Mobster Movies: 8 Feature Films - Yul Brynner/Peter Lorre/Scott Brady [2 Discs]

Editorial Reviews

The abstract beauty of Joseph H. Lewis' harsh, classic noir may be the best work of legendary cinematographer John Alton in the genre he did so much to shape. Although tightly scripted, the banal tale of a cop's obsessive quest to nail a powerful mobster would seem to hold few surprises, but here the plot elements are overwhelmed by a subtext of erotic obsession and implied depravity. Cornel Wilde's investigation is clearly driven by his worship of nice-girl-gone-bad Jean Wallace, who is held in sexual thrall by Richard Conte's mobster. In the film's most controversial scene, the gangster silences her words of contempt by working his way down her body with kisses to an ecstatic response. The film's uglier violence is often offscreen, but a notoriously inventive Tarantino-like torture sequence involving a hearing aid is enough to sustain its lurid tone. Alton is the film's major factor, and his brilliant low-key lighting effects and imaginative camera placement effectively mask the limitations of Wilde, Wallace, and the sometimes inane dialogue. In a film that is often literally very dark, the cameraman's geometrical shafts of light seem to fall across this unsavory crew with an accusatory glare. ~ Michael Costello, Rovi A problematic but fascinating excursion into film noir, The Chase is not to everyone's taste but will thrill and delight those who are tuned in to its wavelength. Chase is revered by many noir-ists for its decidedly dreamlike atmosphere; indeed, part of the film is an actual dream, and the shift back between reality and dream is one of the picture's hallmarks. Blessed with dazzlingly expressionistic lensing from the excellent Franz Planer, Chase is a nightmare made real and like most nightmares, it can be hard for some people to take. They have a right to decry the slipperiness of the script, which at times is difficult to follow and doesn't always make sense: not everything adds up the way it's supposed to. But the atmosphere director Arthur Ripley creates is highly individualized and leaves a strong impression. Moments crash into the memory and stay there, and any film that forces impressions onto the subconscious in this way is worth respecting. In the lead, Robert Cummings is good but not great. He's a little lightweight, not able to give the part the underpinnings that it needs. Better but still falling somewhat short of the mark is Michele Morgan; she has the femme fatale concept down but doesn't give it a distinctive enough mark. That leaves the field clear for bad guys Steve Cohran and Peter Lorre to steal the show, which they do with ease. ~ Craig Butler, Rovi Norman Foster is best remembered for his directorial credit on a string of Mr. Moto movies in the late '30s; for Journey Into Fear (1942), a film prepared and designed by Orson Welles, on which Foster merely had to (and did) follow all of Welles' detailed instructions to bring off properly; and for a bunch of Disney-produced TV projects in the 1950s. But Woman on the Run (1950) is Foster's masterpiece, a stylish, sometimes funny, always ominous and often unsettling work that has as much to say about marriage and unhappiness as it offers thrills and suspense; and in the bargain, it offers Ann Sheridan in perhaps the best role of her career, as a hardened, disillusioned woman who discovers that at least half of the problems in her life lay within herself, and that she still loves the man she thought had ruined her life. It also us gives some of the best location shooting around San Francisco (albeit in black-and-white) that audiences were to get prior to Hitchcock's Vertigo and Don Siegel's Dirty Harry (not to mention Siegel's The Lineup). Foster and his cast perform a beautiful balancing act throughout, offering scenes laced with irony and biting humor (often at the expense of Sheridan's character) while never losing sight of the notion that we're following the trail of someone who is not only in danger from a killer, but who may also be a dying man, if he doesn't stop running. The moments of humor, sly, sardonic, and understated, relieve the tension at strategic points, which helps make the overall tone of suspense that much more effective and compelling. In all, it's some of the best work ever done by most of the people involved, and that rare thriller peopled by characters that one feels good about having learned to know better from the beginning to the end. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi