Bad Girls Of Film Noir – Volume One (The Killer That Stalked New York/Two Of A Kind/Bad For Each Other/The Glass Wall) + Bad Girls Of Film Noir – Volume Two (Night Edition/One Girl’s Confession/Women’s Prison/Over-Exposed/Sony DVD Sets)

 

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

 

 

For a studio like Columbia Pictures that made so many of the great Film Noirs of the original Noir period (1941 – 1958), too many of their gems have gone unseen for years, even decades.  Bad Girls Of Film Noir brings us new transfers of eight of those very worthwhile films in two double-DVD volumes.  Some have not been seen on TV in any regular way since the late 1970s at the latest, but now they are back and show what a formidable force Columbia was in these films.

 

Volume One includes The Killer That Stalked New York (1950 aka Frightened City) has a smuggler (Evelyn Keyes) who is a carrier for a smallpox outbreak and intends to get back at her sister and former boyfriend, both who betrayed her.  The authorities do not know she is infected, but want to stop her just the same.  Thanks to a solid cast that includes Dorothy Malone, Lola Albright, Charles Korvin, William Bishop, Whit Bissell and even an uncredited Jim Backus, this is an effective noir and was lensed by Director of Photography Joseph F. Biroc, A.S.C., of Lady In Cement, The Detective and Tony Rome fame.

 

Two Of A Kind (1951 and not the Olivia Newton-John/John Travolta dud) features Lizabeth Scott and Edmond O’Brien as a bad couple trying to rob a rich couple by creating a double for their son so they can blame the real one for anything and everything that goes wrong.  Though it does not always work, it is still petty good and was lensed by the great Burnett Guffey (the original All The King’s Men, From Here To Eternity, Homicidal).  William Dozier (the 1960s Batman and Green Hornet TV series) produced.

 

Bad For Each Other (1953 aka Scalpel) is another Lizabeth Scott gem, this time with no less than Charlton Heston in the lead as a Korean War vet too easily seduced by the attractive bad girl living in a dead end town.  They are more than enough to make you watch for the whole film, but the supporting cast is also good, including Dianne Foster, Arthur Franz and Ray Collins.

 

The Glass Wall (1953) has Vittorio Gassman leaving a deportation ship to stay in New York City, but has to fight to stay and Gloria Grahame plays the woman who may or may not help.  Director Maxwell Shane co-wrote the film with Ivan Shane and Ivan Tors, known later for his underwater productions.  Ann Robinson, Jerry Paris, Richard Reeves, Ned Booth, Kathleen Freeman and Joe Turkel (Blade Runner) also star.  Joseph F. Biroc shot this one too.

 

 

Volume Two includes Night Editor (1946 aka The Tresspasser) as a good cop (William Gragan) gets involved with a Bad girl (Janis Carter) when they see a murder one night, but he cannot come forward or he’ll reveal his infidelity.  Jeff Donnell, Harry Shannon and Frank Wilcox co-star on this very enjoyable thriller that just loves the idea of the power of the press.  Burnett Guffey and Philip Tannura co-lensed the film.

 

One Girl’s Confession (1953) Hugo Hass directed, wrote and has the male lead in this Cleo Moore Noir about a bad girl who takes jail time to clear a small fortune she has stolen, but has she hidden the money well enough?  This was one of the bets films here with its effectiveness, very low budget, cast of unknowns and great look.  The writing is a plus and is the kind of Noir the major studios need to get more of released.

 

Women’s Prison (1955) is the serious take on what became a later exploitation cycle.  Ida Lupino plays the warden from hell and makes everyone suffer, but this is done with intelligence.  Jan Sterling, Cleo Moore, Audrey Totter, Phyllis Thaxter, Gertrude Michael, Vivian Marshall, Mae Clarke, Howard Duff, Warren Stevens and Barry Kelly make up the exceptionally strong cast.

 

Over-Exposed (1956) is yet another solid Cleo Moore vehicle.  This time, a blackmail scheme takes center stage as Moore plays woman arrested in a night raid of a not-so-legal nightclub.  She gets the chance to learn how to be a real photographer (she was taking pictures for customers there) and a professional job becomes a fiasco as she captures a death on film, destroys the film, but has the negatives stolen.  When the pictures show up in the newspaper, she intends to get even.  Richard Crenna and Constance Towers lead the cast and that is Jack Albertson in an uncredited appearance.

 

 

The 1.33 X 1 image on seven of the eight films (we get an anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 image on Prison) all look good, though I expected the widescreen film to look the best, yet the DVD format cannot capture al the detail, depth and Video Black the extreme film black on these Noirs offer, so this is the best we can expect for the format.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono is also as clean as can be expected for films of their age and budget.  The combination is very impressive for films their age, but made me want Blu-ray editions or film prints of the same.  Extras include trailers on all by Editor, while Terry Moore discusses Kind, The Payoff is an All-Star Theater variant of Other and Remember To Live is a an All-Star Theater variant of Confession.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo