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GUNMAN IN THE STREETS

All Day Entertainment
Movie:   3.0; Disc:   3.5

All Day Entertainment takes pride in presenting rare movies in uncut versions that typically are too B oriented to be released by any of the majors. All Day strikes gold here by releasing Gunman in the Streets , a wonderful film noir released in Britain in 1950, but a British film obviously filmed in France with a mostly French cast.   According to All Day, the movie was never released theatrically in the United States and has never been released on home video.

What a pedigree this movie boasts:   the film is directed by Frank Tuttle ( The Glass Key ), stars Dane Clark (The Glass Key ) and Simone Signoret ( Diaboliqu e) and is photographed by Eugen Schuftan ( Bluebeard, Eyes Without a Face ).   And while this film features all the usual American noir icons (a mysterious woman caught between the love of two men...one a respected but bland journalist and the other a charismatic baddie; a criminal on the run; the cat and mouse relationship between the police and the criminal; a cool sense of fate controlling the eventual outcome and the creation of a noirish universe where the featured players are doomed from the get-go), its European location settings, combined with some interesting studio produced setpieces, give the film a look all its own.  

For instance, Eddy Roback's (Dane Clark) shoot-out escape from a police paddy-wagon prompted by a car that skids into its path, forcing the policemen to stop, is almost cinema verite, with some of the action filmed from behind a store window that is dramatically shot out as the gunplay develops.   In another interesting sequence, a Parisian policeman literally hop-scotches over terrified citizens who lay either wounded or hiding on the ground so he can gain access to the action.   In a terrific follow-up sequence, Eddy is trying to blend in with the crowd in a department store when the police enter, block all exits and order the store closed.   Thinking fast, Eddy uses a toy to gain the quick affections of a child, whom he bundles up and carries off to the exit door. When he is asked to show ID, Eddy quickly passes the child off to the officer guarding the door, telling him his ID is in his car, that he will quickly return to claim his child (of course, the child is not his, and Eddy is a free man once again).

Interestingly enough, the character of Denise (Simone Signoret) becomes the dominant character in the movie, a woman of a mysterious past, the former lover of Eddy who still wears his bracelet, and who is now involved with a younger man, a journalist who appears far too goody-goody for her.   Getting in touch with the on-the-lam Eddy, Denise obviously still has feelings for the hood and tries to get money for him to escape across the border.   In the meanwhile, she tries to carry on with her new, healthier relationship.  

In another riveting sequence, Denise takes Eddy to hide out at the apartment of Max, a flamboyant quasi-criminal who may have turned Eddy over to the police originally.   But whether that is true or not, Max is a weasel who cannot be trusted, and the middle part of the film, featuring Denise, Max and Eddy trying to survive in close quarters, shows classic moments such as Eddy digging a bullet out of his arm, causing Max to faint dead-away.   Or Max's interesting relationship with his cat (who always seems to steal the most dramatic scenes).

The movie's climax, occurring in an old-fashioned style warehouse with Eddy's gang barricaded and armed to the teeth with weapons, behins when carloads of policeman are bussed into the area.   Denise, who wrangled freedom for her formerly captured journalist boyfriend who is left off at the train station (pleading with Denise to join him before the train leaves in half an hour), is slapped around by Eddy and told to leave, causing her to run full-speed to join her lover at the station.   But on her way, seeing the ambush planned by the policeman, she forgoes her new life and obvious freedom to run back to the warehouse, to stand undefended near Eddy, take a bullet in the gut, and die a sudden death.   Eddy, incensed, with his gun fully blazing, takes multiple shots to the body and dies falling face-down on the staircase below. Denise's bracelet falls from her limp wrist.   At the station, the journalist waits as long as he can, and even while on the train, stands at the end of the car waiting wistfully for his love's appearance.

All Day's print is not perfect but is in excellent condition, with great contrast.   Extras include a photo gallery, production notes, restoration of censored scenes and a collectable booklet featuring a two-page repro spread from the film's pressbook.   All in all, Gunman in the Streets is a rare find and is a solid film noir to boot.   The release of lost gems such as this only pinpoints the importance of the DVD medium to the preservation of film history.   

HEIST

Warner Home Video
Movie:   3.0; Disc:   3.0

Film noir, noted for being one of the new emerging cinema genres in the wake of World War II and extending well into the 1950s, still maintains a presence to this very day, sometimes referred to as neo-noir in the last 20 years (think Body Heat, Chinatown, Blood Simple, The Last Seduction, The Man Who Never Was , etc.).

Writer/director David Mamet formerly has contributed to film noir with his House of Games and The Spanish Prisoner , but his latest excursion, Heist , might very well be his best.   Mamet, known mostly for his stylized dialogue that is more theatrical than realistic, is a natural for film noir, whose intelligent dialogue has always been its cornerstone.   Mamet seems to delight in writing scripts that highlight intelligent, witty, humorous exchanges that make the audience rise up to his level.   He does not believe in the now current concept of lowest common denominator. Thus, most of his movies are independently produced and are released theatrically mostly to art houses and receive limited exposure.  

 Heist, while flawed, is nonetheless a gem and the film has resonated with me since I saw it.   Just like with House of Games , the plot is convoluted with plot contrivance and gimmick after gimmick, until just when you think you got it all figured out, well, another surprise occurs.   Some might actually consider this a flaw, because the screenplay's use of so many gimmicks perhaps draws attention to itself, but this is exactly the playful spirit that Mamet brings to his noirs.   Just as his dialogue is always stilted and even criminals speak as though they were college educated, his plot surprises are just another layer of the Mamet mystique.

Gene Hackman, perhaps the shining star of American cinema now going strong for five decades, might not be the box-office draw he once was, but he remains the modern movie star of choice for people who enjoy watching the craft of acting.   Here he's surrounded by Danny DeVito, who never looked shorter nor acted meaner, and Delroy Lindo, whose stoic chisel-faced determination makes him the best friend a criminal could ever wish for; both lend support.   Rebecca Pidgeon (Mamet's real-life wife) becomes the femme fatale, and Ricky Jay brings soul to the movie, underplaying as the quiet member of the gang who is always willing to sacrifice himself to help his friends.   Jay even jumps in front of a car to divert attention and gets knocked on his ass, to allow Hackman to escape.   In one of the film's more poignant moments, he accompanies his niece to her school bus, before he is apprehended by the DeVito mob boys. Jay is calmly led to a car while he speaks about what a beautiful day it is and how he has hope for the human race.   His ultimate fate is gut-wrenching and Jay's subtle, quiet performance becomes a standout in a film framed by great acting.

But the movie's plot is pivotal here, as is true with any noir, and the film's opening heist sequence, so cleverly executed and photographed, is a cinematic marvel.   Even when things go awry, with Hackman's robbery of a jewelry store compromised by the discovery that out of the four drugged cups of coffee, one cup has been untouched and thus, while three bodies lay unconscious on the floor, one shocked employee is conscious to try to figure all this out.   Hackman has to spontaneously concoct some blabber allowing him to enter the store, get close to the employee and get the upper hand before she alerts the authorities.   And this is only the film's first few minutes.

This DVD release is basically a nut-and-bolts presentation with only a few foreign language versions of the movie available and a theatrical trailer, but the DVD source print is beautiful with effective 5.1 Dolby Digital surround.   For people who enjoy a thought-provoking and intelligent script to accompany their heist/crime drama adventure, Heist is just what the doctor ordered.   It is a movie that definitely lingers long after the final credits come up.   And with all the twists and turns and deceptions, it bears a second and third viewing.

KANSAS CITY CONFIDENTIAL

Image Entertainment
Movie:   3.0; Disc:   3.0

Film noir fanatics should be pumped, for Image Entertainment is starting a new series of film noir classics entitled Dark City Classics, and the seldom seen Kansas City Confidential , directed by Phil Karlson ( Scandal Street, The Phoenix City Story, 5 Against the House , etc.), is one of the most energetic noirs of the early 1950s. Unfortunately, this print does not come from the Wade Williams Collection, and the difference is immediately observable.   During the opening titles, a vertical scratch splits the screen in half, and during the ending reel, another vertical scratch returns and an odd horizontal video-induced   opaque line appears.   Overall, the crisp black-and-white print is quite fine, featuring the much-required dense contrast and sharp focus essential for films noir.   However, overall, the print is one rung below the typical Wade Williams quality 35mm print.   But it is nice to know that Image is not limiting itself to the Williams collection, and if some prints show a little more wear, well, the scarcity of presenting such movies more than offsets the minor flaws.

The movie stresses the post-war jitters that veterans faced returning from the hero's life overseas to re-emerging into the ever-changing civilian life back home.   Also, political corruption that forces a hard-nosed police chief into early retirement illustrates the steaming evil underbelly of the post-war American society.   Here, the resentful former police chief (Preston Foster) plans and executes the perfect bank robbery, reminding the viewer more than a little of Reservoir Dogs .   Here Foster becomes Lawrence Tierney, but instead of naming each robber a different color, he gives each a mask to wear so nobody, not even "Mr. Big" Preston Foster, can be identified.   The Foster character sends each man to a different foreign country after the heist, and only sends them enough small charge to live on until he decides the time is right to spit up the stolen million-plus dollars.   Into this mix arrives decorated war veteran and now ex-con John Payne, the innocent driver of a florist truck, which is an exact duplicate of the robber's getaway truck, so Payne is arrested, interrogated, punched in the belly and head repeatedly, yet still hangs tough refusing to confess to a crime he did not commit.   Finally being released by the police, after learning he lost his job, the Payne character (Joe) gets a lead to one of the robbers and is given some money by his brother to clear his name.   The remainder of the film shows the tough-as-nails Joe infiltrating the robber's gang with the goal of bringing each member of the gang to his knees.   Along the way Joe falls in love with mastermind Preston Foster's beautiful daughter (Coleen Gray) and both their lives are endangered as the Foster character plays out the final trick to acquire the money for himself and send the band of renegades up the river forever.

Interestingly enough, the robbers are played by Lee Van Cleef, Neville Brand and Jack Elam, one of the nastiest crew of villains ever to emerge from Hollywood.   However, with such magnificent potential with this bevy of character miscreants, the audience expects much more than it receives.   Neville Brand, so psychotic in D.O.A. made a few years earlier, is here reduced to playing a bulldog thug with little character definition.   Lee Van Cleef, so evil looking in the classic High Noon made a year earlier, here plays a dandy, more a ladies' man criminal whose evil potential is downgraded.   Jack Elam, who dies half way through the movie, is the most insidious, with his crooked left eye and smarmy, sweating features dominating.   He creates the most memorable persona and he is gone far too soon.   However, John Payne as the rugged anti-hero captures all the right tones of indignation, resentment, bitterness and finally moral righteousness.   The complexities of his character, heroic yet tarnished, battered down yet resilient, shine through in every frame.   Coleen Gray is both cute and sexual as the female love interest.

Compared to most Image DVDs, Kansas City Confidential is packed with goodies.   Besides a trailer for Phil Karlson's 5 Against the House , we have a fine still and poster gallery, as well as brief bio and noir filmography of all the major cast and director Karlson.   But most interesting is film noir historian Eddie Muller's onscreen interview with costar Coleen Gray, where she reflects upon the movie's production and aftermath.   Overall, Kansas City Confidential is a wonderful debut for Image's Dark City Classics, and hopefully, more will be forth coming.

THE LONG NIGHT

Kino on Video
Movie:   3.0; Disc:   3.5

When it comes to American film noir, RKO is a studio that produced more than its share of noir gems, many of which fell by the wayside, such as The Long Night , produced in 1947, but based upon 1939's Le Jour se leve ((Daybreak ), a French film directed by Marcel Carne.  The Long Night was directed by Anatole Litvak and featured a   music score by Dimitri Tiomkin with innovative set design by Eugene Lourie.   Unlike the Narrow Margin and other RKO noirs, The Long Night , does feature noir tones with dark, moody photography by Sol Polito, but becomes quite eccentric and never turns into traditional noir-by-the-numbers.

For instance, the film stars Henry Fonda on a variation of his Grapes of Wrath Okie role, but here he plays a working-class steelworker, Joe, who lives in the Ohio/Pennsylvania corridor trying to eke out a living and enjoy the good life.   Interestingly, Fonda's working-class character is defined by his constantly smoking cigarettes, always using the old one to light the new one.   I don't even believe Bette Davis out-smoked Fonda as he seems to have a lit cigarette in almost every scene.   Second, the movie's opening creates a vision of class conflict with the haves living up on the high hills and the have-nots living in the older, industrialized sections of the city.   Added to this we have the Fonda character reflect the noir theme of soldiers returning from war, as the major setpiece of the film is the town square, which features a monument to those who served during the war.   In one spectacular sequence, when Fonda barricades himself inside his apartment as the police are trying to shoot the lock off his front door, he pushes a chest of drawers into position, but bullets cause the chest to flop open, revealing a neatly pressed military uniform stored away.   Fonda's military connection is mentioned in a few lines of dialogue, and dramatically visualized here during this intense sequence which quickly flashes by.

Fonda befriends the innocent but also working-class orphan, Jo Ann, who is played by Barbara Bel Geddes.   They hit it off, in a shy, reserved, awkward manner which seems honest and real, but the so-called young innocent has a secret rendezvous with the man that Fonda gunned down at the movie's beginning, a slickster magician Maximilian, played by Vincent Price (the movie is told in flashback).   At first Price tries to scare Fonda away by stating he is Bel Geddes' father, but Fonda does not buy that story, believing Bel Geddes' claim that she, like Fonda, was an orphan.   It turns out that Price, who plays age with graying temples, is the worldly seducer who is drawn to Bel Geddes' youth and innocence, and who attempts to force himself on the unsuspecting girl.   When Price finally confronts Fonda in Fonda's apartment, at one point intending to kill the steelworker with a hidden pistol, the over-chatty Price himself is gunned down by Fonda.   The rest of the movie is told in a series of flashbacks as the Fonda character, barricaded and preparing to die, rethinks the events that lead to this tragedy.

The film begins with a bravura sequence featuring a blind Elisha Cook, Jr. coming up the stairs of the apartment building as a gun shot explodes inside closed doors and Vincent Price, clutching his guts, slowly exits from a door and falls down the steps, while the unknowing Cook cries out for help.   But such a dynamite sequence is rivaled by many more sequences throughout the movie. Repeated closeups of Fonda confronting his personal demons within his apartment are kicked into overdrive by sudden police sniper fire which shatters glass and knocks about Teddy, the stuffed bear that Fonda took from Bel Geddes.   In the movie's pivotal sequence, Fonda sticks his head outside his apartment window, screaming to be left alone, while the assembled townspeople, all gathered in the square, cry out for Fonda to stay strong as Elisha Cook, Jr. yells back, "You got friends here!!!!!"   It's a very moving and powerful sequence, and the relationship between the working-class people and the police parallels the similar relationship between the down-trodden and the police during the decade of the 1960s, where every policeman became a "pig" and could never be trusted.

Finally, the performances are intense and well-defined.   Bel Geddes has her best sequence screaming out in the town square for Fonda to not get himself killed, that she loves him, as she is knocked over by the exiting mobs of people who almost crush the poor girl to death. Fonda, armed with his cigarette, gritty, is creating a performance more internal than external, so his face and eyes probably say more than his lines of dialogue ever do.   Vincent Price, smarmy and a virtual chatterbox, comes closest to overacting, but his overdone performance seems quite appropriate for the sleaze-ball he portrays. Ann Dvorak, as the brazen ex-assistant of Price, who makes a physical play for Fonda (contrasting Fonda's relationship with the worldly Dvorak to his relationship with the innocent Bel Geddes), creates a performance that also demands screen attention.

Kino on Video must be commended for restoring a wonderful but almost forgotten film noir.   The print is very clean with good density, although a few scratchy reel breaks are included.   The supplementals include a gallery of photos and poster art, an essay on the production design, illustrated with selected film clips; also, excerpts from the original 1939 French film are contrasted with dramatic sequences from the American remake. While The Long Night is not a classic movie, it is a solidly good one with superb performances, outstanding production design and spectacular   music and photography.  

MEMENTO

Columbia/TriStar
Movie 3.0; Disc:   3.5

When we were children, gimmick movies fascinated us:   the buzzing theater seats during the horrors of The Tingler , the Ghost-Viewers worn during 13 Ghosts , the Emergo skeleton floating throughout the theater during House on Haunted Hill , the 3-D glasses of The Mask , etc.

As adults, our passion for movie gimmicks may not be the same, but the desire for movie trickery is almost as great now as it was then.   We may cite the adult-as-kid fun of the Odorama card in Polyester , the plot contrivances of The Usual Suspects and now the stuttering pieces of plot told from ending to beginning in Memento , Christopher Nolan's contribution to the adult gimmick film sub-genre.

Guy Pearce stars as an insurance investigator who awakens in the middle of the night, hears noises in his bathroom, enters and finds his wife raped and murdered before having his own head bashed against the wall, leaving him unconscious and half-dead in a puddle of blood near the body of his wife.   Or, at least, this is what he believes happened.    As a result of his injury, Pearce does not have the ability to create any new short-term memory--he can only remember things that occurred before his injury.   For instance, if he is speaking to a woman for 10 minutes and goes to the bathroom, when he returns, he would not remember anything about the earlier conversation nor even remember meeting the woman.

His mission is to find the murderer, and without memory, he has to depend upon taking Polaroid instant photos and tattooing his body with messages to be able to assemble any type of evidence to find his wife's murderer.   He carries around with him photos of the motel he now lives in, photos of people he meets; all have important messages about the people scrawled across the bottom of the photo.   Sometimes messages on the photos are scratched out as new conclusions are drawn.  

Surprisingly, in his pre-injury life, Pearce investigated a man who suffered from the same short-term memory lapses he now suffers from.   However, this poor, pathetic man murdered his own diabetic wife, who recognized in his eyes and expressions the sense that he did know who he was and knew his past.   Testing him in a most dramatic way, she told her husband it was time for her daily insulin shot, only she kept telling him it was time for the injection immediately after receiving the first, in hopes of jogging his memory back to reality.   However, she died in the attempt and Pearce concluded the husband could not collect insurance money because Pearce felt he was capable of regaining his memory or even perhaps faking his memory loss.

Leonard (Pearce), in his investigation, "befriends" Carrie-Anne Moss (of The Matrix ) and Joe Pantoliano, both of whom are essential in his investigation of the murder of his wife.   However, as the plot progresses from the end to the beginning (thus putting the audience into the same distorted position that protagonist Guy Pearce finds himself in), we find that the helpful Moss is despicable, calling Pearce a "retard" and saying "I can call your dead wife a whore bitch and you would forget everything I said and still sleep with me" (and earlier in the film, he is depicted naked, sleeping in her bed).   Pantoliano is even more problematic, but since he is killed by Pearce in the movie's first sequence, the audience senses that the man who pretends to be a friend might not be so altruistic.

Even by the movie's end, Pearce is revealed to be not quite the person he nor the audience thinks him to be, and things have been played with and twisted around plot-wise from the beginning to the end.

The problem with Memento is Guy Pearce and his inability to create an emotional attachment with the audience.   Any relationship is built upon layers of self discovery and building blocks of commonly shared experiences.   However, every time Pearce meets Moss or Pantoliano or anyone, it is like starting over from scratch.   Of course, he has his photos of these people and short notes, but that's not enough upon which to build an emotional relationship.   Most of the people in this neo-noir thriller are self-serving and Pearce himself is memory-challenged, so the movie by its very nature cannot be character-driven as much as plot-driven with the pieces of the puzzle given the audience out of order and in dribs and drabs. Memento is the ultimate gimmick movie for New Age movie buffs.   The movie, even while it fascinated and held my attention,   left me cold as the plot eventually made sense only in its final minutes.

A gimmick, in the sense of style over substance, can only go so far, and while Memento is a good movie, is it far from being a great one.

MICHAEL CLAYTON

Warner Home Video
Movie:   3.5; Disc:   3.5

When it comes to movie star charisma, George Clooney most closely approximates the quality of movie stars of yesteryear, those classic faces that include Humphrey Bogart, Clark Gable and Cary Grant.   And while many Hollywood stars are more rightfully labeled personalities than actors, Clooney's acting chops rate with the best Hollywood screen actors.   And Clooney's portrayal of fictional Michael Clayton is perhaps the finest performance of the year. Or it's among the best!

Worn down, battle weary and showing every aspect of the lethargy of his life, Michael Clayton has yet to pull his brass ring.   He is in debt and needs to pay $75,000 foreclosure costs of a bar he owns jointly with his former-addict brother.   The debt belongs mostly to the brother, but Michael vows to pay it off himself. Clayton worked at his current law firm for 18 years and is not yet a partner, and while he wants to be a trial lawyer, he is the designated "fixer" or the lawyer who cleans up all legal messes for the firm.   As he glumly admits in the film's best metaphor, lamenting the failures of his life... "I have no equity."

The film, directed and written deftly by Tony Gilroy (of Bourne fame), opens and closes with the same bookend sequence.   In the movie's beginning we watch as Clayton is called, in the middle of the night, to an important client's home to fix up his mess... improperly leaving the scene of a hit-and-run auto accident.   But when Clayton finishes his business, he drives far from the city as morning arrives, stops his car, climbs a grassy hill and entertains himself by observing three horses.   Suddenly below his car explodes and catches fire, and panic strikes.   When this same sequence is repeated at the movie's end, several additional pieces of the puzzle are inserted which create a brand new perspective of the facts witnessed.

The movie features extraordinary performances from Clooney and others (Tilda Swinton and Sydney Pollack stand out), especially Tom Wilkinson, whose quirky supporting performance shines.   As the firm's savvy litigator Arthur Edens, Wilkinson offers a multilayered performance. Edens suffers from chemical imbalances and is chief litigator for a $3 billion dollar class action suit, but he suddenly gets a jolt of moral conscience when he turns against his own company and prints up 1,000 pamphlets whistle-blowing the truth about corporate evil.   Yet at the same time the fruit-loop goes off his meds and strips naked during a public meeting and purposely vanishes, turning his back on his company.   Michael Clayton is sent to find Edens, a good friend, and clean up the mess.   However, two hired assassins methodically terminate Edens, first electro--shocking him and then injecting a heart-stopping chemical into his foot. Afterwards they fill his mouth with pills, making his death appear to be a suicide.   When Clayton investigates and learns the truth, soon he too is running for his life.   The ending is glorious, with the shattered, bone-weary Michael Clayton blowing off the offer of beaucoup bucks, a10 million dollar bribe, and exposing the bitter truth involving murder, greed and the exploitation of innocent farmers.   One of the most unheroic of individuals commits one of the most heroic acts ever.   At the same time he confronts and quietly one-ups his unworthy adversary.   This ending sequence is underplayed (director Tony Gilroy wisely resists the temptation to boom when quiet desperation best conveys the tension of the moment) but remains a stunning movie moment that resonates for a long time.

And what courage George Clooney the actor must possess!   At the movie's end, jumping into a cab, he hands the driver 50 dollars and tells him just to drive around the city.   The camera focuses on Clooney's face, expressing everything he has felt during the course of the movie:   depression, panic, sadness, elation and disappointment, all in the course of several minutes, the camera locked on Clooney's face, as the triumphant little man sits and thinks, as the credits roll up on the right side of the screen.   For these several minutes, Clooney's facial expression is in a constant state of flux, a wispy smile disappearing into a frown, then a distant serious thought echoes across his face, then a blank gaze, then emotional sadness and relief.   The viewer cannot tell what he is thinking, but we can tell what he is feeling.   And director Tony Gilroy's courageous and brutally honest ending, a tight shot on the human face, only reflects the fact that George Clooney is one of the better cinematic actors of his time.

 

THE 1,000 EYES OF DR. MABUSE

All Day Entertainment
Movie:   3.0; Disc:   4.0

David Kalat, film historian and president of All Day Entertainment, has embarked upon an exciting mission--to restore and bring to public awareness the German Dr. Mabuse crime movie series.   Besides the DVD restorations and releases (called "The Diabolical Cinema of Dr. Mabuse"), Kalat wrote a recently published book by McFarland documenting the cinematic series.   A wonderful Mabuse article was published two years ago in our sister magazine Midnight Marquee Monsters .

The first modern Mabuse movie, following the original Fritz Lang directed films of the 1920s and 1930s, The 1,000 Eyes of Dr. Mabuse , produced in Germany and released in 1960, happens to also be Lang's cinematic finale as a director.   And while this Mabuse entry is not one of the best films Lang ever directed, it is definitely a superior B production, a complex, intelligent crime thriller that influenced the James Bond movies only a few years away.

Interestingly enough, the presence of Mabuse is similar to the alien presence in Beast With a Million Eyes where an omnipresent intelligence pervades the environment, without ever being seen.   Mabuse, offscreen as himself until the ending of the movie (although he does play, in disguise, two other characters under heavy makeup), is mostly seen as the ultimate voyeur flipping electronic dials and switches and using television cameras and monitors to spy upon the inhabitants of the Luxor Hotel, a luxury hotel built in the fading days of Nazi Germany.   There, in the bowels of the hotel, locked in a secret chamber, Mabuse keeps tabs on the human guinea pigs, all pawns in his cosmic plan to conquer and control the world.

The movie starts very James Bond-like, with three moving vehicles--a bus, a black sedan and a light colored car--converging as they slowly come to   stop at a traffic light.   The driver of one of the vehicles, a TV reporter, is the victim as an assassin from the other car fires a razor-blade thin shard of metal into the man's brain using an air-propelled weapon.   The light changes and the traffic proceeds, all except for the reporter's car housing his corpse.   Initial reports claim he died of natural causes, a heart attack, but the autopsy reveals the small metal blade imbedded in the man's brain.

In his pre- Goldfinger days, Gert Frobe portrays police inspector Kras whose job it is to solve the case.   But the involved plot brings together a wealthy American industrialist (Peter Van Eyck) who becomes involved with a suicidal Dawn Addams (a beautiful woman actually under the hypnotic power of Mabuse).   Throw in a psychic weirdo named Cornelius and an insurance salesman who seems just a tad too savvy for his own good, along with hotel security people and assorted police assistants and we have a complex plot involving Mabuse's plan of world domination.

It turns out Mabuse in this movie is not the original Mabuse, but a student of the original criminal mastermind who died in 1932 and one who plans to carry on the original's ideals and goals of world conquest.   The overpowering brassy score adds a noir touch and the performances are all subtle and underplayed in the best police drama tradition.   As the pieces of the puzzle gradually unfold, the movie only becomes more intense and gripping, aided greatly by the still commanding directorial style of Lang, a man who in real life is slowly going blind.

The visual style is always fascinating as victims dangle upon rooftop ledges ready to jump, police phone lines are booby-trapped and suddenly explode, people are apparently shot and killed but suddenly awaken on the way to the morgue, victims--both innocent and not--are felled by stray bullets and silent men watch unsuspecting women through a two-way mirror which looks like a regular mirror from inside the hotel room.

The 1,000 Eyes of Dr. Mabuse perhaps becomes the finest and most important release from All Day Entertainment, as the widescreen print is absolutely pristine.   Either the original German print with English subtitles, or the American dubbed version can be selected.   David Kalat provides audio commentary, plus Kalat produces a 35-minute featurette called "The Eyes of Fritz Lang" consisting of surviving friends and associates reminiscencing about working with Lang.   Finally a Mabuse filmography including a few trailers and a Still/Poster Art gallery is included.

For a film fan such as myself who never saw a Mabuse film until now, All Day and David Kalat are educating a new generation about an important movie icon and series.   The 1,000 Eyes of Dr. Mabuse is a marvelously and stylishly concocted film directed by Fritz Lang, and this first film only whets my appetite for more Mabuse forthcoming.

 

MULHOLLAND DR.

Universal Home Video
Movie:   3.5; Disc.   3.5

Unlike Donnie Darko and other David Lynch wannabes, Mulholland Dr. is the real deal, demonstrating the heights that mainstream Hollywood cinema can ascend, producing a phantasmagorical trip that may be ultimately incomprehensible yet finally satisfying and complete.   David Lynch suggests to me that sometimes storytelling is best when all the pieces don't quite fit together...like dreams, we fill in the missing pieces.

David Lynch must be considered the most hallucinatory, dazzling and disorienting writer/director working in Hollywood today (as he has been doing for 25 years), but he is perhaps our most ambiguous and revolutionary director working today, and God love him for that.   Even being one of his most avid fans (I still consider Blue Velvet to be one of the greatest movies ever made...and that is a complete about-face since I first saw the movie at a special press preview upon its initial release), I cannot claim to have the plot of Mulholland Dr. figured out upon my initial DVD viewing, but that's today...I have many more opportunities to confront and decode the movie.   Bottom line:   Even if I cannot figure it all out, I sense that a method exists to Lynch's madness and that a solution exists that will eventually hit me in the face. That's why Lynch's work is so much fun...his films are multi-layered like onions with one mystery leading to another, but sooner or later, the truth is revealed.   Lynch, unlike most linear plot-tellers whose plot erupts with a conflict, then undergoes rising action, achieves a climax with the resolution following, Lynch seems to be telling two parallel universe tales overlapping one another without rhyme or reason. In other words, Lynch's storytelling device is pure poetry, which depends upon pure emotion, visual imagery heavy on the metaphor and symbolism and compacted dialogue where each line of dialogue in a Lynch script means far more than each line of dialogue means in a typical narrative script.   In other words, most movies are told as a form of narrative fiction, but Lynch's scripts are pure poetry and it is amazing that he gets the financial backing to make such non-commercial movies, but cinema is better off for his contributions.

When we compare Lynch's major works:   Blue Velvet, Wild at Heart, Dune, Elephant Man, Twin Peaks, Twin Peaks:   Fire Walk With Me, The Straight Story, Lost Highway, Eraserhead we see the work of a visionary, an eccentric, but a director in full control of his craft.   Myself, the trippy, hallucinogen tales hold the greatest resonance for me:   Blue Velvet, Wild at Heart, Twin Peaks (the TV series more than the feature film), Lost Highway .   I consider Blue Velvet and Twin Peaks (the first season) to be classic Lynch and Mulholland Dr. immediately ascends to these heights.   Lynch does just incredible things with surround sound, such as the unexpected and intense auto crash sequence at the movie's beginning...contrasting loud roars with insulated interior car quiet.   The manner in which Lynch can film a slow walk around a Dumpster or descend staircases and generate pure terror, accented by the heart-pounding bass sounds generated by the always superb mood-meister Angelo Badalamenti (with additional music by Lynch himself), is always undeniably effective.   If Lynch ever made a full throttle horror movie, well, it could be a mind blower of the modern movie era, even though Mulholland Dr., in a way, is horror in the same sense that Dario Argento's Deep Red is horror or Hitchcock's Psycho is horror. (However, Lynch's ability to juxtapose sequences of sly humor alongside horror is riveting--think of the hit man's blundered attempt to mask his shooting-in-the-head execution as suicide, with his misfiring the murder weapon and shooting the woman in the next office, who thinks something stung her on the            ass!)

When it comes to acting, Mulholland Dr. shines as does the acting in most Lynch productions, but Naomi Watts is a superstar waiting to bud and her performance is so multi-layered that it was justifiably recognized as one of the stellar female performances of 2001. Watts, as Betty/Diane, opens the movie as a wide-eye innocent entering Los Angeles with stars in her eyes and a movie-star dream in her heart.   By the movie's end, Betty has been revealed to be perhaps an illusion or a fading life's dream as the more decadent, hollow and depressed Diane is revealed, the tormented young woman who takes her own life by film's end. Of course in Lynchland we don't have the Shakespearean aspect of tragic flaw when the innocence of youth is corrupted and ultimately destroyed by an internal flaw in a smooth progression of deterioration.   Instead, in Lynchland we have two parallel characters who exist side by side, or one being the good life dream of the dying other.   We never clearly know, but one character at one point instantly becomes the other, so without much motivation perhaps this type of performance is even more difficult to execute.   But it is a stunner.   And it is among many creative performances.

What is amazing about Mulholland Dr. is that for 90 minutes out of its two hour and 25-minute running time, the plot is deceptively straight-forward and very linear in construction.   Only in the film's final hour does Lynch pull out the magic box, the special key and reveal that incomprehensible world where, just as in Lost Highway , one character can suddenly become another. And just like Blue Velvet , we have the young innocents changed and corrupted by their attempt to solve a mystery that is greater than they are. And just like Twin Peaks we have evil Bob replaced by the oil-slick homeless victim who becomes one man's very special nightmare. This final hour is pure Lynch, baffling yet appealing, even attractive.   Unlike other wild visionaries of the screen, Lynch's weirdness is never off-putting...his movies are so successful because their weirdness is like a bad dream that forces you to open your eyes, get up out of bed and take one step after another, breathing heavily in anticipation of the abyss.   Even if we don't fully understand meaning at the time, like a strange dream, we are sucked into the maelstrom wishing to know more. That's the magic of the pied-piper David Lynch.

Forget movies like The Straight Story ...give us more Mulholland Dr.   I haven't felt this energized after seeing a movie in a long, long time.

The 1:85:1 letterboxed print is available in both 5.1 Dolby and DTS surround sound.   The print which features both gaudy colors (the opening Gap-style swing number) and deep saturated night sequences is effectively mastered to bring out all the nuances of the cinematography.   Extras include bios of the cast and crew (listing David Lynch as a former Eagle Scout) as well as a trailer.   But with the option of DTS included with such a pristine print, who needs more?   Mulholland Dr. is the type of movie that invites a deciphering party to follow its viewing, and it is the type of movie that deserves (and needs) multiple viewings.   Remember, film as poetry equals the mysterious trip down Mulholland Dr.

NOTORIOUS

The Criterion Collection
Movie:   3.0; Disc:   4.0

William Rothman, in his liner notes on this Criterion DVD of Notorious , claims that Notorious and Shadow of a Doubt are the finest Alfred Hitchcock movies produced during the director's first decade making films in America.   For me Shadow of a Doubt is a superior Hitchcock experience, suspenseful and character-driven.   Its vision of small-town America, so realistic, proves how much of small-town America Hitchcock absorbed living and working here.   However, Notorious , a good movie, never quite lived up to its hyped expectations.

First of all, Notorious has a splendid visual look, photographed by Ted Tetzlaff (who later directed the film noir B classic The Window ), sustaining a crisp black-and-white texture highlighting Hitchcock's stairway tracking shots or downward crane shots, detailing the high society party sequence.   Next, the script written by Ben Hecht masterfully combines the world of espionage and romance, creating a post-war Nazi playground in Rio where tuxedo-garbed gentlemen hide anti-American plottings just below the surface.   The love relationship between Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman, which sizzles one moment and grows ice cold the next, demonstrates Hecht's brilliant writing skills, which constantly tease the audience, making us wonder who is really in love (or not) with whom?   The casting is superb, pairing Hollywood icons Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman as the romantic leads, but the supporting cast is just as strong, featuring diminutive Claude Rains in one of his career-defining performances.   Also superb is Louis Calhern as Grant's boss and Leopoldine Konstantin as Rains' strong-willed mother, the titular mother of the Nazi movement in Rio.   Finally the direction of Alfred Hitchcock is right on target, effortlessly merging from one romantic sequence to another suspenseful one, shifting the pacing from dreamy romance to pulse-pounding thriller, sometimes all within the same sequence.   The movie is best characterized by its outstanding scenes--Devlin (Grant) and Alicia (Bergman), sneak into the wine cellar (after Alicia cleverly secures the key and passes it secretly to Devlin) and break a bottle of wine, speedily working to clean up the mess before they are discovered; and the movie's final scene where Alicia, being secretly poisoned by Alex (Rains) and his mother to get rid of the American spy before his Nazi cohorts discover the truth about the woman Alex has married, is buoyed up by Devlin, who finally declares his love to her, this confession giving the sickly Alicia strength to rise out of bed and take the long walk down the steep stairs to her freedom and renewed health.   The movie is most successful when viewed episodically.

With all that works so well in the movie, why does it seem flat and lethargically paced when taken as a whole?   As mentioned earlier, Hitchcock seems to have thrown the film's balance off kilter...when the film suffers for some dramatic tension and needs more thrills, the film settles back down into romance.   The pivotal scenes described above, and others (including a wild car ride with a drunk Bergman drawing the attention of the police; a classic kiss sequence, with Bergman nuzzling and rubbing her lips against Grant's face for several minutes, as she purrs sweet nothings in his ear, etc.), seem not carefully enough blended into the rest of the movie.   Several scenes seem a tad drawn out while others seem slightly underdeveloped.   For instance, the subplot with Devlin and Alicia probing the world of Nazi spies living the high life in Rio, men and women in the best finery who plot to rub out one of their own, seems to cry out for even more development.   A similar approach was attempted in The Seventh Victim , a Val Lewton production, whereby a Satanic cult of upper-class gentlemen and society dames living in New York City      confront one of their own, a woman, and try to convince her to take        her own life by drinking poison.      The sequence in The Seventh      Victim is superior because of its depiction of the world of high society affluence being contrasted to the soft, white underbelly of Satanic decadence; it hovers closer to the surface, better showcasing its communal evil.

Despite the flaws of this major Hitchcock movie, the Criterion Collection DVD does feature a wealth of extras including a newly remastered, pristine. fine-grain 35mm print; audio commentaries; the complete Lux Radio Theater broadcast (featuring Ingrid Bergman and Joseph Cotten); rare production photos and poster art;   a collection of trailers and teasers; excerpts from the source story The Song of the Dragon ;   rare newsreel footage of the London premiere with Hitchcock and Bergman; an isolated music and effects track; and production correspondence sharing professional letters written by important members of the cast and crew.   Notorious has never looked this good since its initial release, and the supplemental extras make this the definitive package for any Hitchcock movie lover.

SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS

MGM Home Entertainment
Movie:   3.0; Disc.   3.0

Sometimes we want to like a movie and may find it intelligent and riveting...but sometimes the movie somehow comes up short.   Such is Sweet Small of Success , a 1957 gritty, bleak film noir where nary a character has any redeeming characteristics.

First, the positives. The on-location photography by James Wong Howe, letterboxed at 1:66:1, is magnificent.   For the 1950s, the bleakness of New York City has never been better captured on film, with the dense blacks surrounded with a bevy of disgusting, self-centered characters that create a positively smarmy atmosphere.   The musical score by Elmer Bernstein bustles with urban tension and moral indignation, integral to the plot.   And the performances by Tony Curtis and Burt Lancaster, definitely recognizable in their respective acting arenas, stand head and shoulders above most of their other work.   Never has Curtis seemed quite so rodent-like and cowardly, in the most conniving, street-hustling sense.   It would be hard to find an upstanding moral bone in his broken body at the end of the movie.   However, what Curtis' character of Falco personifies is the street-savvy survivor who proudly puts one over on others to make a buck.   In one instance Falco gets an advance look at the daily column by J.J. Hunsecker, and he goes to see a nightclub comic and hustles him to hire his services as publicity agent promising he can get a mention in Hunsecker's column tomorrow by making a phone call tonight.   Pretending to phone up his good buddy and delivering word for word the copy in the column already set in type, the comic and his manager soon are drawn into the press agent's cleverly conceived trap.   Lancaster, as the powerful journalist who uses his unlimited power of the pen to both make and break people, has blackballed Falco and his clients because the press agent failed to break up Hunsecker's sister's (a superlative performance by Susan Harrison) romance with a jazz musician (Martin "Marty" Milner).   To get back in Hunsecker's good graces, Falco has to literally plant marijuana on Milner, get him arrested and have the story printed in a newspaper column. Interestingly, for 1957 the theme of incest could not be dealt with directly in movies, but Hunsecker is obviously having a sexual affair with his beautiful, younger sister and wishes to keep the sibling for himself.  

Besides the performances and the sometimes clever noir-esque dialogue and the atmospheric photography, the script, written by heavyweights Clifford Odets and Ernest Lehman, is almost too talky and claustrophobic for its cinematic good, sometimes seeming more like a stage play than a movie script.   Its melodramatic intensity and moralistic self-righteousness sometimes seems too pat and complacent, but at other times the script does a fantastic job of illustrating the ambiguity of the freedom vs. the power of the press and the gray zone that exists between good cops doing their job and the abuse of power perpetrated by the police force.   The film's ending is very unsatisfying, with J.J. Hunsecker's character getting let off the hook and continuing his reign of terror in type, as well as carrying on his twisted relationship with his suicide-prone sister.

Sweet Smell of Success ultimately becomes very frustrating, offering so many plusses among several negatives, but bottom line, the film is quite good and superbly acted, featuring some of the best work   Curtis and Lancaster committed to film.   The source material used by MGM is sharp and crisp; however, a few annoying lines come and go far too often for such a pristine looking print.   The only extra is a theatrical trailer.   For lovers of film noir, Sweet Small of Success deserves to be viewed as a pivotal work and it offers some interesting food for thought for more innocent times.

THE TESTAMENT OF DR. MABUSE

All Day Entertainment
Movie:   3.0; Disc:   4.0

 After the success of the 1960 Fritz Lang directed The 1,000 Eyes of Dr. Mabuse , producer Artur Brauner decided to continue the film series, but Lang was not interested (nor physically able).   Thus, six Mabuse films were produced between the years 1960-1964.   And this fourth modern Mabuse (following 1,000 Eyes , The Return of Dr. Mabuse and The Invisible Dr. Mabuse ), The Testament of Dr. Mabuse , is technically a remake of Lang's first sound Mabuse film, originally made in 1932.   The direction by Werner Klingler, while not in the same league as Lang, is very kinetic and imaginative and Klingler keeps the action moving rapidly ahead.

Gert Frobe returns as the obsessive police investigator, but by this time his name has changed from Kras to Lohmann, as his counterpart was called in the Lang originals.   By this point the Mabuse character has become more mythic and almost supernatural.   His gang of criminals are instructed to carry out elaborate heists which are meticulously planned out by the evil-minded Mabuse, who appears to his criminal army shrouded behind a transparent curtain sitting in silhouette.   One curious member of the gang, who dares sneak a peak behind the curtain, is electrocuted and dies a horrible death for his intrusion.   His replacement, a fresh recruit, is an over-the-hill professional prizefighter whose heart does not tolerate the criminal life for very long, even though his financial state dictates that he join the band of low-lifers for at least the short interim.

Even though Mabuse mysteriously appears before his criminal family, Dr. Mabuse, now insane, has been committed to an insane asylum and appears docile and other-worldly, spending his days and nights scribbling into his journal planning his future crimes.   Inspector Lohmann periodically checks in on the good doctor and the dedicated psychiatrist who looks over Mabuse, but how can Mabuse appear, even if in shrouded visibility, in public if he remains confined to a mental hospital?   Ah, a mystery waiting to be solved!

Mind over matter is the bottom line here, as the evil Dr. Mabuse, receiving hypnotic treatments from his doctor, instead uses the power of his stronger will to reverse the hypnotism and mentally control his doctor who   is treating him, thus, unknowingly, this psychiatrist becomes the figure of Mabuse behind the curtains.   In one of the film's most dynamic sequences, we see how during a treatment the zoned-out Mabuse quickly assumes a rational and penetrating state of mind and orders his doctor, who is trying to dominate Mabuse's will, to give in to Mabuse's suggestions.   The rhythmic monotony of sound married to effective acting and interesting photography employing ominous shadings of light make for a superb sequence.   Almost as grand is the sequence near the end when Frobe goes to see the psychiatrist and finds Mabuse dead, yet the psychiatrist commands his orderlies to subdue Frobe and tie him down, demonstrating Mabuse's show of will even extending from beyond the   grave.

Fast-paced, complexly scripted illustrating mistaken identities, imaginative criminal acts and intense psychological battle of the wills, The Testament of Dr. Mabuse once again demonstrates Wolfgang Preiss' superb characterization of a man who permeates evil that lives both within and without him.   Dr. Mabuse ultimately becomes omnipresent evil, the kind of malevolence that can infect the innocent much like the bite of one vampire can induce that state of undead upon another.   The Mabuse series, undiscovered for far too long, deserves this superior DVD treatment.   And as a fabulous extra, David Kalat's All Day Entertainment has included the alternative American version of the 1932 Lang original The Testament of Dr. Mabuse , alone worth the price of admission.   Also included is a vast photo/poster gallery, trailers, a pristine 35mm print (available in subtitled or dubbed versions).   We cannot wait for more Mabuse!

THE THIEF

Image Entertainment
Movie:   3.0; Disc:   3.0

The late 1940s and early 1950s was an era of cinematic experimentation, and for American cinema, the birth of the art-house.   Perhaps Alfred Hitchcock's Rope holds the distinction of being one of the most cutting-edge experiments by attempting to photograph the entire movie using the minimal amount of camera cuts   possible.   While     the film is not among Hitchcock's best, it is a noble experiment altering the accepted film grammar of the time.

In 1952 United Artists released director Russell Rouse's equally experimental The Thief, a film very comparable to Hitchcock's style and just as daring as 1948's Rope.   Here's the gimmick, the entire 86-minute production is told visually, with a strong musical score by Herschel Gilbert to create dramatic tension at the right moments.   However, not one syllable of dialogue is ever heard during the course of the movie.   Ray Milland's pathetic sobbing near the end is the only human utterance ever heard.

As can be expected, the movie is more gimmicky than satisfying; however, the plot effortlessly does unfold and tension is generated in spite of the unspoken script.   Russell Rouse almost appears to be toying with his audience at times, such as several dramatic moments throughout the script when the telephone rings with Ray Milland nearby as he strangely stares or answers and says nothing.   Other visual moments don't need dialogue, such as the dramatic cornerstone sequence when atomic scientist Milland steals and photographs secret documents which are sealed in a small metal case.   The container is then transferred to several people, on its way to Cairo, until the final holder of the film stupidly steps off the street curb and gets himself flattened.    The film is still is in his hand and soon the FBI is creating dossiers of all employees at Milland's government office and an agent is on his tail.

Milland flees from his nice middle class apartment to a flop house the size of a typical living room (with seductive Rita Gam as the girl who lives across from him and who oozes sensuality which the spy Milland must ignore), being led by Commie leader spy Martin Gable who directs instructions via crumbled cigarette packs that are dropped during their rendezvous.   Paying homage to Hitchcock, the movie is shot on location in New York and Washington and pivotal sequences occur at the Library of Congress and the Empire State Building, including a scene where FBI agent Harry Bronson grabs the leg of fleeing Milland on the 102nd floor staircase, and Milland kicks the agent to a bloody death down a full flight of stairs.  

By movie's end, Milland has a clear case of conscience and decides to turn himself in to the FBI, but perhaps the most effective sequence is the movie's first one...the silhouetted figure of the supposed Milland dramatically superimposed over the brightly-lit nighttime Capitol in Washington, D.C.

For me the movie was a tad slow and lethargic, and while the characterizations and silent film acting were interesting to behold (especially Milland's expressive performance), the movie was better in pieces than when taken as a whole.   Still, a cinematic experiment executed with this much finesse deserves to be seen and admired, if not loved.

This Image DVD, from the Wade Williams Collection, features a pristine black-and-white print with solid soundtrack.   Unfortunately, besides an interesting visual menu to select chapter stops, the DVD does not contain any extras.   But the movie itself is rare enough and has never looked better.

WANTED FOR MURDER

All Day Entertainment
Movie 2.5; Disc:   3.0

"Movies that fell through the cracks!" boosts All Day Entertainment, the brainchild of David Kalat, who keeps unearthing entertaining but forgotten movies.   Wanted for Murder , a novel 1946 British film noir, cleverly written by Emeric Pressburger and directed by Lawrence Huntington, is oddly toned, featuring humorous running gags throughout, yet the basic story is about a London detective capturing the Strangler, a serial killer who has been terrorizing London and killing beautiful young women.   The movie's plot is not focused on the whodunit.   The murderer's identity is revealed very early on, as he writes notes about potential victims in his personal journal which he mysteriously locks in his desk, hidden from his overprotective mother who cannot face the reality that her son is the fiend. Instead, the movie relies on the cat-and-mouse relationship between the fiend John Williams (Derek Farr) and the police detective Colebrooke (Eric Portman).   While Farr's performance is intense as his privileged arrogance mocks the inefficiency of the police, the determined Portman is undermined by constant bungling through the police ranks (Williams left a burning cigar, evidence of his guilt, which vanishes when a policeman smokes the evidence).   Tied to this cat-and-mouse relationship which is accentuated with clever dialogue and humorous incidences, we have the important sidebar characters, the women Williams dates (and murders) and his too-close relationship to his mother, who slowly comes to realize the depravity inherent in her son.

One of the movie's pivotal sequences, moodily photographed, involves Williams taking his date to a secluded, wooded lover's lane, where he intends to make her his latest conquest.   As the female relaxes in a total state of romantic abandonment in Williams' arms, curled under a tree, illuminated by the starry sky, both lovers notice the approaching clouds which threaten to block out the moon's light.   At precisely this moment when all light is blocked out, Williams strangles the woman, but shortly thereafter, another young couple approach Williams for a match. He has to maintain a calm decorum, pretending that his lover is snuggling against him when in fact she is dead.   A wonderful sequence, well executed, nicely acted.   The film's conclusion is just as horrific and suspenseful, as Williams takes his latest potential victim by rowboat to a secluded island, the police in close pursuit.

Ultimately, Wanted for Murder is not a great film, but it is most definitely an entertaining, gripping, quirky (the sequences in the record store where the heroine works, played for humor, become almost too comic and break up the grim mood) and suspenseful film noir that has been seldom seen here in the U.S.   The beautiful 35mm print has a few flaws (the first reel has a scratchy soundtrack, but this clears up after about 10 minutes or so), but overall, it is quite effective, featuring dense contrast.   Extras include a theatrical trailer and a still gallery.   All Day Entertainment continues to impress with its dedication to restoring movies too long forgotten.   Wanted for Murder is a nicely done small movie, unlike any other noir before or since.   Kudos to All Day!