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Category:    Home > Reviews > Film Noir > Murder > Gangster > Drama > Crime > Mystery > Detective > Kidnapping > Terrorism > British > The Big Heat (1953/Encore Edition/Sony/Columbia/Twilight Time Limited Edition Blu-ray)/The Big Sleep (1946/Warner)/I Confess (1953/Warner)/Key Largo (1948/Warner Bros./all Warner Archive Blu-rays)/A P

The Big Heat (1953/Encore Edition/Sony/Columbia/Twilight Time Limited Edition Blu-ray)/The Big Sleep (1946/Warner)/I Confess (1953/Warner)/Key Largo (1948/Warner Bros./all Warner Archive Blu-rays)/A Prayer For The Dying (1987/Samuel Goldwyn Company/Orion/MGM/Twilight Time Limited Edition Blu-ray)/Suspicion (1941/RKO/Warner Archive Blu-ray)/Where The Sidewalk Ends (1950/Fox/Twilight Time Limited Edition Blu-ray)/Woman In White (1948/Warner Archive DVD)



Picture: Blu-rays: B/DVD: C Sound: B-/B-/C+/B-/B-/B-/B-/C+ Extras: B+/B+/C/C-/C+/C/B/C- Films: B/B/B-/B/B-/B/B/B-



PLEASE NOTE: The Big Heat, A Prayer For The Dying and Where The Sidewalk Ends Blu-rays are now only available from our friends at Twilight Time, are limited to only 3,000 copies and can be ordered while supplies last, while the rest of these amazing releases are now only available from Warner Bros. through their Warner Archive series. All can be ordered from the links below.



Fans of mystery, detective and Film Noir motion pictures have a ton to celebrate as, remarkably, a bunch of classics in those genres are now out on Blu-ray, even if they are specialty releases, plus an additional gem on DVD and underrated later drama fit into the mix that includes two tales where a priest has to hold onto a deadly secret quietly and two where the amazing Karl Malden happens to play the lead police detective...



Fritz Lang's The Big Heat (1953) was issued a few years ago by Twilight Time from their great Limited Edition Blu-ray series, then became one of the rare non-Horror genre titles to sell out. Thus, with expanded extras, they have issued it as a new Encore Edition with more extras. Here's our coverage of the classic in that older edition...


http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/11609/Aggression+Scale+(2011/Anchor+Bay+Blu-ray)/Th


Those serious about collecting classic films or Film Noir in particular might want to grab this one while supplies last. The film always manages to hold up.



Howard Hawks's The Big Sleep (1946) is another one of several films on this list I am shocked are not getting wide Blu-ray releases, but this classic Philip Marlowe gumshoe detective thriller with Humphrey Bogart as Marlowe and a mysterious Lauren Bacall as the woman of interest proved that John Huston's The Maltese Falcon (1941, reviewed on Blu-ray elsewhere on this site) was no fluke for all the actors, craftspeople & studio itself involved when it came to detective films, mysteries or Noirs. Marlowe is taking on yet another job, but before he knows it, it snowballs into something much more serious, complex and possibly deadly drawing him into a world of deeper sleaze and death than even a cynic like himself might have first considered.


Extremely well laid-out screenplay, outstanding casting and Huston is rare directorial form makes this an amazing film, so much so that the Brothers Warner and company actually delayed it and reworked the whole thing because they thought they could make a really good film great. In an era a very, very, very, very long time ago when those running studios and loved movies actually knew what they were doing, they were correct!


As a result, the film was delayed a year and the result was an even larger critical and commercial smash, a key Noir film and the further cementing of the high profiles of its stars, director and studio who was as bold as any of the period. I won't give away anything else, except to say this is must-see filmmaking at its best and with two versions of the film to compare, a crash course in Classical Hollywood moviemaking at its very best. Great to have it on Blu-ray!



Alfred Hitchcock's I Confess (1953) is another film out of Hitch's very interesting slate of releases (not in a row) with Warner that included The Wrong Man (see the Blu-ray elsewhere on this site) Dial 'M' For Murder (now issued in a great Blu-ray 3D + 2D edition) and Strangers On A Train that marked a great period of freedom for the Master of Suspense, almost finishing what he wanted to do at Selznick International all along in becoming a full-fledged force in Hollywood on his own terms. Even more than The Wrong Man, this might be the most explicit of his film to deal with Catholicism as a priest (Montgomery Clift) is told of a murder in confession by the killer himself, who happens to work at his church!


He has to stick to his vow of silence, but as the police investigate, it gets tougher when he becomes the #1 murder suspect via the head police detective (Karl Malden) further complicated by his relationship with a woman he loved (Anne Baxter, looking as good as she ever did) before he joined the priesthood. Add that she's married and the murderer was trying to frame him all along and you have the makings of a fine thriller. Unfortunately by Hitchcock's own admission, he gets too hung up on Clift's character, assumes wrongly they'll understand the silence vow and it hurt the film at the box office. Despite some fine moments, it also hurts it now, tripping up an already tricky story to tell. Had Hitch stuck to the thriller aspects, the religion would have very likely took care of itself and made for a better film, yet it is still one of hitch's films and very much worth a look.



John Huston's Key Largo (1948) is apparently a film that has been the target of criticism that it os not as good as Huston, Bogart and Bacall's other films or comes up short otherwise, but long before the so-so 1980s hit pop song came out as a tribute to it, it always had a following and fans. Though it is not perfect, it has a unique feel to it as a big crime film with Edward G. Robinson as a tough gangster holding Bacall, Bogart and Lionel Barrymore as her ill father-in-law. The end of WWII looms large here and just when things cannot get worse, a hurricane hits the small island, further trapping everyone physically, figuratively and psychologically. If anything, it is a much-imitated classic that never came close to pulling off what we get here.


Claire Trevor is Robinson's 'gal' (so good she won a Best Supporting Actress oscar for her work here) and future director Richard Brooks co-wrote the hard-hitting screenplay adaptation of the Maxwell Anderson stage play with Huston. Though it may not always look like a Noir with the bright daylight of the locale, it is enough of one to qualify.


Still, Warner Bros. has decided to issue it exclusively as a Warner Archive Blu-ray, a bit shocking but so be it. Serious fans will go out of their way to get it and looking and sounding this good will only reestablish how good the film really is, intension, suspense and otherwise.



Mike Hodges' A Prayer For The Dying (1987) is a film about terrorism that all the creative people involved may have disowned in its final theatrical release, but even as a damaged work has its moments. Editing issues aside, John Scott's music score was replaced by Bill Conti without their permission and the promotion was awkward as a result. Mickey Rourke in prime mode is very convincing as a an IRA hitman who is out to do what he has to do, but a priest (Bob Hoskins of Long Good Friday, reviewed on Blu-ray elsewhere on this site) witnesses him assassinating a target in a a cemetery he is part of. Instead of getting killed himself, he vows not to reveal Rourke's character did the killing, but other problems are on the way by way of a group of gangsters led by Alan Bates.


The film as it is juggles all the storylines well enough, though this is not too complex, most people would have botched even this much in these days of sloppy storytelling. The actors do give it their all also including no less than Liam Neeson before Michael Collins (see the Blu-ray elsewhere on this site), Sammi Davis, Cliff Bartholomew, Allison Doody, Peggy Aitchson and Anthony Head, later of the Buffy The Vampire series, making a turn before fame not unlike Pierce Brosnan towards the end of Long Good Friday, though Head first got notice for his series of Nescafe ads in the U.K. and Taster's Choice ads for Nestle in the U.S. market.


I was no big fan of the film when it came out and understood why the makers were not happy that their original intents did not work out, but there is enough in this Twilight Time Limited Edition Blu-ray to see what they were trying to do and where to go. At least this was an ambitious film about something.



Alfred Hitchcock's Suspicion (1941) is usually thought of a part of the films Hitch made with Selznick International that includes Rebecca, Notorious and Spellbound (all reviewed on Blu-ray elsewhere on this site), but this is actually an RKO Radio Picture where Selznick 'lending out' Hitch to the studio, who went all out to make a grade-A thriller. Joan Fontaine (Rebecca) is a woman who gets involved with Cary Grant, a well-off guy who sweeps her off her feet, though she has led a sheltered life and he has not. Everything seems fine, until she starts to find out he is not being totally honest with her.


As things get worse, it gets to the 'will he kiss me or will he kill me point' that she is not certain if she can trust him. Nigel Bruce is a big part of the film and its 'normal' side and how could such things happen when people have so much wealth, money and 'happiness' anyhow? As things move on, we have to wonder if she is not well or catching onto the truth quicker than anyone around her. Unfortunately, no matter what Hitch and company were setting up, RKO were more interested in making big bucks and tacked on a phony ending that does not match the rest of the film or the original intents of the makers, making this one of the most infamous releases in the studio's too-short life.


With no alternate ending ever shot and.or discovered in the vaults, RKO catalog owners Warner Bros. have issued this still very popular Hitchcock hit as a Warner Archive-only Blu-ray as prominent and important as I Confess or The Wrong Man. The truth is, most of this is still a really great film and worth your time, especially in this upgraded release. We get plenty of suspense, dark moments and even Hitchcock heading into a Noir direction in the first year of the genre no one set out to invent.



Otto Preminger's Where The Sidewalk Ends (1950) is yet another remarkable, classic Film Noir that established the director as top rate and capable of very important work. Dana Andrews is a cop who accidentally kills a suspect that turns out to be a war hero in an altercation while dealing with another criminal investigation and decides to cover it up. Gene Tierney plays the woman who falls for him that he also wants, having also known her father from an interesting police incident years before. This becomes more difficult when the head police detective (Karl Malden again, solid again) intends to follow every single clue until he finds out how he died.


The mystery is well set up, even after we know more than anyone by Andrews, plus he has a vendetta with a local head gangster (Gary Merrill) while his partner (Bert Freed) does his best to help him out, even when he is unknowingly being used. Fox has allowed Twilight Time to issue this as one of their Limited Edition Blu-rays as well, showing that yet again, another gem has been too far forgotten and in need of rediscovery. Up there with Laura, which this film reunites many of the player with Preminger, this is one of Preminger’s best films. Honest, brutal, realistic, interesting and unnerving in unexpected ways, it is one of the great Film Noirs and more of a Noir than Laura in certain respects.


Tom Tully, Ruth Donnelly, Craig Stevens and even Oleg Cassini also star in this real Noir gem that everyone should see. [I'm almost running out of superlatives here!]



Last but not least is Peter Godfrey's Woman In White (1948), a lavish Noir-era retelling of one of the first-ever mystery fiction tales by Wilkie Collins about a woman in trouble who keeps showing up on the side of a road or home garden (circa 1859) first encountered by a painter (a young Gig Young) warning her of evil. Who is she? What secrets does she really know? Who or how many are really up to no good? With everything looking so normal and peaceful in the area of her appearances, what darkness lies behind the facade and for the title character, what kind of gilded cage is this?


Made in England, Eleanor Parker, Sydney Greenstreet, Agnes Moorehead, Alexis Smith and John Emery make a great cast in what is easily the best filmed (or taped for that matter) adaptation of the landmark, classic novel that still retains its cleverness and is done here as richly and darkly as we are ever likely to see it made. Yes, some twists became genre conventions, but the makers play it as fresh and with the energy all good mystery films need to work. Sure, it has a few moments that may be dated or others that might be obvious to genre fans, but it is worth a serious look and deserves rediscovery.



The 1080p 1.33 X 1 black & white digital High Definition image transfers on Heat, Sleep, Confess, Key, Suspicion and Sidewalk are all truly impressive and remarkable, with Heat looking as good as it did on its previous limited edition Blu-ray release, Suspicion having some of the roughest footage at times due to the times the RKO catalog did not have the resources for preservation and restoration it should have had and you can see differences in the monochrome stocks, how they were developed (each studio had their own labs at the time) and the different visual approaches. Still, they all have their Noir look and moments, as well as some great demo moments in every single case. Sure, you can see the age of the materials used here and there as expected, but this is far superior a transfer to all previous releases of the film for films made to last by artists serious about visual storytelling. The five making their debut will stun fans and only a really good 35mm (or maybe 16mm) film print could compete with what we get here.


The 1080p 1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image on Dying has some minor signs of wear and parts of the print where you can once again see the age of the materials used, but this is a more well-shot film than it looked when I saw it a long time ago and Director of Photography Michael Garfath (Nuns On The Run, Croupier) uses the frame to create as much density as possible. The prints were by MetroColor and this is a pretty good representation of that, mostly consistent with some demo shots of its own.


The 1.33 X 1 image black & white image on Woman is not bad for DVD or its age, though a little softer than I would have liked, but a good-looking film like this deserves a Blu-ray HD 4K upgrade. Still, this is nice enough, even if its ranking last place in playback quality here.


As for sound, all Blu-rays offer DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) lossless sound mixes and all are originally theatrical monophonic releases, save Dying, issued in old Dolby A-type analog surround. It is here in 2.0 Stereo with Pro Logic-like surrounds, but you can here the sonic limits of the soundtrack. However, since the music was changed against the will of the director, some of what we get could be second generation and unlike Twilight Time's amazing 1984 Blu-ray (see elsewhere on this site), the version with the original score is not here.


Thus, the 2.0 Mono on the rest of the Blu-rays can compete and are about even with each other, save Confess, whose audio is just a little rougher and aged than the rest. Otherwise they all sound as fine as expected and the lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono on the Woman DVD is able to tie it in overall performance, tying them for last place with a few more source issues than Confess. Both are key films that deserve serious clean-up and restoration however, and I hope they get it down the line.


Extras include Original Theatrical Trailers in all 8 releases, with all three Twilight Time releases adding more, great, illustrated booklet on the film including informative text and more, continuously excellent, underrated essays by the great film scholar Julie Kirgo, plus all 3 have always-welcome Isolated Music Scores. Heat repeats all this from its previous, out-of-print Blu-ray edition, but we get Michael Mann and Martin Scorsese on camera in separate interview featurettes on why the film is great from an old DVD version of the film and a brand new feature length audio commentary track by Kirgo, Lem Dobbs and Nick Redman. This is now the definitive version to own.


Sleep adds an introduction by Robert Gitt, comparison of 1945 and 1946 versions and in its entirety, the older 1945 cut of the entire film! Confess adds a Premiere Newsreel and Making Of featurette of the film, Hitchcock's Confession: A Look At I Confess, Dying adds on camera in separate interview featurettes on by Hodges and Garfath, Suspicion adds the Making Of featurette Before The Fact: Suspicious Hitchcock and Sidewalk adds an older feature length audio commentary track more than worth your time by film scholar and Noir expert Eddie Muller. Those are all great extras!



To order The Big Heat, A Prayer For The Dying and Where The Sidewalk Ends limited edition Blu-rays, buy them and other exclusives while supplies last at these links:


www.screenarchives.com


and


http://www.twilighttimemovies.com/


… and to order any or all of the Warner Archive releases, go to this link for them and many more great web-exclusive releases at:


https://www.warnerarchive.com/



- Nicholas Sheffo


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