19430122 Time to Kill (A Fiesta 8)

Lloyd Nolan is a Vaudeville Sam Spade in this light noir. It’s the first adaptation of Raymond Chandler’s The Brasher Doubloon. Overlook the vaudeville comedy tendencies and noir tropes & there’s a fast-moving mystery underneath.

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19430115 Over My Dead Body (A Fiesta 6) Milton Berle is a flaky, dead beat writer who inserts himself into a murder with the stupid idea of pretending to be the killer. Mildly funny, but slap that man.

19430115 Education for Death: The Making of the Nazi (A Fiesta 8) Walt gets into the anti-nazi-youth-propaganda game. German adults are fat. A historical curiosity.

19430105 The Adventures of Smilin’ Jack (A Fiesta 4) Jack is a pilot who smiles while he flies in this serial. Oh yea, there’s a war. Keep Smilin’ Jack!

THE FULL FIESTA 13 for January 1943.

Journey into Fear with WW2 clips, great noirs & technicolor propaganda in this THE FULL FIESTA 13 for January 1943.

19430112 Shadow of a Doubt (A Fiesta 10) Hitchcock has said this is his favorite of his movies. Joesph Cotton is riveting as creepy Uncle “Charlie.” Must for Hitch fans.

19430104 Man of Courage (Pure Flix)

(A Fiesta 7)

Once when we’all were teens, we’all worked at The Fiesta 13 Video Store. Fancy place, a bead door separated the main video from the porn stash, so we’all watched men in raincoats sneak into the porn room most of the day. Then, we’d spend the rest of the day trying to guess their porn peccadilloes. You really can judge a porn mag by the cover. Feet Dudes all act the same.

Early in the job, a co-worker said we’all could take posters out of the poster barrel fore free. Did this for about a week, then the co-worker ratted me out about the posters, lying about being able to take one.

We’all were fired.

In Man of Courage, a straight-arrow DA gets elected Governor with the help of a fixer. When the fixer asks the DA to throw a case, the DA resists. The fixer had ‘fixed’ some of the DA’s old cases to convict innocent men. The DA is threatened. A crime drama of ethics.

Ever been set-up at work to take the fall for something you. didn’t do?

In Blaine, Ne, even the smallest bid-ness employs a saboteur to fuck with competitors. Human insurance.

The only motto, “It’s legal if we get away with it.”

Fires. Flooding. Wasps. Truck Hijack. Large Doses of Testosterone & Estrogen. Sound Crimes. Stealing Clothes at The Spa. Bad Parking.

Anything.

Like Peter Cook as The Devil in Bedazzled, it’s the little acts of Evil that add up to ruin an individual.

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19430127 A Night for Crime (Plex)

(A Fiesta 7)

In A Night for Crime, a studio publicist dates a journalist, nice metaphor movie. An extra is murdered during a blackout. The publicist and journalist set out to free the innocent man accused of the crime. Quick-moving with a few easily guessable twists, aNfC is amiable enough even when the mystery involves one of the hackiest noir tropes at the end.

In our part-time work as a Fact Enforcer for The Blaine Press Re-Release, we prided ourselves in producing copy nearly identical to the press release that prompted the story with all the opinions fact-washed. . As a Fact Enforcer, if there were any opinions masquerading as something approaching fact, we’all would massage that opinion into what is recognized now as truth.

We’all learned from Republicans the best way to create a fact is to endlessly repeat it until no one knows otherwise. Or just make it up. So crazy it has to be true. Sure, we’all would fudge documents, manufacture supporting evidence, hire fake scientists & spokesmen, and do whatever the expense account would allow to fact-wash our client.

The Blaine Press Re-Release is widely acknowledged for the resurgence of smoking & injecting Nioctoweed among teens in Blaine, Ne. The BPRR True-Facts report, “Kids, get a step up to success with Nictoweed, now triple-strength!” convinced millions of Tweens to set-up permanent residence in Nicto-Weed-Ville. Part Amusement Park, Part Lifestyle Hub, Part Retirement Hospice. The last place to leave your money.

At the end of the movie, lady journalism decides not to marry publicity man in an unusual twist where most movies end in wedding bells.

Glad to see journalism spurn publicity for once, that’s the real fantasy here.

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