The Woman in the Window (MGM Film Noir)

Amazon.com

Fritz Lang did his best work in Hollywood throughout the 1940s, and The Woman in the Window ranks among his best films from that period. Equally adept at crafting first-rate Westerns and melodramatic thrillers, Lang returned to the latter category for The Woman in the Window, a deliciously devious follow-up to 1944's Ministry of Fear and a near-perfect companion piece to Lang's 1945 follow-up, Scarlet Street. Adapted by producer/screenwriter Nunnally Johnson from J.H. Wallis's novel Once Off Guard, this briskly paced and brilliantly plotted thriller begins with a chance encounter between mild-mannered psychology professor Richard Wanley (Edward G. Robinson) and Alice Reed (Joan Bennett), the stylishly alluring subject of a portrait that Wanley has dreamily admired in a window near the men's club where he socializes with a savvy District Attorney (Raymond Massey) and a friendly physician (Edmund Breon). When Alice invites Wanley to her apartment for casual drinks and conversation, Wanley is forced to kill an intruder, and his subsequent cover-up leads to a nail-biting plot in which Wanley must feign innocence as he "innocently" participates in the D.A.'s investigation with a homicide detective.

Lang was an expert at turning the screws of suspense, and while Johnson's screenplay tempers its convenient coincidences with well-written characters, Robinson's increasing desperation is the engine that drives the plot. When a sleazy blackmailer (Dan Duryea) squeezes Wanley and Reed for every penny they've got, The Woman in the Window winds up to a fever pitch, with a "twist" ending that's either a cop-out or clever, depending on your tolerance for now-familiar surprises. As renowned critic Pauline Kael astutely noted, The Woman in the Window has "the logic and plausibility of a nightmare," and Lang surely enjoyed the superbly cast trio of Robinson, Bennett, and Duryea, for he invited them back for Scarlet Street just a few months later. And speaking of murder, check out the kid playing Robinson's son in one of the opening scenes: that's future real-life murder-conspiracy suspect Bobby (Robert) Blake (subsequently acquitted), at the innocent age of 10. --Jeff Shannon

Customer Reviews:

egr - woman in the window.......2007-09-13

This movie "Woman in the Window" was overlooked by many people during its release but is a great tasteful little film noir movie by my hero Edward G Robinson, whom I think is the greatest actor ever in Hollywood history
If you like EGR you have to get this DVD

Edward G. Robinson Classic.......2007-08-30

This is a different mystery with Edward G. Robinson and a great supporting cast. He plays such a mild mannered character, then finds himself over his head with trouble. Surprising twist at the end. I've been waiting a long time for this to be available on DVD.

Atmospheric suspense drama marred by shoddy conclusion.......2007-08-10

Great performances, especially by Bennett and Robinson, and adeptly directed by Fritz Lang; but in the end, worse than mediocre. Personally, I'll forgive a lot of flaws in a film if its last seven minutes are satisfying; conversely, even if the preceding 100 minutes were admirable, I'm likely to feel cheated if an ending is highly contrived. This movie concludes with a not-so-dizzying plot twist that tosses aside character development, story, and common sense to append a narrative cheat, precisely the same undramatic, logic-defying "surprise" ending used by umpteen amateurish authors before and since. For me, a repeat viewing did not increase the appeal of the "surprise" ending; on the contrary, it only served to highlight the film's fatally flawed internal logic. A disappointing movie, in spite of the remarkable starring performances. I recommend Scarlet Street instead: same cast playing similiar roles, same director commanding a similarly triangulated tale, and a shocking conclusion that you'll never forget.

edward g. robinson lovers here's a A+ pick.......2007-08-09

All you old film noir fans, here's a movie your'll enjoy. Edward G plays a physch professor who finds himself fixated on a portrait of a beautiful woman right next to his daily hangout with the guys.

This fixation becomes more than he can handle. Watch and see how.

I love the old movies when stars were stars...Bogart, Cagney, Grant, Hepburn, Tracy and on and on the list goes. If you're like me...you'll enjoy this one too.

A fine noir with a clever and -- the second time you see it -- satisfying twist.......2007-07-20

The Woman in the Window has an ending almost guaranteed to infuriate you the first time you see the movie, and, the second time, to leave you with an immensely satisfied smile.

"The man who kills in self defense, for instance, must not be judged by the same standards applied to a man who kills for gain." So says middle-aged and happily married Richard Wanley (Edward G. Robinson), professor of criminal psychology, to his class at Gotham College. Wanley is about to put his dictum to the test. When his wife and their two young children leave for a brief vacation, he dines at his club with two old friends, one a doctor and the other, Frank Lalor (Raymond Massey), the district attorney. Wanley bemoans his increasingly middle-aged life. "I hate this solidity," he says with a rueful smile, "this stodginess I'm beginning to feel. To me, it's the end of the brightness of life, the end of spirit and adventure." His two friends leave and he settles in, before returning to his empty home, with one last brandy and The Song of Songs. When he leaves the club late in the evening he stops, as he often has, and gazes at the portrait in the window of the gallery next door. The woman is lovely...beautiful, with a challenge in her eyes and a gaze that looks right at you. When a voice asks him for a light for her cigarette, the professor turns and is stunned to see that the voice belongs to the woman who posed for the portrait. Alice Reed (Joan Bennett) sometimes stops by the gallery to see the reaction of men when they look at her portrait. The two somehow wind up at a quiet bar, talk and then the professor escorts her to her apartment in a taxi. She invites him up and shows him sketches the artist made of her before painting her portrait. She seems genuinely friendly and honest and the professor apparently has no intention of becoming an adulterer. But when an angry man breaks into her apartment, slaps Alice Reed and attacks Professor Wanley, it's only a matter of seconds before the man is dead, stabbed by Wanley in the back with a pair of scissors handed him by Alice. Professor Wanley's life now begins to spin out of his control.

He decides to say nothing to the police. He leaves Alice and returns with his car. With her help he gets the body into the back seat and drives it to a deserted parkway, where he disposes of it in the underbrush. The man turns out to be a powerful businessman who had been seeing Alice regularly two or three times a week. The Professor's friend Lalor takes charge of the investigation and invites Wanley to accompany him, thinking the professor of criminology will be interested in how the case is slowly being built up to identify the murderer. Wanley keeps making little errors and mistakes...a ripped coat, a scratched wrist, a tire track in the mud, a slip of the tongue that seems to say Wanley knows more than he should. Lalor begins to look curiously at his old friend. And then the bodyguard (Dan Duryea) of the dead man turns up. He blackmails Alice, who must ask Wanley for help. This time Wanley reluctantly begins to think of murder.

The Woman in the Window is a fine noir. Some may think it's just the opening act for Fritz Lang's Scarlet Street, filmed the following year with the same three stars, Robinson, Bennett and Duryea. Scarlet Street is a classic, drenched in casual cruelty, loneliness and sadness. The Woman in the Window starts out as a classic noir. Professor Wanley is a man of good intentions whom we like and who finds himself moving in situations well beyond his capability. Joan Bennett's Alice Reed, however, is no Kitty March. Alice may be a kept woman, but she wants to do the right thing as long as she doesn't get in trouble. And she seems genuinely to like and even respect the Professor. Dan Duryea, of course, is a rotter, but he's at least straight forward here. He wants money; he doesn't seem to delight in hitting women. It makes for a movie which puts a premium on the skill of the actors to bring us along with them as events conspire against them. Few were better at this than Edward G. Robinson and, in my opinion, the under-appreciated Joan Bennett.

So we have a first class noir...and then Fritz Lang pulls the rug out from under us. To fully appreciate The Woman in the Window -- trust me -- you'll need to see it a second time. How about making that second time a double feature? Have some friends over and play Scarlet Street first, then The Woman in the Window. Keep them in that order. You'll have a great main course, and then a great desert.

The DVD transfer of this black-and-white film is first-rate. There are no extras.
Scarlet Street (Remastered Edition)

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A Highly Entertaining French Farce
Irma la flop
Irma La Douce
Love movies
Irma La Duoce 1963

Irma La Douce
Starring: Jack Lemmon , Shirley MacLaine , Lou Jacobi , Bruce Yarnell , and Herschel Bernardi
Director: Billy Wilder
Manufacturer: MGM (Video & DVD)
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ASIN: B00005LOLC
Release Date: 2001-09-18

Amazon.com

In 1963, Billy Wilder's Irma La Douce was one of the biggest box-office hits of the year, grossing twice as much as The Great Escape and The Birds. Yet this popular movie has been almost completely forgotten by film history, even to fans of Wilder or stars Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine (the same trio had made a masterpiece, The Apartment, three years earlier). It doesn't represent the best work of those legends, but Irma provides tart entertainment. At least some of the movie's popularity can be chalked up to its subject, which was pretty risqué for the time: Lemmon plays a Paris policeman who falls in love with a prostitute (MacLaine). The script was adapted from a stage musical, but Wilder decided to cut the songs, instead developing the humor and romance into his own blend of bittersweet perversity; this Technicolor-fantasy Paris is kind of a dark cousin to Gigi. Lemmon is in his prime period of hand-wringing self-doubt, and MacLaine is perfectly in tune with his rhythms, especially in scenes that add tenderness to the sometimes queasy mix of moods. Ironically--given the nixing of the songs--the film won its only Oscar for André Previn's adaptation of the stage play's music into a wordless orchestral score. --Robert Horton

Customer Reviews:

A Highly Entertaining French Farce.......2007-08-01

An all time tour-de-force for Jack Lemmon and Shirley Maclaine (whose performance was Oscar nominated). Jack plays a poor schnook street cop, who bumbles his way from losing his job to pimping for Irma (Maclaine), the top hooker of the neighborhood, with whom he he falls madly in love. Jealously doing everything he can to prevent Irma from "plying her trade", Lemmon becomes his own rival in this hilarious comedy of bizarre plot twists.

Irma la flop.......2007-04-19

This is one of my least favorite Jack Lemmon movies. The plot was slow, the jokes weren't funny. I don't know, this just didn't do it for me. It didn't seem characteristic of Billy Wilder's usual witty style.

Irma La Douce.......2007-02-08

Light hearted comedy by two great actors. Great interplay between them and a joy to watch many times.

Love movies.......2007-01-11

I loved this when I saw it 35 years ago. I wanted to see it and let my kids who are over 30 see it.

Irma La Duoce 1963.......2006-05-08

Meet Nestor (Jack Lemmon 1925-2001), a young man with a very complicated love life . Employed as a business manager to Irma La Douce (Shirley MacLaine 1934- ) -a proud and profitable lady of the streeet -the poor guy has gone and fallen in love with here ! So how do keep a populare Parisienne lika Irma faithful ! Simple . Disguise yourself as a eldery English lord who immediatly becomes Irma?s sole client and means of support ! But what?s jeleous manager to do when illustrious Irma claims that the man she?s in love with is not the smitten Nestor but the dotty old Lord himself . Wonderful homour and story . You will be able to see some scenes of the Les Halles market how is torn down in the 1970?s . High Quality transfer . Recommended

Average customer rating:

Edward G Robinson- Tough Guy No More!
A truely haunting movie
"Listen baby, you got him right where you want him...he's on the hook and can't get off."
At last a decent transfer
Excellent Film

Scarlet Street (Remastered Edition)
Starring: Edward G. Robinson , Joan Bennett , Dan Duryea , Margaret Lindsay , and Jess Barker
Director: Fritz Lang
Manufacturer: KINO VIDEO
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ASIN: B000BGH2NG
Release Date: 2005-11-22

Amazon.com

Kino Video's remastered edition of Scarlet Street finally does justice to one of the best film noir classics of the 1940s. Less than a year after scoring a critical and popular success with The Woman in the Window, director Fritz Lang reunited with stars Edward G. Robinson, Joan Bennett, and Dan Duryea for this fatalistic New York City tale of a meek, middle-aged cashier and aspiring artist named Christopher Cross (Robinson) who unwittingly falls into a trap set by a pair of Greenwich Village con artists (Bennett, Duryea) who plot to sell his paintings and make off with the profits. In addition to Lang's masterful use of studio backlot locations and cinematographer Milton Krasner's exquisite control of light and shadow, the film draws its primary strength from the atypical performance by Robinson (typically so good at playing heavies, and a knowledgeable art collector off-screen) as a hen-pecked husband and self-professed failure whose withered ego makes him especially vulnerable to the false charms of Bennett, a femme fatale as heartless as she is ultimately doomed. Her scandalous behavior on screen and off (Bennett was the wife of producer Walter Wanger and Lang's mistress) and Duryea's pimpish amorality made Scarlet Street both immensely popular and scandalous enough to be banned in three states when the film was released in late 1945, but in Lang's dark vision of corrupted souls and avenging angels, nobody goes unpunished. The ending of Scarlet Street is as unforgiving as it is unforgettable, and in the hands of Fritz Lang, it's the purest essence of film noir at its finest. Kino's DVD release offers a high-definition digital transfer from a 35-millimeter negative preserved by the Library of Congress (in other words, it puts every previous video release to shame), and there's an astute, scholarly commentary by Lang expert David Kalat that puts Scarlet Street into critical perspective with Lang's career and film noir in general. For fans of the genre, this is a must-own DVD. --Jeff Shannon

Product Description

A box-office hit in its day (despite being banned in three states), Scarlet Street is perhaps legendary director Fritz Lang's (M, Metropolis) finest American film. But for decades, Scarlet Street has languished on poor quality VHS tape and in colorized versions. Kino's immaculate new HD transfer, from a 35mm Library of Congress vault negative, restores Lang's extravagantly fatalistic vision to its original B&W glory. When middle-aged milquetoast Chris Cross (Edward G. Robinson -- Double Indemnity, Little Caesar) rescues street-walking bad girl Kitty (Joan Bennett -- The Reckless Moment) from the rain slicked gutters of an eerily artificial backlot Greenwich Village, he plunges headlong into a whirlpool of lust, larceny and revenge. As Chris' obsession with the irresistibly vulgar Kitty grows, the meek cashier is seduced, corrupted, humiliated and transformed into an avenging monster before implacable fate and perverse justice triumph in the most satisfyingly downbeat denouement in the history of American film. Both Scarlet Street producer Walter Wanger's wife and director Lang's mistress, Joan Bennett created a femme fatale icon as the unapologetically erotic and ruthless Kitty. Robinson breathes subtle, fragile humanity into Chris Cross while film noir super-heavy Dan Duryea, as Kitty's pimp boyfriend Johnny, skillfully molds "a vicious and serpentine creature out of a cheap, chiseling tin horn." (The New York Times). Packed with hairpin plot twists from screenwriter Dudley Nichols (Stagecoach) and "bristling with fine directorial touches and expert acting" (Time), Scarlet Street is a dark gem of film noir and golden age Hollywood filmmaking at its finest.

Customer Reviews:

Edward G Robinson- Tough Guy No More!.......2007-07-04

Actor Edward G. Robinson evokes many images: biblical figure, esteemed business executive, erudite professor, and perennial gangster. In Fritz Lang's multi-layered noir classic Scarlet Street, Robinson convincingly portrays a meek, gulible store cashier who becomes intangled in a spider woman's alluring plot of deception. Lang's film is filled with sexual themes that pushed the limits of Hollywood's protectionist Production Code. The film's 1945 release date marked an immoral counterpoint to post WWII conventionality and American conservatism. Joan Bennett sizzles as the manipulative prostitute Kitty March. Kitty willingly accepts the mental and physical abuse of her pimp played brilliantly by noir stalwart Dan Duryea. But Kitty is no desperate fall girl, she has rationalized her relationship with Johnny as one enveloped in romantic love. To Kitty her "marriage" to Johnny is one that works because all couples that are deeply in love fight. The only elements missing in Kitty's blissful world are respectful occupations, extended families, a home, children, and shared intimacy. Lang's dark film purposely omits any hints of normalcy. Instead Kitty and Johnny's world is one characterized by street hustles, grifting, and deception. Their meal ticket mark is Chris Cross (Edward G. Robinson) who washes dishes in an apron for a wife that still adores her first, late husband. Chris has spent 25 unnoticed years as a store cashier and only truely enjoys life when he paints on Sunday afternoons. That is until Chris meets Kitty. Other reviewers have commented on the storyline, but a few scenes in this noir film are golden moments of the genre. When Kitty finally bursts Chris's naive bubble by shouting: " I've been wanting to laugh in your face ever since I met you. You're old and ugly and I'm sick of you!" murder becomes the only way for Chris to retain his manhood. Chris has gotten away with murder not once, but twice. The innocent Johnny is sent to the electric chair for Kitty's murder and thus both of Chris's tormentors are gone. Or are they really? Director Lang has weaved a complex picture that reveals many human weaknesses, vices, and temptations: embezzelment, infidelity, suicide, blackmail, prostitution, murder, injustice, and love are all present on this dark city canvass. This one is a must see and keeper for all noir enthusiasts.

A truely haunting movie.......2007-03-30

Catharsis is good for people.
Everyone has some blood on their hands as they get older.
This movie reaches into your guilts and twists.
I've seen it twice now.
The first time I liked it,
but didn't ever really want to see it again.
This time when I watched it I could appreciate
how the master film maker has worked.
It is said to be a remake of the French Renoir's La Chienne:
I don't know if I would want to be able to see that deeply into the human
condition?!

"Listen baby, you got him right where you want him...he's on the hook and can't get off.".......2006-11-04

The film Scarlet Street (1945), based on a novel by Georges de La Fouchardière, was produced and directed by Fritz Lang (Dr. Mabuse: The Gambler, M, The Big Heat), and stars Edward G. Robinson (Little Caesar, Double Indemnity, Key Largo), Joan Bennett (The Man in the Iron Mask, The Woman in the Window), and Dan Duryea (Criss Cross, The Flight of the Phoenix). Also appearing is Margaret Lindsay (The House of the Seven Gables), Jess Barker (The Night Walker), Rosalind Ivan (Johnny Belinda), and Charles Kemper (Gallant Journey).

As the film begins we meet a character named Christopher Cross (Robinson), a timid and unassuming middle-aged man, who is celebrating his 25th anniversary as a cashier in a department store. After the party winds down, a tipsy Chris gets turned around somewhere in Greenwich Village and comes across a woman taking the beating from a man, and rescues her, sort of...turns out the attacker, whose face we don't get to see, was fairly drunk and easily enough chased away. Anyway, Chris is immediately taken with the woman, a wannabe actress named Katharine 'Kitty' March (Bennett), allowing her to believe he's a wealthy artist, rather than telling her the dismal truth (seems Chris fancies himself a painter, but it's more or less a hobby rather than a career option). Here's where things get complicated...unbeknownst to Kitty Chris is lowly nine to fiver, married to a shrill harpy named Adele (Ivan), theirs being a marriage of convenience, and unbeknownst to Chris Kitty is involved with a real slick huckster named Johnny Prince (Duryea), the same guy who appeared to be attacking her on the street (turns out he was just trying to get some gambling money). Anyway, Johnny, ever the schemer, believing Chris to be a man of means, convinces Kitty to schmooze him up a bit for some dough, which she does, but Chris, who's a real sap, hasn't the green, so he procures it from his skinflint wife. Eventually Chris eventually comes clean to Kitty about the fact he's married and ends up setting her up in a posh pad, which allows not only for him to visit her, but also gives him a place to pursue his painting, something his wife thinks is a waste. Through a series of circumstances involving Johnny trying to sell Chris' paintings (he and Kitty still believe Chris to be a famous artist), Chris' works actually gain some attention, resulting in Johnny talking Kitty into pretending she painted them, rather than Chris (this wasn't too difficult given Chris never signed his own works). Anyway, as Kitty becomes famous Chris discovers the ruse (only Kitty's part, not her involvement with Johnny), and goes along with it, living vicariously through Kitty given the fact his work is garnering so much attention, but things turn sour once Chris learns of Kitty's involvement with Johnny along with how they've been playing him for a world class sucker...I won't say what happens but I will tell you a sharp implement is involved...

Of most all of the films I've watched recently, which is quite a few, this one had the most intricate storyline. If you've read through the previous paragraph it may seem like I've related a lot, but in actuality I've only touched upon a small number of highlights. There's so much more going on, in terms of both characters mentioned and those that weren't...everything about this feature worked for me, including the immaculate direction, the engaging writing, and the excellent performances. One aspect I was unsure of early on was the character played by Edward G. Robinson in that it seemed so different than what I've come accustomed to with some of his other films I've seen as I'm more or less used to seeing him portray hardnosed gangster types, not spineless, easily manipulated saps. Once I got past my own preconceived typecasting, though, it went down a lot easier, helped immeasurably by the fact Edward G. Robinson is probably one of the best actors to come out of the American cinema. As far as the other performers, Joan Bennett played her part perfectly as she was able to maintain her character's pretense of decorum, at least enough for a lovesick sap to buy off on, but once her character's guard was down we saw her for what she really was, an opportunist who desperately sought the affections of another, even more opportunistic individual played by Dan Duryea, whose character was about as oily and charming (and misogynistic) as they come. Seriously, this is the type of guy who could talk you out of your skin and be long gone before you realized what happened. One of my favorite sequences from the film comes as Kitty relates to Johnny the fact Chris is married and given they way his mind works, he suggests maybe Kitty can pry some money from Chris if it were thought by him that somehow his wife might learn of his relationship (which was nonsexual, by the way) with Kitty. Kitty replies about that being blackmail, to which Johnny states,

"It's only blackmail, baby, when you're dumb enough to get caught."

As I said the direction is wonderful as there was never a time when I wasn't engrossed in the material, which flows at a steady pace. One really interesting aspect for me was near the end, when Chris finally allows himself to realize his tragic folly, and reacts in a shocking, but not unexpected manner. All in all this is probably one of the best film noir features I've seen in awhile, and I'd highly recommend it as an example of a truly unique and fascinating feature within the genre.

The fullscreen (1.33:1) picture on this Kino Video DVD release looks sharp and clean, and it is indicated on the DVD case that digital transfer was culled from the 35mm negative preserved by The Library of Congress. There are a few, minor flaws, but they're barely noticeable. The Dolby Digital audio comes across very well, matching the quality of the picture. There are a couple of extras including an audio commentary track with author David Kalat and gallery containing images of promotional materials, deleted scenes, and some script excerpts.

Cookieman108

By the way, it seems there are a few, different DVD releases of this floating about, but I can only speak towards the quality of the one released by Kino Video, which seemed the priciest of the bunch. As far as the others, well, buyer beware...

At last a decent transfer.......2006-09-02

For so long dogged by unacceptable public domain DVD transfers, Kino has come up with a decent version of this masterpiece at last.

The relentless determinism and intellectual rigour of Fritz Lang's oppressively tragic universe does not give his viewers much cheer but his is a moving and valid vision nonetheless. Scarlet Street is possibly his bleakest film and is based on material that also inspired Jean Renoir's La Chienne (1931). I find this version the more compelling partly because the tight, closed worlds of American film noir crime dramas with their dark, cobbled streets devoid of many sources of light are perfectly attuned to Lang's sensibility; and partly because I love the leading actors-Edward G Robinson, Joan Bennett and Dan Duryea.

Robinson's finely-shaded acting (like Claude Rains he always gets it just right) is a tour de force: he captures to a tee the pathetic vulnerability of the retiring cashier Christopher Cross, who, hen-pecked by a shrewish wife (splendidly vicious Rosalind Ivan), nurses aspirations of escape into a retirement spent in amateur painting. In a chance encounter following his retirement dinner that could only have been engineered by the Fates and shot in Lang's most expressionistically oneiric style, he "saves" actress-cum-hooker Joan Bennett from a beating by "boyfriend" Dan Duryea (a whining pimp in a pin-stripe suit) and proceeds to develop a romantic obsession for her. Joan Bennett is a really class act as the sleazy, opportunistic femme fatale who trades on Robinson's delusions to gain entry to the lucrative art world by signing her name to his naive paintings.

As events pursue an inexorable path towards tragedy (in the truest classical sense of the term), Lang draws on arresting imagery from the art world to explore Robinson's middle-aged fantasies/delusions about his idee fixe (Bennett).This is complemented by Lang's precise chiaroscuro and stylized noir ambience to create an atmosphere of suffocating entrapment.

Paradoxically, the film combines these elements with some well-chosen domestic detail which is filmed with a naturalistic authenticity that is equally oppressive. It all adds up to a complex claustrophobic experience.

The final sequences are a descent into a hellish nightmare as Robinson, having literally gotten away with murder, is pursued by his conscience (the "Furies") and ends his days as a pitiful tramp on a park bench hearing voices in his head. For the audience it provides a catharsis worthy of its Greek models but it was incidentally a flagrant breach of the then-prevailing Hays code by the back door(with the wrong man being executed for the murder Robinson committed, and Robinson in a technical though not a moral sense, going unpunished for his crime).

Excellent Film.......2006-08-15

This is a great film. It's one of those movies that stay with you long after you've finished watching it. Great character development, great dialogue and a great story. This is one I actually re-watch often.

Average customer rating:

Needs the first one
Unusually and exceedingly peculiar, and altogether quite impossible to describe...
It's just ok
Not worth the time
Well...that was something else.

Sins of the Sisters
Starring: Naoko Matsui , Yûko Mizutani , Kumiko Watanabe , Jûrôta Kosugi , and Kumiko Nishihara
Manufacturer: Us Manga Corps Video
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ASIN: B00005LP4A
Release Date: 2001-11-13

Description

A woman warrior named Aiko rises to power in a violent and bloody crusade. Haunted by memories of another life, she travels backwards in time to solve the mystery of her past and finds herself caught in an incredible battle to save the future!

Customer Reviews:

Needs the first one.......2006-04-05

What most people don't know about this, is that that is the second in a series! The first part of it is before the Restoration, and actually starts when Hans loses his wings. I haven't been able to find the original in a long time, but I've found that this DVD makes a lot less sense without the first VHS. I don't know why they released the second to DVD without remastering the first. I will admit, I didn't enjoy this one as much. I thought the first was much better. This one was a little more confusing.

Unusually and exceedingly peculiar, and altogether quite impossible to describe..........2005-12-03

O.K., so there's a woman warrior, who led a crusade of other women warriors, and women took over the world (as if they haven't already, ba-dump-bump). And then there's a time-traveling demon, a convenient "time tunnel" built into an ancient monastery, a transsexual/lesbian love affair in there somewhere, and...you know what? Forget it. No, really, forget it; forget that this movie ever existed and move on to more comprehensible fare, like "Urotsukidoji". My rating: 1/10.

It's just ok.......2005-09-21

In the Post-Restoration world, Yuki recovers her memory and realizes that her lover, Daisuke, died in the World Restoration, which was led by Aiko and the female crusaders of St. Michaela's College. She decides to save Daisuke by preventing the WR, which means going back in time to kill the Christian Crusader's.

Not worth the time.......2005-04-03

The voice acting is horrid. All this movie has going for it is gratuitous sex, but not much of that either. The plot could use some work, but if you're looking for a hentai, you're not likely looking for plot. The story confusingly jumped between different time periods.

Well...that was something else........2005-03-24

We've all had our VHS bargain-bin experiences, but if I were not blessed with an appreciation for the bizarre and absurd I'd have tracked the vendor down and made them sit through it. It would have been far worse punishment than a refund of 5 bucks, I assure you.
Indeed, the best reason to own this is to show it to other hentais, to see them gape in disbelief, struck dumb to decided if they'd just been ripped off by a delirious hack or mocked by a burned out malcontent...and don't even try to figure out if the writers were actually religious.
I've no idea if an original language viewing would make this somehow 'better', as the utterly, and typically, awful English cast added to its stupefying effect.

Average customer rating:

CUE UP WOULD-BE SUSPENSE MUSIC ...AND PREPARE TO LAUGH!
Sudden Fear
American Kabuki
Crawford has great moments
Stylish Thriller With Crawford at Her Best

Sudden Fear
Starring: Joan Crawford , Jack Palance , Gloria Grahame , Bruce Bennett , and Virginia Huston
Director: David Miller
Manufacturer: Kino Video
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ASIN: B00000IPHP
Release Date: 2003-09-02

Amazon.com

Sudden Fear is one of those noir gems about a love-hate relationship between a husband and wife that's doomed from the very beginning. Jack Palance plays an ambitious actor rebuffed by playwright and heiress Joan Crawford. He later romances and marries her before falling under the dark spell of ex-girlfriend Gloria Grahame. When Palance and Grahame plot to get her fortune, the evil scheme backfires with ironically twisted results. Palance has no idea how much his wife truly loves him, and she has no idea how sinister he truly is. It's a fascinating if contrived film, with wonderful nuances and sensitive performances by the three leads. --Bill Desowitz

Description

Joan Crawford turns in one of the most emotionally charged performances of her career as a playwright who must use her plotting skills to save her own life, in this beautifully crafted film noir thriller. Nominated for four Academy Awards, "Sudden Fear" is an unbeatable combination of lush melodrama and drop-dead suspense.

Customer Reviews:

CUE UP WOULD-BE SUSPENSE MUSIC ...AND PREPARE TO LAUGH!.......2007-09-06

In this irresistible potboiler, Joan Crawford is Manhattan's greatest playwright AND San Francisco's wealthiest heiress, wooed by younger Jack Palance --- an actor she once fired. Cue up would-be suspense music, and prepare to laugh.

Tripping, carefree, down stone steps to the bay, Crawford shrugs off Palance's warning that a railing is needed. "Remember what Nietschze said," she shirps, " 'Live dangerously.' " Palance replies, "He's dead." Palance's fellow con artist and lover, Gloria Grahame, turns up to help plot Crawford's demise, even as Crawford is rejuecting her lawyer's plea to leave Palance little in her will. "I'm not going to hang onto any man from the grave," she insists.

That night, Grahame and Palance talk privately in Crawford's study. Come morning, Crawford slips into the room to use her futuristic, ultrasophisticated recording device to dictate changes in her will --- leaving everything to Palance --- but finds she'd absent-mindedly left the machine on. Prepare for your jaw to drop as Crawford dives headlong into a bravura display of Bad Acting, listening in mounting shock, horror, and unrelieved hamminess to the record of Palance's conversation with Grahame.

For seven l-o-n-g minutes, listening to pithy remarks like Palance's "Sometimes when I'm with her, it's all I can do to keep form saying, 'Wise up. Love you? I never loved you, never for one second,' " Crawford goes where no one's ever gone before, gasping, crying, furrowing her brow, shutting her eyes, widening her eyes, darting her eyes from side to side, clamping her hands over her ears.

And that's BEFORE she hears them plot to kill her. "It'll have to look like an accident," says Palance. "We'll work something out," replies Grahame. "I know a way." The record starts skipping, so Grahame's voice repeats, "i know a way," over and over, thirty-two times while Crawford acts and acts.

What next? She picks up the record and --- accidentally breaks it. In bed, Crawford has crazed nightmares of being pushed from a building, her car going off a cliff, Palance smothering her only to wake up and find that she's holding a pillow over her own face!

Delightfully, the fun has just begun, for Crawford --- our greatest playwright, remember? --- schemes a plan of her own. Suffice to say that it involves several key cast members having personalized stationery, duplicate keys, a bottle labelled "POISON," a hidden gun, Crawford's natural flare for forging signatures, a fall down a staircase, a toy windup dog, a truly crazed "mad scene" into a mirror, and --- oh yes --- the random occurence that Crawford and Grahame will, BY CHANCE, wear EXACTLY the same color dress, coat, gloves, and scarves.

Funniest of all is that Crawford and Palance got Oscar nominations!!

Sudden Fear.......2007-06-26

Miller's Oscar-nominated "Sudden Fear" pairs queen of melodrama Crawford with dashing villain Palance, while Grahame sizzles as his greedy, scheming mistress. With its atmospheric lighting and stark cinematography, the film is exemplary of noir-thrillers of the time, but screenwriter Lenore J. Coffee gives the plot an extra twist by having Crawford discover the murder plan via Dictaphone-and then orchestrate her revenge. The resulting game of cat and mouse, which ends with a climactic nighttime chase, is the heart-pounding fun of "Fear."

American Kabuki.......2007-05-14

The first half of David Miller's noirish melodrama proceeds like a variant of the standard heiress-marries-murderous-cad film, such as SUSPICION, BORN TO KILL, and THE HOUSE ON TELEGRAPH HILL. Though the film is especially well shot, the acting is very strange. Jack Palance tries gallantly as the cad, but Gloria Grahame purses her mouth too much in evil prissiness; Joan Crawford, as an heiress-playwright (how many of those do you suppose there are in the world?), does her usual post-MGM routine of alternately shrilling orders at people and then using her peculiar irritating whimper to cozy up to her new husband Palance, whom she foolishly believes is wildly in love with her. Then, halfway through the film, everything changes when Crawford listens to an accidental recording of Palance and Grahame plotting her murder: as she listens, she rolls her eyes in terror and bites her knuckles and strides up and down her well-appointed study in anguish. As in POSSESSED (1947), the director seems to be taking advantage of Crawford's background in silent film. The acting becomes more and more gestural and stylized as both words and naturalism go right out the window. The rest of the film is almost all done in pantomime`as Crawford weaves her own counterplot against Palance's and Grahame's murderous schemes.

The stylization of gestures and movement only directs your attention more to her outlandish makeup and hairdo and his equally bizarre facial features; as a result the second half seems like an American version of Kabuki theatre. But for all the praise the film has garnered it's really not much fun. Crawford was incapable of being likeable in this latter half of her career, and outside from a few choice moments where she imagines how Palance might do her in (including a wonderfully hilarious shot of her falling in terror to her death from a skycraper), this is the rare later films of hers that is not much relieved by camp humor. The film has its own odd brand of ingenuity, but it's ultimately not much fun.

Crawford has great moments.......2007-05-11

We all know how famous Crawford was for the melodramas' and the often overacting (think of Queen Bee). However, in Suddent Fear she is truly convincing as the wife who has just discovered her husband is out to kill her, hence the title.

Some very tense scenes in this classic film noir. Crawford herself disputed the choice of Jack Palance as the leading man saying he was not attractive enough for the lead. She was right, he looked very odd, almost plastic. That aside, Jack still puts in a good performance.

The DVD is heavily overpriced. Why it needs to be so expensive is anyone's guess. Especially considering the dismal transfer to DVD. Yes, it is as bad as you have read about in other reviews. No Restoration whatsoever. No extras. Should really be alot cheaper than it is. You are paying for Joan Crawford really.

Stylish Thriller With Crawford at Her Best.......2007-02-25

Joan Crawford delivers one of her finest performances in this 1952 suspense thriller. "Sudden Fear" has all the classic noir trappings, with enough plot twists to keep you on edge. Jack Palance and Gloria Grahame are a perfect match for Crawford's cat-and-mouse theatrics -- guided by David Miller's razor-sharp direction and Charles B. Lang's Oscar-nominated cinematography. Despite a less-than-stellar print and no extras, this Kino DVD is highly recommended.

Average customer rating:

Thank you Diane Keaton!
Probably one of the worst movies that I've ever seen...
"Is it my imagination, or are you just going through the motions?"
A Classic on par with Casablanca
OK

Annie Hall
Starring: Hy Anzell , Colleen Dewhurst , Shelley Duvall , Russell Horton , and Carol Kane
Manufacturer: Baker & Taylor Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: VHS Tape

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ASIN: 6301963911
Release Date: 2000-07-05

Amazon.com essential video

Annie Hall is one of the truest, most bittersweet romances on film. In it, Allen plays a thinly disguised version of himself: Alvy Singer, a successful--if neurotic--television comedian living in Manhattan. Annie (the wholesomely luminous Dianne Keaton) is a Midwestern transplant who dabbles in photography and sings in small clubs. When the two meet, the sparks are immediate--if repressed. Alone in her apartment for the first time, Alvy and Annie navigate a minefield of self-conscious "is-this-person-someone-I'd-want-to-get-involved-with?" conversation. As they speak, subtitles flash their unspoken thoughts: the likes of "I'm not smart enough for him" and "I sound like a jerk." Despite all their caution, they connect, and we're swept up in the flush of their new romance. Allen's antic sensibility shines here in a series of flashbacks to Alvy's childhood, growing up, quite literally, under a rumbling roller coaster. His boisterous Jewish family's dinner table shares a split screen with the WASP-y Hall's tight-lipped holiday table, one Alvy has joined for the first time. His position as outsider is uncontestable he looks down the table and sizes up Annie's "Grammy Hall" as "a classic Jew-hater."

The relationship arcs, as does Annie's growing desire for independence. It quickly becomes clear that the two are on separate tracks, as what was once endearing becomes annoying. Annie Hall embraces Allen's central themes--his love affair with New York (and hatred of Los Angeles), how impossible relationships are, and his fear of death. But their balance is just right, the chemistry between Allen's worry-wart Alvy and Keaton's gangly, loopy Annie is one of the screen's best pairings. It couldn't be more engaging. --Susan Benson

Customer Reviews:

Thank you Diane Keaton!.......2007-09-15

Annie Hall directed and starring Woody Allen is his best and most funniest film of all-time. But the person I admire the most is Diane Keaton who won an Oscar for Best Actress and she much deserved it. She is hilarious, self-depreating, and goofy as the title character. Allen is actually not too annoying as Alvy, he falls in love with Annie and their relationship goes through various ups and downs. They are a complete mismatch, Alvy tries to change her and Annie gets fed up and decides to fly solo. I highly recommend this entertaining and somewhat serious look at relationships at any age. Enjoy!

Probably one of the worst movies that I've ever seen..........2007-09-04

Personally I don't like any of the films that Woody Allen has starred in. The only good film by Woody, would have to have been "Match Point". I have read and critics have felt that this film is by far Woody's best, it isn't. Winning the best picture award is beyond me! The performances were shallow.

After seeing the movie I caught a glimpse of what Woody Allen's personality is really like. His character, Alvy Singer is expressed as an OCD freak, on top of that he's extremely creepy. Diane Keaton won an undeserved oscar for this role. Why? I dont know. It isn't that great, I have seen mostly postitive reviews, however there has got to be someone who agrees with me. It isn't that good, and it isn't worth watching. IT is absolutely boring, and on top of that it has no sense to it. Basically the movie is about a self-concious man named Alvy, he falls for a woman who is just like him, and the movie just focuses on their on/off romance. It is indeed very bizarre. By the end of the film, I was relieved because it was finally over. There was no humor, and whatever humor there was, it was mostly dry.

So please if you are looking for a romantic comedy, try "Sleepless In Seattle" or "Hitch", this isn't worth watching.

"Is it my imagination, or are you just going through the motions?" .......2007-08-19

Not many filmmakers have chronicled the ups and downs of relationships as well as Woody Allen. Watching "Annie Hall" is to see the director-screenwriter in top-form.

New Yorker Alvy Singer's (Allen) break-up with Annie Hall (Diane Keaton) leads him to reminisce about their time together. He wonders if his efforts to expand Annie's horizons really was a worthwhile endeavor. Did those books, foreign films, adult education classes, and therapy sessions really lead to anything or did they just hasten the end of his time with her?

"Annie Hall" is the one film Allen has made that audiences can most relate to. Anyone who has even been in a relationship can see the universal truths he relates through his characters. Watching Alvy fruitlessly try to intellectualize his feelings for Annie not only proves to be a fertile source of laughs but also puts forth the notion that happy endings in life are dishearteningly elusive. Rarely has romance and misery been portrayed on screen in such an entertaining and sobering manner as in "Annie Hall."

A Classic on par with Casablanca.......2007-08-13

I've only seen this movie 17 times, and I am still "peeling the onion one layer at a time" of this deceptively simple adult romance. Incredible blend of joy and pain and "laugh-out-loud" silliness. Will never forget the scene of Woody trying to recreate the shared intimacy of boiling lobsters with Annie with a new, clueless girlfriend.

OK.......2007-08-05

This movie is rated # 31 on Newsweek Magazine's "Best 100 movies of the last century". I am collecting these. I would place this Woody Allen classic at # 75

Letter From an Unknown Woman (1948) with Joan Fontaine

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White Rose is a Symbol of Neverending Love...
Dvd Coming Soon.
"A Beautiful Love Story"

Letter From an Unknown Woman (1948) with Joan Fontaine

Manufacturer: DVD/Video
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ASIN: B000CC0KP6

Product Description

Format: BLACK & WHITE, IMPORT, NTSC, ALL REGION, WIDESCREEN. AUDIO: DIGITAL SOUND in ENGLISH. SUBTITLE LANGUAGES: Chinese, English. PRIMARY ACTOR: Joan Fontaine, Louis Jourdan, SUPPORTING ACTORS: Louis Jourdan, Mady Christians, Marcel Journet DIRECTOR: Max Ophüls "By the time you read this letter, I may be dead," reads aging bon vivant Louis Jourdan from a letter found in his tiny hotel room. With tousled hair and a tux tired from yet another night of meaningless flirtation, he's startled by these opening lines and suspends his preparations to flee a duel in order to read the history of a love affair that he can't remember. For the rest of the film we're transported to the life of Joan Fontaine's awkward young Viennese woman, who has been hopelessly enthralled by the dashing pianist ever since adolescence. For a moment she was his lover, the emotional pinnacle of her life but for the philandering rogue simply another fling in a blur of women passing through his bedroom. This was Max Ophüls's first personal project in Hollywood, and he injects this exquisitely stylish romantic melodrama (based on a novel by Stefan Zweig) with his continental sensibility. Both lush and restrained, the endlessly moving camera tracks, cranes, and circles around the characters while maintaining a measured distance. Fontaine delivers one of the best performances of her career, vulnerable and yearning without lapsing into sentimentality--and ultimately showing a hidden strength as she risks all for one more moment with the love of her life. Jourdan is genial and callow, an empty figure faced with the meaningless of his life and shamed with self-discovery. It's a sensibility more European than American, right down the empty gesture that concludes this sad melodrama. --Sean Axmaker --

Customer Reviews:

White Rose is a Symbol of Neverending Love..........2007-04-17

Deeply moving story from one of cinema's great stylists, Max Ophuls (Le Ronde, Earrings of Madam De..., Lola Montes), stars Jane Fonatain as Lisa, a young woman hopelessly in love with dashing but callous piano player Stefan (Louis Jordan). Fontain played perhaps the best role of her career and was incredibly touching and convincing as a teenage girl (she was 31 when she took the part) that fell in love from the first sight and whose whole life was under the spell of this rare unrequited love that was recognized, alas, too late. One may ask how such a beautiful, sublime, and charming creature like Lisa would carry a torch through the years for a man who uses her without pity and does not remembers her name or her face - well, the mystery of love is unsolvable. King Solomon, one of the wisest men ever lived said once, "There are three things I can't explain, and one, I can't understand - the way of an eagle in the sky, the way of a ship in the sea, the way of a snake crawling up the mountain, and the way of a man to the heart of a woman." I guess, nowadays we can explain the first three mysteries but never will be able to understand the fourth one... Max Ophuls' who had worked in many European countries and "gave camera movement its finest hours in the history of the cinema" made romantic and elegant "The Letter from an Unknown Woman" in Hollywood and it is regarded as his best American movie.

Dvd Coming Soon........2006-06-07

This movie was suppost to be issued by the end of may 2006 but apparently was recalled before its release. Be patience and don't be robbed or pay the ridiculous prices this movie will be on dvd soon................

"A Beautiful Love Story".......2005-11-22

I was so happy to find this wonderful movie in DVD here in Amazon. The quality of this import is surprisingly pretty good both in image and sound. Definitely better than VHS.
A lovely movie to own and watch again and again.

Average customer rating:

Terrific film noir with beautiful Joan Bennett
EVIL THY NAME IS JOAN !
Dan Duryea on picking up girls
THE MOVIE IS GOOD; THE DVD IS HORRIBLE!!
Unusual role for Robinson

Scarlet Street
Starring: Edward G. Robinson , Joan Bennett , Dan Duryea , Margaret Lindsay , and Jess Barker
Director: Fritz Lang
Manufacturer: Alpha Video
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ASIN: B00005YUN7
Release Date: 2002-02-19

Amazon.com

In a way, Scarlet Street is a remake. It's taken from a French novel, La Chienne (literally, "The Bitch") that was first filmed by Jean Renoir in 1931. Renoir brought to the sordid tale all the color and vitality of Montmartre; Fritz Lang's version shows us a far harsher and bleaker world. The film replays the triangle set-up from Lang's previous picture, The Woman in the Window, with the same three actors. Once again, Edward G. Robinson plays a respectable middle-aged citizen snared by the charms of Joan Bennett's streetwalker, with Dan Duryea as her low-life pimp. But this time around, all three characters have moved several notches down the ethical scale. Robinson, who in the earlier film played a college professor who kills by accident, here becomes a downtrodden clerk with a nagging, shrewish wife and unfilled ambitions as an artist, a man who murders in a jealous rage. Bennett is a mercenary vamp, none too bright, and Duryea brutal and heartless. The plot closes around the three of them like a steel trap. This is Lang at his most dispassionate. Scarlet Street is a tour de force of noir filmmaking, brilliant and ice-cold.

When it was made the film hit censorship problems, since at the time it was unacceptable to show a murder going unpunished. Lang went out of his way to show the killer plunged into the mental hell of his own guilt, but for some authorities this still wasn't enough, and the film was banned in New York State for being "immoral, indecent and corrupt." Not that this did its box-office returns any harm at all. --Philip Kemp

Customer Reviews:

Terrific film noir with beautiful Joan Bennett.......2007-02-03

This is a great film noir starring the wonderful Edward G. Robinson, beautiful Joan Bennett and terrific Dan Duryea. Joan is spectacular in this film as the gold-digging hussy who in the beginning still has attacks of conscience. Duryea really plays it up as her sleazy con man boyfriend - smooth like vodka on the rocks. Robinson plays a sweet, harmless unhappily married man looking for someone who understands & appreciates him. The actress playing his wife is obnoxious and mean as a skunk. Duryea & Bennett take Robinson for a "ride" milking him for everything they can get. However, the "sweet and harmless" Robinson finally gets even with both of them - and they had it coming! The print quality of this dvd is pretty good - hopefully, they'll remaster it. I think this film is up there with "Out of the Past", "Double Indemnity", "Criss Cross". I just loved seeing Bennett play a sassy female turned vicious gold-digger with no heart. She was a terrific actress and never received the honors due.

EVIL THY NAME IS JOAN !.......2006-04-04

German born director Fritz Lang was a master of the mystery,suspense,noir genre.(Fury,The Big Heat) In this film he reunites the cast of his classic noir "THE WOMAN IN THE WINDOW", Edward G. Robinson, Joan Bennett, and Dan Duryea in a tale of murder and betrayal.To this reviewer the most riviting performance is that of the great (and beautiful) Joan Bennett.The way she deceives the naive Edward G. is a screen classic.Barbara Stanwyck, Claire Trevor,and Marie Windsor could also manipulate men by promising the moon and NOT delivering without a trace of remorse, Linda Darnell could also manipulate but, with at times, a heart of gold.(A LETTER TO THREE WIVES) but Joan here is unsurpassed in her greed.I don't like remakes of great films,but if a remake is made of Scarlett Street I vote of GINA GERSHON in the the Kitty March (Joan) role.GINA would set the screen on fire!

Dan Duryea on picking up girls.......2006-02-28

Edward G Robinson often played a tough guy, but he occasionally went in the opposite direction. In this movie he played a wimp, a henpecked nebbish, who snapped.

There are a few turnarounds to look for. The most obvious one is the moment when he snaps, when he changes from an abused wimp into a man who won't take any more abuse. The change doesn't fit him though, leading him to act out of character and do something he lives to regret.

An almost comedic turnaround happens when we meet his wife's previous husband. The shrewish and demanding wife always used that husband as a weapon to make poor Edward feel inferior, but when the prior husband suddenly appears in the flesh, not dead after all, he doesn't live up to his press clippings.

A striking turnaround occurs, in more ways than one, when Edward rescues a damsel in distress from a thief on the street who is pushing her around, only to find out later that his damsel in distress is in love with her attacker and thoroughly enjoys the distress he puts her through.

This femme fatale illustrates that many women feel sexual chemistry with confident, cocky men, not with nice, attentive guys who are eager to please. It's actually course 101 in how to pick up a girl, minus the slapping.

In fact, next time you think of buying a book to teach you how to win the interest of a new girl, don't buy the book, just watch Scarlett Street. Do what the villain does, and avoid doing or saying anything that Edward G Robinson says and does. Be cocky and brash, self centered and demanding, and you have just improved your odds.

Girls may like wimps as friends, but being too attentive too soon makes you look needy and desperate, and places you in the "friend" category right off the bat. Make her think she has to do her best to impress you, not the other way around. Watch Dan Duryea giving a lesson in how to make girls fall for you. Now you know why all the pretty girls went with gorillas in high school and ignored you.

The ending is a Hollywood ending. The human conscience is more punishing than the law could ever be. Somehow I doubt that. I can't picture Saddam Hussein tormented about all the poor Kurds he hurt. But this is Hollywood, not Iraq.

I could have accepted Robinson's torment as being unique to himself and therefore believable, but it is set up by someone's comment that this degree of remorse is to be expected. Baloney.

Other reviews on this site indicate that the film was forced into showing all the remorse because it was necessary to punish Robinson for his crime, without sending him to prison. I believe it. I believe that the moviemakers felt compelled to do that.

It explains but doesn't excuse the unreality of the ending. I could only buy that degree of remorse if they had set it up for me, as a very special case unique to this one character. They didn't.

THE MOVIE IS GOOD; THE DVD IS HORRIBLE!!.......2005-08-17

BUYERS BEWARE!! Any video produced by Alpha is going to be questionable. This DVD produced by this outfit is absolutely horrid. The films jerks and there are points of black outs during scenes in various places. It kept me from otherwise enjoying a fine example of 40's film noir. The sound varies from clear to distortion at points as well. This would have been a thoroughly enjoyable flicks if they had produced it from a restored master, such as the kind that TCM uses on their network. The movie itself is replete with fine performances, most notably by Edward G. Robinson as a middle aged man trapped in an unhappy married who falls in love with a prostitute played by Joan Bennett. Though I question credibility in his character....nobody could be so stupid as to be taken in by this woman unless he was so blinded by love and unhappiness that he failed to see how she was using him. Its a true, haunting portrait of a sad, lonely, frustrated man who becomes Schizophrenic at the end. It is truly a remarkable performance. Joan Bennett and Dan Duryea (the prostitute and her pimp) are equally fine in their respective roles. The film is a dark and moody piece but it certainly is in need of a decent film transfer. The DVD here is horrendous. If you can overlook this flaw, you may be able to at least enjoy watching this fine film. Needless to say, other than scene selection, no other extras are included in Alpha's cheap product which is the reason I give this product (not the movie) 2 stars.

Unusual role for Robinson.......2005-06-24

Edward G. Robinson plays meek middle aged bank cashier and amateur painter Christopher Cross in Fritz Lang's somewhat disappointing "Scarlet Street". Robinson, henpecked and mired in a loveless marriage of convenience with a harpy for a wife has a chance meeting with sultry streetwalker Kitty March played by Joan Bennett. The plain looking Robinson fall head over heels with Bennett. None too smart, she gets the impression that he's a wealthy and celebrated painter. In cohoots with her boyfriend, the sleazy Johnny Prince played by Dan Duryea they string him along siphoning him for money which helps set them up in a posh apartment. Robinson is allowed to use the pad for an art studio where he also stores his paintings.

This bizarre relationship continues and Bennett and Duryea's demands for cash grow larger and Robinson resorts to stealing. Duryea gets the idea to have Robinson's amateurish artwork appraised. Amazingly an established art critic views several of his works an an outdoor Greenwich Village art exhibit and annoints the works as created by a genius. When the scheming duo of Bennett and Duryea get wind of this unlikely bit of good fortune they set it up as if Bennett was actually the artist of the unsigned works.

Bennett gains celebrity status which is curiously all right with the lovestruck Robinson. Things are going famously for Duryea and Bennett until in a fit of rage she tells off Robinson, revealing her true feelings. Robinson goes beserk and kills her, framing Duryea for the murder. Robinson gets away with the crime but his conscience gets the better of him. He becomes a prisoner of his own mind wandering the streets as a mentally deluded drunken bum.

Lang's controversial film really didn't present much to make it anything special. The acting was OK but Robinson was miscast in this role. The fact that Robinson was in essence unpunished for his crime was against the censureship codes of moviemaking at the time and the film was banned at the box office.

Average customer rating:

William Keighley directed the film with a firm and fresh efficiency...
Another good gangster film
Decent Gangster Film
Getting Rid Of The Racket
One Tough Movie

Bullets or Ballots
Starring: Edward G. Robinson , Joan Blondell , Barton MacLane , Humphrey Bogart , and Frank McHugh
Director: William Keighley , Roy Mack , and Friz Freleng
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
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ASIN: B000FI9OAY
Release Date: 2006-07-18

Amazon.com

Get two gangster-movie icons for the price of one as tough police detective Edward G. Robinson faces off for the first time against Humphrey Bogart, the ambitious enforcer for a big-time racketeer. Bogart's effectively the co-star--virtually a one-man crime wave--though he rates only fourth billing behind Eddie G., Joan Blondell, and Barton MacLane. Still, no question it's Robinson's movie; the former "Little Caesar" walks the line beautifully as an honest cop who, unjustly jettisoned from the force, agrees to go to work for the mobster (MacLane) he's long pursued. A fascinating air of fatalism attaches to Robinson's character, whether shrugging off his betrayal by the new police commissioner (and his oldest friend), trading polite threats with his new criminal colleagues, or dismissing the possibility of happiness with the nightclub operator (Blondell) who clearly cares for him.

The title is a bit of a misnomer: Despite a rhetorical reference to "ballots" as the public's means of expressing outrage over the costs of crime, it's bullets that get the job done. Bullets and fists: the movie makes clear that Robinson has beaten confessions out of people on many occasions, and in best hardnosed Warner Bros. tradition, it has no illusions about the empty symbolism of crime commissions and grand juries. There's a nice subplot involving Blondell creating the numbers racket as off-hours distraction from her main occupation; her territory is Harlem, and Louise Beavers, usually relegated to maid roles, has spirited fun with the chance to strut as Blondell's partner. William Keighley directed. --Richard T. Jameson

Description

"They rule by the fear of their guns. They must be stopped by the power of your ballots." They refers to Bugs Fenner and other mobsters whose illicit rackets will be smashed to smithereens by undercover cop Johnny Blake. When Warner Bros.' Depression-era gangster movies began to draw protests, the studio reinvigorated the genre with stories emphasizing law enforcers instead of lawbreakers. The swift, sturdy Bullets or Ballots reflects that, with Edward G. Robinson (as Blake) siding with the good guys for the first time in a gangland saga. Humphrey Bogart plays the short-fused Fenner. And Joan Blondell and Louise Beavers, in an unusual story element for the times, are thriving numbers operators whose grift is usurped by the mob. Director: William Keighley Starring: Edward G. Robinson, Joan Blondell, Barton MacLane, Humphrey Bogart, Frank McHugh

Customer Reviews:

William Keighley directed the film with a firm and fresh efficiency..........2006-12-22

Following his brutal portrayal in "The Petrified Forest," Bogart became a much more articulate and calculating killer in "Bullets or Ballots," a gangster thriller starring Edward G. Robinson as a crusading crime-buster, modeled after true-life cop Johnny Broderick, known as "the toughest cop on Broadway," who pretended to be thrown off the police force in order to infiltrate Bogart's gang and get the evidence to bring him to justice...

Bogart revealed no emotion whatever as he goes about his gun-happy chores of shooting a respected newspaperman as well as his partner-in-crime, Barton MacLane, in his characteristic double-cross...

The exciting finale found both Bogart and Robinson in a blazing showdown, an unusual ending for this period in film history, but one which Robinson had fought hard to retain...

William Keighley directed the film with a firm and fresh efficiency...

Another good gangster film.......2006-08-12

With the implementation of the Hays Code in 1934, Warner Brothers explored new ways of retaining the excitement of the pre code films while honouring the principle of not making the gangsters into heroes. The solution was to make their great stars switch sides so in this one, Edward G. Robinson is an ex-cop who infiltrates the mobs. The head of the racketeers is Barton MacLane who lacked Robinsons's star power and accordingly, the heavy is much less attractive.

The plot is more complex than most of these films with the introduction of the bankers and politicians who actually head the syndicates. Whether Robinson has turned crooked or not provides most of the suspense and he cleverly walks a fine line between good and evil. His character is a loner and the film is dominated by the relationships between the men. It is also not as fast moving as others films in the genre where actions speak louder than words.

Joan Blondell has a small part as a smart business woman who runs the "numbers game" and invests it with more depth than she was often given the opportunity to do. Her two encounters with Humphrey Bogart, typecast as a violent but very suave racketeer, are memorable. Her sidekick is Louise Beavers who transcends black stereotypes and plays a woman of resource and intelligence. The presence of Blondell implies a romance but Robinson's loner avoids a relationship with her in a couple of touching scenes.

The DVD is chock full of worthwhile extras including an interesting documentary on the immigrant in the gangster film, an amusing short film on golf with Joe E Brown, Douglas Fairbanks Junior and Edward G Robinson himself, a Vitaphone cartoon with the signature detailed drawings and rollicking music, a musical short and a very funny newsreel item. There is also one of those blooper shorts from the Warner Brothers Films of 1936. If you know your Warner's films, these are always good fun to see. The commentary attached to the film itself is analytical to the point of boredom - a bit like a university thesis on the film's plot and script. The commentator misses the opportunity to say much about the players and the sheer entertainment value of the Warners product. Incidentally, the print of the film itself is outstanding, particularly preserving the superb lighting.

The DVD is excellent value particularly if it is purchased as part of the Warner's Tough Guys Collection.

Decent Gangster Film.......2006-03-27

Bullets or Ballots is a good gangster film set in the later 1930s which helps to explain their existence after Prohibition. Edward G. Robinson plays Johnny, a veteran of the police force whose unpopular methods leave him with nowhere to turn but to the gangsters who want him on their side. Humphrey Bogart plays a gangster who feels his position is being threatened and who serves to make trouble throughout the film. Joan Blondell plays Leigh, a pretty gir