The Film Noir Thread! Gats, dames, and cheap hooch welcome.

[Mark C.]

Coming Dec 16,2016

[Ian Jane]

Coming Soon on DVD and Blu-ray!

The Scar (1948) aka Hollow Triumph - Starring Paul Henreid, Joan Bennett, Eduard Franz, Leslie Brooks, John Qualen and Jack Webb - Screenplay by Daniel Fuchs (Criss Cross, Panic in the Streets) - Cinematography by John Alton (He Walked by Night, The Crooked Way) - Directed by Steve Sekely (The Day of the Triffids).

[Quot]

Not sure if this has been posted before but Lured (1947) with Lucille Ball is out on Blu-ray.

Sandra Carpenter (Lucille Ball) is a London-based dancer who is distraught to learn that her friend has disappeared. Soon after the disappearance, she's approached by Harley Temple (Charles Coburn), a police investigator who believes her friend has been murdered by a serial killer who uses personal ads to find his victims. Temple hatches a plan to catch the killer using Sandra as bait, and Sandra agrees to help. But complications arise when Sandra becomes engaged to a nightclub owner. NEW 2K RESTORATION.

I do like Lured. Here's one of my old reviews:

"If you can look past a spotty script, you are in for quite a treat with one of Sirk's first American offerings. Shot beautifully in black and white, Lured follows the adventures of Lucille Ball (young and glamorous), playing a chorus dancer in London who is recruited by Scotland Yard to help solve a string of murders committed by a serial killer known as the "poet killer". The police receive a poem describing each victim's demise until the latest victim, Ball's friend and coworker, prompts the Inspector to use Ball as bait to help catch the killer. A murder mystery with noir-ish elements that foregores the mystery (the killer is made apparent about midway), but has two things going for it: a stellar cast and a director in top form. Sirk was a master at lighting scenes, and he uses the shadows and silhouttes to full effect, not to mention the fog-layered cobbled streets of London. And get a load of the costumes and sets! Lucille Ball goes through an expense account's worth of wardrobe as she responds to newspaper ads that may or may not lead her to the killer. Two scenes, one at a concert hall, and another at a nightclub show off the extravagantly lush set design. Just as good as Sirk's signature is the veteran cast: George Sanders, Charles Coburn, George Zucco, Alan Napier, Alan Mowbray, and a delightfully slimy cameo by Joseph Calleia. Lucille Ball was surprisingly good but the standout here is a brief extended cameo by Boris Karloff (who receives co-billing) as a demented fashion designer. Between the spunky and saucy Miss Ball and the spirited cast, the entire film had a "nudge, nudge, wink, wink" aura about it, as it was quite evident that the participants were having a ball (no pun intended). And so will you."

[Ian Jane]

Coming soon from Warner Archive...

Nicholas Ray's ON DANGEROUS GROUND (1951)
NEW 2016 HD REMASTER DERIVED FROM NEW 4K SCAN FROM ORIGINAL NITRATE CAMERA NEGATIVE
BD50
4x3 1.37
DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono (Restored from original nitrate track negative)
English SDH


SPECIAL FEATURES:
Audio commentary by film historian Glenn Erickson (DVD Savant)
Original theatrical trailer (remastered 1080p HD)


"“Why do you make me do it?” New York cop Jim Wilson asks the hoodlum he's about to smash senseless. Jim has seen it all on the city's shadowy streets: killers, thugs, pimps, sadists. And the experience has cost him his soul. Ironically, his redemption may come in his next case, a brutal murder that brings him into the open sky and white light of the countryside…and into the arms of a beautiful blind woman.


Directed with intensity by Nicholas Ray (Rebel Without a Cause, They Live by Night) and featuring a haunting score by Bernard Herrmann (Psycho), On Dangerous Ground is a taut, rapid-paced manhunt with two fine stars at its tortured heart. Noir master Robert Ryan captures Jim's agonized self-hatred. And Ida Lupino burnishes the screen as the sightless angel whose compassion gives him one last chance at life."

[Randy G]

I rewatched BOOMERANG a year or two ago, when Eureka released it on BD over here. It's a film I've not seen many times (perhaps two or three over the years) but I really liked it on my last rewatch. It's a semidocumentary film noir, so expect that going into the picture and you shouldn't be disappointed, Randy :)

Sounds good! Dig the grittier docudrama noirs.

[Mark C.]

Also Cohen Media will release a newly restored bluray of SUDDEN FEAR with Joan Crawford.

Posted by Cohen Media
We discovered that our latest restored version of (Sudden Fear) came from a negative held at the British Film Institute and this version turned out to be a censored cut. We have located the footage you mentioned and it will be included in our home video release later this year.

So apparently we are getting a better version than the Kino dvd that was released over a decade ago. Didn't look that hot on that release, this is great news.



http://www.cohenfilmcollection.net/films/sudden-fear

[Mark C.]

Not sure if this has been posted before but Lured (1947) with Lucille Ball is out on Blu-ray.

Sandra Carpenter (Lucille Ball) is a London-based dancer who is distraught to learn that her friend has disappeared. Soon after the disappearance, she's approached by Harley Temple (Charles Coburn), a police investigator who believes her friend has been murdered by a serial killer who uses personal ads to find his victims. Temple hatches a plan to catch the killer using Sandra as bait, and Sandra agrees to help. But complications arise when Sandra becomes engaged to a nightclub owner. NEW 2K RESTORATION.

[Paul L]

Ohh, haven't seen these. The cast and directors are certainly promising. Loved Preminger's FALLEN ANGEL, very underrated.

I rewatched BOOMERANG a year or two ago, when Eureka released it on BD over here. It's a film I've not seen many times (perhaps two or three over the years) but I really liked it on my last rewatch. It's a semidocumentary film noir, so expect that going into the picture and you shouldn't be disappointed, Randy :)

[Randy G]

Ohh, haven't seen these. The cast and directors are certainly promising. Loved Preminger's FALLEN ANGEL, very underrated.

[Ian Jane]

Coming November 15th on Blu-ray! Two Film Noir Classics Starring Dana Andrews, loaded with extras!

Boomerang (1947)
• New Audio Commentary by Film Noir Historian Sara Smith
• Audio Commentary By Film Historians Alain Silver and James Ursini
• Trailer Gallery


Daisy Kenyon (1947)
• Audio Commentary by Film Noir Historian Foster Hirsch
• From Journeyman To Artist: Otto Preminger at Twentieth Century Fox Documentary
• Life In The Shadows - The Making of Daisy Kenyon Featurette
• Animated Montage of Images
• Film Noir Trailer Gallery

[Randy G]

Love that film!

[Ian Jane]

Looks like the BFI are also releasing Odds Against Tomorrow in October.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos...r-21/ref=nosim



Odds Against Tomorrow (DVD + Blu-ray)
A film by Robert Wise


Considered by many to be the last of the true 40s and 50s film noirs, Odds Against Tomorrow is the story of a daring robbery gone wrong.


When ruthless killer Earle Slater (Robert Ryan) teams up with crooked ex-cop Dave Burke (Ed Begley), and gambler Johnny Ingram (Harry Belafonte) to rob a New York bank, things quickly start to go wrong. Fuelled by his racist hatred, Earle continually clashes with Johnny resulting in the heist quickly spiralling out of control. With the escalating tension comes increasing violence as Slater's prejudice drives both him and Ingram to the very edge.


With its dark jazz score and brooding atmosphere Odds Against Tomorrow represents one of the most important films about race and racism, and was directed by four time Oscar winner Robert Wise (The Sound of Music, West Side Story).


Special features


Original trailer
Fully illustrated booklet with new writing on the film
Other extras TBC
USA | 1959 | black & white | 96 minutes | 1.37:1* | Cert 12* (*TBC)

[Ian Jane]

Coming from the BFI in August!

Cry of the City (Blu-ray)
A film by Robert Siodmak


A masterpiece of law and disorder, Robert Siodmak's film noir classic depicts a timeless battle of good versus evil on the streets of New York.


Charismatic criminal, Martin Rome (Richard Conte) is on the run from Lieutenant Candella (Victor Mature), a dogged cop and one-time friend. The two nemeses go head-to-head in a tense game of cat and mouse, leading to a dramatic showdown.


Insolent, menacing yet darkly charming, Conte is magnificent, whilst Mature gives a career best performance as the unsettlingly obsessed detective. Cry of the City boasts a glorious gallery of shady figures, from a lawyer oozing corruption to a memorably sadistic masseuse, whilst the film's steely realism is enhanced by flourishes of noir stylisation, anticipating the films of Martin Scorsese.


Special features
Presented in High Definition
Original theatrical trailer
Audio commentary with Adrian Martin
Adrian Wootton on Cry of the City (2016): a newly filmed appreciation by the critic and chief executive of Film London
Fully illustrated booklet with credits and newly commissioned essays


US | 1948 | black and white | English language, with optional hard-of-hearing subtitles | 96 minutes | original aspect ratio 1.37:1 | BD50 | 1080p | PCM mono audio (48kHz/24-bit) | Region 2 | cert 12

[Mark C.]

The Prowler's commentary is great, I always enjoy Muller's talk, for the longest time his book on Noir was my bible.

[Randy G]

Love 99 River Street and The Prowler, sounds like they are worth picking up for the commentaries too. The Don Siegel and Kershner noirs also sound great, hopefully they'll replay them on TCM soon to coincide with the release.