Radiance Films Looks To Apr. 8 For The Release Of The Blu-ray Collection Titled Hardboiled: Three Pulp Thrillers By Alain Corneau

UK-based Radiance Films, with domestic sales and distribution expertise provided by MVD Entertainment Group, will be releasing the three-film, three-disc Blu-ray collection titled Hardboiled: Three Pulp Thrillers by Alain Corneau on Apr. 8.

Included in the collection are Police Python 357, A Hell of A Woman and Choice of Arms.

If you recognize director John Farrow’s 1948 film noir adaptation of Kenneth Fearing’s 1946 novel, The Big Clock, starring Ray Milland, then Police Python 357 will ring many bells.   Not only is this 1977 film a well-produced adaptation (updated with flair by Corneau), but the casting of Yves Montand and Simone Signoret is nothing short of brilliant.   Police Python 357 did not reach the arthouse circuit domestically until 1980.

The combination of filmmaker Corneau and actor Montand would repeat in the 1981 (1983 for domestic arthouse consumption) with the complicated heist thriller, Choice of Arms, which teams Montand with international stars Catherine Deneuve and Gerand Depardieu.

The third film in the series is A Hell of A Woman (aka: Série Noire), which opened theatrically in France in 1979, arthouse circuit in the United States in 1982 and then was reissued by Rialto Pictures in 2019.

The film is a screen adaptation of Jim Thompson’s 1954 novel about a door-to-door salesman (played by Patrick Dewaere (Going Places, The French Detective, Hotel America, etc.) who comes across a teenager (Marie Trintignant) who has been forced into prostitution by her aunt (Jeanne Herviale).   His solution, with lots of twists and turns, is to kill the aunt and free the girl … the bodies pile up as he sets about to achieve his goal.

All three films in the Hardboiled: Three Pulp Thrillers by Alain Corneau Blu-ray collection from Radiance Films on Apr. 8 are presented in French with optional English subtitles.

Bonus goodies include commentary on Police Python 357 by film historian Mike White, a collection of archival video sessions with the likes of Corneau, Marie Trintignant, Patrick Dewaere, Deneuve, Montand and Depardieu, the feature-length documentary titled Série Noire: The Darkness of the Soul and the featurette titled “Shooting Choice of Arms.”