Find a Place to Die Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.5

Find a Place to Die Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman July 13, 2023

Note: This film is available on Blu-ray as part of Arrow's Blood Money: Four Classic Westerns set.

The term "Spaghetti Western" and the name of Sergio Leone are probably going to be forever linked in many film fans' minds, but as a number of labels and perhaps especially Arrow continue to prove, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery as they say, and in this particular instance there were seemingly hordes of filmmakers out to "flatter" Leone with their own take on this often rather provocative (sub?)genre. Blood Money aggregates a quartet of rather interesting films, all according to some descriptive verbiage on the slipbox included with this set "centered around the theme" of the title of the collection. Each of the four offers interesting introductions by Italian journalist and critic Fabio Melelli, and he points out both some connections between some of the films, as well as some perhaps unexpected tethers to Hollywood in some cases as well. The films' production dates range from 1967 to 1970 and offer an admittedly somewhat formulaic approach to both plot and character, all within the general confines already proscribed by Leone, but each of the films has some interesting elements either intrinsically or again in some cases with a certain "meta" aspect. As usual with these Arrow collections, technical merits tend to be solid and the supplemental content is outstanding.

Somewhat hilariously when you spend as much of your time watching and then writing about films and television as I do, things can become somewhat of a blur, and I often find myself thinking, "Have I seen this film somewhere before?" That query often then sends me on a snark hunt of sorts to figure out if maybe I've reviewed it previously if it doesn't immediately spring to mind as having already been written about, or if I've had some kind of contact with it in some form or fashion. In that regard, it actually took me getting to the supplements on this disc to figure out that niggling feeling of déjà vu I had while watching Find a Place to Die was not in fact because I had seen it before, but because many years ago I reviewed a film that evidently inspired this one, namely Garden of Evil.

In this case you actually get a bona fide Hollywood marquee name, with Jeffrey Hunter rather late in his career playing a kind of washed up and hard drinking gunslinger named Joe Collins. Collins has some "history" that plays into his emotional state, and he would seem to be an unlikely choice for a desperate woman named Lisa Martin (Pascale Petit) to help her and, ostensibly, her badly wounded husband back at a mine where the married couple has been prospecting. I mentioned in my review of Garden of Evil how it probably unavoidably was reminiscent, at least at times, of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, and that may be the case with this film as well, especially with regard to some of the more mendacious motives of Joe and the team he assembles.

Find a Place to Die Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Find a Place to Die is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Arrow Video with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. Arrow's insert booklet included with the Blood Money set lumps all of the films in the set together on its page devoted to the restorations:

$10,000 Blood Money is presented in its original aspect ratio of 2.35:1 with Italian and English mono sound.

Vengeance is Mine is presented in its original aspect ratio of 2.35:1 with Italian and English mono sound.

Find a Place to Die is presented in its original aspect of 1.85:1 with Italian and English mono sound.

The original 35mm negatives were scanned in 2K resolution at Cinema Communications, Rome. The films were graded and restored in 2K resolution at Dragon DI, Wales.

Sound mastering was completed by Lowe Frequency Limited, London and Bad Princess Productions, London.

Matalo! (Kill Him) is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1 with Italian and English mono sound.

The original 35mm negative was scanned and restored in 2K resolution at L'Immagine Ritrovata, Bologna. The film was colour graded at R3Store Studios London.

Sound remastering was completed at L'Immagine Ritrovata and Lowe Frequency Productions, London.

Audio synch will appear loose against the picture, as the dialogue was recorded entirely in post productions, as pwer the production standards of the period.

All original materials for 10,000 Blood Money, Vengeance is Mine and Find a Place to Die were supplied by Variety Distribution.

All original materials supplied for the restoration of Matalo! (Kill Him) were made available by Intramovies and Mediaset.

Find a Place to Die has some intermittent color timing issues where things can look just slightly yellow-green at times, and there are a few passing minor blemishes on tap, but on the whole this is a really nice looking transfer that has consistently appealing fine detail levels in the glut of close-ups that are repeatedly favored (see screenshots 1, 3 and 5 for three examples). When not looking just slightly sickly per my above comment, the palette is rather warm and nicely suffused and some occasional wide framings offer sometimes surprisingly fulsome depth of field. Grain resolves naturally throughout.

Find a Place to Die Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Find a Place to Die features Italian and English language versions in LPCM Mono. Audio is not able to be toggled between the versions, and as such a "side by side" comparison wasn't accessible, but to my ears other than the language differences, the mixes sounded pretty much identical. The guitar inflected score, which is compared to the gorgeous Concierto de Aranjuez by Joaquín Rodrigo in some of the supplemental material can encounter slight distortion and breakup in both versions, but overall I preferred the English language track on this film, due at least in part to the fact that you get Jeffrey Hunter's real voice. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly in both versions. Optional English subtitles are available.

Find a Place to Die Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Italian Version and English Version options are accessible under the Choose Version Menu.


• Commentary by Howard Hughes


• Venus and the Cowboys (HD; 13:05) is a new introduction by journalist and critic Fabio Melelli, who addresses a supposed "mystery" about who actually directed it (something the commentary by Howard Hughes also briefly mentions). He talks a bit about Jeffrey Hunter's career and mentions that he feels this film is more or less a direct (if unattributed) remake of Garden of Evil. Subtitled in English.


• Sons of Leone (HD; 18:10) is a new edited archival interview with (maybe?) director Giuliano Carnimeo. Subtitled in English.


• Traditional Figure (HD; 31:17) offers an appreciation of Gianni Gerrio's score by Lovely Jon.


• Image Gallery (HD)

Find a Place to Die Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Jeffrey Hunter had a somewhat tragic end and a career that experienced both huge highs and some rather unsettling lows. He's rather interesting in a role far, far removed from, say, Jesus, and the film has an undeniably melancholic aspect at times. Technical merits are generally solid, and as usual Arrow has aggregated some appealing supplements. Recommended.