300-329; 354-357 Columbia Noir #1-6
Moderator: MichaelB
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Re: 300-305 Columbia Noir #1
Great news re the upcoming Murder by Contract, The Sniper and Knock on Any Door! Hopefully we also get Pushover and Tight Spot.
- reaky
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Re: 300-305 Columbia Noir #1
Noir has become a catch-all category for any cops-and-robbers film (I suspect because it’s a word that has a certain commercial pull).
I watched the Lineup last night, and the only moral ambiguity I saw was being asked to identify with that beastly Lt Harry Kello from Sweet Smell of Success. The baddies were really bad, the goodies unimpeachable (and dull), and the overarching sense of dread nil. I wouldn’t consider it noir at all.
I watched the Lineup last night, and the only moral ambiguity I saw was being asked to identify with that beastly Lt Harry Kello from Sweet Smell of Success. The baddies were really bad, the goodies unimpeachable (and dull), and the overarching sense of dread nil. I wouldn’t consider it noir at all.
- Ribs
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Re: 300-305 Columbia Noir #1
I’ve always felt extremely restrictive about the definition of noir to the point that I don’t consiser several of the “established classics” like Touch of Evil, Pickup on South Street definitely don’t fit with my own conception of “film noir.” This gets increasingly common for me when going down to less established “noirs” like My Name is Julia Ross or what have you. But that entire discourse is part of the fun - and the movies that dabble into some of the same trends are interesting in a sense of how far they need to diverge to not be a “real” noir.
A few years ago I saw Eddie Muller introduce Taking of Pelham 123 in a Noir festival and he gave an introduction along the lines of, “look, when I was young, I was so restrivtive about this is what noir is, it was a specific time and style that existed in the postwar era; anyway, welcome to Walter Matthau night,” which has been generally the approach I’ve taken. It doesn’t really matter if something is or isn’t, in the end, it’s just fodder for discussion.
A few years ago I saw Eddie Muller introduce Taking of Pelham 123 in a Noir festival and he gave an introduction along the lines of, “look, when I was young, I was so restrivtive about this is what noir is, it was a specific time and style that existed in the postwar era; anyway, welcome to Walter Matthau night,” which has been generally the approach I’ve taken. It doesn’t really matter if something is or isn’t, in the end, it’s just fodder for discussion.
- reaky
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Re: 300-305 Columbia Noir #1
I feel that there are a number of criteria that can make up a noir (crime, corruption, an urban setting, nocturnal bias, femme fatale...). Not all need to be there, and moral ambiguity in itself isn’t enough (otherwise Ocean’s 11 would be a noir), but for me, it’s definitely the one that has to be present.
Of the films you cite, I’d consider them both core noir because of Hank Quinlan and Skip McCoy.
Of the films you cite, I’d consider them both core noir because of Hank Quinlan and Skip McCoy.
- domino harvey
- Dot Com Dom
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Re: 300-305 Columbia Noir #1
I find these kind of genre-constraining arguments invariably devolve into gatekeeping and have no real point otherwise. “Film Noir” is primarily a modern marketing term these days, and why complain when it gets good films released? If anyone is really losing sleep over it, you can always go back to what these films were labeled as at the time of initial release, “crime melodramas”
- reaky
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Re: 300-305 Columbia Noir #1
[Reminds Domino that 5 Against the House is in the first Columbia Noir set]domino harvey wrote:why complain when it gets good films released?
- domino harvey
- Dot Com Dom
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Re: 300-305 Columbia Noir #1
Haha touché!
- MichaelB
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Re: 300-305 Columbia Noir #1
I've since discovered that Siegel was fully aware of the film's structural shortcomings even prior to production, and strongly recommended ditching the opening scenes to producers Frank Cooper and Jaime Del Valle - but the film had been sold to Columbia on the basis of the title and the tie-in to the TV series, so that wasn't negotiable. But this makes it even less surprising that the film improves so drastically once Wallach and Keith turn up, because from that point onwards it's the film that Siegel wanted to make in the first place.MichaelB wrote: ↑Fri Aug 21, 2020 4:37 amYes, this is a useful corrective to the principle that if a film hasn't gripped you within the first 15-20 minutes, it's never going to. It's a full 22 minutes before Wallach and Keith turn up, prior to which it's been a perfectly amiable but - especially given Don Siegel's presence behind the camera - surprisingly trundling police procedural. After that, though, it's a knockout, and doesn't let up until the end - and I don't think anyone's going to complain about the last 22 minutes, which gleefully stirs in pretty much everything in Siegel's considerable arsenal, including what must be one of the better car chases in 1950s cinema.Noiradelic wrote: ↑Fri Aug 21, 2020 4:05 amTo me The Lineup is by far the best of the bunch. There are a lot of movies that would've been great except for bad endings, but this is the rarer case of a pretty great film that has a bad beginning. The first 20 minutes are dishwater-dull till Eli Wallach and Robert Keith step off the plane and then it jolts to vibrant life. Somehow a bad opening's a lot easier to overlook than a bad ending, at least in this instance. A hitman with a coach in 1958's quite novel. Think it's a top 20 noir -- box art suggests Indicator rates it pretty highly as well.
- MichaelB
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300-305 Columbia Noir #1
Full and final specs for Columbia Noir #1:
Escape in the Fog:
The Undercover Man:
Drive a Crooked Road:
5 Against the House:
The Garment Jungle:
The Lineup:
Escape in the Fog:
The Undercover Man:
Drive a Crooked Road:
5 Against the House:
The Garment Jungle:
The Lineup:
- MichaelB
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- tenia
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Re: 300-305 Columbia Noir #1
I just realised, looking at Beaver reviews (it's really no joke that Gary publish those faster than lightning - I still haven't received the discs on this side of the Channel - I wonder how he can manage to do these so quickly), that while each movie has its own disc, the 6 discs are BD-25. Especially considering the written material is compiled in a single big booklet instead of individual booklets, why not having regroup those by pair on 3 BD-50 instead ? This is a genuine question, I'm wondering the rationale between the decision, if it was cheaper to have 6 BD-25 than 3 BD-50, if this is to make further non-LE non-boxset releases of these movies easier, etc...
- rapta
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Re: 300-305 Columbia Noir #1
It's clearly so they can reissue each film separately when the box set goes OOP without having to author new discs for each film. They did the same with the Boetticher set, for example.
Can't wait for this set, and excited there's a long-running theme from Indicator I can really get behind (no disrespect to fans of Harryhausen, Hammer, William Castle; I do actually have the Harryhausen sets and two of the Hammer ones). Looks like they're getting all the right people to do the extras, and I'm perfectly happy to get one or two lesser-regarded titles in the mix each time (whereas I was put off by a couple of the Hammer sets due to some of the selections).
Can't wait for this set, and excited there's a long-running theme from Indicator I can really get behind (no disrespect to fans of Harryhausen, Hammer, William Castle; I do actually have the Harryhausen sets and two of the Hammer ones). Looks like they're getting all the right people to do the extras, and I'm perfectly happy to get one or two lesser-regarded titles in the mix each time (whereas I was put off by a couple of the Hammer sets due to some of the selections).
- MichaelB
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Re: 300-305 Columbia Noir #1
Yes, this is absolutely correct - the standard-edition BDs are absolutely identical to the limited-edition ones because they're pressed from the same master, and you don't really want to go to the expense of creating a new master for an ostensibly cheaper edition. If this was exclusively a box set, tenia would be making a perfectly reasonable point, but hopefully it won't be.
- tenia
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Re: 300-305 Columbia Noir #1
That's what I thought would be the main reason but wasn't sure.
Thanks for the explanation !
(also : I completely forgot the Boetticher were also all BD-25).
- MichaelB
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Re: 300-305 Columbia Noir #1
Blu-ray.com on The Lineup:
I have not yet tested the other discs in Indicator/Powerhouse Films' upcoming Columbia Noir #1 box set, but if they are anything like this disc, the box set will end up being one of the top European releases of 2020. Very impressive. VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
- yoloswegmaster
- Joined: Tue Nov 01, 2016 3:57 pm
Re: 300-305 Columbia Noir #1
I would love to buy this set but I won't be able to buy it anytime soon since it won't be on sale next month (I don't really agree with the method of excluding the prior 6 months releases from the sale) and the shipping prices are too steep for me.
- MichaelB
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Re: 300-305 Columbia Noir #1
If you want to pay less, you have to wait. Surely that's not an unreasonable principle, especially given how vanishingly slim current margins are in the physical media business?yoloswegmaster wrote: ↑Wed Oct 28, 2020 11:55 am(I don't really agree with the method of excluding the prior 6 months releases from the sale)
- yoloswegmaster
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Re: 300-305 Columbia Noir #1
Sure, but when there are a limited number of sets available, I would like to make sure that I have a good chance of getting it at a reasonable price. Btw, is this selling well so far?
- MichaelB
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Re: 300-305 Columbia Noir #1
Ample warning is usually given if stocks are low (off the top of my head, The New Centurions and Night Tide were the releases that took Powerhouse by surprise; everything else was flagged up weeks ahead of going OOP), and box sets thus far have tended to stick around for something like two years. For instance, all but one of the 2018 box sets is still available (Budd Boetticher being the exception, which sold out earlier this year), as is everything since.
But of course you have an excellent chance of getting it for a perfectly reasonable price right now - it's just that your definition of "reasonable" appears to be less reflective of the amount of work that goes into developing these sets.
But of course you have an excellent chance of getting it for a perfectly reasonable price right now - it's just that your definition of "reasonable" appears to be less reflective of the amount of work that goes into developing these sets.
- yoloswegmaster
- Joined: Tue Nov 01, 2016 3:57 pm
Re: 300-305 Columbia Noir #1
You're right in that it's less reflective of the amount of work and more reflective of the shitty conversion rates to the Canadian dollar.
- MichaelB
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Re: 300-305 Columbia Noir #1
Now that I'm afraid I can't help!
(Although I do sympathise; I've imported very little from North America since the pound tanked following the Brexit vote, and it has yet to recover to anywhere near the levels even back then, never mind the luxury exchange rate of $2:£1 in the mid-2000s.)
(Although I do sympathise; I've imported very little from North America since the pound tanked following the Brexit vote, and it has yet to recover to anywhere near the levels even back then, never mind the luxury exchange rate of $2:£1 in the mid-2000s.)
- MichaelB
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Re: 300-305 Columbia Noir #1
Did you notice Blu-ray.com contradict Indicator by dismissing their claimed new 2k restoration of Undercover Man as a typical older remaster?MichaelB wrote: ↑Wed Oct 28, 2020 8:14 amBlu-ray.com on The Lineup:
I have not yet tested the other discs in Indicator/Powerhouse Films' upcoming Columbia Noir #1 box set, but if they are anything like this disc, the box set will end up being one of the top European releases of 2020. Very impressive. VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
- tenia
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Re: 300-305 Columbia Noir #1
I did and was surprised by this because based on his caps, it doesn't really look like an older master, either in terms of grain pattern or grading.
- cdnchris
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Re: 300-305 Columbia Noir #1
I watched it and I'm pretty sure it's a newer 2K restoration.