ShareThisWith Volume 5 of "The Film Noir Classic Collection," Warner Home Video seems to be scraping the bottom of the B-movie bin, at least in the case of three of the eight films it offers.
"Crime in the Streets" (1956) is a second-rate "Blackboard Jungle," trying to cash in on the juvenile-delinquent craze of the day with John Cassavetes making his inauspicious screen debut. Considering its melodramatics and a Hollywood ending that can be seen 10 slum blocks away, it's surprising it was written by Reginald Rose and directed by Don Siegel, who were usually top-shelf.
Phil Karlson's "The Fenix City Story" (1955), a fact-based tale of corruption in small-town Alabama, is a poorly made semidocumentary, with real Southern citizens giving awful performances alongside pros John McIntire, Richard Kiley and Edward Andrews.
Vincent Sherman's "Backfire" (1950) is a dud with miscast Gordon MacRae as a man desperate to prove his pal is innocent of murder.
Edward Dymytryk's "Cornered" (1945) contains the requisite gray areas of the genre, with Dick Powell as an ex-RCAF pilot stalking a Nazi collaborator who murdered his wife. And Anthony Mann's "Desperate" is a satisfyingly atmospheric story of an innocent truck driver and his pregnant wife running from the law.
The other films are "Deadline at Dawn" (1946), "Armored Car Robbery" (1950) and "Dial 1119" (1950).
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
Must credit Oklahoma City OklahomanVideo Patrol
spelling
you could at least spell the movies right.
Your review...
-and I am stretching the credibility of the term- is far worse than any of the films you sought to criticize. Aside from not knowing how to spell, you skipped over the three of the best films in the set. Looks like the Oklahoman is also scraping the bottom of the barrel.