Reel Conversations: Shadows and Satin

Welcome to CMBA's Reel Conversations, our feature spotlighting members sharing their passions for classic film. For this feature we plan to alternate between interviews and peer-to-peer blogger Q & As.


In this month’s Reel Conversation, it's Karen Hannsberry of Shadows & Satin, talking (mostly) film noir. But this is only part of the conversation: Karen’s thoughts on underrated performers, her recommendations and more, can be found in the Noirvember issue of the CMBA Monthly Star newsletter.

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If you could have only one year of film noir, which one would you pick and why?


I know that many noir aficionados point to 1947 as the best year for film noir, but for me, hands down, it’s 1950. This year is ridiculously, unbelievably chock-full of superb noir features, from celebrated films like The Asphalt Jungle, Gun Crazy, and Sunset Blvd., to lesser-known must-sees, including The Man Who Cheated Himself, No Man of Her Own, Shakedown, Quicksand, and my favorite guilty pleasure, Where Danger Lives, which really, you’ve got to see to believe.

What single scene from a noir sticks in your mind above all others?


I don’t want to spoil this for anyone who hasn’t seen The Breaking Point (another gem released in 1950!), but the film’s last scene is not only perfect, but it’s a heartbreaker. That’s all I’m going to say – except that if you haven’t seen this excellent John Garfield starrer, you simply must add it to your watchlist. (You only owe it to yourself.)

Do you have a collectible or collection you treasure and like to brag about?


I have an autograph collection that I started in the 1990s – some of the autographs I have include noir veterans like Lauren Bacall, Glenn Ford, John Garfield, Robert Mitchum, Lizabeth Scott, and Claire Trevor. To date, I have more than 120 autographed photos of (mostly) classic movie stars, and there are several with a story behind them that makes them even more special. Among my favorites is Joan Bennett – I wrote to her in 1993 to ask for her autograph. In response, I received a rather curt letter from her widower, David Wilde, who said he did not understand why he continues to receive autograph requests from people claiming to be fans of Bennett’s, yet they did not know that she’d been dead since 1990. I was MORTIFIED, and I wrote back to tell him how sorry I was for this unforgivable gaffe. Well! He wrote ME back, saying that of all the people he’d heard from and responded to since Miss Bennett’s death, I was the only one who ever apologized. To make up for what he described as the “caustic” tone of his letter, he took his wife’s insurance card from her wallet (which contained her signature) and sent it to me. It was such a kind, thoughtful, unexpected and unique gesture – and that card is one of my most treasured items.


What noir or other classic would you show someone who says they “don’t like noir or old movies”?


The film that immediately comes to mind is Too Late for Tears (1949), which stars Lizabeth Scott as Jane Palmer, an unhappy housewife whose frustration stems primarily from her inability to “keep up with Joneses.” When blackmailer Danny Fuller (Dan Duryea) mistakenly tosses a satchel full of cash in Jane’s car, she views it as her ticket out of her humdrum existence and she’ll do anything (and I mean ANYTHING) to keep it. This is a straightforward story – no voiceover narration, no flashbacks – but with its ruthless femme fatale leading the way, it has everything you’d want a noir novice to experience: insatiable greed, moral decay, spiralling paranoia – and the perfect noir ending. I’m confident that any classic movie Scrooge will be won over by the first-rate direction by Byron Haskin and the unbeatable combination of Scott and Duryea as adversarial partners in crime.