Sunday, April 17, 2011
Otto Penzler: The Ten Best Lines in Film Noir
Dark Passages - LA Times Magazine: "In the world of mystery fiction, there is one name that surfaces over and over: Otto Penzler. He is first and foremost a scholar in the genre, having penned columns and edited anthologies, including Best American Noir of the Century and The Black Lizard Big Book of Black Mask Stories. The owner of Manhattan’s Mysterious Bookshop, he has his own imprint with Grove/Atlantic, Otto Penzler Books. He is a friend and confidant of mystery writers everywhere and a font of information for the fans who read them. So for this countdown, if Penzler says these are the 10 best lines in film noir, they are..."
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5 comments:
I could pick ten better lines out of "The Maltese Falcon" alone, most of them verbatim from the book.
Sam Spade to Brigid O'Shaughnessy: "You're good. Chiefly your eyes, I think, and that throb you get in your voice when you say things like 'Be generous, Mr. Spade.'"
I hate to quibble with the King of all things noir, but do movies like "Taxi Driver," "Silence of the Lambs," or "Reservoir Dogs" really qualify as noir?
I would have preferred some lines from some of the true noir gems, like "Double Indemnity," "The Postman Always Rings Twice," or "The Big Sleep."
It's Chinatown, Otto. Snap out of it!
(Geez, what a cocky snark he is!)
"I don't go to church. Kneeling bags my nylons."
sas
You're not disagreeing with Otto, I hope.
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