A Queen's Ransom Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.0

A Queen's Ransom Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman May 24, 2024

It's probably tough being an asterisk, but that's probably going to be the figurative fate of George Lazenby, who either famously or infamously depending on your point of view had a lone "at bat" as Bond, James Bond in On Her Majesty's Secret Service. Kind of hilarously, then, at least given that film's title and reference to a certain Royal, the film currently under discussion posits Lazenby as a would be Irish assassin out to off Queen Elizabeth II during a visit to Hong Kong. Archival video makes it quite clear that Elizabeth II and Prince Philip did indeed visit what was then still a British "colony", though any tether to reality in this enterprise is probably not going to match even the semi-fictionalized accounts of Elizabeth's life seen in The Crown.

As the enjoyable commentaries on this disc get into, there may have been a bit of a marketing misfire with this film, or at least misperception by audiences who may have been expecting a martial arts spectacular given some of the supporting cast on hand. While there are some intermittent action elements which crop up here, this is much more akin to something like The Day of the Jackal, with a "secret conspiracy" to take out a world leader providing ostensible angst, even if the actual historical record may provide a foregone conclusion as to how things turned out, so to speak.

Lazenby frankly never really provides a consistent characterization here, but everyone from Angela Mao to Jimmy Wang Yu help provide some "local color" and arguably more convincing performances. There's some interesting political subtext here, not just with regard to Hong Kong, but Lazenby's character's status as an IRA operative. That said, for "subtext" it's probably mostly surface deep, with the emphasis simply more concerned with heading off an international crisis. As alluded to above, with the ultimate outcome not really in much doubt, there may frankly not be a ton of suspense here, and the story actually probably takes too long to really kick into high gear, but there are some effective action scenes in the third act in particular.

A Queen's Ransom Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

A Queen's Ransom is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Eureka! Entertainment with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. The back cover of this release states both versions feature a "brand new 2K restoration", though no further information about source elements is provided in the insert booklet (which maybe just slightly comically has some "instruction" about what a widescreen presentation will look like, and which also has some recommendations about various display settings that should either be utilized or avoided). Both versions of the film show decided variability in terms of clarity, palette suffusion, detail levels and especially grain resolution. In the best moments, which tend to be some of the outdoor material, the palette is decently if never overwhelmingly suffused, and detail levels can be commendable, especially in close-ups. Some of the interior material, especially nighttime or dimly lit scenes, can be pretty rough looking (see screenshots 8 and 9 for two examples). Even some reasonably well lit material can have this same rough appearance in passing. There are occasional small but still discernable signs of age related wear and tear that have made it through whatever restoration gauntlet was undertaken. As seems to be the case quite often with Golden Harvest productions (and many other Asian films), there are anamorphic anomalies that can be spotted, here both toward the center of the frame and also out at the edges at various points. There's quite a bit of stock footage of Queen Elizabeth II and her entourage shoehorned into the proceedings (see screenshot 4), and there are some understandable quality fluctuations in some of these moments, though they actually look surprisingly good a lot of the time.

A Queen's Ransom Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

A Queen's Ransom features LPCM 2.0 Mono tracks in either Mandarin or English, though it's salient to note the sound of the English track on the Hong Kong version is noticeably different from the one on the Export Version. The Mandarin track is probably the way to go with the Hong Kong version, since it provides decent energy and to my ears much better fidelity and fewer problems than the English language track on that version. The English track has some audible distortion during the Golden Harvest masthead music, which then shows up later as well, but its most concerning aspect is a kind of low frequency hum that accompanies almost all of the dialogue (it abates when dialogue stops). The entire English track on this version is pretty boxy sounding, but it's also slightly louder than the Mandarin track. The English track on the Export Version has none of the weird low frequency situation as on the Hong Kong version. Optional English subtitles are available.

A Queen's Ransom Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Hong Kong Theatrical Version (1:37:33) and Export Version (1:31:47) are accessible from the Main Menu.


• Audio Commentary by Frank Djeng and Michael Worth accompanies the Hong Kong Theatrical Version.


• Audio Commentary by Mike Leeder and Arne Venema accompanies the Export Version.


• Furious George: Training with Michael Worth (HD; 15:43) offers Worth reminiscing about the film.


• Trailer (HD; 4:48) features a fun Golden Harvest masthead that some may not have seen before.

A nicely appointed insert booklet features an essay by James Oliver. The keepcase has a reversible sleeve and packaging features a slipcover.

A Queen's Ransom Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

You can't help but think someone either read or saw The Day of the Jackal and thought, "Hey, there are tons of other world leaders we can craft a 'fake assassination' screenplay around". As such, this film can't help but feel a little derivative, at least in its underlying plot mechanics, but it frankly never builds to the angst levels as the Zinnemann film does. This outing may be an asterisk on another asterisk vis a vis its place in George Lazenby's filmography. Both video and at least some of the audio encounter a few hurdles along the way, but nothing overly debilitating, and both of the commentaries and the Michael Worth supplement are interesting, for anyone who may be considering making a purchase.