Film Noir Classics [1945]

What a perverse, shady and guilty pleasure is this welcome set of four lesser known movies in the noir genre.The director of three of them is Otto Preminger, who made many movies of different kinds over a long career, but who is most treasured by me for his early, distinctive and intelligent ventures into the murky world of shadows and shady characters.The other is the best film Jules Dassin {who, to my surprise, turns out to have been not French but American} ever made, the delirious London-set melodrama Night and the City {1950} with the most unexpected cast you could imagine, including a never better Richard Widmark as young yank on the make in London Harry Fabian, who manages to set up a wrestling club. Few films have bothered with the wrestling scene, but we get a lot of it here, and it makes for an unusual backdrop to the rest of this black and white, stunningly photographed film. You'll never look at London in quite the same way again. Widmark's co-stars are a colourful, eclectic gang: the great Googie Withers at her best as the brazen wife of a nightclub owner, played deliciously by corpulent Francis L. Sullivan. Fabian's girlfriend is played by a sweet Gene Tierney in an underwritten cameo ~ the part having been written for her late in the day, as a favour to help assuage the mental problems the actress was going through at the time.The always reliable Herbert Lom is a threatening hood, and there are two wonderful performances, as wrestlers, by massive Mike Mazurki {so memorable in the earlier Farewell My Lovely} and real-life Polish heavyweight champion wrestler Stanislaus Zbyszko, who hadn't acted but who is nonetheless very moving.As the fates close in on Fabian, you'll have been taken on a ride quite unlike any other in the movies.Fallen Angel {1945} features the too often underrated Dana Andrews as a drifter who drifts into the small beachside California town where Linda Darnell is the waitress in a tiny coffeehouse, craggy Charles Bickford is the local cop, and Alice Faye is a respectable, seemingly pious lady who lives with her staid, disapproving sister {Anne Revere} in the well-appointed suburbs.There's a murder, a marriage, and much mayhem ... yet little is what it seems in this forgotten gem from the brilliant Preminger.Whirlpool {1949} is something different again, with an unusual male star, the cultured, insinuating Jose Ferrer, not an actor you'd expect to find in the shadowlands of a noir movie. He's the sinister hypnotist who is asked to help Gene Tierney, caught shoplifting, who's married to Richard Conte ... another eclectic cast in a fine if minor movie. One to watch more than once though, like all four of these.Where the Sidewalk Ends {1950} is a near-masterpiece, featuring Preminger favourite Dana Andrews in a career-best performance as brutal detective Mark Dixon who can't escape the shadow of his violent father. Gene Tierney ~ who else! ~ is the girl he hooks up with, and there's good support from Karl Malden as an ambitious new police lieutenant and Gary Merrill as a hood, with Neville Brand effective as a tough thug.All in all, this is a gift for any lover of film noir, with four distinctive, well made examples of the genre, that will reward repeated viewings.

I hadn't seen any of these classic film noirs before. I was familiar with 'Double Indemnity' and others regularly shown on TV channels but somehow I'd missed these. This box set is a real treat. I started with 'Night and the City' and was impressed with Richard Widmark's pseudo-suave, almost histrionic performance as Harry Fabian with a chip on his shoulder and too many fantasies about being rich and famous.The bleak, sleazy, corrupt world of wrestling and shady bars, racketeering and amoral attitudes, is riveting, mainly due to Jules Dassin's paced and powerful direction. All the noir motifs are there: the darkness of the streets, bars, backrooms echoing the darkness of the characters.Frances L. Sullivan puts in a particularly good act as the mean-minded bar owner, Phil Nosseros. I had only seen him previously in the Dickens films - Mr Bumble in Oliver Twist and Jaggers in Great Expectations - and in this film he is a much more sinister character, and a wife-abuser to boot, his wife played by Googie Withers who spends the film trying to leave him, but due to being duped by Harry Fabian (Widmark), has to return to Nosseros. The twist in that part of the story at the end is poignant. The good don't always end well. The film is further enhanced by Gene Tierney - always beautiful to watch - as Fabian's girlfriend. Her story, as opposed to Fabian's, is one of redemption.I liked this film very much. I read that it was not appreciated in its own time but has since been re-assessed and is now rated as a very effective film of its period and it definitely belongs to the classic group of 1940s and early 1950s film noir. I shall get to the next three films in due course, and review them then.

The really great film noirs, such as Double Indemnity, can be numbered on the fingers of one hand. Most film noir fans will have seen them. The good thing about this box-set is that it contains four lesser-known noir films, which are very enjoyable in their own right, if not quite 'classic'. All four films deliver on the noir milieu, with engaging stories, though the actual femme fatale, in the usual sense, is largely absent. The Jules Dassin film, which technically and in the range of its characters is the most accomplished of the four, has an insightful interview with Dassin as an extra. I'd certainly recommend these films to any film noir fan looking for a fresh hit.

This set of films is great value. Excellent quality,complete with a BFI booklet; though I am puzzled as to why all the films have write-ups except "Night and the City" which was the one I particularly wanted to read about. These films are outstanding; even though "Whirlpool" is cited as being the least "Noir", I found it chilling,particularly with the excellent Ben Hecht screenwriting. I am slowly completing my collection of films - particularly of those that used to be shown on TV in the 70's and can no longer be viewed anywhere! One thing is for certain, the variety and breadth of film knowledge I garnered in those days cannot be had today unless you pay to go to film school. Criminal x Also Dana Andrews is fantastic; vastly under rated actor, his voice is unmistakeable.

Although Linda Darnell is mentioned in the advertising for this box, she appears in only one of the films. Gene Tierney however appears in the other three. Where the Sidewalk Ends is an outstanding film with a terrific performance by Dana Andrews and wonderful direction by Preminger. Ben Hecht's script indulges his thoughts on psychoanalysis. This is also true in Whirlpool, a fun film with Gene Tierney in top form. Fallen Angel is very good but Night and the City is outstanding. It features an unforgettable performance by Richard Widmark as a hustler with big ideas which are doomed to fail. The direction is top class and makes this one of the greatest film noirs.

Very good collection of the 40s genre detective tales. A good buy.

Die Box beinhaltet drei vergessene Otto-Preminger-Thriller und einen echten Film-Noir-Klassiker von Jules Dassin."Fallen Angel", "Whirlpool" und "Where the Sidewalk ends" sind drei von "Laura"-Regisseur Preminger inszenierte Filme, die teilweise intelligent die bekannten NOIR-Sujets variieren. "Night and the City" von Dassin ist der einzige "echte Klassiker" in der Box.Für Liebhaber der "goldenen Periode" Hollywoods und der "Schwarzen Serie" sind diese Filme echte Schätze, alle anderen können wahrscheinlich darauf verzichten. Die Filme sind ohne Untertitel, mit etwas Englischkenntnisse ist der Handlung jedoch leicht zu folgen.Qualität der DVDs ist in Ordnung.

Bonnes copies d'excellents films noirs de Preminger and Jules Dassin. Ces films sont rarement passés sur les chaînes de télévision ou à des horaires impossibles. Livré légèrement en retard, en raison des fêtes du 14 juillet.

Il n'apparaît pas clairement que ces DVD ne bénéficient pas d'une traduction française. On peut donc penser qu'il s'agit d'une tromperie commerciale.