Final Rating: 4/5
Blu-Ray Recommendation: Recommend
There is a certain crop of directors from the classic Hollywood period that, for decades, lived on more for their influence on other filmmakers and less for their overall filmographies. Not that they never made great films (some of them made many), but they never hit the homeruns that would land them on a studio’s “A” picture. They could push boundaries and take creative chances on “lesser” films because they worked quickly and came in on or under budget.
These were names like Delmer Daves, Jacques Tourneur, Budd Boetticher, Ida Lupino, and perhaps most notably Samuel Fuller. Often, these directors had no interest in big budgets and spectacles; they wanted to create characters and tell stories.
Hungarian-born director André De Toth, who moved to Hollywood after working with Alexander Korda in England, most definitely fits this same mold. He often directed genre films intended as the second screening in a double feature.
De Toth seemed to find the most success when he was drawing tension out of his plots which worked well in the westerns and film noirs that he often helmed. Nowhere is this more evident than in his 1954 noir gem Crime Wave, recently released for the first time on Blu-ray by the Warner Archive collection.
The film centres around Steve Lacey (portrayed by Gene Nelson), an ex-con who has found his way onto the straight-and-narrow path. He’s married to Ellen (Phyllis Kirk), has a good job as an airplane mechanic, and lives in a modest apartment.
So, when three of his fellow convicts from San Quentin rob a gas station and kill a cop, one of them finds where Steve lives to try and hide out. At the same time, after the crime has been called in, LAPD Detective Lieutenant Sims (played masterfully by the great Sterling Hayden) spearheads a city-wide search for the perpetrators that leads him to Lacey.
The film takes this story set up and follows it from these two lenses: the police procedural working to bring justice, and the human drama of a man unable to escape his past. What may have been simple on the page became far more interesting visually in De Toth’s execution.
The film’s visual style can really be boiled down to the decision to shoot the majority of it on location throughout the city of Los Angeles rather than on set. This meant a few things for the production: it could be done quickly, it could be done cheaply, and it would look entirely authentic. This suited De Toth just fine, so much so that (according to the making-of feature on the disc’s supplements) he actually proposed a smaller budget and shorter shooting schedule for getting the film completed.
This economy of production also meant that the film would feel more dynamic and “on the ground.” De Toth was used to employing a handheld camera to follow his characters through different spaces, and this approach leads to some dynamic visual moments that create a real sense of space.
Things are no less interesting when the shots are static. One memorable shot depicts two hands and a telephone, one reaching to answer it and one wedding banded hand stopping the other. It has the simple effectiveness of a great silent film. Noir works as a genre when the visuals tell you just as much as the dialogue, and Crime Wave is a wonderful example of this.
These engaging moments are made to look spectacular by the Warner Archive high-definition remaster, which is frankly quite stunning. For a film that has found quite the second life since the beginning of home video, this physical edition is a treat for fans and those discovering it for the first time.
Though many Warner Archive releases are more barebones, this actually includes both a commentary track and a short making-of documentary titled “Crime Wave – The City Is Dark”. It interviews several admirers of the film, including director Oliver Stone and critic Richard Schickel, and adds a good deal of background to both the production and De Toth as a filmmaker.
The commentary track also features two notable names, writer James Ellroy and Eddie Muller of The Noir Foundation. While the commentary is quite insightful, including an almost encyclopedic description of the various filming locations across 1950s Los Angeles, it is also at times a bit of a chore to get through. This is mostly due to some leering remarks and comments from Ellroy, specifically directed toward Phyllis Kirk. It’s a worthwhile addition for the most part, but just know in advance that there will be some sections worth skipping.
This should not, however, detract from this excellent physical release. It’s a great showcase for a film that is not only championed by the likes of Martin Scorsese, Oliver Stone, and Quentin Tarantino, but also a pretty clear influence on Stanley Kubrick’s The Killing, which would come out just two years after Crime Wave. It’s a must for noir fans and, at a tight 74-minute run time, an easy recommendation to those looking to discover something new under the surface of the genre.
Thank you Allied Vaughn and Movie Zyng for the screener.
Buy your copy of Crime Wave here: https://moviezyng.com/gzmvgf
