FILM NOIR: THE DARK SIDE OF CINEMA XXV - Collection Featuring John H. Auer's The Flame (1947), City That Never Sleeps (1953) And Hell's Half Acre (1954)

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Product Description: This collection features three film noir classics from Republic Pictures and director John H. Auer (A Man Betrayed):

THE FLAME (1947) – George MacAllister (John Carroll, Flying Tigers) is the black sheep of a wealthy family who has squandered his share of the family inheritance and lives in constant resentment of his rich, terminally-ill half-brother Barry (Robert Paige, Tangier). So George gets his girlfriend, Carlotta Duval (vivacious Vera Ralston, The Lady and the Monster), a job as Barry’s nurse with the plan that she will eventually marry him for his money and then dispose of him. But the scheme turns complicated when Carlotta finds that she is really in love with Barry. Co-starring Broderick Crawford (Human Desire), Henry Travers (Shadow of a Doubt) and Hattie McDaniel (Gone with the Wind).

CITY THAT NEVER SLEEPS (1953) – The Creeps, the Hoods, and the Killers Come Out to War with the City! In the vein of William Wyler’s popular Detective Story of two years earlier, this gritty noir gem juggles around five characters through a particularly bad night in a Chicago police precinct: stressed-out cop Johnny Kelly (Gig Young, Wake of the Red Witch); lounge singer Sally “Angel Face” Connors (Mala Powers, Outrage); thug-for-hire Hayes Stewart (William Talman, Crashout); corrupt district attorney Penrod Biddel (Edward Arnold, Johnny Eager); and Sgt. Joe (Chill Wills, Giant), an honest cop trying to keep Johnny on a straight path. Striking urban cinematography by John L. Russell (Psycho) and another great bad-girl performance by noir goddess Marie Windsor (Force of Evil).

HELL’S HALF ACRE (1954) – City of Sin…Toughest Spot in the Pacific! This Hawaii-set noir tells the twisting tale of ex-racketeer Chet Chester (Wendell Corey, Desert Fury), who is being blackmailed by his former partners-in-crime. When Chester’s gal Sally (Nancy Gates, Suddenly) kills one of his enemies, he assumes that he has enough clout to get a lighter sentence and takes the rap. Meanwhile, a visitor from L.A. (Evelyn Keyes, 99 River Street) comes to believe that Chester is the husband she thought she had lost at Pearl Harbor. Written by Steve Fisher (I Wake Up Screaming) and shot by ace D.P. John L. Russell (Moonrise), this offbeat crime yarn features standout support from Elsa Lanchester (Bride of Frankenstein), Jesse White (Witness to Murder), Leonard Strong (The Naked Jungle), Keye Luke (Gremlins), Philip Ahn (Macao) and the great Marie Windsor (The Killing).

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New on Blu-ray: THE KILLER IS LOOSE (1956) Starring Joseph Cotten, Rhonda Fleming and Wendell Corey

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Product Description: Detective Sam Wagner’s job is never easy. But this is no ordinary stressful day for Wagner (Joseph Cotten, The Third Man) or his wife Lila (Rhonda Fleming, Gunfight at the O.K. Corral). After pegging a recent bank robbery as an inside job orchestrated by the deceptively mild-mannered, bespectacled clerk Leon Poole (Wendell Corey, I Walk Alone), Wagner heads to the suspect’s apartment to make a peaceable arrest. Instead, Poole’s beloved wife is accidentally killed in the crossfire of a violent shootout. Sent to prison, and believing Wagner is responsible for his wife’s death, Poole is desperate for revenge. Escape and murder soon follow with the maniacal Poole hell-bent on taking away the woman Wagner loves. Helmed by the gritty Budd Boetticher, director of Horizons West, Wings of the Hawk, Seven Men from Now and The Tall T, The Killer Is Loose takes the filmmaker’s unique visual style away from the plains and into the world of suburbia for this taut and terrifying noir thriller. Close your windows, lock your doors—The Killer Is Loose!

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New on Blu-ray: MAN-EATER OF KUMAON (1948) Starring Sabu, Wendell Corey and Joy Page

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Product Description: Sabu (Arabian Nights), Wendell Corey (I Walk Alone) and Joanne Page (Casablanca) head the cast of this roaring adventure tale, Man-Eater of Kumaon. In the jungles of northern India, American doctor-turned-hunter John Collins (Corey) shoots at a tiger but manages only to injure its paw. When his bearer warns him that they must find and kill the tiger before it wreaks havoc, Collins ignores his pleas. Now, with a local village decimated by the titular man-eating tiger, and with the help of a tragedy-stricken couple, Narain (Sabu) and Lali (Page), the doctor gains a new perspective on his fellow man, and hunts for the ultimate prey. Based on the bestselling novel by hunter-naturalist Jim Corbett and rousingly directed by sci-fi/adventure great Byron Haskin (The War of the Worlds, The Naked Jungle, September Storm).

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New on Blu-ray: SORRY, WRONG NUMBER (1948) Starring Barbara Stanwyck & Burt Lancaster

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Product Description: Barbara Stanwyck and Burt Lancaster star in one of the greatest and most engrossing film noir thrillers ever put to celluloid. Young, rich, bedridden Leona Stevenson (Stanwyck) dials a telephone number one night and overhears two men plotting the murder of an unidentified woman. She becomes frantic. Her terror is intensified by mysterious calls from an old college rival and a friend of her father. With time running out, Leona pieces evidence together that leads her to suspect that it is her husband (Lancaster) who wants her murdered. Sorry, Wrong Number is a classic, extraordinary example of cumulative suspense and sheer terror. Barbara Stanwyck received an Oscar® nomination for her magnificent performance.

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New on Blu-ray: THE ACCUSED (1949) Starring Loretta Young and Robert Cummings

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Product Description: Loretta Young (The Stranger, The Farmer’s Daughter) and Robert Cummings (The Bride Wore Boots, Dial M for Murder) star in the film noir classic The Accused, a story about one woman’s successful self-defense during a struggle which leads to the death of her attacker. Psychology professor Wilma Tuttle (Young) allows a male student of hers to drive her home. While en route, he attempts to rape her but is killed when his teacher fights back. After fleeing the scene, Wilma is overcome with feelings of guilt while following the murder investigation by Homicide Lt. Dorgan (Wendell Corey, I Walk Alone, Rear Window) and comforting her love interest Warren Ford (Cummings), who also happens to be her attacker’s guardian. Directed by William Dieterle (I’ll Be Seeing You, Portrait of Jennie) and shot by Milton R. Krasner (All About Eve, Love with the Proper Stranger), this brilliantly acted drama dives into the psyche of a woman torn apart by emotional violence.

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New on Blu-ray: ALIAS JESSE JAMES (1959) Starring Bob Hope and Rhonda Fleming

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Product Description: Legendary funnyman Bob Hope (The Cat and the Canary, My Favorite Blonde) stars as the yellowest cowboy ever to sit in the saddle in this fast-paced western spoof riddled with rapid-fire laughs and sure-fire stunts! It takes a real sharp-shootin’, rough-ridin’ horseman to keep Jesse James in line. But until he arrives, insurance broker Milford Farnsworth (Hope) will simply have to do. Norman Z. McLeod (Topper, The Paleface) directed this comedy classic co-starring Rhonda Fleming (The Revolt of the Slaves) and Wendell Corey (Desert Fury) as Jesse James. Featuring a cavalcade of cowboy cameos by James Arness, Ward Bond, Gary Cooper, Bing Crosby, Fess Parker, Roy Rogers and his faithful steed Trigger, and many more!

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DVD & Blu-ray: THE FURIES (1950) Starring Barbara Stanwyck - Criterion Collection

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Product Description: Barbara Stanwyck and Walter Huston go head-to-head in Anthony Mann’s ruthless western melodrama Barbara Stanwyck and Walter Huston are at their fierce finest in this crackling western melodrama by master Hollywood craftsman Anthony Mann. In 1870s New Mexico Territory, megalomaniacal widowed ranch owner T. C. Jeffords (Huston, in his final role) butts heads with his firebrand of a daughter, Vance (Stanwyck), over her dowry, choice of husband, and, finally, ownership of the land itself. Sophisticated in its view of frontier settlement and ablaze with searing domestic drama, The Furies is an often-overlooked treasure of American filmmaking, boasting Oscar–nominated cinematography and vivid supporting turns from Judith Anderson, Wendell Corey, and Gilbert Roland.

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New on Blu-ray: HOLIDAY AFFAIR (1949) Starring Robert Mitchum and Janet Leigh

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Product Description: Even though he recently lost his job as a department-store clerk, Steve Mason buys an electric train set for a child he scarcely knows. It must be Christmastime. Robert Mitchum and Janet Leigh are warmly matched in Holiday Affair, a seasonal favorite scripted by Isobel Lennart (later to adapt Mitchums The Sundowners) and directed by Hope/Crosby road movies veteran Don Hartman. Mitchum plays Mason, who helps a child who would otherwise find disappointment under the Christmas tree. The boys war-widow mom (Leigh) notes the gesture, and she is drawn to the handsome stranger. But will she abandon the security that comes from dating a prosperous attorney (Wendell Corey) for the charm of this unemployed man who puts his money where his heart is?

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