6.6 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
Tough-as-nails investigator Drummond gets to the bottom of an oil executive's murder and finds out that a bevy of beautiful bikini-clad assassins are working for a ruthless crime lord.
Starring: Sylva Koscina, Elke Sommer, Richard Johnson (I), Nigel Green, Suzanna LeighCrime | Insignificant |
Adventure | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.35:1
English: LPCM 2.0 (48kHz, 16-bit)
BDInfo
English SDH
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region B (locked)
Movie | 4.0 | |
Video | 3.0 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 4.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
Ralph Thomas' "Deadlier than the Male" (1967) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of British distributors Network. The supplemental features on the disc include an original trailer; archival interviews with cast members; archival footage from the shooting of the film; promotional materials; and more. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-B "locked".
The Bulldog
Presented in its original aspect ratio of 2.35:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Ralph Thomas' Deadlier Than the Male arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of British distributors Network.
The release has been sourced from an old master with some quite obvious limitations. Clarity and depth tend to fluctuate, with the wider panoramic shots in particular frequently looking flat (see screencaptures #15 and 19). During the indoor footage, shadow definition also isn't convincing. There are no traces of recent degraining corrections, but the grain is not evenly distributed and certainly not well resolved. In fact, there are areas of the film where it is very easy to see that it is mixed with light noise or covered with compression artifacts (see the left side of screencapture #16). Color reproduction isn't convincing. While colors appear mostly stable, it is very easy to tell that saturation could be and should be a lot better. The good news here is that no attempts have been made to resharpen and repolish the film. What this means is that even though the film has a dated appearance and certain scenes can be quite soft at times, it is still watchable because its basic organic qualities are not completely destroyed. This becomes fairly obvious during select close-ups (see screencaptures #2 and 4). For what it's worth, I personally would much rather have this type of softer but unprocessed high-definition transfer than the sharpened and digitally boosted high-definition transfers that frequently emerge from Universal's vaults. All in all, there is certainly plenty of room for improvement, but the Blu-ray release of Deadlier Than the Male clearly represents a decent upgrade in quality over the old and quite poor R1 DVD release of the film. (Note: This is a Region-B "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-B or Region-Free Blu-ray player in order to access its content).
There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: English LCPM 2.0. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature. When turned on, they appear inside the image frame.
Even though the audio has not been remastered, depth and clarity are very good. More importantly, there is no distracting background hiss or annoying distortions to report in our review. The dialog is stable and very easy to follow. Malcolm Lockyer's score is also well balanced (there are no sudden spikes or drops in dynamic activity).
Deadlier than the Male is a lovely film to see very late at night. It is sort of a James Bond copycat project, but it has quite an attitude and a solid cast that clearly had a lot of fun with the colorful characters. It is a must-see for fans of Sylva Koscina and Elke Sommer. The Blu-ray is sourced from an old master. The film could look a lot better in high-definition, but I have to say that the Blu-ray is still quite an upgrade over the old and quite poor R1 DVD release. I doubt Deadlier than the Male will be restored any time soon, so consider adding it to your collections if you can find it on sale. RECOMMENDED.
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