“Resistance to Conformity: Eva Vitija’s Loving Highsmith” by Melanie Marotta

FILM REVIEW: “Vitija’s documentary humanizes Highsmith: she does not come across as various writers and theorists have characterized her as, namely odd or antisocial.”

“Jane Doe #11-12” by Don Thompson

POETRY: “Not all anonymity is equal.”

“Lawrence Tierney: Poverty Row” by Burt Kearns

BIOGRAPHY: “Lawrence Tierney was at loose ends when he learned about the Dillinger picture. Caught in the middle of RKO’s indecision and rejection elsewhere, living in a furnished room with little money, he was considering a way out….”

“No Escape: Three Noir Executions” by Matthew Sorrento

PROSE POEM: “They live on to die, forever….”

“Knowing You’re Good: Joe R. Lansdale on Elmore Leonard” by Andrew J. Rausch

INTERVIEW: “[Leonard] always approached what he did with class. He believed in what he did. He knew he was good, and you have to know you’re good. That’s not the same thing as being immodest. But you don’t jump out of a plane if you’ve never packed a parachute….”

“Zocco Chico” by Kurt McGill

FLASH FICTION: “A soft scraping sound…crepe soles brushing across the threshold…a silhouette appeared in the doorway. A glint of light reflected off blue steel in the hand hanging down by his side….”

“Bring Me the Dead of Jerry Garcia” by Mark Mellon

FICTION: “Manhood and honor cast aside like the useless impediments they were….”

“Back to Troubled Grounds: The Two Jakes” By Anees Aref

“You can’t forget the past…just as much as you can’t change it” –Jakes Gittes (Jack Nicholson) in The Two Jakes The Two Jakes almost never happened. The sequel to the legendary 1974 film Chinatown (directed by Roman Polanski and written by Robert Towne) was a project doomed from the start, with creative clashes behind the […]

Preview: “Fernando Ayala’s The Bitter Stems (1956)” by Jeremy Carr

At Film International, Jeremy Carr reviews Fernando Ayala’s The Bitter Stems (Los tallos amargos, 1956) from Flicker Alley: The imagery is not only its most strikingly noirish attribute, but it’s among the more dazzling of any film, of any genre.