Official Film Noir on Blu-ray Thread

[lhslancers]

Originally Posted by Vlad Draculi

I never understood how anyone could find The Exorcist scary. The whole concept is just laughable and the dialog the little girl says is comedic gold. I could take the movie as a horror comedy, but it is not even close to being a true horror movie. Hell, the whole scene with the priests and their water is just priceless.

Anyway, we got to see the 1953 movie Pick-Up on South Street today at the Alamo Drafthouse and what an excellent movie this was. I really hope it comes out to BD in the near future as I will definitely be picking it up. It did a really nice job of keeping you guessing what was going to happen and the concept was well done. The characters and acting were great, but I think my favorite moments are when the camera is zoomed close in on the characters' faces at times as you can see the sweat and stuff coming down. The only negative I can say is that it was only 80 minutes long, but felt like it was nearly 2 hours. Nevertheless, I give it an 8/10 stars. Another superb Film Noir.

Scared the hell out of me. Had nightmares for a week.

[The Great Owl]

I may be in the minority, but I think that To Live and Die in L.A. is one of the top 10 neo-noir films, and that it captures the essence of classic-era film noir quite brilliantly.

Plus, the theme song by Wang Chung is absolutely amazing.

[Ray Jackson]

Originally Posted by lhslancers

Scared the hell out of me. Had nightmares for a week.

More of a psychological thriller than a horror movie imo.

Even Blatty and Friedkin said they never considered it to be a horror movie.

Doesn't mean it can't be scary though.

...especially if one is the religious type who takes that kind of stuff literally.

[Ray Jackson]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

I may be in the minority, but I think that To Live and Die in L.A. is one of the top 10 neo-noir films, and that it captures the essence of classic-era film noir quite brilliantly.

Plus, the theme song by Wang Chung is absolutely amazing.

The whole part where the two agents decide to

[Show spoiler]rob the undercover FBI agent (unbeknownst to them) in order to get the front money to set up Willem Dafoe makes no sense at all imo. Even if they made the bust, how were they supposed to explain to their bosses where they got the buy money from?

I didn't think the Willem Dafoe character was very well written. The writer threw all sorts of stuff into the script without really making any attempt to examine its significance.

And the ending is sort of preposterous imo.

...to each his own.

[jayembee]

Originally Posted by Ray Jackson

More of a psychological thriller than a horror movie imo.

Even Blatty and Friedkin said they never considered it to be a horror movie.

Doesn't mean it can't be scary though.

...especially if one is the religious type who takes that kind of stuff literally.

Blatty claimed to have based the novel on an actual exorcism performed back in the late 40s.

[RiFiFi1955]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

I may be in the minority, but I think that To Live and Die in L.A. is one of the top 10 neo-noir films, and that it captures the essence of classic-era film noir quite brilliantly.

Plus, the theme song by Wang Chung is absolutely amazing.

Man I live To Live and Die in LA but I never really thought of it as a new noir but yeah I can see it. One of my favorite neo noirs is The Hot Spot and it is getting a French solo release from Wild Side in a few weeks, hoping it is a new transfer.

[fdm]

Originally Posted by silverlakephil

It was released by Warner Bros., so who knows if it will ever get a Blu-ray release. Are you listening, Warner Archive?

Just so happens the warner archive dvd release of Breaking Point was discontinued earlier this year. So certainly some potential for an upcoming blu-ray release. (It was discontinued around the time Day For Night was discountinued by warner, fwiw.)

[Adster81]

this is awesome!! Huge Film Noir fan my fav genre

[Adster81]

The last picture show 1971 (not sure if it really is 100% Noir) but i wish it was released on Blu Ray on it's own, the only way to get it right now is by some huge pack of movies that has Easy Rider on it

[hoytereden]

Originally Posted by silverlakephil

Unfortunately, I only caught the last half of the TCM broadcast this morning of The Breaking Point, a 1950 Film Noir directed by Michael Curtiz (Casablanca) starring Film Noir regular, John Garfield. Pretty decent film, particularly,

[Show spoiler]a shootout on a boat

at the end. It was released by Warner Bros., so who knows if it will ever get a Blu-ray release. Are you listening, Warner Archive?

I've been banging the drum on this film for a long time now. The dark version of To Have and Have Not. That closing scene is as sad a one as I've ever seen.

[tallrichard]

Originally Posted by waxHead

I found Friedkin's Sorcerer to be a compelling, engaging remake of Clouzot's Wages of Fear, even though it was the film which basically destroyed Friedkin's career.

I've gone back and forth on watching To Live and Die in L.A., and at this point, I think I'm just going to skip it.

I thought Cruising destroyed Friedkin's career.

[Modman]

Warner Archive have just posted the cover art for Murder My Sweet on their Facebook page, no date yet, can't be long (includes Silver commentary and trailer). Apologies if previously posted.

[MifuneFan]

Great news! Here's the cover art and info below.

Murder, My Sweet
(1944)
B&W-95 Min.
BD-50
Subtitles: English SDH
SPECIAL FEATURES: Feature Commentary by Alain Silver, Original Theatrical Trailer

Dick Powell reinvents himself from musical man to hard-boiled hero in high style in this classic film noir adaptation of Raymond Chandler's "Farewell, My Lovely". Murder My Sweet sees world-weary knight errant Philip Marlowe take a job looking for Moose Malloy's (Mike Mazurki) girlfriend Velma. Malloy's a petty criminal just released after a seven-year prison sentence, and Velma has not been seen for six years. But a simple missing-person case becomes much more twisted than Marlowe ever anticipated as initially promising clues lead to a complex web of deceit, bribery, perjury and theft. Murder My Sweet remains one of the purest versions of Chandler ever committed to film.

[kaseaver]

[QUOTE=The Great Owl;11173972]I may be in the minority, but I think that To Live and Die in L.A. is one of the top 10 neo-noir films, and that it captures the essence of classic-era film noir quite brilliantly.

I'm with you. Imo a top tier neo noir film.

[Vlad Draculi]

Originally Posted by stevieray44

Quite the contrary: the only reviews I've been able to come across now are yours and Owl's from the thread for the individual realease! You guys seem to have split me down the middle So thanks for taking the time, because I really am curious, it being Robert Ryan and all.

And as far as Pickup on South Street, 1953: that movie is AWESOME. Widmark is fantastic in it, and so is Jean Peters, but Thelma Ritter (who you guys may remember from old episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, as well as Rear Window, 1954) really steals the shows, imo. No spoilers here, but there's a scene towards the end where the camera pans left to a record player; one of my favorite moments in all of noir.

Yes Moe was just awesome.

[waxHead]

Originally Posted by tallrichard

I thought Cruising destroyed Friedkin's career.

I'd never heard of Cruising until I read your post; after reading about it, that's certainly possible. I was partially referring to the portion about Sorcerer on Friedkin's Wikipedia page:

Sorcerer (1977), a $22 million American remake of the French classic Wages of Fear, starring Roy Scheider, was overshadowed by the blockbuster box-office success of Star Wars, which had been released exactly one month prior. Friedkin considers it his finest film, and was personally devastated by its financial and critical failure (as mentioned by Friedkin himself in the documentary series The Directors (1999)).

I missed it earlier, the commerial failure of Sorcerer is explained in detail on it's Wikipedia page in the "Box Office" section.

[waxHead]

Originally Posted by MifuneFan

Great news! Here's the cover art and info below.

I'd love for this to include a few more special features, but at this point with films noir on Blu-ray, I'm just happy it's being released at all.

[jayembee]

Originally Posted by Adster81

The last picture show 1971 (not sure if it really is 100% Noir) but i wish it was released on Blu Ray on it's own, the only way to get it right now is by some huge pack of movies that has Easy Rider on it

The Last Picture Show is a wonderful film, but I can't for the life of me work out why anyone would consider it noir. But then, I've had my own disagreements with the pack with regard to the noirosity of some films.

Anyway, there's probably a fairly good chance that Criterion might release it separately from the set. There have been rumors that they might lose the rights to Head, partly fueled by the fact that they recently released Five Easy Pieces as a separate title, and it included a generic about-BBS documentary that had originally been on the Head disc in the set.

If they lose the rights to Head, the set would probably have to go OOP. The Last Picture Show would be the only title from the set -- aside from Five Easy Pieces -- that would probably be worth releasing on its own. Well, Easy Rider, too, but that's been released in umpteen different editions by Sony already.

[Blu Titan]

Great. News on Murder my Sweet . Hopefully, The Asphalt Jungle and The Big Sleep will be announced very soon .

[dsman71]

Originally Posted by Blu Titan

Great. News on Murder my Sweet . Hopefully, The Asphalt Jungle and The Big Sleep will be announced very soon .

My sentiments exactly ! And Gun Crazy, The Set Up, then i can retire Volume 1 of my Noir DVD set