Hammer Film Noir – Volumes 4 & 5 (VCI)
Picture:
C (C+ for Tomb) Sound: C Extras: C+ Films: C+
VCI
continues mining the little-known or discussed British Film Noirs Hammer made
with the fourth and fifth volumes of their Hammer
Film Noir series. Different from
their Hollywood and U.S. cousins, the films were not always as dark visually
here, yet that quintessentially British coldness mixes with the dark themes of
the following:
Terror Street (1953 aka 36 Hours) has Dan Duryea as the American military pilot trying to
reunite with his ex-wife, but she turns up murdered and he becomes the #1
suspect. Not bad and not to be confused
with the James Garner film of the alternate title 36 Hours, the soundtrack of which we have actually reviewed on the
site.
Wings Of Danger (1952 aka Dead On Course) has ex-pilot Richard Van Ness (Zachary Scott)
suffering blackouts as he discovers a former co-pilot is involved in a crazy
smuggling scheme and has disappeared.
One wonders if the ending was changed at the last minute, but not a bad
film. Diane Cliento (Mrs. Sean Connery)
also stars.
The Glass Tomb (1955 aka The Glass Cage) has no less than John Ireland, Honor Blackman (Goldfinger, The Avengers), Geoffrey Keen (Roger Moore James Bonds) and Eric
Pohlmann (the original voice of the unseen Blofeld in the early Sean Connery
James Bonds) as sudden murders and a kidnapping surround the circus freak show
attraction of “The Starving Man” but better than it sounds. The liveliest of the four films, you will
find Blackman hard to recognize restricted by her clothes.
Paid To Kill (1954 aka Five Days) has Dane Clark as a guy who hires a hitman to kill him
so his wife can get insurance money, then changes his mind. Unfortunately, he is having trouble
contacting the hitman to stop him. Later
used as a storyline for a good early episode of Moonlighting, Cecile Chevreau, Paul Carpenter and Anthony Forwood
co-star in this decent and fun film that will remind one of the better aspects
of D.O.A. and is a must-see for Noir
and crime drama fans.
Montgomery
Tully directed three of the four, with Terence Fisher helming Wings.
These were good, efficient thrillers and their absence from home video
and film discussions is sad, but these DVDs make up for that.
Walter J.
Harvey (later doing equally impressive work on Linda Thorson/Tara King color Avengers episodes) is the
cinematographer on all four films by coincidence and they all look decent,
especially the anamorphically enhanced 1.66 X 1 (a cheat at 1.78 X 1) transfer
of Tomb. The rest are 1.33 X 1 and all in decent black
and white. All are softer than one would
like, but the Video Black often saves them from troubles including detail and
depth. He had a knack for shooting
thriller material and he does not fail in any case here.
VCI has
done their best with the materials available, extending to the old monophonic
tracks here in Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono. Extras
on Volume 4 include stills, four
Noir trailers, three commentary spots with stills by Alan K. Rode and text bios
for both films. Volume 5 has five trailers, stills for each film and a good feature
length audio commentary by Richard M. Roberts on Tomb.
All in
all, I enjoyed these as much if not more than the previous volumes and hope
this series continues. Volume Five’s
titles are the first time they have ever been on video of any kind, which is
unbelievable considering their historic importance. All are worth a look and you can read more at
the following links:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/4186/Hammer+Film+Noir+Double+Feature
- Nicholas Sheffo
