Noirish delights await in 'Dark Crimes,' 'Film Noir Classics IV'

By Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times Film Critic

Nov. 7, 2013 12 PM PT

Film noir is a taste for darkness that never grows old. No matter how many of these films appear on DVD, there is always room for a few more.

This week I want to highlight two separate collections from the TCM Vault Collection, plus a new book on the subject.

“Film Noir Classics IV” is the latest installment in TCM’s look at noirs from Columbia Pictures, many of which have not been on DVD before.

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Highlights of the five-disc collection include “So Dark the Night” by “Gun Crazy’s” Joseph H. Lewis and Robert Rossen’s “Johnny O’Clock.”

Taking a slightly different tack is TCM’s “Dark Crimes,” which showcases three films associated with great noir writers: Dashiell Hammett’s “The Glass Key,” Cornell Woolrich’s “Phantom Lady” and Raymond Chandler’s “The Blue Dahlia,” his only original screenplay.

Also attractive for fans is John Grant’s 770-page “Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Film Noir,” a massive compendium published by Limelight Editions, which has the fortitude to deal with more than 3,500 films. That’s a lot of noir.

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