Forgotten Noir Collector's Set 2 (Man From Cairo / Mask of the Dragon / FBI Girl / Tough Assignment / I'll Get You / Fingerprints Don't Lie)

When most people think of movie studios (which they probably don't very often), they usually think of big names like Warner Brothers, Columbia, Paramount, MGM, 20th Century Fox and Universal. But even when these old-timers were in their prime, their were other production companies as well such as Lippert Pictures. Lippert was one of the "Poverty Row" studios that produced cheapie movies that were occasionally memorable but more often forgotten. Hence, the collection of old Lippert pictures in the Forgotten Noir sets. Series Two presents six short movies - with the longest being 82 minutes and two under an hour - that are definitely second or third tier material, but still are not without merit.The discs are labeled Four through Six (the first three in Series One). I happened to watch the discs in reverse order, which is also how I'll review them. Disc Six has I'll Get You and Fingerprints Don't Lie. I'll Get You owes a bit to The Third Man, with George Raft as an American sneaking into England following up on a job offer from a man he met in the States. By the time he was doing these Lippert Pictures (which would also include Loan Shark in Series One and The Man From Cairo, reviewed below), Raft was a bit long in the tooth for these tough guy roles. The story is passable but unexceptional.More interesting - and more flawed - is Fingerprints Don't Lie, an early bare-bones version of a CSI episode. Richard Travis plays a crime lab technician who feels he is about to send an innocent man to prison despite fingerprint evidence incriminating him. For better or for worse, this movie is one of three in this set to have Sid Melton providing comic relief. Melton has a minor resemblance to Lou Costello in his shtick and occasionally is amusing but more often just provides distracting filler. Even with Melton's stretching things out, this one just makes it to 56 minutes.On Disc Five is FBI Girl and Tough Assignment. FBI Girl is the closest to an all-star movie in the set with Cesar Romero, George Brent, Audrey Totter and Raymond Burr. The story has Burr as a political operative trying to get a hold of certain FBI records that could incriminate his employer. Yes, the plot has holes and depends a bit on coincidences, but it is still probably the best in the set. It even has a very early role for Peter Marshall, later of Hollywood Squares fame. Tough Assignment is an utterly routine crime movie which is actually more of an updated western, with Don Barry as a reporter infiltrating a gang of modern-day cattle rustlers. This is one of the three with Melton, and was directed by William Beaudine, one of the most prolific directors ever, though few of his movies are noteworthy: Beaudine would eventually finish his career with the twin camp horror classics, Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter and Billy the Kid vs. Dracula.The Man from Cairo and Mask of the Dragon are on Disc Four. The Man from Cairo has George Raft in Algiers, accidentally involved in a hunt for $100,000,000 in missing French gold. With romance, intrigue and an exotic setting, this should be a better movie than it really is. Mask of the Dragon is a companion piece to Fingerprints Don't Lie with almost the exact same cast and crew. With shades of The Maltese Falcon, this 55 minute film deals with a jade dragon that is worth killing over.None of these movies are really good, but none are awful, either, especially when you consider the miniscule budgets that were used to make them. Besides the movies, there are some nice extras including photo galleries, trailers, biographies and some commentaries. The commentaries are interesting, but the three done by Joel Blumberg (on Tough Assignment, Mask of the Dragon and Fingerprints Don't Lie) are often redundant, though informative. If you only occasionally watch movies, this is not the set for you; if you are a die-hard movie aficionado, however, this set gives you a chance to see some really obscure movies. If you like them, you can get the other Forgotten Noir set or the related Hammer Film Noir sets.

Though I am a devotee of the film noir style, I am not expert on films and film-making as one early reviewer seems to be. All of the movies in this set predate my birth and I hadn't even heard of any of them let alone seen them before this box set became available. But because I enjoyed the first Forgotten Noir set, it was easy to take a chance on this one.Overall, this set is very good although its easy to see why at least a couple of them were "forgotten". Here are my favorites, from best to worst:1)I'll Get You: A cold-war type thriller involving missing atomic scientists, a shadowy figure sought by both the FBI and the British Secret Service, loads of intrigue, and a beautiful woman. George Raft is excellent as is most of the supporting cast. A top-tier noir film.2)The Man From Cairo:George Raft again as an American tourist who inadvertently gets involved in intrigues involving French gold hijacked during World War II and missing ever since. Mostly takes place in Algiers, a once French-controlled city which postwar was filled with adventurers of all stripes and from all over. It was also a city where a stranger could easily find trouble. Both the crooks and the police are interested in Raft's character and that makes for an exciting film.3)FBI Girl: Corruption and murder drive this exciting film. An ambitious governor and his amoral cronies will stop at nothing to keep the governor's secret from being discovered. An excellent cast featuring Cesar Romero, Raymond Burr, and Audrey Totter will keep you in your seat as the governor is finally unmasked.4)Tough Assignment: An intrepid reporter and his wife discover that their butcher is being forced by goons to buy and sell uninspected beef. They find their butcher beaten and inadvertently capture the goons who beat the butcher on film. This innocent photo sets in motion a chain of events which ultimately leads to the rustling gang and the ranch from where the uninspected meat comes. A good story, but sometimes spoiled by silliness. Not a true noir story. Though he proves indispensible to the storyline, Sid Melton's goofy character takes the noir right out of it although there is plenty of menace and murder to go around.5)Fingerprints Don't Lie: Here again, Sid Melton plays a bumbling idiot (reminiscent of Peter Falk's Columbo, but not as smart) who detracts from a more serious plot. That doesn't matter much, because although the movie is entertaining, the plot is not at all credible. I can't imagine a real-life fingerprint expert spending so much time and energy trying to help someone else prove him wrong. There is some murder and treachery, but little suspense. Overall, this film did not work for me.6)Mask of the Dragon: This whole thing is just stupid, from the plot and the horrible acting right down to the phony Orientals. This is a dog that deserves to be forgotten although there are a few scenes so contrived and ridiculous that you'll laugh anyhow.Despite this set containing some noir of questionable quality, overall I found it a very entertaining box set and am looking forward to Forgotten Noir Series Three.

Remembering how I used to enjoy these B/C flicks in my youth, I was amused to see how flimsy and naive they really are. I even feel sorry for the actors reduced to this level of their craft with its cut-rate production values. However, they were of their time and for me, that is where interest lies.I enjoy seeing the lowliest of gangsters wearing suits & ties & HATS at all times. The old cars are always fun too and the treatment of new innovations such as fingerprinting, telegraph and radar are today very funny! I used to find Sid Melton entertaining but now he embarrasses as a very poor man's Lou Costello wannabe. George Raft maintains dignity as he walks through his roles and always manages to get the girl, no matter how unromantic or old-looking he is. Oh, one more thing, I don't think any of these really qualifies as "Noir" when compared to the real thing! Anyway, I'm glad to see some of the old stuff made available again and glad to see there's still some interest on the part of younger viewers.

if you are a fan of black and white movie as I am, you will love these great movie classics

Transfers of these Lippert movies are okay but the movies, none of them noir, are pretty dismal. When Lippert first sold these titles to TV he didn't want to pay music residuals so he replaced the music scores with generic organ music. TV stations complained and Lippert had to restore the tracks or lose the sale. Fingerprints Don't Lie may have had an organ score to begin with, I don't know, but it has one here. And it's the worst title in the bunch.