Film Noir: The Dark Side of Cinema XXIV – Blu-ray Review

3 more noirs from the Paramount Pictures vaults are brought to light in the 24^th Volume of Kino’s Film Noir: The Dark Side of Cinema series. First, William Holden helps Nancy Olson find the kidnapped daughter of her employer in Union Station. Next, a down-on-her-luck Ida Lupino is thrust into a mystery surrounding a Southern California estate’s missing caretaker in Jennifer. Finally, sportswriter Steve Brodie helps a former boxing contender expose a gambler’s “fix” operation in The Crooked Circle. Union Station was previous released on Blu-ray by Olive Films and Jennifer by Imprint, while The Crooked Circle is making its Blu-ray debut here.

The Production: 4/5

Union Station (1950; 4 out of 5)

While en route to Chicago from her employer’s home in Westhampton, private secretary Joyce Willecombe (Nancy Olson) notices two strange men boarding her train with a suitcase. Upon arriving in Chicago’s Union Station, she seeks out police lieutenant William “Bill” Calhoun (William Holden) and together they discover that the suitcase contains clothing – specifically a scarf – belonging to Lorna Murchison (Allene Roberts), the blind daughter of Joyce’s boss. Realizing that Lorna’s been kidnapped and being held for ransom, Bill and his superior Inspector Donnelly (Barry Fitzgerald) track the trail back to Joe Beacom (Lyle Bettger), a former employee of the station determined a get a huge payoff by any means necessary.

Formerly an accomplished cinematographer before graduating to the director’s chair, Rudolph Maté showed some flashes of brilliance as a director and Union Station is one of his best efforts in that capacity. Adapted from Thomas Walsh’s Saturday Evening Post serial story Nightmare in Manhattan by Sydney Boehm, the story maintains tension at a fever pitch from the moment Lorna’s kidnapping is discovered to the climactic showdown in the train tunnels beneath the station. Maté’s past experience as a cinematographer is put to great use here, as the visual style – developed by cinematographer Daniel L. Fapp, film editor Ellsworth Hoagland and the production design team of Hans Dreier, A. Earl Hedrick, Sam Comer and Ray Moyer – belies its modestly budgeted origins to create a tension filled atmosphere; despite being set in Chicago’s Union Station – the original story was set in New York City’s Manhattan borough, changed to Chicago for the film adaptation – the movie was obviously filmed in Los Angeles’ Union Station (which means that the famed grand staircase of Chicago’s Union Station doesn’t get featured here, but Paramount would rectify that error in The Untouchables many years later). However, the beating heart of this one is the solid performances from the cast, including William Holden, Nancy Olson, Barry Fitzgerald (who gives – in his distinctive Irish brogue – perhaps the most cheerfully malicious instruction to officers to extract information from a suspect in noir history: “Make it look accidental.”), Lyle Bettger, Allene Roberts, Jan Sterling, Herbert Hayes, Don Dunning, Fred Graff (the recipient of Donnelly’s perversely cheerful interrogation near an oncoming train), James Seay, Parley Baer, Queenie Smith, Edith Evanson and John Crawford, just to name a few. A hidden gem of a noir, Union Station hits all the right marks in its tension filled story that deserves to be mentioned alongside D.O.A. – released the same year as this movie – as among the best films Rudolph Maté ever did as a director.

Jennifer (1953; 4 out of 5)

Down on her luck – and dealing with some problems with her mental health – Agnes Langley (Ida Lupino) manages to get a job as a caretaker of a vast Southern California mansion owned by the Gale family. As Agnes learns from Lorna Gale (Mary Shipp) upon taking the job, the previous occupant and caretaker – Lorna’s cousin Jennifer Brown – mysteriously vanished without a trace. Upon discovering Jennifer’s diary and pouring over the contents of it, Agnes starts to realize that Jennifer may not have run off but may have been murdered. But there’s a slight problem: the person she suspects of killing Jennifer, store owner Jim Hollis (Howard Duff), is also someone she has fallen in love with.

Resting on the fringes of both noir and melodrama genres, Jennifer is a more complex film than its first viewing and appearance suggests. Adapted from the 1949 story by Virginia Myers – which first made its appearance in Cosmopolitan – director Joel Newton (allegedly the pseudonym of uncredited screenwriter Bernard Girard) creates a story that first appears to be a “gaslight noir” wrapped in modern day settings; however, with repeated viewings, the story takes on a more nuanced approach and really upends expectations of both noir and melodrama conventions. A major plus here is the cinematography of the legendary James Wong Howe; the master of deep focus photography in film manages to make the Santa Barbara location of the story feel both illuminating and mysterious at the same time. But the real asset here is the quality of the performances, anchored here by Ida Lupino and Howard Duff in the leads and backed up by Mary Shipp, Ned Glass, Robert Nichols, Kitty McHugh, Lorna Thayer and singer-songwriter Matt Dennis introducing his jazz standard “Angel Eyes”. A B-movie with much more going on beneath its surface, Jennifer belies its origins to create a fascinating story, one that largely fell through the cracks and is ripe for rediscovery.

The Crooked Circle (1957; 3.5 out of 5)

Shortly before turning up dead in an “accident”, a young boxer named Chavez – who has won a fight he was supposed to lose – mentions to sportswriter Ken Cooper (Steve Brodie) that he should to “get lost like Joe Kelly”. Intrigued by this coincidence, Cooper tracks Joe (Don O’Kelly) – a former contender in the ring – to a fishing lodge he runs with his brother Tommy (John Smith); Tommy’s girlfriend Carol (Fay Spain) urges both him and Cooper to – respectively – get into boxing and promote his career. As he rises in the boxing world, Tommy goes from being trained by the honest Al Taylor (Robert Armstrong) to being handled by shady manager Larry Ellis (John Doucette), corrupt arena owner Max Maxwell (Philip Van Zandt) and gambler Sam Lattimer (Richard Karlan) in an unholy union that initially nets Tommy enough money to get Carol an engagement ring. However, when it’s discovered that all his fights were fixed – and that he’s expected to take a dive in his next one – Tommy becomes disillusioned with the sport, leading Cooper to tip off police to the dirty dealings of Ellis, Maxwell and Lattimer; one mistake and it may be more than just Tommy’s career in the ring that’ll be down for the count…

Boxing and noir were certainly no strangers to each other since Body and Soul (1947), but The Crooked Circle gave Republic Pictures a chance to show off some familiar tropes in their in-house widescreen process, Naturama. Under the direction of Republic Pictures veteran – and one of the studio’s top directors for Westerns – Joseph Kane, the film wastes no time in setting up and executing the story, as one would expect from the studio, which – by this time – was entering its twilight years. Despite being a more modestly budgeted affair – compared to major (and B-level) studio efforts like Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956) and The Square Jungle (1955) – another Republic veteran, cinematographer Jack A. Marta, does a good job of milking the atmosphere out of the economical trappings; this is most apparent during the fight sequences. There’s some decent performances from the cast, especially from the likes of John Smith, Fay Spain (cast against type as the “good girl” here), Steve Brodie, Don O’Kelly (credited here without the ‘O’ preceding his last name), Robert Armstrong, John Doucette, Philip Van Zandt, Richard Karlan and Don Haggerty. While it may not rise to the same level as previous boxing noirs, The Crooked Circle still makes enough contact with its punches that makes it worth a look.

Video: 4.5/5

3D Rating: NA

The HD transfers for all three films – presented in their original aspect ratios – in this Blu-ray boxset were taken from 4K scans of each film’s respective film elements; Union Station – presented in its original 1:37:1 aspect ratio – had its HD transfer created in 2020, Jennifer – presented in its original 1:37:1 aspect ratio – in 2020 and The Crooked Circle – presented in its original 2:35:1 Naturama aspect ratio – in 2018 by Paramount Pictures. There’s a range of minor to minimal cases of scratches, tear and dirt present on the transfers – more notably on Jennifer and The Crooked Circle compared to Union Station – while gray scale, film grain and fine details are by and large faithfully represented and presented. This Blu-ray release is likely the best all three films will ever look on home video and – in the case of Union Station – surpasses previous home video releases; Jennifer is about on par with its previous Blu-ray release.

Audio: 5/5

The original mono soundtracks for all three films are presented on dual mono DTS-HD Master Audio tracks for this Blu-ray boxset release. For each film, sound mix, dialogue tracks and respective music scores – an uncredited Heinz Roemheld with stock music from Hugo Friedhofer and Victor Young for Union Station, Ernest Gold for Jennifer and an unknown composer (Jerry Roberts was credited with music supervision) for The Crooked Circle – presented with minimal issues like crackling, popping and hissing present and with clarity and strength. Again, this release is likely the best all three movies will ever sound on home video; Jennifer is again about on par – if not slightly better – with the previous Imprint Blu-ray while Union Station bests its previous home video incarnations here.

Special Features: 3.5/5

Union Station

Commentary by author/film historian Alan K. Rode – Newly recorded for this release, Rode goes into the details about the film’s production – which happened quickly after Billy Wilder finished reshoots on Sunset Boulevard – as well as some details on the cast and crew involved with the film.

Theatrical Trailer (2:09)

Bonus KLSC Trailers – The Turning Point & The Counterfeit Traitor

Jennifer

Commentary by film historians Kat Ellinger & Martyn Conterio – Recorded for this release, Ellinger & Conterio go into detail about the film, its production and why its deserving of a reappraisal after years of obscurity.

Bonus KLSC Trailers – He Ran All the Way, Witness to Murder & Touch of Evil

The Crooked Circle

Commentary by screenwriter/film historian Gary Gerani – The last of the newly recorded commentary tracks features Gerani going into details about the film, its themes and where it fits in the noir subgenre involving boxing and corruption.

Theatrical Trailer (1:42)

Bonus KLSC Trailers – World in My Corner & Chicago Deadline

Overall: 4/5

Kino continues to impress with their Film Noir: The Dark Side of Cinema series, with this volume bringing one previously unreleased noir (The Crooked Circle), another making its stateside debut (Jennifer) as well as Union Station in new and solid HD transfers to go with three informative commentary tracks as special features. Very highly recommended.

Film Noir: The Dark Side of Cinema XXIV [Union Sta…

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Mychal has been on the Home Theater Forum’s reviewing staff since 2018, with reviews numbering close to 300. During this time, he has also been working as an assistant manager at The Cotton Patch – his family’s fabric and quilting supplies business in Keizer, Oregon. When not working at reviewing movies or working at the family business, he enjoys exploring the Oregon Coast, playing video games and watching baseball in addition to his expansive collection of movies on DVD, Blu-ray and UHD, totalling over 3,000 movies.