Hammer Film Noir Collector's Set (1952)

In 1950, Hammer Films set up a deal with American Producer Robert L. Lippert to produce low-budget crime dramas to be made in the UK. Lippert would send over a shop-worn Hollywood star or promising American newcomer to give the films box-office appeal in the states, supported by the usual fine casts of British character actors that make most British movies worth watching. This five-year arrangement produced over a dozen well-made little B-noirs that seemed to have fallen through the film history cracks…..until now. VCI AND Kit Parker Films are happy to offer another look at these dark, moody pictures made by the company that became one of Britain's most prolific film producers of the 1960's, many directed by Hammer's top director, Terence Fisher, cutting his teeth on mystery and suspense. The Collector's Set contains the Hammer Film Noir Volumes 1 thru 3. Bonus Features: Scene Selection| Bios| Promo Trailer| Photo Gallery| Bonus Comments: The World Of Hammer Noir by Richard M Roberts. Specs: 3-DVD9s; Dolby Digital; 457 minutes; B&W; 1.33:1 Aspect Ratio; MPAA – R; Year - 1953, 1952, 1954; SRP - $29.99.

HAMMER FILM NOIR

If you like Film noirs, you'll love these. Nobody does it any better than Hammer Studios. August 11, 2008

Hammer Does Noir

I'm a big fan of both Hammer Horror and Film Noir so I knew that I would enjoy these films. I watched them intermittantly with the Warner Bros Film Noir Vol 4 and they held their own against Hollywood's best. This collection of films answered my question as to where Terrence Fisher developed his expert craft.
I would give it 5 Stars except that I don't trust 5 Star reviews. September 25, 2007

Just ok.

A good introduction to "B" films. These are late 1940's (actually from the 50s) dramas with some noir elements. The films look great--as if they haven't been seen in 50 years--which is probably the case, since they're not too exiting.

I won't give a running commentary like some reviewers but I thought Heat Wave was pretty fair. The story is essentially the same as The Postman Always Rings Twice but its well done and not as slow as the other films. Hillary Brook, who went on to superstardom with Abbott & Costello, was quite a dish and gives a great performance.

Dane Clark, a prominent figure in many Hammer/VCI movies is perfectly adequate but like the movies themselves, a bit lightweight. Robert Mitchum he ain't.

All in all, good transfers and a lot of content for the money. Or course there is better noir available (even from VCI, for example Blond Ice) and I know of at least one Hammer non-horror film that's quite good, The Four Sided Triangle. February 12, 2007

Great fun for the lover of UK 50's films

Great English character actors with a lone American star (usually up and coming or on the way down)...but all still full of great talent, Barbara Payton was excellent. There are literate film noir style scripts with interesting twists that keep you guessing, and low budget sets but with creative shooting. And it is fun to see the exterior shots of London from the 50's.
Getting to see films like these were not feasible until DVD, thank you to the inventors of DVD! January 10, 2007

Noir, British style

Back in the `30s and `40s, many movie studios had their specialties. Warner Bros. was known for its gangster and "social problem" films; MGM did the musicals, and Universal did the monster movies. Later, in the `50s and `60s, Britain's Hammer Films got a reputation for being a good horror house, starting with The Curse of Frankenstein and continuing for a couple of decades of Frankenstein, Dracula and other movies. Before Curse of Frankenstein, however, Hammer didn't yet have the horror identity and during this time, it made other types of films, including crime movies. The Hammer Film Noir collection brings together six such movies from the early 1950s; while not really awful, they do demonstrate that Hammer Films's strengths were elsewhere.

Bad Blonde features Barbara Payton as the title character, married to a wealthy but slovenly middle-aged boxing manager. In a story that more than slightly resembles The Postman Always Rings Twice, she seduces a boxer and convinces him to murder her spouse. As with many of these of this films, the English actors come off a bit stiff; certainly John Garfield and Lana Turner did this same plot better. The second film on the first disc is Man Bait in which George Brent gets entangled in a blackmail attempt and is later framed for murder; in the hands of a Hitchcock, this innocent-man-wrongly-accused plot is a classic; in lesser hands, however, it is merely passable.

The second disc has Stolen Face, a strange mix of Pygmalion and a crime story. A plastic surgeon, unable to be with the woman he loves, alters the face of a female convict to look like his love and then marries her. Unfortunately, cosmetic surgery doesn't take the crook out of the girl. This film features the most familiar faces for American viewers: Paul Henreid of Casablanca fame (and who also was involved with a different sort of double identity movie with The Scar) and Lizabeth Scott from Too Late For Tears and The Strange Love of Martha Ivers. Unfortunately, their skills don't completely save this movie which has a rather flaky ending which relies on an accident.

The other movie on this disc is the best in the set, Blackout, which features Dane Clark as a down-on-his-luck American in London who wakes up after a drunken bender to find he is married to a beautiful and wealthy woman. Of course, she has something up her sleeve, and when her father turns up dead, he winds up on the run. Clark's wise-cracking character helps elevate this film above the others in this set.

Clark is also in The Gambler and the Lady on disc three as one of the title characters (hint, he's not the lady). He's a minor gangster trying to go legit and gain acceptance from who he considers his social betters. His pretensions alienate his dancer girlfriend even as he starts going out with a member of the nobility (the Lady of the title). He also gets entangled with more serious mobsters who are trying to muscle into his territory. Though not as good as Blackout, this movie is also improved by Clark. The final film, Heat Wave, is basically the same story as Bad Blonde, except the lead character is a writer instead of a boxer.

With the exception of the four-star Blackout, all these others rate from a low three stars to a high three stars. The extras in the set are relatively minor: a few trailers, some minor commentaries (typically less than five minutes a movie) and some brief biographies/filmographies. Overall, this set rates three stars. It's not bad stuff, but for good film noir, you need to go elsewhere. This set is really only for die-hard fans of the genre who want to see some movies that are relatively obscure.
November 25, 2006

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