Marlowe (1969)

Arrow Films are releasing director Paul Bogart, writer Stirling Silliphant and actor James Garner’s interpretation of Raymond Chandler’s classic detective, updating him to a contemporary (for 1969) setting on Blu-ray. 

Private investigator Philip Marlowe (James Garner) is employed by Orfamay Quest (Sharon Farrell) to find her brother Orrin (Roger Newman). Orrin has disappeared after taking some compromising photographs of top rated sitcom star Mavis Wald (Gayle Hunnicut) in a clinch with gang boss Sonny Steelgrave (H M Wynant). 

The last two people to see Orrin end up murdered with ice picks in their necks, Marlowe is warned to leave the case alone by the promise of a thousand dollars if he does and a serious kicking by Bruce Lee if he doesn’t. The police gets involved, as does Mavis’ exotic dance friend Dolores (Rita Moreno), and as things get even more complicated it becomes obvious to Marlowe that someone, and perhaps everyone, is lying. 

MARLOWE does as good a job at setting Chandler’s private eye in late 1960s LA as Robert Altman’s THE LONG GOODBYE would just a few years later, and James Garner makes for just as good a Marlowe, albeit rather less rumpled. As is often the case with this kind of plot that contains numerous people either being economical with the truth, telling outright lies, or being involved in multiple double crosses, you have to pay close attention to what’s going on, especially the dialogue, at all times. MARLOWE doesn’t waste a minute of its running time with the result that it’s an extremely satisfying example of its type.

Apart from a trailer and image gallery there’s only one extra but it’s a good one, as Howard S Berger goes large on the Marlowe character, beginning with his literary origins and moving through his screen incarnations. What Berger also does, though, is pull in some interesting, and very personal observations and comparisons between Marlowe through the ages and other popular characters in movies at the time, all the way from the Hope and Crosby Road pictures, through Paul Newman’s HARPER to James Bond (in many of his incarnations) and beyond. 

It runs 51 minutes but the time flies by and this is a fascinating piece that will be all the more valuable and informative to those who aren’t perhaps as familiar with the periods in cinema history Berger discusses as some of us are. Arrow’s limited edition Blu-ray also comes with a booklet featuring new writing from Jeff Chang and Priscilla Page, plus a reversible sleeve.

MARLOWE is out on Blu-ray from Arrow on Monday 8th June 2026

Strongroom (1962) & The Man in the Back Seat (1961)

 

The cover of this new BFI release (out soon on Blu-ray, Apple TV, Amazon Prime and - in a bit - on BFI Player) may only mention STRONGROOM (newly remastered in 2K) but be assured that as a bonus you also get another superb Vernon Sewell-directed thriller THE MAN IN THE BACK SEAT as well. So let’s take a look at both.

STRONGROOM is a seriously decent little 79 minute B picture about a bank job gone wrong, resulting in the bank manager and his secretary being trapped in the vault. The robbers concoct a plan to free them but then the only one able to do it is almost immediately killed in a car accident. Should the others go back and risk being caught? Or leave the prisoners there to die and risk being caught and hanged? 

        The leads (Derren Nesbitt, Colin Gordon and Ann Lynn) are all very good but the best bit is the writing, which quickly starts piling disaster upon disaster in such a breathless way that by the time the baddies are loading their van with oxy-acetylene equipment and the police are hot on their trail all you're wondering is if the two stuck in the vault might actually die. You’ll have to watch the film to find out.

THE MAN IN THE BACK SEAT was made before STRONGROOM and also features Derren Nesbitt and Keith Faulkner, who got on so well with Vernon Sewell that he cast them in STRONGROOM the following year. They are two crooks who plan to steal the takings from a greyhound racetrack. The only problem is the bag is handcuffed to the man they beat senseless to get it. How to remove it? First they have to get him to a place where they can do it, which is how he ends up as the title character. This is great, tense stuff that by the end transcends the crime genre into something approaching pure horror, and the film is one of the best of a series of Leslie Parkyn - Julian Wintle crime pictures made at Beaconsfield Studios in the early 1960s.

Extras on the BFI’s Blu-ray include a new commentary track from Josephine Botting and Vic Pratt on STRONGROOM and another from them on MAN IN THE BACK SEAT, a two part audio interview with editor John Trumper that's spread over two tracks on STRONGROOM, Footpads - a one minute British crime film from 1896 (!), Donovan Winter’s 1957 heist short THE AWAKENING HOUR (21 minutes) and a couple of public information films - AFTER DARK (14 minutes) from 1979 about road safety and A TEST FOR LOVE from 1937 (27 minutes) which is about the perils of STDs and is on here because it was directed by Vernon Sewell. The first pressing of the disc also includes a booklet with new writing on the film from James Bell, Barry Forshaw and Tony Dykes.

STRONGROOM and THE MAN IN THE BACK SEAT are coming out from the BFI on Blu-ray, Apple TV, and Amazon Prime on Monday 23rd February 2026 and on BFI Player on Monday 23rd March 2026

Dark Winds Seasons 1 - 3 (2022 - 2025)

Acorn International Media are releasing seasons 1 - 3 of the acclaimed Navajo Nation crime series on Blu-ray, DVD and Digital. Seasons 1 & 2 consist of six 50 minute episodes and Season 3 of eight episodes. Each season is also available separately, with Season 3 getting released at the same time as the box set. The show is based on the Leaphorn and Chee series of crime novels by Tony Hillerman and was originally shown in the UK on the U & Alibi crime drama channel. It's an excellent piece of work and if you've not encountered it yet, shouldn't be spoilt. Therefore I'm only going to supply the briefest plot outlines below of what you can expect from the boxset.

Season One - Discs 1 & 2

It's 1971 and Tribal Police Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn (Zahn McClarnon from AMERICANA, BONE TOMAHAWK and THE FOREVER PURGE) has the job of patrolling 27 000 square miles of Navajo Nation desert near Monument Valley with the help of very few staff including Sergeant Bernadette Manuelito (Jessica Matten). When an elderly Navajo man is found dead with his eyes and liver gouged out beside a 19 year old girl who has apparently been frightened to death they are joined by new recruit Jim Chee (Kiowa Gordon) to investigate the crime. Meanwhile the FBI are investigating a helicopter raid on an armoured car (which opens the first episode) with the helicopter last seen heading over Navajo territory. Could the crimes be linked?

Season one of Dark Winds is only six episodes but packs a lot into its running time, quickly setting up its cast of regular characters and giving you enough incident and intrigue that by episode four you'll be wondering how they'll manage to resolve it all in two more episodes. Suffice to say they do. The locations and photography are stunning, the Navajo culture is presented in some depth but never at the expense of moving the plot forwards, and there's a welcome undercurrent of the supernatural and black magic at work as well. The only extra is on disc two but it's a decent 34 minute making of that includes an interview with executive producer Robert Redford.

Season Two - Discs 3 & 4

Jim Chee is given the job of finding a stolen lock box by Rosemary Vines (Jeri Ryan). Meanwhile at the local medical centre a man dying of cancer is blown up by a bomb placed in his car. It soon becomes apparent that the bomber has been to the town before and is now bumping off more people as part of a plot that involves the sinister 'People of Darkness' (the title of the Tony Hillerman novel this is taken from).

Season two doesn't have quite as complex a plot as part one but it's more action packed and delivers a number of memorable set pieces, including one at the local hospital as well as a long painful trek through the desert. Acorn's discs have no extras for this season.

Season Three - Discs 5 & 6

A teenaged boy goes missing. The police find some bloodstains and his abandoned bike with what look like machete gouges in the frame. Meanwhile Bernadette discovers what might be evidence of a human trafficking gang near the border, and an FBI agent (Jenna Elfman) could mean bad news for Joe Leaphorn.

Season 3 combines two Tony Hillerman novels - 'Dancehall of the Dead' and 'Sinister Pig', with the screenwriting bringing the plots of the two books together nicely. As well as guest stars like Bruce Greenwood there's an amusing cameo from Robert Redford (his final screen appearance) and George R R Martin. You can fill in your own response to Redford's line to his producer colleague. The sole extra on Acorn's disc is a good one - a 42 minute making of that helps make up for the lack of one on Season 2.

Overall, DARK WINDS is an excellent crime show that deserves to be better known, with fine acting (lead Zahn McClarnon is a standout but everyone brings their 'A' game to this) an intriguing setting and time period (Navajo Nation in 1971) and a sensitive and authentic-feeling portrayal of the indigenous people who live there without any of it ever getting in the way of the plot or the action, both of which are riveting. Top stuff, and apparently Season Four is on the way.

DARK WINDS Seasons 1 - 3 is out on Blu-ray, DVD and Digital from Acorn Media International on Monday 2nd February 2026

Whispering Smith Hits London 4K (1952)

It's time for another British movie obscurity to get the posh 4K UHD and Blu-ray treatment from Hammer studios, from the period when they specialised in B movie programmers and radio spin offs before hitting the big time with horror.

Steve 'Whispering' Smith (Richard Carlson) comes to London for a holiday and almost immediately finds himself involved in the apparent suicide of Sheila Garde. Her father (who we never see) is convinced she was murdered and it's the job of his assistant Anne (Rona Anderson) to get Smith on the case.

After some initial reticence Smith ends up interviewing Sheila's lawyer Reith (Alan Wheatley), her best friend Louise (Greta Gynt) and her fiancé Roger (Herbert Lom). Eventually he uncovers a blackmail scheme that may have led to Sheila's death. Are all, some, or any of the above involved in it? You'll have to watch the film to find out.

Who Whispering Smith is meant to be in this film isn't entirely clear. The character was originally created by Frank Spearman in the early 1900s and was a railroad detective in the Old West. Alan Ladd and Audie Murphy played him in a 1948 film and subsequent TV series. Carlson's Smith is modern day and wears a trenchcoat although he does sport a cowboy hat in one scene.

WHISPERING SMITH HITS LONDON is middle-grade crime for the period. If you're a fan of the genre you'll work out where it's going pretty quickly and if you're a fan of this period of British cinema you'll likely have a lot of fun getting there. There are blink and you'll miss them appearances by Stanley Baker and Laurence Naismith and longer contributions from an almost showstopping Dora Bryan at the start (so much so you assume she's going to figure in the plot but sadly no) and Reginald Beckwith. Most fun for British horror fans will be had from Herbert Lom's marionette puppeteer who feels like a dry run for the character of Byron in the 1972 Amicus ASYLUM. 

Hammer's 4K UHD and Blu-ray double disc set contains two versions of the film. The second, titled WHISPERING SMITH VS SCOTLAND YARD is shorter at just over 77 minutes, with the UK version clocking in at 84. There's a commentary track on each - Jo Botting and Dave Thomas on the UK and Richard Holliss and Gavin Collinson on the US. Best amongst the other extras are a 28 minute piece from Chris Alexander on the film and Hammer at the time, and an excellent 29 minute piece on Herbert Lom in the 1940s and 1950s, in which William Fowler, Barry Forshaw, Lucy Bolton and Vic Pratt cover his career up to and including Ealing's THE LADYKILLERS. Pratt and Fowler return to discuss the differences between the UK and US versions of Whispering Smith and why (23 minutes).

Other extras include a black and white short film about the town of Bray, a ten minute segment of an audio interview with sound editor Alfred Cox, image gallery and censor cards. Like with all these releases you also get a book featuring new essays on the making of, Hammer's early crime period, more on Whispering Smith, Greta Gynt and Richard Carlson. It's yet another very classy presentation from Hammer and invaluable for students and enthusiasts of this period of British cinema.

WHISPERING SMITH HITS LONDON is out from Hammer on Monday 15th December in a limited edition 4K UHD and Blu-ray set

A Desert (2025)

 

"Filled with Insidious Menace"

Blue Finch are releasing director Joshua Erkman's A DESERT, a film that could sit comfortably alongside Rose Glass's LOVE LIES BLEEDING in the offbeat desert noir genre. 

Alex (Kai Lennox) is a professional photographer famous for 'The Death of the New West', a book of images of abandoned towns and landmarks that are now crumbling and rotting. Hoping to repeat his success he sets off into the desert intending to deliberately lose himself in a maze of ghost towns and lost places that will form the subject of his next book.

Unfortunately he spends the night at a rundown motel where he meets the psychotic Renny (Zachary Ray Sherman) and his 'sister' Susie Q (Ashley Smith). Soon Alex has vanished and his wife Sam (Sarah Lind from A WOUNDED FAWN) employs private investigator Harold (David Yow from UNDER THE SILVER LAKE)  to find him, with ultimately horrific results.

A DESERT could be described as 'slow burn', but that would be by people for whom plot progression is the maxim by which movies should be judged. The film takes its time to allow you to drink in the gorgeous landscapes and the very real ghost towns that are the subject of Alex's obsession, such that we begin to understand his desire to capture them on the very old fashioned camera he lugs round with him. At the same time the film manages to convey a sense of creeping dread pretty much from the outset. The climax is suitably bloody and overall A DESERT is a fine entry in the offbeat desert noir genre.

A DESERT is out on digital from Blue Finch Releasing on Monday 24th November 2025

The Man in Black (1950)

"All Rather Good Fun"

Hammer's latest posh 4K UHD and Blu-ray combo release is THE MAN IN BLACK, a crime thriller that will be of interest to anyone who loves the studio's later output (quite a lot of people), as well as enthusiasts of B movie big screen adaptations of radio properties (a rather smaller group of people).

The titular Man is 'our storyteller' (as he was on the radio show of the period) who, in the unmistakeable tones of Valentine Dyall (for an entire generation) introduces us to the characters and sets up for the story we are about to see, and which is to be told in flashback.

When rich yoga enthusiast Henry Clavering (Carry On's Sid James in one of the least typical roles of his career) dies, his evil new wife (Betty Ann Davies) and her equally evil daughter Janice (Sheila Burrell) conspire to drive Henry's daughter Joan (Hazel Penwarden) insane with the aid of 'opportunist' lounge lizard and frequent raider of the drinks cabinet Victor (Anthony Forwood). 

And why not? After all, Joan has just inherited Oakley Court (which fans will spot straight away) and pretty much all of her father's assets. However, when Victor seemingly kills the family manservant and in doing so discovers Henry's coffin to be empty, after which Victor himself disappears, what actually is going on?

A highly entertaining thriller in the vein of Hammer's later Jimmy Sangster written and produced pieces like TASTE OF FEAR (1961) or many of the British Merton Park Edgar Wallace adaptations of the early 1960s, THE MAN IN BLACK feels rather more 'Hammer' than their other recent 4K release BLOOD ORANGE. The settings are atmospheric, engendering a pleasing atmosphere of gothic lunacy, and Davies and Burrell are frequently electrifying as the scheming mother and sister.

Extras kick off with two new commentary tracks which do compliment each other although there's inevitably some repetition. The one with Will Fowler and Melanie Williams is slightly more formal whereas Paul Cornell and Lizbeth Miles' one is a little bit more chatty, plus Paul is the one who points out the framed photo of Jimmy Sangster on Janice's dresser so extra points for that.

There's a 28 minute piece on John Dickson Carr, the crime novelist who didn't write this one but was responsible for a lot of similar material that made it onto radio at the time. Panic Stations is an excellent 25 minutes on the history of post war genre radio that looks at both the US and UK output and how changes were sometimes made to the same material for broadcast on either side of the Atlantic.

Vic Pratt and Jonathan Rigby guide us expertly through Valentine Dyall's career in a 22 minute piece and there's a 20 minute excerpt from an audio interview with director Francis Searle from 1988. As well as the usual bits and pieces (image gallery and censor card) there are a few curious items. YOGA AND YOU is a 26 minute short film that begins with the promise of being a 'nudie cutie' but quickly turns into a serious look at yoga. Then there are three radio episodes of the the show Suspense from 1943, all hosted by The Man in Black (played by different people), and all running 30 minutes consisting of The Devil's Saint (starring Peter Lorre), The Customers Like Murder and Cabin B-13.

Finally, the package comes with a book featuring a decent amount of material including a making of, the radio show, the careers of Sid James, (in this case screenwriter) John Gilling and Anthony Hinds plus a tour of Oakley Court. Who would ever have thought a modest little B picture like THE MAN IN BLACK would be afforded such lavish treatment? And you know what? It's all quite excellent and, if you love this stuff, worth the investment of your time and money. 

Hammer's THE MAN IN BLACK is out from Hammer on Monday 8th September 2025 in a limited edition 4K UHD and Blu-ray package with all the trimmings