SUSPENSEFUL!!!!!
Added 5/20/2009
This is very good film which deserves better treatment than what Alpha gives it. Stay away from this and get the VCI edition. The low rating is for Alpha, not the film.
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SUPERIOR NOIR!!!
Added 12/28/2008
I can only add to what others before me have already stated. I just spent the afternoon watching 4 Alpha dvd noirs and this is certainly the most bizzare/dreamlike noir of the batch ( BLONDE ICE, INNER SANCTUM, & WHISPERING CITY being the others ) and certainly the worse video transfer (though WHISPERING CITY is also pretty awful!!!). Jumps, cut-aways, splices, splotches, murky audio, etc., make viewing a challenge. I actually thought they had switched reels somewhere!!!
I can only add (BEG!!!) that this unique noir someday gets the quality up-grade it really deserves. A top-notch noir classic with great performances by all involved! Robert Cummings has never been better.
SOMEONE, SOMEWHERE, SOMEHOW PLEASE RESTORE THIS FILM!!!!!!!!!!
p.s.,.......the source material for both BLONDE ICE & INNER SANCTUM were QUITE GOOD, so if you're thinking of either of these two as possible purchases then go ahead, they're super bargains of very acceptable prints!!!
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Definitely Worth Watching
Added 10/11/2008
I don't have much to add to the other reviews, which are very good.
The villain is the best-drawn figure of all the characters. I loved how his controlling nature extends to the car, where he can control the speed from the back seat. He was truly menacing and evil--you can really understand his wife's fear.
Michele Morgan is beautiful--I didn't know who she was and apparently she didn't act in many films in the USA though she did plenty of work in Europe. She's still alive as of October 2008--88 years old.
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I successed in treasure hunt
Added 5/22/2008
This title is not published in japan.So,it is a treasure for fan of michèle Morgan in japan.
Region code is ok, the condition is very good,and delivery was soon.
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A Strange, Neurotic Noir Based On A Book By Cornell Woolrich
Added 12/17/2005
In Hollywood, directors get the credit. With The Chase, a strange, fascinating, neurotic noir, the credit should go to one of the masters of noir pulp fiction, the writer Cornell Woolrich. Like Phantom Lady, another Woolrich creation, the story centers around what might be struggling to get out of a person's head.
Woolrich wrote masterful pulp using his own name or the pseudonyms William Irish or George Hopley. He was a homosexual who loathed himself. He married a girl he idolized and saw the marriage annulled. Despite the money he made, he lived most of his life with his mother in decaying New York apartment buildings where his neighbors were lushes, prostitutes and drug addicts. At night, he'd troll the waterfront for anonymous sex partners. He became a deep alcoholic. And he turned out a stream of mystery novels and short stories that still are worth reading nearly 40 years after his death. Much of his material has been made into movies. If you like Hitchcock's Rear Window, you're watching a Cornell Woolrich short story. More often than not, the stories revolve around the black struggles that can happen inside a person's head. The Chase, based on Woolrich's The Black Path of Fear, is a noir worth watching.
One morning a down-and-out young man, Chuck Scott (Robert Cummings), finds a wallet on a Miami sidewalk. He finds the owner's name and address and delivers it to him. The owner, Eddie Roman (Steve Cochran), is a soft-spoken gangster with a penchant for hitting women, eliminating business competitors and for always being the man in control. His partner, Gino (Peter Lorre), who grew up with him, is just as ruthless and amoral, but not as psychopathic. Roman has been married three years to Lorna (Michelle Morgan), a beautiful, frightened woman who wants only to escape from him. Eddie Roman is amused by Chuck Scott's honesty and hires him as a chauffeur. Scott quickly learns two things. First, Roman has a car that is built so that from the back seat Roman can take over the accelerator. When he flips a switch he can move the car up to over 100 miles an hour. The driver can only steer and pray. The second thing Scott learns is that he is drawn to Lorna Roman.
It all comes together when Scott agrees to flee with Lorna to Havana. And then we descend into a dark swirl of murder, pay back, amnesia and fear. Half way through the movie we find ourselves in a paranoid dream of night-time Havana, of a horse-drawn carriage that rides off into a busy street, of a man glimpsed throwing a knife in a crowded bar, of a Cuban detective who casually uses a murder knife to spear a piece of melon from the table of a sobbing prostitute. Only later do we learn what is dream and what is real. If what was dream is frightening, what is real may turn out to be worse.
This really is an excellently developed story, and photographed with all the poorly lit streets and shadowy rooms a good noir needs. Cummings does a credible job as the uncertain but determined hero. Steve Cochran is first-rate as the menace. He's quiet, even thoughtful, but ready to do violent and unpredictable things in an instant. He has no intention of letting Lorna go. Lloyd Corrigan, a long time character actor, makes a memorable appearance as a businessman who won't sell his ships to Roman. He spends the rest of his life, which is brief, in Roman's wine cellar with a large dog. The music score is a strange dreamy underlay that suits the movie just fine.
This Alpha Video DVD, unfortunately, is barely watchable. The picture is soft, dark and full of scratches. The audio is not much better. There are no extras and only six chapter stops. This is an interesting, effective noir which deserves better treatment.
13 out of 13 people found this helpful.
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Interesting Noir
Added 7/4/2009
THE CHASE Finally a decent print of this overlooked gem. The picture quality of this restoration is, comparatively, excellent (considering the options we've had in the past!). The sound has a slightly annoying "hiss", but this is tolerable and soon goes away because of the crisp clarity of the original soundtrack itself. So--the print is OK on this interesting well-done Cornell Woolrich story...and talk about atmosphere and MOOD!yum yum
BURY ME DEAD has a fairly good premise but the film itself very quickly deteriorates untill it becomes annoying and tedious and laughable. Definitely not one of PRC's finest...
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I found both of these to be rather dull & boring, it seems like any Noir outside of the major studies & is a public domain/VCI or Alpha noir are kinda flat..
I cant recommend either unless you are a noir completest and must own them. This is the VCI print and its good, but the movies werent
0 out of 2 people found this helpful.
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One Great Film
Added 2/18/2008
I have long supported the B category film noirs. Often they are as entertaining or more so than the A product. The stories are straight forward without having to stop for star turns. VCI and other companies releasing these films should be applauded for the efforts made. Having said that, I feel bad about having to give a downward thumb to "Bury Me Dead." It's the first title I've collected which I feel is a letdown. The acting is terrible as well as the pacing. I am a big fan of Hugh Beaumont, who was a very fine actor, with a highly likable aspect to his personality. He always turned in professional efforts as an actor. Here he is as flat as the rest of the film. I have to say that the film's final 10 minutes are really quite good as is the fade-out moment involving three of the characters. "The Chase," on the other hand, made the purchase worth while. It is a very well made film noir. Robert Cummings was a light comedienne who could do the job in turning in a solid sober performance. What worked against him was a softness in his delivery. But he was another very likable type and gives a good account of himself in "The Chase." Steve Cochran is always good especially in the number of films where he was teamed with Virginia Mayo. Who could forget the smoldering sexuality between the two in WB's "White Heat?"
I highly recommend this film noir set for "The Chase."
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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