Two hugely acclaimed hits from the 1940s are now out via The Criterion Collection. Directed by Jules Dassin, each of these titles presents a glimpse into the darker side of life — told in very different ways…
Director Jules Dassin’s powerful, noir-flavored drama stars Burt Lancaster as Joe Collins, an embittered inmate at Westgate Prison, where tensions have brought the institution to a boil. With a sick wife (Ann Blyth) at home, Collins launches a desperate breakout scheme with his cellblockmates, while a sadistic, power-crazed guard (Hume Cronyn) stands in their way. Scripted by Richard Brooks and co-starring Charles Bickford, Sam Levene, Howard Duff, and Yvonne De Carlo.
Special Features:
– On the Blu-ray: New 4K digital restoration by TLEFilms Film Restoration & Preservation Services, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
– On the DVD: New, restored high-definition digital transfer
– Audio commentary from 2007 featuring film-noir specialists Alain Silver and James Ursini
– Interview from 2007 with Paul Mason, editor of Captured by the Media: Prison Discourse in Popular Culture
– Program from 2017 on Brute Force’s array of acting styles featuring film scholar David Bordwell (Blu-ray only)
– Trailer
– Stills gallery
– English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
– An essay by film critic Michael Atkinson, a 1947 profile of producer Mark Hellinger, and rare correspondence between Hellinger and Production Code administrator Joseph Breen over the film’s content.
The Naked City (1948)
This gritty police procedural, shot on location in New York City, details the investigation by two detectives–crafty veteran Lt. Dan Muldoon (Barry Fitzgerald) and his brash young assistant, Det. Jimmy Halloran (Don Taylor)–into the murder of a former model. After numerous dead ends, and contrary to Muldoon’s instincts, Halloran believes the drowning of a two-bit burglar on the same night may be more than mere coincidence. Director Jules Dassin’s pseudo-documentary film noir co-stars Howard Duff, Dorothy Hart.
Special Features:
– On the Blu-ray: New 4K digital restoration by TLEFilms FIlm Restoration & Preservation Services, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
– On the DVD: Restored high-definition digital transfer
– Audio commentary from 1996 featuring screenwriter Malvin Wald
– Interview from 2006 with film scholar Dana Polan
– Interview from 2006 with author James Sanders (Celluloid Skyline) on the film’s New York locations
– Footage of director Jules Dassin from a 2004 appearance at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art
– Stills gallery
– English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
– PLUS: An essay by author and critic Luc Sante and production notes from producer Mark Hellinger to Dassin
