With 10 movies on five discs, is the Film Noir Classic Collection Vol. 4 (Unrated, 813 mins., 1946-55) box a smart investment? At least seven of these pictures are wonderful, the best being the astonishing double bill Crime Wave (1954) and Decoy (1946). Crime Wave is a terse cop thriller starring the great Sterling Hayden as the leader of a police manhunt. Director André de Toth shot the film mostly on location in L.A. It's a time capsule of Tinseltown grit, with a riotous and informative commentary track by novelist James Ellroy and noir historian Eddie Muller. Decoy is the weird but transfixing tale of a dame (Jean Gillie) who brings her boyfriend back from the dead — not out of love, but to find out where he buried his loot. Add Act of Violence (1949), with Robert Ryan as a WWII vet nursing a deadly grudge, and two other single-disc pairings, They Live by Night/Side Street and Illegal/The Big Steal, and you've got the brightest noir collection around.
Image credit: Everett Collection
Gene Nelson, Phyllis Kirk, and Hayden in Crime Wave
EW's GRADE
A-Details Release Date: Jul 31, 2007; DVD Release Date: Jul 31, 2007; With: Van Heflin and Robert Ryan; Distributor: Warner Bros.
Movie Calendar
- January 3
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- January 13
- January 20
- January 27
- February 3
- February 10
- February 17
- February 24
- March 2
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- March 16
- March 23
- March 30
- April 4
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- April 13
- April 20
- April 27
- * Dates subject to change
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