Film Noir Double Feature, Vol. 2: The Chase/Bury Me Dead

Description

Volume two in our series of Film Noir double-bills features three stars better known for their TV personas - Robert Cummings (Love That Bob), June Lockhart (the mom on Lassie) and Hugh Beaumont (the 'Beave's' dad on Leave it to Beaver) - but whose hard-boiled performances here are nothing like those TV characters. The Chase (1946) has Robert Cummings playing an ex-GI who by chance is hired to be the chauffeur for a ruthless gangster. He is soon drawn into a twisted nightmarish plot involving the gangster's unfaithful wife and a charge for a murder he did not commit. The second feature, Bury Me Dead (1947), starts off with a bang when a woman (June Lockhart) shows up as a mourner at her own funeral! With the help of her family lawyer (Hugh Beaumont) the woman begins an investigation to uncover who's really buried in her place and who wanted her dead in the first place. Features cinematography by John Alton. Two film noir gems for the price of one! Bonus Features: Commentaries by Jay Fenton, Film Restoration Consultant| Scene Selection| Bios & Filmographies| Film Noir Movie Poster Gallery| Film Noir Trailers| Bonus: 'Noirish' Superman Cartoon "Showdown" (1942) - the man of steel takes on gangsters! Specs: DVD9; Dolby Digital Mono; 153 minutes; 1.33:1 Aspect Ratio; MPAA - NR; Year - 1946, 1947; SRP - $9.99.

Customer Reviews:

A special favorite of mine..........2007-03-25

It has a convoluted plot which leaves a number of questions unanswered but if you don't mind dreamy, impressionistic films The Chase may be for you. I found it an outstanding (though atypical) example of the noir style and hard to forget. As explained in the DVD notes, this VCI edition is probably the best quality possible given the flawed source print. The 2nd film on this double feature disc, Bury Me Dead, is a so-so "comedy noir" featuring June Lockhart and Hugh Beaumont. My rating applies only to The Chase with no deduction for the substandard video/audio which apparently can't be helped.

This is a critique, not a synopsis..........2006-04-01

VCI's offering of The Chase is, as I understand, a superior transfer of this little known title. They have remastered the copy from the best surviving prints. There is a notice at the outset of the movie describing the techniques, materials, and film stock used for the restoration. It is well packaged, and includes a nicely printed liner booklet. All of this attention to detail begs just one question. Why bother?

Although initially excited about seeing a movie that had escaped my orbit, the enthusiasm quickly waned by the end of the first reel. The characters in this movie are not simply "underdeveloped," they're non-existant. We know or learn very little about these people until the very end, and consequently care nothing about them. Bob Cummings, a fine actor whose career and accomplishments are widely unknown and vastly underrated, portrays the WWII veteran, Chuck Scott. Clearly uncomfortable with the material, Cummings acts as though he's having a tooth pulled throughout the movie. Peter Lorre's character, Gino, is constructed with all the acumen of taking a Bentley to the McDonalds drive-thru, so poorly developed and written are his scenes and dialogue. Steve Cochran's Eddie Roman is acceptable only in that he actually has fewer lines than his hench-man, Lorre does. Michele Morgan's Lorna Roman, is unappealing and unbelievable as the thick-tongued French-immigrant gangster's moll.

The story, or lack thereof is a hodge-podge so randomly executed we must simply accept a new set of circumstances and rules with each scene. Speaking of rules, as in the "rules of filmmaking and storytelling", this movie breaks far too many to be taken seriously. Our suspension of disbelief is violated instantly, and throughout the entire film. The plot leads us from one point to another as though we are in posession of the the shooting script. During the final reel, the filmmakers try to convince us that everything we have witnessed has been a dream or hallucination. Chuck's delusion, or the explanation of said event, is a perfect example of a broken rule. His experiences within this delusion are taking place parallel to, and concurrent with actions, characters, and events apart from his own. It is presented as though the screenwriter and director didn't want to bother with annoying trivialities like continuity. We are deprived of an ultimate confrontation and conclusion to the affairs, with the gangster's demise played out in a contrived fate that would be more appropriate in a hackneyed weekly serial...which is apparently all the time that was required to explain the actual plot of this movie.

In keeping with the tone of the film, the liner notes and synopsis are a collection of uninformative vacuous thoughts and platitudes as nebulous and poorly conceived as the movie itself. The "author" reminds us that Michele Morgan received the Best Actress award for Symphonie Pastorale, at the 1946 Cannes Film Festival, as though the two performances had some relationship. However, he fails to mention that Ms Morgan had washed her hands of Hollywood after filming The Chase, returning to Paris for good. He also claims, "one way to suggest a dream-like atmosphere is to soften the glow or exaggerate the contrast and color, like the often ambiguous and dreamy paintings of Maxwell Parrish." Huh...???!!! I don't know who Maxwell Parrish is, but famed American Illustrator, Maxfield Parrish painted colorful fantasy art, and nursery rhymes. He also informs us that throughout cinematic history, filmmakers have been unable to successfully produce dream-like movies. Apparently, somebody forgot to mention this to Val Lewton and Jacques Tournneur. Obviously, the author is as confused about film history as he is about art history.

There are a few dark shots and set-ups in The Chase, with the most effective lighting, photography, and settings taking place inside Roman's estate. However, this is not some "little gem" of a film-noir classic. It is a disjointed, poorly written and badly told story on all levels. The only surprise here is seeing Cummings, Lorre, and Morgan, agreeing to act in this amateurish effort. Who knows, maybe the best stuff was left on the cutting room floor. It had all of the elements "on paper"... Likeable WWII veteran, mobster and beautiful unhappy wife, Peter Lorre as a heavy...

Now imagine Edward D. Wood Jr. writing and directing it, and you have, The Chase.

Entertaining Noirs; Awful DVD edition.......2006-03-04

Of the two films on this DVD, "The Chase" is the one really worth watching. It boasts a great cast (boyish Robert Cummings, French star Michele Morgan, and the unique Peter Lorre) and an interesting, dreamlike narrative adapted from a Cornell Woolrich novel.
"Bury Me Dead" starts off well, with a woman attending her own funeral, but, despite cinematography by the great John Alton, the film then becomes a rather conventional whodunit with a surprising amount of wisecracks thrown in and no star appeal.
As for the DVD, the sound and image are terrible in both cases. I almost gave up when I first tried to watch them, but "The Chase" was interesting enough to make me glad I purchased this, especially since it seems unlikely either film will merit a "Criterion Collection"-style release. The DVD also includes numerous extras, but be warned that the image and sound are downright awful.

One Excellent Noir, One Good Noir, But Poor Quality Video and Audio.......2006-03-03

The Chase: In Hollywood, directors get the credit. With The Chase, a strange, fascinating, neurotic noir, the credit should go to one of the masters of noir pulp fiction, the writer Cornell Woolrich. Like Phantom Lady, another Woolrich creation, the story centers around what might be struggling to get out of a person's head.

Woolrich wrote masterful pulp using his own name or the pseudonyms William Irish or George Hopley. He was a homosexual who loathed himself. He married a girl he idolized and saw the marriage annulled. Despite the money he made, he lived most of his life with his mother in decaying New York apartment buildings where his neighbors were lushes, prostitutes and drug addicts. At night, he'd troll the waterfront for anonymous sex partners. He became a deep alcoholic. And he turned out a stream of mystery novels and short stories that still are worth reading nearly 40 years after his death. Much of his material has been made into movies. If you like Hitchcock's Rear Window, you're watching a Cornell Woolrich short story. More often than not, the stories revolve around the black struggles that can happen inside a person's head. The Chase, based on Woolrich's The Black Path of Fear, is a noir worth watching.

One morning a down-and-out young man, Chuck Scott (Robert Cummings), finds a wallet on a Miami sidewalk. He finds the owner's name and address and delivers it to him. The owner, Eddie Roman (Steve Cochran), is a soft-spoken gangster with a penchant for hitting women, eliminating business competitors and for always being the man in control. His partner, Gino (Peter Lorre), who grew up with him, is just as ruthless and amoral, but not as psychopathic. Roman has been married three years to Lorna (Michelle Morgan), a beautiful, frightened woman who wants only to escape from him. Eddie Roman is amused by Chuck Scott's honesty and hires him as a chauffeur. Scott quickly learns two things. First, Roman has a car that is built so that from the back seat Roman can take over the accelerator. When he flips a switch he can move the car up to over 100 miles an hour. The driver can only steer and pray. The second thing Scott learns is that he is drawn to Lorna Roman.

It all comes together when Scott agrees to flee with Lorna to Havana. And then we descend into a dark swirl of murder, pay back, amnesia and fear. Half way through the movie we find ourselves in a paranoid dream of night-time Havana, of a horse-drawn carriage that rides off into a busy street, of a man glimpsed throwing a knife in a crowded bar, of a Cuban detective who casually uses a murder knife to spear a piece of melon from the table of a sobbing prostitute. Only later do we learn what is dream and what is real. If what was dream is frightening, what is real may turn out to be worse.

This really is an excellently developed story, and photographed with all the poorly lit streets and shadowy rooms a good noir needs. Cummings does a credible job as the uncertain but determined hero. Steve Cochran is first-rate as the menace. He's quiet, even thoughtful, but ready to do violent and unpredictable things in an instant. He has no intention of letting Lorna go. Lloyd Corrigan, a long time character actor, makes a memorable appearance as a businessman who won't sell his ships to Roman. He spends the rest of his life, which is brief, in Roman's wine cellar with a large dog. The music score is a strange dreamy underlay that suits the movie just fine.

Bury Me Dead: A woman in black takes a taxi to a cemetery one afternoon. She's going to attend the funeral of a person she knew quite well...herself. Barbara Carlin (June Lockhart) is a wealthy, self assured young woman who lives in a large mansion with stables and servants. She has a handsome and unreliable husband, Rod (Mark Daniels), and a troubled younger sister, Rusty (Cathy O'Donnell), who technically isn't a sister since Barbara's father never got around to adopting Rusty before he died. One night there was a terrible fire which destroyed the stables. The corpse which was found burned beyond recognition was assumed to be Barbara. On the way back from the funeral she hitches a ride with the family lawyer, the fussy, dutiful Michael Dunn (Hugh Beaumont), who helps manage Barbara's and Rod's affairs. As those around Barbara realize she is still alive, through a series of flashbacks we learn about the tense relationship between Barbara and Rusty, the likelihood of a divorce between Barbara and Rod, and Rod's relationship with the money-hungry girlfriend of a boxer who is as thick in the head as he is in the shoulders. As we learn more, we realize that Barbara is in danger as the real killer moves closer to rectifying the mistake when the wrong woman was murdered.

This is a classic B noir made on the cheap by a low-budget production house with B level actors. Cathy O'Donnell may have gotten off to a great start with The Best Years of Our Lives, but when she married an older man and infuriated Sam Goldwyn, she found herself in movies like this. June Lockhart at 22 gives a remarkably assured performance as a smart, rich woman who has a wry sense of humor and a realistic way of looking at things. "Perhaps I'm being a bit morbid," Barbara says to Michael and Rod. "Funerals always depress me. Especially my own." Also to be admired are two character actors who never made star names for themselves, but who appeared in dozens of movies. There's Virginia Farmer, a tall prune of a woman, who plays the housekeeper, and Milton Farmer as the butler, who played many a mortician.

Bury Me Dead is a noir with a light touch, full of sharp, comic dialogue with a morbid twist. The end of the movie, when the killer is revealed and begins a cat-and-mouse game in the silent mansion with Barbara, builds a competent amount of suspense. Is the movie good? It is if you accept the charm of second-billed B movies on the double feature marquees of movie theaters in the Forties. The killer, for instance, is not too difficult to spot if you enjoy red herrings, B list casting and the conventions of low budget noirs. Accept it for what it is and enjoy an hour at the movies.

These movies are part of a double bill on a VCI disc called Film Noir Double Feature. Both movies lack a lot, with fuzzy, grainy images and noticeable static on the audio.

"The Leader in Film Noir, B-Westerns & Serials...VCI Enertainment ~ The Chase & Bury Me Dead".......2005-12-13

VCI Entertainment presents Classic Film Noir Double Feature Vol. 2.... "The Chase" (1946) and "Bury Me Dead" (1947) (Dolby digitally remastered)...featuring top performances by actors to die for from the '40s and '50s with outstanding drama and screenplays...from little known films that will leave you intrigued with all the suspense...so pop some popcorn, sit back and enjoy the movie.

First up we have "The Chase" (1946) (86 min. B/W)...under director Arthur D. Ripley, producer Seymour Nebenzal, associate producer Eugene Frenke, with original story by Cornell Woolrich (novel: "The Black Path of Fear") and Philip Yordan...the cast includes Robert Cummings (Chuck Scott), Michele Morgan (Lorna Roman), Steve Cochran (Eddie Roman), Peter Lorre (Gino), Jack Holt (Cmdr. Davidson), Don Wilson (Fats)...our story opens with Cummings finding a wallet on the street...after eating a meal with part of the money, returns it to the rightful owner Steve Cochran who is a menacing and very sadistic mobster...Cochran who is a control freak has another sick person on his payroll Mr. Peter Lorre...now enters Cochran's wife Michele Morgan, who's unhappily married to him and looking for a way out with Bob Cummings leading the way...will they make it or be caught like rats in a trap...is this chase real or will the "The Chase" begin all over again, who can tell........special footnote, actor Robert Cummings was known for his comedy and eternally youthful looks (which he attributed to a strict vitamin and health-food diet), became a popular leading man in light comedies and achieved several of his own television series "The Bob Cummings Show", Bob Collins (1955-1959) aka Love That Bob (USA: rerun title)...(1961) TV Series .... Bob Carson aka (The New Bob Cummings Show)..."My Living Doll" (1964) another TV Series as Dr. Robert McDonald (1964-1965)...all were in the top shows to watch during the '50s and '60s.

BIOS:
1. Bob Cummings (aka: Charles Clarence Robert Orville Cummings)
Birth Date: 6/10/1908 - Joplin, Missouri
Died: 12/02/1990 - Woodland Hills, California

BONUS FEATURES:
1. Commentaries by Jay Fenton (Film Restoration Consultant)
2. Scene Selections
3. Bios & Filmographies
4. Film Noir Movie Poster Gallery
5. Film Noir Trailers
6. Noirish Superman Cartoon "Showdown" (1942)
- the man of steel takes on gangsters.

Second on the double bill is "Bury Me Dead" (1947) (68 min. B/W)....under director Bernard Vorhaus, producer Charles Reisner, with original story by Irene Winston (radio play), Dwight V. Babcock and Karen DeWolf....the cast includes June Lockhart (Barbara Carlin), Hugh Beaumont (Michael Dunn), Cathy O'Donnell (Rusty), Mark Daniels (Rod Carlin), greg McClure (George Mandley), Milton Parsons (Jeffers, the Butler), John Dehner (Reporter), Peggie Castle (bit part)...our story opens with a burning stable and a body being carried out to the ambulance...is this the body of June Lockhart who is very well to do in society and has a nice bank account...during the burial and dark figure in a veil asks for a ride from Hugh Beaumont and to everyones surprise it's Miss Lockhart...now who do you suppose they buried...Mark Daniels is the husband and a prime suspect through the entire film...Cathy O'Donnell the little sister of Lockhart wants everything she can't have and thinks for world is against her...many flashbacks have the answer, can you guess who the real culprit is before the final scene...if you're into film noir you'll need to add this to your collection........special footnote, actress June Lockhart made her screen debut in "A Christmas Carol" (1938) with her parents actors Gene Lockhart and Kathleen Lockhart, smooth transition from movies to TV by starring in "Lassie" (1954) and "Lost In Space" (1965), a cult favorite among many Sci-Fi fans........here's a great deal of entertainment here for all the film noir fans out there...all courtesy of VCI Entertainment, who in my humble opinion is the best there is in restoring early serials and features like this one.

BIOS:
1. June Lockhart
Birth Date: 6/25/1925 - New York, New York
Died: Still Living

Great job by VCI Entertainment for releasing the "The Chase" (1946) and "Bury Me Dead" (1947), digital transfere with a clean, clear and crisp print...looking forward to more of the same from the '40s and '50s vintage...order your copy now from Amazon or VCI Entertainment, stay tuned once again with a top notch "Classic Film Noir" that only VCI Entertainment (King of the Serials) can deliver...just the way we like 'em!

Total Time: 153 mins on DVD ~ VCI Entertainment 8396 ~ (8/31/2004)

Average customer rating:

"Clark...Lee...Henreid...Scott...Fisher ~ Hammer & VCI Film Noir Vol. 2 (1950's)"

Hammer Film Noir Double Feature, Vol. 2
Starring: Dane Clark , Belinda Lee , Betty Ann Davies , Eleanor Summerfield , and Andrew Osborn
Director: Terence Fisher
Manufacturer: Vci Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B000FMGTPS
Release Date: 2006-07-25

Description

A Stolen Face (1952) - A plastic surgeon gives an "extreme makeover" on a prison inmate's face. She becomes a replica of a lover who refused to marry him. He weds the inmate and then finds that the lover who jilted him wants him back! Blackout (1954) - Down-and-out American visits London and meets a beautiful blonde who offers him a fortune to marry her. He quickly agrees, but the next day awakens in an artist's studio covered with blood and his supposed father-in-law's corpse! Bonus Features: Scene Selection| Bios| Trailers| Photo Gallery| Bonus Commentary: The World of Hammer Noir by Richard M Roberts. Specs: DVD9; Dolby Digital; 159 minutes; 1.33:1 Aspect Ratio; MPAA - NR; Year - 1952, 1954; SRP - $14.99.

Customer Reviews:

"Clark...Lee...Henreid...Scott...Fisher ~ Hammer & VCI Film Noir Vol. 2 (1950's)".......2006-08-27

VCI Entertainment and Kit Parker Films present "Hammer Film Noir Vol. 2" (1952) --- (Dolby digitally remastered)...Film noir has sources not only in cinema but other artistic mediums as well...the low-key lighting schemes commonly linked with the classic mode are in the tradition of chiaroscuro and tenebrism, techniques using high contrasts of light and dark developed by 15th- and 16th-century painters associated with Mannerism and the Baroque...film noir's aesthetics are deeply influenced by German Expressionism, a cinematic movement of the 1910s and 1920s closely related to contemporaneous developments in theater, photography, painting, scultpture, and architecture...opportunities offered by the booming Hollywood film industry and, later, the threat of growing Nazi power led to the emigration of many important film artists working in Germany who had either been directly involved in the Expressionist movement or studied with its practitioners...Directors such as Fritz Lang, Robert Siodmak, and Michael Curtiz brought dramatic lighting techniques and a psychologically expressive approach to mise-en-scène with them to Hollywood, where they would make some of the most famous of classic noirs. Lang's 1931 masterwork, the German M, is among the first major crime films of the sound era to join a characteristically noirish visual style with a noir-type plot, one in which the protagonist is a criminal (as are his most successful pursuers). M was also the occasion for the first star performance by Peter Lorre, who would go on to act in several formative American noirs of the classic era.

First up we have "BLACKOUT" (1954) (87 min. B/W)...under director Terence Fisher, producer Michael Carreras, screenplay by Richard H. Landau, novel by Helen Nielson, Cinematographer Jimmy W. Harvey, music score by Ivor Slaney ...the cast includes Dane Clark (Casey Morrow). Belinda Lee (Phyllis Brunner), Betty Ann Davies (Alicia Brunner), Eleanor Summerfield (Maggie Doone), Andrew Osborn (Lance Gorden), Harold Lang (Travis), Jill Melford (Miss Nardis), Michael Golden (Inspector Johnson), Alfie Bass (Ernie) . . . . . our story has an exceptional cast, with one of my favorite film noir actors Dane Clark, who can get into more trouble in only a few reels of this flick...in this better than average "Brit Noir" our drifter Clark is up to his neck with a frame up, murder suspect, mind games, plus he needs to clear his name in this psychological thriller "Murder by Proxy" was the British title..the beautiful blonde Belinda Lee is throwing 500 pounds around and Clark is the pigeon...where did the blood on his coat come from, and who has been murdered, will he be left holding the bag...don't leave the theatre you're about to find out who's who in this classic film noir plot.

BIOS:
1. Dane Clark (aka: Bernard Zanville)
Date of birth: 26 February 1912 - Brooklyn, New York, USA
Date of death: 11 September 1998 - Santa Monica, California
2. Belinda Lee
Date of birth: 15 June 1935 - Budleigh Salterton, Devon, England, UK
Date of death: 12 March 1961 - near San Bernardino, California
3. Terence Fisher (Director)
Date of birth: 23 February 1904 - London, England, UK
Date of death: 18 June 1980 - Twickenham, London, England, UK

BONUS FEATURES:
1. Scene selection
2. Trailers
3. Photo gallery
4. Bonus comments: The World of Hammer Noir by Richard M. Roberts

Second on the double bill is a Lippert Picture release "STOLEN FACE" (1952) (72 min. B/W)....under director Terence Fisher, producer Anthony Hinds, screenplay by Martin Berkeley and Richard Landau, Walter Harvey (Cinematographer), musical score by Malcolm Arnold ....the cast includesPaul Henreid (Dr. Philip Ritter), Lizabeth Scott (Alice Brent/Lilly), Andre Morell (David), Mary Mackenzie (Lilly), John Wood (Dr. Jack Wilson), Susan Stephen (Betty), Arnold Ridley (Dr. Russell), Everley Gregg (Lady Harringay), Cyril Smith (Alf), Janet Burnell (Maggie), Grace Gavin (Nurse), Diana Beaumont (May), Alexis France (Mrs. Emmett), John Bull (Charles Emmett), Dorothy Bramhall (Miss Simpson), Richard Wattis (Wentworth) . . . . . our story has heroine Lizabeth Scott is playing a dual role, the good, the bad and the ugly...Paul Henreid is believable as the plstic surgeon who can't seem to do anything right, professionally or with his love life...can a different face change a person, or will trouble surface and begin to eat away at the players of this "Film Noir"...is love or murder in the future of the Hammer film crew...don't take another step, as you're eyes are about to be opened and the mystery right in front of your nose... . . .there's a great deal of entertainment here for all the film noir fans out there...all courtesy of VCI Entertainment, who in my humble opinion is the best there is in restoring early serials and features like this one.

BIOS:
1. Paul Henreid (aka: Paul Georg Julius Hernreid Ritter Von Wassel-Waldingau)
Date of birth: 10 January 1908 - Trieste, Austria-Hungary. [now in Italy]
Date of death: 29 March 1992 - Santa Monica, California
2. Lizabeth Scott (aka: Emma Matzo)
Date of birth: 29 September 1922 - Scranton, Pennsylvania, USA
Date of death: Still Living

Great job by VCI Entertainment and Kit Parker Films for releasing the "Hammer Film Noir Vol. 2" (1952), digital transfere with a clean, clear and crisp print...looking forward to more of the same from the '40s and '50s vintage...order your copy now from Amazon or VCI Entertainment, stay tuned once again with a top notch "Classic Film Noir" that only VCI Entertainment (King of the Serials) can deliver...just the way we like 'em!

Total Time: 159 mins on 2-DVD-Set ~ VCI Home Video KPF 552 ~ (7/25/2006)

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