The Guilty / High Tide (Blu-ray) Flicker Alley

The Guilty, produced by Jack Wrather and released by Monogram Pictures, is a triumph of resourcefulness for its director, John Reinhardt. Based on a short story by legendary suspense writer Cornell Woolrich, this little-seen B movie centers on war veterans Mike Carr (Don Castle) and Johnny Dixon (Wally Cassell), roommates in a low-rent tenement. Working on only three sets, with a shoestring budget, Reinhardt and director of photography Henry Sharp evoke the dreadful, dead-of-night ambiance that was the domain of the era’s most prolific noir scribe, Cornell Woolrich. Thanks to the dedication of the Film Noir Foundation, The Guilty has been restored from a 35mm nitrate composite fine-grain master by UCLA Film & Television Archive, and is now presented in this world-premiere edition.

High Tide was the second of two crime thrillers independently produced in 1947 by Wrather. It carries over from The Guilty the same screenwriter and cameraman, the same protagonist in actor Don Castle, and the same director, John Reinhardt, whose playful inventiveness enlivened several post-WW II noir films. This forgotten noir, set in a spectacularly corrupt Los Angeles, is a crackling crime thriller rescued thanks to the combined efforts of the Film Noir Foundation, UCLA Film & Television Archive, and the British Film Institute. Restoration funding was provided by the Film Noir Foundation in conjunction with the Packard Humanities Institute.