The Velvet Touch
1948, USA, 100m, BW, Crime-Drama-Thriller
Screenplay Leo Rosten (adapted by Walter Reilly, from a story by William Mercer and Annabel Ross) Producer Frederick Brisson Photography Joseph Walker Editor Chandler House Music Leigh Harline Cast Rosalind Russell, Leo Genn, Claire Trevor, Sydney Greenstreet, Leon Ames, Frank McHugh, Walter Kingsford, Dan Tobin, Lex Barker, Nydia Westman.
Screenplay Leo Rosten (adapted by Walter Reilly, from a story by William Mercer and Annabel Ross) Producer Frederick Brisson Photography Joseph Walker Editor Chandler House Music Leigh Harline Cast Rosalind Russell, Leo Genn, Claire Trevor, Sydney Greenstreet, Leon Ames, Frank McHugh, Walter Kingsford, Dan Tobin, Lex Barker, Nydia Westman.
"Russell plays a middle-aged Broadway leading lady trying to break away from her light comic plays and act in something 'serious'. She has an argument with her former love - lecherous producer Gordon Dunning (Leon Ames) – after a performance. Russell kills him with a blunt blow on the head with a Tony Award… A better 'Broadway noir' would be the outstanding A Double Life released in theaters just six months earlier… However The Velvet Touch - even with it's shortcomings - is not without charm. The film's worth seeing for one of the 'Queens of Film Noir' Claire Trevor – always a welcome sight – and the giant known as Sydney Greenstreet." - Steve Eifert (Film Noir of the Week)
The Verdict
1946, USA, 86m, BW, Thriller-Mystery-Crime
Screenplay Peter Milne (based on the novel The Big Bow Mystery by Israel Zangwill) Producer William Jacobs Photography Ernest Haller Editor Thomas Reilly Music Frederick Hollander Cast Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, Joan Lorring, George Coulouris, Rosalind Ivan, Paul Cavanagh, Arthur Shields, Morton Lowry, Holmes Herbert, Art Foster.
Screenplay Peter Milne (based on the novel The Big Bow Mystery by Israel Zangwill) Producer William Jacobs Photography Ernest Haller Editor Thomas Reilly Music Frederick Hollander Cast Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, Joan Lorring, George Coulouris, Rosalind Ivan, Paul Cavanagh, Arthur Shields, Morton Lowry, Holmes Herbert, Art Foster.
"Siegel's first film, an ingenious locked room mystery set in London in 1890, adapted from a novel by Israel Zangwill (often described as the father of the genre). Greenstreet plays a genial Scotland Yard inspector who, dismissed after thirty years of distinguished service when an oversight results in the hanging of an innocent man, deviously stages a second case… Siegel deliberately plays on ambivalences throughout, leaving motivations not quite explained and opening up dark, speculative avenues of paranoia and perversity, not least through Greenstreet's teasing, subtly suggestive intimacy with Lorre as an amiably decadent, inimitably sinister artist friend. The result, impeccably performed and beautifully shot by Ernest Haller, emerges as splendid cross between Gothic melodrama and film noir." - Tom Milne (Time Out)
Vertigo 
● COLOUR NOIR
1958, USA, 128m, Col, Drama-Romantic Mystery-Psychological Thriller
Screenplay Alec Coppel, Samuel A. Taylor, Maxwell Anderson [uncredited] (based on the novel D'Entre Lews Morts by Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac) Producer Alfred Hitchcock Photography Robert Burks Editor George Tomasini Music Bernard Herrmann Cast James Stewart, Kim Novak, Barbara Bel Geddes, Tom Helmore, Henry Jones, Ellen Corby, Lee Patrick, Raymond Bailey, Konstantin Shayne, Paul Bryar.
1958, USA, 128m, Col, Drama-Romantic Mystery-Psychological Thriller
Screenplay Alec Coppel, Samuel A. Taylor, Maxwell Anderson [uncredited] (based on the novel D'Entre Lews Morts by Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac) Producer Alfred Hitchcock Photography Robert Burks Editor George Tomasini Music Bernard Herrmann Cast James Stewart, Kim Novak, Barbara Bel Geddes, Tom Helmore, Henry Jones, Ellen Corby, Lee Patrick, Raymond Bailey, Konstantin Shayne, Paul Bryar.
"It's nice to see critics accepting Alfred Hitchcock's 1958 commercial flop as a masterpiece... But masterpiece it is: I can think of no film that makes romance more palpable and affecting... The compositions and colors are profoundly alluring — never has Hitchcock's famously preplanned imagery been more sensual and seductive. But every image is also undermined by a deep instability: sensuous colors, shifting camera angles, and the inward-directed camera movements all create an imbalance that denies the viewer any film ground. The "vertigo" shots — in which Scottie and his view seems to recede and advance at once — make explicit the push-pull that undermines every composition." - Fred Camper (Chicago Reader)
Vicki
1953, USA, 85m, BW, Crime-Drama-Thriller
Screenplay Dwight Taylor (with additional dialogue by Harold Greene and Leo Townsend, from the novel I Wake Up Screaming by Steve Fisher) Producer Leonard Goldstein Photography Milton Krasner Editor Dorothy Spencer Music Leigh Harline Cast Jeanne Crain, Jean Peters, Elliott Reid, Richard Boone, Max Showalter, Alex D'Arcy, Carl Betz, Aaron Spelling, Robert Adler, Ramsay Ames.
Screenplay Dwight Taylor (with additional dialogue by Harold Greene and Leo Townsend, from the novel I Wake Up Screaming by Steve Fisher) Producer Leonard Goldstein Photography Milton Krasner Editor Dorothy Spencer Music Leigh Harline Cast Jeanne Crain, Jean Peters, Elliott Reid, Richard Boone, Max Showalter, Alex D'Arcy, Carl Betz, Aaron Spelling, Robert Adler, Ramsay Ames.
"A remake of the 1942 film I Wake Up Screaming, Vicki primarily revolves around the investigation that ensues after the titular character - an up-and-coming starlet - is murdered. The specifics of Vicki's short life play out via flashbacks, and we watch as an obsessive cop (Richard Boone) interrogates various suspects… Directed by Harry Horner and featuring an appearance by prolific television producer Aaron Spelling (there's a reason he's not known for his acting, it turns out), Vicki generally has the feel of a contemporary crime show - though screenwriter Dwight Taylor offsets that vibe by including several unexpectedly and distinctly dark bits of comedy and an overall emphasis on the more hard-boiled aspects of the genre.” - David Nusair (Reel Film Reviews)
Violated
1953, USA, 78m, BW, Drama-Crime
Screenplay William Mishkin Producer William Holland Photography Pat Rich Editors Don Jacques, Robert C. Jacques, William Henry Music Tony Mottola Cast William Holland, Lili Dawn, Mitchell Kowall, Vicki Carlson, William Martel, Jason Niles, Fred Lambert, Michael Keane, William Mishkin, Charles McClelland.
Screenplay William Mishkin Producer William Holland Photography Pat Rich Editors Don Jacques, Robert C. Jacques, William Henry Music Tony Mottola Cast William Holland, Lili Dawn, Mitchell Kowall, Vicki Carlson, William Martel, Jason Niles, Fred Lambert, Michael Keane, William Mishkin, Charles McClelland.
"Disguised as a cautionary suspense thriller, Violated is essentially an excuse to display some strippers taking their clothes off. Lili Dawn plays an exotic dancer named Lili DeMar, who is used as bait by the police to bring a sex offender out into the open. The acting is bad and the direction worse, but there's no denying that the film is extremely well-photographed by Pat Rich. Those uninterested in the undulations of Lili Dawn will enjoy the creative musical score by Tony Mottola, who in 1953 had achieved a measure of fame for his work on TV's Suspense. Considered hot stuff when first released, Violated is mild to middling when seen today." - Hal Erickson (Allmovie)
Violence
1947, USA, 72m, BW, Crime-Drama-Mystery
Screenplay Lewis Lantz, Stanley Rubin Producers Bernard Brandt, Jack Bernhard Photography Henry Sharp Editor Jason H. Bernie Music Edward J. Kay Cast Nancy Coleman, Michael O'Shea, Sheldon Leonard, Peter Whitney, Emory Parnell, Pierre Watkin, Frank Reicher, Cay Forester, John Hamilton, Richard Irving.
Screenplay Lewis Lantz, Stanley Rubin Producers Bernard Brandt, Jack Bernhard Photography Henry Sharp Editor Jason H. Bernie Music Edward J. Kay Cast Nancy Coleman, Michael O'Shea, Sheldon Leonard, Peter Whitney, Emory Parnell, Pierre Watkin, Frank Reicher, Cay Forester, John Hamilton, Richard Irving.
"1947’s Violence is concerned with the efforts of intrepid magazine reporter Ann Dwire (Nancy Coleman) and federal investigator Steve Fuller (Michael O’Shea) to uncover the truth behind veterans’ aid group the United Defenders… Violence was Monogram’s follow up to its 1946 hit Decoy, and features many of the same principals: director Jack Bernhard, producer Bernard Brandt, writer Stanley Rubin, and actor Sheldon Leonard. But don’t go looking for a repeat performance. Where Decoy was creative and stylish, Violence is drab and predictable. The cast often seems disinterested, the production design is tepid, and Bernhard’s direction is uninspired. Even the talented Leonard suffers in comparison." - Mark Fertig (Where Danger Lives)
Violent Cop
Sono otoko, kyôbô ni tsuki (original title)
● NEO-NOIR / JAPANESE NOIR / COLOUR NOIR
1989, Japan, 103m, Col, Drama-Crime-Action Thriller
Screenplay Hisashi Nozawa, Takeshi Kitano Producers Hisao Nabeshima, Shozo Ichiyama, Takio Yoshida Photography Yasushi Sasakibara Editor Nobutake Kamiya Music Daisaku Kume Cast Takeshi Kitano, Maiko Kawakami, Makoto Ashikawa, Shiro Sano, Sei Hiraizumi, Mikiko Otonashi, Hakuryu, Ittoku Kishibe, Ken Yoshizawa, Hiroyuki Katsube.
● NEO-NOIR / JAPANESE NOIR / COLOUR NOIR
1989, Japan, 103m, Col, Drama-Crime-Action Thriller
Screenplay Hisashi Nozawa, Takeshi Kitano Producers Hisao Nabeshima, Shozo Ichiyama, Takio Yoshida Photography Yasushi Sasakibara Editor Nobutake Kamiya Music Daisaku Kume Cast Takeshi Kitano, Maiko Kawakami, Makoto Ashikawa, Shiro Sano, Sei Hiraizumi, Mikiko Otonashi, Hakuryu, Ittoku Kishibe, Ken Yoshizawa, Hiroyuki Katsube.
"Violent Cop more than lives up to its name; from the start, Takeshi displays an eye for unique, viscerally affecting ways to stage action scenes. He also shows an ability to rely a little too heavily on the conventions of the revenge film. Kitano stars as the title character, a policeman whose sense of justice is rarely in alignment with his sanctioned duties. Like a less compassionate version of Lee Marvin in Point Blank, Kitano plays a man single-mindedly set on revenge. But where his trademark stonefaced stare in other films suggests an untold tempest of pain, here it just as often indicates a robotic monomania. And as gripping as Violent Cop is in other respects, it suffers from a lack of complexity" - Keith Phipps (The A.V. Club)
Violent Saturday
● COLOUR NOIR
1955, USA, 91m, Col, Crime-Drama-Action
Screenplay Sydney Boehm (based on the novel by W.L. Heath) Producer Buddy Adler Photography Charles G. Clarke Editor Louis Loeffler Music Hugo Friedhofer Cast Victor Mature, Richard Egan, Stephen McNally, Tommy Noonan, Lee Marvin, Sylvia Sidney, Ernest Borgnine, J. Carrol Naish, Virginia Leith, Maggie Hayes.
1955, USA, 91m, Col, Crime-Drama-Action
Screenplay Sydney Boehm (based on the novel by W.L. Heath) Producer Buddy Adler Photography Charles G. Clarke Editor Louis Loeffler Music Hugo Friedhofer Cast Victor Mature, Richard Egan, Stephen McNally, Tommy Noonan, Lee Marvin, Sylvia Sidney, Ernest Borgnine, J. Carrol Naish, Virginia Leith, Maggie Hayes.
"Violent Saturday is a noir thriller in Technicolor that brings together in 90 minutes a key location of the 1940s and 50s with one of those decades' favourite plots. The setting is a corrupt, middle-American township… it's seething with hypocrisy and inhabited by snobs, alcoholics, thieves, voyeurs, blackmailers, adulterers and womanising playboys. The plot is the heist movie, the story of a carefully prepared robbery… The movie is carefully orchestrated, the letterbox CinemaScope screen is skilfully used to locate the characters in relationship to one another and to the place itself, and for once the victims of the crime are as firmly established as the predators when the conflict begins. The movie is a little masterpiece that reflects the tensions beneath the conformity of the Eisenhower years." - Philip French (The Observer)
Voice in the Wind
1944, USA, 85m, BW, Crime-War Drama
Screenplay Friedrich Torberg (based on a story by Arthur Ripley) Producer Arthur Ripley, Rudolph Monter Photography Richard Fryer Editor Holbrook N. Todd Music Michel Michelet Cast Francis Lederer, Sigrid Gurie, J. Edward Bromberg, J. Carrol Naish, Alexander Granach, David Cota, Olga Fabian, Howard Johnson, Hans Schumm, Luis Alberni.
Screenplay Friedrich Torberg (based on a story by Arthur Ripley) Producer Arthur Ripley, Rudolph Monter Photography Richard Fryer Editor Holbrook N. Todd Music Michel Michelet Cast Francis Lederer, Sigrid Gurie, J. Edward Bromberg, J. Carrol Naish, Alexander Granach, David Cota, Olga Fabian, Howard Johnson, Hans Schumm, Luis Alberni.
"Voice in the Wind is a strange little film, filled with romantic angst and closer in spirit to nineteenth century opera than to film noir. Yet by any reckoning it is one of the darkest films of the cycle, lacking even one daylight scene (the fact that the film was purportedly shot in 12 days on a shoestring budget may also have something to do with this)… Others have criticized it for being 'arty' rather than artful, having the texture but not the substance of a foreign film. Yet these weaknesses do not demean its place in any study of classic American film noir, a cycle of films whose very lifeblood depended on the production of these low-budget 'thrillers' despite their deficiencies. And the fact that it was directed by Arthur Ripley, a 'cult' director of some renown, does nothing to lessen its appeal." - Robert Porfirio (Film Noir: The Encyclopedia)
Voice of the Whistler
1945, USA, 60m, BW, Drama-Crime
Screenplay Wilfred H. Petitt, William Castle (based on a story by Allan Rader) Producer Rudolph C. Flothow Photography George Meehan Editor Dwight Caldwell Music Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco Cast Richard Dix, Lynn Merrick, Rhys Williams, James Cardwell, Tom Kennedy, Sam Ash, Egon Brecher, Charles Coleman, Otto Forrest, Byron Foulger.
Screenplay Wilfred H. Petitt, William Castle (based on a story by Allan Rader) Producer Rudolph C. Flothow Photography George Meehan Editor Dwight Caldwell Music Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco Cast Richard Dix, Lynn Merrick, Rhys Williams, James Cardwell, Tom Kennedy, Sam Ash, Egon Brecher, Charles Coleman, Otto Forrest, Byron Foulger.
"Less a murder mystery and more of a Capra-esque statement on the importance of friends and the perils of loneliness, this half-assed entry in The Whistler series is seriously lacking any of the series’ patented twists and turns until the final reel. Stripped of the franchise’s usual sensibilities for 5/6 of the film’s running time (The Whistler doesn’t start waxing philosophical until Dix frantically tries to hide the body.) Voice of the Whistler is an interesting departure for the series, but ultimately it’s too low key for it’s own good." - Mitch Lovell (The Video Vacuum)
Available on Blu-ray Recommended Viewing (by TSPDT)