Perhaps more than any other classic American genre, the western may have the most obvious symbolic binary: black hats signify the outlaws, white ones are worn by the lawmen. Delmer Daves’ big screen adaptation of Elmore Leonard’s pulp story “Three-Ten to Yuma,” (screenplay by Halsted Welles) subverts this. It pulls certain lines of dialog verbatim, … Continue reading Delmer Daves’ Respect for the Hard Working West…
John Huston and the American Asshole…
"Hey, mister, would you stake a fellow American to a meal?" The first thing we learn about a bearded and battered Humphrey Bogart, in John Huston’s cinematic masterpiece, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, is that he’s a liar, a beggar and a con artist – a guy down on his luck just trying to scrape by … Continue reading John Huston and the American Asshole…
Gods of Direction and Meaning in Jules Dassin’s “Night and the City…”
After running through the streets and back alleys of London, the figure at the center of Jules Dassin’s Night and the City, Harry Fabian, slips into an apartment that isn’t his. He checks the window, before moving to the table, nibbling on some food that’s been left out. Mid-bite he spots something off camera, dropping … Continue reading Gods of Direction and Meaning in Jules Dassin’s “Night and the City…”
Projector of Feelings 