Customer Reviews

The Film Noir of Anthony Mann: T-Men/Raw Deal

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

It was a great idea from the Roan Group to present three movies directed by Anthony Mann in the late forties. Unfortunately, their copies have seen better days ! Too bad.

So, the sound and the images of HE WALKED BY NIGHT are simply awful. There's a slight improvement for RAW DEAL and only T-MEN could be qualified as visible for the average DVD addict.

But, as always, if the movie is interesting, I try to forget the imperfections and concentrate myself on the movie. And, believe me, these three are good movies. I personally have a little preference for RAW DEAL with its typical Film Noir mood : a hero, played by Dennis O'Keefe, two girls - the blonde and the brunette - and a sadistic villain impersonated by Raymond Burr.

HE WALKED BY NIGHT and T-MEN are typical examples of the semi-documentary style used in a lot film noir of the 1945-1950 period. They present a case which, if you want to believe the narrator, was a real story. Well, well, well. Naturally, it's one of the numerous clichés used by Hollywood in order to nail the viewer.

Director Anthony Mann is known for his westerns of the 50's starring James Stewart ; he deserves also to be recognized as a Master of the Film Noir genre.

No menu... and hardly a scene access.

A DVD for your library.

Few american directors can claim as large a volume of quality work as Anthony Mann. This dvd has two of his best and one of his lesser film noirs. T-MEN and RAW DEAL are worth buying these disks for on their own, HE WALKED BY NIGHT, while a good film doesn't come close to the other two in terms of Mann's spatial awareness and Alton's expressionist camera work. I can't help feeling that one of Mann's other great film noirs like THE TALL TARGET, RAIROADED, BORDER INCIDENT or STRANGE IMPERSONATION would have been more appropriate (but then again the films on this dvd also showcase the talents of John Alton while some of those other films don't). The reviewer below is right to say that the sound on these films is substandard (T-MEN is alright but the other two are unsatisfactory) but the dialogue is still audible and the quality of the transfer, especially in the case of RAW DEAL, is amazingly clear. Finally, that these three films should be available at this price means that these disks are a must-buy. I hope that the Roan Group releases a second collection of Anthony Mann film noirs, including the films listed above, as this is my favourite dvd in my limited collection.

This is so representative of the B-movies of the '40's and early '50's! BUT - Director, Anthony Mann and Cinematographer, John Alton decided to be artistic, despite the low budgets and moderately corny scripts. I wonder if the studio heads even knew what was going on? Anyway, Mann and Alton weren't the only ones to explore Film Noir (see Orson Welles' "Lady from Shang Hai," for example, or "The Third Man"), but if you haven't seen these three films like I hadn't, since I was a kid, you should take advantage of the availability. Two of them were released on Laserdisc, awhile back, but were pricey. This is reasonable, there are 3 movies, and the film prints and DVD transfers look great, too!

I had been trying to obtain a copy of this dvd for some time and was delighted to finally purchase it via amazon. It is a beautifully presented dvd with three superb examples of what makes film noir (a movement, not a genre!). Aldrich's direction is as tight and claustrophobic as you would expect and the cinematography of John Alton can be seen to define all the charactersitics associated with noir. Long may films such as these be available on dvd.

Three entertaining movies but the sound quality is so poor that it greatly detracts from the experience.