Kino's seventeenth volume in their DARK SIDE OF THE SCREEN series has a very specific unity that is quite unusual in such releases--this one puts together three 1950s noirs featuring the legendary Edward G. Robinson: VICE SQUAD (1953), BLACK TUESDAY (1954), and NIGHTMARE (1956).
Top-notch reviewer Glenn Erickson gets into all the salient details in his excellent, thorough overview of the collection. BLACK TUESDAY is of course the big prize in this package, with a solid remaster making the film watchable for the first time in more than half a century. (The 35mm version, screened by the FNF in Oakland and Seattle, will play in the NC LA lineup on Wednesday, March 27.)
BLACK TUESDAY isn't quite up to the hype it's received since its first appearance at Cinema Ritrovato--though Eddie M. will doubtless keep plugging away at adding Hugo Fregonese to his pantheon of auteurs (all this from a man who routinely slags the "auteur theory"). But Robinson makes it work, as he almost always does when he's put in front of a camera. (Fregonese and cameraman Stanley Cortez team up well to flesh out the story, which involves many interlocking sequences where character actors get their moment on camera with Robinson.) As Erickson notes, he has to work a lot harder to make NIGHTMARE work, and only partially succeeds. But it's wonderful to have all of his noirs available at last: of the three performances here, folks might find his "practical" (read: amoral) police commissioner in VICE SQUAD to be the most interesting.
It's definitely a set that all noir fans will want to own, even if NIGHTMARE is kind of a mess. But it comes with a dynamite commentary from the indefatigable Jason Ney, who is singled out for praise by Erickson in his review.
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