Kino Lorber on Oct. 11 will release its 12th and latest collection of vintage black-and-white film noir movies as Film Noir: The Dark Side of Cinema XII.
The collection, with three films released theatrically between 1949 and 1955, will be released on Blu-ray Disc on April 4 at a suggested retail price of $49.95.
Undertow (1949) — best known for fright fare such as House on Haunted Hill, The Tingler and Let’s Kill Uncle, cult director William Castle turns his lens on guns and gangsters. Scott Brady (I Was a Shoplifter) stars as Tony Reagan, a gambler just out of wartime military service. No longer interested in wagers and speculations, Reagan wants only to open up a mountain vacation lodge. Before this can take place, however, he is framed for murder and forced to go on the run from both the police and the unknown killers. Dorothy Hart and Peggy Dow play the love interests, with John Russell, Bruce Bennett and future star Rock Hudson in his second film appearance.
Outside the Wall (1950) — Richard Basehart stars as Larry Nelson, paroled from prison after serving nearly half of his 30-year sentence. Larry is determined to not fall into the clutches of the law again and takes a quiet job at a country sanitarium. There, he meets and falls for a gold-digging nurse, Charlotte Maynard, and he knows the only way to enter her web is to make a lot of fast money. So when Larry learns that the sanitarium is a front for a robbery syndicate, he soon finds himself a clay pigeon for the gang. Meanwhile, sweet-and-wholesome nurse Ann Taylor does her best to help Larry out of the unpleasant situation.
Hold Back Tomorrow (1955) — Hollywood great John Agar (Sands of Iwo Jima) stars as Joe, a death row inmate with one final request before his impending hanging: to spend the night with a woman. The police bring him a down-on-her-luck former “waitress” named Dora, played by femme fatale extraordinaire Cleo Moore. At first these two tormented souls meet with disdain, but soon gain each other’s respect. After a night of raw and unexpected passion, Joe informs Dora that, with her love, he will not be afraid to die. Hold Back Tomorrow was written, produced and directed by Czech star and cult auteur, Hugo Haas (The Girl on the Bridge, Bait).
All three films are coming to disc from brand-new 2K masters. The set includes new audio commentaries for Undertow (Brady’s son, Tim Tierney, and professor and film scholar Jason A. Ney) and Outside the Wall (author and film historian Alan K. Rode).