Film Noir M.I.A. July 31, 2006
Posted by jackal in : Films, Film Noir , trackbackThe past couple of years have been more than kind to film noir fans. Most notably, we’ve had the quarterly waves of Fox Film Noir, three Film Noir Classic Collection boxsets from Warners, as well as odds and ends from other studios: four noir releases last year (and an upcoming Double Indemnity SE) from Universal, a couple from Paramount (Detective Story, The Strange Love of Martha Ivers), some top-class Criterion releases, and a mixed bag of public domain titles.
However, even with all this activity, there are loads of worthy titles sitting unreleased. Of course, almost all are available in bootlegs of varying quality, but that’s no substitute for a good commercial DVD release. And so, after whittling down the field, here’s my list of top unreleased film noir:
12. Dangerous Crossing (1953)
In this twist on The Lady Vanishes, Jeanne Crain is a young bride whose husband goes missing on their honeymoon cruise. When nobody believes her husband was ever aboard the ship, Crain herself has to investigate; does ship’s doctor Michael Rennie know more than he lets on? R1 DVD rights: 20th Century Fox (20th Century Fox feature)
11. Johnny Angel (1945)
A nifty, atmospheric thriller with George Raft as the titular hard man: a merchant navy captain determined to find his father’s killer. Claire Trevor co-stars. R1 DVD rights: Warner Bros. (RKO feature)
10. Macao (1952)
Howard Hughes reunited His Kind of Woman duo Robert Mitchum and Jane Russell for this utterly hollow, yet immensely fun noir-tinged exotic romp, directed by Josef von Sternberg with reshoots by Nicholas Ray. R1 DVD rights: Warner Bros. (RKO feature)
9. Ministry of Fear (1944)
In wartime England, Ray Milland stumbles upon a Nazi spy ring in this tense Fritz Lang noir, adapted from the Graham Greene novel. R1 DVD rights: Universal (pre-1948 Paramount feature)
8. The Web (1947)
A private detective smells a rat when a simple bodyguarding job goes badly wrong, and sets out to discover what’s really going on. Edmond O’Brien, Ella Raines, William Bendix and Vincent Price are the quartet of noir all-stars populating this tightly-plotted thriller. R1 DVD rights: Universal (Universal Pictures feature)
7. They Won’t Believe Me (1947)
Robert Young’s womanising past comes back to haunt him when he finds himself on trial for murder. Will the jury believe his outlandish explanation of events? Susan Hayward and Jane Greer co-star in this atmospheric noir. R1 DVD rights: Warner Bros. (RKO feature)
6. The Glass Key (1942)
Tough, punchy adaptation of the Dashiell Hammett novel, starring Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake in their second screen pairing. R1 DVD rights: Universal (pre-1948 Paramount feature)
5. The Woman in the Window (1945)
Edward G. Robinson finds his life taking a nightmarish turn after he and Joan Bennett unwittingly become implicated in murder. Director Fritz Lang would re-team with Robinson, Bennett and Dan Duryea the following year for the even better Scarlet Street. R1 DVD rights: Sony/MGM (United Artists feature)
4. The Breaking Point (1950)
John Garfield and Patricia Neal star in director Michael Curtiz’s take on Hemingway’s To Have and Have Not. Sticking more faithfully to the novel than the 1944 Hawks film, this is nonetheless a powerful noir flavoured with despair, populated by flawed, human characters, and featuring a blistering performance from Garfield. R1 DVD rights: Warner Bros. (Warner Bros. feature)
3. Phantom Lady (1944)
Top-notch mystery thriller, with Ella Raines as an intrepid secretary who must track down this elusive ‘phantom lady’; her testimony is the only thing that can prove Raines’ boss innocent of murder. And because it’s her second film in this list (as if I needed an excuse) let’s have a pic of Ella … R1 DVD rights: Universal (Universal Pictures feature)
2. The Bribe (1949)
Robert Taylor is a federal agent sent to the Central American island of Carlotta to investigate shady business dealings. But as Taylor begins to fall for the suspect’s wife, the case gets a whole lot more complicated. Ava Gardner, Charles Laughton, John Hodiak and Vincent Price co-star in this hot and humid noir. R1 DVD rights: Warner Bros. (MGM feature)
1. Ride the Pink Horse (1947)
Don’t be put off by the title - it’s not another gay cowboy movie, but a beguiling, poetic noir directed by Robert Montgomery. He also stars, as Lucky Gagin, a disilluisoned WWII veteran who travels to a backwater Mexican bordertown with revenge in mind, and the Feds on his tail. Gagin finds help in the form of Pilar (Wanda Hendrix) a naive yet enigmatic teenage girl who follows him everywhere, and the hard-drinking, fiercely loyal Pancho (Thomas Gomez). The straightforward plot gradually peels back to reveal rich and meaningful depths to this forgotten gem. R1 DVD rights: Universal (Universal Pictures feature)
My list isn’t intended to be exhaustive - there are many, many more notable noirs yet to show up on DVD. These are just my favourites.
Comments»
Great list! “Ride the Pink Horse” is one of my favorite noirs and I wholeheartedly lament its absence on DVD. Robert Montgomery seems to be underrepresented on DVD and that’s a shame. Probably his most famous film, “Here Comes Mr. Jordan,” hasn’t been released either.