Shadows, Lies, and Private Eyes: The Film Noir Classic Collection

Five of the very best examples of 1940s-era crime thrillers. There’s too much here to praise in the space we have at hand, so let’s concentrate on three examples of great acting. First: Out of the Past’s Robert Mitchum, in a career-defining performance, trying to escape his ties to gangster Kirk Douglas. Second: Sterling Hayden in The Asphalt Jungle. He inhabited the skin of a street-tough thug so well that actors should have stopped playing thugs after that. And we can’t help but be loquacious about Dick Powell in 1944’s Murder My Sweet. This movie was unjustly overshadowed by a fellow Raymond Chandler adaptation two years later, Humphrey Bogart’s The Big Sleep. Powell may not have Bogey’s iconic stature, but he brings a warmth to the role of Phil Marlowe that’s closer to Chandler’s character as written – and it’s also the performance Chandler himself liked best. As for The Set Up and Gun Crazy, which round out the set – suffice it to say that they ain’t slouches either. Available now