Beware, My Lovely Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.0

Beware, My Lovely Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov August 25, 2024

Harry Horner's "Beware, My Lovely" (1952) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber. The supplemental features on the release include new audio commentary by professor and film scholar Jason A. Ney and vintage trailer. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".

The handyman

In the early 1950s, Beware, My Lovely must have been a curious film to deconstruct. Its main protagonist, played by the always reliable Robert Ryan, is a handyman who has lost control of his mind and evolved into a violent psychopath struggling to cope with the consequences of his actions. After murdering his latest employer, he runs away and some days or weeks later ends up at the home of an overworked widow (Ida Lupino), who has hired him for an unspecified period of time. They chat a bit and the handyman goes to work, but as the widow attempts to help him get comfortable around her house, his personality changes, allowing the violent psychopath to take over. The rest of Beware, My Lovely, which is well over two-thirds of it, is one big hostage situation, with the handyman dominating it until the very end.

So, what part of this description is unusual? And what segment of it would have made Beware, My Lovely a curious film to deconstruct?

Director Harry Horner worked with a screenplay by Mel Dinelli, who had adapted his original short story “To Find Help” into a play titled “The Man”, which frequently treats the handyman as a normal person trapped inside the body of a violent psychopath. Frequently. This is what makes Beware, My Lovely a curious film to deconstruct. The 1940s and 1950s produced many different films whose main protagonist was a psychopath, but it is not easy naming any that kept adjusting the viewing angle of their audience. While heavy on predictable melodrama, Beware, My Lovely does precisely that. It keeps moving the viewing angle so that a rational mind can be intrigued by the handyman’s behavior and speculate that he could be a miserable loner struggling with bipolar disorder, not a conventional violent psychopath.

Unfortunately, this switcheroo makes Beware, My Lovely very easy to critique. Once the handyman begins dominating, for instance, the screenplay forces him to move through several clichéd situations, where the widow’s fear effectively overshadows all other developments. So, instead of becoming a most intriguing character study, Beware, My Lovely reaches the finish line only as a slightly different but still safe for its era genre film. Also, the inevitable battle of wits between the handyman and the widow is quite underwhelming. It features a broken window, a visit from the local grocery boy insisting on getting paid by the widow rather than the handyman, and a note requesting help that fails to reach its destination.

Fans of Ryan and Lupino will likely be pleased with the quality of their performances. Both reveal good ranges of emotions. Their chemistry before the camera is good, too. However, they must work with very dated dramatic material that is mostly allergic to authenticity. Also, too much of the same material is incompatible with nearly everything that makes film noir special. It is why Beware, My Lovely does have noir genes, it does not excite like a good film noir should.

A decade after the theatrical premiere of Beware, My Lovely, Dinelli’s play was adapted again for TV. This time, the handyman was played by Audie Murphy, who had become a huge star with such films as Destry, To Hell and Back, and The Quiet American.

Kino Lorber’s release of Beware, My Lovely is sourced from a recent 4K master that was prepared at Paramount Pictures.

Beware, My Lovely Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.37:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Beware, My Lovely arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber.

The release is sourced from a recent 4K master that was prepared at Paramount Pictures. This master gives the entire film a wonderful, very attractive organic appearance. However, there is some room for minor cosmetic improvements that can make the surface of the visuals even cleaner. Currently, in a few areas, small nicks and blemishes can be seen. Density levels are very good, but grain exposure could be even better. Everything else falls into the very good or excellent categories. For example, there are no traces of digital tinkering, and the grayscale is wonderfully balanced. Delineation, clarity, and depth are always pleasing, too. Image stability is very good. So, this release offers a very fine presentation of the film that may very well remain its definitive presentation on the home video market. My score is 4.25/5.00. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free player in order to access its content).

Beware, My Lovely Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature.

A powerful score by Leith Stevens does a lot to create as many dynamic contrasts as possible. In fact, I think that in some areas of Beware, My Lovely the score does too much, overemphasizing the already problematic melodramatic qualities of the film. Regardless, on my system, the lossless track sounded fantastic, plus all exchanges were crystal clear.

Beware, My Lovely Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Commentary - this new audio commentary was recorded by professor and film scholar Jason A. Ney. It covers a lot of ground, from the conception of Beware, My Lovely to its visual appearance and tone to its theatrical performance and the evolution of film noir.

• Trailer - a vintage theatrical trailer for Beware, My Lovely. In English, not subtitled. (2 min).

Beware, My Lovely Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

After the handyman begins dominating, Beware, My Lovely could have become a very intriguing character study with distinct dark overtones. In its current form, it is a curious film to deconstruct because it creates the impression that it intends to treat the handyman in a way its relatives from the 1950s do not, but when the widow's fear begins overshadowing all other developments, it quickly evolves into a conventional crime melodrama. I think that admirers of Robert Ryan and Ida Lupino should see it, as they are still quite good, but both actors have appeared in vastly superior films. Beware, My Lovely is included in Film Noir: The Dark Side of Cinema XIX, a three-disc box set.