The 1951 film-noir Peking Express (not to be confused with Shanghai Express) should be seen as Hollywood’s first attempt to deal with Communist China in the context of the Red Scare.
Remastered and on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber is William Dieterle’s The Turning Point, a noir film at the intersection of several crossroads in America’s early ’50s.
Warner Archive offers Vincent Minelli’s 1955 version of Kismet, which contrasts nicely with William Dieterle’s 1944 counterpart.
Beyond The Devil and Daniel Websters soul-bartering story, it concerns the collision of “ole time religion” and new world realities, agrarian life crashing headfirst into business, bankruptcy, and “progress”.
