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 They
don't make them like they used to -- when men were men and women were... femme fatales!
Today action movies often try to impress viewers by showing them something impossible, something they have never seen before or that
they never could see. In classic movies the action, violence and danger is usually not just more real, but all around us, everywhere.
A bird may swoop down and attack, a drunken lout might lurch across a bar room to attack just because you are in his line of sight, a
country might start a war on a Sunday morning that will continue for years.
Then also, most films today go in for "shock" over "suspense". Shock is a villain bursting out of the closet, knife
in hand. Suspense is knowing the villain is there waiting, as the innocent walks up to the house, checks the mail, and casually walks
into the room where the villain lays in wait. Both shock and suspense have their place, but suspense gives you that ants-in-your-pants
feeling for a more sustained amount of time than the instant of shock does. Film noir can almost be described as constant suspense.
The word "noir" alone means something dark and not good is going on!
This site offers an appreciation of action and suspense films of days gone by, and the characters, directors, writers and stars involved in making those
films. There are articles on directors who specialized in the genre, articles on themed topics, and some photos, primarily of femme fatales of the era like
Lynn Bari,
June Duprez,
Betty Grable,
Rhonda Fleming,
Kim Novak and more. Take a look, and watch out for crop dusters!
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