criterionforum.org

I've just made it through 4 of the 5 films in this set...I am so happy that Warner Bros. has been releasing these; I'm seeing them all for the first time, and I feel like I'm discovering something great every day. Even though I haven't made it through the whole set, I had to stop and comment on "On Dangerous Ground". This is such a standout film. The transfer is a total drag, but this made me realize that I want to see Robert Ryan in every film from this period ("The Set-Up" may be my favorite film out of all 3 noir collections).

The feel of this movie is so different than the others; much more visceral and emotional, without the reliance on witty dialogue. I loved the melodrama of it all. Also, there is nothing in this movie that doesn't need to be there; the pacing is perfect at 82 minutes. I think this is the first Ray movie I've seen, and now I'm very interested in seeing more.

This also made me realize why Bernard Hermann is a legend. The score really is amazing, and it feels crucial to the success of the second half of the film.

I've enjoyed the others in this collection, and I can't wait to finish up with "The Racket", but "On Dangerous Ground" is gonna be hard to beat.

jorencain wrote:I think this is the first Ray movie I've seen, and now I'm very interested in seeing more.

I've enjoyed the others in this collection, and I can't wait to finish up with "The Racket", but "On Dangerous Ground" is gonna be hard to beat.

Ray is one of my favorite directors and I'd recommend taking a look at In a Lonely Place, a great noir with Bogart as a screenwriter who becomes a murder suspect. As for The Racket, you might want to watch it first with the commentary because Eddie Muller is very comprehensive and, frankly, more interesting than the movie itself I thought.

souvenir wrote:I'd recommend taking a look at In a Lonely Place, a great noir with Bogart as a screenwriter who becomes a murder suspect.

Would In a Lonely Place be considered a noir? I would certainly call in "dark" but it doesn't seem to fit the typical or established mold in my mind. Anyway, just asking.

Everybody has a different mold for a noir. In my book, In a Lonely Place is one of the best ones. Maybe not in yours.

Ashirg wrote:Everybody has a different mold for a noir. In my book, In a Lonely Place is one of the best ones. Maybe not in yours.

Well, I still think it's a great movie. I was just wondering if the term "noir" was appropriate. The classification has become rather broad lately. It's not a huge deal anyway.

davidhare wrote:Alas not so the transfer as you point out. What is HAPPENING to Warner? My overscanned TV print of this is far superior in detail and print quality.
This, Naked Spur, the Searchers ... hate to sound like a broken record but Warner seems to have completely abandoned any real care with its recent releases. Im DREADING the Fred and Ginge 2 box - they seem to have particularly given up any pretence of cleaning up the RKO titles.

I'm totally with you on this, David. Seems like we've become too accustomed to accepting Warners work based on past performance. It will be interesting to see if Robert Harris, Beaver, and others start publicly calling them out on it more. Imagine the fits folks would be throwing if Criterion were getting as sloppy. (Heck, we're throwing fits on the windowboxing, and that isn't really affecting the quality of Criterion's transfers per se.)

tryavna wrote:

davidhare wrote:Alas not so the transfer as you point out. What is HAPPENING to Warner? My overscanned TV print of this is far superior in detail and print quality.
This, Naked Spur, the Searchers ... hate to sound like a broken record but Warner seems to have completely abandoned any real care with its recent releases. Im DREADING the Fred and Ginge 2 box - they seem to have particularly given up any pretence of cleaning up the RKO titles.

I'm totally with you on this, David. Seems like we've become too accustomed to accepting Warners work based on past performance.

Well, I'd hate to say it, but this is exactly what I pointed out just a year ago - then I was frowned upon. Excerpt:
Posted: Sat Aug 27, 2005 7:53 am Post subject:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I, too, have noticed the ever-increasing mentions in reviews of phrases like "a bit soft-looking," "still, it looks good for a movie this old" or most annoyingly "great to have it out on DVD anyway." I have been thinking, are Warner Bros slipping? Have they become cocky after headlines like "Warner Bros is the new Criterion?" Have their financial head executives decided to become "cost effective," cashing in on their [relatively] newly-won respect and admiration for putting out superior-looking transfers of vintage films? One should never rest on one's laurels, especially since it has become an established "fact" that WB are extremely dedicated to their heritage and spare no effort and expense in making their classic films look as good as humanly possible... Most certainly their second noir box can't hold a candle to the first, just to mention one example. To be fair, there are many exceptions to the apparently ominous trend, I just miss the high-level CONSISTENCY WB's output could boast for quite a while.

I watched "Out of the Past" 3 times now, and I still think, it's an overrated movie. Has it's moments, but overall...

I rank this collection in the following order:

1. The Set-Up
2. Gun Crazy
3. Asphalt Jungle
4. Out of the Past
5. Murder My Sweet

"The Set-up" is (like Bogie's "In a lonely Place") a very moving "Noir" to me.
I didn't bought the 2nd vol. in this collection (already as a kid, I never liked to watch Stanwyck for instance); I only bought seperately "Crossfire" (great DVD-cover too).

However, I bought vol.3 in this collection too; but frankly speaking, I only prefer Lady in the Lake, the first part of On dangerous Ground, and the docu. disc.

From Beaver:

Warner Film Noir Boxset 4 will have 10 films (instead of 5).

Act of Violence (MGM, 1949). Cornered (RKO, 1945), Crime Wave (WB, 1954), Decoy (Monogram, 1946), Illegal (WB, 1955), Mystery Street (MGM, 1950), Side Street (MGM, 1950), Tension (MGM, 1950), They Live By Night (RKO, 1949) and Where Danger Lives (RKO, 1950)
Eddie Muller says on his website that he already recorded commentaries for They Live By Night (together with Farley Granger) and Crime Wave (together with James Ellroy)!

Sounds great. Gotta have at least one title with Robert Mitchum and Robert Ryan. . I wonder if these will be double features or just in individual slimlines??

YES!!! Anthony Mann's SIDE STREET at last. Killer location shooting all over the east side of NYC with some great glimpses of the old-- now torn down-- Third Avenue el.

Great piece of noir, but without the classically expected Altonesque hyperstylizations in photography. This is a great piece of film, and noir at it's fatalistic purest.

But wherefore the magesterial CITY STREETS? Or is this a Paramount?-- must go home to check..

Good to see They Live By Night finally coming to DVD.

I wonder if this set will cost significantly more than the other three, or if they'll try and get two of the films onto one disc each, meaning five discs/ten films?

I think they'll put 10 films in 5 slim line cases.

This looks like a MUCH better assortment than Vol. 3. CRIME WAVE, DECOY and SIDE STREET are all better than anything in the previous volume.

Any rumored street date on this puppy?

Cornered (RKO, 1945)

I'm quite fond of this little noir, which was Edward Dmytryk and Dick Powell's follow-up to Murder My Sweet. I believe it was one of the very first noirs I ever saw, and I think it was perhaps the very first Hollywood movie to deal with former Nazis in South America (beating out Hitch's Notorious by several months). It also features a nice performance by Walter Slezak.

I'm sure this set will be coming out in July since the past sets have came out during the same month.

Act of Violence has been a favorite noir of mine since I first saw it on TCM several years ago. Robert Ryan is out to kill Van Heflen as a result of what happened between them in WW2. Young Janet Leigh is Heflen's wife and Mary Astor portrays an incredibly seedy lady of the night.

Not the best noir but I can finally put away my vhs tape I recorded off TCM.

Is there any street date on this? I can't wait, it is about time that Nicholas Ray's They Live By Night is released. Now if only somebody would get wise and release Party Girl and Johnny Guitar.

filmnoir1 wrote:Is there any street date on this? I can't wait, it is about time that Nicholas Ray's They Live By Night is released. Now if only somebody would get wise and release Party Girl and Johnny Guitar.

Most likely in July like the past sets have.

filmnoir1 wrote:Now if only somebody would get wise and release Party Girl and Johnny Guitar.

Party girl is available since early 2006 in R2 Warner Home Vidéo with a very decent transfer!
And i'd also like to see Johnny Guitar getting the digital treatment it deserves! #-o Does anyone know who got the right to release Republic Pictures movies?

Paramount was supposed to release Johnny Guitar in July but it was shelved along with The Dark Mirror, Letter to An Unknown Woman and Body & Soul

Do we know why? Is it too foolish to say that they're putting more effort into the transfer and adding more extras?

Because Paramount found out they no longer own home video rights to them. Lionsgate got it.

Right. And given that Six Moral Tales was licenced from Lions Gate (right?), does this mean that somehow, somewhere we might see a Johnny Guitar with the CC label?