July 14, 2010 THE VILLADOM TIMES I, II, III & IV • Page 19 Film noir thrillers for a hot summer night by Dennis Seuling The film noir genre emerged right after World War II and flourished into the early 1950s. French for “black film,” movies of this type were usually low-budget, shot in black and white, featured seamy characters from the underside of life, and were set in dark streets, cheap hotel rooms or boarding houses, and back alleys. Although they were made to fill the bottom half of a double feature, many have stood the test of time because of their edginess, vivid characters, and gritty plots. “The Film Noir Classic Collection: Volume 5” (Warner Home Video) is a fourdisc box set containing eight film noir pictures. “Cornered” (1945) stars Dick Powell -- who had made the transition from musical juvenile to more dramatic fare the year before in “Murder My Sweet” -- as an ex-RAF pilot stalking the Nazi collaborator who murdered his bride. One fact constantly surfaces during his search: No one can describe the elusive man. “Desperate” (1947) stars Steve Brodie as a post-war Everyman who accepts what he thinks is an honest trucking job only to discover he is the driver in a foiled heist that puts him and his bride on the run from both the cops and the convicts who planned the job. Raymond Burr plays the chief thug. In “Armored Car Robbery” (1950), director Richard Fleischer (“Fantastic Voyage,” “Tora! Tora! Tora!”) serves up a tale about a deadly robbery and the battle of wits and firepower between a fugitive gangster (William Talman) and his stripper moll (Adele Jurgens) and a tough cop (Charles McGraw) out to avenge his partner’s death, who uses hidden microphones, lab work, and his own well-tuned instincts and intuitions to close the net on the perpetrators. “Crime in the Streets” (1956) focuses on the aftermath of a turf rumble between two gangs. One of the leaders (John Cassavetes) orders his gang to do what they have never done before: kill a snitch. Reginald Rose (TV’s “The Defenders”) wrote and Don Siegel (“Dirty Harry”) directed this screen version of a story that first aired on TV with James Whitmore and Sal Mineo starring. The other movies in the collection are “The Phenix City Story” (1955), a tale of corruption in the deep South; “Dial 1119” (1950), about an escaped insane asylum inmate on the loose; “Deadline at Dawn” (1946), featuring a young Susan Hayward as a goodhearted dime-a-dancer; and “Backfire” (1950), which follows a recovering war veteran’s quest to prove his pal Original poster for ‘Armored Car Robbery,’ one of eight movies featured in a new box set. is innocent of murder. The only extras are theatrical trailers for “Cornered” and “Dial 1119.” “Columbia Pictures Film Noir Classics II” (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment), another tribute to the genre, is a five-disc box set containing five 1950s films. Columbia often cast some of its biggest stars in films noir. This collection features Fred MacMurray, Glenn Ford, Broderick Crawford, Kim Novak, Richard Conte, Gloria Grahame, Dorothy Malone, and Anne Bancroft. Titles include “Human Desire,” “Pushover,” “Nightfall,” City of Fear,” and “The Brothers Rico.” All films are Widescreen. Bonuses include three special introductory featurettes: Martin Scorsese on “The Brothers Rico,” “Pulp Paranoia” with Christopher Nolan, and “Terror and Desire” with Emily Mortimer. “The Greatest” (National Entertainment Media) stars Pierce Brosnan and Susan Sarandon as Allen and Grace Brewer, a grief-stricken couple whose family has been pushed to the breaking point by the accidental death of their eldest son, Bennett. When a young woman, Rose (Carey Mulligan, “An Education”), shows up a few months later announcing that she is pregnant with Bennett’s child, the Brewers are forced to explore the depths of their empathy. 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