Incident In An Alley (1962/MGM Limited Edition Collection DVD)/Rapture (1965/Twilight Time Limited
Edition Blu-ray)/12 Angry Men
(1957/Criterion Collection Blu-ray)
Picture:
C/B/B Sound: C+/B-/B- Extras: D/C+/B Films: B-/B-/B
PLEASE NOTE: Rapture is limited to a printing of 3,000 Blu-rays and is available
exclusively at the Screen Archives website, which is one of two places Incident In An Alley is also available,
though the MGM Limited Edition DVD and also available from Amazon through the right-hand
sidebar of this site.
With all
the 3D and other digital bells and whistles turning up everywhere, current
films seem to be less and less about story.
To prove that this has happened before, i.e. Hollywood coasting on gimmicks, the late Gene
Siskel once said he would be happy if all films were shot in black and white
because he knew distraction leads to very bad filmmaking. Not that all monochrome films are smart, but
they are forced to tell more of a story and the next three releases prove that
point.
Incident In An Alley (1962) remakes a TV play Rod
Serling wrote in the mid-1950s for the U.S.
Steel Hour about a police officer who shoots a 14-year-old boy dead after a
robbery at an instrument store causes havoc.
Nicely adapted by the capable Harold Medford and Owen Harris, this
independent production has unknown actors (Chris Warfield, Erin O’Donnell and
Harp McGuire among them) delivering good performances. It is more than just about the shooting, but
about society and the consequences of what happens when things go bad; a
character study of the situation, at least as far as one could go at the
time. I had not seen it in years, but it
holds up very well. I wished the 1955 TV
version or even a trailer was included, but there are no extras.
John
Guillermin is know for blockbuster hits like the 1976 King Kong remake, The
Towering Inferno and the all-star adaptation of Agatha Christie’s Death On The Nile (1978), but his 1965
film Rapture with Melvin Douglas as
an embittered father and widow who has to raise a daughter Agnes (Patricia
Gozzi) who is not in the best emotional or mental state. He takes some things out on her, which does
not help, but things take a twist when a young man (Dean Stockwell) enters
their lives and becomes interested in Karen (Ingmar Bergman alumni Gunnel
Lindblom) and then Agnes herself. This
is a brutal, sometimes minimalist, sometimes bold attempt to portray some
serious issues and damaged people by mixing Hollywood
melodrama with hints of Bergman and the French New Wave (especially Francois
Truffaut) down to a score by Georges Delerue.
Not that
the editing is surreal, profound or challenging of the readerly script, but the
combination of story and black and white widescreen scope cinematography makes
it part of a special group of films (specifically ones that started to be shot
in formats clearer than original CinemaScope) that deliver a sense of cinema no
other kind of filmmaking ever did, including Hud, a 1963 classic Douglas also starred in.
This film
deserves major rediscovery and Twilight Time has managed to issue yet another
key, underrated film that is way overdue for a new audience. My only issues with the film is that it
becomes too melodramatic, becomes a bit too predictable and in the last reel or
two looses some sense of believability, yet it is done so well and achieves a
certain sense of atmosphere you do not see anymore. Polanski’s Cul-Der-Sac (reviewed on Criterion Blu-ray elsewhere on this site)
also has this going for it in its capturing a sense of the outdoors, nature and
nature of people, even when this moves to indoor and confined locales. If you like smart dramas, you’ll want to go
out of your way for this one. Extras
include an isolated music score track and informative booklet with illustrations.
Last but
not least is another black & white Criterion release, Sidney Lumet’s
enduring feature film version on 12
Angry Men (1957) marks the beginning of one of the most significant and
important directing runs in world cinema history. Known for his gritty honest dramas, he also
took a powerful live TV drama like Incident
In An Alley and expanded it into a fine film. Among the themes of Lumet’s films is always
justice in America
and its limits. With a cast that
includes Henry Fonda, John Fiedler, Lee J. Cobb, E.G. Marshall, Jack Klugman,
Jack Warden, Martin Balsam and Ed Begley, this story about a jury more at war
with itself than in finding out truth and justice was stunning in its time and
as relevant as ever.
The case
starts to take it toll on the men, some of them want justice, others just want
to go and some of them show ignorance as their own personal issues and
prejudices come pouring out and this cast does it as powerfully as you can
imagine to the point that even though you see these famous faces, you slowly
forget the fame and start seeing the characters they play, the men they are and
the implications are as alarming about the U.S. justice system as it is about
the character of individual people.
In this
new transfer, it has never been more powerful and also shows the early genius
of Lumet, who came from live television and became an amazing filmmaker to the
very end (Before The Devil Knows You’re
Dead (2007, reviewed on Blu-ray elsewhere on this site), his final film,
retained all those strong qualities with no compromises) rounding out an
amazing half-century of stunning work.
This is a must-see classic getting the deluxe treatment it deserves,
finally.
Extras
include a thick, nicely illustrated booklet on the film including informative
text, while the Blu-ray adds the long lost original 1955 TV version directed by
Franklin J. Schaffner (later of Patton
and the original Planet Of The Apes),
production history piece, archival Lumet interviews, three new interview
segments (with screenwriter Walter Bernstein on Lumet, with Ron Simon of the
Paley Center for Media about writer Reginald Rose, and with cinematographer
John Bailey (American Gigolo, Ordinary People) on Director of
Photography Boris Kaufman (The
Pawnbroker, Baby Doll), the Original
Theatrical Trailer and Lumet’s TV effort Tragedy In A Temporary Town (1956)
penned by Rose. William Friedkin remade
the story a third time a few decades later, but that is not here, though a
reissue would be nice.
The 1.33
X 1 black and white image on Incident
is a little softer than I would have liked, though MGM has a disclaimer before
the film starts that this was from the best source material they had. It still looks good just the same but
deserves an HD upgrade down the line. The
1080p 2.35 X 1 black and white digital High Definition image transfer on Rapture can show the age of the stock
and grain of the time, but with that said, this is a stunning transfer that is
as good as any black and white scope film on Blu-ray to date including Warner’s
Jailhouse Rock. The film was shot in the older CinemaScope
format (you can see the older logo announcing this after the Fox logo is older
film stock) but this shoot used Franscope lenses, so it is less distorted as a
result. Director of Photography Marcel
Grignon (Is Paris Burning?, Shaft In Africa, The Fixer)
delivers top rate work throughout in a film made to last. The 1080p 1.66 X 1 black and white digital
High Definition image transfer on Men
can also show the age of the stock, but Criterion made this transfer from a
35mm fine grain master positive and it renders all previous video versions
obsolete.
The Dolby
Digital 2.0 Mono on Incident is good
for a lossy transfer of such an older film, but there might be more to get out
of the original surviving soundtracks.
The DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 lossless mix Rapture is really impressive for its age with only a few minor
moments where dialogue is not clear. The
isolated music track is in the same lossless format. The DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 1.0 lossless
track on Men comes from a restored
35mm magnetic sound print and is just as stunning.
I hope
more black and white films get this much respect.
You can
order Rapture exclusively at this
link:
www.screenarchives.com
- Nicholas Sheffo
