Antiviral
4K
(2012/Brandon Cronenberg/Severin 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray
w/Blu-ray)/Impact
(1949/MVD/VCI Blu-ray w/DVD)/Lady
Of Vengeance
(1956*)/New
Adventures Of Tarzan
(1935**)/Outpost
In Malaya
(1958/*both United Artists/MGM Blu-rays)/Triumph
Of Sherlock Holmes
(1935)/Silver
Blaze
(1937/**both Film Masters Blu-rays)
4K
Ultra HD Picture: B+ Picture: B/B- & C/B-/C+/B-/C+ Sound:
B/C+/B-/C/C+/C & C+ Extras: B/B-/D/D/D/D Films:
B-/B-/B-/C+/B-/C+
Now
for a variety of thrilelrs and mysteries covering nine decades of
suspense...
Brandon
Cronenberg's Antiviral
4K
(2012) is a film that proved thew then-new director could direct
effectively creepy and visually striking films with substance like
his famous father and now, it is here in a nice upgrade and remaster
whose timing could not be better. We reviewed the older Blu-ray
edition at this link:
https://fulvuedrive-in.com/review/12301/Antiviral+(2012/Brandon+Cronenberg/IFC+Midnight/MP
Seeming
more like science fiction and more distant in its initial release,
things like popular weight loss drugs, advanced gene splicing, viral
technology (like that used to stop COVID-19) and digital technology
has made this more palpable and believable now. Sad that this film
was ahead of its time in that way, but here it is and here we are.
Severin has done a great job picking this up and reissuing such a
solid upgrade with many more extras, but I also hope it helps Brandon
Cronenberg get more recognition as a filmmaker in his own right. I
again recommend this one.
Extras
expand on the older Blu-ray release and
repeats the sometimes silly Feature Length Audio Commentary With
Writer/Director Brandon Cronenberg And Director Of Photography Karim
Hussain from the older Blu-ray
BROKEN
TULIPS: Short Film Written And Directed By Brandon Cronenberg
Anatomy
Of A Virus:
Making-Of Featurette from the older Blu-ray
Reviving
A Dead Cell:
Brandon Cronenberg And Karim Hussain Discuss The Restoration
Brandon
Cronenberg: A First-Time Director's Vision
Deleted
Scenes With Optional Commentary By Brandon Cronenberg And Karim
Hussain
First
Meeting
with Actors Caleb Landry Jones And Sarah Gadon
The
Design Of ANTIVIRAL:
Interview With Production Designer Arvinder Greywal
Manufacturing
Celebrity:
EPK With Cast And Crew
and
an Original Theatrical Trailer.
Arthur
Lubin's Impact
(1949) stars Brian Donlevy as a very successful industrialist and
inventor who thinks his life is great and loves his wife Irene (Helen
Walker) who he takes care of, but little does he know she is seeing
another man and has plotted with him to kill her husband. Pretending
to be a distant cousin and hitching a ride with Walter (Donlevy,) the
'cousin' (Tony Barrett) puts a small hole in one of the car tires.
When it gets flat and they stop, he intends to kill him and make it
look like an accident.
That
way, Irene can play the horrified widow, get all the money, house and
benefits and they can live happily ever after without anyone knowing.
However, it quickly goes very wrong and not only does Walter
survive, but a series of unexpected madness follows. I'll quit
there, but it is a great set of twists, sometimes darkly hilarious
and on that, I highly recommend this Noir gem.
Lubin
was later known for his comedy films and comedy and dramatic TV work,
but he made thrilelrs early on in his career and this would be
considered a return to form from the man who helmed the 1943 Phantom
Of The Opera
remake, Mysterious
Crossing,
Big
Town Czar,
Black
Friday
(1940,) and Meet
The Wildcat.
Good work. Charles Coburn, Anna May Wong, May Marsh and Jason
Robards Sr. also star.
Extras
include a feature length audio commentary track by film scholar
Bernard M. Prokop, a Photo Gallery and a Poster Gallery.
Burt
Balaban's Lady
Of Vengeance
(1956) stars Dennis O'Keefe (T-Men,
Raw
Deal)
as a man whose young female ward decided to commit suicide in broad
daylight near a British railway station, a shock to all who witness
it. A publisher with a good reputation, he starts to look into it
all and the more he does, the uglier it gets. One lead is a man (the
great Anton Diffring) who seems to know more than he is saying or may
know, while he gets so angry until then, he hires a killer to find
the potential killer... if she was somehow pushed!
A
decent, later British Noir, it has its moments and is well done, with
some suspense, mystery and a pace that can still hold up well. The
locales are a plus and Balaban (Murder,
Inc.
(1960)) helms this one well. Though not an all-time classic, a good
effort all Noir fans will want to catch just the same. Patrick Barr,
Ann Sears and a solid supporting cast also star.
There
are sadly no extras.
The
New Adventures Of Tarzan
(1935)
gets its own Blu-ray single after appearing on The
Tarzan Vault
Blu-ray set we reviewed a while ago at this link:
https://fulvuedrive-in.com/review/16169/The+Tarzan+Vault+(1918+-+1935/Film+Detective
With
too many of the latest adaptions being forgettable and superfluous,
these are at least interesting and ambitious, even if the results do
not always pan out. Herman Blix plays him in all twelve chapters
here after missing out on leading the highly successful MGM movie
series, but this has its moments. I
have more to say in the link above, but this is a convenient Blu-ray
single if you do not want to get that whole set.
There
are sadly no extras.
Ken
Annakin's Outpost
In Malaya
(1958) is another underrated thriller at the end of the Noir era that
is not quite a Noir, but has some elements of one as Claudette
Colbert and Jack Hawkins run a rubber plantation that suddenly finds
itself under attack in the British-controlled title locale, as
bandits and armored political groups start attacking. Add that they
have a child and their marriage is not in the best of shape and you
can imagine how crazy things get when the attacks start piling up.
In
all this, can they hold their land and live? By the latter half of
the film as this all happens, it becomes very suspenseful and plays
like an action film and better than most we have suffered through of
late, intelligent, well written, thought out, filmed and consistently
so. Colbert was still a big star and her career was far from over,
really good here, especially in some scenes and ways you might not
expect.
The
sets are made well enough considering it was not done on a
blockbuster budget and the cast is a big plus, also staring Anthony
Steel, Jeremy Spencer, a young Peter Asher and uncredited turns by
Patrick Westwood, Alfie Bass, Don Sharp and Victor Maddern. Its just
that kind of movie with so much up and coming talent too.
Annakin
is yet another one of the underrated journeyman filmmakers whose work
includes Double
Confession,
Disney's The
Sword & The Rose,
Underworld
Informers,
The
Biggest Bundle Of The All,
Paper
Tiger,
Those
Daring Young Men in Their Jaunty Jalopies,
the epic
Battle
Of The Bulge
and parts of The
Longest Day.
There are plenty of prime moments here and that too is a reason to
go out of your way to see this one.
There
are sadly no extras.
Finally
we have two older and too unseen Sherlock Holmes films that we are
now looking at for the third time: The
Triumph Of Sherlock Holmes
(1935) and Silver
Blaze
(1937) and this is their second Blu-ray appearance. They previous
appeared in slightly upgraded copies on the Sherlock
Holmes Vault
Blu-ray set here:
https://fulvuedrive-in.com/review/16051/The+Sherlock+Holmes+Vault+Collection+(1900+-+193
I
still like them and think they are interesting, but to many fans have
not seen them and are both worth a look. I have more to say in the
link above, but this is a convenient Blu-ray single if you do not
want to get that whole set.
There
are sadly no extras here.
Now
for playback performance. The 2160p HEVC/H.265, 2.35 X 1, Dolby
Vision/HDR (10; Ultra HD Premium)-enhanced Ultra High Definition
image on Antiviral
4K is
the best the film has looked in all versions issued, including the
somewhat softer presentation on the 1080p Blu-ray included here and
the older, slightly yellower (intentionally) IFC Blu-ray we reviewed
at the link above. It is as good as the film will ever look, making
it more creepy and effective than ever. All three versions offer
DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mixes and it is slightly better
on the two new editions, as good as the film will ever sound. Its
best they did not try to upgrade to DTS: X or Dolby Atmos. The
combination, especially in 4K, is great.
The
1080p 1.33 X 1 black & white digital High Definition image
transfer on Impact
can show the age of the materials used, but this is far superior a
transfer to all previous releases of the film
I've seen on home video and TV, even with some softness and detail
limits. The PCM 2.0 Mono is just older and can only sound so good
for an independent production, but has been restored as well as can
be expected. The 1.33 X 1 image on the DVD is anamorphically
enhanced and windowboxed looking passable, but just here for
convenience, with a lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono soundtrack. The
combination can be trying at times, and not as good as the Blu-ray.
The
1080p 1.85 X 1 black & white digital High Definition image
transfer on Lady
Of Vengeance
is listed as 1.33 X 1, its original aspect ratio, but is too cut off
here and hurts all of the compositions despite the nice transfer.
1.66 X 1 should have been the widescreen limit, so even when this can
look good, warm, clean, clear and with some depth and detail, it is
foiled by too much cropping. Director of Photography Ian D.
Struthers (The
Girl In The Picture,
Fire
Maidens From Outer Space)
did not compose the films framing that tightly.
Otherwise,
this is well shot and edited and the DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0
Mono lossless mix sound so good, I doubt it will ever sound better.
The
1080p 1.33 X 1 black & white digital High Definition image
transfer on Tarzan
can certainly show the age of the materials used, the same transfer
from the above noted box set. The
DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Mono lossless mix is as good as it can
be, but the audio is still too rough and problematic, even after some
remastering here. The combination is passable for now and we can
only hope better elements are secured sometime down the line.
The
1080p 1.33 X 1 black & white digital High Definition image
transfer on Outpost
can sometimes show the age of the materials used, but this is far
superior a transfer to all previous releases of the film
and has some nice detail and depth, as well as warmth though a little
more work would be nice. Director
of Photography Geoffrey Unsworth, B.S.C., (The
300 Spartans,
Kubrick's 2001:
A Space Odyssey,
Superman:
The Movie,
Zardoz,
The
Assassination Bureau,
A
Bridge Too Far)
is one of the greats and you can see why you would want to see the
film just based on his work here. Nice it has so much more to offer.
The
DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Mono lossless mix sounds good for its
age, but it is only so clean, clear and dynamic, though better than
the Tarzan or Sherlock Holmes entries. The combination is just fine,
but a 4K edition would be interesting.
The
1080p 1.33 X 1 black & white digital High Definition image
transfer on the two Sherlock
Holmes
films can certainly show the age of the materials used, the same
transfers from the box set noted and linked above. The
DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Mono lossless mix sounds better and
clearer on Silver
Blaze
than Trials,
but the sources are only so good.
-
Nicholas Sheffo
