HARDBOILED, Alain Corneau, director/Radiance Films
The UK boasts a highly enterprising selection of boutique Blu-ray labels, and one of the prime contributors to this quiet revolution is the Radiance label under the stewardship of Francesco Simeoni. Some of the strongest previous projects have included crime films from around the world (to which this writer has contributed), and the new set, Hardboiled, containing three films by Alain Corneau, is unmissable. The rare films collected here are cherishable indeed, sporting a particularly Gallic version of the Noir idiom, and perhaps the jewels in the crown are the performances by the late Yves Montand. His career in English-speaking cinema was respectable enough, but didn’t really hint at the full extent of his abilities – something that Corneau brings into full focus. All the films are presented for the first time on Blu-ray. In Police Python 357, Montand plays a cop implicated in the death of his lover, while Série noire is an adaptation of Jim Thompson’s A Hell of a Woman set in the banlieues of Paris. Choice of Arms has Montand joining a stellar cast, including Catherine Deneuve and a menacing Gerard Depardieu.
MABUSE LIVES! DR MABUSE AT CCC: 1960–1964, various directors/ Eureka Entertainment
The final films of great directors in the twilight of their careers are always fascinating – for a variety of reasons. Hitchcock ended his amazing series of films with a pleasing (if minor) comedy thriller, Family Plot, but another expat European director who worked in Hollywood wrote ‘finis’ with something quite different. The great Fritz Lang had created in his early German films the sinister, all-seeing master criminal Dr Mabuse, and on his return to his native country after a successful career in America, Lang was persuaded (against his better judgement) to revisit the territory of a monstrous criminal seen through a vaguely science-fiction prism. Ironically, the SF aspects of the film, so striking back in 1960, are now part of our world of the present – such as the ever present electronic surveillance. But if Lang was reluctant to make the film, he still let loose his considerable talents on the property, creating a delirious thriller full of outrageous and deliberately unlikely situations. With the larger-than-life German character actor Gert Frobe (most famous for his Bond stint as Goldfinger) as the eccentric detective on the trail of the master criminal Mabuse, we’re assured of our money’s worth. Much was made years ago of how the film foreshadowed elements in the James Bond films (leaving aside Gert Frobe!), and that is still one of its points of interest today.
A CERTAIN KILLER & A KILLER’S KEY, Kazuo Mori, director/Arrow
Given that the genre of the hitman thriller is so desperately overcrowded, the viewer could be forgiven for being more inclined to pick and choose these days – particularly as much tempting material is making an appearance in the Blu-ray idiom. So if your palette is primed for something different, here are two films which can be confidently recommend for their stylishness and energy (not to mention their finely tuned performances). A Certain Killer and A Killer’s Key are a duo of stylish hitman thrillers directed by Kazuo Mori and starring the charismatic Raizō Ichikawa and shot by one of Japan’s most celebrated cinematographers, Kazuo Miyagawa (who lensed Kurosawa’s Rashomon), these striking crime dramas arrive with new commentaries and introductions.
THE LAST STOP IN YUMA COUNTY, Francis Galluppi, director/Arrow
Does it matter that the influence of the director Quentin Tarantino is all over this lively crime piece, written and directed by Francis Galluppi? If you’re not worried by the overt inspiration, you will experience a very diverting time in this clever and unusual piece which reads like a tight chamber piece owing some kind of debt (albeit, perhaps, an unconscious one) to the celebrated Twilight Zone episode, ‘Will the Real Martian Please Stand up’ – not that there are any aliens on view in this piece. Strong performances are served up by (among others), genre favourite Barbara Crampton, The Last Stop in Yuma County is a diverting crime dramas and an examinations of choice.
RULERS OF THE CITY, Fernando di Leo, director/ Radiance Films
Generally speaking, the treatment in the cinema of the scourge of the Mafia was notably more astringent in the genre in Italy than in American films, where — despite the brutality of the organisation — there was a grudging respect accorded to the killers for their professionalism and old world courtesy (codes of honour operated even when they were cutting the throats of their victims). Such Italian directors as Stelvio Massi and Antonio Margheriti presented an unvarnished, rigorously unsentimental view of Mafia activity in their films, with endemic corruption the engine by which the organisation was able to maintain its relentless grip. Among the best directors in the genre is the talented Fernando di Leo, whose Rulers of the City is a prime example of the craft. Tony is a debt collector for a penny-ante Roman boss, who dreams of making it big. He meets the persuasive Rick and opts to join him in taking on an American gangster called Scarface Manzari. The latter is played – magnetically — by imported US actor Jack Palance. Gritty but mesmerising viewing.
THE ADVENTURERS, Ringo Lam, director/Eureka
There are many ways in which a talented film director can increase the kinetic impact of a thriller, and talented director Ringo Lam is a master of all these tactics, as this lively effort attests. Andy Lau stars as a vengeance-obsessed air force pilot in The Adventurers. This is the sole collaboration between Lam (perhaps best known for City on Fire) and Hong Kong talent Andy Lau (celebrated for Infernal Affairs), The film is in the ‘heroic bloodshed’ mode and features Rosamund Kwan, David Chiang and Victor Wong. Lau’s character is just a boy when his parents were murdered before his eyes in Cambodia, but Yan grows up to join the Thai Air Force and finds that his father’s murderer is now a wealthy arms dealer based in the United States. This is the first appearance for the film on Blu-ray in a brand new 2K restoration.
THE CAT, Dominik Graf, director/Radiance Films
This is the first time The Cat has appeared outside Germany, and proves to be very solid genre piece, taking the familiar bones of the heist movie and creating something novel and ingenious. Two robbers hold up a bank and its employees demanding 3 million marks for their ransom. The police plot to storm the bank but are unaware the robbers have an accomplice on the outside, anticipating their every move. Dominik Graf specialised in crime films and delivers the goods here. The film bagged the Best Direction prize at the German Film Awards,
