The name Jules Dassin should be a familiar one to anyone with a fondness for hard-boiled crime drama. He has few equals in Hollywood in the 1940s, then his career there came to an abrubt end when the House of Un-American Activities decided he was a bit to left-wing for their taste and he ended up in France, where he made one of the greatest robbery movies of all time in Rififi. Now two of his American classics are to be released on UK DVD by Arrow Films.

His 1947 film Brute Force is set in the overcrowded Westgate Penitentiary, where violence and fear are the norm and the warden has less power than guards and leading prisoners, and the least contented prisoner is tough, single-minded Joe Collins (Burt Lancaster). Most of all, Joe hates chief guard Captain Munsey (Hume Cronyn), a petty dictator who glories in absolute power. After one infraction too many, Joe and his cell-mates are put on the dreaded drain pipe detail; prompting an escape scheme that has every chance of turning into a bloodbath.

In the 1948 The Naked City, the vicious murder of beautiful blonde Jean Dexter drives the tabloids crazy. Detectives Dan Muldoon and young Jimmy Halloran (Barry Fitzgerald and Don Taylor) go to work with an army of detectives and police forensic professionals to help. They locate Dexter's shifty boyfriend Frank Niles (Howard Duff), who has a bad habit of telling lies. His fiancée Ruth Morrison (Dorothy Hart) doesn't realize that Frank was two-timing her and giving her stolen jewellery. Following the clues of the jewellery, the detectives eventually puts the puzzle together – but the unlucky family man Halloran encounters the dangerous killer on his own. Winner of 2 Academy Awards, The Naked City was shot entirely on location in New York and is a gripping semi-documentary look at the city and its people.

Brute Force and The Naked City with be released individually by Arrow Films on 13th July 2009 at the RRP of £15.99 each. Both discs will feature the original theatrical trailer.