Product Details

• Actors: Lauren Bacall, James Bacon, Humphrey Bogart, Jane Greer, Charlton Heston
• Writers: Christopher Case
• Producers: Christopher Case, Dante J. Pugliese
• Format: Color, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Passport
• VHS Release Date: May 16, 2000
• Run Time: 120 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 1.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00000FDTK
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #511,484 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

101 of 101 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Not worth your time or money., July 6, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: B.O. Film Noir [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Film Noir is a rich and complex genre but you would never know it from this supposed documentary on the subject. "The Best of Film Noir" is actually an arbitrary assemblage of period trailers linked by some very superficial commentary. The films mentioned seem to be limited to the trailers available to the producers, and include some movies that are only Noir by a far stretch and exclude many of the most significant items in the genre. A newcomer to the genre would never learn that it was a visually rich expressionistic form with complex emotional textures from "The Best of Film Noir," and the shallowness of the production will probably annoy anyone who knows anything about it. You won't see any notable scenes nor get any real analysis. At the most you'll see a lot of Bogart trailers and hear Lauren Bacall say a few very clever lines.

The second program includes a few badly produced and pointless short interviews, some random Oscar footage, and "condensed" versions of "D.O.A." and "Detour," both misguided and both taken from shabby, visually inferior prints of the films. "The Best of Film Noir" is a waste of time and certainly a waste of money.

70 of 71 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A collection of trailers with truncated films, March 10, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: The Best of Film Noir (DVD)

This is the oddest DVD: A collection of trailers for various film noir works, weak narrative connecting them, and some VERY truncated pieces of "DOA". Unless you want to watch a bunch of trailers, or a VERY edited version of DOA, don't bother.

56 of 56 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars one star is too kind, September 30, 2002

By 

Leonard Norwitz (San Jose, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Best of Film Noir (DVD)

Derived almost exclusively from trailers from the worst source prints imaginable, the accompanying serious narrative includes such gaffs as: Raymond Chandler is the author of The Maltese Falcon (a mistake that is made repeatedly); and the plot of Notorious described as: "a man in love with a scientist's daughter - the scientist is held captive by Nazi collaborators." I kid you not.