Facets multimedia, with some rare noir films on video, now doing monthly rentals

[king2clio]

Facets multimedia, based in Chicago, has started a monthly membership service for DVD and video rentals. While I doubt that they have much on DVD that isn't available at Netflix, they do stock a number of noir films that are available on video only. (Because of the higher postage costs, I believe one has to pay about $5 shipping for videos.) I'm not affiliated with Facets in any way, just always on the look-out for hard to find noir titles. Here are some I identified as being available at Facets on video only: Cat Girl (1957); Circle of Danger (1951); Cornered (1945); Crack-up (1946); Crashout (1955); Cry Danger (1951); Cry Wolf (1947); Cry Vengeance (1954); Devil's Sleep (1949); Faces in the Dark (1960); Female Jungle (1955); Fingerman (1955); Frieda (1947); The Fugitive (1947); Golden Salamander (1950); The Gunfighter (1950); Great Day (1945); Hitler's Children (1942); Home of the Brave (1949); Hoodlum Empire (1952); House across the Bay (1940); House of Darkness (1948); Human Desire (1954); I Died a Thousand Times (1955); Impulse (1955); The Inheritance (1947); I Want You (1951); Johnny Nobody (1961); Keeper of the Flame (1942); Kitten with a Whip (1964); Lonelyhearts (1958); The Long Haul (1957); Love Letters (1945); Love on the Dole (1941); MacBeth (1948); The Man in Grey (1943); Man in the Shadow (1957); Nightmare (1963); 1984 (1956); The October Man (1947); Panic (1963); Paranoiac (1963); The Paris Express (1952); Personal Affair (1953); Portrait of a Sinner (1959); Rancho Notorious (1952); Rawhide (1951); Riff Raff (1947); Second Chance (1953); Serenade (1956); The Seventh Veil (1945); Shake Hands with the Devil (1959); Sleep, My Love (1948); Station West (1948); Tomorrow is Forever (1946); Tower of Terror (1941); Try and Get Me (1951); The Underworld Story (1950); Violated (1953); A Woman's Secret (1949); All my Sons (1948); Blanche Fury (1948). I hope this is helpful to others who, like me, feel they need to see every classic noir film they possibly can.

[The Professor]

Great post, I'll check them out. Nothing here helps me {sigh}, but I had to work very, very hard to see many of the films in this list. If it is helpful to anyone out there, I've made DVDs of at least half of these. {wink, wink}

[The Professor]

I signed up with Facets, primarily for some Oscar films I can't seem to get elsewhere. The VHS will cost an arm and a leg, but I'm out of other options. 6 films in my VHS queue so far. This is great -- thanks again!

Also, on the noir front, adding to the great list above: Fritz Lang's "Secret Beyond the Door" with Joan Bennett, no less.

Even Facets doesn't have "The Reckless Moment" though. I rule!

[The Professor]

I noted that they have "Tight Spot" as well -- a crackerjack movie with Ginger Rogers.

[The Professor]

Also, wanted to report that the film "When Strangers Marry" AKA "Betrayed" AKA "Love From a Stranger" is on HULU right now. Bonafide film noir not on VHS or DVD.

[king2clio]

Thanks for the addition, and I'm glad this is helpful to you. I went through the long film noir list looking for films I hadn't seen and that weren't at Netflix--but I didn't note noir films not on DVD that I had managed to rent from silverscreenarchive.com when their film holdings were much more extensive (before, I assume, someone challenged their distribution of many of these films on copyright grounds). So if anyone is interested in a particular film noir not listed by me or the Professor, do use the search engine at the Facets website, because I didn't note all of the Facets noir holdings available on VHS only.

[The Professor]

Following up on my Hulu post above: -- turns out I spoke to soon. "When Strangers Marry" and "Love from a Stranger" are NOT the same film. I sat down to watch and realized this as soon as the credits rolled!

[king2clio]

The confusion is understandable. I checked on IMDB, and under "When Strangers Marry," IMDB lists "aka 'Love from a Stranger'- USA (working title)." Along with the 1944 version of "Love from a Stranger" (the version on Hulu, with Sylvia Sidney), there's a 1937 version with Basil Rathbone playing the male lead (which is available from Netflix, I think). So one almost has to list year or director in parentheses after the title to clearly distinguish between these films.