One of the most notable DVD releases this week is Cornel Wilde's "The Naked Prey" -- a longstanding cult movie given the full Criterion treatment.

 

Since he starred in a few of my favorite film noirs (the arguable noir "Leave Her To Heaven," the great, underseen "Road House" and the stellar "Big Combo") I've always been fascinated by Wilde as an actor/director.  I was happy to read DK Holm discuss Wilde at his blog Reel Politique:

 

"Cornel Wilde is an interesting case as an actor-turned-director, an act for which he has received no respect. A Jewish Hungarian immigrant, Wilde was an expert fencer (he was on the 1936 Olympic team but dropped out for unstated reasons), which proved to be his entry into acting, first as a fencing coordinator, then as an actor in actioners, and then, rather quickly and mysteriously, as an Oscar-nominated leading man in a film about Franz Liszt. Unfortunately, though Wilde was pretty in a Tyrone Power sort of way, he was somewhat inert, not unlike his true analog Victor Mature, and his descendant, Stallone. Perhaps aware of these limitations, Wilde gravitated to production and director, his company making one of the best film noirs, 'The Big Combo' and Wilde himself directing eight features from 1955 to 1975 (he died in 1989).

 

"In this he resembles no less than Ida Lupino, an actress of intellectual ambitions who also had around eight credited and uncredited titles on her filmography. Both performers used their directorial work to explore ideas and social problems not found amid the mainstream pabulum. Both were intellectually ambitious in the manner of Hollywood actors who buck up against the implacable commerciality of the movie business. Despite impediments and critical indifference, they struggled on."

 

Read the rest of Holm's take on Wilde and the release of "The Naked Prey" here.