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Powerhouse Indicator’s first foray into the Universal library yields six noir thrillers, all crime-related and all different: the list introduces us to scheming businessmen, venal confidence crooks, black-market racketeers, a femme fatale, a gangster deportee and baby stealers. The B&w features are enriched with some of the best actors of the postwar years, and the titles themselves are a litany of vice and sin: The Web, Larceny, Kiss the Blood Off My Hands, Abandoned, Deported and Naked Alibi.

Universal Noir #1

Region B Blu-ray

The Web, Larceny, Kiss the Blood Off My Hands, Abandoned, Deported, Naked Alibi

Powerhouse Indicator

1948-1954 / B&w / Street Date November 14, 2022 / available from Powerhouse Films UK / £49.99

Starring: Ella Raines, Edmond O’Brien, Vincent Price, William Bendix; John Payne, Joan Caulfield, Dan Duryea, Shelly Winters, Dorothy Hart; Joan Fontaine, Burt Lancaster, Robert Newton; Dennis O’Keefe, Gale Storm, Jeff Chandler, Raymond Burr; Marta Toren, Jeff Chandler, Marina Berti, Richard Rober; Sterling Hayden,...

It happens every time: we want to cruelly betray somebody, but Love keeps getting in the way. When evil Dan Duryea sics con-man louse John Payne on the saintly war widow Joan Caulfield, three other women come tagging along as well, ’cause Payne is just too attractive. The swindle in George Sherman’s unsure noir gets uglier and then loses its way in the third act, with clunker dialogue and a climax that dissolves when it should resolve. Look out for super femme input from Shelley Winters, Dorothy Hart and Patricia Alphin. It’s an early featured role for Winters, and she doesn’t hold back.

Larceny

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1948 / B&w / 1:37 flat Academy / 89 min. / Street Date July 13, 2021 / available through Kino Lorber / 24.95

Starring: John Payne, Joan Caulfield, Dan Duryea, Shelley Winters, Dorothy Hart, Richard Rober, Dan O’Herlihy, Nicholas Joy, Percy Helton, Walter Greaza, Patricia Alphin, Gene Evans.

Cinematography:...

John Wayne! Janet Leigh! Nifty jet-age flying sequences! Goofy, bad-taste sex jokes! Hans Conreid as a chortling Russian army officer! Howard Hughes’ personal fun project took seven years to make while he played games with the aerial footage. It’s a highly-polished absurd joke, but it’s certainly entertaining. See Hughes try to do for Janet Leigh what he did for Jane Russell — I assume Ms. Leigh was too shrewd to sign any long-term contracts! This German disc has excellent widescreen image and audio.

Jet Pilot

Blu-ray

Explosive Media GmbH

1957 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 113 min. / Düsenjäger / Street Date June 14 2018, 2019 / 12.99 euros

Starring: John Wayne, Janet Leigh, Jay C. Flippen, Paul Fix, Richard Rober, Roland Winters, Hans Conried, Ivan Triesault, Hall Bartlett, Gregg Barton, Gene Evans, Paul Frees, Harry Lauter, Nelson Leigh, Denver Pyle, Gene Roth, Kenneth Tobey, Mamie Van Doren, Carleton Young.

Cinematography: Winton C. Hoch

Aerial Stunts: Chuck Yeager

Original Music:...

Port of New York

Written by Eugene Ling

Directed by Lazlo Benedek

U.S.A., 1949

Ports, much like airports and border crosses, are the among the most important gates through which returning citizens, visitors and imported goods much pass in order to step onto a territory’s soil. The level of security associated with such to and fro activity is unfathomable, ranging from the verification of travellers identification pieces to the inspection of whatever goods said arrivals want to bring with them into the new country or state. Just ask New York customs agent Jim Flannery (Richard Rober), tasked with investigating the sudden disappearance of drugs originally intended for medicinal use. Enter narcotics officer Michael Waters (Scott Brady) who, together with Jim Flannery, is on the prowl for the stolen goods. A suspect presumed to be involved with the clandestine operation, Toni Cardell (K.T. Stevens) is pressured into confessing critical information,...

The File on Thelma Jordon

Written by Ketti Frings

Directed by Robert Siodmak

USA, 1950

Cleve Marshal (Wendell Corey), assistant district attorney, arrives at the office of colleague and close friend Miles Scott (Paul Kelley) as the latter converses on the phone with Cleve’s wife Pamela (Joan Tetzel). The Marshals are experiencing rocky waters in their marriage, what with Cleve intentionally ducking frequent visits with his influential father-in-law, with whom he shares a strained relationship, a strain which has now soured life with his wife. His attempt to leave the frying pan lands him straight into the fire, however, as later that night, while drunk, Cleve is visited in the office by a beautiful woman named Thelma Jordan (Barbara Stanwyck). The visitor, under the impression that Cleve is actually Miles, explains that she and her wealthy aunt are regularly visited by burglars at night. This proves too great an opportunity for dissatisfied,...

Dial 1119

Directed by Gerald Mayer

Written by Hugh King and Don McGuire

U.S.A., 1950

If there is one thing about older films which can cause a surprise among modern audiences, it is the acting style of the period. A frequent complaint coming from those whose exposure to movies of the 30s, 40s and 60s is limited is that the variety of the acting is vastly different from what is typically experienced today. Back then, being a bit more on the theatrical, or melodramatic side, was a good thing, whereas in the early 21st century, subtlety is what people admire most. Imagine what a melodramatic performance serving a mentally challenged character would be like, a thought which could very well turn people away from watching Marshall Thomspon in Dial 1119, but those people will have missed perfectly calculated, chilling role.

Director Gerald Mayer, nephew of the legendary producer Louis B.