Reign Of Terror, or as it’s sold here under its French title Le Livre Noir, is a late 1940’s historic action-drama set during the French revolution, but filmed as if it was noir. With horse and carriage chases replacing car chases, flintlock shoot-out, a great selection of shady/ double-crossing characters, and a marvellous use of atmospheric shadow and silhouette. Here is a recent DVD release of the film from Artus Films.

Released in the year 1949 Reign Of Terror aka The Black Book, was directed by San Diego born Antony Mann. He had an impressive filmmaking career dating back to the early 1940s- in total, he directed forty-two films- these moved from classy noirs, comedy musicals, wartime romances, grand historical epics, westerns & thrillers. Reign Of Terror was his sixteenth film- and it’s a wonderful slice of pacy, often quite tense, and moody 1940s filmmaking- with a few quite brutal ahead of their time moments.

The film is set in late 18th century France, where power-hungry statesmen Robespierre (Richard Basehart), is undertaking a series of mock trials and executions of his rivals. More than a few people are less than happy about what’s going on- so Charles D'Aubigny (Robert Cummings) infiltrates Robespierre's inner circle pretended to be the `butcher of Strasbourg,' a tyrant from out of town who is a nastily focused as Robespierre himself.

Fairly soon after arriving D'Aubigny is tasked to look for Robespierre missing ‘black book’ which lists those who are to be executed. The film unfolds at a good and even pace- with lots of will/ he won’t his true identity be revealed tension 'n' thrills. Along the way we get sweaty faced close-ups and shadowy torture rooms, double-crossing characters, and a good blend of historic action and drama. But the thing that really sings are the wonderful noir-like touches- we have a spell-binding use of moody shadow and brooding building silhouettes. There are sparking flintlock gun flights, tense horse and carriage chases, and even a few moments of ahead of its time violence, including a bloody jaw shot.

This DVD is a bare-bones affair- with just the film itself. The print looks large good for its age, and seems like it’s been given a remaster- though some of the latter forest set shots are decidedly murky and ill-defined. It features French subtitles, which can be removed- and the English audio/ music track is good 'n' clear.

Reign Of Terror's noir-like take on historic action-drama form is most inspired and distinctive, making it really stand out in the period drama genre. If you’d like to grab a copy of the DVD for yourself, drop by Artus Films to buy it direct here.