The Film Chest has just
announced its latest film restoration, legendary director Edgar G. Ulmer’s
period-piece film noir, The
Strange Woman. The street date
for this latest HD restoration from 35mm film elements will be Apr. 29.
There is probably a film
that needs to be made about Ulmer’s life, the love affair that nearly destroyed
his Hollywood career (certainly changing it dramatically) and the films he
made.
Plus throw in the circle
of filmmakers he was intimate with and the lives of actors Tom Neal, Ann Savage
and others from the period that he worked with and you have all the elements of
a real page-turner. He had to overcome
many obstacles and only after his death did the real genius of his filmmaking
skills — style and atmosphere on a shoestring — get the full recognition that
he deserved.
But that’s for another
time. He was one of the first to
embrace film noir with both Strange
Illusion and one of the all time classics of the genre, Detour,
both of which were released theatrically in 1945. These were very early in the cycle.
The following year he
deftly blended the elements of film noir
with a period tale starring Hedy Lamarr (who had just recently left MGM) as
Jenny Hager, a beautiful young woman living in Bangor, Maine during the early
1800s who is from the “poor side of town.”
She uses her beauty,
along with sex and seduction to gain status by landing a wealthy widower (Gene
Lockhart) and then manipulates his weak-willed son (Louis Hayward) into doing
away with him. Not satisfied with the
wealth and power she has gained, she then unleashes her charms on her friend
Meg’s (Hillary Brooke) fiancé, John Evered (George Sanders).
In archetypal film noir he, of course, cannot resist
her — even though he is pretty sure that Jenny is out-and-out evil! She will,
in time, do her best to kill both him and Meg, the woman who still loves him
despite his betrayal.
To download this week's
complete edition of the DVD and Blu-ray Release Report: DVD & Blu-ray Release Report
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