Film Noir - LIST - Page 23

Re: Film Noir - LIST

Yes indeed.

Ted,

I agree. Your list has some excellent films needing R1 release.

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Would anybody be against them anchoring a future set with a new The Big Combo? I may be completely wrong but I'm assuming WB controls this now as a part of the Allied Artists catalog. I remember reading that UCLA restored this last year and there's nothing but PD mediocrity-to-crap out there.

Re: Film Noir - LIST

Please, Warner Bros "Invisible Stripes"? ('39: Bogey, George Raft, William Holden, Jane Bryan) Hey, I toured your studio last year. Have a heart Maybe there's a chance for this one since they've released some of my other WB fav's ...G-Men, San Quentin (finally), To Have and Have Not, The Roaring Twenties, High Sierra....

Favorite quote (from Invisible Stripes): Bogey as Chuck Martin talking to "Lefty" (Marc Lawrence) "You do too much yappin'. You always did!" (then Bogey does one of those patented shoulder rolls )

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Has anyone heard any information on a restored future release of "The Big Combo"? As Pete York has already posted, UCLA has done the work, so what are the chances?

In my opinion this is a top tier noir, with plenty of visual style. It is infamous for it's brutality and sexuality for that era.

Re: Film Noir - LIST

About "Invisible Stripes"...I would imagine that will be in the next Bogart Box Set which I would think would be released in 2008. I, for one, would be surprised if it weren't included.

As for "The Big Combo" , I have it as a DVD from Image, purchased a while back. I don't think Image is a PD company and though its been a while since I watched it, I don't remember it looking that bad.

I'm hardly against releases of PD movies (the recent upgrade of "Kansas City Confidential" was much appreciated) but I'd prefer they concentrate on movies not yet available first. Two of my favorite noirs (and favorite films ever) , "Sweet Smell Of Success" and "Kiss Me Deadly" absolutely deserve upgrading and special editions, but I'm willing to wait for those until the never released see the light of DVD.

Re: Film Noir - LIST

No doubt. I'm not hung up upon releases without the best images and sources if it allows me to see the film.

Sweet Smell of Success and Kiss Me Deadly are two of my favorite films, let alone film noirs. Fortunately I picked up Kiss Me Deadly before it went out of print. It's getting pretty pricey. Just a great (and influential) film I could talk about for days.

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Kiss Me Deadly is brilliant. Definitely in my top 10 favorite noirs. I'd love a full-on restoration and a ton of supplements, but I'm far from unhappy with the current DVD.

But The Big Combo absolutely NEEDS some attention. Hopefully someday....

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The dvdbeaver calls all three editions (Geneon, Image, and Alpha) of "The Big Combo" quite poor, with the now out of print Image disc being the lesser of the "3 evils".

This is a very good noir, which deserves a proper release.

Re: Film Noir - LIST

I'd like to see these 10 in the next WB "Film Noir" set--

Peter Lorre double-feature:

STRANGER ON THE THIRD FLOOR (1940, RKO)
THREE STRANGERS (1946, WB)

"I'm not lying!" double-feature:

THEY WON'T BELIEVE ME (1947, RKO)
THE WINDOW (1949, RKO)

Anthony Mann double-feature:

DESPERATE (1947, RKO)
THE TALL TARGET (1951, MGM)

Richard Fleischer double-feature:

FOLLOW ME QUIETLY (1949, RKO)
ARMORED CAR ROBBERY (1950, RKO)

Felix Feist double-feature:

THE DEVIL THUMBS A RIDE (1947, RKO)
THE THREAT (1949, RKO)

Other good noirness I'd like to see from WB:

THE MAN I LOVE
DEEP VALLEY
OUT OF THE FOG
BODYGUARD
THE CLAY PIGEON
ROADBLOCK
BACKFIRE
CRY DANGER
I WAS A COMMUNIST FOR THE FBI
THE WHIP HAND
SPLIT SECOND
CRACK-UP
THE PHENIX CITY STORY
THE TWO MRS. CARROLLS
THE UNSUSPECTED
WHILE THE CITY SLEEPS

Re: Film Noir - LIST

That'd make for a mouthwatering set. I'd only add a George Raft double: Nocturne & Johnny Angel ... but I'd have a hard time picking which of yours I'd take out in return.

Re: Film Noir - LIST

Finally got around to watching HIS KIND OF WOMAN.

To say that it's film noir is a major stretch other than the first 15 minutes of a 120 minute film.

Just a suspense film with a happy ending and strong comedic moments when it wasn't "borrowing" from Casablanca.

Bad/dark lighting by itself does not a film noir make.

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Vincent Price spoiled it for me....

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I enjoyed it in spite of (or perhaps because of) its uneven tone. I agree that its noir status is questionable, but the same could be said of Clash By Night and Dillinger in Volume 2, both of which I also enjoyed very much.

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Agreed. There is much to be said for films that are uneven. One wonders what the film was like before they reshot much of it. TCM in their interview with Mitchum/Russell claimed that all the scenes with Raymond Burr were done post production. The first scenes with him were just flat add-ons. But the scenes at the end were intercut. I wonder what the end was originally planned without Burr i.e. did they use another actor or was their a different storyline?

The camera leading into the Mexican hotel by the pool and bar is a wonderful shot.

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What's the status of BOOMERANG, does anyone know? Does Fox plan to release it after all sometime soon?

I know some copies got out before the recall. My Fox Noir Collection is painfully incomplete without it. I've been wanting to see it. Should I pay the high price or wait?

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According to this thread, it looks like you shouldn't have to wait too long before they re-release it.

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The depth and breadth of John Huston's THE ASPHALT JUNGLE continues to astonish me whenever I return to it. The screen play has an emotional range like no other noir. And what a bunch of characters to spend two hours with. I love these people; they're honorable and corrupt, bold and desperate, courageous and vulnerable, streetwise and just plain dumb. It's as if Huston envisioned the asphalt jungle as a world of contradictions and directed his actors to play two opposites at once. Every performance is a complete, finished person inseparable from the actor playing him, or her. They all have asphalt in their veins. Huston and his dp Harold Rosson make us feel the city underneath the city with the lighting and composition. I can't begin to describe how brilliant THE ASPHALT JUNGLE is. The Warner Home Video is necessary, like sex and food.

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This movie along with a couple others left a bad taste in my mouth when it came to WB Set 3. Thankfully all the selections in Set 4 were much better.

I finally watched Macao last night and didn't like it any better than His Kind of Woman. I would have to assume that many of the so-called noirs from this period at RKO after Howard Hughes took over are similar - ruined to some extent by his meddling with the production.

-D

Re: Film Noir - LIST

So many films, so little time ... but you talked me into watching it again.

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I was lukewarm about most of set 3 as well, and am looking forward to 4, which I just ordered.

However, On Dangerous Ground is a gem and Lady in the Lake was very enjoyable.

Also, the commentaries add a lot of depth and extra dimension and I get a lot more out of them when I watch the 2nd time with the commentary. Even His Kind of Woman was interesting.

Doug

Re: Film Noir - LIST

Not only is set 4 a better value (with twice as many movies) the good news is that most of the selections this time are better than the ones in set 3. The transfers are also uniformly excellent.


I have to agree about On Dangerous Ground (haven't seen a movie with Robert Ryan so far that I didn't like) but it's a shame that the transfer on that movie was probably the worst out of all the Warner Noir releases so far. It looked quite fuzzy to me with a yellowish tint.


I envy you for finding the time to watch movies a second time with the commentary. With all the excellent stuff that Warner and Criterion have been putting out recently I have been lucky just to find time to watch the movies the first time. But I will give His Kind of Woman another spin one of these days with the commentary turned on. I am sure the story of it's making and all the trouble they had behind the scenes is far more interesting than the movie itself.

-D

Re: Film Noir - LIST

The third boxset has a 3-4 of my personal favorites in it. Every Christmas season for the last 20 years or so I watched a select few films because of some kind of connection to the holiday season. The film, "Lady in the Lake" is one of them. It was one of those films that I used to see late at night alot on channel 2's "Late Show" out of NYC back in the 1960s. Two of my other favorites are "On Dangerous Ground" and "The Racket". As been stated earlier by some, Robert Ryan was very good and he probably was one of the most underrated actors of all-time. Furthermore, I've been a big fan of Robert Mitchum all my life due to a personal connection between us so that explains my affinity for "His Kind of Woman" and also "The Racket" again. IMO, the only entry in that boxset that is not among my favorites is "Border Incident" which is a good film, but I don't have the affection for it like I do the others.

Re: Film Noir - LIST

On Dangerous Ground is not only one of my favorite noirs, it's one of my favorite films period. Warner is my favorite studio when it comes to DVD, but I was (and still am) sorely disappointed in this particular transfer.

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You do realize this is an old RKO film and its been stated time after time that the film elements of RKO films are in terrible shape. Perhaps, this is the best they could do with it under these circumstances and budget limitations.

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Nice to read positive comments about Volume 3. That volume is actually my favorite of the WB Film Noir series with 4 great favorites in it (the same as yours actually) and ON DANGEROUS GROUND standing out as one of the greatest films I have ever seen. This is not to say of course I do not enjoy the other sets.

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Universal has been getting some praise this year for starting to delve into their immense catalog of classic titles but I really hope they turn their attention to their unreleased film noir titles. While Warner, Fox (and now MGM) are putting quite a bit of effort into releasing even lesser known titles (given that they have already released all the essential titles), Universal is sitting on a whole bunch of film noir gems. Wouldn't it be nice if they followed Warner's example and released a box set of double features (but no DVD-18s or multi-disc digipak monstrosities please !). Here's just a small sampling of the unreleased titles

Accused, The (1948)
Alias Nick Beal (1949)
Blue Dahlia, The (1946)
Dark Mirror, The (1946)
File on Thelma Jordon, The (1950)
Glass Key, The (1942)
I Walk Alone (1948)
Ministry of Fear (1944)
Night Has a Thousand Eyes (1948)
Phantom Lady (1944)
Sleeping City, The (1950)
Under The Gun (1950)

-D

Re: Film Noir - LIST

It's too bad that Universal wouldn't release both versions of "The Glass Key". That would be perfect. Also, "Desert Fury" would be a nice with a "I Walk Alone" release.

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Perhaps the elements of that specific film (On Dangerous Ground) is in bad shape. However, I don't know if it is fair to generalize on RKO film elements. For example, I thought that the Val Lewton boxset of RKO films looked pretty darn good. And a film like CAT PEOPLE is ten years older than ON DANGEROUS GROUND.

Robert,

Has there really been a track record of sub-par RKO films?

Re: Film Noir - LIST

Do you have to question every post?

By the way, the shape of the RKO library film elements has been confirmed by Warner executives and there are those that would disagree with you about the look of the Val Lewton boxset. Though, I'm not one of them.

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I would love to see "Desert Fury" released. One of my favorites.