Film Heaven in a box set.

I'’ve been on quite a binge lately. With the lack of quality current releases, I'’ve been snatching up the recent crop of DVD'’s of classic movies. The genre of choice is film noir. Of the last fifteen DVD'’s recklessly purchased, 13 of them fit under film noir. The major studios like Fox, Warner Bros, and Universal have finally realized the money they could make releasing these classic on DVD. I couldn'’t be happier. Growing up on Bogart and Hitchcock movies, I'’ve found film noir my movie jones of choice. From the anti-hero and the vixen to the creepy and unique characters of the underworld, I just dig these films. My favorite current purchase is the Warner Bros. Film Noir Vol.1 box set. It contains five of the best film noirs: Out of the Past, Murder My Sweet, Gun Crazy, The Set Up, and The Asphalt Jungle. The only one of these I wasn'’t previously familiar with was The Set-Up, but it has commentary by Scorsese. How could I say no? He rarely does commentary on his own films, but he'’ll do it for this film? Gold! I tell you! Gold! Here'’s a list of the rest of my purchases:

Point Blank-starring Lee Marvin
The Big Red One-stop giggling pervert it stars Lee Marvin as well*
The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946)
Notorious (Criterion)
Night and the City (Criterion)
Nightmare Alley
House of Bamboo-Sam Fuller'’s version of Street with No Name
Touch of Evil
This Gun for Hire-the first Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake team up.
Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia-The last true Peckinpah movie*
*Not Film Noir but still great.

One thing that struck me watching Notorious, and This Gun for Hire is that there aren'’t any actresses around that can compete with such women as Ingrid Bergman and Veronica Lake, or Grace Kelly and Audrey Hepburn for that matter. I'’m sure this is probably as much a result of my strict upbringing since classic films were the only movies I could watch. I guess they assumed all black and white movies contained upstanding moral citizens. Heh. Anyway, maybe its’s the appearance of class and sophistication, or just the wit portrayed in their films that I want to believe carries over. But I have always found these women much more attractive than any starlet the studios trotted out in my time. While my fellow dormmates had pictures from the SI Swimsuit issue or Claudia Schiffer on their walls, I had Grace Kelly and Audrey Hepburn. Some would point to Miss Monroe (the Asphalt Jungle) as the starting point for the recent taste in movie starlets, but that's probably unfair. The image Monroe presented wasn't the image for me. I guess I like my women proper, strong, and with a biting wit. Yes, I realize this probably say a lot about the cold and aloof women I tend to date, but I ramble.

The point I'’m making is: Why go spend money at the Cineplex to see a half assed action flick or generic chick flick, when you can netflix or rent a movie that can restore your love of film?