Noirsville Bonus Noir TV - Fallen Angels/Perfect Crimes (1993-1995)

Season Two 

For those interested, in the US the first season was released in a two volume VHS set. The second season was never released in the U.S. for some reason. It was released in Europe (on DVD Region 2) in 1999 and in Australia (DVD Region 4) under the title Perfect Crimes.



The more I watch Fallen Angels/Perfect Crimes or various other Hollywood period piece Neo Noir, re-imagining the Classic Film Noir films, the more some tend to look like overly burlesqued versions of the real deal. The stylistics can be way overdone and color film has a lot to do with it. Color tends to distract if not filmed and lighted correctly. Black & White compositions are simple, arresting, clean, and distinct. I honestly find the intros  quite a bit more visually interesting that some of the episode cinematography.

From Wiki:

Fallen Angels received mixed to critical notices. In his review for the Associated Press, Scott Williams wrote, 'We're asking a lot of TV to deliver entertainment about that stylish, moral abyss. Fallen Angels delivers. It lets us look over the edge and measure our souls against the darkness".

The Chicago Sun-Times gave the series two out of four stars and Ginny Holbert wrote, "Part of the problem is the series' arch, self-conscious obsession with style. Instead of a '90s interpretation of film noir, "Fallen Angels" offers contrived, full-color cliche noir, replete with cocked fedoras, plumes of curling smoke and harsh sunlight sliced by venetian blinds".

In his review for The New York Times, John J. O'Connor called it, "uneven but diverting, even when just hovering around film-school level".

In his review for the Houston Chronicle, Louis B. Parks wrote, "The big problem with film noir homages is they usually overdo the ingredients, with none of the subtlety of the great originals. Fallen Angels has a touch of that. But the directors and actors play straight, and the adaptations, taken from the real McCoy writers, are pretty good stuff".

In his review for the Washington Post, Tom Shales wrote, "Creating period pieces out of their period seems to be fairly easy now for the gifted artisans of Hollywood. Even by today's commonplace high standards, however, the look and feel of the six Fallen Angels films seem transportingly authentic and sensuous, stylized in ways that evoke the milieu without spoofing it. Occasionally, the films veer into the arch and ridiculous, but overall, they at least look darn good".

Newsweek magazine's David Gates wrote, "no show this summer will do a better job of whisking you away from the increasingly unacceptable '90s. These half hours are all too short".

Entertainment Weekly magazine's Lisa Schwarzbaum wrote, "One unintended result of all this happy, naughty cigarette-puffing, however, is that, at their weakest, these films look like the work of boys (and don't be fooled, this is a boys' fantasy production) dressed up in their dads' big suits".

Tomorrow I Die - Directed by John Dahl (Kill Me Again (1989 ), Red Rock West (1994),
 The Last Seduction (1994). Written by Steve Katz teleplay from a short story by Mickey Spillane.

This episode stars Bill Pullman (The Last Seduction (1994), Lost Highway (1997), Zero Effect (1998), The Killer Inside Me (2010)) as Rich Thurber, Dan Hedaya (Tightrope (1984), Blood Simple. (1984), Wise Guys (1986), Mulholland Drive (2001)) as Auger, Heather Graham (Drugstore Cowboy (1989), Twin Peaks TV Series (1990–1991), Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992), Boogie Nights (1997)) as Carol Whalen, Kim Coates (Assault on Precinct 13 (2005)) as Trigger, Jon Favreau (Very Bad Things (1998), The Big Empty (2003)) as Leo, Dean Norris (The Last Seduction (1994), Breaking Bad TV Series (2008–2013)) as Allen, Bert Remsen (McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971), Carny (1980), Dick Tracy (1990)) as Old Man. Three David Lynch regulars Jack Nance as Sheriff, , Grace Zabriskie as Barmaid, and Miguel Ferreras Prologue Narrator.

Prologue narrator: Rich Thurber is just another guy who stops into a bar for a cool beer on a hot day... or is he? When gangsters fleeing a bank robbery take the patrons hostage, Thurber's true nature is revealed in Mickey Spillane's "Tomorrow I Die."

Bill Pullman

Rich Thurber (Pullman) gets off the cross country bus coming from Vegas wearing a straw boater, and enters a desert fly speck bar to get a beer. He heads for the crapper. He feels queasy after gulping down his suds a little too fast. While he is upchucking into the toilet, the bar is taken over by a bunch of bank robbers.

Grace Zabriskie

Jack Nance

Heather Graham

Carol (Graham) thinks he's a Hollywood actor. The crooks think Rich is the town's mayor. There is a campaign poster on the wall with the candidate wearing an identical straw hat. The sheriff (Nance) thinks he's seen him on a wanted poster. The gang leader Auger (Hedaya) decides to take a few hostages. He figures without the town mayor and sheriff the town won't be able to organize any kind of reprisals for a while.

Kim Coates 

Dan Hedaya

Auger:  We just robbed the bank and all you fine upstanding citizens are going to be our hostages. With the mayor and the sheriff out of the picture, it's going to take that much longer to form a posse, giving us more time to get across the border.
Rich Thurber: Then what.
Auger: Then what? Yeah, Trigger's going to kill you. It's simple as that.
Rich Thurber: That doesn't exactly inspire cooperation.
Auger:  It doesn't?
Rich Thurber: No.
Auger:  Resist and you die now. Cooperate and you live an hour longer. You would be amazed at what a person would do for the possibility for one more hour on Earth.
Rich Thurber: Did the fellow who told you that also give your weight?

Rich's questioning forces Auger to give everyone in the bar an example. He fills a glass with Louisiana Hot Sauce and tells the Barmaid (Zabriskie) that she lives as long as she can drink. Trigger blasts her as soon as she stops drinking. It's all done in an effective floor-view visual sequence.

When Rich and Carol are later sent to recover the loot from the getaway car that went off the cliff Carol comes on to him.

Carol Whalen: You used to give me the kind of itch a small town girl doesn't know how to scratch.
Rich Thurber: Damned right. And now?
Carol Whalen: It's still a small town and you're still poison ivy.

a few miles later......

Carol Whalen:  Rich, have you ever read stories about people in a falling airplane?
Rich Thurber: Hey, don't worry about it, sugar. We're going to be all right.
Carol Whalen: People who know their time's up, so... they do things - reckless things - that they always wanted to do. Well, I've wanted to do this since I was a tomboy in pigtails.

Rich Thurber: [narrating] She kissed me so hard I saw stars and I wondered how many other Hollywood types had blown into her overheated life looking for a beer... but the next half hour, it was only me. A hero, she said, but what I did to her wouldn't earn me any medals.

Noirsville

Dean Norris

For a thirty minute Noir you can't expect too much. not bad 7/10.