1936 Staub, Ralph Eddie Quillan, Charlotte Henry, Rita La Roy, Wade Boteler, Franklin Pangborn

A lightfooted murder mystery, involving a stolen rare stamp, a locked room and a suspicious beautiful theft victim. Witty high society detective Ellery Queen spends a lot of time wooing the girl, and casually solves the crime on the way.

Entertaining enough, but a little shallow. This kind of puzzle solving rather needs the leisure and details of a novel than a fast paced B-Movie. 1947 Daves, Delmer Edward G. Robinson, Lon McCallister, Judith Anderson, Rory Calhoun, Allene Roberts, Julie London

Country Noir. Young Nath agrees to help out on the farm of his friend Meg. It soon turns out that her step father, who lives with his sister, has a dark spot in the past. It is related to a red house in the nearby woods, and he fiercly tries to keep the youths away from it. Naturally, that drives them even more to search for it, and tragedy unfolds.

A haunting and superbly acted tale. Some reviews accuse Robinson of overacting, but I think he is spot on for his increasingly deranged character. Excellent camerawork, unconventially shot mostly outdoors, makes good use of light and shadow, and the shrill soundtrack adds to the menacing atmosphere.
Unfortunately, the copy isn't good, especially the sound; as a non-native speaker, I had to concentrate permanently to follow the plot. 1950 Schaffner, Franklin J. Stanley Ridges, Robert Sterling, King Calder, Robert Pastene, Julian Noa, Frank McNellis, Anne Bancroft

The spoiled young son of a rich and unscrupulous businessman wastes his life drinking and picking up girls in bars, certain that his father's money and connections will bail him out of everything. When he kills a cigarette girl in his alcohol driven insanity, his father reaches deep into his blackmail box to fix even that. But his son finally makes a stand to become independant and honest, and gets both a hard sentence and the love of his much suffering girlfriend.

A TV production, frequently interrupted by amusing commercials for kitchen electronics. You can see the low budget and time pressure, but the actors do a professional job in their roles, and the story rolls solidly in the expected tracks. Not a milestone of movie history, but no worse than TV series today... 1947 Ulmer, Edgar G. Hedy Lamarr, George Sanders, Louis Hayward, Gene Lockhart, Hillary Brooke

Something like a film noir in historic costumes. Jenny grows up in the 19th century harbour town of Bangor, with a sadistic drunkard uncle and no mother. Even in her childhood she plots and lies, and when she grows up to be a beautiful woman, schemes herself into a wedding with a rich merchant. While she clearly uses him, she also turns into a charitable friend of the poor in the city. When his young son arrives, she drives him to murder his father, but then rejects him. She seduces the honest foreman instead and makes him her new favourite. In the end, her violent temper turns against herself.

The pace of the story is just right, and the acting is a pleasure to watch. The role of Jenny is full of contradictions, and hardly any character can be clearly labelled god or bad. A movie that keeps you on your toes to the end. 1940 Christie, Al Heather Angel, John 'Dusty' King, Constance Collier, Walter Catlett, Tom Dugan, Robert Elliott, Clem Bevans

Wallflower schoolteacher Anne (by the universally accepted fact that putting glasses on the nose of a beautiful actress magically turns her into an unattractive spinster), one day tries to step out of her boring life and have a wild night out. Chatted up by a thug, she steals his car to escape. A beautiful young man hitches a lift, and they discover that there's a corpse in the back. He claims to be a gangster, and Anne regards both this and the corpse as an exciting addition to her adventure. The two drive around for a while, chased by an incompetent sheriff and a bunch of dumb criminals. Of course the young man turns out not to be a criminal but rich and single, and all ends happily in a wedding.

Completely not at all fitting into the collection. A bubbly little comedy for the whole family, even though, technically, there is a dark crime going on, what with a dead man and gangsters and all. There's a few good chuckles in it, and Constance Collier almost reaches the level of Margaret Dumont as the rich widow helping the couple along. Just accept that it's in the wrong box, you'll find there's worse ways to waste away a Sunday afternoon! 1944 Brahm, John Anne Baxter, Ralph Bellamy, Aline MacMahon, Ruth Warrick, Scott McKay

A young psychiatrist brings his new wife home to his lively happy family, to help her recover from a weak heart and mental trouble. Intense and frail at the same time, she soon is the focus of attention. It quickly becomes clear that she fell in love with her husband's energetic artist brother and wants to become his wife, no matter what the cost. She manages to bring discord into the family, and drive everyone except the target of her delusional desire out of the house. When she realises that her dream is just that, she calls back her devoted husband and tries to split him from the rest of the family. Finally a family member strikes back, and the venomous house guest falls victim to her twisted mind.

A disquieting tale, that isn't exactly pleasant to watch. While there are a few rough edges in the plot, it manages to stir emotions. You quickly want to slap Evelyn for being such a snake, and then the others for not catching on. There is probably no crime happening in the legal sense, but more rotten evil than in many hard boiled stories. And still, at the end you pity the girl, who is a devil, but at the same time troubled by mental illness.
Based on a stage play, the movie relies heavily on dialog, and mostly doesn't leave the family home. This gives it an adequately cramped and suffocated feeling, in stark contrast to the thundering end. 1932 Micheaux, Oscar Lawrence Chenault, A.B. DeComathiere, Laura Bowman, Willor Lee Guilford, Tressie Mitchell, Mabel Garrett, Carl Mahon

In a busy harlem night club, two stories are told. A slick swindler preys on young girls and promises weddings, only to take advantage of them. His fate in the form of a discarded lover meets him in the club.
In the same club, a young girl receives notice promising death within ten minutes. A flashback reveals that she is on the run from an aquaintance who wrongly believes she betrayed him into jail, and has tracked her down. He breaks into her house and waits for news from the hired killers, together with a tarty girlfriend. Instead of the execution note, he receives a telegram revealing that his victim is innocent, and he was really given away by the woman he is now drinking with. When he finds the house surrounded, he kills the traitor, leaves an apologetic note, and manages to escape, allowing for a happy end for the young couple.

A difficult one. Very little going on as far as acting and plot is concerned. This is clearly made as a silent movie with some dialog slapped on, and the first story is almost exclusively a chain of vaudeville numbers in a club, with minimal incoherent bis of plot in it. The second part has more of a story, but the acting is usually wooden, with few good scenes and no good dialog. The story is mostly told by holding letters and telegrams into the camera, which are all but impossible to read due to the bad copy. The most impressive part is a long uncommented drive through the streets of New York.
The movie looks like it has been through digital image cleaning with the parameters over the top, which blurs the backgrounds a lot. The film is cut on all sides, which makes the letters even harder to read, since the start and end of lines tend to be missing. Not a film to watch for its entertainment value.
It is far ahead of its time in the characters, that make it difficult to tell black from white, both in character and skin, and it's an invaluable glimpse into black New York of the time. So it gains a lot of credit as a documentary, where it fails as a story. 1947 Shane, Maxwell Paul Kelly, DeForest Kelley, Ann Doran, Kay Scott, Charles Victor, Robert Emmett Keane, Jeff York

A bank clerk wakes up from a nightmare in which he kills a man and locks him in a closet. To his horror, the closet key is in his pocket, and there's blood on his wrist. More and more memories well up, until he finds his way to the murder scene with his brother in law, Cliff, a detective. It doesn't look good, until Cliff finds a clue that leads him to the man behind the crime: a hypnotist.
They arrange a confrontation with the man, to prove his guilt. He gets away with his victim hypnotised again, and only a dramatic car chase prevents a staged suicide.

This is the real stuff. Hard men in trenchcoats smoking cigarettes, thunderstorms, guns, beautiful women in identical hairdos, a mysterious villain and even a car chase. Yet it does not slip into cliches, not least due to a sensitive performance by DeForest Kelley, as the vulnerable and confused victim/murderer, who never falls back into the tough guy role so common at the time. Yes, it's the future "Bones" McCoy in his earliest leading role. A high quality copy in image and sound round off the perfect noir evening. 1937 Cruze, James Richard Cromwell, Helen Mack, Lionel Atwill, Horace McMahon

When a young couple find out that their school day dreams of becoming rich quickly didn't work out, they decide to steal $100,000 from the bank the guy is working in. The plan is to hide the money, get through a few years in jail, and live in splendour when they get out. But an insurance detective arranges early parole in the hope they'll lead him to the cash. So does Jimmy's ex cell mate. They finally manage to lay hands on their stash, but chased by everyone, Ruth convinces Jimmy to give up and return the money, and everyone lives happily ever after, with bright career prospects as vacuum salesmen.

Not so much a crime story, but 52 minutes of wagging the index finger and going "don't do it, kids, see what happens". The detective shows up every few minutes and reminds the couple of the dark road they are on. Nobody gets hurt, they're all jolly nice chaps, no matter if prisoner, cop, or thief, and stealing a fortune from a bank is something that the friendly uncle from the police just shrugs off as bit of youthful folly.
Although the authors try hard to stage a suspenseful treasure hunt, the plot remains shallow and unconvincing. The male lead acts wooden, the others do better, but not memorable. Harmless family movie that at leaves gives a colourful (or rather black and white) picture of the middle class aspirations in the late 1930s. 1964 Fuller, Samuel Constance Towers, Anthony Eisley, Michael Dante, Virginia Grey, Patsy Kelly, Marie Devereux, Karen Conrad

Kelly, a high class call girl leaves her cruel pimp and works alone in small towns. In Grantville she spends her first night with the cynical chief of police, but in the morning decides to change her life. She finds a job as a nurse in the local hospital for handicapped children, and thus gets introduced to J. Grant, youngest of the towns founder dynasty and patron of the hospital. When he proposes her, despite of her revelation of her past, even the jealous police captain congratulates and life appears to be beautiful. But it never is in noir films. She discovers her beau to be a child molester who only wants to marry her because he thinks a prostitute will go along with his pervert tastes. I a fit of fury she kills him and gets arrested. Everybody appears to turn against her, and though she eventually gets rehabilitated, there is no staying in the town and it's the road again.

Highly emotional melodrama, that goes the full monty. The opening scene is a blow in your face, and leaves you bewildered, so that the following apparently sugar coated storyline always has you wondering when the hammer is going to fall. The film goes through many genres, from the experimental opener to soap to musical (that piece does stretch the credibility a bit, though the voice isn't bad), and when things turn dark, to hard boiled crime, finishing of in a tear jerking finale. Not a movie for subtleties, but inside it's pulp framework excellent. Light, shadow, and camera work are delightful, the acting just at the limit of how intense it can get without getting silly, and the story is well told. No loose ends, no unmotivated twists. And if you watch the movies in the order of the box, another huge surprise, by leaping 27 years from the twin on the same disc. 1938 Whale, James Madge Evans, John Boles, Bruce Cabot, Marion Martin, Gene Lockhart, Charlotte Wynters

A plane crash lands on its way to China, leaving a mixed bunch of passengers stranded on a pacific island: a nurse, a senator, a steward, two rival munitions traders, two shady figures on the run from the underworld, an elderly lady on the way to see her son, and a rich heiress. To their surprise, they find a well dressed gentleman doctor and his Chinese servant living there in a kind of Robinson paradise. He refuses to take them to the mainland on his boat; he has a dark past as well. The survivors start to build up a small community, until the two weapons traders abduct the servant and hijack the boat to reach the mainland. While the stranded community continues with its little quarrels and flirts, a fight breaks out on the boat, leaving only the Chinese alive. Gravely injured, he manages to sail the boat back before he dies. Upon this, the doctor decides to face his past and sail them all back to civilisation, where the three available couples will most probably immediately get married.

If the plot sounds a bit incoherent, that's because it is. Not much in this story makes sense, and it can't make up its mind what it wants to be. Part comedy, part romance, part drama, and if you really stretch the definition to include it in this collection, part crime story. The picture book Robinson scenery is so inconsistent, it hurts. I can accept that in movies you can spend months on a lonely island and still be perfectly manicured and hairstyled in shiny white clothes, but not if it only happens to about half of them while the other half is reduced to rags and dirt the moment they arrive. The boat, that can only hold 6 in the first dramatic decision sails away with 7 in the end, and space to spare, the wildly mixed bunch ends up in three unlikely couples etc. Not a lot to recommend this one, cardboard characters and unfunny jokes don't help. The plane crash and the scenes on the boat at high sea at least deserve respect for solid effects, given the age of the film. 1950 Sturges, John Lew Ayres, Teresa Wright ,Victor Jory, Jacqueline White, Jimmy Hunt, Barry Kelley

When the payroll courier of an oil company in the Mexico gets robbed, Lin Vanner has a hunch where the robber might have fled and tracks him down. He finds his man, Sam Tevlin, in the wilderness, and when he refuses to lift both his arms, he shoots. Tevlin reveals he couldn't left his arm because it was injured, and finally dies of the shot wound, claiming innocence to the end. Vanner is troubled by his conscience, quits the company to start a new life, and ends up working for Tevlin's widow under a false name. She finds out, and at first hates him, but eventually they learn to love each other and marry. But Vanner can't forget that he shot an innoncent man and sets out to find the true murderer. In a bit of Wild West Sam Spade research, he finds proof that the company director had arranged the hold up. He goes to confront him with the facts, intending to get a confession. But he ends up fighting for his life and accidentally killing the man. In panic, he flees, trying to reach his wife. He injures his arm while fleeing, and it becomes stiff. Finally the police track him down in a priests cabin, and a shoot out starts. His wife and the priest manage to convince him that he is only trying to punish himself for Tevlin's death, and as he resolves to give up, he gains the use of his arm again.

The box keeps coming up with surprises. A Western with noir elements (in the storyline and the strong use of night scenes) is the last thing I expected. And it's a good one. The story is given a lot of time to unfold, but there is still never a moment of boredom. Every step follows from what we saw before, and yet it's not a predictable cliché plot. The authentic, believable atmosphere is aided by the backdrop, with quite a bit of dialog going on in Spanish, and credibly toned down chases and gun fights. Excellent acting in all roles, down to the extras; especially Lew Ayres as the male lead convices in his changing moods from rough and jolly oil worker to loving father to self destructive soul. The movie starts with Lin on the run, meeting the priest and telling his story, and this works well to leave a certain menace over even the brief scenes of happiness, and it's a neat twist to have the story catching up with this beginning, and not just let it be told purely in hindsight. A thoroughly pleasant experience. 1932 Elvey, Maurice Ivor Novello, Elizabeth Allen, Jack Hawkins, Barbara Everest, A.W. Baskcomb

A serial killer is on the loose in the foggy streets of London. There is some evidence that it's a murderer from Bosnia, who has a record in his home country. In these days, a foreign stranger, Angeloff, rents a room with a local couple and their lovely daughter. She isn't getting along too well with her fiancee, an ambitious pulp reporter, and starts to develop feelings for the new lodger, a talented musician and a melancholic, romantic personality. At the same time, though, he shows a dislike of women's portraits, and is frequently seen near the scene of the ongoing murders. Finally, the reporter and the girls father get suspicious, and the mysterious lodger gets arrested. He escapes, handcuffed, and calls his new lover to a meeting in the park. There, the real murderer shows up, and in the last second is strangled by Angeloff, who turns out to be his brother, trying to find his insane sibling before the police does.

An extremly dark movie, visually speaking. Much of it happens at night, in the fog, in dark alleys and unlit hallways. The camera works is impressive, with strong light and shadow effects. It's in a strange contrast with the old fashioned characters, acted out in an almost silent movie manner. Everything is intense, and partly exaggerated for todays tastes. The small scenes of comic relief with the slightly doltish landlord are a bit out of place I think, in what is otherwise a moody film, with a male lead who is not quite of this world, a surprisingly modern female counterpart and a storyline that ends weirdly unresolved. The pleasure was reduced by a very bad soundtrack, that made me grateful for the extreme acting, helping along with the frequent bits where the words were unintelligible. 1954 Losey, Joseph Dirk Bogarde, Alexis Smith, Alexander Knox, Hugh Griffith

Vince Esmond, A succesful psychiatrist takes the young burglar Frank into his home, offering him therapy instead of jail. The new house guest does not repay him kindly: he bullies the maid, he continues his criminal career, he lies to the doctor in the analysis sessions, and starts an affair with his wife. The last offense is more than welcomed by Glenda Esmond, who is, under her tough exterior, almost as troubled as the official patient. When Vince stands by his new "son", even to the point of risking his career by providing a false alibi for a robbery, Frank, in a cathartic moment reveals the events in his childhood that made him what he is today. While he is on the way to a normal life, Glenda gets more and more desperate about the prospect of losing her lover. After a failed attempt to turn Vince against Frank, she completely cracks and commits suicide, nearly taking Frank with her.

A classic 50s psychoanlysis drama, for a change set in a mock tudor villa in rural England, and not the streets of Chicago. It has everything you expect: an angry young James Dean clone, a crazy wife, love, violence, a ruined childhood, car chases (why do car chases in vintage cars always look cooler than in modern ones?) and not least an almost godlike doctor, whose allforgiveness and always being right is on the brink of getting on the viewers nerves. Apart from his Bruce Willies-like unmoving face, the cast gives a good, intense performance (and even the unmoved acting is within character, coming to think of it). Some of it may appear a bit overacted, but in the time when psychoanalysis was all the rage, it must have made the audience grip their cinema seats. The plot is more or less predictable, but moves on at a good pace and has enough curves and sidelines to stop it from being boring. The lighting and camera angles are working for the movie, even the few unconventional shots never stand out as effects for the sake of effects. As a bonus, you get a good look at a Soho night club. If these are realistic scenes, they sure had wild parties (and hairdos) in the 50s. Quite a good copy, although it has a few seconds cut out every now and then. 1947 Berke, William Russell Wade, Edmund MacDonald, Vince Barnett, Luana Walters, Robert Kent, Nestor Paiva

A breakneck car chase through the night ends with an accident, leaving Logan, an escaped criminal, and the future district attorney, Dale, dead, and his wife Marian gravely injured. Mitch, a good friend and ambitious newspaper man, visits her in hospital and she tells the story leading up to this. It's the story of an assistant district attorney who's part of the local underworld scene, who bribes witnesses to get Logan to jail, and who marries his secretary mostly because he suspects she knows too much. She outsmarts him by collecting evidence and hiding it in a safe place, blackmailing him into trying to clean up the gangs. While he works on this, setiing up his allies against each other, Logan escapes, trying to clear his name, and eventually confronts Dale in his home, where it turns out that Marian is Logan's wife. The police, in pursuit of the fugitive, trigger the car chase that opened the movie, and the circle closes with Mitch on the way to become Marians next husband...

Bring back the Fedora! The guys in their suits, hats and trenchcoats just look too cool. This is a classic crime movie from the Dashiell Hammet school. It has the nice twist, though, of splitting the hard boiled detective in two, replacing him by the inquisitive, but rather nice, Mitch, and the charming Marian, who then turns out to be pleasantly tough and scheming. The evil henchman has eybrows like caterpillars and constantly smokes a fat cigar, while the oily attorney sports a pencil moustache. Story, characters, and the high contrast black and white photography are what you expect, but don't hold that against the movie! It's thoroughly enjoyable, with a solid script that is clever enough to keep you thinking, while remainig clear and logical. The actors are good down to the supporting parts, the stunts impressive. To top it off, it's a very good copy in image and sound. For me, this is exactly what I got the Dark Crime collection for. 1940 Tay Garnett Pat O'Brien, Edward Arnold, Broderick Crawford, Ruth Terry, Alan Dinehart, Claire Dodd

A major road building contractor dies in an accident, and a struggle for the new contracts starts between our hero, attorney Johnny Webb, and Cushing, the local bully in big politics, and his pet police men. When Alma Brehmer, who had or has romantic connections to both contestants, gets murdered, accusations fly. The knife used in the killing appears in John's office and is used for various more or less amusing slapstick jokes. It ends up in the back of Johns's secretary. Cushing's wive meanwhile finds a newspaper article that links him to the death of Alma's father, and this article also makes its way into Webb's office. For reasons never satisfactorily explained, he and his associate fly somewhere to search tombstones for familiar names, which is supposed to reveal the identity. Eventually it turns out that John's associate was the murderer, and in a dramatic final scene he falls into his own knife. Oh, and throughout the movie, an annoying dumb 18 year old girl referred to as "Puss" is hopping around and tweeting nonsense.

As you my be able to tell from the tone of the summary, not one of my favourites. Awful story, that doesn't make much sense, and lame jokes. Maybe they were funny in the 40s, but not any more. Puss does an excellent job of getting on everybody's nerves, especially the viewers. Credits for being good at acting as the beautiful airhead, but doesn't work as comic relief. Avoid. 1936 Robert F. Hill Edward J. Nugent, Lucille Lund, Joan Barclay, Forrest Taylor, Syd Saylor

Gene Harris, talented boxer, is released from jail, where he spent time after killing a man in a fight. He's keen on forgetting it, and becoming an honest boxer again, but his manager wants to market him as the man with the killer fist. In the upcoming fights, more men die, and Gene is desperate. With the help of his manager's secretary, who has the inevitable crush on him, while he only has eyes for the wicked femme fatale, he manages to uncover a plot of poisining his opponents to make betting profits. To nobodys great surprise, the good girl gets the good guy in the end.

Tough, yet sensitive hero, good girl and bad girl, boxing, poison, villians and a hero dog. The movie ticks all the entertainment boxes, but nothing more. It's OK to watch, and thank god for a time when 65 minutes was considered enough for a movie, while today no self respecting director would agree to anything under 2.5 hours. The plot is a bit patchy, the boxing footage a bit too long, the acting a bit too tacky for a good review, but it is straightforward crime movie, reliably plodding along. Good for a late night show when you don't want to concentrate too hard on a twisting plot and subtle acting and are ready to chuckle about 1930s humour. 1946 Léonide Moguy George Raft, Ava Gardner, Victor McLaglen, Tom Conway, Jorja Curtright

Things aren't too exciting for Kenny, a small town gambler, operating the local station with his dad; it's just poker and drinks with Gitlo, his best buddy. They don't get better when Mary, his big love comes back. Pride and the past get in the way of a happy reunion, and so does Lew, the big man in the small town, who is an old rival over Mary and can afford expensive nights out and a mountain of roses. In an attempt to get the money to impress Mary, Kenny agrees to a plot by Gitlo to kill and rob Lew. The plan fails, mostly because Mary has a hunch and keeps Kenny away. The accidental death of Fran, a luckless admirer of Kenny, is another incentive for him to get a grip on his life. Things seem to be brightening up, and on the wedding day of Kenny's sister you get the impression that a second wedding is not far away. On the way to church, Kenny gets an invitation from Lew to meet and shake hands and forget the past. But what seems to be a quick stop on the way to church turns out to be a staged murder, leaving Gitlo and Kenny the main suspects. They run away and Kenny gets hurt, hiding away in a road house by the train tracks. Gitlo makes his way back and tells Mary everything, leaving her to rush and see Kenny. But instead of running away he sneaks in Lew's place, planning revenge. His victim is cautious, though, and expects him with gunshots. Not enough shots: before he spectalularly dies himself, Gitlo strangles Lew and clears Kenny with the police. Mary, meanwhile, arrives in the Denver road house and picks up her one true love, and they walk into the sunset.

Great movie! A thrilling plot with just the right balance between unexpected surprises and credibility. The characters are clearly defined, the acting is gripping. George Raft gives a stone faced macho loser who struggles to keep his tough image in synch with his crumbling life, the stunning Ava Gardner changes marvelously between smart city lady and emotional girl, and McLaglen and Conway are both a pleasure as the shady guys , both neither really good nor really bad. The lighter scenes are never just comic relief, they always help the plot along. It doesn't get much better than this in an el cheapo DVD collection. A little, maybe: If there were an explanation why a woman like Mary comes back from Chicago for a no good village bum who bosses her around, the story would have been rounder.