Film Noir is a true lost art. In the 1940s and 50s these kinds of films were all the rage. They were easy and cheap to produce and yet they packed a lot of entertainment value and movie goers ran to the theaters to see the next thrilling adventure. So these kinds of films were money makers.
Film fans still love these so Warner Archive has given us another film noir to sink our teeth into. This time it is 1947's film noir Crossfire featuring a triple threat of acting talent in Robert Young, Robert Mitchum and Robert Ryan.
Police Investigator Finley (Robert Young) is called in to investigate the brutal murder of Joseph Samuels (Sam Levene). What Finlay discovers is there may be a murderer among a group of soldiers. While the police investigation goes on Sergeant Keeley (Robert Mitchum) is concerned that his friend Mitchell (George Cooper) may be the prime suspect and decides to investigate the murder to clear his friend's name.
The film is based on the 1945 novel The Brick Foxhole by Richard Brooks. But because of codes there was some major changes that had to be made to the story. John Paxton did a remarkable job adapting to the screenplay and Edward Dmytryk did a masterful job in the director's chair.
Crossfire received five Academy Award nominations including Best Supporting Actor and Actress for Robert Ryan and Gloria Grahame. Each and every nomination was well deserved. This is a tremendous insightful and thrilling piece of cinema.
The film is presented in 1080p in it's original aspect ratio of 1.37:1 and the audio track is 2.0 DTS-HD MA. As I watched this film on Blu-ray what I marveled at was how amazing the lighting looks in this film noir on Blu-ray. The shadows and the light are marvelous. The audio sounds crystal clear. This is one amazing HD presentation of a classic film noir.
Now this film looks so gorgeous in HD I would give it my highest recommendation on that alone. But Warner Archive added some really cool bonus features on this disc. Included is an audio commentary by film historians Alain Silver and James Ursini and a vintage featurette “Crossfire: Hate Is Like A Gun.”
If you are a fan of Oscar nominated film or film noir's I highly recommend Crossfire on Blu-ray from Warner Archive. Head over to Amazon.com and order your copy today.
Out of 4 Film reels (4 being the best) Warner Archive's Blu-ray Crossfire receives...
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