Every case must come to an end, and sometimes you even get to wrap it up in a neat little bow. Over these 20 episodes and 41 movies we've tracked the private eye across decades and state lines, cultural movements and cinematic epochs. But some things have stayed mostly the same - a wrong that needs righting, a flatfoot who can't help taking the case, and a daily rate, plus expenses. And maybe that's enough, for a world gone as screwy as ours.

Written & Produced by Tristan Johnson & Fred Pelzer

A Strange Phantom Production

Music by Kevin MacLeod.

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The deeper into the 21st century we travel, the greater the confusion grows. With so much input - from news, tv, internet, social media, youtube, tik tok, and whatever new, even faster mode will arrive tomorrow - the possibility of an absolute truth seems farther and farther away. What's a detective to do when fact has become subjective and our individual realities grown so far apart? That's one of the questions grappled with in our final two movies, Inherent Vice and Under the Silver Lake, as we close out this season of the Private Detective.

Recommendations:

Tristan - The Red Shoes, Pathaan

Fred - A Serious Man, Suspiria

Written & Produced by Tristan Johnson & Fred Pelzer

A Strange Phantom Production

Music by Kevin MacLeod.

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With the new century, a certain strand of pulp films get taken along a similar development path as elements of super hero movies, another genre that got its start as cheap disposal nonsense. Just like with Nolan's Batman and Snyder's... Snyderverse, some noir started to lean in to the grim, the dark, and the gritty as a way to prove that they were serious movies and not just kids' stuff. We'll be looking at two such examples - Ben Affleck's directorial debut, Gone Baby Gone, and the Liam Neeson actioner Walk Among the Tombstones. Throw some commercials in and you'd have a pretty good Sunday afternoon double bill on TNT.

Recommendations:

Tristan - Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro

Fred - Before Sunrise, Hit the Road, The Train

Written & Produced by Tristan Johnson & Fred Pelzer

A Strange Phantom Production

Music by Kevin MacLeod.

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For our first directorial double feature we look at the work of buddy-comedy auteur Shane Black and his two 21st-century revitalizations of the PI story. In Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and The Nice Guys he crafts two hyper-stylized and hyper-witty worlds of guns, girls, and guys who are in way over their heads. Oh, and did we mention its Christmas? Because of course it is.

Recommendations:

Tristan - Glass Onion

Fred - Bones and All

Written & Produced by Tristan Johnson & Fred Pelzer

A Strange Phantom Production

Music by Kevin MacLeod.

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It's a new millenium, and a new generation of flatfoots are hitting the streets. Precocious and jaded, wise beyond their years but in over their heads, these kid detectives show no matter how far along we get from the original noir era, there will always be someone willing to stick their neck out and find the truth in a world of shades of gray.

Recommendations:

Tristan - Trouble in Paradise

Fred - Bicycle Thieves, The Rules of the Game

Written & Produced by Tristan Johnson & Fred Pelzer

A Strange Phantom Production

Music by Kevin MacLeod.

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As we near the end of the millenium, a new influence takes hold of noir - Sundance-era American indies. Comedy, absurdism and heightened worlds begin to intersect with tales of crime and desperation. Our two films tonight both came out in 1998, and both show that influence. Zero Effect updates Sherlock with a post-Tarantino vibe, while The Big Lebowski sees the Coens set their own inimitable, endlessly quotable course.

Recommendations:

Tristan - Banshees of Inisherin

Fred - Charlotte Wells: Laps, Blue Christmas, & Aftersun

Written & Produced by Tristan Johnson & Fred Pelzer

A Strange Phantom Production

Music by Kevin MacLeod.

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It's time for another round of retro-noirs as two 90s star-vehicles send us to the 1948-heyday of pulp cinema. First it's the return of Jack Nicholson and Jake Gittes in the Chinatown sequel The Two Jakes, and then Denzel Washington appears as Easy Rawlins in the 1995 adaptation Devil in a Blue Dress. Together these two films make a study in contrasts - with their stars, their stories, and their approach to the material - even as both try to pack us off in a celluloid time machine.

Recommendations:

Tristan - Mock Sight & Sound Ballot

Fred - Mock Sight & Sound Ballot

Written & Produced by Tristan Johnson & Fred Pelzer

A Strange Phantom Production

Music by Kevin MacLeod.

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While it's been mostly life and death around here, with the arrival of the more commercially-minded 80s the noir took a turn towards the funny. We're looking first at Steve Martin's 1982 parody Dead Men Won't Wear Plaid, followed by Zemeckis's glorious 1988 cartoon mash-up Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

Recommendations:

Tristan - Youth of the Beast, Harakiri

Fred - Flux Gourmet

Brandon - Pearl

Written & Produced by Tristan Johnson & Fred Pelzer. Featuring guest host Brandon Shockney.

A Strange Phantom Production

Music by Kevin MacLeod.

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After checking in on a second set of lesser Marlowe flicks, it's back across the Pacific Ocean to visit two more evolutions of the P.I. film comingled with a diverse array of other inspirations. First Satyajit Ray's The Elephant God from 1979, followed by 1981's Yokohama BJ Blues, directed by Eiichi Kudo.

Recommendations:

Tristan - Chungking Express

Fred - Irma Vep, We're All Going to the World's Fair

Written & Produced by Tristan Johnson & Fred Pelzer

A Strange Phantom Production

Music by Kevin MacLeod.

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We wrap up our examination of Marlowe adaptations with the arrival of a noir titan we haven't seen yet on the podcast - Robert Mitchum, but Mitchum in his 60s, which is a very different vibe. First we discuss 1975's Farewell, My Lovely and 1978's The Big Sleep and Mitchum being the only actor to play Marlowe twice. Then we perform the most important function of film critics everywhere and rank all the entries!

Recommendations:

Tristan - Memoria

Fred - Identifying Features

Written & Produced by Tristan Johnson & Fred Pelzer

A Strange Phantom Production

Music by Kevin MacLeod.

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We're taking another road trip out of LA - this time to a sweat-soaked south as two Californian shamuses follow their cases past state lines. The Drowning Pool and Night Moves each help solidify the new normal of neo-noir while also broadening the geographic boundaries of the private eye film. Plus, a double shot of Melanie Griffith!

Recommendations:

Tristan - Only Murders in the Building

Fred - Strange Victory

Written & Produced by Tristan Johnson & Fred Pelzer

A Strange Phantom Production

Music by Kevin MacLeod.

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The promise of the 60s has died, giving way to a new, distrustful era - fertile ground for a new noir movement to take root. Two films stand at forefront of a new era of hardboiled crime movies, each with their own idiosyncratic take on the private detective. The Long Goodbye and Chinatown reinvent noir and show new depths to the cynicism that can be found in its shadows. Welcome to the end of the dream.

Recommendations:

Tristan - RRR

Fred - X

Written & Produced by Tristan Johnson & Fred Pelzer

A Strange Phantom Production

Music by Kevin MacLeod.

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We’re giving a preview of Noir City: Chicago 2022. This is the 12th go round with the Chicago edition of Noir City. The 21 films will be presented by Eddie Muller, Film Noir Foundation founder and host of TCM's Noir Alley, and Foundation board member Alan K. Rode, author of Michael Curtiz: A Life in Film. The festival runs from August 26 to September 1 and features quite a few movies.

And please support our beloved Music Box Theatre!

Recommendations:

Tristan - Daughter of the Nile

Fred - Crimes of the Future, Nope

Written & Produced by Tristan Johnson & Fred Pelzer

A Strange Phantom Production

Music by Kevin MacLeod.

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It's the 70s, and we're finally starting to see some new faces in our noir-inflected pictures. For today's episode that means Shaft and Mr. T, a pair of early Blaxploitation heroes who help reframe noir, centering the narrative on a community that had been rendered invisible throughout classic Hollywood. And as Shaft and Trouble Man show, just because you're taking on the man doesn't mean you can't do it with a great soundtrack and a great sense of style.

Recommendations:

Tristan - Petite Maman

Fred - Bells Are Ringing

Written & Produced by Tristan Johnson & Fred Pelzer

A Strange Phantom Production

Music by Kevin MacLeod.

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The detective has arrived in the 60s, and he might not survive the culture shock. What chance does a private dick have up against teeny-boppers, new age cults, and Bruce Lee? We'll find out as we look at Paul Newman in Harper and James Garner in Marlowe.

Recommendations:

Tristan - Kuch Kuch Hota Hai

Fred - Practical Magic

Written & Produced by Tristan Johnson & Fred Pelzer

A Strange Phantom Production

Music by Kevin MacLeod.

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Fasten your seatbelts. Tray tables in an upright, locked position. It’s high time the private detective went international. We're visiting Japan and France with Private Detective Bureau 2-3: Go to Hell, Bastards! and Made in U.S.A.

Recommendations:

Film Crit Hulk on RRR

Tristan - Uncut Gems, First Cow

Fred - The Northman

Written & Produced by Tristan Johnson & Fred Pelzer

A Strange Phantom Production

Music by Kevin MacLeod.

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It's all punching hoods and kissing dames in this week's episode as we follow the detective into the 50s with a series of Mike Hammer adaptations. It's another super-sized edition as we cover I, The Jury, Kiss Me Deadly, My Gun Is Quick, and The Girl Hunters.

Recommendations:

Tristan - X

Fred - Turning Red

Written & Produced by Tristan Johnson & Fred Pelzer

A Strange Phantom Production

Music by Kevin MacLeod.

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Bogart wasn't the only Marlowe running around LA during the 1940s. In tonight's episode we look at five other Marlowe adaptations and discuss how they stack up - or don't - against the icon. We're talking Falcon Takes Over, Time to Kill, Murder My Sweet, Lady in the Lake, and Brasher Doubloon.

Recommendations:

Tristan - Band Baaja Baaraat, Journey to Italy

Fred - Mishima

Written & Produced by Tristan Johnson & Fred Pelzer

A Strange Phantom Production

Music by Kevin MacLeod.

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It's Bogie, baby! We kick off the noir era of the detective in proper style with the icon himself, Humphrey Bogart, and two of his most enduring and definitive performances - The Maltese Falcon and The Big Sleep.

Recommendations:

Tristan - Police Story

Fred - Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time

Written & Produced by Tristan Johnson & Fred Pelzer

A Strange Phantom Production

Music by Kevin MacLeod.

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Before noir and the pulp detective, we had the gentleman detective. Urbane, witty, often an amateur, he drew from literary sources like Edgar Allen Poe, Arthur Conan Doyle, and Agatha Christie. And few embodied him with as much verve and charisma as William Powell, the star of our first two movies for the season - Private Detective 62 and The Thin Man

Recommendations:

Tristan - Parallel Mothers

Fred - Funeral Parade of Roses

Written & Produced by Tristan Johnson & Fred Pelzer

A Strange Phantom Production

Music by Kevin MacLeod.

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