Circle Mar. 20 on your
must-own DVD and/or Blu-ray release calendar.
Just do it, especially if you are a film
noir buff!!!
Finally, finally, finally
director Nathan Juran’s 1954 film noir
gem, Highway
Dragnet (film icon Roger Corman’s first film production credit) will be
given a legitimate home entertainment release … not just as a DVD, but as both
DVD and Blu-ray product offerings from Kino Lorber on Mar. 20.
Korean War vet, Sgt. Jim
Henry (played by Richard Conte, who became a star with his performance as the
wise-talking Private Rivera in director Lewis Milestone’s 1945 World War II
masterpiece, A Walk in the Sun … plus such film credits as Thieves'
Highway, Whirlpool, The Godfather, The Big Combo, etc.) gets into an
argument with a blonde floozy (Mary Beth Hughes) at a Las Vegas bar. The next day she is found dead and Jim is
the prime suspect.
He manages to escape the
police when they are trying to arrest him and gets away in one of their own police
cruisers, which he quickly ditches in the desert. While making his escape, he notices two women
with car trouble and doubles back to hitch a ride with them … it is the perfect
cover!!
The women he cons into
getting a ride with are Mrs. Cummings (Joan Bennett), one of the country’s top
photographers for various publications and her latest model, Susan (Wanda
Hendrix — Ride the Pink Horse, Captain Carey, U.S.A., etc.), but instead
of just getting beyond the police dragnet and moving on from there, he accepts
Mrs. Cummings’ invitation to stay with them at the Apple Valley Inn.
From this point on it
becomes a cat-and-mouse game involving Jim, the police (led by Reed Hadley),
who remain in hot pursuit and the real killer.
This Allied Artist
theatrical release (in early 1954) is probably the most underrated film noir
from the period … it’s about time that it will be available for film buffs,
collectors and film noir aficionados
to add to their film libraries.
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