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(aka "Riff-Raff" )
directed by Ted Tetzlaff
USA 1947
One of the many felicities
of Ted Tetzlaff's top-notch Riffraff, the
cinematography of George Diskant can be best seen,
unencumbered by dialogue, in the first few dazzling
minutes. Torrential storms darken an airfield in Peru,
where in the dead of night a cargo plane bearing two
passengers departs for Panama; only one of them arrives.
The opening previews Tetzlaff's pure-cinema approach; he
lets the story unfold through images (and occasionally
sounds) with a casual adroitness that remains striking
more than half a century later. In retrospectives of film noir, Riffraff usually gets overlooked. While its genre is international intrigue and its touch on the light side, its conventions and, especially, its look, bring it to the fringes of the noir cycle. Excerpt of review from Bill McVicar for imdb.com located HERE |
Posters
Theatrical Release: 28 June 1947 (New York City, NY)
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DVD Review: Warner Home Video (Film Noir Archive Collection) - Region 0 - NTSC
Big thanks to Gregory Meshman for the Review!
DVD Box Cover |
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Distribution |
Warner Home Video Region 0 - NTSC |
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Runtime | 1:20:03 | |
Video |
1.31:1 Original Aspect Ratio |
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NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes. |
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Audio | Dolby Digital Mono (English) | |
Subtitles | None | |
Features |
Release
Information: Studio: Warner Home Video Aspect Ratio:
Edition Details: Chapters 10 |
Comments |
Summer of 2015 will be remembered as summer of darkness - film noirs airing every Friday on TCM in June and July and an on-line noir course Into the Darkness: Investigating Film Noir, presented by TCM and Ball State University that can be taken by everyone to widen their noir knowledge. Warner Archive Collection adding their own spark, issued 5 RKO noirs on June 9 under their ongoing Film Noir Archive Collection marquee. Films included are not some tier Z hardly noirs, but are from the best film noir studio, RKO, and directed by some of the biggest names in the genre - Anthony Mann (Two O'Clock Courage), Richard Fleischer (The Clay Pigeon), Robert Wise (Criminal Court) or starring the heavy-hitters George Raft (Johnny Angel) and Pat O'Brien (Riffraff). There is something for everyone as we review these releases.
Riffraff (or Riff-Raff, not to be confused
with
Jean Harlow's 1937 picture also released by
Warner Archive) is perhaps least known movie in the
bunch. After the tour-de-force dialogue-free opening
sequence in a drenching rain somewhere in Panama
brilliantly shot by George Diskant, our story settles
with a private detective Dan Hammer (Pat O'Brien) who
knows his way around Panama and agrees to locate a map
showing oil depositis locations in South America. Anne
Jeffreys, more beautiful in the film than any poster
suggests, plays his love interests, snookered by shady
businessman Walter Gredson (always oily Jerome Cowan) to
get the map by getting close to Hammer. Walter Slezak
plays a hired killer who is also interested in location
of the map. The most fun is that unbeknown to any
characters, the viewer knows the location of the map
from the very start. It all comes together under the
able direction of Ted Tetzlaff (The
Window). |
DVD Menu
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Distribution |
Warner Home Video Region 0 - NTSC |
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