In November 2013, Universal be- latedly issued SEASON SIX on DVD-R only, with episodes di- rected by Hitchcock (“Mrs. Bixby and the Colonel’s Coat,” “The Horseplayer”), Ida Lupino, Rob- ert Florey, John Brahm, Paul Henreid, Robert Florey, Norman Lloyd and Gordon Hessler, includ- ing several scripted by Robert Bloch (“The Greatest Monster of Them All,” including one based on a Roald Dahl story, “The Land- lady”). SEASON SEVEN, the final one, has yet to appear.]
CITY THAT NEVER SLEEPS
1953, Olive Films, 90m 47s, $24.95 DVD-1, $29.95 BD-A By Eric Somer
The Chicago of this tense do- cudrama is a film noir city top to
bottom; a complex network of dark alleys, towering stairways, vast warehouses, and dangerous rail lines threading above a dark underbelly of tunnels, catwalks and maze-like plumbing. It is a place where the same criminals are arrested repeatedly, where chil- dren are born on the streets, women are either housewives or whores, and a man whose time is running out peers through half- open doors and broken windows that symbolically imprison him. As the title suggests, the action of this police procedural takes place exclusively in nocturnal set- tings, as police radios describe endless urban chaos. With narra- tion and a general set-up that re- call Jules Dassin’s THE NAKED CITY (1948), trading NYC for the Windy City—and, as in William Wyler’s DETECTIVE STORY
(1951), the events are confined to a single night.
Disenchanted cop Johnny Kelly (Gig Young) is unhappy, both professionally and person- ally. He feels defeated in his mar- riage to Kathy (Paula Raymond), who out-earns him and comes equipped with a nag of a mother- in-law. Attractive 21-year-old night club performer Sally Connors (Mala Powers) figures as a sexy alternative to marital discord, if Johnny can commit. For the sake of some start-up cash nec- essary to begin a new life, he reluctantly accepts some side work from Penrod Biddel (Ed- ward Arnold), a smug criminal attorney with a stone in his shoe named Hayes Stewart (William Talman), a magician-turned-pick- pocket. Biddel requires Johnny’s assistance to neutralize Stewart,
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