3
classic noir films from the BFI in October
16
September 2007
If
you're not a fan of film noir then you and I are living
in different worlds. This was American cinema in one of
its most thrilling peaks, dark, often gorgeously shot
thrillers that were showcases for some of Hollywood's
finest directors and actors. Now the BFI have announced
the release of three classic noir movies for October as
part of their DVD Film Noir Collection.
Adapted from the lowlife novel by Gerald Kersh, Night
and the City is a baroque masterpiece of corruption,
paranoia and doom that ranks among the true works of art
in the film noir genre. Produced by Twentieth Century
Fox, yet employing American, British and Continental personnel
and filmed on the streets of London, it was directed by
Jules Dassin, under suspicion in Hollywood for his political
beliefs, who made it at great speed before he was blacklisted.
Much
of the filming was done in actual after-midnight hours,
shooting night scenes in a London still shattered and
skeletal from wartime bombings. Soho, Piccadilly and the
Festival of Britain construction site on the South Bank
were all locations. Richard Widmark delivers an indelible
performance as Harry Fabian, a small-time American nightclub
tout and desperate dreamer who tries to worm his way into
the wrestling rackets of post-war London. In his path
lie the formidable obstacles posed by a vengeful club
owner Phil Nosseross (Francis L Sullivan) and the racketeer
Kristo (Herbert Lom). The club owner's sultry wife
(Googie Withers) schemes with him, and a long-suffering
girlfriend (Gene Tierney) does her best to save Harry
from himself. Like many a noir hero before him, Harry
thinks he can outrun his fate. He's wrong.
The
disc will feature a 1.33:1 transfer, optional subtitles
for the hearing impaired on all items and the following
special features:
- Interview
with Jules Dassin;
- Feature
commentary by film noir specialist Paul Duncan;
- Short
film comparing the US and British versions of the film
(the studio produced a second edit for the British market
with a different music track).
Kiss of Death is a semi-documentary thriller,
one of a cycle of documentary-based noirs which began
life not as pulp fiction but as a version of the facts,
derived from the case files of Eleazar Lipsky, an aspiring
novelist and Manhattan Assistant District Attorney. Ben
Hecht, screenwriter of The Front Page
and Scarface, and Charles Lederer, a
frequent collaborator, delivered the script.
Sharing
with the later On the Waterfront (1954)
the theme of heroic informing, the film was a huge hit
for Fox. The giggling psycho killer, the old lady in the
wheelchair pushed down the stairs - this is the film wherein
Richard Widmark became a star, Victor Mature became an
actor, sadism came to the big screen and Hollywood neorealism
got tangled in the dreamscape of noir.
Richard
Widmark, then a radio actor, made his film debut, stealing
every frame as the terrifying, grinning, snickering killer
Tommy Udo. Udo, with his animal ferocity and vicious joie
de vivre, is clearly a spiritual nephew of Scarface's
Tony Camonte, but Widmark himself is to be credited with
many of the inspired details of his performance.
A
1.33:1 transfer and optional subtitles for the hearing
impaired on all items are supported by the following features:
- Interview
with Richard Widmark;
- Original
theatrical trailer, presented by famed commentator Walter
Winchell.
Cry of the City is a dark crime melodrama, filmed
on location in New York City in voluptuous black and white
by a director whose name is synonymous with the era of
classic film noir. It was planned as a follow-up to Kiss
of Death, a big hit for Twentieth Century Fox
the previous year.
Martin
Rome (Richard Conte) drives the law crazy - he is a beautiful
loser, defying death, the great charismatic anti-hero
of Siodmak's masterpiece of law and disorder. Adapted
from a novel by Henry Edward Helseth, Cry of the
City tells the tale of a charismatic New York
criminal and his nemesis, the dogged cop and one-time
friend who chases him down with a neurotic possessiveness
as though in pursuit of his own evil twin.
Richard
Conte's dazzling performance as Rome conveys a seductive
ruthlessness opposite the brawny Victor Mature –
a Fox favourite following his powerful performance in
Kiss of Death - as Lieutenant Candella,
the 'good guy' in the film's running battle
between good and evil. They are supported by a brilliant
cast including Debra Paget, Shelley Winters, and the mesmerising,
scene-stealing Hope Emerson in her most original and remarkable
role as a thieving murderess.
Sporting
a 1.33:1 transfer and optional subtitles for the hard
of hearing, the only extra on this one is a theatrical
trailer.
All three discs will be released on 15th October 2007
at the RRP of £19.99 each.
