ChiaroScuro DVD-Collection
Alphabetically sorted by Director's last name
Total number of titles: 1397
Last updated: 09 Feb 2007
(Mord, mein Liebling [de] )
USA 1944
d: Edward Dmytryk
Warner Home Video (Region 1 us)
USA 1944
d: Edward Dmytryk
Warner Home Video (Region 1 us)
sc: John Paxton (based on the novel "Farewell, My Lovely" by Raymond Chandler)
c: Harry J. Wild (b/w)
e: Joseph Noriega
pd: Carroll Clark, Albert S. D'Agostino
m: Roy Webb
p: Adrian Scott (RKO Radio Pictures)
w: Dick Powell, Claire Trevor, Anne Shirley, Otto Kruger, Mike Mazurki, Miles Mander, Douglas Walton, Donald Douglas, Ralf Harolde, Esther Howard
pr: 18 Dez 1944
c: Harry J. Wild (b/w)
e: Joseph Noriega
pd: Carroll Clark, Albert S. D'Agostino
m: Roy Webb
p: Adrian Scott (RKO Radio Pictures)
w: Dick Powell, Claire Trevor, Anne Shirley, Otto Kruger, Mike Mazurki, Miles Mander, Douglas Walton, Donald Douglas, Ralf Harolde, Esther Howard
pr: 18 Dez 1944
rt: 95:19 min
dvd-rl: 06 Jul 2004
ar: 1.33:1 (4:3 Academy Ratio)
sd: English Dolby Digital 1.0 Mono • Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
st: English, Spanish, French; CC
supp: Shadows, Lies, and Private Eyes - The Film Noir Collection, Vol. 1
• Audio Commentary by author/film noir specialist Alain Silver
• Theatrical Trailer (2:11 min)
dvd-rl: 06 Jul 2004
ar: 1.33:1 (4:3 Academy Ratio)
sd: English Dolby Digital 1.0 Mono • Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
st: English, Spanish, French; CC
supp: Shadows, Lies, and Private Eyes - The Film Noir Collection, Vol. 1
• Audio Commentary by author/film noir specialist Alain Silver
• Theatrical Trailer (2:11 min)
Fine adaptation of Chandler's novel (which had served as plot fodder for "The Falcon Takes Over" only two years earlier), evocatively creating a seedy, sordid world of shifting loyalties and unseen evil as Marlowe goes in search of the young and missing Velma at the urgent behest of Moose Malloy (Mazurki in fine form), a brutish ex-con unaware that the girl he left behind when he went to jail has metamorphosed into the dangerously duplicitous Claire Trevor (another marvellous performance). Powell is surprisingly good as Marlowe, certainly more faithful to the writer's conception than Bogart was in "The Big Sleep", while the supporting cast make the most of John Paxton's superb dialogue. And Harry Wild's chiaroscuro camerawork is the true stuff of noir. Although released in America as "Murder My Sweet", the film was in fact originally screened there as "Farewell, My Lovely".
— GA, Time Out Film Guide
•••••
This now-classic version of Chandler's "Farewell, My Lovely" remains one of the most inventive crime thrillers in combining hard-boiled cynicism with dark expressionism. In 1944, Dmytryk's direction heralded a new era of realism on the back lots of the big studios, and the baby-faced crooner Dick Powell was so effectively pummeled into a vision of seediness as Chandler's Philip Marlowe that he became an icon of the film noir era. James Agee's praise is typical of the critical esteem bestowed on this unusual film: "It handles Chandler's extremely cinematographic story so well that, if anything, it improves on the re- telling. ... There is an enthusiastic appetite for everything possibly sinister about a big city and its people. The makers of the film go further with their realism: they try to make sensations and states of mind visual."
— PFA
— GA, Time Out Film Guide
•••••
This now-classic version of Chandler's "Farewell, My Lovely" remains one of the most inventive crime thrillers in combining hard-boiled cynicism with dark expressionism. In 1944, Dmytryk's direction heralded a new era of realism on the back lots of the big studios, and the baby-faced crooner Dick Powell was so effectively pummeled into a vision of seediness as Chandler's Philip Marlowe that he became an icon of the film noir era. James Agee's praise is typical of the critical esteem bestowed on this unusual film: "It handles Chandler's extremely cinematographic story so well that, if anything, it improves on the re- telling. ... There is an enthusiastic appetite for everything possibly sinister about a big city and its people. The makers of the film go further with their realism: they try to make sensations and states of mind visual."
— PFA
(Im Kreuzfeuer [de])
USA 1947
d: Edward Dmytryk
Warner Home Video (Region 0 us)
USA 1947
d: Edward Dmytryk
Warner Home Video (Region 0 us)
sc: John Paxton (based on the novel "The Brick Foxhole" by Richard Brooks)
c: J. Roy Hunt (b/w)
e: Harry W. Gerstad
pd: Albert S. D'Agostino, Alfred Herman
m: Roy Webb
p: Adrian Scott (RKO Radio Pictures)
w: Robert Young, Robert Mitchum, Robert Ryan, Gloria Grahame, Paul Kelly, Sam Levene, Jacqueline White, Steve Brodie, George Cooper, Richard Benedict, Tom Keene, William Phipps, Lex Barker, Marlo Dwyer
pr: 22 Jul 1947
c: J. Roy Hunt (b/w)
e: Harry W. Gerstad
pd: Albert S. D'Agostino, Alfred Herman
m: Roy Webb
p: Adrian Scott (RKO Radio Pictures)
w: Robert Young, Robert Mitchum, Robert Ryan, Gloria Grahame, Paul Kelly, Sam Levene, Jacqueline White, Steve Brodie, George Cooper, Richard Benedict, Tom Keene, William Phipps, Lex Barker, Marlo Dwyer
pr: 22 Jul 1947
rt: 85:32 min
dvd-rl: 05 Jul 2005
ar: 1.33:1 (4:3 Academy Ratio)
sd: English Dolby Digital 1.0 Mono • Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 1.0 Mono
st: English, Spanish, French; CC
supp: Film Noir Classics Collection 2
• Audio Commentary by film historians Alain Silver and James Ursini with archival contributions by director Edward Dmytryk
• Featurette "Crossfire: Hate is like a Gun" (8:57 min)
dvd-rl: 05 Jul 2005
ar: 1.33:1 (4:3 Academy Ratio)
sd: English Dolby Digital 1.0 Mono • Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 1.0 Mono
st: English, Spanish, French; CC
supp: Film Noir Classics Collection 2
• Audio Commentary by film historians Alain Silver and James Ursini with archival contributions by director Edward Dmytryk
• Featurette "Crossfire: Hate is like a Gun" (8:57 min)
This ultra-low-budget thriller did what all great B movies do: it broached a subject that 'respectable' movies wouldn't touch. In this case, the racist murder of a Jew (although it was a homosexual in Richard Brooks' source novel, The Brick Foxhole), and the exposure of the murderer's fanatical anti-Semitism. Dmytryk exploits the poverty-row sets for their claustrophobic quality, and introduces 'expressionist' lighting and distorted angles to dramatise the tensions that simmer and finally explode between the characters, GIs back from the war in Europe but not yet discharged. This was the kind of movie that provoked the McCarthy witch-hunt in Hollywood.
— TR, Time Out Film Guide
•••••
Edward Dmytryk's classic noir on anti-Semitism in the military was adapted from a Richard Brooks novel, "The Brick Foxhole", whose actual subject was homophobia in the army, which RKO found too hot to handle at the time. Like many noirs, it's steeped in the malaise of returning GIs, still recovering from the trauma of war and trying to adapt to a changed world. Dmytryk evokes a miasma of angst with the noir vocabulary of looming shadows, oblique angles, and low-key lighting. Robert Young's professorial detective leads the investigation, which takes on a collective quality as Robert Mitchum's sergeant becomes involved, the film counterpointing their quiet sanity against the disorientation of the mustered-out soldiers and the raging paranoia of the murderer. Robert Ryan is most impressive as the latter, a matrix of festering resentments of which his anti-Semitism is only one. The residue of the original story remains in a slightly off-kilter scene, apparently detached from the narrative, in which a GI (George Cooper) discusses his alienation with a sympathetic stranger (Sam Levene). The first film to address the subject of anti-Semitism, it remains effective despite moments of preachiness. Test screenings of the film for Jewish audiences revealed their well-grounded concern that the association of such blatant pathology, as the murderer's with anti-Semitism, would allow viewers to ignore the far more commonplace and insidious forms of that prejudice. Due to the film's content, in October 1947, producer Scott and director Dmytryk were called to testify before HUAC and became the first two members of the famed Hollywood Ten, a group of producers, directors, and writers, including Ring Lardner Jr. and Dalton Trumbo, all of whom initially refused to testify against their colleagues, and were sentenced to prison terms. In return for an early release in 1950, Dmytryk identified former colleagues as Communists, and in 1951, named Scott, his friend, and the producer of his three best films, as a member of the Communist party. Scott never produced another film, while Dmytryk resumed his career, never to repeat the quality of his earlier work.
— Michael Costello, AMG
•••••
"Crossfire" is renowned as the brave liberal film of the Forties—the first to suggest the existence of anti-Semitism in the U.S. It is considered superior to the much more generously budgeted Gentleman's Agreement, released the same year, for focusing on the roots of anti-Semitism where the latter film preached its cure, and for holding up over time as a well crafted, finely textured film noir. Robert Ryan gives an excellent performance as a deceptively soft-spoken psychopath who kills a Jewish soldier in a drunken rage. The story—revolving around the search for the killer and, more importantly, for a motive—is made hauntingly compelling by the excellent ensemble acting of the cast—including Robert Mitchum, Robert Young and Gloria Graham—and Dmytryk's taut direction in a milieu of seedy military bars and downtown hotels in the midnight hours. As an indication of the progress of liberalism in Hollywood in 1947, it is interesting to note that in the novel on which the film was based the murder victim is not a Jew but a homosexual. "Crossfire" failed to arrive at that time. Director Edward Dmytryk was fired by RKO in 1947 for alleged communist sympathies. He was jailed as one of the "Hollywood Ten," and became the only one of the ten to recant and cooperate with HUAC. Film historian Georges Sadoul notes that Dmytryk was "one of the best postwar Hollywood directors." His low budget films of the forties have been favored by many critics over his more commercial films made after he returned to filmmaking in 1952.
— PFA
— TR, Time Out Film Guide
•••••
Edward Dmytryk's classic noir on anti-Semitism in the military was adapted from a Richard Brooks novel, "The Brick Foxhole", whose actual subject was homophobia in the army, which RKO found too hot to handle at the time. Like many noirs, it's steeped in the malaise of returning GIs, still recovering from the trauma of war and trying to adapt to a changed world. Dmytryk evokes a miasma of angst with the noir vocabulary of looming shadows, oblique angles, and low-key lighting. Robert Young's professorial detective leads the investigation, which takes on a collective quality as Robert Mitchum's sergeant becomes involved, the film counterpointing their quiet sanity against the disorientation of the mustered-out soldiers and the raging paranoia of the murderer. Robert Ryan is most impressive as the latter, a matrix of festering resentments of which his anti-Semitism is only one. The residue of the original story remains in a slightly off-kilter scene, apparently detached from the narrative, in which a GI (George Cooper) discusses his alienation with a sympathetic stranger (Sam Levene). The first film to address the subject of anti-Semitism, it remains effective despite moments of preachiness. Test screenings of the film for Jewish audiences revealed their well-grounded concern that the association of such blatant pathology, as the murderer's with anti-Semitism, would allow viewers to ignore the far more commonplace and insidious forms of that prejudice. Due to the film's content, in October 1947, producer Scott and director Dmytryk were called to testify before HUAC and became the first two members of the famed Hollywood Ten, a group of producers, directors, and writers, including Ring Lardner Jr. and Dalton Trumbo, all of whom initially refused to testify against their colleagues, and were sentenced to prison terms. In return for an early release in 1950, Dmytryk identified former colleagues as Communists, and in 1951, named Scott, his friend, and the producer of his three best films, as a member of the Communist party. Scott never produced another film, while Dmytryk resumed his career, never to repeat the quality of his earlier work.
— Michael Costello, AMG
•••••
"Crossfire" is renowned as the brave liberal film of the Forties—the first to suggest the existence of anti-Semitism in the U.S. It is considered superior to the much more generously budgeted Gentleman's Agreement, released the same year, for focusing on the roots of anti-Semitism where the latter film preached its cure, and for holding up over time as a well crafted, finely textured film noir. Robert Ryan gives an excellent performance as a deceptively soft-spoken psychopath who kills a Jewish soldier in a drunken rage. The story—revolving around the search for the killer and, more importantly, for a motive—is made hauntingly compelling by the excellent ensemble acting of the cast—including Robert Mitchum, Robert Young and Gloria Graham—and Dmytryk's taut direction in a milieu of seedy military bars and downtown hotels in the midnight hours. As an indication of the progress of liberalism in Hollywood in 1947, it is interesting to note that in the novel on which the film was based the murder victim is not a Jew but a homosexual. "Crossfire" failed to arrive at that time. Director Edward Dmytryk was fired by RKO in 1947 for alleged communist sympathies. He was jailed as one of the "Hollywood Ten," and became the only one of the ten to recant and cooperate with HUAC. Film historian Georges Sadoul notes that Dmytryk was "one of the best postwar Hollywood directors." His low budget films of the forties have been favored by many critics over his more commercial films made after he returned to filmmaking in 1952.
— PFA
(Der Mann mit den goldenen Colts [de])
USA 1959
d: Edward Dmytryk
Optimum Home Entertainment (Region 0 uk)
USA 1959
d: Edward Dmytryk
Optimum Home Entertainment (Region 0 uk)
sc: Robert Alan Aurthur (based on the novel by Oakley Hall)
c: Joseph MacDonald (DeLuxe Color, CinemaScope)
e: Jack W. Holmes
pd: Herman A. Blumenthal, Lyle R. Wheeler
m: Leigh Harline
p: Edward Dmytryk (20th Century Fox)
w: Richard Widmark, Henry Fonda, Anthony Quinn, Dorothy Malone, Dolores Michaels, Wallace Ford, Tom Drake, Richard Arlen, DeForest Kelley, Regis Toomey, Vaughn Taylor, Don Beddoe, Whit Bissell, Bartlett Robinson
pr: 01 Apr 1959
c: Joseph MacDonald (DeLuxe Color, CinemaScope)
e: Jack W. Holmes
pd: Herman A. Blumenthal, Lyle R. Wheeler
m: Leigh Harline
p: Edward Dmytryk (20th Century Fox)
w: Richard Widmark, Henry Fonda, Anthony Quinn, Dorothy Malone, Dolores Michaels, Wallace Ford, Tom Drake, Richard Arlen, DeForest Kelley, Regis Toomey, Vaughn Taylor, Don Beddoe, Whit Bissell, Bartlett Robinson
pr: 01 Apr 1959
rt: 116:26 (+4%PAL= 122) min
dvd-rl: 21 Feb 2005
ar: 2.34:1 (16:9 Anamorphic Widescreen)
sd: English Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
st: --
supp: --
dvd-rl: 21 Feb 2005
ar: 2.34:1 (16:9 Anamorphic Widescreen)
sd: English Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
st: --
supp: --
An incredibly overwrought Freudian Western, with Fonda as the notorious killer hired by the cowardly citizens of Warlock to defend them from a vicious gang. Fonda brings with him his lifelong partner (and possible lover), the blond, neurotic, club-footed Anthony Quinn. After a few rousing shoot-outs, one of the opposition (Widmark) joins them, and he is appointed sheriff. Enter Dorothy Malone, whose fiancé has been murdered by Quinn, and she falls in love with Widmark, whom she hopes will avenge her. It all ends with a Viking-style funeral, and with Fonda starting to think beyond his guns. Dmytryk (after the blacklist days, at least) was usually one of Hollywood's dullest directors, but not here. The movie is overlong yet dynamic, juxtaposing moments of repose, when the script shuffles relationships like a stacked deck, and bursts of action which have something of the operatic stylisation of Sergio Leone.
— ATu, Time Out Film Guide
— ATu, Time Out Film Guide
d = director; sc = screenplay; c = cinematographer; e = editor; pd = production design / art director;
m = music score ; p = producer; w = cast; pr = premiere; aw = awards;
rt = runtime; dvd-rl = dvd release; ar = aspect ratio; sd = soundtracks; st = subtitles; supp = supplements
m = music score ; p = producer; w = cast; pr = premiere; aw = awards;
rt = runtime; dvd-rl = dvd release; ar = aspect ratio; sd = soundtracks; st = subtitles; supp = supplements