6.6 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Mal Granger is telephone repairman who uses his knowledge to help his bookie expand his business to increased profits and rises to the top. But when syndicate head Otto Kruger wants to take over, things start to get dicey — and Granger's in too deep to call the cops.
Starring: Edmond O'Brien, Joanne Dru, Otto Kruger, Barry Kelley, Dorothy PatrickDrama | 100% |
Film-Noir | 66% |
Crime | 41% |
Thriller | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.34:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.37:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio Mono (48kHz, 24-bit)
English
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 4.0 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 3.5 | |
Extras | 0.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Note: This film is available as part of
Noir Archive - Volume 1: 1944-1954.
While the frequently questionable “expertise” of Wikipedia asserts that film noir lasted from the early 1920s until the late 1950s, my
hunch
is at least some fans of film history would tend to proscribe the idiom’s heyday to a probably smaller window of time beginning at some
point in the
1940s and then extending into some other point in the 1950s. If that proscription is accepted, it might then be arguable that there was
no
better purveyor of film noir than Columbia Pictures during this period. While many of the undisputed classics of film noir came
from other studios, as
in the case of Paramount’s Double Indemnity
(released
on Blu-ray through Universal, due to the vagaries of film catalogs changing hands), or Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s The Postman Always Rings Twice (released on Blu-ray through
Warner Brothers, due to — well, you get the idea), Columbia Pictures managed to churn out a rather significant amount of noir offerings,
albeit often in what would probably be termed the “B-movie” category. Kit Parker Films and Mill Creek Entertainment have now assembled nine of
these rather interesting
Columbia offerings in one three disc package, and for noir fans, there are at least a couple of rather notable films in this first collection (it
looks like Noir Archive Volume 2: 1954-
1956 is due in a few months), as well as some other outings which frankly might be best categorized as oddities.
711 Ocean Drive is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Mill Creek Entertainment and Kit Parker Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.34:1. Noir fans may well feel that this film is the highlight of this particular set, and those fans should be generally very well pleased with this transfer. There's a bit of image degradation during the kind of hilarious opening text crawl (one which insists the film was made despite threats from organized crime), but aside from just a few issues due to the prevalence of rather long held optical dissolves, this transfer offers a nicely resolved grain field and excellent detail levels. Fine detail on elements like the tweedy jackets O'Brien wears resolve without any problems whatsoever, and a lot of the location photography offers good depth of field and nicely modulated gray scale. Some of the "bumps" in and out of dissolves are perhaps longer than usual, and you can definitely see when things return to the primary element. There are a few signs of age related wear and tear, once again consigned mostly to minor speckling a bit of dirt now and then.
711 Ocean Drive sports a fine sounding DTS-HD Master Audio Mono track. This is another film that has at least some narration, and that element sounds consistently clear, as does all dialogue. Sound effects like gunshots have good energy, and the film's score also sounds clear and full bodied.
No supplements are offered on this release.
711 Ocean Drive wraps up with some narration decrying the "disease" of gambling, in a moment that might have been shoehorned into The Killer That Stalked New York without too much trouble. This is an exciting thriller that may not have real "traditional" noir trappings, at least in terms of tons of chiaroscuro or even an iconic blonde femme fatale, but which still details the moral downfall of a guy who seems to be basically decent, aside from a debilitating gambling habit and a knowledge of electronics. Technical merits are solid, and 711 Ocean Drive comes Recommended.
(Still not reliable for this title)
1945
1990
1949
1955
1950
Encore Edition | Limited Edition to 3000 - SOLD OUT
1953
1952
4K Restoration
1973
1976
Limited Edition to 3000
1961
1954
1955
1981
1946
1950
2014
Limited Edition to 3000
1959
1997
2006
1942