Illegal / The Big Steal (Film Noir Double Feature)
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Features
• Black & White
• Closed-captioned
• Full Screen
• Original recording remastered
• Subtitled
• NTSC |
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Illegal / The Big Steal (Film Noir Double Feature) Customer Reviews
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♥♥♥♥♥
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Splendid Double Noir
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Here's a fine value double bill Film Noir offering on one disc from Warner Home Video - RKO's "The Big Steal"(1949) and Warner's own "Illegal" (1955).
THE BIG STEAL was one of a cycle of Noirs Robert Mitchum
starred in during the forties for the Howard Hughes organisation. Mitchum
was Hughes' favourite star since all of the movies he appeared in for RKO
were by and large successful. "The Big Steal" was no exception as fans of the day ate this engaging comedy melodrama up in scoopfuls.
Smoothly photographed in black & white by Harry J. Wild and with a fine
screenplay by Geoffrey Homes and Gerald Drayson Adams it was all nicely handled by a young up and coming director by the name of Don Siegel.
Mitchum plays an army man who with Jane Greer is in hot pursuit of
Patric Knowles who has pilfered an army payroll and hot on everyone's heels is William Bendix. Most of the action takes place on the mexican highways and byways making for some exciting car chases in its tight 72 minutes running time.
More lighthearted, and never in the same league as the studio's other brilliant Noirs such as "Out Of The Past", "Where Danger Lives" or even "His Kind Of Woman", Seigel nevertheless keeps it moving at a very agreeable and fun pace.
Others in the cast are John Qualen and the rarely seen Ramon Novarro as a mexican police chief.
Marginally better is the second movie on the disc - a remake of Warner's
"The Mouthpiece" (1932). ILLEGAL is something of a forgotten Noir.
Directed for Warners in 1955 by englishman Lewis Allen it stars Edward
G. Robinson as a highly successful prosecuting attorney who becomes disillusioned when the man he is responsible for sending to the electric chair is proven to be innocent after all. With his reputation now in tatters he hits the bottle but slowly picks himself up, becomes a defence lawyer and a "fixer" for racketeer Albert Dekker.
Robinson is terrific in it. His screen presence, with that soft spoken
matter of fact acting style is altogether appealing. This after "Key Largo" (1948) was his first movie for the studio since his contract ended with them in 1942 and while not being an overly auspicious return it wasn't a bad one either. Others in the cast are Nina Foch, Hugh Marlowe and making her debut, as Dekker's moll, the voluptuous Jayne Mansfield sporting the dubious moniker Angel O'Hara ( Dekker auditioning her as she plays the piano glibly declares to Robinson "interesting girl, lives and breaths music").
A fairly engaging movie with nice Monochrome cinematography by
Perverell Marley and a good score by the studio's legendary Max Steiner
keeps it moving along.
This fine double bill will not be out of place in any collection. An
excellent package - both films come with a trailer, commentary and a
featurette. Interestingly the commentary on "Illegal" is spoken by the
film's leading lady Nina Foch (she pronounces it Fash) who informs us that she now teaches film directing at USC. Not bad for an 84 year old! And also Robinson is interviewed on set by Gig Young where we learn the actor loaned some of his prized paintings from his art collection to the studio for use in the film. They can readily be seen in the picture especially in Dekkers's palatial apartment.
Classic line from "Illegal" when Robinson advises Dekker not to blame him if the court case goes wrong - Dekker responds "I don't blame people
I bury 'em". |
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Illegal / The Big Steal (Film Noir Double Feature) dvd movie.