Wednesday 24 November 2010

Noir Heads



Here are a couple of choice characters I've been meaning to draw for a while. They're plucked from two classic film noirs I've only just recently got around to seeing. First up is Johnny Clay, played brilliantly by Sterling Hayden, in mid-heist iconic clown getup from Stanley Kubrick's fantastic The Killing. A riveting and highly influential (Reservoir who?) horse racing robbery caper with cracking dialogue by Jim Thompson and stunning black and white photography. Get on it!

Back in August I went along to a petrol station cum pop-up cinema in London called Cineroleum to watch classic noir D.O.A. A rollicking, slightly laughable, murder mystery with the killer hook of having the hero, Frank Bigelow, investigating his own demise to some absurdly slow-acting luminous green poison. Everything is cranked up to fever pitch including a stand-out oddball performance by Neville Brand as Chester, a simple wild-eyed thug eager to kill Frank in the most painful ways possible - 'Think I'll give it to you in the belly!'


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