Arrow Video Four Film Noir Classics

Splendid package of four movies from a Hollywood now long gone, each a classic and presenting a different aspect of noir.Headed up (in my opinion, as this was the film I most wanted) is “The Big Combo”, a gritty, violent crime drama, falling foul of the censor at the time of its release, in which police lieutenant Cornel Wilde is determined to bring mob boss Richard Conte to justice; “Secret Behind The Door” is director Fritz Lang in Hitchcock territory as newly wed Joan Bennett has doubts about husband Michael Redgrave’s past and that room he keeps locked; another dark theme comes with “The Dark Mirror” in which both psychologist Lew Ayres and police detective Thomas Mitchell try to fathom which identical twin sister (Olivia de Havilland in a dual role) committed the murder; and back in underworld territory “Force Of Evil” finds John Garfield in a taut situation as, while planning to make a fortune in the numbers (betting) racket, he also wants to protect his brother Thomas Gomez who refuses to get involved in the scheme.All films are beautifully restored and come in separate cases, packaged together in a sturdy outer box together with a 58 page, hardcover book and a poster. Each film has a soundtrack commentary and a stack of Special Features, several specially produced for this collection and, if working out prices for each movie, they’d cost less than many individual BluRay/DVD releases. In fact I purchased the set from one of Amazon’s sellers (Speedyhen) which was a few quid cheaper than the Amazon price – and delivered just as promptly!

I've just finished watching this classic collection off film noirs. These film noirs look amazing on blu ray and the boxset is packed with great extras. Plus the boxset contains a hard back informative book, which features a wealth of information about the film's contained on this boxset. Highly recommended boxset for all film fans.

Excellent picture quality, along with substantial commentaries, makes for a compelling package.One detail in Amazon's description that could be clearer is that all the discs, both DVD and Blu-ray, are region-free.

in good condition

These four films all fall into the loose description of noir – grim crime stories whose creative treatment exaggerates good and evil for narrative effect. Each of these four noir films has individual strengths in particular areas. ‘The Dark Mirror’ has a cracking story involving romance, psychiatry, the double identity ruse and murder. ‘Secret Beyond the Door’ is an extremely creative treatment of a fairly standard story where relatively ordinary things are transformed by lensing, lighting and editing into stuff that is both arty and scary. ‘Force of Evil’ is a total classic which, yet again, is a relatively straightforward (as straightforward that is as any noir script ever is) story elevated to fresh heights by beautiful cinematography. And ‘The Big Combo’ is to my mind the best of the four which yet again overcomes a run-of-the-mill script with splendid photography, music and editing. That’s my take. It’s a tad expensive as a boxed set of four movies, but you do get a bucketload of extras for aficionados of the genre. 4 stars.

Quality is great.But I will have to but somewhere else, as I added this to my basket priced at £48 by Amazon prime... Logged in to my account a few hours later to add a voucher, checked my basket and now its £58.So I guess I'll go HMV instead

Contained 2 copies of The Dark Mirror and no copy of Force of Evil, only realised when the person I bought it for unwrapped it.

So looking forward to 2 of these classics and hope and trust that they will include English HoH subtitles which have never been included in previous editions!