For the Noir fan on your Christmas list, Turner Class Movies and Universal have just released this wonderful box set of three crime thrillers from the 1940s. The Glass Key (1942), The Phantom Lady (1944), and The Blue Dahlia (1946) have never before been on DVD. For some unknown reason, this box set is NOT available on AMAZON, but you can buy it here. As most of you know, I am firmly in the Blu-ray world. But I’ve found that the higher definition format doesn’t make a big difference with these older Black & White films. So, of course, I’ve ordered this as a Christmas present for me!
TCM is making a big push for this to be exclusive to them, at least for now.
I find TCM box sets for a few bucks at BIG LOTS all the time, Todd. I don’t know why TCM thinks this DVD set will be a huge seller. Most of my students won’t watch anything that’s in Black & White.
Way to stimulate the economy, George. I agree with you on these old black & white movies – love them! (Not these three in particular but in general. I have seen all of them at one time or another.)
Costco is selling huge, incredibly cheap boxed sets of old movies, presumably in the public domain because they are just that cheap. If I get there this week I’ll tell you what they have.
For some unknown reason, Jeff, Western NY does not have any Costco stores. The closest one is in St. Catherines, Ontario. Those inexpensive old movie sets show up at BJ’s Warehouse occasionally.
PHANTOM LADY and THE GLASS KEY are both superb movies while BLUE DAHLIA is a smidgen below for me due to that ending that Chandler had imposed upon him and hated so much. Getting this set for the UK is probably not that easy, but thanks for the info George. DAHLIA and KEY are already available in the UK from Universal (who own the rights in Europe) while PHANTOM has been released elsewhere (including Spain and France) but not the UK – very tempting …
I’m glad these three noir movies are finally available on DVD, Sergio. No doubt that Universal will make this set available in the UK and the Euro Zone.
I have a goodly number of DVD sets sitting here never watched, so I stopped buying more. I don’t think I’ve ever seen The Phantom Lady.
If you’re a Cornell Woolrich fan, Rick, THE PHANTOM LADY is well worth a look. Some people consider THE PHANTOM LADY Woolrich’s best novel.
When we bought our DVD player from Amazon we were able to get instructions online on how to reset it to ‘0’ in the zone so we can play DVD’s from England as well as from here. This has enabled us to buy a lot of British stuff that would be much more expensive here, assuming it was available – which it often isn’t.
What a handy thing to know, Jeff!
Not a Woolrich fan, so that may be why I didn’t see the film.
I ordered myself a book today. Just couldn’t see anyone buying it for me so there you go.
I’m the same way, Patti. If I want a book or CD or Blu-ray, I just buy it online. Life is to short to wait around.
The lack of availability otherwise might well make this a hot potential gift for TCM viewers…whom they are pitching it to…