Rififi

Rififi (1955) starring Jean Servais, Carl Mohner, Magali Noel, Robert Manuel, Jules Dassin. Directed by Jules Dassin. French crime noir in which four jewel thieves pull off an incredibly lucrative heist -- only to find that a slip-up by one of them endangers not only the take from the robbery but the life of one of their sons. Dassin is actually an American director who was blacklisted during the early 1950s, and had to go to Europe in order to be able to make films. This movie is actually a pretty great crime film. Of particular note is the actual heist scene itself, in which the four men go about the business of breaking into a jewelry store and cracking the safe with no soundtrack -- no dialogue or music -- except the incidental sounds of the break-in and safe-cracking. The actors were not well known, even in France. An entertaining and involving movie. In French, with English subtitles. Grade: B+   

Angel Face

Angel Face (1952) starring Robert Mitchum, Jean Simmons. Directed by Otto Preminger. An ambulance driver named Frank (Mitchum) is called to the scene of a near-asphyxiation, where he meets Diane (Simmons), the beautiful but hate-filled stepdaughter of the woman who almost died. Diane turns out to be a manipulative witch, and she gets Frank to quit his ambulance-driving job and come to work as a chauffeur for her father and stepmother. Diane tries to get Frank to fall in love with her, but he's not having it, sensing there is something a bit off with her. Then, when her father and stepmother die in a car crash, Diane and Frank are arrested and charged together with murder. I found the premise and the resolution of this movie to be outlandish, and I was not satisfied with it. However, it did keep my interest, and I think it will stick with me as a memorable film. (English subtitles are available for the hearing-impaired.) Grade: B-  

This Gun for Hire

This Gun for Hire (1942) starring Alan Ladd, Veronica Lake, Robert Preston. Killer-for-hire named Raven (Ladd) does a job for traitor Willard Gates (Preston) and gets paid in "hot" money. On the run, Raven travels to Los Angeles to get revenge on Gates and expose his plan to sell poison gas to the Japanese. In the course of events, nightclub entertainer Ellen Graham (Lake) gets mixed up in the deal. The film mixes crime and war themes with only partially successful results; its principal claim to fame is being Ladd's movie debut. (The subtitles included on the disc are adequate. No closed captions.) Grade: B

The Sniper

The Sniper (1952) starring Adolphe Menjou, Arthur Franz, Richard Kiley. Noir thriller in which a man (Franz) with mother issues decides to start killing women who he feels have slighted him. He kills from a distance, using a World War II Army carbine. The case is solved by a police lieutenant named Kafka (Menjou), assisted by a police psychiatrist (Kiley). For today's viewer, this movie has little to offer, except for the authentic San Francisco scenery, which is nice to see. The psychology of the serial killer is just not convincing, and in early '50s fashion, they've got it all wrong. To its credit, the film has both subtitles and closed captions. Grade: C

Kiss Me Deadly

Kiss Me Deadly (1955) starring Ralph Meeker, Albert Decker, Paul Stewart, Cloris Leachman. Sleazy private detective Mike Hammer (Meeker) picks up a scantily clad hitchhiker (Leachman), only to find that some very serious mobsters have an interest in her. Through the twists and turns of the plot, Hammer searches for the thing that was so important that it got his hitchhiker killed. I was surprised to find that the important thing was much more interesting (albeit not believable) than anything I would have guessed. What at first seemed like a schlock movie turned out to be really thought-provoking. No subtitles, but closed captions are available. Grade: B

The Postman Always Rings Twice (DVD)

The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946) starring Lana Turner, John Garfield, Cecil Kellaway, Hume Cronyn. Cora and Nick (Turner and Kellaway) are a married couple who own a diner by the side of the highway; Frank (Garfield) is the hired hand who arrives hitchhiking one day. Things get sticky when Cora and Frank fall in love, then decide to do away with the likable Nick. Cronyn plays a sleazy lawyer named Keats who, after Nick's death, ends up playing Cora and Frank off against each other. Many complications follow, but suffice it to say that Cora and Frank both end up paying for their crime. I was not too thrilled by this film. In particular, I thought the chemistry between Turner and Garfield seemed phony. Neither was a great actor. The captions on this disc are very good. Grade: B

Panic in the Streets (DVD)

Panic in the Streets (1950) starring Richard Widmark, Paul Douglas, Barbara Bel Geddes, Jack Palance, Zero Mostel. Dr. Clint Reed (Widmark) finds that a recently murdered man had pneumonic plague, and the killers (Palance, Mostel) must be found before they start an epidemic. The police captain (Douglas) is not very cooperative, so Dr. Reed goes off by himself, searching the docks of New Orleans for anyone who has seen the dead man. Meanwhile, the killers are doing everything they can to elude capture while the plague incubates inside them. Despite the 1950 production values, it's a pretty intense film. The subtitles are very helpful. Grade: B

Out of the Past (DVD)

Out of the Past (1947) starring Robert Mitchum, Jane Greer, Kirk Douglas, Rhonda Fleming. Mitchum plays a former private detective who is trying to escape his past. Greer fills the femme fatale role as Kathie, the dame who keeps pulling him back into danger -- and who has a bad habit of shooting men who get in her way. The dialogue is snappy and the action is pretty much non-stop -- and everybody, especially Mitchum, drinks freely and smokes like a chimney. The plot of this movie is really a little too complicated to be enjoyed, but it makes up for it with atmosphere. It's the quintessential noir for film students. The subtitles are good. Grade: B