Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		3.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		4.0
Overall		3.0

Deadlier Than the Male Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov June 17, 2015

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

When several powerful oil executives are eliminated, British agent Hugh ‘Bulldog’ Drummond (Richard Johnson, The Haunting) is called to track down the killer. Around the same time, however, Drummond’s horny nephew, Robert (Steve Carlson, Nobody's Perfect), appears and asks if he could spend a few days at his posh apartment with his young, beautiful, and incredibly naive new girlfriend (Virginia North, On Her Majesty's Secret Service).

Soon after, Robert is given a box of very dangerous cigars that cause some minor damages in Drummond’s apartment. He also has an exciting encounter with a beautiful older woman (Sylva Koscina, Hot Enough for June) who agrees to have a drink with him, but instead tortures him and when her assistant (Elke Sommer, Lisa and the Devil appears the two leave a ticking bomb next to his head.

Eventually, Drummond and Robert end up in a beautiful corner of the Mediterranean and quickly attract the attention of a powerful businessman (Nigel Green, The Kremlin Letter) residing in the area’s most beautiful castle. Shortly after Drummond visits the castle, he makes a shocking discovery.

Director Ralph Tomas has transformed Herman C. McNeile’s and Gerard Fairlie’s famous character into a James Bond double that definitely looks and acts like a super agent who understands what is expected from him. Only in Deadlier than the Male he is actually a clever but rather ordinary looking gentleman who does not have any of the fancy gadgets Bond frequently uses.

The film’s real stars, however, might be its two sexy villains, Sommer and Koscina. The two European actresses look stunning together and tease and kill their male targets with an enthusiasm that is virtually impossible to imitate. This makes all the difference as the film becomes deliciously subversive.

Of course, the plot is quite silly, but for the duration of the film it makes perfect sense. As it is the case with the majority of the classic Bond films, there are outrageous action sequences (the dangerous chess game between Drummond and psychopath is absolutely spectacular), beautiful panoramic shots from some truly stunning locations (the footage with the castle was shot on the picturesque Ligurian Coast, Northern Italy), and fantastic music to compliment it (The Walker Brothers’ classic song "Deadlier than the Male" is heard multiple times).

The script is excellent as well. Johnson and his opponents are given some very witty lines to work with, and as a result even the most ridiculous situations become very easy to tolerate.

Tomas shot Deadlier than the Male with cinematographer Ernest Steward, who is probably best known for his contributions to Gerald Thomas’ various Carry On films (Carry on Screaming!, Carry on Cowboy, Carry on Cleo).

Note: The character of Bulldog Drummond was created by McNeile during the early 1920s and introduced in The Strand Magazine. Later on, Drummond appeared in a series of novels, short stories, and even a few stage plays. After McNeile’s death in 1937, the stories were continued by Fairlie.

Deadlier Than the Male Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

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).

Deadlier Than the Male Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

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 Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer - original trailer for Deadlier than the Male. In English, not subtitled. (3 min).

• Interviews - the principal actors discuss the shooting of Deadlier than the Male as well as their contribution to the film. In English, not subtitled.
  
  1. Richard Johnson (6 min).
  2. Elke Sommer (6 min).
  3. Sylva Koscina (4 min).
  4. Nigel Green (6 min).
  5. Steve Carlson (5 min).

• Location Report 1 - presented here is archival footage from the shooting of Deadlier than the Male on location at Lerici, Italy. In English, not subtitled. (16 min).

• Location Report 2 - presented here is additional archival footage from the shooting of Deadlier than the Male on location at Lerici, Italy. In English, not subtitled. (15 min).

• Behind the Scenes Gallery - a collection of photographs from the shooting of Deadlier than the Male. (9 min).

• Portrait Gallery - a large collection of photos with the principal actors. (7 min).

• Production Gallery - an even larger collection of production stills. (17 min).

• Promotional Gallery - a collection of posters, lobby cards, promo stills, magazine clips, and more. The gallery includes images provided by Christian Ostermeier. (3 min).

• Promotional Materials - PDFs.

Deadlier Than the Male Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

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.