Film Noir: The Dark Side of Cinema VI [Singapore/Johnny Stool Pigeon/The Raging Tide] (Blu-ray)

This collection features three film noir classics. SINGAPORE (1947) – Adventure and romance in the city of intrigue! The irresistible duo of Fred MacMurray (Double Indemnity, The Apartment) and Ava Gardner (The Killers, On the Beach) star in this exotic film noir from director John Brahm (The Lodger, Hangover Square). In pre-war Singapore, Matt Gordon (MacMurray) falls in love with the beautiful Linda Grahame (Gardner), but loses contact with her when the Japanese attack. Five years later, he returns to Singapore to retrieve a fortune in smuggled pearls and accidentally reconnects with Linda, now married to rich planter Van Leyden (Roland Culver, Dead of Night) and suffering from amnesia. Meanwhile, the sinister Mauribus (Thomas Gomez, Key Largo) schemes to steal Matt’s pearls. Richard Haydn (The Emperor Waltz), Spring Byington (I’ll Be Seeing You), Porter Hall (The General Died at Dawn) and Philip Ahn (China) round out the cast of this exciting, romantic noir. JOHNNY STOOL PIGEON (1949) – They cracked the back of the world’s blackest racket! A cop! A dame! A killer! Cult filmmaker William Castle, the macabre mastermind behind House on Haunted Hill, The Tingler, 13 Ghosts and Let’s Kill Uncle, delivers a different kind of shadowy suspense story with Johnny Stool Pigeon. Howard Duff (Woman in Hiding) is San Francisco-based Treasury agent George Morton, who goes undercover to break up a narcotics ring. Dan Duryea (Scarlet Street) is Johnny Evans, a convict in Alcatraz who makes a deal with George, becoming the titular “stool pigeon.” Shelley Winters (Larceny) is the ringleader’s feisty moll who gets involved in the sting. It’s cops versus smugglers in Castle’s hardboiled film noir that co-stars John McIntire (An Act of Murder), Leif Erickson (The Lady Gambles) and Tony Curtis (The Midnight Story) in an early role as a mute killer. THE RAGING TIDE (1951) – Not even the fury of the lashing sea…could match the raging passions that bound them! A San Francisco gangster is rubbed out by rival Bruno Felkin (Richard Conte, Cry of the City), who himself reports the crime to Homicide Lieutenant Kelsey (Stephen McNally, The Lady Gambles) in an alibi scheme which fails. To escape, he stows away on a fishing boat, where skipper Hamil Linder (Charles Bickford, Duel in the Sun) receives Bruno kindly. Later, Bruno enlists Hamil’s son Carl (Alex Nicol, Because of You) to do his dirty work offshore, but things turn sour when Carl takes an interest in Bruno’s girl Connie (Shelley Winters, He Ran All the Way). An exhilarating, stormy climax highlights this unique seafaring noir from prolific director George Sherman (Larceny, The Sleeping City) and ace cinematographer Russell Metty (The Stranger, Touch of Evil).