Customer Reviews

Film Noir Classic Collection, Vol. 3 (Border Incident / His Kind of Woman / Lady in the Lake / On Dangerous Ground / The Racket)

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This collection released on 18 July, like volumes 1 and 2, has excellent remasters of five film-noir movies: "Lady in the lake" (1946); "Border incident" (1949); "His kind of woman" (1951); "The racket" (1951); "On dangerous ground" (1952). Each film has a commentary and English/French/Spanish subtitles; 3 films have trailers. Unlike volumes 1 and 2, volume 3 contains its DVDs in slim cases (the DVDs are hard to remove without undue bending) and sports a sixth bonus DVD, which the box touts as being "available only in this set."

This bonus DVD makes this collection particularly special: The documentary "Film noir: Bringing darkness to light," completed in 2006 and produced and directed by Gary Leva, is far superior to any of the film-noir documentaries available on public-domain collections of film noir for several reasons: (1) At 68 min., the subject is treated in depth. (2) The B&W clips from films as well as the interviews in color and color film posters are of excellent quality. (3) The clips, some from rarely seen films, are precise selections, unlike the fuzzy, often lengthy trailers included in previous noir documentaries. (4) While traditional noir themes (femmes fatales, lighting, cynicism, fatalism, etc.) receive full treatment, other generally neglected topics are detailed, notably the role of music. (5) Commentary is by a host of film-noir historians and players. The credits list some 45 interviewees, including actress Jane Greer (1924-2001). The diversity of opinions sometimes leads to conflicting interpretations, which is probably as it should be as film noir is a recognizable phenomenon that is hard to define. "Film noir: Bringing darkness to light," is an essential and insightful analysis of the film-noir phenomenon.'

The 13 scenes comprising 68 min. in "Film noir: Bringing darkness to light" are: 1) intro; 2) into the darkness; 3) what it is. what it ain't; 4) birth of a bad dream; 5) life's cheap. then you die; 6) the guy pulling the strings; 7) masters of darkness and light; 8) cut to black; 9) lullaby for the damned; 10) method behind the madness; 11) caught in a web; 12) can't cheat fate; 13) final fade out.

Rounding out the bonus DVD are five shorts (19-22 min.) from the MGM film series "Crime does not pay":
"Women in hiding" (1940) on unwed mothers;
"You, the people" (1940) on a rigged election by a crime boss;
"Forbidden passage" (1941) on illegal immigration;
"A gun in his hand" (1945) on the murder of a policeman by a robber;
"The luckiest guy in the world" (1947) on embezzlement.
These are obviously message, didactic films. The bonus disc is remiss in providing neither dates for the films nor background information on the film (and radio) series "Crime does not pay," which apparently had some 40 film episodes 1935 ("Buried loot" the first) to 1947 (and probably later).

While "The Film Noir Classic Collection, Vol. 3" may lack the caliber of titles of the first two collections, this edition includes several of my personal favorite films...so forgive me if I brag about it!

Featuring two MGM productions, and three from RKO (which means Howard Hughes was heavily involved), the Noir elements vary significantly in each film (one could even question whether a couple 'qualify' as Noir)...but the choices made are fascinating!

"Lady in the Lake" (MGM, 1946, **1/2): Robert Montgomery's debut as a director, portraying Raymond Chandler's 'Philip Marlowe', probably gave MGM no END of grief, when he decided to film it nearly completely with a 'subjective' camera, barely appearing on screen! While the concept wasn't new (the first twenty minutes of the Bogie/Bacall "Dark Passage" were filmed in the same manner), the audacity of making an ENTIRE film this way, particularly from the biggest of Hollywood studios, was remarkable!

Sadly, the gimmick didn't work...

With an incongruous 'Christmas' motif to introduce the film, the camera work soon becomes annoying, allowing little character development for Marlowe/Montgomery (making him seem more cruel and petty than either Bogie or Dick Powell, in their 'takes' as Marlowe). While Audrey Totter, acting to the camera lens, is terrific, everyone else seems self-conscious (especially poor Lloyd Nolan). Add to this MGM's difficulty in creating Noir-style lighting and atmosphere, and what you end up with is, ultimately, a mess!

The only real 'misfire' in this collection!

"Border Incident" (MGM, 1949, ****): This FABULOUS Anthony Mann
film, of a joint US/Mexico operation to break up an illegal alien racket is even more topical, today. Vastly underrated when released (and sadly, ignored by audiences), it is gritty, brutal, and totally involving, with a brilliant cast, including Ricardo Montalban and George Murphy (in their best screen work) as the agents, and Howard Da Silva, Charles McGraw, a clean-shaven Arthur Hunnicutt, and Sig Ruman as members of the gang.

Unflinching (the machine tiller murder scene is remarkably gruesome, for 1949), the film is only marred by a 'tacked-on' happy-ending narration, which stated that the illegal alien problem had been 'solved'.

Anthony Mann was WAY ahead of his time, and this film proves that his talents went far beyond Jimmy Stewart westerns!

"The Racket" (RKO, 1951, ***1/2): Remake of a 1928 Howard Hughes' film, this involving police drama, credited to John Cromwell (although Hughes would add scenes directed by others), was a hard-hitting, topical tale of corruption, both outside and within the system. Featuring a 'hard-as-nails' villainous turn by Robert Ryan, and Robert Mitchum's equally tough hero, the supporting cast really shines, particularly William Talman's straight-arrow cop, Ray Collins as a weak District Attorney, William Conrad as a detective who plays both sides, and Lizabeth Scott's pragmatic Noir heroine.

"On Dangerous Ground" (RKO, 1950-1952, ****1/2): Vastly underrated when released (the film was actually 'shelved' for two years, while Hughes 'tinkered' with it), Nicholas Ray's
film of city cop Robert Ryan nearly "losing his soul", then finding redemption through blind Ida Lupino, during a rural murder investigation, is finally receiving the recognition it deserves! A rich, character-driven story, symphonic in style (with three 'movements'), the film benefits greatly from a powerful Bernard Herrmann score, the wonderful chemistry between Ryan and Lupino, and the added Hughes' "touches" (including a romantic finale that brings the film to a very satisfying conclusion).

While unsuccessful when released, the film is now regarded as a near-masterpiece of the genre!

"His Kind of Woman" (RKO, 1951, ****): I LOVE this movie!!! A combination Noir/Sophisticated Comedy/Farce, it nearly defies description, and really shouldn't work at all (particularly with the production history behind it), but it does, brilliantly, thanks to the Mitchum/Jane Russell chemistry (in their first film together), a wildly funny turn by Vincent Price, and the involvement of Howard Hughes, who, literally, reshot the final third of the film 3 times, with two different directors!

Directed, initially, by John Farrow, a straight-forward Noir tale of down-on-his-luck gambler Mitchum getting a "too good to be true" offer to go to Mexico quickly expands into a sometimes brutal, yet often comic adventure, as he gradually discovers that an exiled gangster (Raymond Burr, whose scenes were added AFTER the film was completed!), plans to kill him, and assume his identity to return to the States. While learning this, he stays at a swank resort, swapping one-liners (and romantic looks) with Russell, meeting her fiancé, hammy (and ALREADY married) movie star Price, beating sleazy Jim Backus at poker to save a girl's virtue (in a scene reminiscent of "Casablanca"), getting pushed around by hood Charles McGraw and the "facts of life" from agent Tim Holt...all leading to a spectacular finale, set on Burr's yacht, involving torture, and an insane rescue by Price, some misfit Mexican policemen, and over-aged resort guests!

Howard Hughes, dissatisfied with the Farrow 'cut', brought in Richard Fleischer to 'beef up' the finale (and increase Price's role), then decided, AFTER the second 'cut', to replace the film's villain with Burr...requiring yet ANOTHER major reshoot! Needless to say, this long, convoluted production would not be one of Mitchum or Russell's favorite films to make...

Yet the film is vastly entertaining, to this day, and was a big hit, when released!

A VERY interesting collection of films, to be sure!

I like to think that reviews pertain to the films, meaning the contents. I find it odd to see the set getting disappointing ratings because of the size of the cases or the fact that the films sell as a set only. That certainly does not diminish the greatness of the films and of the set itself.

ON DANGEROUS GROUND is probably one of the finest noirs ever made and Robert Ryan gives a brilliant performance. Very moody, unusual film that rates high on any noir fan's list.
HIS KIND OF WOMAN is another superb noir with a satirical edge and the unforgettable team of Mitchum and Russell. One of the most popular and best-loved noir films too.
THE RACKET can only be a winner with that cast - Mitchum, Ryan and Lizabeth Scott - lots of great scenes and fun "bits".
LADY IN THE LAKE is a genre-defining title, highly regarded for its unique narrative and an excellent portrayal of Philip Marlowe by Robert Montgomery.
BORDER INCIDENT is a neglected gem starring a remarkably good Ricardo Montalban - its inclusion in the set will give it the exposure it probably never would have had, if titles had been sold separately.
As if this was not enough, an entire documentary on Film Noir is included.

Considering all of this, I am not surprised that WB decided to sell this collection as a set only. The price is so reasonable that buying the whole set costs basically the same as it would to buy 2 individual titles. So anyone who wants only 1 or 2 titles really gets a fabulous deal and will surely be enthralled when they watch the other titles and the documentary.

Two years ago Warner Home Video broke ground by releasing their first set of Film Noir classics. Having the libraries of three major studios to draw from, including RKO, the king of all noir studios, the set was a smash. Other companies followed in panic, trying to mimic WB's success.

Warner didn't flood the market in response, though. They have kept to delivering one excellent set per year, and neatly bested the competition.

This year, they've added something extra. A brand-new, wonderful feature-length documentary that provocatively explores the world of Film Noir. Although many of Warner's documentaries are usually found on TV prior to the DVD release, this one is only available for viewing as part of this nifty box.

Sleekly packaged, with six discs in sturdy slim packaging, the films here are all ecxeptionally impressive and quite different.
The quality of the transfers is very good, and the whole set is a sensational value here on Amazon.

Don't pass this one by.

Disappointing third installment in Warner's otherwise excellent noir series. It does seem like a 'rush job' as another reviewer pointed out, and the quality of the mastering is questionable, especially on HIS KIND OF WOMAN, where the sound and picture fluctuates in parts. Speaking of which, this film has been praised by some critics as an excellent example of the genre. I just don't see it. Despite some very good performances, especially from Vincent Price, (however it's glaringly obvious it doesn't belong in this film), the movie is disjointed, lacks suspense and loses steam way before its overlong 2 hour run time. THE RACKET stars Robert Ryan who gives us a great bad guy performance, elevating the interest of the film. Lizabeth Scott is wasted in a small supporting role while Mitchum's character is rather dull and pales in comparison to Ryan's. ON DANGEROUS GROUND starts out the way you want it to, dark-gritty-urban-violent, then falls into so-so melodrama where it wallows for most of the film. LADY IN THE LAKE is a failed experiment from the protagonist's P.O.V. Interesting for about 10 mintues until it becomes a chore to watch. Anthony Mann's BORDER INCIDENT isn't bad, but while it does contain some noirish elements, it's probably a stretch labelling it as one. FILM NOIR: BRINGING DARKNESS TO LIGHT is a 'coffee table' documentary intercut with some film clips from the Warner catalogue. Virtually 'every man and his dog' spouts their two cents worth of what film noir means to them. And Henry Rollins? Give me a break. Eddie Muller, who offers very informative and entertaining commentaries on many Fox and Warner noir titles, is the only saving grace here. You want the definitive documentary on film noir? Check out The American Cinema series on the subject, narrated by Richard Widmark with fantastic interviews by (now deceased) filmmakers - Edward Dmytryk, Joseph H Lewis, Edgar G Ulmer and more...

It's just been announced that the next Warners Film Noir Boxset 4 will feature 10 films! They are: ACT OF VIOLENCE, CORNERED, CRIMEWAVE, DECOY, ILLEGAL, MYSTERY STREET, SIDE STREET, TENSION, THEY LIVE BY NIGHT & WHERE DANGER LIVES. Now we're talking! I presume it'll be 5 discs, double-featured and in slimline packaging. Where shelf space is limited - this excellent packaging is a godsend! So, unless you're a completist, the third collection really isn't essential. Wait for the fourth installment or even grab Warner's latest TOUGH GUYS boxset, which is!

Border Incident starts off in the typical `Your Government Working For You' fashion that makes so many noirs start at a crawl before finally getting into the story. The dialogue feels like it hasn't just been approved by every law enforcement body in America and Mexico but written by them as well. At first it looks like Anthony Mann's style will never surface through the MGM production line sheen, but having got the advertorial exposition out of the way he seems to gradually wrest control away from the suits the further away he gets from them on location until it's definitely a Mannly film, and one that offers a direct point of transition between his noirs and his dark psychological westerns. By the time its ill-starred characters have moved from a secure world of visual order and perfectly composed balance and traversed a hostile landscape as desolate as the people-smugglers' morality to end up in one of Mann's beloved mountain/canyon shootouts, there's no doubt who is calling the shots.

Mann's trademark violence is also very much in evidence, with the film offering one truly strikingly unpleasant death for 1949 - when shooting and being brutally rifle-butted in the head doesn't finish off the victim, something even more searingly violent does the trick: dust to dust indeed. But that's very much in keeping with the characters' brutally disinterested attitude to death. People aren't just killed, they're literally swallowed by a callous and impersonal land that leaves no trace of their ever having existed. Once there's no more profit to be made from the illegals or their own cohorts, they simply disappear forever. Mann had no equal in using the landscape to define character, but here the landscape itself is not just a character but an accomplice.

A big part of the credit belongs to cinematographer John Alton, who Mann apparently insisted on taking with him when he moved from Eagle-Lion to a contract with Leo. His deep blacks, his great sense of changing perspective (an important visual motif in all of Mann's films), his intelligent use of long lenses to expand the moral and physical distance between protagonists, and one remarkable night sequence where a truck leaves an almost luminous trail of dust in its wake help elevate what could have just been a production-line procedural into something much more primal and substantial. It's not just a matter of making striking images - the director and cinematographer's complimentary visual imaginations don't simply serve the story but also establish these characters' place in the world and their shifting relationships as power and loyalty become increasingly fluid commodities.

Ricardo Montalban and George Murphy may seem unlikely leads, but they work better than expected, and there's a great cast of character players to back them up - Alfonso Bedoya, Arnold Ross (so memorable in Mann's Reign of Terror), Charles MacGraw, Arthur Hunnicutt and the great Sig Rumann. Quietly towering over them all is Howard Da Silva's confident and almost casual ringleader, a man who finds that control is illusory. Despite having the best (but still unshowy) dialogue, the temptations to become a stereotype are avoided in favor of a much more interesting and rounded creation - he doesn't need to act menacing because he has people to do that for him.

Like most of Mann's noirs (with the exception of the period thriller Reign of Terror), it's not one of the great Mann films - but it ends up a damn good one. I kinda liked it...


On Dangerous Ground is a flawed favorite, boasting an exceptional performance from Robert Ryan as a man as much attracted as repulsed by his own capacity for violence - the look on his face before beating a suspect into the hospital, the almost sexual glee tinged with disgust as he repeats "Why do you make me do it?" to justify his own imminent enjoyment to himself give him a disturbingly raw emotional violence that's far more worrying than anything his fists can do. Even Ward Bond's distraught and vengeful father of a murder victim is disturbed by the joy of the hunt he finds in that face. Nicholas Ray's camerawork is similarly on the brink of falling to pieces in the opening city section, eavesdropping in and out of windows and windscreens before erupting into a brutal alley chase shot with a bold use of handheld camera that's still seems shockingly vital for a 50s studio picture. They're both matched blow for blow by Bernard Herrmann's strikingly violent score, with a main title like a sword slashing through flesh and striking bone but with passages beautifully underlining the loneliness and sadness behind the savagery. Mad With Much Heart indeed.

Even the prolonged section with Ida Lupino's blind woman and the possibility of another, more compassionate way of life avoids mawkishness, not least because pity is neither sought nor given. Only the miraculous ending doesn't work. Whether this is due to the 10 minutes of studio-imposed cuts and the re-editing and restructuring the film went through during more than a year on the shelf or whether it was always a problem we'll probably never know (it would have been nice to have included the script as an extra, especially since Glenn Erickson's scripted audio commentary is often awkwardly delivered and often lacks the substance of others in the Film Noir boxed set). There is definitely the feeling that the whole third act of the movie has gone, making Ryan's decision seem almost arbitrary and not allowing us to see if he really has changed back on his home ground. Indeed, it probably would have been better to have ended the film a minute earlier with the almost purgative drive back to the city. But so much of what has gone before is so remarkable that it's a failure you can forgive.


I'd never been able to get past the first couple of reels of The Racket on TV and it certainly looked like being the makeweight of this collection, but once you get past the lunking Howard Hughes-imposed Nicholas Ray-directed prologue it turns into a surprisingly engaging and gripping crime drama. Structurally it's certainly unusual, probably as a result of Hughes' typical interference - it's more than 17 minutes before Mitchum makes his entrance, and there are some sporadically awkward crosscuts to inserts shot by Ray and others after John Cromwell (who co-starred in the play the film was based on in the 1920s) had left. Robert Ryan is surprisingly not quite there for once: not exactly bad, but somewhere between phoning it in and, in his early scenes at least, possibly drunk on set - his timing is slightly askew, his usual excellent instincts abandoned along with his sense of proportion in moments that are just a little over the top. But there's so much to admire that even the unlikely escalation of the feud between the two protagonists is carried along. There's a fine shootout in a garage, a neat car chase that sees the cops plough through a billboard for a mob-backed political candidate and a terrific death scene at the end. The supporting cast are intriguing too, with William Conrad's cop and Ray Collins' DA both corrupt but not so entirely that they're lost causes: they exist in a gray area that throws the leads into sharper relief. Eddie Mueller's audio commentary is quite excellent and well worth listening to.


His Kind of Woman should be a mess, but somehow it emerges as a highly enjoyable insane asylum of a movie as much thanks to as in spite of the constant interference by Howard Hughes: credited to John Farrow, Richard Fleischer spent months shooting and reshooting the yacht finale at the mogul's whims in a desperate attempt to get out of his own studio contract. Even Raymond Burr's villain is a case of third time lucky after Howard Petrie and Robert J. Wilke played the part without meriting Hughes' approval. Snappy dialogue ("You're the guy who shot (him). How did it feel?" "He didn't say."), unlucky gamblers, fortune-hunting gals, randy Wall Street types (played by no less than Mr Magoo himself, Jim Backus), Nazi plastic surgeons, Italian mobsters, Robert Mitchum betting his shoe and ironing his money, and a very wonderful hotel set courtesy of Albert D'Agostino - this has everything Hughes' money could buy. Mitch and Jane Russell have real chemistry, and she comes over as far more genuinely likeable than in many of her contemporary roles: for all the chaos, you get the sense that they're actually having fun (certainly she looks genuinely happy when she sings in her opening scene). But the show belongs to Vincent Price's ham actor, who doesn't fear death - he's too well-known to die - loves guns, never shuns the spotlight - even if it is wielded by gun-toting mobsters - but isn't too wild about his wife. He should destroy the movie if you're still expecting the bleak noir it began as, but by the time he appears you know that this is a log ride that drifts with the prevailing current and his outrageous hamming somehow compliments the sadism and prolonged action of the extended finale perfectly. A shame that the DVD has a noticeable scratch during the yacht sequences


Lady in the Lake is a lot more fun than a gimmick movie should be. Perhaps that's because the script is good enough not to need the gimmick, which is just as well because Robert Montgomery and Audrey Totter are far too arch for their roles to really convince. The gimmick, of course, is that aside from the bookends and sporadic interruptions to fill in details, the film is shot almost entirely from Phillip Marlowe's point of view: we see what he sees, and the lens gets punched when he gets punched. Doubling as director, Montgomery has fun with the technique, allowing the camera's `attention' to get sidetracked by a passing secretary or getting knocked out by a suspect, although he is completely stumped as to how to show a phone call, leading to the film's worst shot (a dull shot of a door with a receiver in the foreground). You tend to forget you're watching the gimmick, and in some scenes, such as Marlowe crawling away from a car wreck to a phone booth, it works incredibly well. There are some problems with the plotting, though: there's a huge clue to the central mystery in the cast list (two, in fact), and it's a shame that the entire lake section of the story is simply relayed in straight-to-camera dialogue (by far the most awkward part of Montgomery's performance). Jayne Meadows' performance also veers the film to the purely comic, but Lloyd Nolan is a convincingly unpleasant flatfoot and there's one great one-sided Christmas Eve phone conversation in the police chief's office.

Genre is often hard to define. Even something as simple as the Western has its difficulties. Sure, The Searchers or Once Upon a Time in the West are Westerns, but what about Brokeback Mountain, which has the right setting, or Little House on the Prairie, which has both the setting and the standard time period? If the Western is hard to really set in stone, how much harder is it to define Film Noir, which may not even be a genre but more of a style?

The Film Noir Classic Collection Volume 3 provides five more examples of how the "noir" label can be applied to a wide range of movies. The first film in the set, Lady in the Lake, is also the most off-beat. An adaptation of a Raymond Chandler novel with Philip Marlowe, this movie both stars and is directed by Robert Montgomery. What makes this movie unique is it is shot from Marlowe's perspective: only occasionally, such as when he looks in a mirror, do we get to see the character. It's a different approach, and after you get used to it, it even works.

Border Incident is the most topical of the five movies as it deals with illegal immigration, particularly from Mexico. Ricardo Montalban plays the Mexican undercover agent in a joint U.S./Mexico effort to stop a ring of crooks who smuggle in workers and then put them to work under slave-labor conditions. Those who cause trouble disappear.

The Racket is much more of a straight gangster film, with Robert Ryan as the vicious crime boss who doesn't like being part of the Syndicate (which he finds too polite in its criminality). Opposing him is Robert Mitchum as a police captain whose efforts to clean up the town have caused him career damage.

His Kind of Woman is my favorite of the five, with Mitchum as a gambler sent to Mexico as part of a scheme to get a deported gangster (played by Raymond Burr) back into the country. While waiting at a resort, Mitchum befriends the locals, including Jane Russell (who he wants to be more than friends with). What's merely a decent movie becomes highly entertaining in the second half when Vincent Price steals the show as a hammy actor who assists Mitchum with a truly Shakespearean flare.

On Dangerous Ground has Robert Ryan as a brutal, cynical cop who is forced to leave the city to help find a child killer in the snow-covered mountains. Out of his environment, he is forced to rediscover his humanity when he meets the blind Ida Lupino, who is the sister of the killer.

How much any of these movies fit into the film noir category will vary from person to person. Certainly, the strongest argument can be made for the last two movies, with their more complicated characters. To help the viewer make his own determination, this set also includes a nice documentary on film noir; this final disc also includes five of MGMs "Crime Doesn't Pay" shorts. Four of these are so-so, the preachy sort of short subjects that would often lead off a Mystery Science Theater. The best in the bunch - and also the most noirish - is The Luckiest Guy in the World, an ironic tale of a man driven to crime out of desperation.

Each film comes with some nice commentary. Overall, the films rate four stars on average, with some better, some worse (I personally rank them, best to worst, as His Kind of Woman, On Dangerous Ground, Border Incident, Lady in the Lake and The Racket). With all the bonuses, I am pushing my rating up to five stars. These are not the most well-known movies, but if you are a fan of film noir (whatever it is), this is a set worth picking up.

I bought this box without hesitation after being very impressed with volumes 1 (5 stars) & 2 (4 stars). For starters the films aren't any where near as interesting as those in the previous 2 volumes. I found myself falling asleep about 20 minutes into each of these. Secondly, these are bare bones presentations. Warner really skimped for this box set. It looks like they just rushed out a collection to have a new one out, rather than put together a nice package. The prints aren't terrible, but they're not restored either as were the films for the previous two volumes. Prints have scratches and artifacts, but are passable. The sound on the other hand is insufferable. I had to turn up the volume on my stereo to about 75% of maximum volume just to hear the dialogue. To add insult to injury, there aren't any extras. No trailers, news reels, cartoons or shorts as Warner has done on other issues. Instead we get one extra disc of a TCM-like documentary on film noir, which outlines the main features in noir and presents many clips (almost all of which are from volumes 1 &2), along with some interviews from contemporary directors. The documentary might be ok for the novice, but it's not particularly interesting to the more noir-savvy. Interviewees are mostly contemporary directors/personalities and not academics or film scholars, though there are a few interviews with original cast & production team members. Sure Henry Rollins might be a cool guy, but why is he in a documentary on film noir? So it looks like Warner really dropped the ball on this one.

This is a review of what I guess has to be the premiere film noir series
of box sets, Film Noir Vol 3, Classic Collection which was released by Warner Bros. in
2006. Warner Bros home video now seems to own the rights to more classic American
films than any other company, including the output of Warners, MGM, RKO,UA and possibly
a few other studios that I may have forgotten thus allowing them to have the cream of the crop in almost any American film genre. Sometimes one wonders if the home studio fully
realizes what they have and their responsibility to the film audiences of both today and
of the future.
Let's take a look at what the good WB folks call "Five Timeless Suspense Thrillerw" on the
advertising blurb on the outside of the box:

BORDER INCIDENT is an early Anthony Mann directed film, quite good and very interesting
examining a serious social problem while solving a persistant crime.

HIS KIND OF WOMAN: Very noirish first part of the film is finished off with a quite jaunty last third, featuring Vincent Price at his best. Robert Mitchum & Jane Russell seem to be having as much fun as the paying audience probably did.

LADY IN THE LAKE: Robert Montgomery. as Philip Marlow, in probably the most well-known use of a subjective camerea in screen history. Directed by Philip Mar-er- Robert Montgomery.

ON DANGEROUS GROUND : Nicholas Ray's study of a tough big city police detective, expertly played
by Robert Ryan, sent up to the country to help with the investigation of a murder, and maybe in the process discover his reasons for existing.

THE RACKET: Robert Mitchum & Robert Ryan tangle in a urban power struggle, Law vs Disorder.

And finally the folks at Warners include a bonus DVD titled: "Film Noir: Bringing Darkness To Light." using a lot of film clips from their many noir proerties to explain and highlight the
Film Noir phenominom.

All in all I would highly recommend this WB box set."Film Noir, The Classic Collection Vol. 3."
I bought it and I'm glad that I own it. Four and One Half Stars.

Short and sweet - if you like classic 40's - 50's cops and robbers, gumshoes, gangster/moll, good girl/bad girl B&W Noir, you will love these collections. The films in this particular collection are really great - all except Lady in the Lake, which used an odd and unusual concept of filming in the first person, so to speak. It didn't work for me, but you might like it. Robert Mitchum and Robert Ryan are superb in their various roles - Robert Ryan especially. In one he's a cop, in another a hood. He was just one fine actor, whatever the role. I have to mention also that in "On Dangerous Ground", Ida Lupino was outstanding. She was a wonderful actress. Try this collection on for size - I know you will really like it!