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The only woman director to work in Hollywood in the 1950s, Ida Lupino earned full marks as a creative innovator and a positive force in the industry. It was a restrictive time for the movies: politically, socially, every which way. But Lupino’s independent film about a rape victim passed through the censorship gauntlet — as long as the ‘R’ word was never spoken, of course. Mala Powers is the distraught victim who tries to run away from life in the powerful drama, which remains valid and topical.

Outrage

Region-Free Blu-ray

Viavision [Imprint]

1950 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 75 min. / Street Date December 29, 2021, January 7, 2022 / Available from Viavision, Available from Amazon

Starring: Mala Powers, Tod Andrews, Robert Clarke, Raymond Bond, Lillian Hamilton, Rita Lupino, Hal March, Kenneth Patterson, Jerry Paris, Angela Clarke, Roy Engel, William Challee, Joyce McCluskey, Albert Mellen, Vic Perrin.

Cinematography: Archie Stout

Production Designer: Harry Horner

Film Editor: Harvey Manger

Original...

Region B Blu-ray-capable noir fans have a formidable six-pack of noir crime pictures on tap: a WW2 espionage thriller, two caper pix and the show that launched the notion of a hit man who’s both charismatic and psychopathic. The list of leading actors is stellar as well: Glenn Ford, Kim Novak, Eli Wallach, Brian Keith, James Whitmore and Nina Foch. Do you like extras? Like to read about the movies you see? No video extra has been left behind, and Pi’s big yellow box contains a 120-page book. Plus — several newly remastered Three Stooges shorts. Don’t forget, Noir and Stooges go together like sanity and American politics!

Columbia Noir #1

Region B Blu-ray

Escape in the Fog, The Undercover Man, Drive a Crooked Road, 5 Against the House, The Garment Jungle, The Lineup

Powerhouse Indicator

1945-1958 / B&w / 1:85 widescreen, 1:37 Academy / 8 hours, 11 min. / Street Date November 30, 2020 / available...

Jules Dassin’s most popular pre-exile crime thriller is many things: a cracking good police tale, a drama of human struggle and weakness, and an amazing cinematic time machine of New York’s distinctive hustle and bustle circa 1948. Mark Hellinger’s final production bristles with a ‘these are the facts’ narration, a voiceover personifying a city ‘with eight million stories.’ The filmed-on-location classic always looked okay, but this new restoration sources better elements for picture and sound, improving the show substantially.

The Naked City

Blu-ray

The Criterion Collection 380

1948 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 96 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date September 8, 2020 / 39.95

Starring: Barry Fitzgerald, Howard Duff, Dorothy Hart, Don Taylor, Ted de Corsia, House Jameson, Anne Sargent, Adelaide Klein, Tom Pedi, Enid Markey.

Cinematography: William Daniels

Film Editor: Paul Weatherwax

Original Music: Miklos Rozsa, Frank Skinner

Written by Albert Maltz, Malvin Wald

Produced by Mark Hellinger

Directed by Jules Dassin...

The star-studded biopic Capone is due to be released via digital platforms on May 12th. Tom Hardy plays Al Capone in his later years in the movie and he looks fantastic. Linda Cardellini, Kyle MacLachlan, and Matt Dillon co-star. Al Capone is America’s best-known gangster and the single greatest symbol of the collapse of law and order in the United States during the 1920s Prohibition era. Capone had a leading role in the illegal activities that lent Chicago its reputation as a lawless city and an interesting variety of Hollywood stars have had the leading role as Al Capone in the many films that have been made that featured him as a character.

The first film about Capone was produced when he was still making headlines. The main character may be named Antonio Camonte, but there’s little doubt as to who producer Howard Hughes had in mind when...

More than a movie star: America’s one female Hollywood director working in the 1950s receives a four-title boxed set well worth the investment — one noir mini-masterpiece is accompanied by a pair of independent social issue movies better than what the studios were turning out. It’s all thanks to Lupino’s fine dramatic direction. She emphasizes basic human values: cooperation over competition, and interior conflict. Her company ‘The Filmmakers’ lasted only about six years, but as an independent experiment it consistently turned out ‘special’ pictures anybody could be proud of.

Ida Lupino Filmmaker Collection

Blu-ray

Not Wanted, Never Fear, The Hitch-Hiker, The Bigamist

Kl Studio Classics

1949-1953 / B&w / 1:66 widescreen (1) 1:37 Academy (3) / 91, 81, 71, 79 min. / Street Date September 24, 2019 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring: Sally Forrest, Keefe Brasselle, Leo Penn, Hugh O’Brian, Joan Fontaine, Edmond O’Brien, Ida Lupino, Frank Lovejoy, William Talman.

Cinematography: Henry Freulich; Archie Stout; George E. Diskant...

Al Capone is America’s best known gangster and the single greatest symbol of the collapse of law and order in the United States during the 1920s Prohibition era. Capone had a leading role in the illegal activities that lent Chicago its reputation as a lawless city and an interesting variety of Hollywood stars have had the leading role as Al Capone in the many films that have been made that featured him as a character.

The first film about Capone was produced when he was still making headlines. The main character may be named Antonio Camonte, but there’s little doubt as to who producer Howard Hughes had in mind when he and director Howard Hawks filmed Scarface during the Great Depression. Camonte shares more than the same initials with one Al Capone, who was about to begin his eleven-year sentence for tax evasion when the movie was released...

Reviewed by Kevin Scott, MoreHorror.com

Venus in Furs (1969)

Written by: Jess Franco, Malvin Wald, Milo G. Cuccia, Carlo Fadda, Bruno Leder.

Directed by Jess Franco

Cast: James Darren (Jimmy Logan), Maria Rohm (Wanda Reed), Klaus Kinski (Ahmed Kortobawi), Margaret Lee (Olga), Barbara McNair (Rita)

This may be the oldest film that I have reviewed thus far for More Horror. I had almost forgotten that in was in my Netflix roster, and through some celluloid serendipity, or more specifically, me forgetting about updating my snail mail DVD queue, Venus in Furs comes in the mail. There are two names attached to this surreal piece of erotic horror. Jess Franco which is quite expected, and then James Darren. What? I only remember him from the Shatner show “T.J. Hooker”, but I think my mom really liked him. She might have even considered him “dreamy”. I looked him up and sure enough,...

Behind Locked Doors

Written by Eugene Ling and Malvin Wald

Directed by Budd Boetticher

U.S.A., 1948

When newspaper reporter Kathy Lawrence (Lucille Bremer) walks into private detective Ross Stewart’s (Richard Carlson) office, he thinks he’s just hit the jackpot seeing as she represents his first ever client. Little does he know that the investigation the alluring Ms. Lawrence needs assistance with will tax Ross of far more moral and psychological stamina than he could ever have bargained for. It seems Kathy has a lead as to where the recently convicted Judge Finlay Drake (Herbert Heyes) might have taken refuge from pursuing authorities: a mental institution. With a 10 thousand dollar reward promised to anyone who can help the police book the renegade judge, Ross accepts to play act as Kathy’s manic-depressive husband who needs time under doctoral supervision. Once instituted, Ross snoops about to learn whether or...

The St. Louis Globe-Democrat is a monthly newspaper run by Steve DeBellis, a well know St. Louis historian, and it.s the largest one-man newspaper in the world. The concept of The Globe is that there is an old historic headline, then all the articles in that issue are written as though it.s the year that the headline is from. It.s an unusual concept but the paper is now in its 25th successful year! Steve and I collaborated last Spring on an all-Vincent Price issue of The Globe and I.ve been writing a regular monthly movie-related column since. Since there is no on-line version of The Globe, I post all of my articles here at We Are Movie Geeks. This month’s edition of The Globe takes place in 1947. The headline on the cover will scream “Al Capone Dead!” and there will be several articles about the famous gangster.

For me, the only part of the Oscars worth watching every year is their tribute video, highlighting those in the movie industry that passed away in the previous year. It always puts a lump in my throat and often surprises me due to the passing of people I hadn’t heard about. And with the actors who were popular decades ago, it gives me a sense of melancholy nostalgia.

TCM (Turner Classic Movies) has put together their version of a tribute video which you can watch below, and it gave me the same feelings I just mentioned (I wasn’t aware they do one every year). It’s a beautiful video and very classy. They did miss a couple of people which I mention below.

I would suggest you watch the video before moving on to the list of names below it. It includes actors, directors, composers, screenwriters, animators, etc.

Oscar nominated screenwriter Malvin Wald has died from age-related causes. He was 90.

Wald, who received an Academy Award nod for his script for 1948 movie The Naked City, passed away at Sherman Oaks Hospital in California on Thursday.

He is best known for writing the story for The Naked City and then co-writing its screenplay alongside Albert Maltz. The New York-set movie ended with the famous line: "There are eight million stories in the naked city. This has been one of them."

Wald also penned dozens of screenplays for TV shows including Perry Mason, Peter Gunn and Daktari.