Negative Space: hard-boiled
- The Blowtop
- First published in 1948, this “original Beat novel” has been revived by the author and Olmstead Press, and advertised as “classic!”, “Legendary!” and “Incendiary!”
- Bordersnakes
- Two crazy private investigators and long-time drinking buddies snort their way across Texas in search of a missing financial advisor, a mysterious woman, and three million dollars.
- Casablanca
- Ah, Play it, Sam! If this isn’t the most-quoted movie outside of Macbeth, you’re in the wrong country. This is a beautiful DVD. The movie is presented in the original full-screen format. Languages are French and English, both spoken and subtitled. It also includes a nice documentary hosted by Lauren Bacall.
- The Night Stalker
- Carl Kolchak’s original movie, doubled with the pilot for the television series, “The Night Strangler”.
- The Seven Samurai
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Probably the most influential samurai film, starring Toshirô Mifune and directed by Akira Kurosawa. It inspired more than just samurai: “The Magnificent Seven” was “Seven Samurai” remade into one of the most influential westerns.
- Shaft
- This is a decent detective flick. It has attitude, but some of that attitude has gone stale over thirty years. Note that while many of the on-line sites list a “director’s commentary” by director Gordon Parks, the DVD does not have one. That’s a big disappointment, especially since the DVD is also not enhanced for widescreen television.
- Tokyo Drifter
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A quirky B-Grade mafia film from 1966 Japan’s 2-movie a week Nikkatsu studio and cult favorite Seijun Suzuki. Filmed in “original, glorious Nikkatsu-scope”.
- The Usual Suspects
- Kevin Spacey is in police custody telling the police why and how he and all his friends in the criminal fraternity took on a job for ninety-one million dollars in cocaine that didn’t exist, and everyone ended up dead (except Kevin, of course, who is telling the story, and the cops, who weren’t there, and one guy in the hospital who only speaks Hungarian). And who is Keyser Soze?
