Columbia Noir #4 — Columbia Noir #4( Blu Ray Boxset)

Here we have the 4th in Powerhouse’s Columbia Noir box set series- and once again we get a varied and largely great selection of films from the genre. The six films featured move from late 1940’s Police procedural, onto early 50’s G-man noir, through to  mid-50’s stakeout fare. Onto western tinged escape convict fare, infiltrating the mob noir, and pulled back into the mob example of the genre. As always with a Powerhouse boxset- we get a great selection of extras, with new commentary tracks on most of the films featured, and a good selection of other new/ archive extras. With the set been topped off with one hundred and twenty-page inlay booklet, featuring new essays about the films including and archive features.

Each of the six films has its own disc,  and first up we have Walk a Crooked Mile. This is from the year 1948, and is a police procedural/ G- man focused noir, regarding a communist spy that’s getting information on how to create a nuclear bomb. The film was directed by NYC Gordon Douglas, who had sixty-eight feature-length credits between the mid-1930s and the late ’70s. With his output going from American Civil War set comedy General Spunky(1936),  romantic crime mystery A Night of Adventure(1944), giant ant attack sc-fi Them! (1954), missing-link adventure with Burt Reynolds in Skullduggery (1970).

The film centres around security leaks at a  Southern California atomic plant. So a team is set up to investigate this- it's led up by FBI agent Dan O'Hara (Dennis O'Keefe) and in from England’s Scotland yard Philip Grayson(Louis Hayward)- both are fairly sleek and standard brill cream heroes with not a terrible amount of depth/ back story- though Hayward has a rather young Richard Attenborough charm about him.  The film features large chunks of voice over from a rather stern/ officious Mr announcement man, which adds in more plot depth and investigation detail to an already overly fairly complex plot in this largely office-bound dialogue and interrogation based film. We do get a few more tense/ pulse-raising moments- with our heroes being roughed- up, one or two-car chases, and a few shoot outs. Though the films prime focus is very patriotic, with lots of reds in the bed dialogue-heavy scenes, and a slowly unwinding mystery- taking in formals hidden in paintings, and ladies hankies. It’s a well enough captured and acted film- but you have to enjoy more police procedural mysteries to get the most from it. 

On this first disc, we don’t get a commentary or anything new, but instead, we get a few archive things. First Routine Job: A Story of Scotland Yard- a twenty-three short from 1946, focusing on a Scotland Yard detective on his day-to-day work pursuit of a case. There’s The March of Time: ‘Policeman’s Holiday’- this is from 1949, and runs twenty minutes- it’s dramatizing of a famed newsreel series, featuring an American detective who assists Scotland Yard while in the UK, echoing but reversing the plot of Walk a Crooked Mile. And as with the other noir boxsets, the Three Stooges return once again with Dunked in the Deep - it's from 1949, and runs seventeen minutes-  finding the trio getting mixed-up with a foreign spy ring and smuggling top-secret material out of the US. Lastly, we get an Image gallery featuring publicity and promotional material.

 

Walk East On Beacon! Is from the year 1952, and it’s a G-man focused noir thriller regarding FBI agents trying to uncover a Communist network in Boston. The film was directed by Deadwood south Dakota born Alfred L. Werker- who between the late ’20s and late ’50s had fifty credits to his name. These went from early western pioneer film Scout(1928), vaudeville set drama You Belong To Me(1934), Stan and Ollie creepy adventure comedy A-Haunting We Will Go(1942),  and grim ‘n’ violent civil war set western Rebel In Town (1956).  And while Mr announcement man appears early on in the film, this thankfully dies down- and we’re left with a fairly enjoyable thriller, that nicely bats back and forth between the FBI agents and the undercover communist cell.

The film is about a group of communist moles, who are trying to capture top scientist grey-haired Professor Albert Kafer (Finlay Currie) and force him to work for the USSR. They are using the threat of harming his son, who they have captured in Berlin, as a way of manipulating him. But they don’t expect him to contact the FBI- who promises to get his son back, if he helps with their breaking of the communist ring.
Leading up the ‘reds’ we have cunning and coolly sinister Alexi Laschenkov(Karel Stepanek), who is just in from Mother Russia to try and sort of the spy network. And on the FBI side, we have sternly focused Inspector James 'Jim' Belden(George Murphy).  The films full of shadowy late-night secret rendezvous, cloak and dagger meetings, stakeouts with secret camera placed, and general spying shenanigans. Both sides are given equal camera time, and this both creates a good feeling of tension and intrigue which keeps you held into the films near one hour and forty-minute runtime. Sure some of the ‘reds under the bed’ and how wonderfully Hoover men are is more than a little heavy-handed/ preaching, but thankfully these elements largely appear at the beginning and end of the film.  On the whole, I’d say Walk East On Beacon! Is one of the better G-man vs communists spy focused noir films I’ve seen.

Moving onto the extras on this disc, and we get a partial commentary track from film academic Frank Krutnik who wrote  In a Lonely Street: Film Noir, Genre, Masculinity- this runs one hour and nine minutes of the film's runtime, and is fairly interesting- though at points it does come across a little like a lecture instead of a formal commentary track. He starts by discussing how the film sits between semi-doc and anti-communist genres, he moves on to discuss how and if the film fits into the noir genre. He talks briefly about the career of director Alfred L. Werker, before going on for a lengthy talk about the career of the film's producer Louis de Rochemont- who is seen as the father of the sem-doc genre, moving on to discuss how he impacted the film on offer. He finishes off by discussing the film’s plot/ unfold- and what he feels worked and didn't work. As I say an interesting enough track, but just be aware of the slight more lecture like tendencies. 
Next, we get another selection of archive shorts- The March of Time: ‘G-Men Combat Saboteurs’ – from 1941, a twenty-one doc from the famed newsreel series created by Walk East on Beacon! producer Louis de Rochemont. There’s The March of Time: ‘G-Men at War’  from 1942 a twenty-minute doc from the newsreel series, focusing on the efforts of the FBI to apprehend spies and fifth columnists. And another Three Stooges short- Commotion on the Ocean from 1956, which runs seventeen minutes, and finds the trio mixed-up with another foreign spy ring and smuggling top-secret materials in this ‘Fake Shemp’ reversion of Dunked in the Deep. Lastly, we get an Image gallery featuring publicity and promotional material.

 

From 1954 Pushover ( aka The Night Watch, 322 French Street) is a stake-out based thriller, with moody noir undercurrents. It was directed by Detroit, Michigan Richard Quine- who between the late ’40s and early ’80s had twenty-nine feature-length credits to his name, as well as a few shorts/ US TV show episodes. His film output went from the boxing drama of Leather Gloves(1948), onto the romantic musical comedy Sunny Side Of The Street(1951), through to the dated-if-felt bicultural love story of The World Of Suzie Wong(1960), onto the Prohibition-era set comedy-drama The Moonshine War(1970).  And it’s fair to say Pushover was a film that did take a little time to warm up with me, but when it did I rather enjoyed it-  keen to find out how it all resolved. 

Pre credits the film kicks off with a bank robbery- with a gang of unmasked men holding up the bank just as it opens, filling bags with money- on the way out the security guard is shot by accident. Next, we switch to  Lona McLane(Kim Novak) a  short blond-haired woman whose been to the theatre for the night- her car won’t start. So dashingly serious Paul Sheridan(Fred MacMurray) offers to help- he can’t figure out what’s wrong, so the pair head to a nearby late-night bar to wait and see what the all night mechanic makes of it. Fairly soon it’s clear there is chemistry between the pair- and they head back to Paul’s flat, with one thing leading to another. Soon, after we find out Lona is a moll of one of the bank robbers, and the whole car breaking down/ seduction was a setup, and in reality, Paul is a cool and unfeeling cop who was working undercover, though can’t seem to get anything from Lona regarding where the cash is. So it’s decided to set up surveillance on Lona’s flat- with Paul and a few his cop buddies doing a stake-out from an apartment across from Lona.  As Paul watches Lona from afar, he realises he’s truly falling for her- and this puts both the stake-out, Paul’s job, and even his life on the line.

MacMurray is good as the slowly defrosting tuff no cares cop Paul, and Novak is also effective as out-of-her depth temptress Loona. The small surrounding cast is also largely good too. As you’d imagine with a stakeout based thriller, there’s not a lot of full out action- but there are some great moments of suspense along the way, as Paul digs himself deeper into trouble. With the whole thing moving towards a moral-if-down beat ending. As I mentioned early Pushover did take a little time to warm up- as initially, the Paul character is rather unlikeable, but when we get into the stakeout things start to improve, and you do get pulled into the story. As for the noir elements we have lots of moody nighttime shots, a fair bit of double-crossing, and towards the end some gunplay. On the whole, I’d say Pushover is a thriller that slowly but surely pulls you in. 

On the extras side, we get a  commentary from Australian film historians Alexandra Heller-Nicholas and Josh Nelson- and this is well worth a play. They start off by discussing why the film is not just a poor mans version of 1944 classic noir Double Indemnity, moving on to talk about how Pushover appeared at the tail end of the golden age of noir, and how this impacts the film. They talk about how Kim Novak got this debut role and others that went for the role. Talk about the different levels of misogyny in the films male characters. Later they discuss how the film is also compared to Hitchcocks Rear Widow, though Pushover came out before it. They chat about one of the novels the films based on The Night Watch, and how Novak character is given more background in it. They give actors bios, and much more.
The other new extra is Partners in Crime and Comedy- which runs nineteen minutes, and finds author and critic Glenn Kenny discusses the careers and collaborations of director Richard Quine and actor Kim Novak- in all the pair collaborated on four films, with Pushover being the first and 1962’s The Notorious Landlady been the last film they worked on- he discusses the pros and cons of each film, as well as touching on their work partnership in general- a most worthy featurette. 
We have another Three Stooges short Blunder Boys- this is from 1955 and runs  16 mins- it finds the trio play detectives assigned to the case of a justice-evading bank robber. Lastly, we have an original trailer and image gallery.

 

Disc four takes in 1945’s A Bullet Is Waiting, and this rather stands out like a sore thumb on this boxset- first and foremost I’d say it’s not really a Noir( by my definitions), I guess it's best described as then present-day set western-come-prisoner on the run thriller. Next, it’s in colour which was rather surprising, as largely when you think of Noir of the ’50s, you think moody black and white. The film was directed by New South Wales born John Farrow- who in all between the mid-1930s and late 1950s had forty-six feature-length credits to his name. These went from mystery, comedy, horror blend of The Invisible Menace(1938), onto brutal and frank war drama China(1943), though to dark occult focused noir Night Has A Thousand Eyes(1948), onto Doris Day staring mystery drama The Unholy Wife(1957).

A Bullet Is Waiting is set on an isolated farm- where a small plane crash down near by- inside is accused murderer Ed Stone(Rory Calhorn) and his capture Sheriff Munson(Stephan McNally). The farm is owned by English academic David Canham( Brian Ahern) and co-run by himself and his late teen daughter Cally(Jean Simmons)- though when the two strangers drop down on the farm only Cally is there, as her father has made a trek into the nearest town which is day or two away. From the off the film plays with your perceptions of the two men who have dropped into young Cally life- Ed is charming, helpful and caring. While sheriff Munson is brash, arrogant, and at points a little creepy- later on in the film he says to Cally ‘that women are at their best on the cusp of adulthood'.  The film unfolds with the three being struck on the farm, due to bad weather meaning neither man can leave nor Cally’s father can return. It’s certainly a watchable enough film, with good acting all round from the small cast of four- and it offers up some interesting moralistic questions. As for if there is any noir traces present in this modern western come isolated crime drama- well I guess it depends on what you do and don’t count as noir- sure there is some fighting & gunplay, we have moody shots of downpours though they are in the countryside, and the shift character perceptions could be seen as noir-ish, but for me, I’d say it’s squarely not noir. Never the less it’s an entertaining film, with some interesting questions ask and some rewarding character arcs/ revels along its hour and twenty-minute runtime.

On the extras front, we first off have a commentary track from genre experts/ writers Barry Forshaw and Kim Newman. The track starts with the pair discussing if the film is noir or not, and if not what it is. They move on to talk about similarly plotted films, discuss at length about Jean Simmons early career and how she plays the role. As they move on they talk about the film's portrayal of masculinity and its portal in general in 1950’s film, when male kind was often getting somewhat of a rough ride. They discuss the sexual tension and implications in the film, dissect certainly scenes, and much more. As you expect with two commentary pros, this is a highly rewarding, wonderfully researched, and general entertaining track. The other new extra on this disc is From Cricklewood to Hollywood- here we find archivist and historian Josephine Botting discussing the early career of Ms Simmons, and how she managed to transition from English to Hollywood film. Along the way, she touches on her marriage to fellow older British actor Stewart Granger and critique her chosen roles and highlights the more successful parts. This runs for twenty-one minutes and is most interesting. Moving onto the archive side of things the Three Stooges return for 1944’s The Yokes On Me- this runs sixteen minutes, and finds the trio trying to protect their isolated farmhouse from unwanted guests.  Lastly, we get an original trailer, and an image gallery featuring publicity and promotional material.

 

On disc five we have 1955’s Chicago Syndicate and, this is an infuriating the mob noir. With some great characters, some quite nasty (for the time) violence, a neat fistfight, and a few tense chases/shootouts.  The film was directed  Boston born Fred F. Sears- who had fifty-five directorial credits to his name, including two cold war creature features The WereWolf( 1956) and The Giant Claw(1957)- both of which appears on the recent excellent Arrow Video Cold War Creature boxset.

As you’d expect the film is set in Chicago- and opens with Mr voice  setting a moody tone as we get pictures of the windy city. As we get into the film we find a group of concerned and legit businessmen have teamed up with a journalist and the police to break the mob syndicate that’s started to rise in the city again. They offer $60,000 to streetwise accountant Barry Amsterdam( Dennis O'Keefe) to infiltrate the mob, and their main kingpin the sleek-tricky grey-haired Arnold 'Arnie' Valent(Paul Stewart).
The film features not one, but two femme Fatales - we have gusty cabaret singer Connie( Abbie Lane), and devious brunette Sue( Allison Hayes). Both O’Keefe and Stewart are great fits- the former having gruff punchy charm, and the latter a dervish/ cocksure gander. Sure a fair bit of the film takes places in offices and in the back of cars, but it all moves along in a fairly appealing and pacy manner- with along the way a great shadowy punch-up, a neat down in the city tunnels chase, and some tense/ dramatic gunplay, and even some blood/ a nasty off-screen beating.  All making Chicago Syndicate a most worthy mid 50’s noir.

On the extras side here we get a commentary track from film historian Toby Roan. He starts off by discussing how this was one of a few city-related crime noir films that producer Sam Katzman was behind. He moves on to discuss how this and the other city crime films were based loosely on real-life mob investigations, and comments on the use of stock footage early on that appear in a lot of Katzman produced films. As he moves on he gives fleeting to in-depth bios of onscreen actors, commenting on their better/ more known roles, including US ads some of them appear in. As he moves on he talks about some of the on-screen action, later talking about the director's career as commenting on the bios of the films crew. On the whole, it’s certainly a well-researched track, though the largely bio focused feel of the track does get a little tiresome in places. On the archive side of things, those Stooges appear again for 1940s From Nurse to Worse – which runs seventeen minutes and finds the trio attempt to make big money through an insurance scam. And we lastly get an image gallery. 

 

The sixth and final film in this boxset is 1957’s The Brothers Rico, which is gangster focused noir, finding a trying to be family man been pulled back into his mob past, when his two younger brothers get involved in a big hit. The films an entertaining, at points quite tense noir with some great/ memorable characters in the mix. It was directed by Chicago born Phil Karlson- who had fifty feature-length credits to his name, as well a US TV series episodes/ TV films. His career started off with romantic comedy musical A Wave, a Wac and a Marine( 1944), moving onto the likes of outdoor adventure caper The Big Cat(1949), and a fair few other noirs like Scandal Sheet( 1952) which focused on a murderous editor of a newspaper, Kansas City Confidential( 1952)  telling of an ex-con trying to go straight getting farmed for a robbery,  tropical island set noir Hell’s Island(1955), and 5 Against The House(1955) which was a lighter heist focused noir. 

The film opens by introducing us to Eddie Rico(Richard Conte) who is a settled family man, running a laundry in Florida. He’s planning to adopt a child with his wife Alice(Dianne Foster), and life seems good and fine for him. He has in past work for the mob as an account but has been trying to go straight- though he still has connections, as he rang early one morning instructed that a man needs to lie low at the laundry, this rather throws him out- but his day just about to get worse. He’s driving to his club from work when a man starts tailing him- indicating he turn off down a quiet road, the man jumps in Eddie’s car and we find out he’s his brother Gino( Paul Picerni). Gino informs Eddie that he and his younger brother have been involved in a hit, and now mob boss Sid Kubik(Larry Gates) is trying to track him down- Eddie says he needs to get away/ lay low. Next, he gets called in to see Mob boss Sid- who seems to care about both Eddie, and his family, including his elder mother Norah( Kathryn Grant ) who runs a shop in NYC, and took a bullet for Sid years back. Sid sends Eddie off to track down his younger brother Johnny( James Darren)- who has gone off the grid, he first flies to NYC, before flying into a few other places trying to track down his kid brother, whose partner is apparently pregnant. And I leave the plot there, as going deeper would uncover big spoilers.

The film is a well-made slice of noir pie, with a nicely tight and believable enough unfold- Conte is very good as the trying to go straight older brother, as is Grant as the bros' mother. But the highlight performance here comes from Gates- as mod boss Kubik, who nicely switches between kindly older uncle type, and mean ‘n’ nasty shark eyed gangster.  The just over one hour and thirty-minute film flies by, as the hunt shifts on, all making The Brothers Rico a great end to this fourth noir boxset from Powerhouse.

Moving onto the extras on this disc, and we get a commentary track with professor and film scholar Jason A Ney. And this is a largely informative and interesting track, as he moves from talking about actors bios, commenting on cars used in the film, and locations.  He discusses the novel the film was based on, and its author, going on to compare the book and the film. He focuses on certain key scenes, and how the actors/ director handles said scenes. The only criticism I did have is he does drop in and out from time to time for a few minutes of silence, which does rather throw the listeners concentration- but it’s a track that’s certainly a track worth a play. Otherwise, on the new stuff we get A Bracing Brutality- which runs around the half-an-hour mark, and finds author and critic Nick Pinkerton talking about the noir and more brutal side of directors Karlson output, as well as focusing in on the film to hand- this is ok, though Pinkerton does go off tangent here and there. Lastly, we have a few archive things- a four-minute intro to the film from  Martin Scorsese, the Stooges appearing in A Merry Mix-Up, this sixteen minute short from 1957, and finds the trio play three sets of brothers, creating all manner of chaos, confusion, and violent misunderstandings. Image gallery, and trailer

 

It’s great to see this noir focused series carrying on, and once again there’s a great selection of films here that dates from between the late 40’s and late ’50s. And as we’ve come to expect from a Powerhouse boxset, we get great clear and crisp new prints of all six films, and a great selection of extra material too. If you’re a fan of the noir genre, this box is another no brainer- though don’t wait too long, as with the other boxes in this series it’s ltd to 6’0000 number copies worldwide. To buy direct head here