House of Bamboo, Nightmare Alley, The Street with No Name and The Man Who Never Was DVDS (1 Viewer)

[Robert Crawford]

I watched the dvd of "House of Bamboo" this afternoon and I thought the dvd presentation was great. I haven't listen to the dvd commentary yet with Alain Silver and James Ursini, but the dvd does contain 4.0 DD soundtrack. I've also started watching the "Man that Never Was" dvd and it too contains a 4.0 DD soundtrack. So far that presentation looks fine too.








Crawdaddy

 

[Herb Kane]

Thanks Crawdaddy... looking forward to this as well as the other Fox releases next week.

The Man Who Never Was .........Gloria Grahame......... sigh

 

[Mark Cappelletty]

Good to hear but not surprising as Fox minted new prints of this a couple of years ago-- they showed it as part of a Sam Fuller retrospective at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood and it looked amazing. FORTY GUNS and HOUSE OF BAMBOO within two weeks of each other? SWEET.

 

[Jim_K]

I'm really looking forward to this along with Nightmare Alley & Street With No Name.

All three will be blind buys which is a rarity for me.

 

[Jeff_HR]

Is it in WS as it should be? I was not aware this film was out. Where is it available from? Thanks.

 

[Herb Kane]

Jeff, it's a Fox release - I can't imagine it not being OAR.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...s=dvd&n=507846

 

[Robert Crawford]

If it wasn't presented in its OAR, I would've never stated that the dvd presentation looked fine.







Crawdaddy

 

[Jeff_HR]

Thanks Herb. I found it is available for ordering at my favorite online site. And it is in WS. I asked about WS because I take nothing for granted considering that WS films are not always released in WS. An example being "The Forbin Project".

 

[Robert Crawford]

I finished watching "The Man Who Never Was" and "The Street with No Name" which "House of Bamboo" was a remake of. Both dvds are well done. I'll be watching "Nightmare Alley" tomorrow morning.






Crawdaddy

 

[Robert Crawford]

I've completed "Nightmare Alley" and I'm very happy that one of my favorite film noirs has been released on dvd. The dvd contains some film grain, but overall, the video presentation was very good. The audio commentary by Silver and Ursini is one of the best I've heard with them supplying some good information about the film and the book it was based on. I think other fans of this film will be please with this dvd.








Crawdaddy

 

[Jeff_HR]

I've always wanted to see this film. Thanks for the mini review Crawdaddy!

By the way did "The Man Who Never Was" have any extras. Thanks.

 

[Brent Avery]

After watching this film starring Clifton Webb and being thoroughly entertained I can see why I find myself always anticipating most films that predate the early 70's - there is much more substance in movies such as this in comparison to the majority that are produced today.

The image was quite good (2.55) and Fox gives us a Dolby 4.0 sound mix. You have the choice of flipping the disc and watching a P&S version but I won't go there! Well worth a purchase to add to your collection. DVD Beaver has a review with screen shots.

I should mention that although the information on the dvd lists the audio as Stereo as well as Mono the Denon processor I use was receiving a 4.0 signal as the default soundtrack.

 

[Jeff_HR]

AMEN!!!

 

[Ruz-El]

I plan on picking up all of Fox noir series titles, I'm just waiting to see these go on sale. It's great to hear that they are up to par quality wise!

I'm completely unfamilier with The Man Who Never Was, does it fall into the noir catagory like the other titles being discussed? Is it worth a blind buy?

 

[Robert Crawford]

No, this film is more like a WWII espionage film.






Crawdaddy

 

[Ruz-El]

Sweet! I enjoy a good spy film! I might as well blind buy it.

 

[Brent Avery]

Until the recent availability of these Noir films I had never really given this genre any real consideration. After watching House Of Bamboo and Nightmare Alley - which was a standout in light of Tyrone Power's performance - I will have to see Laura and The Street With No Name. Robert Stack's monotone (if I can use that description) characterization - which he is noted for - seved him well in House Of Bamboo. Looking forward to the next batch from Fox and the Film Noir #2 from Warners.

 

[Jeff_HR]

I watched "The Man Who Never Was" last night. It was a pleasure to see it in WS. But talk about barebones, I'm kind of surprised they bothered with any printing at all on the DVD.

 

[Jeff_HR]

I just finished watching "Nightmare Alley". What a wonderful film. Power was great. Too bad he didn't get to play more roles like this one & was stuck in the romantic lead typecast.

 

[Douglas R]

Having watched House of Bamboo, I agree that this is another fine presentation by Fox but what I do not understand is why this film is classified as film noir. When I first began reading about the subject, probably about thirty years ago, the respected critical opinion was that such films covered a specific period of American film production; mainly the forties, that they were filmed in black and white and had various identifying aspects such as a crime background, frequently flashbacks, rain sodden dark streets and often a femme fatale.

It seems that the definition of noir has extended since the term was first conceived in 1946 to cover all manner of diverse films but I really cannot accept that a film in Cinemascope and color and set in Japan has anything in common with classic film noir such as Double Indemnity. The only commonality House of Bamboo has with noir is a crime background, which on that basis could cover a multitude of films.