All
The King's Men
(1949/Columbia/Sony/Twilight Time Limited Edition Blu-ray)/The
Blue Max
(1966/Fox/Twilight Time Limited Edition Blu-ray)/The
Delphi Bureau: The Merchant Of Death Assignment
(1972/Warner Archive DVD)/Island
In The Sky (1938/Fox
Cinema Archive DVD)/Witness
For The Prosecution
(1957/United Artists/MGM/Umbrella Region Free Import Blu-ray)
Picture:
B/B/C+/C+/B- Sound: B-/B-/C+/C/C+ Extras: C+/B/D/D/D
Films: B/B/C+/C+/B-
PLEASE
NOTE:
The All
The King's Men
and
Blue Max
limited edition Blu-rays are from our friends at Twilight Time with
only 3,000 copies of each being made, The
Delphi Bureau
is now only available from Warner Bros. through their Warner Archive
series and this import version of Witness
For The Prosecution
comes from Umbrella Entertainment. All can be ordered from our
friends at the respective links below.
Here
are some dramas you should know about...
The
original 1949 All
The King's Men
has been issued by the Twilight Time label as a Limited Edition
Blu-ray. We covered the great political drama on DVD years ago at
this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/4279/All+The+King's+Men+(1949/Sony+DVD
Another
high profile film not enough people have seen, I enjoyed it more than
the remake and more here than on DVD, so those interested should get
this version as soon as possible before they run out of copies.
Expanded
extras (versus the older DVD) includes another illustrated booklet on
the film including informative text & Julie Kirgo essay, Isolated
Music Score Track and Original Theatrical Trailer, but you can read
about the 2006 Sean Penn remake at this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/4307/All+The+King's+Men+(2006/Theatrical+Film+Revie
Twilight
Time has also issued another Limited Edition Blu-ray in John
Guillermin's The
Blue Max
(1966), an underrated WWI epic about a young pilot (George Peppard)
who intends to win the medal of the title by reaching a certain
confirmed number of kills of the opposition, but the cost becomes
increasingly twisted in this epic, finally available in an ace (pun
intended) new transfer with a tons of goodies to boot. Jeremy Kemp
is his friendly competition, Karl Michel Volger his opposition, James
Mason the higher-up who wants to use him for propagandist purposes
and Ursula Andress as Mason's woman who likes to sleep with pilots
and gets involved with Peppard.
The
film is remarkable in that it tells the story of the Germans and only
them from the period and asks us to watch without prejudice as they
slowly self-destruct. The script is smart, performances top rate,
look of the film grand, directing some of Guillermin's best and
flying sequences rarely matched in all of cinema history. Sure, some
visual effects are dated, but so much is not and so much is done
naturally and fully that it gives the film a whole new dimension that
has allowed it to age well. It never feels as long as its 156
minutes length, but it is still a long film, yet it is an experience
more than worth your time.
Extras
includes another illustrated booklet on the film including
informative text & Julie Kirgo essay, Isolated Music Score Track
that is the complete score including much music not used by the
director from Jerry Goldsmith's score, more alternative music cues on
the
feature length audio commentary track with Kirgo and fellow Nick
Redmond & John Burlingame (a huge fan and scholar on this film
too) and the Original Theatrical Trailer.
Paul
Wendkos' The
Delphi Bureau: The Merchant Of Death Assignment
(1972) is the pilot telefilm for a short-lived TV spy series that
tried to be witty and classy with upscale humor in the Thin
Man/Avengers
mode with Laurence Luckinbill as Glenn Garth Gregory. It has some
action, but is maybe more about the comedy and plays like a
forerunner of Scarecrow
& Mrs. King
more so than an actual spy show. The series only lasted a single
season.
Luckinbill
is good here and carries this well, but the teleplay is all over the
place, including more than a few takes on Hitchcock as it winds
around a plot involving stolen military vehicles and hardware.
Celeste Holm is his socialite contact and there are some nice touches
here and there with its set-up, so I can see why it went to series.
It is just not great, but more than interesting enough to give it a
look and the cast that includes Bradford Dillman, Dean Jagger,
Cameron Mitchell, Bob Crane, Joanna Pettet, Lucille Benson and
Pamelyn Ferdin, Warner Television has serious aspirations for this to
be a success. Wonder if the TV show built on this or not.
There
are unfortunately no extras.
Herbert
I. Leeds' Island
In The Sky
(1938) is in a similar mode, but instead of spying, Gloria Stuart
(Cameron's Titanic,
Universal's original Invisible
Man)
plays the wife to be of a Assistant District Attorney (Michael
Whalen) who is called on a case just when they were having fun at the
fancy club of the title at the top of a fancy, schmancy new
skyscraper. At first, this seems like it will be a drama with some
romance, but when the his emergency call turns out to be an odd
mystery, she gets more involved than expected (especially of women at
the time) and they have to prove a man is innocent of murder.
Of
course, the case is not as easy as it seems. Fox Cinema Archive has
issued this DVD as part of their on-line only collection and it is a
nice little gem that may show its age at times, but has some great
moments, looks good often and shows why Stewart was a star to begin
with. It is hard to say if Fox wanted a mystery movie series out of
this, but it is too bad that did not happen because this had
potential for that. Mystery and movie fans should really see this
one.
There
are unfortunately no extras which would have been nice despite
of/because of the age of the film, but it deserves some.
Billy
Wilder's film of Agatha Christie's Witness
For The Prosecution
(1957) is last but not least here, also a murder mystery with the law
closely involved, courtrooms and lawyers in this case in another
classic Wilder hit. Tyrone Power is a man who tells lawyer Charles
Laughton (who with Elsa Lanchester driving him crazy about his health
(they are a riot together) gives us shades of Nero Wolfe) he is
innocent of murder, so the counselor takes on the case despite recent
bad health.
Marlene
Dietrich is an ex-wife of his who seems like she might be of help
until she becomes the title character, condemning him and turning on
him, but something is not quite right about the whole situation and
we get some classic twists I will not ruin for you. It is one of the
better films based on a Christie book, though I think it has aged
unevenly at times, but is still a solid work and everyone should see
this one at least once.
There
are shockingly no extras.
Twilight
Time has the best picture performers here with the 1080p 1.33 X 1
digital High Definition image transfer on Men
and 1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Max
looking really good with only minor complaints. Men
easily succeeds its decent DVD counterpart with more depth, detail
and better Video Black and Video White, while Max finally gets the
DeLuxe color correct with a stunning new transfer of the film shot in
real anamorphic 35mm CinemaScope by legendary Director of Photography
Douglas Slocombe, B.S.C. (the Indiana Jones Trilogy, Never
Say Never Again,
The
Italian Job
(1969), Rollerball
(1975)) in some of his most impressive work.
The
1080p 1.66 X 1 digital black and white High Definition image transfer
on Witness
can show the age of the materials used and has some detail issues,
suggesting an older HD master, but this is far superior a transfer to
all previous releases of the film on video and is nice to see looking
even this good despite more soft shots than I would have liked.
That
leaves the 1.33 X 1 DVDs with Delphi
(in color and shot on 35mm film) tying Witness for second place and
Island
having some nice shots, but being softer much more often than I wish
it were and both deserve Blu-ray editions.
As
for sound, the DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix on Max
is well mixed and derived from the 6-track magnetic
stereo mix for 70mm blow-up prints of the film. However, the Jerry
Goldsmith music can sound much better in fidelity than the dialogue
and even sound effects, which are of the traveling kind, so the
DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 1.0 Mono lossless mix on Men
is in surprisingly good shape and can compete, so both films tie for
the best-sounding.
The
DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 1.0 Mono lossless mix on Witness
is a little less clear, not as consistent as Men
and a bit disappointing. Therefore, the lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
on Delphi
can compete, but the
lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono on Island
is the oldest film here and its soundtrack is the most aged.
You
can order
All
The King's Men
and
The Blue Max
limited edition Blu-rays, buy them while supplies last at this link:
www.screenarchives.com
...to
order the
Witness
For The Prosecution
Umbrella import Blu-ray, go to this link:
http://www.umbrellaent.com.au/
...and
to order The
Delphi Bureau,
go this this link for it and many more great web-exclusive releases
at:
http://www.warnerarchive.com/
-
Nicholas Sheffo
