Those Wonderful People Out There In The Dark

David Jansen
  • 5.0 (9)
  • FILM REVIEWS
  • UPDATED SEMIMONTHLY

Why, in a world crowded with opinions on films, do we need another podcast? I want to go through films that transcend, for me, what you're seeing on the screen and make you feel. Or make you think. Or both. That bring you alive, whether in a movie seat, on a couch, or propped up holding your phone. Every two weeks (or so) I'll be dropping a podcast of my thoughts on those movies, directors and actors which hit me hard emotionally.

  1. Raw Deal

    2D AGO

    Raw Deal

    Send a text If there’s a mainstay in the structure of a film noir, it might be the tension between the protagonist --- the gee, the mug, the sucker --- and the femme fatale. The male led around by his nose, or his whatever, down the road to his doom, or his prison cell, or to a long walk down a deserted, dark highway. She inevitably does him wrong --- sometimes willfully, at other times simply because she wants --- freedom, or money, or to get away and up from under. The femme employs her wiles, if I may use that term in the 21st Century (but it was totally relevant in the 1940s and 50s) to maneuver the guy into whatever she desires, whether he’s successful at obtaining it or not. We devoted an entire pod in the second season to the idea of the femme fatale and detailing the careers of some of the top actors who fit the role within the noir genre.   For most femmes, that’s as complex as the noir story demands --- exert some of those wiles! They skip off with the dough or the goods, free as a bird usually, leaving the gee to hold the bag. Occasionally, very occasionally, you may encounter a film noir that delves more deeply into the character of the femme, a film in which she is just as decimated or defeated at the curtain as the gee. Let’s take a look this month at such a film, crafted by three of the best --- one of the femmes fatale we highlighted in season two, due to her long and deep impression on noir, and a director and cinematographer who left a huge mark on noir in their time. It’s also a cast threesome, to increase the tension, if you will. From many – time noir supporters Eagle-Lion Films, it’s the 1948 production of Raw Deal. And no, Schwarzenegger is not in it…   Website and blog: www.thosewonderfulpeople.com IG: @thosewonderfulpeople Twitter: @FilmsInTheDark

    38 min
  2. Night And The City

    JAN 20

    Night And The City

    Send us a text In most film noir, you may be able to pick out a teaspoon of nobility in even the most nihilistic, rotten protagonist --- they’re in the situation because of their attraction to someone, or due to desperation, or the breaks are against them. Or sometimes, because of the structure of the world around them. From this season’s own short list, witness the hard luck of Al in Detour as his ride is killed falling out of a car. Bart can’t leave Laurie and her homicidal tendencies behind in Gun Crazy. Marlowe wrestles with covering up a murder for love in The Big Sleep. The Swede is played for a sap in The Killers because he took the wrong course after giving up boxing. I mean, pick your reasons.  But occasionally in the genre, a protagonist is so unsympathetic, so outside the mainstream of human values that he (always he) plows on for the basest of reasons in his quest for money, or ease, or freedom, or carnal satisfaction. Combine that with a story that is beset by nihilism, directed by someone who was understandably bitter about their life’s turnings, populated with actors with a story to tell, and you have a bitter stew of noir that’s difficult to watch, let alone understand. Please stay in your seats. I present to you the wonderfully named Night And The City. The most noir of titles… Website and blog: www.thosewonderfulpeople.com IG: @thosewonderfulpeople Twitter: @FilmsInTheDark

    45 min
  3. The Killers

    12/16/2025

    The Killers

    Send us a text Our Noirvember pod on The Big Sleep had me ooohhhing and aaahhhing about the talent that brought the film to life in front of and behind the camera. As we enter the classic period of noir in America, we’re going to look at a film that has some of the most impactful and prolific noir actors ever assembled, with just as talented a production team as in Sleep. For your holiday enjoyment by the crackling fire, we bring you the noir based on a very short Ernest Hemingway story, 1946’s The Killers from Universal. Historically, we’ve liked to propose that, if you want to introduce a friend to film noir in a short sitting, you’d put them in a comfortable chair, roll Double Indemnity from 1944, allow them to stretch afterwards, perhaps all “go out to the lobby,” then give them a shot of Bob Mitchum playing Bob Mitchum in 1947’s Out Of The Past. But if you wanted to show them a noir that has maximum acting talent at every level, so much so that it seems almost wasteful, you’d have to delight them with a triple feature and run The Killers.  Website and blog: www.thosewonderfulpeople.com IG: @thosewonderfulpeople Twitter: @FilmsInTheDark

    45 min
  4. The Big Sleep

    11/18/2025

    The Big Sleep

    Send us a text Exit Scary Season, hello Noirvember and back to film noir in earnest! We’re leaving behind the subgenre of crazy kids on the run and into more established noir territory --- the private detective story. And do we have a great one for our entrance! Among the first pre-wave of classic film noir released in the US after WWII, it’s 1946’s The Big Sleep. Packed with talent in front of and behind the camera, packed with confusion by one of the hallmark authors of the hard – boiled writing style, packed with intrigue beyond the simple telling of a story --- it’s a signal event of the genre. It’s packed.  It started, as do many of the early noir films, with a master of the pulp magazine story, the estimable Raymond Chandler. Chandler had an extremely round-about path to artistic success. He was a son of the Midwest, born in Chicago and raised in Nebraska, but due to family connections, well educated at Dulwich College in London. He became a British citizen and entered the civil service, which he found stifling. He moved on to newspaper work, had a stop in Canadian military service during WWI, then returned to the US, beginning an executive career in the Southern California oil industry. The Depression put paid to his work there, as well as contributed to his growing alcoholism. Short on funds, Chandler took a flyer and picked up on the paid – by – the – word pulp fiction magazines of the day, his first story in 1933 winning him instant success. He never looked back. He became more ambitious, his slow writing more fitted to novels than paid – by – the – word, publishing his first, The Big Sleep, in 1939.  Website and blog: www.thosewonderfulpeople.com IG: @thosewonderfulpeople Twitter: @FilmsInTheDark

    49 min
  5. Son Of Frankenstein

    10/21/2025

    Son Of Frankenstein

    Send us a text As the last four years, it’s time for our annual salute to Scary Season on the pod --- a little film nosh to whet your appetite for the fun of Halloween ahead. Last season we went down one of the paths of the classic Universal Pictures lineup of horror films, with the foundational Dracula. This season, we’re headed down another path of classics from the golden days of Universal, but the third in the series of this particular horror group. Not the film Frankenstein, not Bride Of Frankenstein, but the third and a nice addition (and the last that made sense) in the trail of the monster created by scientist Henry Frankenstein, the story of his human progeny. It’s Son Of Frankenstein! You knew that was coming next!    Why start with the third in the series? The first two, directed by James Whale, were great and foundational in their own right. But we do dislike Colin Clive chewing the scenery as Henry Frankenstein in the first two films, as well as a thin set of supporting actors. If we’re going to have an actor chewing the scenery, how about Basil Rathbone? Or Bela Lugosi? Also, many scenes in Son are immediately recognizable, as Mel Brooks and Gene Wilder mined so much of the story and characterizations for their inimitable film Young Frankenstein. Sure, the blind man played by legendary Gene Hackman in Young rose from a story line in Bride --- credit where credit is due. But most of the rest is Son. It’s just fun to watch and mark… Okay, that’s settled… Website and blog: www.thosewonderfulpeople.com IG: @thosewonderfulpeople Twitter: @FilmsInTheDark

    1h 1m
  6. Gun Crazy

    09/16/2025

    Gun Crazy

    Send us a text We’re plowing ahead five years from last month’s pod subject but staying in the low – rent, “B” picture roots of film noir, with just a bit more polish, a little more class (because of a slightly larger budget). While last month’s Detour sticks with you, it’s because of its rough edges and the kick-in-the-gut noirness of the fated fall of the protagonist (as well as the hyper – meanness of the femme fatale --- Ann Savage indeed!). This month, we look at a film that has an incredible behind-the-camera crew, a great cast with many nice surprises, but also some tendrils that tie it to Detour --- it’s 1950’s Gun Crazy. The film also ushers in (or joins, depending on your view) the sub – genre of “youngstas on the run” noir, as also exemplified by Nicholas Ray’s 1948 work They Live By Night, 1949’s Knock On Any Door, Tomorrow Is Another Day in 1951, and continuing the sub-genre into neonoir with Badlands and the remake of They Live By Night, Robert Altman’s Thieves Like Us. We’re privileged to see sharp writing, wonderful direction, a fabulous ten – minute bit of direct cinema, fine acting, but an inevitable, aching drive down the tracks to a waiting and remorseless fate. Detour came out of Poverty Row Hollywood --- Gun Crazy was hard on its run – down heels. PRC barely fronted the money for Detour, and the King Brothers, Frank and Maurice, were only slightly more generous in working up Gun Crazy’s budget (courtesy of the aptly named King Brothers Productions --- which we’ll shorten to KBP). This was another Hollywood “B” picture with no delusions of grandeur --- it was going to play on the bottom of the bill or in the sticks. But for the money, KBP floated a film that was packed with talent --- talent admittedly somewhat over a monetary barrel, but talent, nonetheless. What did KBP get for their $400K and thirty days of shooting?  Website and blog: www.thosewonderfulpeople.com IG: @thosewonderfulpeople Twitter: @FilmsInTheDark

    36 min
  7. Detour

    08/19/2025

    Detour

    Send us a text No producer or director of the 40s and 50s set out to make a film noir. They were simply trying to put together a film that would entertain and turn a profit, dammit! During the 40s and early 50s, TV was a non-entity or a new, expensive element in entertainment --- there was no competition for the 25 cents someone spent every week going to the movies. Consequently, the output of Hollywood was prodigious and many films noir, if not viewed through a modern lens, were simply “B” pictures, inexpensive work that was part of a double bill. The genre film noir encompasses many forms of 40s and 50s stories on its shadowed and fatalistic way… Melodramas. Crimers. Caper films. Heist movies. Police procedurals. Bad girl stories. Gangster films. Detective tales. Many of these films were inexpensive and thus, not worthy of notice or subtle categorization. They were “B”s. But some of the original and most impactful of the film noir genre were low-cost films imbued with the imagination, technical aptitude, and drive of their creators to transcend the double bill. They’re a credit to the people who worked to put forward the best story possible, regardless of the constraints of budget. Unsung heroes.  So, we’re going to warm up the new season with a few of the under-funded “B” pictures that stood noir up on its legs and paved the way for more sumptuous, but no more impactful productions. We’re going to start with an orphan of Poverty Row filmmaking, from the fabulous Producers Releasing Corporation, fresh from the war, 1945’s Detour, directed by Edgar Ulmer and with a twosome at the top of the cast who made your hair curl with fatalism and dread. Noir enough for you? The tale begins in 1939 during the heyday of pulp magazines and their oeuvre, with a novel by Martin Goldsmith, titled Detour: An Extraordinary Tale. Indeed…  Website and blog: www.thosewonderfulpeople.com IG: @thosewonderfulpeople Twitter: @FilmsInTheDark

    38 min
  8. Invasion Of The Body Snatchers

    06/17/2025

    Invasion Of The Body Snatchers

    Send us a text The A-bomb had contributed to this soft reign of terror. It had also fired a period of excitement and fertility in the neglected field of science fiction. Before WWII, sci-fi in film was widespread, with examples such as Lang’s hallmark Metropolis, Things To Come, the silent 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, The Lost World, and serials populated by Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers. The war had shifted the focus, to combat and military films, propaganda, home-front boosterism, and escapism. The war also brought awareness of the application of science to conflict. Atomic power had brought an entirely new set of horrific sci-fi characters --- as embodied by Bela Lugosi, played by Martin Landau in the film Ed Wood: “Today it’s all giant bugs. Giant spiders, giant grasshoppers...” Increasingly, sci-fi enemies came from the outside, from other worlds loosening tremendous power upon the Earth, or beings from our world mutated and terribly changed by atomic power. Or sometimes, both. Aliens of all types were lurking every week at the Bijou in the 1950s. The Day The Earth Stood Still. The Thing From Another World, The War Of The Worlds. Some of these films were silly, and as characterized by Lugosi/Landau --- giant bugs. Some became classics, despite their pedigree, as in the film Invasion Of The Body Snatchers. The 1956 offering had an unlikely path to greatness, but it’s stood the test of time because of the themes that run through its bones. Website and blog: www.thosewonderfulpeople.com IG: @thosewonderfulpeople Twitter: @FilmsInTheDark

    38 min
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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
9 Ratings

About

Why, in a world crowded with opinions on films, do we need another podcast? I want to go through films that transcend, for me, what you're seeing on the screen and make you feel. Or make you think. Or both. That bring you alive, whether in a movie seat, on a couch, or propped up holding your phone. Every two weeks (or so) I'll be dropping a podcast of my thoughts on those movies, directors and actors which hit me hard emotionally.

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