DVD Review: An actor’s second take on film noir

Robert Montgomery — a B-list star in the ’40s — more or less abandoned his acting career to produce and direct. His first full directing gig was a daring, if not all that aesthetically successful, experiment — an adaptation of Raymond Chandler’s “Lady in the Lake” (1947), in which the camera took the literal eye-position point of view of protagonist Philip Marlowe (who he also played).

Later that year, he directed and starred in “Ride the Pink Horse,” from Dorothy B. Hughes’s novel. (A few years later, Nicholas Ray would make a more famous Hughes adaptation, the Bogart film “In a Lonely Place.”)

Montgomery plays the ironically named “Lucky” Gagin, who arrives in the small border town of San Pablo to get the crooked businessman (Fred Clark) responsible for the death of his WWII buddy, Shorty. But he’s not exactly an avenging knight in gleaming armor; he wants to take over the blackmail scheme that Shorty started. He makes friends with a happy-go-lucky carousel operator (Thomas Gomez, whose Best Supporting Actor nomination for the film made him the first Latino actor to get an Oscar nomination) and with an infatuated Native American girl (the adorable but inappropriately cast Wanda Hendrix).

“Ride the Pink Horse” may not be as daring as its predecessor, but it’s more effective. And together with ace noir cinematographer Russell Metty, Montgomery hardly plays it safe: the first major shot provides a lot of exposition, despite being 31/2 minutes long with no dialogue.

The Criterion Blu-ray does justice to the shadowy noir look. The supplements include a 20-minute interview with scholar Imogen Sara Smith, who discusses the film’s place among nonurban films noir; and a full-length commentary by Alain Silver and James Ursini, who, individually or together, are responsible for more than half a dozen books about the genre. Both of these extras are informative, if a bit dry. Also included, as an audio-only track, is an hour-long “Lux Radio Theater” abridgement, with the three stars reprising their roles.

Ride the Pink Horse (Criterion, Blu-ray, $39.95; DVD, $29.95)

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ANDY KLEIN is the film critic for Marquee. He can also be heard on “FilmWeek” on KPCC-FM (89.3).