Film Noir - The Dark Side of Hollywood 5-disc Boxset contains

Sudden Fear      The Long Night      Hangmen Also Die      Railroaded     Behind Locked Doors

directed by David Miller, Anatole Litvak, Fritz Lang, Anthony Mann and Oscar 'Budd' Boetticher

USA 1943, 47', 48' and 52'

Posters

Theatrical Release: January 18th, 2003 - Tokyo

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DVD Review: Kino - Region 0 - NTSC

DVD Box Cover		CLICK to order from:
Individual reviews:
Distribution	Kino - Region 0 - NTSC
Video	1.33:1 Aspect Ratio Average Bitrate: 4 - 6.5 mb/s NTSC 720x480 29.97 f/s
Audio	English (Dolby Digital 2.0)
Subtitles	None
Features	Release Information: Studio: Kino Video Aspect Ratio: Original Aspect Ratio 1.33:1 Edition Details: On The Long Night • 2 Comparison clips between La Jour Se Leve and The Long Night • Visual essay on the production design • Photo Gallery None on the rest DVD Release Date: September 12th, 2006 5 Keep Case inside cardboard box (to be confirmed) Chapters: various

 

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Recommended Reading in Film Noir (CLICK COVERS or TITLES for more information)

The Dark Side of the Screen: Film Noir by Foster Hirsch	Somewhere in the Night: Film Noir and the American City by Nicholas Christopher	Shades of Noir: A Reader by Joan Copjec	The Art of Noir: The Posters and Graphics from the Classic Era of Film Noir by Eddie Muller	The Little Black and White Book of Film Noir: Quotations from Films of the 40's and 50's by Peg Thompson, Saeko Usukawa	Film Noir by Alain Silver	Film Noir Guide: 745 Films of the Classic Era, 1940-1959 by Michael F. Keaney	Detours and Lost Highways: A Map of Neo-Noir by Foster Hirsch

Check out more in "The Library"

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directed by David Miller
USA 1952

Gargoyle thriller from 1952, with Joan Crawford (in her high garish period) as an heiress who discovers her husband (Jack Palance, the perfect iconic match) is planning to kill her. The film was a product of RKO desperation and didn't do especially well on first release; its anomalous success as a revival (in 1987, in 35-millimeter restoration) seemed largely a matter of fidelity to archetype (as a clear-lined suspenser) and kitschy iconographic tastes, though Charles Lang's glossily noirish cinematography may have had something to do with it, too.

 

directed by Anatole Litvak
USA 1947

  An exciting rediscovery from the studio vaults, The Long Night is an emotionally gripping, visually dynamic film noir, in which Henry Fonda, at the peak of his career, delivers an unforgettable performance. Presented in an intricate web of flashbacks, The Long Night follows the fractured thoughts of Joe Adams (Henry Fonda), a factory worker pinned inside his third-floor apartment after gunning down a mysterious, dapper gentleman (Vincent Price). Joe's memories, often containing flashbacks within flashbacks, reconstruct the events leading up to the shooting, revealing his romance with a quiet young girl (Barbara Bel Geddes), his less-romantic involvement with a worn-out showgirl (Ann Dvorak) and the varied twists of fate which drove Joe to murder.

In staging this remake of Marcel Carné's Le Jour Se Leve (France, 1939), the producers of The Long Night imported not only the story, but the look of poetic realism that made the original so haunting. At once dismal and magical, the world of The Long Night was unlike anything Hollywood had yet imagined, and laid the groundwork for the dark and gritty (but highly stylized) imagery that became the trademark of film noir.

Gary W. Tooze

 

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(aka "Lest We Forget" or "Never Surrender" or "No Surrender" or "Trust the People" )

 

USA 1943

 

Lang's marvellously dark adaptation of Bertolt Brecht's fictionalized take on the assassination of notorious Nazi leader and Czech 'protector' Reinhard Heydrich by the resistance movement, killed in Prague in 1942. Donlevy plays the assassin hiding in the city as the Gestapo promise retribution. There's plenty of tense Langian suspense and the story fits his noir disposition perfectly. Brecht was apparently none too pleased with the result, feeling his contribution had been undermined, but the film manages to pull off the tough double of making an anti-Nazi political statement and being thrilling entertainment as well.

Excerpt from Channel 4 located HERE

 

 

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USA 1947

  Clara Calhoun (Jane Randolph) is an attractive beautician who allows the back of her boutique to be a central location for a bookie operation. Her underworld associations escalate and she plans with her boyfriend and 'Duke' (John Ireland) to rob her nefarious tenants. The robbery turns sour and someone is shot. Steve Ryan (Ed Kelly) is innocent but is being framed as the murderer. At first, homicide detective Mickey Ferguson (Hugh Beaumont) thinks Steve is guilty, despite his obvious attraction to Steve's lovely sister Rosie (Sheila Ryan). Keen detective work ensues as Mickey seeks to prove the real perpetrator.

 

Mann, a consistently underrated director, does a wonderful unique take on the film-noir genre. It's funny, when preparing screen captures for the DVD (below) I always end up choosing so many shots from Mann's films (more than I require) because of the inventive angles and framing that he chooses. There are plenty of shadows and atmospheric lighting to immerse yourself in. If you love the film noir, I suspect you better get this.

Gary W. Tooze

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(aka "The Human Gorilla" )

 

directed by Oscar 'Budd' Boetticher
USA 1948

 

Before he made a name for himself directing westerns under the first name "Budd," Oscar Boetticher made this nicely smug little film noir about a private investigator (Richard Carlson, later the non-scaly star of The Creature From the Black Lagoon) who checks himself into the shady La Siesta Sanitarium in search of a corrupt judge hiding from the law. Once there his cover is blown and it’s up to the femme fatale who sent him there (Lucille Bremer) and a punch-drunk inmate (Tor Johnson, who later achieved immortality via Plan 9 From Outer Space) to save his bacon. Presaging Sam Fuller’s Shock Corridor, the film often plays mental illness for laughs but gets genuinely creepy when the doctors conspire to make the shamus a permanent resident. Snappy dialogue, the requisite black and white chiaroscuro (in a fine Kino Video transfer) and the pleasant sixty-two-minute running time make Behind Locked Doors a valuable addition to anyone’s noir library.

Excerpt from Eddie Cockrell's review at Nitrate Online located HERE

 

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