Franco Noir - BLU-RAY

Based on the novel InchA Hell of a WomanInch by Jim Thompson, this gripping, downbeat French crime drama focuses on Franck (Patrick Dewaere), a Paris door-to-door salesman whose life is on a downward spiral after his wife (Myriam Boyer) leaves him and he's hit with an embezzlement charge by his boss. Franck soon finds himself mixed up with Mona (Marie Trintignant), a teenage prostitute who convinces him to help her rob and murder her aunt. With Bernard Blier, Jeanne Herviale, Andreas Katsulas. 111 min. Widescreen; Soundtrack French; Subtitles English; featurettes. In French with English subtitles.

THE AMERICAN PREMIERE OF JESS FRANCO'S TWO LONG-UNSEEN FILM NOIRS Following his international breakthrough with THE AWFUL DR. ORLOFF, director Jess Franco next delivered a startling pair of crime-thrillers that pistol-whipped European notions of film noir while lighting the fuse on Uncle Jess' own insane aesthetic. Set in New Orleans and based on a novel by the authors of VERTIGO, DEATH WHISTLES THE BLUES is a hard-boiled tale of betrayal, violence and revenge featuring smoky jazz compositions by Franco himself. Jean Servais of RIFIFI fame stars in RIFIFI IN THE CITY, a nihilistic trip through a pulp underworld of thugs, snitches, nightclub dames and black-gloved giallo-style murders. Both films - which led an impressed Orson Welles to hire Franco as his assistant on CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT - now feature HD scans from the original negatives for the first time ever.

Two-disc set includes Speaking Of Murder (Le Rouge Est Mis) (1957)For Louis Bertain (Jean Gabin), the Paris garage he operated by day acted as a front for a robbery gang at night. The smooth operation looks to hit some bumps when the cops bring in Louis' uninvolved kid brother Pierre (Marcel Bozzuffi) for a sweating-and the elder Bertain's paranoid cronies grow certain that he'll give them up. Crackling crime opus from an Auguste Le Breton novel also stars Lino Ventura, Annie Girardot, Paul Frankeur. 95 min. In French with English subtitles. BW/Rtg NR Back To The Wall (Le Dos Au Mur) (1958)When industrialist Jacques Decrey (Gérard Oury) learns that his spouse Gloria (Jeanne Moreau) has been cheating on him with actor ex Yves (Philippe Nicaud), he opts for an odd revenge-by setting up a false identity for himself, continously blackmailing the illicit lovers, and pocketing his own cash once she pays. The scheme, though, will hit some fateful and fatal snags, in Édouard Molinaro's take on a Frédéric Dard novel. Claire Maurier, Gérard Buhr co-star. 93 min. In French with English subtitles. BW/Rtg NR Witness In The City (Un Témoin Dans La Ville) (1959)Trucker Ancelin (Lino Ventura) became a widower under seamy circumstances-after his wife's paramour, wealthy Pierre Verdier (Jacques Berthier), threw her from a train. After Verdier gained acquittal on a technicality, Ancelin connived to kill his cuckolder and stage it to look like suicide, but found himself having to stalk the cabbie witness (Franco Fabrizi) who could finger him. Édouard Molinaro's read on the Pierre Boileau/Thomas Narcejac thriller co-stars Sandra Milo. 86 min. In French with English subtitles. BW/Rtg NR Standard and Widescreen; Soundtrack French; Subtitles English; theatrical trailers.