Label: Arrow Video

Reissued 2023, Originally released 

 *Region B*

FILM NOIR / DRAMA / CRIME - Vengeful army vets, ruthless organized criminals, and desperate parent-child psychodramas await you in these four classics from noir streets less traveled. In Calcutta (1946), Neale (Alan Ladd, Shane), a cynical cargo pilot, investigates the murder of a close friend and finds himself falling into the arms of his late friend’s mysterious fiancée, Virginia (Gail Russell, The Uninvited). When he connects the murder to a ring of illicit jewellery-smugglers, he becomes their next target. Is Virginia as innocent and vulnerable as she seems? In Ride the Pink Horse (1947), Gagin (Robert Montgomery, Lady in the Lake), a surly former GI, goes after the crime boss who murdered his friend. His gambit: to put the screws to the gangster with the same extortion plot that got Gagin’s buddy killed. This time things have to end differently, right? In Outside the Law (1956), Johnny Salvo, (Ray Danton, The Longest Day), a convict paroled into military service, is called back stateside on a mission that could clear his record: get inside the counterfeiting racket that killed his army buddy. Not only is the assignment dangerous, but Salvo’s got to work for the cop who put him behind bars – his own estranged father. Finally, in The Female Animal (1958), a glamorous movie star (Hedy Lamarr, Samson and Delilah) and her alcoholic daughter (Jane Powell, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers) vie for the affections of a handsome young movie extra (George Nader, Robot Monster) who has entered their lives. When the older woman generously opens her lifestyle to the young man, his insecurities feed his ambivalence. When he ends up in the arms of her daughter, disaster looms. This collection of noir’s neglected treasures doesn’t stick to the city streets: from smuggling contraband in the skies over Asia to drowning beneath the torrent of a Hollywood waterfall, the genre’s darkness lurks everywhere.