Embracing film noir

Four Films From

the Criterion Collection

Criterion, $30 to $40 each

CriterIoN, a boutique DVD company that’s developed a loyal following among film fanatics with its eclectic mixture of vintage and new films, is serving up two films from blacklisted director Jules Dassin -- 1949’s “Thieves’ Highway” and 1950’s “Night and the City” -- and a pair of French classics directed by Jacques Becker: 1952’s “Casque d’or” and 1954’s “Touchez Pas au Grisbi.”

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Thieves’ Highway

Dassin directed this atmospheric drama about the “long-haul boys” -- truckers who drive by night to get their goods to the markets in the morning. Richard Conte plays Nick Garcos, a tough and tender guy who seeks revenge on the man who crippled his father -- a ruthless San Francisco market operator played by Lee J. Cobb (in a role that foreshadows his Johnny Friendly character in 1954’s ‘“On the Waterfront”). Valentina Cortese plays a woman of mystery who falls for Garcos, and comic actor Jack Oakie gives a rare dramatic performance as a crooked trucker.

“Thieves’ Highway,” which was shot in locations in California, was the last film Dassin completed before he left America.

Extras: A new interview with Dassin, the last surviving major director from the blacklist; excerpts from “The Long Haul of A.I. Bezzerides,” a documentary on the acclaimed writer who wrote the screenplay based on his novel; and commentary from Alain Silver, editor of “Film Noir Reader.”

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Night and the City

Though the blacklist ended Dassin’s career in Hollywood, 20th Century Fox studio head Darryl F. Zanuck gave the director this film noir to helm because it was to be shot in London.

Richard Widmark stars as Harry Fabian, a hustler barely eking out a living in post-World War II London, who involves himself in one get-rich-quick scheme after another. Gene Tierney plays his long-suffering girlfriend, who sings in a local seedy bar.

Widmark’s Fabian is a highly unsympathetic lead character -- even for a film noir hero -- and the actor plays him to the hilt. Tierney, though, is wasted as his girlfriend.

Extras: A new interview with Dassin, who talks about the production; excerpts from a 1972 French TV Dassin interview, an examination of the differences between the British and American versions of the film -- the latter features an evocative, pulsating score by Franz Waxman. A commentary by Glenn Erickson, author of the “Film Noir Reader” essay on “Night and the City,” adds historical context.

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Casque d’or

Becker, the late French director who worked as an assistant director for several years for Jean Renoir before making his own films, did this lush romantic drama about two doomed lovers. Simone Signoret is luminous as a gangster’s moll who falls in love with a sensitive ex-con turned carpenter, portrayed by a haunting Serge Reggiani. But their love affair is short-lived when the gangsters’ leader, played by Claude Dauphin, wants Signoret’s Marie for himself.

Extras: A 1963 TV interview with Signoret; excerpts from the French TV series “Cineastes de Notre Temps,” dedicated to Becker; rare silent behind-the-scenes footage of Becker on the set, with commentary by film scholar Philip Kemp; and a 1995 video interview with Reggiani -- who died last year at 82. Rounding out the disc is astute commentary from film scholar Peter Cowie.

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Touchez Pas au Grisbi

France’s greatest film actor, Jean Gabin, is sheer perfection as Max, a world-weary, aging gangster in Becker’s riveting film noir.

Having committed a major airport robbery, Max is hoping to retire from the underworld to lead a quiet, relaxing life with his new young girlfriend. But when his partner and best friend, played by Rene Dary, tells Jeanne Moreau as his young girlfriend about their ill-gotten gains, Max finds himself embroiled in a war with rival gangsters.

Extras: A 1972 interview with actor Lino Ventura, a wrestler-turned-actor who made his film debut in “Grisbi”; a 1978 interview with composer Jean Wiener; and a 2002 interview with “Grisbi” actor Daniel Cauchy.

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-- Susan King