Third Annual Film Noir Month!

June is my birthday month, and while I have a complicated relationship with my birthday (it really depends on the year whether or not I want to celebrate it or not), I am a big present person.  And one of the presents that I give myself each year is a blogathon of my favorite genre, film noir!  This is the third time that we've done this, and I'm excited to embark on the journey this month with another 15 film noir gems.

For those who are new to the blog (welcome!), film noir is my favorite genre because it's one of the few Hollywood genres where it's hard to tell who is the bad guy, where you get a seedier, sexier portrayal of the Classical Hollywood motif, and it almost always has a good, fascinating role for actresses, which as a gay man is one of my requirements for loving a genre.  One of my favorite aspects of film noir is how many of them there are...the more you read about them, the more they seem to spring up like weeds, random B-movies that you didn't know existed in your favorite stars' filmographies.

That's going to come in handy this year, as the one rule I have for this series every time we do it (or for any blogathon on The Many Rantings of John) is that we have to do something new-I have to discover along with you.  That means that we won't be discussing some of the bigger headliner film noirs like Double Indemnity, Laura, Chinatown, or Touch of Evil (though they're all wonderful so please seek them out), but instead will be going deeper cuts as I've seen most of the genre's biggest movies.  Don't worry, we'll still have plenty of staple stars & directors you associate with film noir (Joan Bennett, Claire Trevor, John Garfield, Fritz Lang, Kirk Douglas, Gloria Grahame, & Robert Ryan are all scheduled to appear), but we'll be getting to some under-sung movies in the genre, as well as investigating a few classic films not in English as we move into the neo-noir period later this month.  So sit back, pour yourself some bourbon, and don't trust that beautiful dame walking through your door...Film Noir Month kicks off tomorrow.