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Released by: Twilight Time Releasing
Released on: January 21st, 2014.
Director: Lew Landers
Cast: Edmond O'Brien, Audrey Totter, Dayton Lummis, Dan Riss
Year: 1953
Purchase From Screen Archives Entertainment
The Movie:
When Man In The Dark begins, we enter a hospital room where a patient named Steve Rawley (Edmond O'Brien) is resisting the brain operation he's about to undergo at the hands of a doctor (Dayton Lummis) and some interns sent to sedate him. When the surgery is finished, this man has no memory of his past life. He doesn't know who he is, what he did or who he once loved and he requests that the doctor let him hang around the sanitarium and trim the hedges rather than send him out into the real world. The doctor agrees, but shortly after that he's kidnapped by a group of thugs who take him back to an apartment.
See, before the operation Steve successfully stole $130,000.00 and these guys want to know where it is. The problem is, Steve has no idea what he did with the money as he doesn't remember stealing it in the first place. Not even his lady friend, Peg (Audrey Totter) knows what he did with it. The insurance company representing the harmed party has sent an investigator named Jawald (Dan Riss) to try and get their money back but those thugs Steve was once associated with - Lefty (Ted de Corsia), Arnie (Horace McMahon), and Cookie (Nick Dennis) - have got other plans for him.
Lew Landers' 1953 film noir was originally shot and presented in 3-D and it's easy to make out plenty of specific shots in the picture that were meant to take advantage of that technology - there's really no other reason Steve, while being chased by machine gun toting coppers, would hop onto Wild Whip style amusement ride and get into a shoot out! Some might this distracting, others charming but it doesn't ever hurt the pace of the brisk sixty-eight minute picture which hits the ground running and keeps us intrigued until the finale.
There's a theme of redemption here that helps to make the character of Steve Rawley interesting. Peg obviously cares for him more than for riches and she makes that clear to him towards the end of the film when he starts closing in on the missing loot. She wants her man, for richer or poorer, to be with her not rotting in a cell over a few measly bucks. Lots of great, screwball dialogue to enjoy in this one too. At one point Steve asks the intern 'Why didn't you bring me somethin' useful?' to which the intern replies 'Like a sack of jelly beans?' Odd exchanges like that are a product of their time to be sure but they add to the fun of this one, a picture obviously made fast and cheap.
The performances are decent. An unusually sweaty O'Brien does most of the heavy lifting here, playing his conflicted character rather well, though looking quite a bit older than the thirty-four years of age his character claims to have spent on this Earth. The supporting cast is decent too. Totter's concern for his wellbeing seems genuine and the back and forth between the three actors who play the thugs is pretty amusing. The highlight of the film is the nightmare that gives Steve the clue he need to find the money. It, and the finale of the picture, takes place in an amusement park packed with people and with strange rides and attractions. The camera has an unusual fetish here for a creepy doll that sits atop the entrance to a funhouse and cackles to park attendees to come inside. We get some really bizarre shots here that bring out the eeriness that often times accompanies weird old amusement park attractions.
So yeah, this was obviously made on a low budget (one of the chase scenes looks to have been shot on the rooftops of a studio soundstage and very well might have been) but O'Brien is his typically enjoyable self. The plot twists might seem a little obvious but the novelty of a 3-D noir is worth something in and of itself. This isn't the high point of the movement but it's plenty entertaining and quite interesting in its own way.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Man In The Dark arrives on Blu-ray from Twilight Time in both 2-D and 3-D versions, but you'll need a 3-D compatible HDTV and player to take advantage of that version, so we'll comment on the 2-D transfer instead. How does it shape up? Wonderfully. Framed at 1.33.1 and presented in AVC encoded 1080p high definition, this is a sharp and crisp looking image that shows very good detail and nice black levels but no obvious signs of digital manipulation such as noise reduction or edge enhancement. Contrast and texture are both very strong from start to finish and outside of a few specks here and there, the image is free of any major print damage, though a natural amount of film grain is present (as it should be) throughout the movie.
The only audio option for the feature is an English language DTS-HD 1.0 track which comes with optional closed captioning provided in English only. Though the source material is limited in range, clarity is good here. Dialogue is perfectly easy to understand, the score has nice balance and presence and there are no issues of note with hiss or distortion.
Extras are slim but in addition to both 2-D and 3-D versions of the movie we get the film's original theatrical trailer (presented first person style by O'Brien), an isolated score in DTS-HD format, menus and chapter selection. Inside the Blu-ray case is a booklet of liner notes written by Julie Kirgo that make the case for the film's importance in the history of the 3-D movies and which offer up some welcome background information on the cast and crew and some critical insight into the picture. Some nice stills and poster art images illustrate the booklet.
The Final Word:
Man In The Dark is a fast paced and enjoyable B-grade noir picture that might not rank amongst the best offerings out there but which definitely makes for a fun time at the movies. Those with 3-D capable HDTV sets will probably get more out of this than those of us without, but the 2-D transfer is quite impressive on its own. A really nice presentation of a fairly obscure but completely entertaining thriller!
Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!
