Tonight's Movie: Street of Chance (1942) - A Kino Lorber Blu-ray Review

STREET OF CHANCE (1942) is a nifty 74-minute "B" noir available on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber.

It's part of the Dark Side of Cinema VIII collection along with the previously reviewed ENTER ARSENE LUPIN (1944) and TEMPTATION (1946).

I first saw this film in 2013 at the Noir City Hollywood Festival, and over the years I'd forgotten how enjoyable it is. Perhaps my lack of memory is colored by the fact I generally don't care for Burgess Meredith, but he's unobjectionable in this, and there's a terrific lead performance by the great Claire Trevor.

Meredith plays Frank Thompson, who hits his head in an accident. When he comes to he wonders why his hat has different initials...and when he gets back to his apartment, he's shocked to discover it's empty.

He manages to track down his wife Virginia (Louise Platt), who tells him he's been gone over a year. She's overjoyed by his return, and his employer is happy to give him his old job back.

Side note: One of the oddball things is that Frank doesn't go to a doctor after discovering over a year of his life has disappeared from his memory! But the viewer goes with it in service of a fun story.

After getting back to work, Frank is trailed by a mysterious man (Sheldon Leonard) in a scene which is an incredibly effective waking nightmare. When men show up at their apartment, Frank and Virginia escape; Frank sends Virginia into hiding and is determined to find out where he's been and why he's being followed.

Frank goes back to the street where he woke up from the accident, and it doesn't take long before he runs into Ruth (Trevor), who knows him as "Danny Nearing." Ruth's in love with him, which is confusing enough, given that Frank has no idea who she is, but it gets even more complicated -- he's wanted for murder!

With the exception of the nonchalant attitude about seeking medical attention for amnesia -- which, as Eddie Muller has noted, is "the film noir version of the common cold" -- this is a well-plotted, interesting story. It was scripted by Garrett Fort, based on a story by Cornell Woolrich, whose work might have inspired more noirish titles than anyone else.

The movie, directed by Jack Hively, moves along like lightning, and the cast is terrific.

As Trevor biographer Derek Sculthorpe noted, in this early film noir Trevor "began to define the image of the femme fatale." Trevor, of course, would go on to become one of the great bad girls of film noir in titles such as MURDER, MY SWEET (1944), BORN TO KILL (1947), and RAW DEAL (1948).

It's also interesting to note that both Trevor and Platt were in STAGECOACH (1939), but they don't share any scenes in this film. Platt is sympathetic as the understanding wife but disappears from the storyline early on. I wished that she'd had a scene at the end, although the ending chosen is a good one.

I especially enjoy the forbidding Sheldon Leonard in this film; there are a couple fun twists involving his character. Faves Jerome Cowan and Frieda Inescort are among the murder suspects, and another favorite, Ann Doran, is seen briefly as a secretary.

The movie was filmed in black and white by Theodor Sparkuhl.

Kino Lorber's Blu-ray is from a new 2K master. The print is scratched in a couple places which I understand is due to damage, but otherwise it looks great.

Disc extras consist of a three-film trailer gallery and a commentary track by Jason A. Ney.

The Dark Side of Cinema VIII set is one of my favorites in this excellent series, with STREET OF CHANCE and ENTER ARSENE LUPIN both rating very highly with me.

I'll be reviewing more Dark Side of Cinema films in the future, including movies from the seventh collection featuring John Payne and Dana Andrews.

Thanks to Kino Lorber for providing a review copy of this Blu-ray collection.

Tweet