A Life at Stake Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.0

A Life at Stake Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman August 29, 2021

It may be hard for younger viewers in particular who were raised on either the original broadcasts or incessant reruns of Murder, She Wrote to think of Angela Lansbury as anything other than a kindly old lady, let alone what some might infelicitously term a "sexpot". Even those acquainted with the venerable actress' long and distinguished career who know of Lansbury's work as an ingenue in such films as Gaslight and/or The Picture of Dorian Gray (both of which garnered her back to back Academy Award nominations for Best Supporting Actress) will remember she often played the so-called "nice girl" without a duplicitous or seemingly overtly seductive bone in her body. Perhaps a bit weirdly, then, Lansbury's third Academy Award nomination in the Best Supporting Actress category, for her memorable turn as Mrs. Eleanor Shaw Iselin in the 1962 version of The Manchurian Candidate, the actress, though certainly no longer able to be regarded as an ingenue, provides a characterization that is slyly seductive in its own way, albeit perhaps like Medusa or Circe, and with similar devastating effect. All of this is to say that some viewers may be surprised, although in a good way, by Lansbury's turn in A Life at Stake, where she is undeniably the femme fatale in a kind of forgotten semi-noir that has echoes of Double Indemnity running through it, albeit with a bit of a twist thrown in.

Noir has often been described in terms of a luscious (often blonde) female luring a hapless schlub to his moral if not physical destruction, though there are certainly films in this genre where the male "mark" finds himself in bodily peril. A Life at Stake seems to be about one potential victim for a while before offering a bit of a detour, with a high strung type named Doris Hillman (Angela Lansbury) at the center of it all. She seems to have her eye on Edward Shaw (Keith Andes), a guy who, kind of like Howard Roark in The Fountainhead, is a somewhat iconoclastic architect whose career hasn't exactly caught on fire. Even though he's out of luck, he still isn't especially open to the suggestion from Doris that her (much older) husband Gus (Douglass Dumbrille), a real estate entrepreneur, could use Shaw's expertise on a new project.

A Life at Stake gets into "real" Double Indemnity territory in more ways than one when in order to complete his partnership agreement with Gus, Edward is cajoled into getting a life insurance policy. Now this is a structural artifice that is necessary for the film's attempt at paranoia and probable murderous mayhem to proceed, and yet it simply doesn't have the same inherent logic as the similar insurance based conceit at play in the legendary Billy Wilder film. As such, A Life at Stake struggles to work up sufficient angst, something that is probably further hampered by the film's relatively brief running time.

Suffice it to say that Edward of course finds himself ensnared in both a romantic situation with Doris that perhaps has nefarious intent, as well as a more wholesome relationship with Doris' younger sister Madge (Claudia Barrett), who comes to Edward with some disturbing information about Doris' past and who doesn't seem particularly opposed to a bit of sibling rivalry when it comes to snagging a man, especially since Doris' motives seem to be obviously impure. With a bit more development, A Life at Stake might have registered more strongly, but it's hobbled by less than intriguing characters and some clumsy writing. Still, the chance to see Lansbury in an unabashed femme fatale guise may be enough to interest some people in this film.

A Life at Stake Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

A Life at Stake is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of The Film Detective and Cinedigm with an MPEG-2 encoded 1080p transfer in 1.37:1. The back cover of this release touts a "new 4K transfer from archival film elements", without (of course) disclosing exactly what those "archival film elements" might have been. Whatever those elements may have been, the transfer here is quite nice looking, though it can't quite overcome what seem to be some inherent issues, including some rather prevalent and frankly kind of weird quasi-warping that shows up with surprising regularity. What's odd about this anomaly is that it tends to only affect small regions of the frame, so that, for example, suddenly a head or face will skew weirdly for a nanosecond and then return to its normal position. There are also a few stray nicks, scratches and other signs of age related wear and tear that haven't been completely eliminated by whatever restoration gauntlet the elements were put through. All of this said, detail levels tend to be generally fine, though there are occasional ebbs and flows (watch, for example, the variances in the resolution of Andes' herringbone patterned tweed jacket in the first scene with Andes and Lansbury by a swimming pool). Grain resolves naturally for the most part, though can look a bit smudged at times, and some may wonder if a newer compression regimen may have helped to improve things.

A Life at Stake Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

A Life at Stake features a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono track that is nicely full bodied despite showing some boxiness inherent in the recording technologies of the era. This is another largely forgotten film that features a nice orchestral score by the great Les Baxter, and it is rendered without any issues, with some of the string cues in particular sounding energetic and burnished. Dialogue is also presented cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English and Spanish subtitles are available.

A Life at Stake Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Commentary by Jason A. Ney


• Hollywood Hitch-Hikers: Inside the Filmmakers (HD; 10:59) is an interesting if kind of odd piece (at least in terms of being offered as a supplement to this particular film) with C. Courtney Joyner exploring some general issues of independent filmmaking during the 1950s, but focusing largely on the career of Ida Lupino. I'm wondering if this was culled from a longer piece, since it seems to join the proceedings almost in mid sentence.

Additionally, The Film Detective includes an insert booklet with an essay by Jason A. Ney and some stills.

A Life at Stake Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

If Angela Lansbury is going to be the marquee star for many considering watching this film, the rest of the cast is filled to the brim with great performers. Douglass Dumbrille is almost unrecognizable this late in his career, but Jane Darwell will delight fans in her brief but fun role, and, as commentator Jason A. Ney kind of jokingly gets into, those who enjoy shirtless men may get a thrill out of Keith Andes. Andes' film career never really seemed to take off, but trivial lovers may know he was one Lucille Ball's co-star in Lucy's sole attempt at a Broadway musical, the ill fated 1961 show Wildcat, which didn't run for very long (Lucy wasn't quite ready for an eight show a week schedule, and her health supposedly faltered), but which provided Cy Coleman and Carolyn Leigh with one of their first entries into the Great American Songbook of standards, "Hey, Look Me Over". Technical merits are generally solid, though video has some peculiarities at times, and the supplements are well done, for those who are considering making a purchase.