Universal Noir #1 Blu-ray
HomeUniversal Noir #1 Blu-ray
Posted June 17, 2022 06:09 AM by Webmaster
British distributors Indicator/Powerhouse Films have announced that they will release on Blu-ray Universal Noir #1 (1947-1954). The six-disc box set will be available for purchase on September 19.
A new series of box sets – following Indicator's acclaimed Columbia Noir series – focusing on the film noir output of another of the major Hollywood studios, Universal Pictures.
Starring such high-profile talents as Burt Lancaster, Joan Fontaine, Shelley Winters, Dan Duryea, Vincent Price, Edmond O'Brien, Sterling Hayden, Gloria Grahame and Jeff Chandler, the six films in this volume feature embezzlement and murder (The Web), confidence tricksters (Larceny), lovers on the lam (Kiss the Blood Off My Hands), an adoption racket (Abandoned), transatlantic criminals (Deported), and police brutality (Naked Alibi).
This stunning collection marks the UK Blu-ray premiere of all six films, and also features an array of fascinating contextualizing extras, including newly recorded commentaries for each film, critical appreciations, archival short films, and a 120-page book. Strictly limited to 6,000 numbered units.
BOX SET CONTENT:
The Web (1947)
Synopsis: Leopold Kroner, formerly of Colby Enterprises, is released after five years in prison for embezzlement. Andrew Colby (Price), claiming that Kroner has threatened him, hires lawyer Bob Regan (O'Brien) as a secret bodyguard. Sure enough, Kroner turns up in Colby's room with a gun, and Regan kills him. Then Regan, who sticks around to romance Colby's secretary Noel (Raines), begins to suspect he's been used. Director Gordon and the superb cast spin a web of deception, seduction and murder in this first-rate crime drama. Cinematography by Irving Glassberg (The Tarnished Angels, Bend of the River).
Larceny (1948)
Synopsis: A con man sets out to swindle a widow out of the money she's received to build a memorial to her war-hero husband, but instead winds up falling in love with her. Cinematography by Irving Glassberg (Bend of the River, The Tarnished Angels).
Kiss the Blood Off My Hands (1948)
Bill Saunders, disturbed ex-soldier, kills a man in a postwar London pub brawl. Fleeing, he hides out in the apartment of lonely nurse Jane Wharton. Later, despite misgivings about his violent nature, Jane becomes involved with Bill, who resolves to reform. She gets him a job driving a medical supplies truck. But racketeer Harry Carter, who witnessed the killing, wants to use Bill's talents for crime.
Abandoned (1949)
Synopsis: Dennis O'Keefe and Gale Storm expose a baby-selling racket in the searing crime drama Abandoned, co-starring Jeff Chandler and Raymond Burr. When Paula Considine (Storm) arrives in Los Angeles to find her sister Mary, she soon learns the unwed mother is dead and her newborn infant is missing. Teaming up with cynical reporter named Mark Sitko (O'Keefe), Paula discovers Mary was the victim of a black market adoption ring run by Mrs. Leona Donner (Marjorie Rambeau) and her sleazy assistant Kerric (Burr). Hoping to entrap the pair, Paula and Sitko devise a plan but the sting operation proves to have deadly consequences. Directed by Joe Newman.
Deported (1950)
Synopsis: The real-life deportation of gangster Lucky Luciano was the inspiration for this romanticized and slightly crackbrained crime drama. Jeff Chandler plays the Luciano counterpart, who once he arrives in Italy renews his criminal activities. Chandler masterminds a black-market racket, capitalizing upon wartime shortages in Europe. He falls in love with a Contessa (Marta Toren), who is the benign patroness of the small village where he lives. Under her influence, Chandler abandons his life of crime, turns his back on the ill-gotten gains that he's already smuggled into Italy, and becomes a pillar of the community. And if you believe all that, we have some land in Florida we'd like to show you.
Naked Alibi (1954)
Synopsis: Though drunken baker Al Willis (Gene Barry) insists he's innocent of all charges, police chief Joe Conroy (Sterling Hayden) is determined to throw the book at Willis for murdering a fellow cop. Though the evidence is thin, Conroy is so certain of the baker's guilt that he continues to pursue his suspect even after being fired from the police force. Enlisting the aid of Willis' abused girlfriend, Marianna (Gloria Grahame), Conroy trails his man to Mexico in a heated chase.
Special Features and Technical Specs:
A new series of box sets – following Indicator's acclaimed Columbia Noir series – focusing on the film noir output of another of the major Hollywood studios, Universal Pictures.
Starring such high-profile talents as Burt Lancaster, Joan Fontaine, Shelley Winters, Dan Duryea, Vincent Price, Edmond O'Brien, Sterling Hayden, Gloria Grahame and Jeff Chandler, the six films in this volume feature embezzlement and murder (The Web), confidence tricksters (Larceny), lovers on the lam (Kiss the Blood Off My Hands), an adoption racket (Abandoned), transatlantic criminals (Deported), and police brutality (Naked Alibi).
This stunning collection marks the UK Blu-ray premiere of all six films, and also features an array of fascinating contextualizing extras, including newly recorded commentaries for each film, critical appreciations, archival short films, and a 120-page book. Strictly limited to 6,000 numbered units.
BOX SET CONTENT:
The Web (1947)
Synopsis: Leopold Kroner, formerly of Colby Enterprises, is released after five years in prison for embezzlement. Andrew Colby (Price), claiming that Kroner has threatened him, hires lawyer Bob Regan (O'Brien) as a secret bodyguard. Sure enough, Kroner turns up in Colby's room with a gun, and Regan kills him. Then Regan, who sticks around to romance Colby's secretary Noel (Raines), begins to suspect he's been used. Director Gordon and the superb cast spin a web of deception, seduction and murder in this first-rate crime drama. Cinematography by Irving Glassberg (The Tarnished Angels, Bend of the River).
Larceny (1948)
Synopsis: A con man sets out to swindle a widow out of the money she's received to build a memorial to her war-hero husband, but instead winds up falling in love with her. Cinematography by Irving Glassberg (Bend of the River, The Tarnished Angels).
Kiss the Blood Off My Hands (1948)
Bill Saunders, disturbed ex-soldier, kills a man in a postwar London pub brawl. Fleeing, he hides out in the apartment of lonely nurse Jane Wharton. Later, despite misgivings about his violent nature, Jane becomes involved with Bill, who resolves to reform. She gets him a job driving a medical supplies truck. But racketeer Harry Carter, who witnessed the killing, wants to use Bill's talents for crime.
Abandoned (1949)
Synopsis: Dennis O'Keefe and Gale Storm expose a baby-selling racket in the searing crime drama Abandoned, co-starring Jeff Chandler and Raymond Burr. When Paula Considine (Storm) arrives in Los Angeles to find her sister Mary, she soon learns the unwed mother is dead and her newborn infant is missing. Teaming up with cynical reporter named Mark Sitko (O'Keefe), Paula discovers Mary was the victim of a black market adoption ring run by Mrs. Leona Donner (Marjorie Rambeau) and her sleazy assistant Kerric (Burr). Hoping to entrap the pair, Paula and Sitko devise a plan but the sting operation proves to have deadly consequences. Directed by Joe Newman.
Deported (1950)
Synopsis: The real-life deportation of gangster Lucky Luciano was the inspiration for this romanticized and slightly crackbrained crime drama. Jeff Chandler plays the Luciano counterpart, who once he arrives in Italy renews his criminal activities. Chandler masterminds a black-market racket, capitalizing upon wartime shortages in Europe. He falls in love with a Contessa (Marta Toren), who is the benign patroness of the small village where he lives. Under her influence, Chandler abandons his life of crime, turns his back on the ill-gotten gains that he's already smuggled into Italy, and becomes a pillar of the community. And if you believe all that, we have some land in Florida we'd like to show you.
Naked Alibi (1954)
Synopsis: Though drunken baker Al Willis (Gene Barry) insists he's innocent of all charges, police chief Joe Conroy (Sterling Hayden) is determined to throw the book at Willis for murdering a fellow cop. Though the evidence is thin, Conroy is so certain of the baker's guilt that he continues to pursue his suspect even after being fired from the police force. Enlisting the aid of Willis' abused girlfriend, Marianna (Gloria Grahame), Conroy trails his man to Mexico in a heated chase.
Special Features and Technical Specs:
- High Definition presentations of The Web, Larceny, Kiss the Blood Off My Hands, Abandoned, Deported and Naked Alibi
- Original mono audio
- Audio commentary with film historian David Del Valle on The Web (2022)
- Audio commentary with academic and curator Eloise Ross on Larceny (2022)
- Audio commentary with film historians Alexandra Heller-Nicholas and Josh Nelson on Kiss the Blood Off My Hands (2022)
- Audio commentary with writers and film experts Barry Forshaw and Kim Newman on Abandoned (2022)
- Audio commentary with filmmaker and film scholar Daniel Kremer on Deported (2022)
- Audio commentary with film historian Nathaniel Thompson on Naked Alibi (2022)
- The John Player Lecture with Joan Fontaine (1978): archival audio recording of the star of Kiss the Blood Off My Hands in conversation with film critic Martin Shawcross at London's National Film Theatre
- Archival Interview with Victoria Price (2018): the daughter of Vincent Price in conversation with the Film Noir Foundation's Alan K Rode following a screening of The Web at the Arthur Lyons Film Noir Festival
- Lucy Bolton on Gloria Grahame (2022): the academic discusses one of the great femme fatales of film noir
- Christina Newland on Robert Siodmak (2022): the critic and writer looks at the Deported director's extensive work in film noir
- Nick Pinkerton on Dan Duryea (2022): the author and critic assesses the life and career of the big-screen tough guy
- Lux Radio Theatre: 'The Web' (1947): radio adaptation featuring Ella Raines, Edmond O'Brien and Vincent Price reprising their roles from the film
- United Action Means Victory (1939): documentary short about the 1938-39 General Motors strike, with narration written by Kiss the Blood Off My Hands screenwriter Ben Maddow
- Men of the Lightship (1941): British World War II documentary short, co-written by Kiss the Blood Off My Hands screenwriter Hugh Gray and narrated by Kiss the Blood Off My Hands actor Robert Newton
- Skirmish on the Home Front (1944): WWII propaganda short starring film noir mainstays Alan Ladd and William Bendix
- Easy to Get (1947): documentary short directed by Abandoned filmmaker Joseph M Newman as part of the US Army's 'Easy to Get' campaign on venereal disease
- Theatrical trailer for Kiss the Blood Off My Hands
- Image galleries: publicity and promotional materials
- New and improved English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- Limited edition exclusive 120-page book with new essays by Iris Veysey, Jill Blake, Karen Hannsberry, Sabina Stent, Sergio Angelini and Walter Chaw, extensive archival articles and interviews, new writing on the various short films, and film credits
- REGION-B "LOCKED"
