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Smooth as Silk is a lovely underseen noir, one of their better announcements of late. Haven't seen the Mann but always good to have another of his films on Blu (getting pretty close to a complete filmography out on Blu-- only about a half dozen left, I think?)

Dr. Broadway was mostly a dud - its 'clever' roundabout narrative mostly just reveals that the beginning is tacked-on to give the finish some unearned oomph. I did like the doctor's crew of faces, and how and when they pop in to shake up Phillips and, by proxy, us with odd mannerisms from odd angles. Macdonald Carey comes off terribly, though, and you can tell the cast of character actors were game for meatier material

After an unpromising set-up, Smooth as Silk upends all expectations and turns into a relentless series of twists that surprise and delight in their agility and complexity. I didn't love it or anything, but the film gives way more energy than it needs to, and that's a treat

I've been going through the boxes, that I own, over these past few months:

XVII
Vice Squad: Bland, forgettable and slow. The best thing about it is that the film is at least decent to look at from a cinematography point of view..

Black Tuesday: Easily the best film in the box set. Dark, cynical and thrilling. I love the atmosphere, tone and finale. It's slowly growing to being one of my favorite 50s noirs.

Nightmare: There's something about Woolrich's writing style where you can just tell it's an adaptation of one of his works. Hardly, if at all, "noir" (no surprise for this series), Nightmare is a psychological-thriller about a jazz musician being haunted by a killing in his dreams. Despite what the BD cover might imply, Robinson has more of a supporting role with B-movie staple Kevin McCarthy being the lead. McCarthy is decent but not enough to carry a film without a strong enough supporting cast (barring Robinson). The film is set in New Orleans but, unlike the earlier Panic in the Streets, doesn't really utilize the setting well at all.

I would recommend this set for Black Tuesday alone but if you're region-free I would also recommend Eureka's standalone release. Still, I would recommend this set because even in late-career crap like Vice Squad and Nightmare Robinson is still a joy to watch.

XXI
Cloak and Dagger: Of all the Fritz Lang films to shove in these sets, they pick the one that's one of his least "noir" (I'm not sure how Secret Beyond the Door was worthy of a standalone). This one has grown on me quite a bit on repeated viewings but my biggest issue is the long stretch of the film where it mainly relies on Cooper and Palmer being together. Personally, I think neither have any chemistry with each other.

Shack Out on 101: Some of these 80 minute noir films sure feel like 90 (and not in a good way). The film almost entirely takes place in the titular setting. Shack probably would of worked better as a stage-show instead of a theatrical feature just due to the "stage-bound" feel the film has. Other than it being a "red scare" film, nothing about it is particularly interesting besides an awkward weight lifting scene between Marvin and Wynn.

Short Cut to Hell: A loose remake of This Gun for Hire but done much worse (and I say that as somebody that's not a big fan of the original film). Dreadfully boring, James Cagney shows us why some actors just shouldn't be directors (ex: John Turturro).

Cloak and Dagger is the "winner" of this set but I would recommend getting Eureka's standalone release.

XXII
The Enforcer: a decent late-era Bogie film. Procedural at it's core, the film employs a flashback structure to the point that we get flashbacks within flashbacks (though, within the film, this does make sense). I do like how Ted de Corsia is very inconsistent with his character's accent.

The Scarlet Hour: The first half of The Scarlet Hour is solid but it looses steam in it's second half. I think I would like the film a lot more if it had a better cast for the leads. I've only seen Tom Tryon in The Glory Guys and he's just as dull here as he was there.

Plunder Road: The opening heist sequence is easily the best thing about Plunder Road. Other than that, pretty forgettable.

So far, I would say that this is the "best" selection, in regards to films, of the Kino noir boxes that I own (I have ten) and have seen all the films for a specific box. Still, that's not saying much as I wouldn't say that these films are particularly great to begin with.

therewillbeblus wrote: Mon Feb 03, 2025 4:40 am Dr. Broadway was mostly a dud - its 'clever' roundabout narrative mostly just reveals that the beginning is tacked-on to give the finish some unearned oomph. I did like the doctor's crew of faces, and how and when they pop in to shake up Phillips and, by proxy, us with odd mannerisms from odd angles. Macdonald Carey comes off terribly, though, and you can tell the cast of character actors were game for meatier material

Yeah, this squandered a decent set up on a lot of carried over “goody two shoes” theatrics from the previous decade— surely this is one of the stalest gangster movies I’ve ever seen. The idea of a doctor having a cadre of affable gunsels in his corner is an idea right out of Runyon, and the opening set piece is fun, but man does this film not know how to anything with its component parts. And I agree on Carey, as he is way, way too milquetoast for this role, and his presence amps up the “safe” tone that is deadly to a movie in any of the genres this cheapie aspires to be part of (and everything being overlit doesn’t help either!). They don’t even let Naish play a wacky ethnicity, what are we even doing here

ChunkyLover wrote: Sun Apr 20, 2025 5:51 pm I've been going through the boxes, that I own, over these past few months:

After the course of a whole year (November 2024) I finally finished (or "caught up") the series. On the one hand, it was nice to dig deeper into B-movie crime films that weren't just the usual "canon" titles (ex: The Big Combo) but, on the other hand, this series was full of mediocre crap (or flat-out bad). In terms of overall boxes my personal favorites were VII, X (even if two of the films were barely crime films at all let alone "noir"), XII, XVII and XIX. For individual films I really enjoyed Black Tuesday, The Boss, Union Station, Abandoned and I Was a Shoplifter (it's certainly not as "good" as the other four but I found it much more entertainer than a lot of the other films in this series) the most. For somebody wanting to get into the series I probably wouldn't recommend a through deep watch of this series besides a few select boxes.

Per their new Paramount deal there will two more upcoming boxes with five of the six titles being new-to-Blu (so, expect the one previously-released title be some Olive-fodder).

I love all of your Film Noir sets, and own all of them from the Brit & French Noir sets, and all 26 volumes of the U.S. Noir sets. Any hope for a Vol. 27 of the U.S. noir sets?

Yes, there is a Vol. 27 and 28 scheduled, coming/licensed from Paramount. Frank’s working on a renewal for Vol. 17 (the Edward G. Robinson noirs) from MGM as part of some renewals from them he’s doing, and probably a Vol. 29 and maybe 30 from MGM as well. He was literally just 5 minutes ago working on that deal/renewals before this episode went out.

To sum it up, 27 and 28 are scheduled, 29 is confirmed, 30 is possible. In the future, they may put some really big films in these boxsets that they did not get initially for Blu-ray release. For example, if the rights to some of the Universal noirs they didn’t get initially become available, they may pick them up to put in these boxsets.

From the Blu-ray.com forum recap

27th box announced:

Coming Soon!
Brand New HD Masters by Paramount Pictures – From 4K Scans of the 35mm Original Camera Negatives!

FILM NOIR: THE DARK SIDE OF CINEMA XXVII

THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY (1941) Starring Bob Steele, Claire Carleton & Milburn Stone – Shot by Reggie Lanning (Sands of Iwo Jima) – Directed by Joseph Kane (Hoodlum Empire).

UNMASKED (1950) Starring Robert Rockwell, Barbra Fuller & Raymond Burr – Shot by Bud Thackery (Coogan’s Bluff) – Directed by George Blair (Destination Big House).

THE MAN IS ARMED (1956) Starring Dane Clark, May Wynn & William Talman – Shot by Bud Thackery (The Hell with Heroes) – Directed Franklin Adreon (No Man’s Woman).

Never seen or even heard of these three!