Tonight's Movie: Smooth as Silk (1946) - A Kino Lorber Blu-ray Review

I'm especially excited about the newest Dark Side of Cinema XXVI Collection from Kino Lorber.

The set contains two films, DR. BROADWAY (1942) and THE GREAT GATSBY (1949), which are being made available for home viewing for the first time, along with SMOOTH AS SILK (1946), which had a previous DVD release from the Universal Vault Collection.

I've seen and liked all three films previously and decided to start this set revisiting SMOOTH AS SILK. I very much enjoyed watching the DVD in 2020 and thus was very glad to have it upgraded to Blu-ray.

I'll start by mentioning right off the bat that, other than a couple odd flashes of red on Milburn Stone's tie late in this black and white film, the Blu-ray looks terrific.

Favorite Virginia Grey plays ultra-manipulative actress Paula Marlowe, who strings along three different men in her quest for a Broadway role: Her boyfriend, attorney Mark Fenton (Kent Taylor); playboy Don Elliott (Danny Morton); and Don's uncle, Broadway producer Stephen Elliott (John Litel).

In the span of 64 minutes Paula has abandoned the unsuspecting Mark and Don in order to marry Stephen and claim the role she desperately wanted.

As I noted in my review of half a decade ago, it's never really clear why the rejected Mark, a successful attorney, would be driven to murder by Paula's duplicity, but indeed he is, framing Paula in the process.

What I particularly enjoy about this movie is it's simply fun. In other hands this story could be very dark indeed, but it all whizzes by like lightning; the cast all make it very enjoyable, in an entertaining tale which also looks great.

My one complaint, just as in 2020, is that the movie ends extremely abruptly. Perhaps writers Dane Lussier and Kerry Shaw (based on a story by Florence Ryerson and Colin Clements) didn't know where else to go, but I would have liked some closure.

For instance, does Paula's charming, sweet sister Susan (Jane Adams) leave New York and head back home, or does she possibly end up with the detective (Stone) she's been dating, who ended up investigating the murder? Does Paula ever have any introspection about her actions, or simply continue on alone, with her great part for company?

Grey seems to be having a ball as Paula, who will do just about anything -- short of murder, as it turns out -- to get what she wants, while Taylor is equally entertaining as a man who is willing to murder in order to exact revenge. I also really like Stone and Adams in this.

The cast is rounded out by Theresa Harris and Harry Cheshire. The movie was directed by Charles Barton, with cinematography by Woody Bredell.

I'm looking forward to the commentary track by Alan K. Rode, who always does very thorough work; I've recent enjoyed his track on SHANE (1953). The SMOOTH AS SILK disc also contains the movie's trailer plus two additional trailers for other films available from Kino Lorber.

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

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