A new thing I'm trying out ever since I've heard of the trend Noirvember where every month of November we celebrate film noir or neo-noir films. I've decided to make a new recommendation I'd like to call Noirvember Recommendation out of a sense of love and respect I have of the film noir genre. So, with my first ever Noirvember Recommendations is a movie from the ever talented and great Anti-Hero and sometimes a bad guy at times, Humphrey Bogart also a good private investigator if you ever need to call him, though you can't technically call him because he's been dead from quite some time due to a bad case of inhaling smoke. Conflict is a great ingenious film noir of how one man believes he's killed a loved one but isn't sure if he or she is alive.
Engineer Richard Mason (Humphrey Bogart) is unhappily married to his hectoring wife, Katheryn (Rose Herbert), and makes no secret that he loves her younger sister, Evelyn (Alexis Smith). Driving home from their anniversary party, Mason crashes the car when the reflection of Evelyn in the rearview mirror distracts him. To convalesce, he plans a trip to the mountains and sends Katheryn ahead. Katheryn dies on the way, but Mason begins to see signs that she's alive.
Surprisingly, Conflict was filmed around 1943 somewhere after the shooting of Casablanca and maybe after the Academy Awards furthermore there were disputes of the film Conflict in which Bogart wasn't really interested in the role and was having arguments with the head of Warner Brothers, Jack Warner to make a long story short the movie was filmed before Bogart met the love of his life in Lauren Bacall, and after the production wrapped and it was delayed in terms of release for which came out two months after WWII ended. Conflict is a great example of what makes film noir's such a perfect type of movie to watch because all you really need is just a simple idea and blossom it into a great psychological story of murdering someone and then having the assumption of whether that person is alive or not. The other thing I love about the movie is you can literally write this movie now and make the wife be more of a bickering woman whose always getting on the husband's nerves and you have a perfect reason why you feel for the guy because he's finding a way to escape his marriage but somehow he's haunted by the ghost of his wife, though sure this would be in a Coen Brothers film but it would still be great to watch on screen. Another interesting fact, is that this is one and only films Humphrey Bogart and Sidney Greenstreet starred in where the roles are reverse and Bogart is the antagonist of the movie and Greenstreet is the protagonist of the film while there other works together Bogie is usually the hero or anti-hero and Greenstreet the typical bad guy in the movie and Greenstreet is always good in his roles together with Bogie no question about it and the same goes with Bogie whose always fantastic playing these role but the best thing about him is that in this movie yes he plays the bad guy sorry for the spoilers but the way he's able to show his emotions and doubt is always amazing to see on screen and really that's what makes Bogie such a great actor especially when it comes to these movies all together. I will say now having watched the movie twice I am curious if they ever used this type of concept when they tried to catch O.J. Simpson where he was doubting if the glove fit right or not OR, he did kill his wife and then decided to go for a drive five miles an hour in his Bronco, I mean there's a lot of questions on if the prosecutors watched the movie and used this concept on the Juice but he's already dead so really doesn't matter but it's an interesting theory, right? Anyway, I had other contenders to begin this new Noirvember Recommendation, but really you always have to start off with a classic Bogart film because he's always has been the master of the film noir genre him and Alfred Hitchcock but Bogie's been doing them since the thirties with the classic gangster movies and mystery films and I'm not sure if I've been recommending a lot of film noir's lately though I haven't kept track but I'm a huge fan of the film noir's and neo-noir's furthermore if your ever wanting to dive into the film noir genre I would highly recommend Conflict for many reasons it has that element of relating to the guy whose miserable with his marriage because his wife is bickering crazy woman and I think any guy in a relationship or marriage would love this movie though I'm not sure killing your spouse would be a great idea but deep down would most certainly make you feel better that you’re not the only one dealing with a bickering spouse, moreover you can buy or rent the movie on Google/YouTube for 3.99/4.99 so deep down that's a bargain if you ask me.
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