What is it, in summary?: When Vicky Lynn, an up and coming actress, is murdered suspicion immediately falls upon the man who discovered her, Frankie Christopher. Pursued by the cops, especially the sinister and suspicious Ed Cornell, he works with Vicky's sister to clear his name and discover who really killed Vicky Lynn.
What do you love about it?: This is one of those movies that has kind of crawled inside my brain and taken up residence there. It’s one of the earliest noirs, made in 1941, and so doesn’t have a strict adherence to the genre. It’s largely a dark, complex movie about a man who is accused of the murder of his former protege and has to prove his innocence with the help of her sister and the hindrance of an extremely obsessive detective. It’s a very dark and twisty and interesting film, which goes in some really interesting directions! I watched it on a whim, then couldn’t stop thinking about it for the life of me.
What sort of things are you likely to request for it?: Frankie/Ed messed up slash. These two are the highlight performances of the movie, and have SUCH great chemistry with each other. I started shipping them the moment Frankie wakes up to realise that Cornell is in his room and watching him sleep, and it only gets more intense from there. Frankie is technically the good guy while Cornell is definitely the bad guy, but both of them have a lot of interesting darkness going on. They’re both twisty and complex people who you get the impression are never telling the entire truth about themselves, and I’d love to see more of their toxic dynamic
Are there sections of canon (rather than the whole canon) that can be consumed by themselves to fulfil your requests, or that showcase particular characters and relationships?: I mean, I suppose you could just skip through the film and only watch the (numerous) Frankie & Ed scenes. But it's less than an hour and a half long, so why not watch the whole thing?
Content warnings (ie, rape, incest, racism, gore/violence): Corrupt cops, murder (specifically of a female character), stalking, jealousy, multiple threats to life (even by characters who are supposed to be heroic)... It's a noir, at least technically, so if you're familiar with the genre you'll be familiar with the amounts of moral ambiguity.
I Wake Up Screaming (1941)
Media: Movie
Approx length: 1hr 22m
Where to find it: You can find this movie to watch (For free!) here: https://archive.org/details/iwakeupscreaming1941
What is it, in summary?: When Vicky Lynn, an up and coming actress, is murdered suspicion immediately falls upon the man who discovered her, Frankie Christopher. Pursued by the cops, especially the sinister and suspicious Ed Cornell, he works with Vicky's sister to clear his name and discover who really killed Vicky Lynn.
What do you love about it?: This is one of those movies that has kind of crawled inside my brain and taken up residence there. It’s one of the earliest noirs, made in 1941, and so doesn’t have a strict adherence to the genre. It’s largely a dark, complex movie about a man who is accused of the murder of his former protege and has to prove his innocence with the help of her sister and the hindrance of an extremely obsessive detective. It’s a very dark and twisty and interesting film, which goes in some really interesting directions! I watched it on a whim, then couldn’t stop thinking about it for the life of me.
What sort of things are you likely to request for it?: Frankie/Ed messed up slash. These two are the highlight performances of the movie, and have SUCH great chemistry with each other. I started shipping them the moment Frankie wakes up to realise that Cornell is in his room and watching him sleep, and it only gets more intense from there. Frankie is technically the good guy while Cornell is definitely the bad guy, but both of them have a lot of interesting darkness going on. They’re both twisty and complex people who you get the impression are never telling the entire truth about themselves, and I’d love to see more of their toxic dynamic
Are there sections of canon (rather than the whole canon) that can be consumed by themselves to fulfil your requests, or that showcase particular characters and relationships?: I mean, I suppose you could just skip through the film and only watch the (numerous) Frankie & Ed scenes. But it's less than an hour and a half long, so why not watch the whole thing?
Content warnings (ie, rape, incest, racism, gore/violence): Corrupt cops, murder (specifically of a female character), stalking, jealousy, multiple threats to life (even by characters who are supposed to be heroic)... It's a noir, at least technically, so if you're familiar with the genre you'll be familiar with the amounts of moral ambiguity.