Mr. Lyons, May I welcome you to the Dark Film Discussions Forum. You have many avid fans here, so after I ask a few preliminary questions, I invite all Noir posters to jump in and fire away..about their favorite Noir films. Let me thank you for visiting our website and much good luck on your upcoming Film Noir Festival and Party in Palm Springs! 

Here we go . . . answer in any order that you wish: 

1. You had discussed on the phone that you hope to have a revision of your book "Death on the Cheap", as you have thirty or more additions to add to the movie encapsulated section. Could you share a few of the new ones with us, that you have previewed and tell why you are including them? 

2.  I know that you will be having some justly acclaimed film stars appearing at your upcoming Film Noir Festival and Party in Palm Springs. Could you share some of the special guests' names with us? 

3. What was your main motivation, when you first set out to write your immensely informative and entertaining "Death on the Cheap" ? How does your book differ, do you feel from other Film Noir books on the market? 

ARTHUR LYONS:    To Maura's sub: 

Question #1. You had discussed on the phone that you hope to have a revision of your book "Death on the Cheap", as you have thirty or more additions to add to the movie encapsulated section. Could you share a few of the new ones with us, that you have previewed and tell why you are including them? 

1. Some of the new movies I'd want to include in a new edition of DEATH ON THE CHEAP are: 

Illegal Entry 

Shakedown 

3 Bad Sisters 

The Lie 

Walk a Crooked Mile 

Walk East on Beacon 

They Made Me a Fugitive 

The Walls Came Tumbling Down 

Double Jeopardy 

Stolen Identity 

The Glass Wall 

The Crooked Web 

Missing Juror 

Wanted for Murder 

Dear Murderer 

Double Confession 

Question #2.  I know that you will be having some justly acclaimed film stars appearing at your upcoming Film Noir Festival and Party in Palm Springs. Could you share some of the special guests' names with us? 

2. Some of the stars who will be attending the Palm Springs Film Noir Festival, June 6-9 are Mickey Spillane, Jane Russell, Rhonda Fleming,  Beverly Garland, M. Emmett Walsh, Anne Savage, and Coleen Gray. 

Ouestion #3.  What was your main motivation, when you first set out to write your immensely informative and entertaining "Death on the Cheap" ? How does your book differ, do you feel from other Film Noir books on the market? 

3. I have been a fan of film noir since I was a kid. Also, growing up in Hollywood and being a screenwriter, I got sick of reading pontifical pieces about film noir, which I see as an outgrowth of the B-movie crime genre. Granted, sociological factors led to the popularity of film noir but growing up in a movie atmosphere, I saw that imitation more than originality was the business' motivator. I also have been more of a fan of B than A movies. It has always been inconceivable to me how a studio could spend $50 mil on a turkey and good B-fare could be made on a shoestring. I wanted to write a book not on Double Indemnity and The Postman Always Rings Twice as most books on film noir cover ad nauseam but to unearth those rare films that have been lost to the general public.

THOMAS M. BLUE:    Do you have a definition of film noir that would make it easy for a novice to recognize a film in the genre? 

ALAN RODE:    Mr. Lyons, welcome again to Dark Film Discussions. We are delighted that you could join us today. Here are three questions that I would value your responses to. 

1. The Filmography chapter in Death on the Cheap is a fascinating tour de horizon of the B movies of film noir. Since lost is a relative term, is there a preferred or recommended process to find these films in video or original format? Have many of these movies have disappeared forever? 

2. What do you think possessed Columbia and other studios to fund the 1950s myopic film vision of Hugo Haas who, in your words was, "one of the world's worst writers-directors-actors" and ". . . dedicated his entire film career to remaking bad copies of The Postman Always Rings Twice"? 

3. Have you read Lee Server's recent bio on Robert Mitchum, "Baby, I don't Care" and if so, what is your opinion of the book? Do you have a particular Mitchum story you could share with us? Thanks again for visiting all of us on DFD! 

1. The Filmography chapter in Death on the Cheap is a fascinating tour de horizon of the B movies of film noir. Since lost is a relative term, is there a preferred or recommended process to find these films in video or original format? Have many of these movies have disappeared forever? 

AL:    1. Here are some gems: Stolen Identity, Riff-Raff, Nowhere To Go, The Spiritualist 

2. What do you think possessed Columbia and other studios to fund the 1950s myopic film vision of Hugo Haas who, in your words was, "one of the world's worst writers-directors-actors" and ". . . dedicated his entire film career to remaking bad copies of The Postman Always Rings Twice"? 

AL:    2. God knows! Haas must have sold his soul to the Devil! 

3. Have you read Lee Server's recent bio on Robert Mitchum, "Baby, I don't Care" and if so, what is your opinion of the book? Do you have a particular Mitchum story you could share with us? Thanks again for visiting all of us on DFD! 

AL:    3. No, I have not read the Server's bio. I have lots of Mitchum stories, but they are too lengthy to go into here. I was supposed to write his autobio but he declined in spite of being offered 3.1 million dollars for it. One fact that is not commonly known is that he was an intellectual--he read everything. 

ALAN:    Thanks, Arthur, for the great responses. I hope to see you in Palm Springs this summer. BTW, we recently had a discussion on the board about Mitchum's myriad eclectic interests, especially his huge record collection and love of calypso music, both as a performer and aficionado. 

MIKE:    Hi, Art! I hope you'll forgive the informality and also my academic bent; I'm not as conversant as my confreres in the particular films you cite in DOTC; but I especially enjoyed reading it! 

1. I think your conception that noir was fueled by the advent and rise of B movies is a very cogent argument. I think that although the effects of WWII accelerated technology and post-war zeitgeist/disillusionment/nihilism, etc. are hard to ignore-the noir phenomenon would have occurred anyway. What's your take on this? 

2. You have been described to me as a proponent of noir as a genre. We often debate whether some film is noir around here, with some good points made by my friends mac (hopefully here today) and Maura. What are your own criteria? 

3. Alain Silver mentioned "fascist repression" in Germany as a prime ingredient in noir style, and Eddie Muller has talked about foreign noir as the new frontier. Where/what are the noir films from countries like Italy, Spain, former Soviet Union óall under fascist regimes pre and during WWII? 

4. Are you any relation to my old fiend Art Lyons, pediatrician in Sac'to? Thanks for your time and looking forward to our Film Festival in the desert! . . . and thank you, Alan for agreeing to pinch-hit for me as well as MM. 

AL:     Dear Mike: Thanks for the question.

2. You have been described to me as a proponent of noir as a genre. We often debate whether some film is noir around here, with some good points made by my friends mac (hopefully here today) and Maura. What are your own criteria? 

2. My criteria for judging a film noir or not is all in the story, not in cinematic techniques. All noir figures are trapped by their own personal flaws and fate. This differentiates noir from regular crime flicks. I must admit I am not a foreign film watcher, although the noir genre is particularly popular in France and I know of at least a dozen Japanese noirs that have been recently released. 

3. Alain Silver mentioned "fascist repression" in Germany as a prime ingredient in noir style, and Eddie Muller has talked about foreign noir as the new frontier. Where/what are the noir films from countries like Italy, Spain, former Soviet Union óall under fascist regimes pre and during WWII? 

3. "Fascist repression?" In one way only was fascist repression responsible for film noir: German expressionism was given vent in the B-movies because of refugees. Some critics look at noir as a huge burst of  Hollywood creativity. Hollywood has always based its product on copying successful product--in noir's case 'Double Indemnity'. 

4. Are you any relation to my old fiend Art Lyons, pediatrician in Sac'to? Thanks for your time and looking forward to our Film Festival in the desert! . . . and thank you, Alan for agreeing to pinch-hit for me as well as MM. 

4. I am not related to any Lyons in Sacramento. Thanks again. 

MIKE:   Much obliged, Maestro and to darkmarc. Hope to shake your hand in Palm Springs. 

mac:    Good afternoon, Mr. Lyons, and welcome to you! Thank you for your marvelous book, which I immensely enjoy and which is a valuable reference in my library precisely because it is devoid of overly academic and psychoanalytical pontificating. Bravo! 

mac:    I was surprised to read in your appendix Film Noir Sources that the estimable Eddie Brandt's Saturday Matinee in North Hollywood was superior to The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Center for Motion Picture Study as a resource for film noir. With the growing interest in noir, do you foresee the possibility of any of the movies in Death on the Cheap ever being released on video and DVD? 

Have you had any business dealings with studios or home entertainment companies to get more noir issued on video and DVD? If so, what is your take on the attitude within the movie-home entertainment industries regarding B noirs? 

PRU:   How nice to have you here, Mr. Lyons. In the film 'Key Witness'  (1947), the architect, played by John Beal, doesn't know whether or not he has committed a murder and flees. He finds a dead body on a railroad track, rifles the body and assumes its identity. This sounds so hauntingly familiar to me I am wondering if this film had ever been remade, as some B pictures have been, or hasn't this plot been used a lot? Thank you so much. 

AL:    The plot has been reused numerous times in various forms, especially in noir--and especially poorly in 'Key Witness'. 

mac:    Of all the B noirs that you've seen, which ones do you especially regard as unsung classics that deserve better exposure to the public and critical reevaluation? 

AL:   'Riff-Raff',  'The Spiritualist',  'Nowhere To Go',  'Stolen Identity'. 

JAY M:    If  Mr. Lyons means the 1947 "Riff-Raff" with Pat O'Brien I second that emotion. It's one hell of an enjoyable movie. Director Ted Tetzlaff does some pretty neat stuff with the camera too. I think TCM shows this one now and then. 

CHRISTI:   Hello, I am Dark Marc's daughter and I just want to ask you, what do you think of the movie 'House of Bamboo'?  It personally is my favorite. Do you think it is a B movie?  Do you think it is a classic film noir or even a film noir at all?  What do you think are some of its bad points, and what do you think are some of its good points? It is one of my favorites because it secretly tells of the problems in Japan. 

AL:    House of Bamboo is definitely noir, but in my opinion, is inferior to the film it was remade from, 'Street With No Name'. 

ALAN:   Mickey Spillane's best work was recently reissued in a two volume set, The Mike Hammer Collection. I recently reread One Lonely Night and The Big Kill and marveled at the declarative clarity of his writing. I am surprised that more of his books were not adapted to the screen. Is he still writing? 

AL:    Mickey will be at the Palm Springs Film Noir Festival June 6-9, 2002, signing his books. His movie 'The Long Wait' will be shown June 8th. Mickey is alive and well, and still writing--although he says that any book that takes more that 2 weeks to write should be thrown away. 

MIKE:    Art, I'm trying to see as many films dealing with traumatic amnesia as I can for a project. Any particularly good examples in your Filmography that I should get a hold of? 

AL:    'Street of Chance', 'Shock',  'Nightmare',  'Fear In The Night',  'Fall Guy',  'The Guilty',  'Spellbound'. 

mac:   Also, check out this thriller starring Nancy Coleman, Michael O'Shea, Sheldon Leonard, and Peter Whitney, directed by Jack Bernhard (Decoy, 1946, Blonde Ice, 1948), and produced by Monogram!

MIKE:   Great! Only have two of these so far. Much appreciated.

THOMAS:   Do you think The Leopard Man is film noir?

AL:   Close, but no cigar.

THOMAS:   Why not?

AL:    Go to hell, Blue!

LAURA:    Hello Mr. Lyons, let me first say I think your book is fabulous! It brought to my attention many worthwhile films previously unknown to me. Especially valuable were your synopses. My question is, due to the difficulty in seeing many of these films, what primary format did you use to see/find them: video, archives, etc?. And to echo a question posed by Alan, are some of the films summarized in your book actually lost and unavailable? Specifically, 'I Wouldn't Be In Your Shoes', which seems particularly obscure and largely unseen. Thank you so much for your time!