Ken and Robin Consume Media: Ken Reports from Noir City Chicago
September 17th, 2025 | Robin
Ken and Robin Consume Media is brought to you by the discriminating and good-looking backers of the Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff Patreon. Each week we provide capsule reviews of the books, movies, TV seasons and more we cram into our hyper-analytical sensoriums. Join the Patreon to help pick the items we’ll talk about in greater depth on a little podcast segment we like to call Tell Me More.
Recommended
Caught Stealing (Film, US, Darren Aronofsky, 2025) Alcoholic washout bartender Hank (Austin Butler) gets dragged into seedy, dangerous crime doings by cat-sitting for his seedy British neighbor (Matt Smith). Plenty of people object to Smith’s blundering, obvious performance but it’s clearly of a piece with Aronofsky’s heightened “animated cartoon but with consequences” sensibility along with the other cartoonish but very dangerous gangsters. Adding real danger to a Guy Ritchie-style crime flick perfectly suits Aronofsky, and gives this film more bite and staying power than its Nineties charm alone would have.—KH
Detour (Film, US, Edgar G. Ulmer, 1945) Lovesick pianist Al (Tom Neal) hitches a ride with a bad hat (Edmund MacDonald) but gets in even worse trouble when he gives a ride to hellcat Vera (Ann Savage). Poverty Row classic takes its sweet time getting started but once the gears of Fate start grinding Al they just never stop. Ulmer was a master at doing a lot with a little, and he never did more with less than this film.—KH
The Hot Spot (Film, US, Dennis Hopper, 1990) Drifter Harry Madox (Don Johnson) gets caught in small-town Texas between his boss’ predatory wife Dolly (Virginia Madsen) and Gloria (Jennifer Connelly), a good girl with a dark secret. Relentless noir originally scripted in 1962 for Robert Mitchum became Dennis Hopper’s vehicle for over-the-top emotional direction: if sunshine Gothic were a thing this would be that thing. The Jack Nitzsche score, featuring Miles Davis, Taj Mahal, John Lee Hooker, and others, really sells this beautifully rancid film.—KH [Note: For this Noir City KARCM I am reviewing some films I saw last week that I’ve already seen, but that I haven’t covered in these hallowed pixels before. After all, the whole point is to point you beloved readers to good movies.]
The Killing (Film, US, Stanley Kubrick, 1956) Johnny Clay (Sterling Hayden) leads a crew of five in a perfectly choreographed racetrack holdup. Believe it or not, something goes wrong. Kubrick’s first American feature layers scene onto scene, often repeating the action from a different viewpoint to assemble an almost Cubist view of the caper. Much of the film’s strength, however, comes not from Kubrick but from scriptwriter (and hard-boiled novelist) Jim Thompson; the toxic interplay between husband and wife Elisha Cook Jr and Marie Windsor provide the emotional heat (and faulty decision-making) at the heart of this noir.—KH
Out of the Past (Film, US, Jacques Tourneur, 1947) Gone to ground in a small town, former detective Jeff Markham (Robert Mitchum) gets dragged back into the search for corrupt millionaire Whit’s (Kirk Douglas) missing girl Kathie (Jane Greer). None of the three main actors were over 30, and their energy drives what could have been a convoluted switchback of a story, as Tourneur masterfully layers in suspense beat after suspense beat to ratchet up the tension. An uncredited Frank Fenton provides duelistic dialogue while cinematographer Nicholas Musuraca lights up clouds of pointed cigarette smoke in this ne plus ultra of 1940s noir.—KH
Good
My True Story (Film, US, Mickey Rooney, 1951) Paroled thief Ann Martin (Helen Walker) gets enmeshed in another long con masterminded by her old boss Trent (Wilton Graff), to steal precious oil of myrrh from a perfumier’s widow. Walker’s constant code-switching from hood to flirt to respectable lady is the best thing in the movie, Graff’s oily “budget George Sanders” performance is the second-best. Once you get over the notion of a myrrh heist, the movie plays out predictably though seldom without interest.—KH
Tension (Film, US, John Berry, 1949) Cuckolded, bespectacled pharmacist Warren Quimby (Richard Basehart) takes on a second, glasses-free identity so he can kill the lover of his wife Claire (Audrey Totter) but gets caught in a squeeze play. Totter and Basehart between them keep this one popping almost up to Recommended, although it’s almost too straightforward a plot to live up to the high concept. Cyd Charisse isn’t quite wasted as the girl next door, but when Richard Basehart (even without glasses) is the interesting half of a couple things need some kind of adjustment.—KH
The Woman in the Window (Film, US, Fritz Lang, 1944) Psychology professor Richard Wanley (Edward G. Robinson) meets the even-more-beguiling subject (Joan Bennett) of a beguiling painting while his wife is out of town, and that’s when the nightmare begins. With a superb cat-and-mouse tension ratchet driving it along with real guilt and terror, plus Dan Duryea in an early (but still slimy) role, this could have been one of the greatest noirs ever. But the ending just ruins it all, sadly.—KH
