The home video market has Hollywood studios brainstorming to repurpose their film libraries. And while these efforts often reek of desperation, &ldquo;Columbia Pictures Film Noir Classics I&rdquo; is a happy exception.</p><p> This boxed set offers five pictures from the &rsquo;50s, one of them a minor masterpiece of noir. Experts may debate whether the remaining films &mdash; several penned by the prolific Stirling Silliphant &mdash; are better identified as crime thrillers.</p><p> No matter. The packaging and presentation are terrific.</p><p> &bull;<strong>&ldquo;The Big Heat&rdquo; </strong>(1953): When his investigation of a colleague&rsquo;s suicide leads to the car bomb death of his own wife, cop Glenn Ford goes rogue, seeking revenge and justice from a gangland chief and the city officials who are his puppets. With Lee Marvin, Gloria Grahame. Directed by the great Fritz Lang (&ldquo;Metropolis,&rdquo; &ldquo;Fury&rdquo;). The best of this bunch.</p><p> &bull;<strong>&ldquo;The Sniper&rdquo; </strong>(1952): A misogynistic sociopath (Arthur Franz) uses San Francisco as his private game preserve, gunning down women from rooftops. It&rsquo;s a serial killer movie before they became a genre. Filmed on location. Director: Edward Dmytryk.</p><p> &bull;<strong>&ldquo;Lineup&rdquo; </strong>(1958): A spinoff of a TV show, this Don Siegel-directed effort follows murderous sociopath Eli Wallach as he tries to track down a missing heroin shipment. Part police procedural, part creepy slink along the dark side &mdash; and a wonderful look at late &rsquo;50s San Francisco.</p><p> &bull;<strong>&ldquo;5 Against the House&rdquo;</strong> (1955): Sort of a proto &ldquo;Ocean&rsquo;s Eleven,&rdquo; this heist flick pits Korean War vets against a casino. Shot in Reno and featuring Guy Madison (then TV&rsquo;s &ldquo;Wild Bill Hickock&rdquo;), Kim Novak and a young Brian Keith as a charmer with post-traumatic-stress disorder. Phil Karlson directs.</p><p>&bull;<strong>&ldquo;Murder by Contract&rdquo; </strong>(1958): While waiting to bump off a woman witness in a big mob trial, a hit man (a pre-&ldquo;Ben Casey&rdquo; Vince Edwards) has time to tour L.A. and think about his work. Irving Lerner directs. It&rsquo;s the least impressive title here.</p><p> The films have been beautifully restored (love that pristine black-and-white photography) and feature nifty extras. Martin Scorsese, Michael Mann and Christopher Nolan give tutorials on the world of noir film, and their explanations of the genre&rsquo;s themes and visual tropes hugely enhance our viewing pleasure.</p><p>Two of the movies have commentary tracks, the most memorable being the &ldquo;Lineup&rdquo; narration provided by noir expert Eddie Muller and crime novelist (and former Kansas Citian) James Ellroy.</p><p>You know how DVDs have a disclaimer about how the opinions of the interviewees aren&rsquo;t necessarily those of the studio itself? Now you&rsquo;ll understand why.</p><p>Ellroy unleashes an ear-burningly profane, politically incorrect (borderline racist, overtly homophobic) commentary that is simultaneously offensive and hilarious. Muller tries to steer things back toward a conventional approach but it doesn&rsquo;t last, and soon both men are riffing outrageously on the supposed sexual orientations of the characters.</p><p> It&rsquo;s not for the thin-skinned. But stick with it and you&rsquo;ll find these two have interesting things to say about this movie in particular and noir in general.</p><p>Muller, a native San Franciscan, has a story about every street and building in which the movie was shot, and Ellroy &mdash; when he&rsquo;s not trying to outrage &mdash; expresses a deep and even loving understanding of the crime genre.