For Australian readers, Target is having a big DVD sale starting tomorrow, and you can pick-up a number of  classic noirs for only Aus$8.99 each!

I have identified the following original studio release DVDs from the on-line catalog:

Hollywood:

• You Only live Once
• Gaslight
• The Maltese Falcon
• Key Largo
• The Big Sleep
• To Have and Have Not

British:

• The Fallen Idol
• The Criminal
• The Man Between
• Brighton Rock

Moon Over Harlem (1939) (69 mins Meteor Productions)
Direction: Edgar G. Ulmer
Cinematography: Burgi Contner & Edward Hyland
Music: Donald Heywood & his orchestra

A shady gambler marries a wealthy widow to get his hands on her money – and her daughter. Moon Over Harlem, a ‘black race’ movie was shot by Ulmer in just four days for US$8,000.

Une Si Jolie Petite Plage (Such a Pretty Little Beach France 1949) (91 mins)
Released as Riptide in USA in 1951

Screenplay by Jacques Sigurd
Directed by Yves Allegret
Cinematography by Henri Alekan
Original Music by Maurice Thiriet

Produced by Emile Darbon

Pierre . . . . . Gerard Philipe
Marthe . . . . . Madeleine Robinson
Landlady . . . . . Jane Marken
Mrs. Cullier . . . . . Mona Dol
Fred . . . . . Jean Servais
Commercial Traveler . . . . . Julian Carette
Garage Owner . . . . . Andre Valmy
Orphan Boy . . . . . Gabriel Gobin

Jacques Sigurd, one of the last to come to “scenario and dialogue,” teamed up with Yves Allégret. Together, they bequeathed the French cinema some of its blackest masterpieces: Dêdée D’Anvers, Manèges, Une Si Jolie Petite Plage, Les Miracles N’Ont Lieu Qu’une Fois, La Jeune Folle. – Francois Truffaut

A country priest on some banal errand cycles past a man walking in the rain to his doom, and then waves to a pair of village matrons, as relevant and as useful to the other rain-soaked pedestrian as the umbrellas held by the two women.

Savage irony, withering subversion, and desolation mark the rain-sodden angst of a young man’s end.

What is respectable is rotten, beauty masks filth; the melancholy song of a plaintive chanteuse from a record is a conspiracy of decadence and low greed. Eve is a woman of a certain age in mourning with a hunger for youthful sex and a penchant for cheap sentimentality. Lucifer is a lyricist and stool-pigeon in a grubby search for the jewels of a dead woman. Respectability is a travelling salesman who buys postcards of cemetery monuments for his son’s collection.

Truth and beauty are not poetry, but the simple and unaffected concern of one troubled soul for another. A woman caressing the brow of a condemned man in a desolate shack on the beach of perdition.  The eve of the last day, two men work on a car, a murderer helping a mechanic, both strangers yet angelic comrades.  Solidarity meeting fate head-on.  A last desperate attempt by the killer to redeem the child he was before and still is – lost in the sordid machinations and cruel exploitation of bourgeois hypocrisy.

The apotheosis of poetic realism and film noir, not on the dark streets of Los Angeles, but in a decrepit consumptive ville on the French coast. This is the true trajectory of noir released from the shackles of the studio enterprise: treacherous mud and dull clouds leading to a desolate beach of lost youth. Death the only escape; on une si jolie petite plage.

99 River Street (1953) Essential Phil Karlson b. Pulp poetry from DP Franz Planer. Matches the best of Anthony Mann and Sam Fuller. Evelyn Keys is hot! A cab-driver fights a murder wrap after his cheating wife leaves him for a ruthless hood.  Keys steals this picture as a budding actress who helps the cab-driver in a night of noir entrapment.  Her ‘seduction’ scene with the hood is the stuff of dreams – leaving Ella Raines in her jazz scene in Phantom Lady (1944) in the mud.  Chiaroscuro lensing of Franz Planer is a revelation.

Brighton Rock (1947 UK) Greatest British noir is dark and chilling. A cinematic tour-de-force: from the direction and cinematography to top cast and editing. As brutal as any noir any time any country.  A cheap young psychopath playing the hoodlum boss leaves a bloody trail as he tries to cover up his murder of a ‘rat’.  Adapted by Grahame Greene from his pre-WW2 novel and brought to the screen by the talented Boulting brothers, the story has a venomous counter-point  involving a gullible young waitress who ‘knows too much’.  The picture has to contain one of the most chilling lines in all of noir when a nun  speaks of  “the appalling strangeness of the mercy of God”.

Drunken Angel (aka Yoidore tenshi) (1948 Japan) “Too many useless sacrifices” A great Kurosawa noir.  A loser doctor with soul takes on the fetid moral swamp of Yakuza degradation. The Japanese master in one of his early films has created a classic noir.  He fully comprehends the meaning of noir: from his story and a total control of his mis-en-scene he fashions a tragedy from the back alleys and stinking open sewers of urban degradation. An alcoholic slum doctor tries desperately and in all the wrong ways to cure a young consumptive Yakuza hood.  Kurosawa makes bravura use of ambient music to juxtapose and telegraph the meaning of the drama as it unfolds: from a jazz band playing St. James Infirmary Blues, to a  loudspeaker atop the “Happy” Supermarket blaring the Cuckoo Waltz in an endless loop…

Of Missing Persons (aka Section des disparus)(1956 Argentina) Lurid adaptation of 1950 pulp novel by David Goodis. Appalling yet mesmerizingly torrid latin melodrama. Playboy husband opportunistically fakes his death to flee the clutches of his neurotic wife and fall into the ample bosom of his dancer girlfriend.

The Phenix City Story (1955) Expose confidential based on true story. Unrelenting and chilling portrayal of decent people fighting crime. One of the better 50s ‘confidentials’ based on fact. A good b-cast exudes realism in on-the-streets confrontations filmed as newsreels.  The killing of a black child is particularly brutal, and a sympathetic portrayal of blacks is noteworthy.

Scandal Sheet (1952) Lacklustre realisation of Sam Fuller’s expose novel on yellow journalism. Broderick Crawford is strong as the bad guy, but the rest of  the cast is adequate 0nly. No tension or surprises from by-the-numbers direction.

The Second Woman (1950) From producer Harry M. Popkin (DOA and Impact) A neat b-noir lensed by Hal Mohr has you guessing with a nice twist. Interesting psycho-drama starring Robert Young as a disturbed architect (or is he?) with a love angle, but the pace is a little slow and the drama labored.

The Sleeping City (1950) Sleep inducer about drug racket in NY hospital. Could have been interesting if made by talented film-makers. NY cop goes undercover as an intern in a large city hospital to investigate a murder. Richard Conte’s mind is elsewhere…

The Sound of Fury (1950) Great noir from Cy Endfield outdoes Lang’s Fury and brilliantly prefigures Wilder’s Ace in the Hole. Climactic mob scenes mesmerise. Frank Lovejoy plays himself – an everyman down on his luck who takes to crime after hooking up with homme-fatale Lloyd Bridges, who then frames him for murder. Crazy scene of a lynch mob trying to storm a jail full of rioting in-mates is a must-see tour-de-force.

They Drive by Night (1938 UK) On-the-run ex-con tries to beat a murder rap on dark London streets and long-haul lorries. Abrupt ending though. Quaint English who-dun-it with noir atmospherics and a  loopy camp villain. Not to be confused with the US-made Bogart vehicle.

The Unsuspected (1947) Camp noir! Curtiz directs, Woody Bredell lenses, Waxman scores, Claude Rains over-acts, and Audrey Totter is a hoot! Radio-host of a radio true murders program investigate his own crime!  Predictable but fun. Checkout the vinyl…

Voici le temps des assassin (1956 France) A young twisted femme-fatale and  her off-the-wall mere try to destroy aged Paris restaurateur. Climax a bitch. Jean Gabin is a master-chef and and all-round good guy, seduced by the daughter of his ex-wife. This dame is a text-book psychopath. Lies and more lies and layer upon layer of  cruel  manipulation.  A dark hysteria pervades and look out for the young woman whipped by the dominatrix mother-in-law swathed in mourning!

The Web (1947) Entertaining thriller with dumb lawyer framed for murder. Snappy patter from solid leads, but about as noir as an albino cat. Hapless lawyer moonlights as bodyguard for a corporate type, and gets into trouble. An ensemble cast serve up a fizzy martini: Ella Raines, Edmond O’Brien, William Bendix, and Vincent Price.  Guess who plays who!

Where the Sidewalk Ends (1950) Preminger’s elegant direction and La Shelles’ crisp noir lensing are aloof.  Dan Andrews in the lead is wooden. Andrews is a cop on a short fuse, who accidentally kills a suspect, and covers it up, then falls for the daughter of the cab-drover charged with the killing. Over-rated and it has all been said before.  Gene Tierney as always is engaging as the love interest.

The Woman On the Beach (1947) Intriguing cerebral noir melodrama from Jean Renoir… what’s left of it after hacking by RKO suits. A moody ‘art-house’ noir where a love triangle suffused with suppressed rage, anger, and eroticism is played out in an isolated beach-side setting. Top cast make it interesting: Joan Bennett, Robert Ryan, and Charles Bickford.

World For Ransom (1954) Dan Duryea a good guy! Robert Aldrich takes a boys own script and fashions a noir take on love, loyalty and illusion. Set in Singapore with a shootout finale in the jungles of Malaya.  Story while solid does not support the heavy psychological sub-text.

1948 was a signal year in the film noir cycle, which saw the move towards on-the-streets filming and a shifting focus on police operations, heralding the police procedurals that became dominant in the 1950s.

Jules Dassin’s The Naked City for Mark Hellinger carries the banner for this nascence of a cinema-verite style of filming. Dassin’s picture is set in New York and tells the story of a murder investigation by homicide cops with a gritty realism. But thematically, there is little to distinguish The Naked City as a film noir. It is the city of New York and its people that hold your attention, and the several bit-portrayals of people going about their lives are truly engaging. The final scene where a street-sweeper in profile scoops up yesterday’s papers from the gutter and moves on into the New York night gives an arresting hard-bitten closure.

In the same year Fox released Call Northside 777, a ‘newspaper’ noir set in Chicago directed by Henry Hathaway (The House on 92nd Street (1945), The Dark Corner (1946), Kiss of Death (1947), and Niagara (1953)). The film is an adaptation based on true events in Chicago during prohibition and recounts a newspaper reporter’s 1944 investigation into the conviction in 1932 of two young polish immigrants for the killing a policeman. A solid script by Jerome Cady and Jay Dratler, and the exceptional cinematography of DP Joseph MacDonald (Shock (1946), The Dark Corner (1946), The Street with No Name (1948), Panic in the Streets (1950), Niagara (1953), Pickup on South Street (1953), and House of Bamboo (1955)), mark this picture has having at least equal standing with The Naked City. The streets of Chicago are explored as never before.

A top-line male cast attracted an a-budget: James Stewart plays the reporter, Richard Conte is one of the convicted, and Lee J. Cobb is Stewart’s editor. Stewart is cast against type, and it doesn’t quite work. He is not hard-boiled. Rather he is too sober, happily married and middle-class, and while his reluctance to pursue the story of a ‘cop-killer’ marks out a certain prejudice, his persona jars. Conte has a relatively small role as the convict but is convincing, and Cobb is in his element.

But these guys are out-classed by the dames in this picture. They are all bit-players that shine in their characterizations. Helen Walker (Nightmare Alley (1947), Impact (1949), The Big Combo (1955)) is charming and intelligent as Stewart’s knowing wife. Betty Garde (Cry of the City (1948) and Caged (1950)) is convincing as an aging hard-bitten low-life whose hostile testimony convicted Conte. Kashia Orzazewski (Thieves’ Highway (1949), I Was a Communist for the FBI (1951), and Deadline – U.S.A. (1952)) as Conte’s mother is a revelation – she IS the guy’s mother– scrubbing floors and saving nickels & dimes for 11 years to save $5,000 to offer as a reward for whoever can get her son released. Joanne De Bergh (in the first of only two film apperances) as Conte’s ex-wife steals the scene where she is interviewed by a cynical and aggressive Stewart. Her unflinching integrity shines from her unwavering eyes – she has total control of the situation – in the living room of her home where she has built a new life for herself and Conte’s son.

The picture is compelling even though the pace is slow and melodrama is kept at bay. The dramatic development of the reporter from a reluctant investigator to an impassioned crusader for justice impels the first half, and the second half is carried forward by the need to get credible evidence before a deadline agreed with the authorities. Stewart at one point castigates the blindfolded statue of justice for having a two-edged sword: the enforcement edge is sharp, but the other edge that deals with over-turning injustice is blunt. There is a duality too in the portrayal of the newspaper business in the movie, where the pursuit of sensational headlines and circulation compromises the search for truth. Early in the film, after Conte has read Stewart’s early tabloid stories, one of which splashes a photo of his wife and son on the front page, he tells Stewart to drop the story:

I sent for you
to tell you that…
I don’t want you
to write anymore…
about me or my family.

I’ve read what you’ve written.
I’ve seen the pictures
of my mother…
my wife and my boy.

We’ve poured our hearts
out to you…

(Well, you wanted help, didn’t ya?

That’s the only way you can get people
interested in the case

Nobody’s gonna read a little two-line ad
like your mother ran in the paper.

A half a million people
have been followin’ this story.

Now somebody might know
the killers and get in touch with us.)

I don’t want that kind of help.
I’ll stay here a thousand years.

But you must not
write anymore…
about my wife
and my mother and my boy.
My mother is doing this for me,
not to sell your papers.

(Oh, now, wait a minute. Wiecek.)

I made my wife divorce me…
so my boy has a new name.

Now you put his picture in the paper,
spoiled everything for him.

(I don’t know.
I thought I was doin’ a good job.)

No! This is writing
without heart…
without truth.

Before, I thought maybe
some crook lawyer…
would try to get the dollars
from my mother.

But this, I never figured.

Yes, I say it.
I’ll stay here. I’ll stay here
a thousand years.

But never write anymore
about my family.

Leave them alone.

Leave alone my wife and my boy.

Like in The Naked City, the use of new technology in police operations is significant, but here it is used to gather evidence to quash a conviction. Conte undergoes a lie-detector test, and a good amount of screen-time is spent on a useful description of how the machine works. The evidence that exonerates Conte relies on blowing up a newspaper photo to reveal the date it was taken, and the transmission of the blow-up is over telephone lines using the then ‘wire photo system’. Also, unlike in The Naked City, the cops are portrayed as obstructionist and not above illegally withholding public records in an attempt to stymie Stewart’s efforts on behalf of a ‘cop-killer’.

Call Northside 777, like The Naked City, has noir elements but is thematically less concerned than traditional noir with the fate of the criminal protagonist. Conte is free at the end, but he has lost 11 years of his life, his former wife and his son are no longer his, and his future is uncertain. While there is a definite irony in the last words spoken in the film (apart from those of the narrator) when Conte says, “It’s a good world… outside. Yes it’s a good world outside.”, these words are spoken without irony – but not without a trace of regret.

Film Noir Classic Collection Vol. 5 Release Date: July 13th, 2010
Pre-order from Amazon US$ 39.49 49.98 Free shipping

• Cornered Dmytryk’s atmospheric latin noir thriller. Harry Wild’s expressionist camera-work and a solid turn by Dick Powell add value.
• Desperate
• The Phenix City Story Expose confidential based on true story. Unrelenting and chilling portrayal of decent people fighting crime.
• Deadline at Dawn
• Armored Car Robbery Cops chase hoods on the streets of LA with dark noir atmospherics. A tight 67 minutes of b-movie mayhem.
• Crime in the Streets
• Dial 1119
• Backfire

Columbia Pictures Film Noir Classics Vol. 2 Release Date: July 6th, 2010
Pre-order from Amazon US$ 53.95 59.95 Free shipping

• Human Desire Lang’s unrelenting gaze into the dark underside of modern America is stark and without visible shadows.
• The Brothers Rico
• Nightfall
• City of Fear
• Pushover Wide-screen noir. Hip as an LA martini. Bravura direction by Richard Quine. Fred MacMurray & Kim Novak in 1st role: awesome!

The Big Night (1951)
Director Joseph Losey | DP Hal Mohr

Joseph Losey’s last American movie is a powerful and affecting drama of a boy crossing into manhood one dark noir night.