Film Noir Classic Collection, Vol. 3 (DVD)

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In the press release for their "Film Noir Classics Collection," Volume 3, Warner Bros. say that "Film Noir (in French, 'black film') is at its core pessimistic with stories of people trapped in a world of alienation, disillusionment, corruption and moral ambiguity. Developed during and after World War II, classic film noir took advantage of the post-war ambience of anxiety, pessimism and suspicion.... Film noir re-influenced mainstream cinema by creating bleak but intelligent dramas in real-life urban settings and using unsettling techniques such as skewed camera angles, expressionistic lighting, deep-focus camera work and confessional voice-overs."

What Warner Bros. don't mention is that at the time film noir was being popularized by Hollywood in the 1940s and early 50s, the filmmakers themselves had little idea they were doing all these fancy things. It was only in 1946 when French critic Nino Frank first coined the term and later in the 1950s when others in the French cinema intelligentsia further analyzed these movies that Hollywood and the rest of the world recognized what the "film noir" movement was all about. Whatever, there is no questioning the look and the intent of good film noir, my personal favorite being Carol Reed's British entry from 1949, "The Third Man." But that's neither here nor there. The subject at hand is the series of film noir that MGM, RKO, and Howard Hughes produced in the 1940s and 50s as exemplified in this box set of five noir near-classics, now owned by WB. The movies are exclusive to the set, meaning you can't buy them separately, but the box also comes with the excellent documentary "Film Noir: Bringing Darkness to Light," so it makes a good value.

Let me briefly describe four of the five films in the set and then go into further detail about one of them that is a little more unusual than the others. Taking them alphabetically, there is "Border Incident" (1949) with Ricardo Montalban and George Murphy as a pair of policemen from México and the United States tracking down thieves and crooks who victimize illegal aliens. The director, Anthony Mann, keeps the tension and violence surprisingly high for a picture of this vintage, although most of the action is fairly routine.

Following that one is "His Kind of Woman" (1951), with that quintessential film-noir hero, Robert Mitchum. In it, Mitchum meets Jane Russell, Vincent Price, and Raymond Burr, and the movie's tongue-in-cheek humor comes close to being a parody of the noir style, especially as Price practically steals the show with his ham.

Next is "On Dangerous Ground" (1952), with Robert Ryan and Ida Lupino. Further complementing the filmmaking crew were director Nicholas Ray, producer John Houseman, and composer Bernard Herrmann. The movie could hardly go wrong with that team, although it is more than a bit hackneyed, even sentimental, compared to something like "Border Incident."

Then, there is "The Racket" (1951), with Robert Ryan playing a gangster and Robert Mitchum again, this time as a cop, squaring off against each other. Of the films in the collection, this one is the most melodramatic in its good guy vs. bad guy approach to crime films.

"Lady in the Lake":
Now, we come to the film I found the most unconventional in this set, MGM's "Lady in the Lake" (c. 1946; released in 1947), based on Raymond Chandler's 1943 novel, "The Lady in the Lake." Robert Montgomery directed the movie, and he also stars as Chandler's private eye Philip Marlowe (although the moviemakers spell the name "Phillip," and likewise spell the names of some of the other characters differently; they even drop Chandler's "The" in the title and make it simply "Lady in the Lake"; I'm not sure if they made these changes on purpose or if they were simply mistakes). Montgomery was not the first actor nor would he be the last to tackle the Marlowe role; such noted performers as Humphrey Bogart, Dick Powell, Robert Mitchum, James Garner, Elliot Gould, and Powers Boothe among others tried their hand at the job. But the thing is, Montgomery as director also tried a unique gimmick with it. He filmed the whole thing through Marlowe's eyes, literally from his point of view. We see only Montgomery's hands or the actor's reflection in mirrors and such. The gimmick pretty much failed at the box office; it was apparently a little too different for audiences back then. All the same, it was a fascinating experiment.

The problem is, if we're looking through Marlowe's eyes, seeing and hearing everything that he is seeing and hearing, who exactly are we supposed to be? Are we Marlowe? I mean, it's nice to get the main character's perspective on things directly, but without that omniscient narrator, the third-person camera, the director does put the audience in a rather awkward position, one that takes a bit of getting used to and then still feels clumsy. It's kind of like one of today's first-person video games where we become the hero. But here it is clear that we are not the hero; Phillip Marlowe is the hero and we're somehow watching over his shoulder. The trailer for the movie exclaims, "Mysteriously starring Robert Montgomery and you!" Uh-huh. Still, it is a unique enough idea that you might want to give it a try.

The story line itself pretty much follows the standard Chandler plot, meaning if you get lost in it, don't fret. It's the colorful characters and dark shadows and bizarre actions that are all important in creating the moody atmosphere that a good, noir detective yarn should have. Plus, we get the camera moving to and fro, side to side, and up and down as Marlowe looks around a room or glances through some clues. When he gets punched in the face, the fist comes right into the screen.