Bait Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.0

Bait Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman July 16, 2019

Note: This film is available as part of Noir Archive Volume 2: 1954-1956.

Kit Parker Films and Mill Creek Entertainment mined an interesting nonet of features for their Noir Archive Volume 1: 1944-1954, and now a second volume is forthcoming, with another nine outings that show what a reliable purveyor of noir or at least noir-ish films Columbia Studios continued to be through the mid-fifties. As the subtitle for the first volume made clear, that collection spanned a decade, from what was arguably the apex of noir in the mid-forties to the arguably somewhat less fertile era of Eisenhower. This second volume picks up in 1954 and continues forward two years, assembling a rather diverse collection of writers, directors and stars, some of whom at least many would probably consign to the so-called “B list”, though others, like Kim Novak, Jack Finney and even William Castle, certainly have claims to "A list" fame. One way or the other, though, there are some interesting titles in this second collection, and noir fans may well find this as appealing a set as the first outing.

Take one of the basic set ups of Charlie Chaplin’s immortal The Gold Rush, namely two haggard prospectors trying to survive in an isolated snowbound cabin, and mix in a potent dose of ménage à trois, and you may have at least a bit of an idea of the underlying plot dynamics of Bait, an intermittently interesting 1954 opus that serves as a showcase of sorts for Hugo Haas, who stars as one of those aforementioned prospectors, but who also produced, directed and co-wrote this film. Haas portrays a beefy miner named Marko who is on the hunt for gold, and who enlists the aid of Ray Brighton (John Agar). Marko’s curvaceous employee Peggy (Cleo Moore), later becomes his wife kind of under duress (due to so many guys hitting on her), and joins the boys on their quest, and the bulk of the film plays off the sexual tension between the three, something that Marko seems to like encouraging, since he thinks it will give him the perfect alibi to get rid of Brighton when the time is right. That old adage about best laid plans may have a euphemistic undertone here, but the film has some interesting psychological elements, even if it never really is very suspenseful. The weirdest thing about this is a short prologue featuring Sir Cedric Hardwicke as a (as I described “him” in another recent review) certain horned denizen of the underworld, who gives a whole new meaning to another old adage about the devil making people do bad things.

Bait Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Bait is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Kit Parker Films and Mill Creek Entertainment with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.33:1. This is one of the more problematic transfers in this set, as evidenced from the get go in the prologue with Sir Cedric Hardwicke, which is beset with both pretty noticeable flicker and also quite a bit of damage (there's also what may be a malfunctioning lens utilized in this opening sequence which gives a refracted quality at times). Things improve at least marginally once the "actual" story begins, but there are some really curious and prevalent spikes in brightness that recur throughout this presentation. There's some kind of emulsion damage running down the right side of the frame at times, and certain moments, as the sequence in the cabin beginning at circa 39:00, can look relatively degraded when compared to the bulk of the presentation. There's still good detail here on elements like the heavy wool shirts, some of which are ornately patterned, and black levels are good throughout. Grain can be quite heavy at times, but resolves naturally.

Bait Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Bait features a DTS-HD Master Audio Mono track that has a few passing pops and cracks that can be discerned, but no damage on the order of the brightness fluctuations seen in the video side of things. There's noticeable hiss which becomes less subliminal when things quiet down, and there are a couple of brief sync issues that I'm attributing to post looping. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout the presentation.

Bait Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

None of the three discs in this set feature any supplements.

Bait Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Bait has a really interesting psychological subtext, but it never really develops things well enough for anything to resonate too viscerally. The prelude with Hardwicke as the Devil is truly odd. Video has some hurdles, but audio is generally fine, for those considering a purchase.