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Category:    Home > Reviews > Film Noir > Drama > Film Noir Classic Collection, Volume Three (Border Incident/His Kind of Woman/Lady in the Lake/On Dangerous Ground/The Racket) (Warner Bros.)

Film Noir Classic Collection, Volume Three (Border Incident/His Kind of Woman/Lady in the Lake/On Dangerous Ground/The Racket) (Warner Bros.)

 

Picture: C+     Sound: C+     Extras: B+     Films: B+

 

 

With the combination of Warner, MGM and RKO catalogs, Warner Home Video has an amazing library of films to choose from and those from the Film Noir era (1941 – 1958) are particularly interesting because you have three of the major studios making their best entries in what was pretty much low-budget filmmaking that needed exceptional scripts, ideas and talents.  What makes Warner’s Film Noir Classic Collection, Volume Three so interesting is that some of the most unique and interesting films ever made from the period are featured here.  They are films that were more experimental, not always fully-fledged Noirs and are diehard fan favorites.

 

Unlike other genres, like Westerns, Noir is not a genre created by Hollywood, but a remarkable maturing of Classical Hollywood in the face of the horrors of WWII and The Depression, as well as Existential philosophy.  These days, when any film is dark, violent and even a detective film, everyone wants to slap the Noir name on it.  That is absolutely wrong and inaccurate, for it assumes you can just “make a Noir” and most people still do not know what Noir really is.  Even more amusing, complicating things further, it is not supposed to be easy to define because it is so deep and that is not just pseudo-intellectual mumbo jumbo.

 

Since there are no simple answers, looking at these particular films will be a plus in understanding Noir as an historic movement, not an intentionally manufactured one and why many still consider it an early peak of Hollywood at its most mature.

 

The actor Robert Montgomery made Lady In The Lake in 1946 for MGM as more than just a gimmick, but a sincere attempt to tell a Philip Marlowe tale with the unique visual twist of having his character hardly ever being seen because the film was happening from his and in effect, the audience’s point of view.  This was not always successful and is also sometimes unintentionally funny.  It was not a hit either, but very typical of the kind of disorienting directions Noir went into.  Having a Raymond Chandler novel with all of the pitfalls the character gets into does up the suspense of what we will see next.  Maybe it is because the camera is on the more stationery side, but it is not a bad film and is even fun.  Extras include the original theatrical trailer and a good audio commentary by Alain Silver & James Ursini with some good observations.

 

Anthony Mann was no stranger to Noir and his 1949 film Border Incident has a solid early performance by Ricardo Montalban and strong showings by Howard Da Silva, George Murphy and James Mitchell about murder on the U.S./Mexican border near California.  The film is also a Police Procedural with its mono-sourced narration and the idea that the law is omnipotent and omnipresent enough to right wrongs and avenge the state.  Unfortunately, the reality in the film contradicts that on more than one occasion and the mix is fascinating.  Extras include the original theatrical trailer and an outstanding audio commentary by Dana Polan, a film expert, scholar and professor who loves film and has been doing some of the best such tracks of late, including on Fox’s DVD of the great Robert Aldrich’s Emperor Of The North and Bullets Or Ballots from Warner’s Tough Guys boxed set reviewed elsewhere on this site.  If you like such extras, they are among the very best of late.

 

John Farrow directed one of RKO’s most interesting and ambitious Noirs ever with His Kind Of Woman from 1951, but it was Richard Fleischer who landed up reshooting almost the entire thing, though he is not credited for it.  It not only pairs hyper-iconic sex symbols Robert Mitchum and Jane Russell under Howard Hughes’ production, but also features the underrated Charles McGraw, Raymond Burr, Tim Holt, Marjorie Reynolds, Jim Backus and Vincent Price in one of his best acting roles.  This one goes all out in a tale about a nearly washed up gambler (Mitchum) suddenly seeing his fortunes take a turn for the better when the deal he enters into near the Mexican border could be fatal.  This is the kind of fun, energetic, power productions Martin Scorsese was pointing out in his great film The Aviator that Hughes and only Hughes could to would dare to make.  The audio commentary by the great Vivian Sobchack is a real gem, loaded with all kinds of facts and observations that adds to the rewatchability of an amazing production.

 

John Cromwell’s The Racket (1951) is another Hughes/RKO vehicle with Mitchum, but this time, he is an older-styled policeman out to stop old-school gangster Robert Ryan in a fit match.  A reunion of the actors, the tale is about them and the changing and increasingly corrupt world they live in.  Nicholas Ray even directed a few scenes of this film Hughes did in the silent era, though this one is much grittier.  Lizbeth Scott, William Conrad and Ray Collins are among the supporting cast that makes this another winner with another interesting Noir conclusion.  The only extra is a fine audio commentary by Eddie Mueller up to the high standards of this set.

 

Then there is the RKO/Robert Ryan Noir that Nicholas Ray explicitly directed.  On Dangerous Ground (1952) is yet another stunner with the great Ida Lupino as a blind woman who might be screwed-up police officer Ryan’s last chance for some kind of redemption, but her brother will twist things further.  A. I. Bezzerides, who’s Kiss Me Deadly a few years later would be the peak of the Noir movement, wrote an amazing, enduring screenplay here.  Glenn Erikson’s audio commentary is the only extra, but is extremely informative.  Ward Bond, Charles Kemper and Ed Begley also star in this winner produced by ever-great John Houseman and featuring a music score by Bernard Herrmann so incredible, that it may be one of the greatest he ever created.  As soon as it kicks in with the opening RKO logo, the film just takes off.  To read more about this, be sure to check out the great limited edition CD soundtrack at:

 

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/963/On+Dangerous+Ground+(Limited+CD)

 

 

There is also a terrific bonus DVD called Film Noir – Bringing Light To Darkness, which is an hour-long special where filmmakers and film scholars attempt to begin explaining Noir to the audience.  Names include Christopher Nolan, James Ellroy and Frank Miller for starters.  It is pretty good and when combined with these particular films, as strong a Noir set as Warner has issued to date.  Even it has extras with five vintage live-action short subjects related to crime, some of which are Oscar nominees.

 

The 1.33 X 1 image on all five films are pretty good, except for Ground, which looks like an older NTSC transfer and has detail issues.  They each have a different look despite being Noirs, but again are unique choices.  The cinematographers are Paul C. Vogel on Lake, Mann’s longtime collaborator John Alton on Border, Harry J. Wild on Woman and George E. Diskant on the final two films.  The Dolby Digital 1.0 Mono is not bad throughout, though the documentary is Dolby 2.0 Stereo and is going to sound better than the actual films.  All commentary tracks are also in Dolby 2.0 sound.  Film Noir Classic Collection Volume Three is an amazing collection and a must-have for anyone serious about Noir or film.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo


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