Film Noir Classics I

“Film noir” is the term that the French gave to a particular strain of American crime movies in the 1940s and ‘50s, defined by its shadowy style, largely urban settings, and mood of doom and corruption. Fritz Lang's The Big Heat (1953), a classic crime thriller starring Glenn Ford as a family-man cop turned obsessive avenger, is an exemplar and headlines this five-disc set. But another variety flourished in the 1950s—films shot on location with an almost documentary quality, with psychopathic gangsters walking city streets in broad daylight—and this collection spotlights three of the best of these. The Sniper (1952), produced by Stanley Kramer and directed in San Francisco by Edward Dmytryk, is an edgy thriller with Adolphe Menjou as a veteran cop racing to stop a woman-hating serial killer before he strikes again. Don Siegel's The Lineup (1958), also filmed in San Francisco, stars Eli Wallach as a ruthless killer-for-hire murdering civilians as he follows the trail of smuggled heroin shipments. Murder by Contract (1958) is an almost laconic portrait of an existentialist, self-made assassin-for-hire (Vince Edwards), directed by Irving Lerner with an attention to detail that gives it a hypnotic quality. A minor but enjoyable heist picture set in a bustling Reno casino, Phil Karlson's 5 Against the House (1955), starring Kim Novak, rounds out the set. DVD extras include brief interviews with contemporary directors on all five films (three by Martin Scorsese, and one each by Christopher Nolan and Michael Mann), as well as audio commentaries by film noir historian Eddie Muller on The Sniper and The Lineup (joined here by novelist James Ellroy). Highly recommended. (S. Axmaker)