Introduction to Seven Shadows

Greetings and salutations, readers of Andrew’s 1001 Movies I (Apparently) MUST See Before I Die! It is a pleasure for me to be occupying this spot today, and a privilege to join with Andrew to welcome you on our film noir journey known as Seven Shadows.

Let me say from the outset that I do not consider myself to be an “expert” on film noir – unless such expertise can be defined by the number of films one has viewed and how much those films are dearly loved! I have been attracted to film noir for years; I saw my first picture from this era, Double Indemnity, when I was about 14 years old. (We won’t discuss how many years ago that was, thank you.) I’d never even heard of film noir before then, and some of the innuendos and subtleties were over my head, but I wasn’t too young to appreciate the fascinating characters, the snappy dialogue, and the exquisite look of the movie. It was like nothing I’d ever experienced, and I’ve been wild about these films ever since. My love for film noir has been manifested through two books that I’ve written – Femme Noir: The Bad Girls of Film and Bad Boys: The Actors of Film Noir; a bi-monthly film noir newsletter that I edit (offered in both hard copy and electronic form) called The Dark Pages; and my latest venture, my blog, Shadows and Satin, which focuses on film noir and my other cinematic passion, pre-Code film. 

Speaking of cinematic passions, I don’t quite know how or when I discovered Andrew’s ambitious and endlessly entertaining blog, but I do know that two of my earliest comments on his posts were about vastly different movies – not just from each other, but from the kind of feature that usually sparks my interest: Hoop Dreams, an “urban” documentary, and Heavenly Creatures, which marked the film debut of British actress Kate Winslet. Whatever serendipity or kismet led me here, I was instantly engrossed by Andrew’s excellent writing style, fascinating insights, and unique voice. I found that perusing his blog was like eating Lays potato chips – once I’d devoured one post, I wanted to keep reading more and more! As a result, I was deeply honored when Andrew contacted me last year and shared his idea for Seven Shadows.

After Andrew first asked me to team up with him on this project, I’d planned to simply provide him with some articles on film noir movies that I’d already written and posted on my blog – what could be easier? Fortunately, Andrew postponed the launch of Seven Shadows for several months in order to take a much-needed break from watching and writing. It was fortunate because when he recently contacted me again with his idea for a new and improved Seven Shadows, I decided to take the opportunity to write all new posts, rather than relying on retreads. This gave me the chance to re-watch some old, familiar favorites, as well as rediscover some classics that I hadn’t seen in a while. It was a sheer joy!

Seven Shadows focuses on seven features from the classic film noir era: Murder, My Sweet, Mildred Pierce, The Postman Always Rings Twice, The Killers, Out of the Past, Gun Crazy, and The Asphalt Jungle – one picture will be spotlighted on each of the following seven days. Each day, both Andrew and I will offer a post on the film of the day on our respective sites, and on three of the days, we will provide guest posts on each other’s site – so I’ll be back here later this week!

So mark your calendars and join us on this foray inside the dim, desperate and dangerous world of film noir – perhaps you will learn something new about your own favorites, or maybe you’ll discover some features you’re never seen before. Either way, I hope you’ll visit both our sites each day of the week-long blog event . . . like I always say, you only owe it to yourself!

April 30, 2012  12:00pm
by Karen Burroughs Hannsberry