Six tough, no-nonsense noirs from six of the genre’s toughest, no-nonsense directors: Budd Boetticher’s Escape in the Fog, in which a nurse and a war veteran take on Nazi spies in San Francisco; Joseph H Lewis’ The Undercover Man, inspired by the real-life case against Al Capone; Richard Quine’s Drive a Crooked Road, which finds Mickey Rooney moving away from comedies and musicals to a tougher persona; Phil Karlson’s 5 Against the House, starring Kim Novak as a nightclub singer embroiled in a casino heist; Vincent Sherman’s The Garment Jungle, from which Kiss Me Deadly director Robert Aldrich was famously fired; and Don Siegel’s police procedural The Lineup, based on the radio and television series, and as brutal a film as he ever made.
All six films are presented for the first time on Blu-ray in the UK, with The Undercover Man and Drive a Crooked Road making their world Blu-ray premieres. This stunning collection also boasts a 120-page book, and is strictly limited to 6,000 numbered units.
Technical Specifications
Supplements
- Audio commentary with film critic Nick Pinkerton (2020)
- The Guardian Interview with Mickey Rooney (1988, 83 mins): archival audio recording of the much-loved actor in conversation with Tony Sloman at the National Film Theatre, London
- Introduction by Martin Scorsese (2012, 2 mins)
- Screen Snapshots: ‘Mickey Rooney, Then and Now’ (1953, 10 mins): Columbia Pictures promotional short featuring the famed performer looking back at one of his childhood roles
- Higher Than a Kite (1943, 18 mins): comedy starring the Three Stooges, in which the trio play mechanics who find themselves in a situation that’s way out of their control
- Original theatrical trailer
- Image gallery: publicity and promotional material