Blu Ray Review: Another great Film Noir set from Kino Lorber

Kino Lorber has released its fifth 3-movie Film Noir set with a trio of dark dramas from Universal during the 1950s.

THE MIDNIGHT STORY (1957)

Tony Curtis is a traffic cop who wants to investigate the murder of a Priest who had taken him in as a young orphan. When the force doesn’t allow him to do so, he turns in his badge and investigates independently. He befriends the man he thinks may be involved and manages to be taken in by his family as a drifter. The man’s family is kind to him, and he even falls for his pretty cousin from Italy, but he eventually discovers information he hoped would not be true. The cast is strong with Curtis supported by Gilbert Roland, Marisa Pavan, Jay C. Flippen, Joe Turkel, Herb Vigran, and Kathleen Freeman. This is a taut crime drama that was made toward the end of the 1950s when post-war noir was beginning to fade as we approached the 1960s. Joseph Pevney keeps the rhythm consistent and uses the widescreen cinemascope effectively with Russell Metty acting as cinematographer. Commentary by Professor and Film Scholar Jason A. Ney adds even greater interest, with enlightening information.

BECAUSE OF YOU (1952)

The song by this title was a number one hit for Tony Bennett in 1951, and was used as the underlying theme song for this movie, another Joseph Pevney noir from the 1950s. Loretta Young plays a woman who is about to be engaged to a man that she doesn’t know is a wanted gangster. When cops get close, he puts some stolen jewelry in her purse, which causes her to get arrested and sent to prison despite not having known anything about it. In prison she takes up nursing and when released she gets a job at a hospital where she falls in love with a wounded soldier played by Jeff Chandler. They become involved and she tries to find a way to reveal her past to him. Chandler is intense in his first romantic role and later recalled this movie as his favorite among his screen roles. Loretta Young later admitted that there was a genuine attraction between the two, but nothing came of it offscreen. This had been released on VHS back in the 90s but this its first appearance on blu ray or DVD. Excellent commentary track, as expected, from Samm Deighan is a special feature highlight

OUTSIDE THE LAW (1956)

Jack Arnold directs this noir about an ex-con military vet (Ray Danton) who goes undercover in Germany to investigate a counterfeiting ring. He has reason to believe the men running this operation were responsible for the murder of his friend, with whom he had roomed in jail and in the service. This film has nothing to do with the 1920 silent film Outside the Law with Lon Chaney which is reviewed HERE. This one is generally a B movie that is aggressively compelling and probably sat quite comfortably on a double bill. Along with the crime drama is a sub-plot where Danton’s character tries to prove himself to his distant, unforgiving father (Onslow Stevens). Leigh Snowden is the girl. Film Historian Richard Harland Smith is always reliable to provide interesting details, and it is he who provides the film’s commentary.

The films in this set deal with a variety of themes that more conventional Hollywood movies usually avoided, including gender roles, ethnicity, filial anguish, and crimes within a military setting. They are comparatively lesser known movies, each having been a sleeper upon its initial release. This makes the latest Film Noir set from Kino Lorber to be even more attractive.

The set can be purchased at this link: NOIR V