6.3 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
One of six travellers who catch the bus from Casablanca airport to Marrakesh is carrying $2 million to pay a local operator to fix United Nations votes. But which one?
Starring: Tony Randall, Senta Berger, Herbert Lom, Wilfrid Hyde-White, Terry-ThomasComedy | 100% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio Mono
None
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (locked)
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 3.0 | |
Audio | 3.5 | |
Extras | 0.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
Most James Bond fans can tick off the major actors who have played the superspy, easily detailing Sean Connery, the
singular (in more ways than one—no pun intended) George Lazenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan and
Daniel Craig. But even many who consider themselves true Bond aficionados forget “also rans” like Barry Nelson, who
was actually the very first screen (albeit small, as in television) actor to play the vaunted character, in a 1954 adaptation
of Casino Royale. A later Casino
Royale offered another actor whom Bond fans tend to overlook, David Niven, as Ian Fleming’s dashing hero.
(Why Casino Royale should have been the source of two relatively little remembered Bonds is a story in and of
itself, worthy of investigation by those with an interest in how rights to various properties are obtained.) Another
famous fictional detective, Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot, has also been portrayed by a number of actors through the
years, with television’s David Suchet defining the role indelibly in many fans’ minds. But of course Albert Finney played
the Belgian sleuth in Murder on the Orient Express and Peter Ustinov did similar duty in a number of other “all
star” Christie adaptations like Death on the Nile, Evil Under the Sun and Appointment With Death
(Ustinov followed these big screen renditions with several made for television films featuring the character). Many
devoted Poirot fans are nonetheless completely unaware that none other than Tony Randall also essayed the role in a
now largely forgotten film called The Alphabet Murders in 1965, a lackluster British effort made in what was then
the considerable box office wake of the British Miss Marple films starring Margaret Rutherford (Rutherford as Marple
actually has a cameo in the Randall Poirot film).
Randall, who was in a somewhat fallow period in his career (it would be
another few years before he would burst back into the mainstream with The Odd Couple) found more work in a
British production the year after The Alphabet Murders with a cheekily amusing riff on the then very hot
spy genre which was of course sparked by James Bond himself. Bang! Bang! You’re Dead! (which was the
American title for a film released in international markets as Our Man in Marrakesh) also owes a debt of gratitude
to Alfred Hitchcock outings like The Man Who Knew Too Much (the opening scene of Bang! Bang! You’re Dead! is in
fact heavily indebted to Hitch’s film) and North by Northwest (wherein an innocent civilian gets swept up into an international conspiracy
with seemingly few skills to handle the ramifications). There's a third antecedent in the proceedings as well, though,
and it is none other than Dame Agatha Christie. The film's story was written by producer Harry Alan Towers (utilizing his
frequent pseudonym Peter Welbeck). Towers had himself just come off producing the 1965 version of Christie's
inimitable Ten Little Indians (the one with Hugh O'Brian set at a ski lodge), and brought with him Christie's
typical device of manifold suspects, all with various backstories and skeletons in their closets (in the case of Bang!
Bang! You're Dead, that's almost a literal statement, as we'll discuss).
Bang! Bang! You're Dead! is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Olive Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. This is unfortunately one of the more problematic mid-sixties vintage color releases Olive has presented, which is not to say it's unwatchable, as the screenshots accompanying this review should generally show. There are manifest differences in the color space as the film proceeds, with some snippets looking relatively accurate and well saturated, and others looking noticeably faded, with flesh tones decidedly on the brown side of things and skies which are bright blue in the more accurate looking sequences appearing anemic and almost white. Density issues afflict the elements as well, and there's more than the usual amount of flecks, specks and the like. Quite a bit of this transfer is rather soft looking, and grain is chunky enough in some sections to suggest this was sourced at least partially off of dupe elements. The film's gorgeous locations are nicely captured by ace cinematographer Michael Reed, who ironically would go on to lens the Bond feature On Her Majesty's Secret Service. All of this said, Olive has once again commendably not done any overt digital tweaking and while what's here is not in optimal condition, it at least looks like film.
Bang! Bang! You're Dead! features a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio Mono that is fairly narrow and shallow sounding (especially with regard to some of Malcolm Lockyer's boisterous score), but which delivers dialogue cleanly and clearly. There are some noticeable ambience difference in what was obviously some post-looped moments (a key interchange in a foreign language with forced subtitles late in the film at the climax is the best example), but generally speaking this is a decent if not overwhelmingly forceful track that suffices quite well for the film's dialogue scenes.
No supplements are offered on this Blu-ray disc.
Bang! Bang! You're Dead! is surprisingly bright and breezy romp, with a dash of romance, some exotic locations and just the hint of menace courtesy of Lom and Kinski. While the film doesn't quite have the elegance of outings like Charade or even Arabesque, but it's quite entertaining and contains brisk direction by Don Sharp and nice performances by Randall, an extremely appealing Berger and an ace supporting cast. While the video quality here isn't the best, it's definitely watchable, and despite the absence of supplements, Bang! Bang! You're Dead! comes Recommended.
2018
2016
2013
2012
1990-1996
2018
2016
2015
2018
2015
2015
1985
2017-2024
2020
No se aceptan devoluciones
2013
2019
2012
2018
2019
2015