A new, rejiggered list of where my heart currently is regarding the films of the 1950s: 1.) In a Lonely Place (Ray, 1950) 2.) Sunset Blvd. (Wilder, 1950) 3.) Rear Window (Hitchcock, 1954) 4.) Vertigo (Hitchcock, 1958) 5.) Night and the City (Dassin, 1950) 6.) Johnny Guitar (Ray, 1954) 7.) Ace in the Hole (Wilder, [...]

Tight Spot, directed by genre craftsman Phil Karlson, doesn’t do a lot for me beneath the surface but it does manage to skip along nicely in the moment. It was adapted from a stage play, and the general reluctance to move beyond its hotel room setting save for a scene or two is clear evidence [...]

A couple of years ago I ducked into Film Forum for a showing of The Burglar, a 1957 feature that was the fiction debut of director Paul Wendkos and the only time David Goodis adapted one of his novels for the big screen. My expectations were neither high nor low. I was just keen to [...]

The Mob is a deeply satisfying crime drama – and I’m okay with considering it a film noir actually – heightened by a fine lead performance from Broderick Crawford. It features a nifty cast of familiar faces, including Richard Kiley, Ernest Borgnine, and, in a bit role with one line, Charles Bronson. There are ample [...]

The idea of Mickey Rooney as a noir hero just seems preposterous. Andy Hardy dark and brooding? Not possible, you might think. I’m as anti-Rooney as the next shadowy guy in the trench coat and I’d never seen him in anything that was even decent. Until Drive a Crooked Road, that is. The 1954 Richard [...]

The MGM LE Collection has already been hugely hit or miss both in terms of technical quality and the strength of the films released. I’ve seen ten discs thus far, with three more here for review, and the only certified winner is the long-awaited DVD debut of Samuel Fuller’s Park Row. It’s a great, important [...]

Susan Slept Here is a glorious bath of Technicolor about a 35-year-old Oscar-winning screenwriter (played by Dick Powell) whose Christmas Eve includes a couple of cops delivering him a 17-year-old delinquent (Debbie Reynolds). She’s the Susan of the title, she does indeed sleep there, and they even end up driving over to Las Vegas on [...]

Just up, my review of Arrow’s Region B release of Rififi. The UK Blu-ray is a gem. Folks locked to Region A can hope for the Criterion Collection to upgrade its DVD edition in the near future.

It’s going to be tough for anything else to best the Criterion Collection’s Blu-ray of Sweet Smell of Success as my favorite of the year. There’s time, of course, and lots of things could happen. But right now? Hard to imagine a better all around package. It’s so nice to fall in love with a [...]

Exposure Cinema in the UK released Fritz Lang’s While the City Sleeps on DVD about three weeks ago. I finally had the chance to get my hands on a copy the other day and turned in a review of the disc for The Digital Fix. In short, it’s an easy choice between paying something like [...]