Warner Brothers continues their fine line of Noir Classics with Volume 3. Not only do they include 5 Noir classics, but some nice special features as well.
The Lady in the Lake (1947) Private detective Philip Marlowe (Robert Montgomery) is hired by A. Fromsett (Audrey Totter) to find her bosses wife. Mr. Kingsby’s (Leon Ames) wife has gone missing and he doesn’t seem too concerned. Marlowe goes to investigate the last person to see Mrs. Kingsby, Chris Lavery (Dick Simmons).
Lavery knocks out Marlowe and he ends up with a drunk driving rap with the police. Lt. DerGarmot (Lloyd Nolan) takes an immediate dislike to Marlowe. Soon a lady is found drowned in a lake could it have something to do with the Kingsby case? Only Marlowe can find out the answers. This film alone is worth 3 stars.
What makes this movie interesting is that the whole movie is done in Marlowe’s point of view. He starts off narrating the film directly into the camera and again does this in the middle and at the end. The whole time that Marlowe is investigating the camera is his eyes and we only see him if he looks into a mirror.
This is really weird when he’s kissing his love interest. I’m not sure how it was decided to shoot the film this way, but it also allowed Montgomery to step behind the camera and direct the picture. Another intriguing touch is the opening credits where it makes it seem like a Christmas picture.
Border Incident (1949) Mexicans are sneaking across the US border instead of taking the legal route (sounds familiar?). However, there are groups of thieves that lie in wait in the desert and rob the peasants when they’re on their way back home and pockets full of money. The Mexican government sets up agent Pablo Rodriquez (Ricardo Montalban) to pose as one of the peasants and make his way across the border and expose the smuggling ring.
Death moves slowly in a lettuce field
Pablo’s counterpart in the US government is Jack Bearnes (George Murphy) who is supposed to be Pablo’s contact. Pablo befriends Juan (James Mitchell) and they both are smuggled into California to pick lettuce. Things go wrong with the scheme and soon Jack has to go deep undercover to check on Pablo and things don’t turn out well for him. This film alone is worth 3 stars.
Anthony Mann directs this film in a documentary approach. The film starts off with a narrator (who sounds like a newsreel narrator) telling us that this is based on a file of an actual undercover operation and ends with similar narration.
What also makes this an interesting noir is that there really isn’t a prominent fem fatale, it’s really an all male show for the most part. There’s a harrowing scene where a character is run over by a tractor in the lettuce field that is still harrowing to this day in my opinion.
The Racket (1951) A mysterious crime syndicate has moved into town run by the unseen “old man.” Nick Scanlon (Robert Ryan) is part of the syndicate but he likes to settle things the old fashioned way – with fists and bullets. The old man believes in using the courts that they’ve bought and paid for to solve things.
Police captain Tom McQuigg (Robert Mitchum) is also old fashioned, he believes in putting the crooks away and not taking bribes. He has a loyal confederate in officer Bob Johnson (William Talman) who also believes the way he does. Scanlon and McQuigg are out to get one another, but who will prevail? William Conrad shows up as the corrupt Detective Turk. This film is also worth 3 stars by itself.
James Cromwell directed this film, but to a degree I was expecting Fritz Lang’s name to pop up in the credit crawl. The unseen, mysterious “Old Man” made me think of Lang’s Dr. Mabuse. The lawyer that receives the Old Man’s orders has a radio set next to his desk that reminded me of the way that Dr. Mabuse relayed his orders to his minions (even though the lawyer never uses the radio). Both Robert Mitchum and Robert Ryan are fabulous in their roles and play well off of each other.
McQuigg challenges Scanlon
His Kind of Woman (1951) Dan Milner (Robert Mitchum) is paid $5000 to fly down to Morro’s Lodge in Mexico and await orders. He has no idea what he’s supposed to do, but whatever it is he’ll get $45,000 more for his troubles. On the way he meets Lenore Brent (Jane Russell) on the small plane down to the isolated resort. There he meets a colorful bunch of characters.
The first person he meets is the hotelkeeper Jose Morro (Philip Van Zandt) who seems to know something about just about everyone at the resort. The actor Mark Cardigan (Vincent Price) is also at the resort and appears to be having a rendezvous with Lenore. Myron Winton (Jim Backus) claims to be an investment banker but is fleecing a young couple in a card game.
They’re joined by the drunken playboy Lusk (Tim Holt) who is not what he appears to be. Milner doesn’t find out towards the end of the picture what his role is supposed to be, but it does involve gangster Nick Ferraro (Raymond Burr). This movie easily rates 4 stars.
His Kind of Woman kind of has it all. It’s a noir but has bits of romantic comedy, action/adventure film, marriage farce, broad comedy, and probably some genres I forgot about. What makes it so schizophrenic is probably the man holding the purse strings behind the scenes – Howard Hughes. He re-shot the entire finale with a new director (Richard Fleisher) which may account for some of the outrageous comedy in the final act.
Also Raymond Burr was cast even after those re-shoots, so there was even more shooting after they thought they were finished. Hughes liked Vincent Price’s character so much that he gave him a more prominent role in the grand finale. Price is hilarious as the ham actor that takes up gun and opera cape (all the while quoting Shakespeare) to rescue Mitchum from Burr’s yacht.
Some people have a problem with such a comedic character in a film noir, but I have to admit that I really enjoyed it (True confessions time: I’m a big Vincent Price fan. Though I have to admit that he is much too comedic for what is considered a dark, downer, noir film.) Mitchum and Russell work perfectly together and are just destined to be together in such films. It has excellent work by all.
My Kingdom for a boat
On Dangerous Ground (1952) Jim Wilson (Robert Ryan) is a hardboiled city police officer. He’s letting the pressure of his work get to him and beats a suspect (Ryan is just excellent in this scene tell the suspect “Why are you making me do this.”).
Captain Brawley (Ed Begley, Sr.) thinks that Wilson need some time away from the city so he sends him to countryside to investigate the murder of a girl. It’s wintertime so the ground is covered in snow. He and the girl’s dad Walter (Ward Bond) chase the suspect through the snow covered landscape, but wreck their car.
They follow the suspect’s footprints to an isolated house. Inside they find Mary (Ida Lupino) who is blind. She lives with her brother and Wilson suspects him of the crime. However can Wilson get to the brother before Walter, who prefers to shoot first and ask questions later? Wilson develops a quite admiration for the independent blind woman and it blossoms into love for the lonely detective. This film by itself rates 3.5 stars.
On Dangerous Ground is directed by Nicholas Ray and is probably my second favorite film in this box set (following His Kind of Woman). We start off the find in familiar territory of the noir genre – wet city streets.
But the movie takes an interesting turn when we move to the lonely, wintry landscape. Robert Ryan is really and excellent actor in this role and I again have to mention his scene with the suspect. He takes on a manic personality and keeps asking the suspect why he’s making him beat him.
I also enjoyed the interaction between he and Ida Lupino. You really feel sympathy for the lonely detective and hope that he finds a place in life with the equally lonely blind woman.
All the features in this box set are presented in fullscreen as they were originally shown. Each title also has a commentary by noir experts. Lady in the Lake features Alain Silver and James Ursini, Border Incident features Dana Polan, The Racket features Eddie Mueller, His Kind of Woman features Vivian Sobchack, and On Dangerous Ground features Glenn Erickson (that’s DVD Savant to youse).
The sixth disc is the real nice special feature. It has the 68 minute documentary “Film Noir: Bringing Darkness to Light.” It features interviews with Christopher Nolan, Frank Miller, James Ellroy, and Brian Helgeland to name a few.
Solve the mystery with Philip Marlowe
Disc 6 also has 5 vintage “Crime Doesn’t Pay” shorts. In a change that you’ll either love or hate, Warner has packaged all 6 discs in slim cases. You’ll love it if you need shelf space but this set will not match the other two volumes in the line.
If you’re a noir fan then don’t hesitate in buying this box set. If you want one or more of the movies above then you’re also going to have buy this set since it’s the only way they are available (I think the other volumes did have some releases available separately). I don’t think that you’ll regret it with the special features inside.
Film Noir Classic Collection, Vol. 3 is now available at Amazon . As of yet, there is not a release date for the UK. Visit the DVD database for more information.
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