All Through The Night (1942/MGM*)/Crime Wave (1954*)/Day Of The Wolves (1971/Shoreline Blu-ray)/Macao (1952/RKO/*all Warner Archive Blu-ray)/The People Vs. Larry Flynt 4K (1996/Sony/Columbia/MVD/Arrow 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray)

4K Ultra HD Picture: B+ Picture: B/B/C/B-/X Sound: C+/B-/C/B-/B Extras: B/B/D/B/B Films: B-/B-/C+/B/B

PLEASE NOTE: The All Through The Night, Crime Wave and Macao Blu-rays are now only available from Warner Bros. through their Warner Archive series and can be ordered from the link below.

The following are all pretty much Film Noir thrillers, though some have comedy, others dark comedy and all are at least worth a good look...

Vincent Sherman's All Through The Night (1942) starts out as a sort of comical movie, then quickly starts to get serious when a character is sadly killed. Humphrey Bogart leads the cast as the opportunist with money and a solid crew who is unhappy with that murder and intends to find out who did it. Joined by early turns by no less than Jackie Gleason, Phil Silvers and William Demarest, plus Conrad Veidt, Frank McHugh, Jane Darwell, Judith Anderson and Peter Lorre, this amazing cast alone is one for the books.

Cheers to the somewhat underrated Sherman, able to juggle it all and a solid screenplay that pulls all the talent together, all in great form and you have at least a minor classic of a few genres worth rediscovering. It has been a long time since I saw this one and was glad it held up and aged so well.

On the side, more than a few people have asked me if this has anything to do with the famous, great Cyndi Lauper hit song of the same title. Well, we get a cat a little upset in an early scene, but that's about it. Old movies and pop culture often figures in her work to begin with (note the old film she is watching in the music video for another great hit of her's, ''Time After Time'') so their may be a vague connection after all.

Extras include a feature length audio commentary track by Director Sherman and Bogart biographer Eric Lax, an Original Theatrical Trailer, Vintage 1942 Newsreel, Warner Joe McDokes live action comedy short So You Want To Give Up Smoking, featurette Call The Usual Suspects: The Craft Of The Character Actor and classic Warner animated Technicolor short Lights Fantastic.

Andre de Toth's Crime Wave (1954) is the sometimes standard but impressively consistent Noir tale of a reformed convict (Gene Nelson) with his new wife (Phyllis Kirk) living a new life when an old crime friend of theirs shows up wounded at their place from a gas station robbery debacle, followed by more fellow thugs (Timothy Carey and Charles Bronson,) pushing them both against their will back into the kind of crime he thought he left behind.

Instead of handling this as a boring set of plot points, the film is somewhat raw in ways that you might not expect, still can look amazing and continues the suspense when the bad trio intends to rob a bank and use the couple to hide behind in the process. Unfortunately for them, a serious detective (Sterling Hayden) is coming after them and it makes for an underrated crime drama more people should rediscover. Though a few parts are dated and maybe obvious, so much of this still works and holds up so well that all serious film fans should consider this a must-see!

Extras include a feature length audio commentary track by Film Noir Foundation founder Eddie Muller and author James Ellroy (going a bit overboard throughout,) an Original Theatrical Trailer, live action short Gadgets Galore, classic Warner animated Technicolor short Baby Buggy Bugs and featurette Crime Wave: The City Is Dark.

Ferde Grofe Jr.'s Day Of The Wolves (1971) is the kind of ambitious B-movie that used to get made when a group of people (professional, semi-professional and otherwise) decide to go for it, make a film they hope will work out of a love of filmmaking and hope it works. A heist film where the people only allow themselves to be identified by numbers (sounds familiar?,) they managed to land Richard Egan, Martha Hyer, Jan Murray, Rick Jason, Percy Helton, John Dennis, Sean McClory, Biff Elliot and John Lupton. Many were characters actors of the time, some drifting between B-movies, TV and larger feature films.

Even when the cliches in the script, new ideas and budget fall short, the film does not care and just keeps on going no matter what to get to its climax, action and conclusion. I wish most such films in the genre where half this ambitious. Don't expect a classic, but you should see it if you like this kind of film and not just because a famous director made a career of adopting hundreds of abandoned such B-movies and carving out a permanent palce in cinema history for himself.

There are sadly no extras.

Josef Von Sternberg's Macao (1952) has the great visionary director trying something less grand and somewhat different as Jane Russell, Robert Mitchum and William Bendix arrive in the title locale and land up in its dark (and still successful as you read this many decades later) world of gambling casinos and much more, usually as dark and dirty. Of course, the chemistry between Mitchum and Russell starts to go off immediately, but also slowly as the script and director know how to pace this all properly.

Sure, they are not actually in Macao (and you do not need to watch a James Bond film to see that,) but the conflicts, mysteries and some actual footage of the locale shot for the film add up well enough to a decent film that knows how to work this all for what its worth to best effect. Thomas Gomez and Gloria Grahame lead the supporting cast in making this more effective than you might expect and it is another Noir mystery all serious film fans need to see at least once.

Extras include a feature length audio commentary track by Film Noir Foundation founder Eddie Muller, screenwriter Stanley Rubin & inserts by Jane Russell, an Original Theatrical Trailer and a Private Screenings hosted by Robert Osbourne with Robert Mitchum and Jane Russell.

Oliver Stone's The People Vs. Larry Flynt 4K (1996) has arrived, even before some other of the director's key films in Ultra High Definition. We reviewed two releases of the film on Blu-ray years ago in the same text, which you can read all about at this link:

https://fulvuedrive-in.com/review/14650/The+People+Vs.+Larry+Flynt+(1996/Sony/Columbia/I

The film holds up well, has aged in interesting ways and due to some strange, unexpected shifts in recent politics, takes on nuances and has implications all involved intended and some Forman would never live to see happen. However, given his history before coming to Hollywood, he could more than imagine them otherwise. It is a film, everyone should see at least once all the way through and makes me miss the real Oliver Stone, when he was still bold and cutting edge.

Extras are many, extensive and include reversible sleeve featuring original artwork

• Collectors' booklet featuring new writing on the film by Milos Forman expert Andreas Halskov, an archival essay by screenwriters Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski, and an archival Forman interview conducted by director Adam Davidson

• DISC 1: FEATURE FILM (4K ULTRA HD)

• Archival audio commentary with cast members Woody Harrelson, Courtney Love, and Edward Norton

• Archival audio commentary with screenwriters Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski

• DISC 2: SPECIAL FEATURES (BLU-RAY)

• Hail Larry, a brand new interview with lead actor Woody Harrelson

• Satire in Satin, a brand new interview with Columbia Pictures' ex-production president Lisa Henson and producer Janet Yang

• Only in America, a brand new interview with screenwriters Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski

• A la lumiere de l'evidence, an archival interview with cinematographer Philippe Rousselot

• Milos Forman on The Charlie Rose Show, a 1997 interview with the director

• Free Speech or Porn?, an archival featurette about the making of the film

• Larry Flynt Exposed, an archival featurette narrated by Dennis Hopper

• Deleted Scenes with optional audio commentary by Woody Harrelson and Larry Karaszewski

• Theatrical trailer

• TV spots

• and Image Galleries, including the original script.

Now for playback performance. The 2160p HEVC/H.265, 2.35 X 1, Dolby Vision/HDR (10; Ultra HD Premium)-enhanced Ultra High Definition image on The People Vs. Larry Flynt 4K outdoes both older Blu-ray releases with better color, depth and detail, warmer and more palpable like the 35mm version was in its original theatrical release. Director of Photography Philippe Rousselot, A.F.C., A.S.C., did a better job here than he often gets credit for, knowing when to make it look a little gritty without going overboard. The sound is here in DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 and 2.0 lossless mixes, with the 5.1 slightly smoother and very slightly different than the older Blu-ray's 5.1 mixes. I cannot imagine the film sounding any better than this.

The 1080p 1.33 X 1 black & white digital High Definition image transfers on all three warner Archive releases can show the age of the materials used at times, but these are far superior transfers to all previous releases of these films, with Crime Wave particularly vivid in its used of deep focus photography thanks to Director of Photography Bert Glennon and Macao with a few more soft spots than the others. Otherwise, they all play back nicely, including with their DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Mono lossless mixes. All Through The Night is less sonically impressive than the others for whatever reason, but still well restored.

The 1080p 1.33 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Day Of The Wolves can absolutely show the age of the materials used, scratched up, faded and with all kinds of other damage, plus fading. I could not tell if this was a tunnel vision print with the sides missing or if this was a soft matte representation of the original 35mm shoot, but here it is. The lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono is also as problematic, though no horrid pops or clicks were there, somehow. It was worth suffering through this to see the film, but its release will hopefully, somehow get this film restored. This was also cinematographer Ric Waite's first feature film work.

To order the All Through The Night, Crime Wave and/or Macao Warner Archive Blu-rays, go to this link for them and many more great web-exclusive releases at:

https://www.amazon.com/stores/page/ED270804-095F-449B-9B69-6CEE46A0B2BF?ingress=0&visitId=6171710b-08c8-4829-803d-d8b922581c55&tag=blurayforum-20

- Nicholas Sheffo