something has to give. I loved the increasing tension as you watch how increasingly desperate he gets while trying not to lose his cool.

Total Running Time: 230 minutes

My Total Minutes: 414,348

Jason goes to Noir City--Day 2

Four movies on Saturday, so let's jump right in.

KANSAS CITY CONFIDENTIAL (1952): We start with the perfect crime. 3 thugs (Neville Brand, Jack Elam, and a very tan young Lee Van Cleef,) none of whom know each other. In fact, they've never seen each other without masks. Only the boss knows them, they don't know the boss or each other. Their caper--rob an armored car disguised in a flower delivery truck, framing the actual, innocent delivery man (John Payne.) And they get away with it, but then have to lay low until the heat is off and split the loot much later. So they all go their separate ways while the patsy takes the fall. And he's roughed up by the cops, but won't confess (because, of course, he's innocent.) Eventually the second delivery truck is found and he's released, but as an ex-con and former soldier, he's determined to find the guys who framed him. A great story, with a cool twist at the end.

VIOLENT SATURDAY (1955): Then we opened up the screen for a little Cinemascope. 

Now I have to pause for a moment and comment on the format of the festival this year. Because purists will want their noir to be from in or near the 50's, and in black and white, and American, etc. Eddie Muller has put together a program that starts there, but progresses on so that by the end of the festival we'll be watching modern films, still in the heist genre. And I love it! When I work at my local silent fim museum and have to defend the importance of silent film, I tell people there's a more-than-century old conversation that's been happening around the world on film, and if you don't go back to the beginning you're like a child who wanders into the middle of a conversation and demands to know what's going on. Well, the reverse is true if you don't watch newer films--you've checked out of the conversation and pretended it's over, when there's still more to be said. And Eddie has given us all a rare opportunity to follow one thread of that grand conversation over more than 6 decades. I hope you all appreciate that.

Okay, back to the film. It's set in a small town where everyone knows each other. Victor Mature will become the hero, but at the start he's a simple family man and copper mine operator. In fact, the fact that he didn't fight in the war--because mining copper was also important to the war effort--is a bit of a sore spot with his son and his friends. Well, as a lazy Friday goes by, and we meet the citizens of the town and their interweaving lives--the banker with a wandering eye, the alcoholic mine owner and his cheating wife, the three crooks from out of town planning a bank robbery...wait, what?! Well that's not even the strange part, that would be Ernest Borgnine as an Amish farmer. And if you push him too far, and hurt his family, he might just let that Amish part slip a bit and go totally Borgnine on your ass. Best mis-casting ever! Boy that was fun.

Then a leisurely break for dinner, and we were back at it, this time somehow in Italy, a country that knows a little something about heists. 

FOUR WAYS OUT (1951): The story opens with a soccer game. And while the fans are enjoying the game, 4 hoodlums are robbing the box office. They get away and split up, but the cops start methodically setting out their web to catch them. We follow each hoodlum on his own journey trying to make his getaway, and each in turn either ending up dead or in jail. In that way it's a rather methodical movie, but quite expertly done, and with care taken to let each character shine, from the ex-soccer star to the starving artist to the young boy barely out of school. Also features a small role by a young Gina Lollobrigida, and one of Federico Fellini's first co-writing credits.

BIG DEAL ON MADONNA STREET (1958): And finally, after so many heists have gone wrong we finally get one where...well, it still goes wrong, but hilariously. Finally time to break up the bleakness with a comedy. A man is caught trying to steal a car. While in jail, he hears of the perfect caper--a pawn shop next to an abandoned apartment and the wall in between is weak--very easy to knock down. He just needs to get out in time, so he needs a scapegoat to confess to his crime. Well, that sets of an increasingly hilarious series of setbacks, leading to the unlikeliest of criminal morons (including Marcello Mastroianni) in a screwball, slapstick caper that of course all goes completely wrong. And that's completely all right. It's freakin' hilarious.

Total Running Time: 369 minutes
My Total Minutes: 440,607

Jason goes to Noir City--Opening Night

The best thing about Jan 20th, 2017 is that as far as I could tell, absolutely nothing happened in the world except for opening night of Noir City 15. In our gorgeous sanctuary cinema, in the hands of Czar of Noir Eddie Muller, starting 10 days of heist capers, I knew our biggest heist--stealing our sanity back from an insane world--would go off without a hitch. Especially starting with a couple of classics.

CRISS CROSS (1949): Steve Thompson (Burt Lancaster) has just blown back into town. Ostensibly to take care of his mom and the family home. But everybody knows he's looking to bump into his ex-wife Anna (Yvonne De Carlo.) And he does, and they're pleasant enough to each other. But she's on the arm of gangster Slim Dundee (Dan Duryea) and he's kind of the jealous type. Especially after they get married. But Steve will do anything just to be around her. Like planning a heist of the armored car company he works for. But like the title suggests, there's quite a bit of double-crossing, and this being during the production code era, no heist can ever be successful. Fantastic acting, great cinematography, just an absolute classic. 

THE ASPHALT JUNGLE (1950): And then the prototypical heist classic. First, what a cast. Sterling Hayden as smarter-than-he-looks hooligan Dix Handley. Jean Hagen as his loyal girl Doll. Sam Jaffe as Doc Riedenschneider, aka "The Professor." Louis Calhern as wealthy lawyer Emmerich. Marilyn Monroe in a bit part as his girl on the side who is rapidly making him not so wealthy. And that's just the start. Doc is just out of prison, and he's got a fool-proof plan to rob a jewelry store. He knows the system, he knows how to defeat it. He just needs a safe-cracker, a driver, a hooligan, and a little bankroll to get it all started. Oh, and some luck. That's the part that's tricky. Everyone will need luck. The first time I saw this was at Noir City back in 2010, as part of a Marilyn Monroe double feature. So my review focused on Marilyn's small but absolutely stunning part. This time, set up as the beginning of a week and a half of heists, my attention focused more on Doc (although Dix Handley is still the main character.) I just loved Sam Jaffe's portrayal. A small man, but smart. He knows how to get things done, but he also knows when he's beat and how to surrender peacefully. He doesn't touch booze (okay, I can't get behind that) and he doesn't carry a gun. Because if you carry a gun, you might shoot a cop, and that's really bad. But if you're unarmed, you surrender and get a lighter sentence. Odd thinking for a career criminal, and that's why I like it.

Okay, now here's to 9 more days of heists!

Total Running Time: 200 minutes
My Total Minutes: 440,238