So long as the action unfolds in Shanghai, where it is set for roughly two-thirds of its length, Mollenard—a.k.a. Capitaine Corsaire—is one of Robert Siodmak’s most gripping, beautiful and atmospheric films. I am less convinced, though, by the domestic melodrama in Dunkirk, where Justin Mollenard, skipper of the Minotaur, stays home as little as possible […]
Tag Archives: Siodmak/Grunes
I saw Underneath (1995) when it first came out, but only last night did I finally catch up with the film noir that Steven Soderbergh’s film blandly, tepidly remade: Robert Siodmak’s Criss Cross. Burt Lancaster plays Steve Thompson, who, obsessed with ex-wife Anna, returns to the scene of his marriage, Los Angeles, and for the […]
Spinning off some of our sacred secular memories of Billy Wilder’s Double Indemnity (1944), including certain plot details and a snapshot of Thelma Jordan—like Phyllis Dietrichson, played by Barbara Stanwyck—as a blonde, Robert Siodmak’s absorbing, suspenseful, increasingly magnificent The File on Thelma Jordan, however, differs in two substantial ways: the action isn’t filtered through the […]
Probably the eeriest and, also, the most lyrical and deeply felt of the Hollywood Dracula films, Son of Dracula claims unexpected settings: a small town outside New Orleans; the nearby Louisiana swamps. The atmosphere drips of menace, sinister doings in the dead of night, fatal fantasy. The “undead” Count Dracula, calling himself Alucard (Dracula spelled […]
Based on James Ronald’s novel This Way Out and, although stopping short of any portrayal of the sensational 1910 trial, Robert Siodmak’s excellent The Suspect is inspired by Hawley Harvey (“Dr.”) Crippen’s apparent murder of his wife in London and flight to Canada with his mistress. Up and down, there are points of connection between […]
Dennis Grunes 