Kino Lorber continues to debut newly remastered editions of lesser-known crime thrillers of the 1940s and 1950s on Blu-ray in three-film box sets. Barbara Stanwyck, one of the great noir actresses, is the biggest star in this collection. She's the lady of The Lady Gambles (1949), which is less a film noir than a drama of gambling addiction that leads a solid citizen into a spiral that ends with her beaten up in an alley dice game. Her story is told in flashback by her husband (Robert Preston), trying to explain her illness to a callous doctor who thinks that she's not worthy of his compassion. This mix of social issue drama and crime melodrama falters when it pins the blame on her possessive older sister but Stanwyck is always compelling and she makes the most of an underwritten character. Abandoned (1949), a murder mystery that leads to a "baby broker" ring, is more of a true film noir. Dennis O'Keefe (who starred in his share of notable noirs) is a wise-cracking reporter who helps a small-town girl (Gale Storm) in the big city find the criminal ring who killed her sister. Mostly set at night in an unnamed big city, it has a classic noir look with slashes of light and characters plunged into darkness. It's one of many crime dramas of the time inspired by real-life stories and contemporary social issues and features Jeff Chandler (before he became a leading man) as the District Attorney and Raymond Burr and Mike Mazurki as heavies. The Sleeping City (1950) begins with a dynamic and bold sequence: a burned-out doctor leaves the hospital, takes a long, lonely walk through the city, and is confronted by a man who thrusts a gun in his face. Richard Conte stars as an undercover police inspector posing as an intern in a hospital where two doctors have been murdered. What he thinks is a gambling ring turns out to be a narcotics racket: young doctors get into debt and are blackmailed to steal drugs for the mob. Director George Sherman makes great use of claustrophobic basement tunnels and a cluttered rooftop at night for the climactic action sequence. None of these films is top tier but The Lady Gambles features one of the great stars of classic Hollywood and the latter two are interesting and entertaining examples of lesser-known crime films heavily influenced the dark sensibility (visually and thematically) that we call film noir. These Blu-rays are currently available solely in a box set, each in its own case, and each film features commentary by film historians (the best is Imogen Sara Smith's well-organized commentary on The Sleeping City). The films are also available individually on DVD from various labels without the supplements or the new remasters. A strong optional purchase. (S. Axmaker)