Frank Vatel
@frankvatel312
Writer of noir fiction, designer of book covers. Derringer Award finalist. Published by Punk Noir, All Due Respect, Bristol Noir, Revolution John, and Reckon Review.
While THE CRYING GAME isn’t a typical crime thriller, I always felt its screenplay—twisty and multilayered, personal and political—deserved comparison with Chinatown. The film was a sensation in 1992. Maybe Criterion’s 4K restoration, out today, will earn it some new fans.
Noir fans, Gil Brewer fans, Stark House fans... Brandon Barrows is *the* crime author you’ll want to read on the subject of Brewer. I consider him not only an expert, but a disciple. It’s wonderful to learn he’s penning an intro to a new edition of THE VENGEFUL VIRGIN. Below: the first edition
Dudes are mad that the U.S. men’s team, which profits bigly from a sport they did nothing to make popular, must share their profits with the gals. Bruh, take a look at these two shirts. Notice the difference? You don’t get those stars by crashing out in the Round of 16.
So many great performances in noir, it’s hard to pick a favorite. Then again, no it isn’t. Few characters make an impression like Harry Fabian—created by novelist Gerald Kersh, then improved, somehow, by Richard Widmark. TCM’s #SummerOfDarkness continues tonight with NIGHT AND THE CITY. #TCMParty
“I’ve never been partial to scousers. Those c***s ooze criminality. The Irish influence, no doubt.” —Irvine Welsh, FILTH (1998) 📚
Old Hollywood Fantasy Casting ~ July 4th Edition ~ Washington: Gary Cooper Jefferson: Joseph Cotten Hamilton: Kirk Douglas Adams: Lee J. Cobb Franklin: Charles Coburn
Does ACT OF VIOLENCE qualify as counter-programming on the eve of a certain patriotic birthday? Or is it fitting, given how many of our national illusions have been shattered lately? Either way, one of the best entries in TCM’s Summer of Darkness series airs tonight. #TCMParty
After OUT OF THE PAST airs tonight, Eddie will showcase a pair of underrated gems: RAW DEAL and MOONRISE. The two films are linked by their release year, 1948, and the aura of self-inflicted doom that permeates them like a slow-developing poison. Worth staying up for. #SummerOfDarkness #TCMParty
How did this not happen? Fate must have been hungover and taking a personal day.
Now that you mention it, Your Holiness, a certain anthology offering fifteen tales of love and redemption recently went to press, and I have it on good authority that this volume now boasts a handsome back cover, revealed here for the first time. May all the contributors be blessed. Pub date: 7/7.
My neighborhood movie house. Decent beer selection. 🍺 Photo: Sven Brogren
TCM’s Summer of Darkness resumes tonight with a nice sampling of everything Old Hollywood did right—and sometimes wrong—with noir endings. NIGHTMARE ALLEY softens its source novel’s finale, SCARLET STREET stays wonderfully bleak, and THE KILLERS ends with a joke. All great films, though. #TCMParty
“You hate people. Because, really, you’re *afraid* of them, aren’t you? Always have been, ever since you were a little tyke. You’d rather snuggle up in a chair under the lamp and read.” “There’s a lot worse things I could be doing.” —Dialogue from Robert Bloch’s PSYCHO.
It's Marilyn Month on TCM. She doesn't play a huge role in CLASH BY NIGHT (1952), airing tonight, but it's a riveting, near-perfect film. Stanwyck, Ryan, and director Fritz Lang were rarely better. Bottoms up! #TCMParty
“Starts bad, gets worse.” This famous definition of noir should be stamped on Jason Starr’s fabulous crime novels like a surgeon general’s warning. HARD FEELINGS, which traces the downfall of a salesman with a rocky marriage and a traumatic childhood, was my latest read. A brilliant, brutal ride.
Why does my productivity lag? Because roughly half my time is spent having this argument. 😂
Eddie Muller fans, it’s our moment. In addition to his regular Noir Alley gig, Muller will host TCM’s Summer of Darkness series—two months’ worth of Friday-evening triple bills culled from his all-time Top 25 list. #TCMParty. He kicks things off tonight with a few obscure ones:
Shed a tear for land. It’s barred from influencing California elections the way it does Presidential and U.S. Senate races. If land achieved suffrage in the Golden State, our democracy would be truly perfected. Land should file a civil-rights complaint against the government. Land would win.
Tweaked the Bad Intentions cover so the broken eyeglasses pop a little more. (Sometimes a thing you design looks vivid on an Apple monitor but muted on social media.) Anyways, new and improved!
TCM aired PLAY MISTY FOR ME this week. Somehow I had never seen it, so we watched. Afterward, one question lingered: If not for this single film, would the Lifetime Original Movie even be a thing? Just make the main character female—bam, three decades of basic-cable content.
🧵 1/3: Another beauty from my recent haul. This 1965 Knopf edition of Hammett’s novels, with jacket design by Jean Carlu, begins with a terse but interesting note from Lillian Hellman: “I have been asked many times why he did not write another novel after The Thin Man ...
When Milli Vanilli won't take the easy money, you know you've got booking problems. #Freedom250
The great bookstores, for me, are shaped by an owner’s quirks and obsessions. Vintage kink and speculative pulp fiction might seem like odd bedfellows, but somebody at Chicago’s Perpetual Books can’t get enough of either. Purchased: Harlan Ellison’s debut and a Fredric Brown first edition.