Gregory
Peck: The Centennial Collection - To Kill A Mockingbird/Cape
Fear (both 1962/Universal Blu-ray Set)
Picture:
B Sound: B Extras: B Films: B
In
celebration of one hundred years of actor Gregory Peck's legacy,
Universal has put together this fine two Blu-ray set of To Kill A
Mockingbird and Cape Fear simply called The Centennial
Collection. Loaded with bonus features and some cool photo and
poster reproductions from Universal archives, film buffs will want to
pick up these two classic films remastered in high definition.
Robert
Mulligan's classic 1962 film To Kill A Mockingbird is based on
Harper Lee's Pulitzer Prize-winning book released a year before the
film in 1961. Atticus Finch (Peck) is a lawyer in a sleepy racially
divided Alabama town, in the early 1930s at the height of the
conflict. Tensions rise when Finch agrees to defend a young black
man who is accused of raping a white woman. Atticus puts his
reputation and personal career on the line as he stands up for what
he believes in and tries to clear the man's name. The film, directed
by Richard Mulligan, is not only a riveting courtroom drama but an
interesting look at racism and humanity as a whole.
Cape
Fear (1961) was remade rather brilliantly by Martin Scorsese in
1991 (that if you haven't seen you definitely should), but here is
the original which follows a lot of the same beats in the storyline.
The film stars Gregory Peck as Sam Bowden and Robert Mitchum as the
villainous Max Cady. Bowden is a small town lawyer who put Cady
behind bars many years ago for harming a young woman. Now fresh from
jail, Cady is out to stalk Mr. Bowden and his family in an act of
all-out revenge on the man who imprisoned him. J. Lee Thompson
directed this one.
Special
Features include...
Photo
and Poster Reproductions inside the case
Special
Notes by Gregory Peck's Daughter Cecilia Peck
A
Conversation with Gregory Peck
Fearful
Symmetry: The Making of To Kill A Mockingbird
The
Making of Cape Fear
Academy
Award Best Actor Acceptance Speech
AFI
Life Achievement Award
Excerpt
from A Tribute to Gregory Peck
Scout
Remembers
Feature
length audio commentary on To
Kill A Mockingbird by Director Richard Mulligan and Alan
J. Pakula
Trailers
Two
solid films and loads of extra features - what's not to like here?
Both
films are presented in black and white 1080p high definition, which
are always improved upon on Blu-ray disc. To Kill A Mockingbird
is presented in a widescreen transfer of 1.85:1 and paired with a new
DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless track. The whites of the court room
scenes mix great with the black contrasty desaturated colors. Cape
Fear also looks fantastic with a widescreen aspect ratio of
1.85:1 and a DTS-HD 2.0 Mono lossless audio track, the film also
looks and sounds better than previous versions on DVD. Note that
these films were available on Blu-ray from Universal (Cape Fear
in 2013 and Mockingbird in 2015) and this is the first time
they are paired together on Blu-ray as a set. Digital Copies are
also included for both films.
Peck
made many more films for Universal, as this link for an older DVD set
shows...
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/7768/The+Gregory+Peck+Film+Collection+(Universal+DV
Hope
we get more Peck Blu-rays soon, but this Centennial Collection
is a solid set to check out.
-
James Lockhart
https://www.facebook.com/jamesharlandlockhartv/
