U.S. label ClassicFlix has created a a very nice trailer compilation highlighting six film noir titles that entered its Blu-ray catalog this year. They are: Irving Rapper's Another Man's Poisson (1951), Budd Boetticher's The Killer is Loose (1956), Fritz Lang's You Only Live Once (1937), Gerd Oswald's Crime of Passion (1957), Alfred L. Werker's He Walked by Night (1948), and Anthony Mann's T-Men (1947).
All films have been either fully restored or remastered before they were brought to Blu-ray. (Please click on the links below to see detailed reviews of each release).
Synopsis: When the trail goes cold on a counterfeit ring in Los Angeles, Treasury agents Dennis O'Brien (Dennis O'Keefe) and Tony Genaro (Alfred Ryder) are called upon to infiltrate the shadowy and dangerous underworld of organized crime. Their only lead takes them to Detroit where they convince mob kingpin Carlo Vantucci of their criminal pedigree and start piling up clues to tie the Vantucci mob to the "tough, tight outfit" in L.A.
O'Brien and Genaro finally get a break when they learn a former Detroit hood – The Schemer (Wallace Ford) – is on the outs with the syndicate and has been demoted to pushing the fake paper in Los Angeles. Not wasting a second, O'Brien heads to L.A. and tracks down his cigar-smoking target, quickly duping the counterfeiter into being introduced to the "higher-ups". But the deeper O'Brien penetrates the organization, the more harrowing the mission becomes for him and fellow T-Man Genaro, with their every move being scrutinized and carrying the risk of deadly exposure.
A major box office success upon its release, T-Men holds a special place in film noir canon not only as director Anthony Mann's breakout film, but as the initial pairing of the filmmaker and cinematographer John Alton (He Walked By Night). Like none before them, their combination of highly stylized camera set-ups, along with the brilliant uses of light and shadows, created the gritty realism and visual tension that made their crime thrillers popular with critics and movie patrons alike.
With a story by Virginia Kellogg (White Heat) and a screenplay by John C. Higgins (Raw Deal), T-Men also features Charles McGraw, Jane Randolph and, in a brief but key scene, June Lockhart.
Synopsis: Three-time loser Eddie Taylor (Henry Fonda) has had enough of life behind bars. Determined to make good after an early parole from prison, Eddie finds devoted sweetheart Joan (Sylvia Sidney) waiting for him as he is released back into society. They soon marry and hope for a bright future together, but Eddie's past confronts him at every turn making it difficult for them to survive.
Fate then deals the young couple a cruel blow when Eddie's convicted of bank robbery and murder all the while proclaiming his innocence. Desperate to escape from prison before he's executed, Eddie gets hold of a gun and makes it past the prison gates, but not without tragic consequences.
A haunting masterpiece, You Only Live Once was director Fritz Lang's second American effort (after Fury) and a forerunner to numerous "criminal lovers on the run" films like Gun Crazy and Bonnie and Clyde. Made in the midst of the Great Depression, this unforgettable tale illuminates the cynical underbelly of American life that was otherwise lacking in late 30s cinema and delivers just as potent a narrative today as it did eighty years ago. Cinematography by Leon Shamroy (Cleopatra).
Synopsis: When a Los Angeles police officer is savagely gunned down, a city-wide manhunt ensues for his cunning and ruthless killer.
But finding the murderer, chillingly played by Richard Basehart in only his third film, proves difficult for Detective Marty Brennan (Scott Brady) and his colleagues as Basehart's Roy Morgan is always one step ahead of the law. Will modern police methods and sheer determination be enough to find the elusive cop-killer before he strikes again?
Visually stunning, cinematographer John Alton's brilliant use of light and shadows shine in this groundbreaking police procedural that paved the way for the TV series Dragnet -- which itself spawned an entire sub-genre of television crime-dramas that are still popular to this day.
Based on true events, He Walked by Night was directed by Alfred L. Werker, along with an uncredited Anthony Mann (who is believed to be responsible for the film s most iconic scenes). Co-written by John C. Higgins (Raw Deal) and Crane Wilbur (The Phenix City Story), it also features Jack Webb who went on to create and star in the aforementioned Dragnet.
Synopsis: Barbara Stanwyck soars in a "rafter-rattling portrayal of a homicidal housewife" (The New York Times) in this "exciting, taut" (Motion Picture Daily) thriller about wanting it all - and stopping at nothing to get it. A most unusual story for its time, Crime of Passion delivers nail-biting suspense, shocking plot twists and a 1950s anti-heroine you won't soon forget!
Advice columnist Kathy Ferguson (Stanwyck) abandons her successful career when she marries police detective Bill Doyle (Sterling Hayden). But her new role as a 1950s suburban homemaker quickly stifles her spirit, and she transfers her thwarted ambition to her husband's career, scheming to push Bill up the ladder by any means necessary...even murder!
Synopsis: Detective Sam Wagner's job is never easy. Even an average day proves stressful for him and his family. But this is no ordinary day for Wagner (Joseph Cotten) or his wife Lila (Rhonda Fleming).
After pegging a recent bank robbery as an inside job orchestrated by mild-mannered clerk Leon Poole (played by a bespectacled Wendell Corey), Wagner heads to the suspect's apartment to make the arrest expecting him to be alone. Instead, Poole's beloved wife is with him and caught in the crossfire of a shootout leaving her dead.
Sent to prison, and believing Wagner is responsible for his wife's death, Poole is desperate for revenge. Escape and murder soon follow with the haunting Poole bent on taking away the woman Wagner loves. Will the detective and his men save her in time?
Helmed by the gritty Budd Boetticher, The Killer is Loose takes the director's unique visual style away from the plains and into the world of suburbia for this taut and suspenseful thriller. Close your windows, lock your doors -- The Killer is Loose!
In her first role since starring as Margo Channing in the Academy Award-winning All About Eve (Best Picture, 1950), Bette Davis plays mystery writer Janet Frobisher, a cold and conniving woman who will stop at nothing to get what she wants - and what she wants at the moment is her secretary's fiancé Larry (Anthony Steel). But Janet's plan hits a snag when her estranged husband shows up unannounced after attempting to rob a bank. Her husband's partner in crime, George (played by real-life husband Gary Merrill), further complicates matters for Janet when he pays her a visit later the same day. Getting rid of one of them proved easy. The other, not so much. Filmed in England and co-produced by Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Another Man's Poison presents the dynamic Bette Davis at her devious and beguiling best.