Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		3.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		2.5

Assignment Paris! Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman April 8, 2019

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.

Kind of humorously, at least if the IMDb is to be believed, both the Italian and Spanish releases of this film came out under a title which translates roughly to Destination: Budapest , which, geographically at least, is perhaps a more accurate summation of this film’s focal location. In what plays at times at least slightly like 1940’s Foreign Correspondent, a connection perhaps hinted at subliminally due to the shared featuring of George Sanders in a central role, Assignment Paris! offers Dana Andrews portraying a reporter named Jimmy Race who gets mixed up in political shenanigans far, far away from home. In this case it’s the dreaded Communists in Hungary who are the bad guys, with Jimmy finding himself a helpless pawn in a game he only slowly becomes aware of.

Perhaps due to its 1952 provenance, the villains in this piece are almost cartoonishly hyperbolic, making truth, justice and the American Way relatively easy victors, though the film just kind of comes to a screeching halt without a typical happy ending coda. Marta Toren and Audrey Totter don't have much to do here other than look pretty, which they do well enough.

Assignment Paris! Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Assignment Paris is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Mill Creek Entertainment and Kit Parker Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.34:1. This is another outing that only intermittently employs typical noir visual styles, and so it's a bit brighter and more out in the open, two things that help to elevate detail levels. There are a few passing issues in what amount to quasi-montages, where a series of optical dissolves can lead to slightly less fine detail being visible, along with the expected uptick in grain. There's also quite a bit of rear projection that supposedly gets the main characters out and about around Paris, which doesn't look particularly realistic. But fine detail especially is very nicely rendered throughout this presentation, kind of funnily often more with regard to the heavily patterened suit jackets or overcoats some of the men wear than with regard to any of the female costumes. There is some noticeable damage in the closing moments of the film which involve a prisoner exchange. There's recurrent flicker and other damage mostly evident on the left side of the frame during the final couple of minutes of the film. My score is 3.75.

Assignment Paris! Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Assignment Paris features a DTS-HD Master Audio Mono track which supports the film's dialogue (along with narration, which seems to be a staple of several films in this set). Occasional sound effects, like static from a "blocked" broadcast from behind the Iron Curtain, also sound properly energetic. As with several other films in this set, minor background hiss becomes more evident in quieter moments.

Assignment Paris! Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

No supplements are offered on this release.

Assignment Paris! Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Assignment Paris may be too tied to its time to really resonate very well with modern day audiences (to cite just one example, will people even know who Tito is/was?), but it's an interesting document of a time when America was ramping up into its own anti-Communist hysteria. Technical merits are generally solid for those considering a purchase.