Distributor:
Umbrella Entertainment Certificate: PG |
99 minutes | All Region Pal Format | black and white Available to buy Producer: David Kalat Extras: No
ANYONE
IN IT WE KNOW?
Humphrey
Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Sydney Greenstreet, Robert Mitchum, John
Garfield, Edward G. Robinson, George Raft, Dick Powell, Fred MacMurray
WHAT’S
IT ABOUT THEN?
A
lingering,
tingling collection of trailers
for classic film noir/pulp
movies from the 1930's and
40's.
SO
IS IT ANY GOOD?
Back
in the 40's film makers were looking for an harder edge to their
gangster/tec/crime flicks, their saviours turned out to be Dashiell
Hammett and Raymond Chandler whose snappy dialogue and hard boiled
action set the standard for the next two decades. Movies like The
Maltese Falcon and The Big Sleep still legendary classics to this day,
alongside this in the post war years came Film Noir, an often gloomy,
rain drenched urban style of cinema that delved into the psyche of its
lead players. Double Indemnity with Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck
was at the forefront of this with its tale of an
insurance
man who is ensnared in a plot by femme fatale Stanwyck to murder her
husband and claim his insurance policy, lead on to a whole raft of
similarly themed flicks from the John Garfield and Lana Turner starring
24 carrot classic The Postman Always Rings Twice and Robert Mitchum's
truly terrifying preacher in Night of the Hunter (directed by Charles
Laughton in his only behind the camera credit), all of these and more
are featured on this supremely enjoyable release from Umbrella, while 90
minutes worth of what are essentially trailers might not be everyone's
cup of rosy, these are for films so classic, stylised and downright
groovy that you can't fail to appreciate them.
Full
of long shadows, whispers in the dark and secret assignations with Dames
that invariably lead to murder Pulp Cinema is a real treat and
guaranteed to make you want to watch the movies themselves.
