Columbia Pictures Film Noir Classics I (Big Heat/5 Against The House/The Lineup/Murder By Contract/The Sniper/Sony DVD Set)

 

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

 

 

Columbia Pictures Film Noir Classics I is a solid set of five key Film Noir releases from the studio before they became a major in the 1960s.  Though Fritz Lang’s The Big Heat (1953) is a classic of the cycle and the most obvious choice for inclusion here, but the studio was a prime force in what was a movement more than just a genre or cycle.  They were used to doing low-budget films and had mastered them as much as the majors.  These films helped to build the studio and the rest is history.

 

 

The Sniper (1952) was produced by Stanley Kramer and directed by an Edward Dmytryk who had just survived the Hollywood Witch-hunts of the 1950s.  The tale of a sick man who is secretly a sniper who kills at random undetected was shot on location in San Francisco and was dark, cutting-edge filmmaking and Dmytryk is able to put it on screen effectively enough.  Arthur Franz is very convincing in the title role and the film is loaded with impressive moments.  Shot by Director of Photography Burnett Guffey (Bonnie & Clyde), the film is still ahead of its time and a great choice for this set.

 

The Big Heat (1953) is the gutsy, violent Fritz Lang thriller in which a family man and husband (Glenn Ford) who is also a police officer willing o sacrifice everything he has to end the reign of terror of a deadly mobster (Alexander Scourby) in one of Lang’s most successful Hollywood films critically and commercially.  Gloria Grahame, Lee Martin, Jeanette Nolan, Jocelyn Brando and Carolyn Jones are among the strong supporting cast.  Director of Photography Charles Lang, A.S.C., (Sudden Fear, One-Eyed Jack, Charade, Wait Until Dark) does some of the best work of his amazing career.

 

5 Against The House (1955) is directed by the underrated journeyman director Phil Karlson, whose work includes Kansas City Confidential, The Phenix City Story, Ben, the original Walking Tall and launching the TV version of The Untouchables.  This Noir is about a group of four friends (Guy Madison, Brian Keith, Kerwin Mathews and Alvy Moore) going to Reno, Nevada for fun after Korean War duty.  Along with a hot blonde (the great Kim Novak), they decide to get involved in a heist, but it is not what they expect.  The film is based on the work of Jack Finney, who wrote the story that became Invasion Of The Body Snatchers (1956, plus its sequels) and is well laid out (adapted by John Barnwell, William Bowers and Producer Stirling Silliphant), including making Reno a character.  Better than later comedy versions of the same story, William Conrad also stars.

 

The Lineup (1958) also involves Silliphant, but this time as the writer of this sort of variant of William Wyler’s The Desperate Hours (1955, reviewed elsewhere on this site) but dirtier in Director Don Siegel’s tale of drug trafficking gone mad leading to a family being held hostage when the killers believe they have the product they need.  Eli Wallach is great as the evil head bad guy and we get more great location work in San Francisco.  Robert Keith, Richard Jaeckel and Mary LaRoche also star.

 

Murder By Contract (1958) is the last but not least other strong film here with Vince Edwards as Claude, a killer for hire who does it without any problem whatsoever.  Director Irving Lerner (A Town Called Hell) did all kinds of great work in Hollywood and this is one of the best times he directed.  Photographed by the great cinematographer Lucien Ballard (House On Telegraph Hill, City Of Fear, The Wild Bunch), there is much suspense here and the film is so visually smart that it plays like a silent movie with a clever score at times when it is not just outright silent.  A gem in the last year of the Noir movement, it is a great film to conclude this set with.  Herschel Bernardi, Kathie Browne and Michael Granger also star.

 

 

The 1.33 X 1 image on Heat and Sniper, plus anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 image on House (originally 1.66 X 1 in some listings), Sniper and Lineup all are pretty good looking with clean black and white presentations, though I expected the widescreen films to have more detail and depth.  None of these are Blu-ray either, but look good for the format just the same.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono throughout also is on the clean side, showing that Sony is spending the money to take care of their archives.

 

Extras include the original theatrical trailer for all films on their respective discs, Heat include separate evaluations of the film in on-camera interviews with Michael Mann and Martin Scorsese, Scorsese does the same for Sniper, which also has a feature length audio commentary by Eddie Muller and on Contract, Lineup adds a fine on camera piece with Director Christopher Nolan and feature length audio commentary by Eddie Muller & James Ellroy.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo