WB Film Noir, Volume 4 (1 Viewer)

[Corey]

Got this from DVD Beaver:


Warner Film Noir Boxset 4 will have 10 films (instead of 5):

Act of Violence (MGM, 1949). Cornered (RKO, 1945), Crime Wave (WB, 1954), Decoy (Monogram, 1946), Illegal (WB, 1955), Mystery Street (MGM, 1950), Side Street (MGM, 1950), Tension (MGM, 1950), They Live By Night (RKO, 1949) and Where Danger Lives (RKO, 1950)
Eddie Muller says on his website that he already recorded commentaries for They Live By Night (together with Farley Granger) and Crime Wave (together with James Ellroy)!!

No release date given

 

[Corey]

i thought i would get at least one reply by now. lol

 

[Richard M S]

Corey thanks for posting this - 10 films! Wow! I saw Tension at the Film Forum earlier this year, it was a very sharp black and white print, so I figured this was coming onto DVD soon. It is the only film of the bunch I have seen, so I hope it is released soon!

 

[Corey]

to be honest. i haven't seen any of these films, but i've always enjoyed the films from the past sets, this would be a blind buy for me. i wonder will the films be spead out over 5 discs as double features or in 10 slim line cases??

 

[Irina]

Corey,
I have seen most of these movies and, in my opinion, this selection is SUPER. And 10 movies instead of usual 5 - who can ask for anything more! This set is also being discussed in the Film Noir -LIST thread on this forum. This may explain why you have received relatively few responses.

 

[Simon Howson]

I just hope they don't opt for dual sided discs.

They could take advantage of the dual disc slimline cases, but as long as they use full size cover art on alternate sides of the case. They could then put the technical details on the bottom of the box, and inside each case inlay.

 

[Craig Beam]

This is Warner we're talking about, not Universal. I'm sure they'll use dual-layered discs with two films on each disc, just like in their Val Lewton and Masterpieces of Horror sets, with "double-feature" covers... which is just fine by me. Bring 'em on!

 

[TravisR]

Yeah, I'm thinking like Craig and saying that they'll be like the Lewton set and have two movies on one side. I'm sure that the movies are short enough that two will fit on one side.

 

[Jay E]

Wow, 10 more Noirs for my collection!

I think this is a smart marketing move by Warner. Knowing that most of the better known Noirs have been released already, they double the number of films to keep the box sets enticing to buy.

 

[Jon Hertzberg]

Another incredible box. Extremely pleased to hear about Act of Violence, Tension, Side Street, and They Live By Night.

It's too bad WB does not also have John Berry's He Ran All the Way under control--the repertory houses, such as Film Forum, having been playing it alongside his Tension. Both will be at the Siskel in Chicago next:
Siskel Center Noir Noel series.

Many of these films have been showing on TCM over the last year in nice-looking prints.

 

[Corey]

now only if they could start doing this with their musicals.

 

[Ruz-El]

this is great great news!! I think I've seen Crimewave, otherwise these are all new to me. I've loved all the sets so far, 10 at once is going to be great!!

 

[Charles H]

Except for THEY LIVE BY NIGHT, all these titles are new to Home Video in any format. I would love it if they had included the original versions of ILLEGAL (THE MOUTHPIECE and THE MAN WHO TALKED TOO MUCH with a Vincent Sherman commentary). Maybe in the next Tough Guys collection?

 

[Jim Bur]

Nicholas Ray's "They Live By Night" is a masterpiece, and arguably Ray's greatest film. It's great to hear that it's being released on DVD. Crime Wave is top notch, and Sterling Hayden is at his cynical best. John Farrow's "Where Danger Lives" is another excellent film, with Robert Mitchum outstanding as usual. Cornered (1945) is a solid thriller starring Dick Powell in his follow-up to Murder My Sweet seeking revenge against war criminals who have gone to South America. "Cornered" may have set the trend for these kind of films set in South America, as Notorious and Gilda followed in its wake. I'm looking forward to Decoy, which I haven't seen. I've heard that Decoy was likely the film Godard had in mind when he dedicated Breathless to Monogram Pictures. Side Street is a decent Anthony Mann film, and re-teams Farley Granger and Kathy O'Donnell from They Live By Night, so it makes sense to include it in the same collection. Act of Violence is a tough film that gives us Robert Ryan and Van Heflin, both good as usual. I've heard good things about Tension, which stars the always interesting Richard Basehart, which I haven't yet seen. Illegal is a 1950's remake of the great Warren William film of the early 1930's, "The Mouthpiece". It would be even better to see the original released some day. This collection captures many of the most vital remaining unreleased to DVD film noirs over which Warners has control. Another great film noir "Angel Face" is being included in the Robert Mitchum collection which is being released early in 2007. Among the remaining outstanding unrelased to DVD film noirs that Warners has would be, among others, the excellent Robert Mitchum film "The Big Steal", and several Robert Taylor films including "The Bribe", "Rogue Cop", and best of all Nicholas Ray's outstanding "Party Girl", and several Lawrence Tierney films such as "The Devil Thumbs A Ride". Perhaps, we will see some of these in the next wave. Warners also has some outstanding westerns that were done in a noir style, such as "Station West" with Dick Powell, and "Blood On the Moon" with Robert Mitchum, which hopefully will be released in some western collection in the near future. All in all this 2007 is starting to look like a banner year for Warners DVD releases.

c Jim Bur

 

[Jay E]

I think Cornered was released on Laser with the Turner Entertainment logo.

 

[Steve...O]

Agreed Jim! Warren William made many great 30s films that need to be released. Mouthpiece, Mind Reader, Skyscraper Souls, Employees Entrance, etc. Unfortunately his name has almost zero recognition among most of the buying public so I'm not sure how WHV could market these. Maybe if they put together a decent and sizable pre-code collection a number of these could be released. One thing though...they need a lot of restoration as the TCM prints often look like they've been put through a meat grinder.

Steve

 

[Jim Bur]

Steve: Glad to see there are other fans of Warren William. I think he was referred to as the 'poor man's John Barrymore", but in actuality his body of work in film is much better than Barrymore's. In addition to "The Mouthpiece", "The Mind Reader", and "Skyscrapers Souls" which are all great films, he made other terrific films during the same period such as "The Match King", "Employee's Entrance", "The Dark Horse", "Bedside", and "Beauty and the Boss". In them all he plays variations on the same character (ie. a ruthless lawyer, a ruthless poltical operative, a ruthless tycoon, a ruthless department store owner, a ruthless medical impersonator, a ruthless carnival huckster, etc). He also did the 4 films in the original Perry Mason series, which are not at the same ultra high level, but which are a lot of fun. Warners has all these films under its control. They could actually make a fabulous box set devoted to his films. If they did such a box set, in terms of film quality it would be among the best box sets they have ever done, though you are right that it would take some marketing and education effort to make the public aware of the incredibly high quality of William's body of work in the early 1930's. Perhaps, they could induce TCM to run some spots highlighting this body of work and have them organize a special viewing salute to these films. I think once there was some awareness of how incredibly good this group of films are people would be eager to get them all. Another of William's outstanding films "Lady For A Day" was released on DVD by another company a few years ago, however the reason that film was released was because it was directed by Frank Capra.

 

[Corey]

I'm sure we will see more Warren William in the future because Dr. Monica, Skyscraper Souls, Employee Entrance, and Three On A Match are all important pre-codes and should be released in future sets.

 

[Irina]

Cornered has been released in Italy.

 

[Irina]

Warren William also made fantastic The Lone Wolf movies where he played a jewel thief turned private eye. Incredible fun! It would be great if these great movies would see a light of day.