Jules Dassin | Coosa Creek Cinema

Brute Force

By Rick, on November 6th, 2008 |

Brute Force is very much a product of that time right after World War II when the world was reeling from the revelations of Nazi atrocities — when we had just discovered the depths to which our fellow human beings can go. [...]

One in Eight Million

By Rick, on September 25th, 2008 |

Barry Fitzgerald contemplates the naked city

In Jules Dassin’s The Naked City, Barry Fitzgerald is so over-the-top, cloyingly Irish I want to hit him. He stops just short of drinking green beer and saying “faith and begorrah.” I am surprised that the Irish Anti-defamation league (is there really such a thing?) doesn’t have a big [...]

Paint it Noir

By Rick, on August 9th, 2008 |

Ed Dmytryk (right) and Ilya Salkind, 1972

In 1951, Edward Dmytryk got out of prison after serving a number of months for contempt of Congress. Dmytryk had directed a couple of decent noirs — Crossfire and Murder, My Sweet — before getting himself crosswise with the House Committee on Un-Aamerican Activities (HUAC) as part [...]