Search - Tough Guys & Gals (10-DVD) on DVD

Tough

Annie Van Auken | Planet Earth | 08/13/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"ALPHA VIDEO's TOUGH GUYS & GALS consists of 10 DVDs packaged in a hardbound, cloth-covered case. As with most of this company's product, film stock is unrestored and "extras" non-existent. Some of these movies are hour-length 'programmers' that don't call for a single disc, thus it's an unnecessarily padded collection.


This reviewer's fave is QUICKSAND, an overlooked film noir gem that stars Mickey Rooney as a mechanic whose borrowing of a double sawbuck from the garage's till spirals rapidly downward in a cascade of misfortune that leaves him running from a murder charge. Also in the cast is Peter Lorre as a creepy amusement arcade owner and Head Mouseketeer Jimmie Dodd as Rooney's buddy.

The less-widely circulated MA BARKER'S KILLER BROOD includes the Barker/Karpis gang plus Machine Gun Kelly, John Dillinger and Baby Face Nelson. Don Grady ('Robbie' on TV's MY THREE SONS) portrays Herman Barker as a boy.

TRAPPED is another goodie. Here, Lloyd Bridges is a counterfeiter hunted down by Treasury agent John Hoyt.

JIGSAW is noteworthy primarily for nightclub cameos by four prominent stars, plus Broadway columnist Leonard Lyons (father of film critic Jeffrey).

In THE HOODLUM, tough guy specialist Lawerence Tierney's brother Ed portrays his character's brother.


Parenthetical numbers preceding titles are 1 to 10 imdb viewer poll ratings.

(6.1) Blonde Ice (1948) - Robert Paige/Leslie Brooks/Russ Vincent/Michael Whalen

(6.4) Crime, Inc. (1945) - Leo Carillo/Tom Neal/Martha Tilton/Lionel Atwill/Grant Mitchell/Sheldon Leonard (uncredited: Herschel Bernardi/I. Stanford Jolley/Gene Roth)

(5.8) Dark Mountain (1944) - Robert Lowery/Ellen Drew/Regis Toomey/Eddie Quillan/Elisha Cook Jr.

(6.4) The Hoodlum (1951) - Lawrence Tierney/Allene Roberts/Marjorie Riordan/Lisa Golm/Edward Tierney

(6.3) Jigsaw (1949) - Franchot Tone/Jean Wallace/Marc Lawrence/Myron McCormick (uncredited: Marlene Dietrich/Henry Fonda/Burgess Meredith/John Garfield/Leonard Lyons)

(5.9) Lady Gangster (1942) - Faye Emerson/Julie Bishop/Frank Wilcox/Jackie Gleason/William Hopper/Herbert Rawlinson

(5.8) Ma Barker's Killing Brood (1960) - Lurene Tuttle/Tristram Coffin/Paul Dubov/Nelson Leigh/Victon Lundin/Don Grady

(6.5) Quicksand (1950) - Mickey Rooney/Jeanne Cagney/Barbara Bates/Peter Lorre/Minerva Urecal/Jimmie Dodd

(5.9) Shoot to Kill (1947) - Russell Wade/Luana Walters/Edmund MacDonald/Nestor Paiva/Charles Trowbridge

(6.6) Trapped (1949) - Lloyd Bridges/Barbara Payton/John Hoyt/James Todd/Russ Conway/Robert Karnes"