Thursday, 22 January 2009

3 Classic film noirs synopsis



The third man
Director- Carol Reed
Release date- writer Graham Reece£ September 1949

An American coming to Vienna named Holly Martins, who has come to accept a job from an old friend.
Holly martins)Joseph Cotton) he goes of brain and is surprised when his friend Harry lime isn’t there to meet him, so he goes to limes flat but the building broker tells him limes dead and says he was killed by a truck that hit him right in front of the building.

Holly then decides to stick around to look into Harry’s death and accepts the job to lecture at Crabbins book society in a few days. Holly then goes investigating asking people about Harry and ends up talking to a pretty woman named Anna Schmidt and starts to realise something suspicious is going on.

He then continues investigating Harry’s death until one night he sees Harry, then he speaks to Harry realising all the bad things his done then he tells the police were Harry is and they all go looking for him and in the end holly ends up shooting Harry



M
Director- Fritz Lang
Writer- Fritz Lang
Release date- 31 August 1931

In the past year eight have been murdered on the way home from school there are signs on the street saying “who is the murderer?”
Police have been searching everywhere they have covered every spot on the street, they have been looking so hard there underworld boss is getting worried. So the underworld boss Schranker (Gustaf Grudgens) has come to the conclusion the child killer must be found before the police ruin the business.

So all the underworld bosses get together and decide to disguise someone as a beggar on every street so they can catch the killer. While police trace a postcard they investigate released criminals and mental patients who fit the description of the killer and finally come to Han’s Beckets apartment where they find all the evidence that matches the clues.

Beckert realises he has been caught so he runs into the office building then the beggars contact Schranker who sends a group of gangsters to get him, the police also are alerted but the gangsters get him just before the police arrive.
In the end the police find Beckert and take him away.

Detour
Director- Edgar G Ulmer
Writer- Martin Goldsmith
Release date- 30 November 1945

Detour starts in the middle of nowhere at a diner where we see Al Roberts (Tom Neal) talking in a voiceover about his life and what lead him to end up in a diner in the middle of nowhere. He argues with the waitress at the diner, the diner manager and a trucker who drops a nickel in a juke box and plays the song that Al and his girlfriend called their song.

Then theres a flashback were Al tells us about his relationship with his singer girlfriend Sue (Claudia Drake) as he accompanied her on piano in a New York club. When she leaves for fame and fortune in Los Angeles Al is lonely and decides to hitch hike to the coast to be with her. He accepts a ride from good-time-Charlie Charles Haskell Jr. (Edmund MacDonald).

During their drive Haskell tells Al a little about himself, relating a story about deep scratches he has on his hand that he received when he picked up a woman who shunned his advances. When Haskell suffers an attack and dies, Roberts, fearing that he will be accused of the death takes on the man's identification and begins driving the car himself. At a gas station Al picks up Vera (Ann Savage), who blurts out, "What did you do with the body?" It turns out that Vera had accepted a ride from Haskell earlier and she is the one who has given him the scratches on his hand. Threatening to summon the police Vera forces Al to pose as Haskell in order to collect an inheritance from the man's millionaire father.

During their time together Vera causes another problem to befall Al and in the end Al accidentally ends up strangling Vera with the Phone cable Now knowing his life has totally turned he just ends up wondering around on his own until eventually the police catch him and take him away.

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