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Film noir

"Even bad books have their charm. . ." [by David Lehman]

Even bad books have their charms.Double Indeminity still
Last night I read such a book
the title of which I shall not mention
nor will I name the book's author
who thinks that at the end of Dark Passage
Bogart wears a white dinner jacket as inCasablanca
and that Loretta Young's father in The Stranger
is the president of the college where Orson Welles teaches
when in fact the dad is a Supreme Court justice
and Mr. Welles as the Nazi without a German accent
teaches at a prep school
and as for Detour the author doesn't get the point
that it's a study in the unreliable narrator
while Double Indemnity, in the writer's opinion,
is only so-so because both Stanwyck and MacMurray
lack sex appeal, ha, and, too, the author likens Dana Andrews
to a baseball player who got to the majors only because
Ted Williams and co are fighting the second World War
I could go on but why should IDetour Tom Neal and Ann Savage
when I enjoyed reading the book even despite the irritating
use of “creep” and “milquetoast” just because
I love noir and so does the author so all sins
are forgiven losses are restored and sorrows end.

Edward G. Robinson The Stranger 1946

The Killing Marie Windsor Elisha CookGloria Graham The Big Heat

from the archive; first posted March 2, 2020
Top: Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck in
 Double Indemnity; center left Edward G. Robinson in The Stranger; center Tom Neal and Ann Savage in Detour; center left Edward G. Robinson in The Stranger; bottom left Elisha Cook Jr and Marie Windsor in The Killing; bottom tight Gloria Grahame


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"Lively and affectionate" Publishers Weekly

Radio

I left it
on when I
left the house
for the pleasure
of coming back
ten hours later
to the greatness
of Teddy Wilson
"After You've Gone"
on the piano
in the corner
of the bedroom
as I enter
in the dark


from New and Selected Poems by David Lehman

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