{"id":914,"date":"2008-03-26T17:04:42","date_gmt":"2008-03-27T00:04:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.filmforno.com\/?p=914"},"modified":"2008-03-26T17:09:13","modified_gmt":"2008-03-27T00:09:13","slug":"goodbye-tommy-udo-heh-heh-heh-richard-widmark-exits-at-93","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.filmforno.com\/?p=914","title":{"rendered":"Goodbye Tommy Udo! Heh Heh Heh ! Richard Widmark Exits at 93"},"content":{"rendered":"

10104290.jpg<\/a><\/p>\n

Richard Widmark, the blonde, cool killer has died. He was the quintessential film noir protagonist, running down a dark street at night, chasing or being chased. His career really blasted into orbit with Kiss Of Death<\/em>, a 1947 (that magical year!) noir directed by that talented curmudgeon Henry Hathaway. The story goes that Hathaway didn’t want Widmark for the role of Tommy Udo, sociopath killer with a snickering laugh, but Big Boss Darryl Zanuck overrode Hathaway’s objections and Widmark got the part. A pissed off Hathaway made it tough on Widmark and messed with him every chance he got. But so what, once Tommy Udo pushed a crippled old lady down a flight of apartment house stairs in her wheelchair, Widmark ascended to the stellar firmament atop a hugh geyser of pop culture appeal! Instant Stardom!
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Tommy Udo’s Push To Stardom<\/em><\/p>\n

He later appeared in some more classic Noir’s like Sam Fuller’s Pickup On South Street<\/em>, a no holds barred tale of a sleazy pickpocket, Commies after Atomic secrets, floozies, patriotism, Thelma Ritter, murder, and an apartment on a barge in the East River! Check this one out for yourself!
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Also one of my favorite’s Jules Dassin’s Night And The City<\/em>, a down and dirty tale of a two-bit hustler turned wrestling promoter in London. (Dassin was fleeing the Commie Witch Hunt Trials and had to make films in Europe) This film features some of the best B+W noir Cinematography of all time! It is a pleasure to look at, you can get drunk, revelling in all that silver nitrate!
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\nThey are showing this masterpiece at the American Cinematheque as part of their upcoming Noir City<\/em> film festival. Be sure to make it if you can! This is an incredible film, it unspools April 24th at 7:30 pm. I will be there, drinking a glass of Nebbiolo, toasting that gone blonde genius of darkness, Richard Widmark. May you never be chased down a dark alley in Film Heaven.
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Night And The City trailer<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Richard Widmark, the blonde, cool killer has died. He was the quintessential film noir protagonist, running down a dark street at night, chasing or being chased. His career really blasted into orbit with Kiss Of Death, a 1947 (that magical year!) noir directed by that talented curmudgeon Henry Hathaway. The story goes that Hathaway didn’t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[25,13,8,7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.filmforno.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/914"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.filmforno.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.filmforno.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.filmforno.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.filmforno.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=914"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.filmforno.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/914\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.filmforno.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.filmforno.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.filmforno.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}