Nightfall (1956) (Blu-ray) (UK Import)

During his long and varied career, Jacques Tourneur (The Comedy of Terrors, Cat People) tackled a breadth of genres on both sides of the Atlantic. With 1956’s Nightfall, he returns to the noir trappings he tackled so successfully with Out of the Past for a tale of deception, intrigue and paranoia.

Adapted from the novel by prolific crime fiction author James Goodis (Dark Passage), Nightfall is the story of Jim Vanning (Aldo Ray, The Violent Ones; The Naked and the Dead), an innocent man wrongly accused of murder. On the same night he has a chance encounter in a bar with glamorous model Marie (Anne Bancroft, The Graduate), the hoods he’s spent the past year running from catch up with him, determined to recover the money they believe he stole from them. Pursued by both the hoods and law enforcement, Vanning and Marie go on the lam, leading to a desperate chase that takes them from the streets of Los Angeles to the snowy peaks of Wyoming.

Eschewing both the big names associated with the genre and its familiar urban locales, and featuring striking monochromatic photography by Oscar-winner Burnett Guffey (From Here to Eternity), Nightfall is a gripping and inventive late-period noir which shows that, even in its twilight years, the genre still had room for innovation.

Extras

High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation, restored from original film elements
Original lossless mono soundtrack
Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
New audio commentary by author and critic Bryan Reesman
White and Black, a new video appreciation of Nightfall by film historian Philip Kemp
Do I Look Like a Married Man?, a new video essay on the themes of Nightfall by author and critic Kat Ellinger
Theatrical trailer
Image gallery
Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Jennifer Dionisio
Illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by Amy Simmons

Rezensionen

"Ein später, ungemein spannender Klassiker des film noir von Regisseur Jacques Tourneur" (prisma.​de)
" Ein mit Sorgfalt und Geschick inszenierter melodramatischer Kriminalfilm, der die beeindruckend fotografierte weite Winterlandschaft auf originelle Weise nutzt, um die ansonsten im "film noir" vorherrschende Symbolik von Dunkelheit und Enge einmal umzukehren.​" (Filmdienst)
"Clever, brutal, spannend und facettenreich präsentieren sich die ersten 60 Minuten eines Films, die den Freunden klassischen Film-Noir-Kinos Grund zum inneren Jubilieren geben.​" (der-film-noir.​de)