A touch of old Hollywood convened at Broadway's New York Institute of Technology's auditorium on Tuesday night for an anniversary screening of West Side Story.

Crime has not just been good to the criminals; it's been awfully good to Hollywood as well.

There are plenty of films out there that make us hopeful about life and living. Film noir is a guilty pleasure where we witness the denizens of society's bottom rungs stamping on each other's feet for a higher, safer position.

I look at the new action movies coming out, and I have to wonder: Where's our new Lee Marvin? The manly man, the bad guy turned good guy, the guy who's so ugly he's almost beautiful, the guy who takes no prisoners?

In a host of movies, the train has served as a microcosm of modern society, and the individual's potential risk and conflict within it.

Welcome to film noir, indeed a world unto its own. In my book, this type of picture, done right, has always deserved the highest of praise.