DVD Review: Noir Archive Volume 1

The popularity of film noir has been pretty consistent among film buffs, but it appears to have increased with historians like Eddie Muller championing the sub-genre. Younger people who are connecting to older films are embracing classic noir in impressive numbers.

Kit Parker films and Mill Creek Entertainment has licensed, from SONY, a collection of 9 Columbia Pictures noir features and have released them on blu ray in a 3 disc set. Some of these features are familiar, others more obscure. Each of them is a welcome addition to the greater accessibility of film noir features.

For this review, each of the features in this set will be separately addressed with capsule reviews.

ADDRESS UNKNOWN (1944)

Directed by William Cameron Menzies. Starring Paul Lukas, Mady Christians, Carl Esmond, Peter van Eyck, KT Stevens, Emory Parnell, Frank Faylen. Running time: 75 minutes

This interesting wartime noir responds directly to the Nazi influence on German citizens. Paul Lukas is Martin, an art dealer who returns to his native Germany from America, and is seduced by the Nazi propaganda that surrounds him. The conflict becomes personal when his son’s Jewish fiancée, who accompanied Martin to seek acting roles in Germany, is denied his protection. Martin soon begins receiving coded letters from America, which gets him in trouble with the Gestapo. What is most impressive about “Address Unknown” is the brilliant cinematography by Rudolph Maté. The film’s original score and art direction were both nominated for Oscars.

ESCAPE IN THE FOG (1945)

Directed by Budd Boetticher. Starring Otto Kruger, Nina Foch, William Wright, Ernie Adams, Elmo Lincoln, Edmund Cobb, Joe Palma. Running time: 65 minutes

This delightfully creepy noir features a woman having recurring dreams, and attempting to warn the central figure of these dreams that he might be in danger. The difference between fantasy and reality, the psychic realm and cognition, and the danger of spies during wartime are all elements utilized by this production. It all breezes by in a tight 65 minutes. Director Boetticher is better known for westerns, including the classics “7 Men From Now” and “Buchanan Rides Alone.” Watch for a very young Shelley Winters.

THE GUILT OF JANET AMES (1947)

Directed by Henry Levin. Starring Rosalind Russell, Melvyn Douglas, Sid Caesar, Betsy Blair, Nina Foch, Charles Cane, Harry Von Zell, Arthur Space, Hugh Beaumont. Running Time: 83 minutes

One of the very best films in this set features Rosalind Russell as a war widow, overwhelmed by bitterness. In order to confront her feelings, she sets out to meet the five men whose lives were saved by her husband, to see if his ultimate sacrifice was necessary. Her emotional state is gradually revealed, as she ends up walking in front of a car, and believing she has lost the use of her legs, even though doctors find no physical problem. One of the men her husband rescued is a reporter named Smitty who tries to help her realize the importance of such sacrifices on the battlefield. It is interesting to see later TV actors Sid Caesar, Harry Von Zell, and Hugh Beaumont, while the acting of Russell and Douglas is certainly first rate. Compelling and well structured; there isn’t a wasted second in this excellent noir.

THE BLACK BOOK (1949)

Directed by Anthony Mann. Starring Robert Cummings, Richard Basehart, Arlene Dahl, Beulah Bondi, Norman Lloyd, Charles McGraw. Running time: 89 minutes.

This might be the most unusual noir on the set, with it taking place during the French Revolution. The narrative deals with Robespierre’s search for a black book on which he keeps a list of those destined for the guillotine. His attempts to rise to dictatorship is thwarted by the efforts patriot D'Aubigny. Also known as “Reign of Terror,” this film fell into the public domain, so it was usually available only in shoddy dupe prints. The sharp clarity found on the print in this collection allows us to better appreciate its visual beauty. Anthony Mann’s direction and John Alton’s cinematography are equally impressive.

JOHNNY ALLEGRO (1949)

Directed by Ted Tetzlaff. Starring George Raft, Nina Foch, George MacReady, Will Geer. Running time: 80 Minutes.

George Raft did a lot of noir films during the post-war era, often for the low budget Lippert Pictures. This is his first movie for Columbia since the mid 1930s. His low key approach is quite effective as a former mobster who now works for the US Treasury. Due to his past, he is asked to help bring down a counterfeiter who is involved in a plot to use fake currency to destroy the economy and overthrow the government. This is another one of the best films in this set.

THE KILLER THAT STALKED NEW YORK (1950)

Directed by Earl McEvoy. Starring Evelyn Keyes, Charles Korvin, Lola Albright, William Bishop. Running Time: 79 minutes.

A female diamond smuggler starts a small pox outbreak in New York while also trying to thwart her husband from stealing the jewels she brought in from Cuba. A detective is on her trail for the smuggling, while a health inspector is pursuing the person spreading the disease. Neither realizes they are hunting for the same person. Evelyn Keyes stated in her autobiography that she believed Columbia studio head cast her in this B movie to punish her for thwarting his advances. The movie, based on a story in Cosmopolitan, is a solid B noir done in semi-documentary style. Interestingly, its similarity to “Panic in the Streets” caused the studio to withhold its release until that film was played out. Very suspenseful and emotionally stirring, and despite her misgivings about the project, Keyes does a commendable job as a desperate woman who is deteriorating before our eyes.

711 OCEAN DRIVE (1950)

Directed by Joseph M. Newman. Starring Edmond O’Brien, Joanne Dru, Otto Kruger, Don Porter. Running time: 102 minutes

The opening of this magnificent film offers this statement before the credits: “Because of the disclosures made in this film, powerful underworld interests tried to halt production with threats of violence and reprisal. It was only through the armed protection provided by members of the Police Department in the locales where the picture was filmed, that this story was able to reach the screen. To these men, and to the U.S. Rangers at Boulder Dam, we are deeply grateful." This ominous foreshadowing is followed by another one of the best films in this set. A telephone technician manages to rig a communication setup that helps a bookie do business. When the bookie is murdered, the telephone man takes over his gig and rises to the top of the crime syndicate. Edmond O’Brien is perfectly cast in the lead. The longest running time of the movies in this set, and it seems to move by the quickest. No slow spots in this one.

ASSIGNMENT PARIS (1952)

Directed by Robert Parrish. Starring Dana Andrews, George Sanders, Märta Torén, Audrey Totter, Willis Bouchey. Running time: 85 minutes.

Now it is the post-war era, and it is said that Communist agitators disrupted this production’s attempts to film on location in Paris. Nevertheless, the film was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Film Promoting International Understanding. Based on Paul and Pauline Gallico’s book “Trial of Terror,” this one has an American arrested in Hungary as a spy. Dana Andrews and Märta Torén portray two curious reporters who are assigned to investigate, but are followed. More general suspense mystery than classic noir, this movie is significantly one of ten-or-so Hollywood films that Märta Torén made before dying at 30 in 1957 of a brain hemorrhage.

THE MIAMI STORY (1954)

Directed by Fred A. Sears. Starring Barry Sullivan, Luther Adler, Adele Jergens, Beverly Garland, John Baer. Running time: 75 minutes

A gangleader running the rackets in Miami is infiltrated by a former gangster challenging his power. When a woman is beaten into revealing the former gangster’s identity and plans, the gangleader kidnaps his the man’s son. Violent, intense, and well played, “The Miami Story” is the only film in this set new enough to have been shot in widescreen. This is a very brutal and compelling film, with fine performances by its cast. It neatly caps the nine features offered on this set.

The nine noir films contained in this set offer varying degrees of greatness and collectively they show how versatile the noir sub-genre truly is. Many fine directors and actors are represented, and the films allow us to better appreciate the often neglected Columbia Pictures as a formidable studio. There is already a Volume 2 planned for release.

Noir Archive Volume One is available at this link: NoirArchive