Bad Girls of Film Noir, Vol. 2 (Night Editor / One Girl's Confession / Women's Prison / Over-Exposed)
List Price:
Our Price: $13.49
You Save: $11.47 (46%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $13.48 (click here)
Category: DVD
See more DVD releases
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
DVD Cover Information
Actor: Cleo Moore, Hugo Haas, Janis Carter, Jeff Donnell, William GarganBrand: SON
DVD: Region Code 99
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
Format: Black & White, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 300 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2010-02-09
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Movie Reviews of Bad Girls of Film Noir, Vol. 2 (Night Editor / One Girl's Confession / Women's Prison / Over-Exposed)
Movie Review: Three great noirs and one that is just OK
Summary: 5 Stars
I've seen all of these films before, but never realized they were Columbias until now. I always figured they were the work of bigger studios. Mainly using unknown directors and stars, these noirs deliver in both plot and atmosphere. The only one that is a little odd and formulaic is "Women's Prison", but it is still an OK film. The four films in this set are:
Night Editor (1946) directed by Henry Levin - The best film noir with stars and a director you've probably never heard of. As a result of that, you've probably never heard of this film. A married cop is having an affair. One night while out with his mistress, they witness a murder. The cop wants to come forward with the information he has, but realizes his life will be ruined when it gets out why he was at the scene at the time. The mistress, however, doesn't have any problem with keeping quiet.
One Girl's Confession (1953) directed by Hugo Haas - The largely unknown Haas also wrote and starred in this film, but fear not, this is no Ed Wood movie. Cleo Moore stars as Mary Adams, the badly treated employee of a man who owns a run-down cafe. The man has cheated her father out of his money several years before, so she steals a large sum from him, hides the money, turns herself in, confesses but claims she has spent the money, and serves a small jail term. She figures she'll later be free to spend the money she should have had in the first place since the money is safely hidden. Or is it? A very good and ironic noir.
Over-Exposed (1956) directed by Lewis Seiler - Cleo Moore again stars, this time as Lila Crane, a dancer who gets hauled in one night because the place she works for is running an illegal operation. A journalist/photographer takes her picture and she demands it back. Oddly enough, he gives it to her and then teaches her all about photography. Turns out Lila has a talent for the job, but she also has a talent for rackets, and uses one to make her new photographer friend's business more profitable. Eventually she strikes out on her own and heads for New York City. Once there she runs into an assortment of characters and obstacles that get her in over her street-wise head. Generally not that well admired a film, but I really like it.
Women's Prison (1956) directed by Lewis Seiler - This one is different from the first three in that it has A stars and a B plot. Make that a B-. Like the title would have you guess, this is a film about females in the big house. Ida Lupino plays the sadistic warden of the women's prison, and Audrey Totter plays the unjustly jailed innocent that is the object of Lupino's cruelty. For some strange reason, the men's prison has been built right next door to the women's prison. In a foreseeable byproduct of this architectural faux-pas, a male inmate finds a way to get into the women's prison to visit his wife (Audrey Totter). She becomes pregnant, and this sets up the real drama in the film. Unintentionally funny and thick with prison cliches and overacting up to the last twenty minutes or so, this one is an OK film but not a great noir by any means.
BONUS FEATURE:
Remember to Live-All Star Theatre Episode
More Bad Girls of Film Noir, Vol. 2 (Night Editor / One Girl's Confession / Women's Prison / Over-Exposed) reviews:
1 2
1 2
Summary of Bad Girls of Film Noir, Vol. 2 (Night Editor / One Girl's Confession / Women's Prison / Over-Exposed)
Synopsis:Item Type: DVD Movie
Item Rating: NR
Street Date: 02/09/10
Wide Screen: no
Director Cut: no
Special Edition: no
LanguageENGLISH
Foreign Film: no
Subtitlesno
Dubbed: no
Full Frame: no
Re-Release: no
Packaging: Sleeve Please note: This supplier will be closed on 11/24, 11/25, 12/26, 1/2 for the holidays. The shipping cut off is 12/10 to try and have the products delivered by Christmas.
Though this series is devoted to the Bad Girls of Film Noir, volume 2 is mostly a tribute to one dangerous female in particular--cult favorite Cleo Moore, whose sultry charms were put to fine use in thrillers like On Dangerous Ground (and lesser films) throughout the 1950s. Moore works both sides of the noir fence in this double-disc set; in the perilously campy Women's Prison (1955), she's a gutsy con who offers to rescue naive new inmate Phyllis Thaxter from hard-bitten warden Ida Lupino. The presence of both actresses, in combination with such noir/B favorites as Audrey Totter and Jan Sterling, and some hysterically over-the-top dialogue and scenarios, make the film a must-see for devotees of psychotronic cinema. But in 1953's One Girl's Confession, Moore straddles the line between good girl and bad. Here, she pinballs from one heel to another in an attempt to avenge her father's wrongful death; director Haas is the latest unsavory type to swindle her and in turn, incur her wrath. One of several quickie melodramas Moore made with budget auteur Haas, Confession is an oddity, driven by barely concealed lusts and quirky morality plays, and in its own threadbare way, the most fascinating of the films in the set. However, Moore's best showcase in volume 2 is 1956's Over-Exposed, which follows her savvy B-girl up the ladder from nightclub performer to TV show host with the help of reporter Richard Crenna. Of course, Moore's past comes back to haunt her in the end, but it's worth noting that, given more to do than just look good in tight costumes, she could deliver as an actress. The set is rounded out with Night Editor (1946), a ripe slice of pulp with William Gargan as a thick-skulled PI whose involvement with cold-blooded society girl Janis Carter may send an innocent man to jail for murder. Though its machinery creaks and groans mightily under the weight of so much cliché, the little-known Carter is a terrific noir fatale.
Extras comprise trailers for each of the films save for Night Editor, and a 1954 episode of Ford Television Theatre with Moore showing off her predatory side in pursuit of returning vet Dane Clark. --Paul Gaita
Similar DVD Movies
Film Noir Classic Collection, Volume Two (Born to Kill / Clash by Night / Crossfire / Dillinger (1945) / The Narrow Margin (1952))Warner Brothers; Release date: 2005-07-05; DVD
Best price: $16.20
Price in other shops:
Film Noir Classic Collection, Vol. 4 (Act of Violence / Mystery Street / Crime Wave / Decoy / Illegal / The Big Steal / They Live By Night / Side Street / Where Danger Lives / Tension)Warner Brothers; Release date: 2007-07-31; Published: 2007-07-31; DVD
Best price: $40.95
Price in other shops:
The ProwlerVCI; Release date: 2011-02-01; DVD
Best price: $7.48
Price in other shops:
Film Noir Classic Collection, Vol. 3 (Border Incident / His Kind of Woman / Lady in the Lake / On Dangerous Ground / The Racket)Warner Brothers; Release date: 2006-07-18; DVD
Best price: $23.45
Price in other shops:
Blueprint For Murder / Man In the AtticFox; Release date: 2007-09-11; DVD
Best price: $4.31
Price in other shops:
Columbia Pictures Film Noir Classics I (The Big Heat / 5 Against the House / The Lineup / Murder by Contract / The Sniper)Sony; Release date: 2009-11-03; DVD
Best price: $22.98
Price in other shops:
Columbia Pictures Film Noir Classics II (Human Desire / The Brothers Rico / Nightfall / City of Fear / Pushover)SON; Release date: 2010-07-06; DVD
Best price: $41.47
Price in other shops:
Film Noir Classic Collection: Volume Five (Cornered / Desperate / The Phenix City Story / Deadline at Dawn / Armored Car Robbery / Crime in the Streets / Dial 1119 / Backfire)Warner Brothers; Release date: 2010-07-13; DVD
Best price: $33.69
Price in other shops:
Pre-Code Hollywood Collection (The Cheat / Merrily We Go to Hell / Hot Saturday / Torch Singer / Murder at the Vanities / Search for Beauty) (Universal Backlot Series)Universal Studios; Release date: 2009-04-07; DVD
Best price: $15.38
Price in other shops:
Bad Girls of Film Noir, Vol. 1 (The Killer That Stalked New York / Two of a Kind / Bad for Each Other / The Glass Wall)SON; Release date: 2010-02-09; DVD
Best price: $15.67
Price in other shops: