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Released by: Dark Sky Films
Released on: August 30, 2005
Director: Arnold Laven
Cast: Adam Williams, Meg Randall, Ed Binns, Harlan Warde, John Maxwell, Angela Stevens
Year: 1952
The Movie:
“All Blonde... All Beautiful... All Bait!†What a great tagline! Director Arnold Laven's Without Warning! starts off with the murder of a pretty blonde lady at the hands of a gardener named Carl Martin (Adam Williams of North By Northwest and The Big Heat) who leaves his victim for dead in a deslote Los Angeles hotel room, presumably post coital. The cops are called in to check things out and investigate the scene, but they're not sure who did it or why until another victim shows up with similar physical attributes to the first one.
Soon, Carl attempts to become friendly with the gorgeous daughter of the owner of the garden shop that he frequents. She falls for him and he figures he's found his next victim but the cops are closing in on him faster than he realizes as he's left a clue or two behind at the scenes where he committed his dastardly crimes.
Without Warning! is a cool film for a few different reasons. The typically shadowy direction associated with the film noir genre is plentiful and the stark black and white cinematography is fluid, slick, and goes a long way towards adding to the mounting suspense in the film. That's part and parcel for the genre though as most film noirs seem to at least look interesting, even if the story goes nowhere or the performances aren't all that impressive. Luckily, this time out in addition to some slick visuals and cool lighting we're also treated to an exceptionally good lead performance from Adam Williams who brings a sense of calm believability to the part he plays, which is essentially that of a serial killer. He's quite collected, and as such brings an intensity to his role that carries the film nicely.
The movie also makes excellent use of its 50s Los Angeles settings. Anyone interested in the seedy history of the City of Angels should enjoy the shots of burlesque houses and seedy bars scattered throughout the film here and there, as well as some nice shots of the city itself as it existed during the period.
Pacing wise, the movie kicks along at a nice clip. At a brisk seventy seven minutes in length the movie flies by as the action starts right out of the gate. William Raynor's screenplay has got plenty of sharp dialogue and interesting twists that keep the suspense mounting nicely until the finish. Director Arnold Laven would later move on to a successful television career directing such shows as C.H.i.P.S, The A-Team and the short lived Planet Of The Apes series that ran on CBS in 1974.
Video/Audio/Extras:
For a film that, until now, has been very hard to track down, Dark Sky Films' release of Without Warning! looks fantastic. There's a little bit of mild print damage here and there in the form of the odd speck or two, as well as a few scenes that exhibit a little bit of grain but for the most part we have a very nice, and very clean looking fullframe black and white image. There's plenty of detail in the picture, the contrast levels look dead on, and the blacks are nice and deep with lots of shadow detail present throughout the duration of the film.
The English language Dolby Digital Mono soundtrack is pretty clean for an older, obscure, low budget film. There's a little bit of hiss in one or two spots but overall there's really very little to complain about considering the age and relative rarity of the film itself. Dialogue is perfectly easy to follow and understand and the film's score comes through nicely as well.
This is where the disc disappoints - all we get is a still gallery of about a dozen or so images, most of which are from lobby cards and promotional posters. It's nice to see the gallery here, but obviously it would have been keen to see a little more effort put into the supplements on this release.
The Final Word:
Anyone into crime noir should be all over this release. You can shop around and pick it up for under ten bucks and at that price, it's completely worth adding to your collection. The film looks fantastic and sounds just fine and despite the lack of any substantial extra features, Without Warning! is a solid enough film to make this one easily recommended to fans of the genre.
For more info, check out the Dark Sky Films website by clicking here!