Dassin, Jules

The Complete Thin Man Collection (The Thin Man / After the Thin Man / Another Thin Man / Shadow of the Thin Man / The Thin Man Goes Home / Song of the Thin Man / Alias Nick and Nora)

The sparkling series featured the irresistible William Powell and Myrna Loy chemistry as husband and wife sleuths who solved murders with the aid of their wire-haired terrier Asta. Set in the glamorous world of 1930s upper-class Manhattan The Thin Man and its sequels established the standard for witty comedy clever dialogue and urbane one upmanship. The 7-Disc set includes THE THIN MAN AFTER THE THIN MAN ANOTHER THIN MAN SHADOW OF THE THIN MAN SONG OF THE THIN MAN THE THIN MAN GOES HOME and the ALIAS NICK & NORA bonus documentary disc.Running Time: 592 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/CLASSIC UPC: 012569673991 Manufacturer No: 67399

Almost as welcome as a shaker full of martinis, The Complete Thin Man Collection represents an eagerly awaited DVD milestone for fans of the fizzy MGM movie series. The best film in the series came first: The Thin Man (1934), W.S. Van Dyke's marvelous adaptation of a Dashiell Hammet novel. The movie gods were in a generous mood when they paired William Powell and Myrna Loy as Nick and Nora Charles, the upper-class sophisticates whose sleuthing escapades somehow joined the classic form of the whodunit with the giddyup of screwball comedy. Among the series' many attributes, one of its most radical notions was the idea that a married couple might find each other delightful and view life as a goofy adventure together.

It is common wisdom that the Thin Man sequels adhere to the law of diminishing returns, and while none of the follow-ups reach the diamond level of the first film, all afford pleasures. There's the cocktail-swilling chemistry of Powell and Loy, for one thing, as well as the considerable satisfaction of average movies made during the studio system: the craftsmanship of studio hands, and a gallery of terrific character actors filling in supporting roles. First sequel After the Thin Man (1936) is very good, with the couple in San Francisco and a supporting part for rising player James Stewart. The scenery moves again, to Long Island, for the rather impudently-titled Another Thin Man (1939), which adds baby Nick, Jr., to the mix (a "bad idea," thought Pauline Kael, perhaps a sign of the domestication of the series).

Shadow of the Thin Man (1941) sets the action around a racetrack, and is the last of the series to be directed by the fast-working Van Dyke. The Thin Man Goes Home (1944) finds Nick escorting family to his parents' house for a visit. Song of the Thin Man (1947) engagingly adds a jazz milieu to the Charles's detective work; at this point, Nick, Jr. was played by child star Dean Stockwell. The series stuck with certain staples: the unveiling of the guilty party, a wirehaired terrier named Asta (who became a star in its own right), and booze. When Nick opines, in the first film, that a dry martini should always be shaken to "waltz time," you know why audiences fell in love with these guilt-free comedies. --Robert Horton

Topkapi

Director Jules Dassin (Night and the City, The Naked City) fashioned this breezy and intricate 1964 thriller with a sly comic bent, and it enjoyed international popularity and became an influence for other high-toned European caper films. Peter Ustinov (Spartacus, Death on the Nile) won an Academy Award for his performance as a hapless driver, clueless to the plans of his cohorts, two jewel thieves who plan to steal a priceless dagger from the Topkapi museum in Istanbul, Turkey. Maximilian Schell (Deep Impact, Judgment at Nuremburg) and Melina Mercouri (The Victors, The Gypsy and the Gentleman) play the jet-setting thieves, who choose a motley band of amateurs instead of pros in order to throw off the authorities. But when Ustinov is apprehended by the cops, he agrees to act as a spy in order to thwart the robbery. Eventually, Ustinov must choose between saving his own hide and remaining loyal to the seductive Mercouri as the machinations of the robbery become ever more complex. Sleek and entertaining, Topkapi is filled with intrigue and thrills at every turn. --Robert Lane

A 'skillful blend of romance and comedy (The Hollywood Reporter), Topkapi shimmers with hilarity, action and great performances! Fun-filled and suspenseful, it's an incredibly ingenious affair [and] a considerable pleasure to watch (Newsweek)! Trouble brews beneath the exotically curved towers of Istanbul when the equally exoticand equally curvedElizabeth Lipp (Melina Mercouri) recruits her former lover (Maximilian Schell) in a scheme to heist the pride of the city's Topkapi museum: a jewel-encrusted dagger. But the job soon turns into a high-tension, high-wire performanceliterallywhen the bumbling fall guy (Peter Ustinov) and other amateurs they ve hired as help find they'll have to lift their prize while dangling from the museum's vaulted ceiling!

Rififi - Criterion Collection

Hollywood's loss was Europe's gain when Jules Dassin fled America because of the House Un-American Activities Committee blacklist at the end of the 1940s. His films helped bring the moral ambiguity of the postwar American thriller to Europe, inspiring a new generation of critics and filmmakers. Writing several years before he made The 400 Blows, François Truffaut praised Dassin for the way his films "combin[ed] the documentary approach with lyricism," a method that would inform many of the new wave films of the '60s.

Rififi, shot on the rainy streets of Paris, is imbued with the same gritty realism that marked Dassin's earlier work in New York (The Naked City) and London (Night and the City). Jean Servais plays Tony le Stéphanois, an aging crook whose thin lips and tired, seen-it-all eyes give him a look somewhere between Humphrey Bogart and Harry Dean Stanton. Out of jail after a five-year stretch, he joins up with a couple of pals to pull one last heist: a jewel robbery that is portrayed in such detail (including tips on how to silence an alarm using a fire extinguisher) that the film was banned in several countries.

The robbery sequence alone, which lasts for 30 minutes and is played entirely without dialogue, would be enough to ensure Rififi's classic status, but there's a lot more to enjoy, including terrific performances from Marie Sabouret as Tony's world-weary ex-girlfriend, and from Dassin himself as a dandified Italian safecracker with an eye for the ladies. After the thrill of the heist, in the film's final scenes when, with the inevitability of the best films noirs everything falls apart, Dassin achieves the lyricism that Truffaut admired so much. By combining the conventions of a caper movie with his own brand of bleak nihilism, he made Rififi into a film that deserves to be counted among the best ever made.--Simon Leake

After making such American noir classics as The Naked City and Brute Force, blacklisted director Jules Dassin went to Paris and embarked on his masterpiece: a twisting, turning tale of four ex-cons who hatch one last glorious heist in the City of Lights. At once naturalistic and expressionistic, this melange of suspense, brutality, and dark humor was an international hit and earned Dassin the Best Director prize at the Cannes Film Festival. Criterion is proud to present Rififi in a pristine digital transfer.

Never on Sunday

Thirty-two years before My Big Fat Greek Wedding brought Greek-American culture to a mainstream audience, Never on Sunday took mainstream culture to Greece, with similarly popular results. Expatriate director Jules Dassin wrote, directed, and costars in this vibrant and (in retrospect) rather simple-minded celebration of good living, as embodied by the vivacious Melina Mercouri in the Cannes award-winning role of her career. She's Ilya, a fiercely independent prostitute who hand-picks her clientele, and Dassin plays Homer, an American intellectual enamored of all things Greek, and determined to steer Ilya onto the straight and moral path. He's out of his depth, of course; it's not long before his efforts are exposed as naively self-serving, and half the fun of Never on Sunday comes from watching Mercouri amiably deflect any attempt to dampen her indomitable spirit. Innocently good-natured by latter-day standards, Dassin's delightful film still retains its popular charm, and its familiar bouzouki theme is an irresistible invitation to join in the fun. --Jeff Shannon

Nominated for five Academy Awards including Best Actress Director and Original screenplay and featuring the Oscar winning song "Never on Sunday" this "racy arty comedy" (The Hollywood Reporter) is as intoxicating as fine Greek wine... and a "rambunctious" (Time) delight!Glasses are smashing fingers are snapping and everyone's dancing to the sultry music of the bouzoukies! It's just another glorious moment in the carefree world of Illia (Melina Mercouri) Greece's most radiant lady of the night. Sensuous Illia adores her life and every man in her seaport paradise adores her. But when Homer (Jules Dassin) a stuffy American intellectual sails into town and tries to reform her Illia shows him that she's one free spirit who's happy with her wild life and not about to be tamed.System Requirements:Starring: Melina Mercouri Directed By: Jules Dassin Running Time: 93 Min. Color Copyright 2003 MGM Studios.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY Rating: NR UPC: 027616887474 Manufacturer No: 1004706

Naked City - Criterion Collection

"There are eight million stories in the Naked City" as the narrator immortally states at the close of this breathtakingly vivid film-and this is one of them. Master noir craftsman Jules Dassin and newspaperman-cum-producer Mark Hellinger's dazzling police procedural was shot entirely on location in New York City as influenced by Italian neorealism as American crime fiction. A double Academy Award-winner The Naked City remains a benchmark for naturalism in noir living and breathing in the promises and perils of the Big Apple from its lowest depths to its highest skyscrapers. System Requirements:Running Time: 96 Mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: NR UPC: 715515022927 Manufacturer No: CC1687DDVD

"Ladies and gentlemen, the motion picture you are about to see is called The Naked City." With a helicopter shot slowly closing in on Manhattan, producer Mark Hellinger's staccato narration introduces the film ("It was not photographed in a studio . . .") and continues throughout like a documentary commentator with a literary flair. It's a conceit that serves this police story nicely, giving the patina of realism to this deglamorized look at the work of the homicide squad. Barry Fitzgerald reigns over the film with his jovial good humor as a veteran detective investigating the murder of a high-living model. He has few clues and fewer suspects, until he cracks the story of big-talking Howard Duff and throws some light on his shady past. Jules Dassin, who had just come off the shadowy, expressionist Brute Force, peels away those flourishes to shoot in a straightforward style influenced by the Italian neo-realists and the contemporary American newsreels. The film is rich in supporting performances by soon-to-be-famous character actors--Arthur O'Connell, James Gregory, Paul Ford--but the city itself becomes the film's most vivid character. Shot entirely on location in New York City, the distinctive cityscape looms over practically every shot and injects the film with a defining sense of place (cinematographer William Daniels won an Oscar for his work). You can see the roots of The French Connection in the bustling city scenes and the exciting foot chase finale on an elevated walkway. --Sean Axmaker

Night and the City - Criterion Collection

Richard Widmark never had better exercise for his Cagney-like bouncing-ball energy than Night and the City, a classic film noir about a hustler's meteoric flame-out. Although acknowledged as one of the great noir pictures, it's actually set and shot in London, which gives an exotic, displaced novelty to the usual noir universe. Widmark's performance as Harry Fabian is a jibbering, wheedling, giggling tour de force, as Harry schemes his way to setting up a wrestling match and finally establishing himself as a "somebody." Instead, he manages to irritate the underworld heavies (memorably, Herbert Lom and Francis L. Sullivan) whose fingers are already deeply into the criminal pie. Gene Tierney and Googie Withers are the women--one good, one bad--who witness Harry's descent. This was director Jules Dassin's final project for a Hollywood studio before the blacklist forced him out, and he packs the film with tortured camera angles and spidery noir shadows; the movie's a real visual clambake. Night and the City was remade, tiredly, with Robert De Niro in 1992. Bonus: See how strongly this movie has influenced Martin Scorsese. --Robert Horton

Two-bit hustler Harry Fabian (Richard Widmark) aches for a life of ease and plenty. Trailed by an inglorious history of go-nowhere schemes, he stumbles upon a chance of a lifetime in the form of legendary wrestler Gregorius the Great (Stanislaus Zbyszko). But there is no easy money in this underworld of shifting alliances, bottomless graft, and pummeled flesh—and soon Fabian learns the horrible price of his ambition. Luminously shot in the streets of London, Jules Dassin's Night and the City is film noir of the first order and one of the director's crowning achievements.

Reunion in France

The lone pairing of Joan Crawford and John Wayne is reason enough for being curious about Reunion in France, a flagrantly preposterous World War II melodrama with a surprisingly distinguished roster of contributors--from producer Joseph L. Mankiewicz, co-screenwriter Marc Connelly, and director Jules Dassin to such stalwart character actors as Philip Dorn, John Carradine, Reginald Owen, Henry Daniell, Albert Bassermann, Howard Da Silva, and unbilled bit player Ava Gardner. It's a Crawford vehicle all the way (her next-to-last at MGM), with her as a heedless French fashionista in love with ultra-swank, wealthy industrial designer Dorn. While on a trip, Crawford finds herself under German bombs and, after suffering in the company of other, much less stylishly costumed refugees, makes her way back to Paris. There she's shocked to discover Dorn still enjoying his upper-crust lifestyle: he's lent his skills and factories to the Nazi war machine, and Crawford--appalled and suddenly penniless--seeks gainful employment and moral rearmament with her favorite modiste.

Wayne enters the picture a couple of reels in, an American flyboy who signed on with the RAF, crashed in France, and made his way to Paris. Inveigling himself into Crawford's arms under the eyes of a Gestapo agent, he enjoys her reluctant protection for a good deal longer than credibility can bear. People who know such things have recorded that, in reality, Crawford made any number of heavy passes at her costar, but there was no chemistry between them offscreen or on. The one scene in the film with any sting features veteran German actor Ernst Deutsch (the future Baron Kurtz of The Third Man, billed as Ernest Dorian in his Hollywood years) as a Nazi officer tormented by the knowledge that he is loathed by the people whose nation he occupies. --Richard T. Jameson

A Frenchwoman believes that her fiance is a Nazi collaborator.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: NR UPC: 012569797352 Manufacturer No: 79735

Brute Force (Criterion Collection)

When a prison guard who sadistically beats prisoners finally becomes unbearable, the inmates stage a vicious riot.
No Track Information Available
Media Type: DVD
Artist: LANCASTER/CRONYN
Title: BRUTE FORCE
Street Release Date: 04/17/2007
Domestic
Genre: DRAMA

Jules Dassin's brooding, brutal drama about a prison wound to the breaking point by a sadistic captain of the guards is a classic film noir as well as one of the greatest prison films ever made. Burt Lancaster (in only his third film but already commanding the screen like a pro) is the savvy prison veteran whose clashes with Hume Cronyn (the ambitious guard with a god complex) land him first in solitary then in the claustrophobic drain pipe, a muddy, airless work detail that slowly kills every man assigned to it. With the help of his cellmate buddies and former gangland boss Charles Bickford he hatches a plan to break out, but Cronyn has his own plans for the unbreakable prisoner. Dassin's oppressive prison is thick with atmosphere: cavernous buildings and halls that echo with the footsteps of inmates and the clanking of bars, overcrowded cells that seem to close in on the men, a busy machine shop where the film's most memorable scene takes place--the ruthless assassination of a stoolie in a pounding metal press. Cinematographer William Daniels, a master of Hollywood's soft-focus glamour, creates a harsh, hard-edged look for the film, softened only by looming shadows. A sense of doom hovers over everything, culminating in an explosive finale, but the barbaric, brutish violence hangs in the air long after the film is over. --Sean Axmaker

On the DVD
Criterion's beautiful restored print of Brute Force is accompanied by a small collection of supporting materials, including a commentary track by longtime film noir experts Alain Silver and James Ursini. They give a good brief on the film's history, such as the disagreements between producer Mark Hellinger and director Jules Dassin on the subject of the movie's use of flashbacks--an approach that would break the claustrophobia of the prison sequences and introduce female characters. Hellinger wanted the backstory, Dassin objected, and the producer won; but the point is definitely arguable. Prison-movie specialist Paul Mason gives a useful 15-minute talk, partly on Brute Force and partly on the genre of prison movies. Criterion's booklet has an excellent essay by critic Michael Atkinson, a vintage 1947 profile of the colorful columnist-turned-producer Hellinger, and an intriguing, bitter exchange of letters between Hellinger and Production Code chief Joseph Breen on the subject of the film's censorship problems. --Robert Horton

Thieves' Highway - Criterion Collection

The rugged world of long-haul trucking knits perfectly with classic film noir dynamics in this sizzling, underrated picture. Navy veteran Richard Conte returns home to California, only to plunge into a revenge scenario and a scheme to haul the season's first apples to the teeming San Francisco fruit market (a place seen as a nocturnal jungle for the survival of the fittest). Lee J. Cobb enjoys himself enormously as the chiseling boss at the Frisco market, Millard Mitchell is wry as Conte's angle-playing trucking partner, and Valentina Cortese adds a bright, sexy exoticism to the multi-layered duplicitous dame. Director Jules Dassin, in his last American-shot film before blacklisting, shows his expressive abilities with shadowy interiors and road-movie exteriors alike. The punchy screenplay by A.I. Bezzerides, whose trucking experiences also fueled They Drive by Night, is a textbook case for the complexities of pulp--not apples, fiction. --Robert Horton

Thieves' Highway is set in the world of "long-haul boys" who drive by night to bring their goods to the markets of America's cities. Ex-G.I. Nick Garcos (Richard Conte) is a tyro trucker bent on satisfaction from the man responsible for crippling his father—ruthless market operator Mike Figlia (Lee J. Cobb). Along the way, he is seduced by siren Rica (Valentina Cortesa) and drawn into the San Francisco produce racket—landing him in a web of treachery and heartbreak. The Criterion Collection is proud to present this Jules Dassin masterpiece, the last film he completed in America before he was blacklisted.

10:30 PM Summer (MGM World Films)

10:30pm Summer may not rank among Jules Dassin's finest European films (like Rififi and Topkapi), but it's a curiously engrossing study of passions run amuck. After he was blacklisted in America (following a career that included such film noir classics as Brute Force and The Naked City), Dassin moved to Europe and scored a surprise hit with Rififi, but it was his subsequent marriage to Greek actress Melina Mercouri that proved to be the strongest influence on Dassin's later career. Mercouri was Dassin's muse, and he was her lover/mentor, so it's no surprise that overwrought passions were a recurring theme in the films they made together. This is especially the case with 10:30pm Summer, a somewhat overcooked and fever-pitched melodrama (based on the novel 10:30 on a Summer Night by Dassin's co-screenwriter Marguerite Duras) in which the still-beautiful yet insecurely middle-aged Maria (Mercouri) travels to Spain with her husband Paul (Peter Finch), their young daughter, and a charming young companion named Claire (Romy Schneider). The film begins with a seemingly unrelated incident--a jealous husband kills his wife and her lover--but it's an obvious parallel to the strained relationship between Maria, Paul, and Claire. The film reaches peak intensity when Maria spies on Paul and Claire in the grip of adulterous passion, and in a bid to reclaim her own sexuality, she provides refuge for the attractive young murderer who's been hiding on the rooftops of their Spanish hotel.

Self-consciously "artsy" and intended as a sexually charged follow-up to Dassin's scandalous 1960 hit Never on Sunday (also starring Mercouri), 10:30pm Summer runs only 85 minutes, so it never wears out its welcome. Dassin's approach to this emotionally over-the-top material is occasionally quite effective, especially in the night-time scenes that serve as a suspenseful reminder of Dassin's American thrillers. But this film is also a nearly-forgotten relic of the art-house '60s (when "grown-up" themes of jealousy and marital insecurity were common in European films), and crucial character details--such as the cause and origin of Maria's alcoholic binges--remain totally unexplained. It's clear that Dassin was striving to create a powerful love triangle with thematic connections to a lethal crime of passion, but whether he fully succeeded is open for debate. --Jeff Shannon