Film Noir - LIST - Page 5

I got my copy of Laura yesterday and inside the DVD case was a small catalogue by Fox that said:

Coming in June...

House of Bamboo
Nightmare Alley

and

Kiss of Death

News at DVD Times on House of Bamboo and Nightmare Alley (but not Kiss of Death strangely) here.

So, is Kiss of Death going to be part of June releases? DVD Times posted an artwork, but Amazon has it for pre-order for October from Anchor Bay...

DVD Times updated the link above to include Kiss of Death; if Fox have gone to the trouble of producing box art, I guess it's theirs.

Did anyone catch this USA Today article that ran today highlighting the resurgence of noir?

The article confirms that Fox is going to release 24 Noir titles over the next two years.

Our good friend George Feltenstein at Warners also confirmed that Warner Noir #2 has been accelerated (no exact date was given)



There's also an interesting sidebar article interviewing the always cranky Jack Palance. I don't think Fox wanted this exchange:





Steve

Boy, I wish Warners would step up their release schedule for noirs because there's just WAY too many good noirs in their library that haven't been released yet. Five a year isn't even close to enough, especially when companies like Fox are planning to release 12 (!) a year! Great news to hear them commit to 24 in the next two years.

In Warners' defense it takes them a long time to restore their films, particularly the RKOs. The end result will be worth it.

Also, Warners has a full scale classic release program that releases a lot more classic films each year that Fox ever will. The Fox Noir line is Fox's first legitimate attempt at an extensive classic release program. The Fox Studio Classics would have been the first but it got derailed by the inclusion of some titles whose inclusion in this line was debatable.

Having said that, I absolutely agree with you that I hope Warners eventually releases a large number of noirs over the next several years.

Steve

Street With No Name is available for pre-order at Amazon to be released in June.

Also, Warner is working on The Damned Don't Cry as mentioned in this interview with George Feltenstein in Onion.

Great article Gregory! Thank you.

That article sent me to imdb to see what else Vincent Sherman had directed. There are at least two films I'd like to see released: The Hasty Heart (not a noir but a terrific movie) and Nora Sherman (a noir with the lovely Ann Sheridan).

Steve

WB is releasing a Joan Crawford and Bette Davis box sets soon with a few new noirs including "The Damned Don't Cry" and "Posssesed!"

Not to mention the Steve McQueen one! Drool!

So WB is cranking them out too.

http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/content.php?contentid=56526

For those that belong to Costco ... Laura, Call Northside 777 and Panic In The Streets are available in a three-pack for $17.99 ... at 6 bucks per film hopefully this will encourage many a movie lover to take a chance on these noir classics.

TCM spotlighted Panic in the Streets DVD ... http://www.turnerclassicmovies.com/M...,91525,00.html

Speaking of TCM they had Tension (1949) on early in the morning last week (note: it's amazing how many films that I really want to catch show up on TCM at odd hours ...). A very pleasing noir, solid cast and another film that has never been released in any form of video. TCM's print looked pretty good.

I'll be very happy if Crossfire turns up in Film Noir Vol #2 as it's my most wanted Warner noir. As for the others listed above The Long Night was released by Kino. It's an excellent film & I'm thinking of picking it up eventually.

I'd put money on They Live By Night showing up in Vol 2 as it's probably the highest profile film in this group.

I'm really hoping for Lang's The Woman in the Window which I thought was a RKO picture, I could be wrong of course. Also hoping for Act of Violence which was released by MGM so I believe Warner owns it now.

It was an independent production released by RKO – I don't know it that means RKO retained ownership. I hope they did as I too would love to have it on DVD.

These days, THE WOMAN IN THE WINDOW is, I believe, still controlled by MGM (meaning the modern MGM company, not the Warner-controlled pre-1986 MGM library). They released the film on laserdisc (distributed by Image Entertainment) in the mid-late 1990s (I own the LD), and it sports a modern-style United Artists opening logo before the vintage credits unspool.

There are a few RKO releases (filmed independently from the studio) that are owned by others today. A couple of other "film noir" examples:

BEWARE MY LOVELY (1952), a Filmmakers production (probably best-known as the production company responsible for the films directed by Ida Lupino, like THE HITCH-HIKER and THE BIGAMIST), released by RKO, somehow became part of the Republic Pictures library later on. Now controlled by Lion's Gate/Artisan, but will likely revert to Paramount/Viacom's control later this year.

THE SPIRAL STAIRCASE (1946), a Selznik production, released by RKO, now part of the Disney library, but licensed to the modern MGM for its most recent DVD release (formerly an Anchor Bay DVD).

if Universal is going to put out another set of Noirs this July, we should be getting someword pretty soon.

really hope that wasn't a one-off.
can't wait to get the other two Ladd/Lakes

That would be me, Herb, operating under one of my many aliases. Glad to be of service. Y'know, my dad once had the means to control wrestling in all London, the poor sap...

Universal better put out Double Indemnity SE by this summer!!!!

Unfortunately, at this point, I've pretty much given up on it. If they had just made the first four into a boxed set, and maybe put a couple of special features on them they would have sold much better than they did and we'd be seeing more now. Or how about some more noirs as part of the Legacy Collection series? I just hope they release them somehow. Oh, and of course, I hope they get Double Indemnity out there asap.

Link to Without Warning at 'Dark Sky Films' here - only extra is a photo gallery, but if they come up to snuff on the transfer, I'll be happy.

(Thank you Nils for the website link!)

Fox Film Noir September releases at DVD Times here:

Fox Home Entertainment have announced the Region 1 DVD release of three titles as part of Film Noir Wave 3 due on 6th September 2005. Priced at $14.98 SRP each are...

House on 92nd Street
A stentorian narrator tells us that the USA was flooded with Nazi spies in 1939-41. One such tries to recruit college grad Bill Dietrich, who becomes a double agent for the FBI. While Bill trains in Hamburg, a street-accident victim proves to have been spying on atom-bomb secrets; conveniently, Dietrich is assigned to the New York spy ring stealing these secrets. Can he track down the mysterious "Christopher" before his ruthless associates unmask and kill him?

Features include:
1.33:1 Full Screen Presentation
English Mono & Stereo
Spanish Mono
English and Spanish subtitles
Commentary by Film Noir Historian Eddie Muller
Original Press Booklet
Photo Gallery
Fox Noir: Somewhere in the Night, The Street with no Name, Where the Sidewalk Ends, & No Way Out

Somewhere in the Night
George Taylor returns from the WWII with amnesia. Back home in os Angeles, he tries to track down his old identity, stumbling into a 3-year old murder case and a hunt for a missing $2 million.

Features include:
1.33:1 Full Screen Presentation
English Mono & Stereo
English and Spanish subtitles
Audio Commentary with Eddie Muller
Theatrical Trailer
Fox Noir: The Street with no Name, Where the Sidewalk Ends, & No Way Out

Whirlpool
The wife of a psycho-analyst falls prey to a devious quack hypnotist when he discovers she is an habitual shoplifter. Then one of his previous patients now being treated by the real doctor is found murdered, with her still at the scene, and suspicion points only one way.

Features include:
1.33:1 Full Screen Presentation
English Mono & Stereo
English and Spanish subtitles
Audio Commentary by Richard Shickel
Theatrical Trailer
Fox Noir: Call Northside 777, Dark Corner, House of Bamboo, Laura, Nightmare Alley, Panic in the Streets, & A Street with no Name

I watched Finger of Guilt (a.k.a The Intimate Stranger) from a taped version off of TCM.

I enjoyed it. A Josephy Losey film where perhaps noir meets psychological drama and who knows where the differences really lie. The acting is quite good, particularly Mary Murphy who has a big part as the femme fatale. I thought the main title (score) was terrific. Well worth a viewing.

But I have a question for the knowledgeable people around here. The film was supposedly released in the U.K. in a 95 minute version whereas the RKO/TCM version is 84 minutes.

Does anyone have the long version or at least seen it? What happens during those 11 minutes?

Thanks

^ If that's the case, I'd assume it can be expected to be included in their next wave of R1 Noir titles...