Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		3.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		2.5
Overall		2.0

Five Bloody Graves Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman June 20, 2020

Note: This film is available as part of Al Adamson: The Masterpiece Collection.

Disc Three of The Masterpiece Collection aggregates two western features,with Five Bloody Graves perhaps (perhaps) echoing another 1969 era western, I Am Sartana, Your Angel of Death, by offering a narrator (Gene Raymond) who might be more at home carrying a scythe rather than a six shooter.

Robert Dix, scion of a famous Western film family, plays hero Ben Thompson, whose arrival often portends death for the unaware. An evil "Indian" named Setago (John Bud Carlos) is responsible for the death of Ben's wife, and Ben is out to make sure Setago doesn't strike again. While this is often a scenic Adamson film, not much actually happens, with long segments given over to shots of the scenery accompanied by boisterous orchestral cues.

Five Bloody Graves Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Five Bloody Graves is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Severin Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer 2.34:1. While this transfer exhibits some of the recurrent signs of age related wear and tear seen in many of the other films in this set, this is by and large one of the more robust looking transfers in the Adamson collection. The opening few minutes are arguably the roughest, but a lot of the film pops very well, with generally nice detail levels, especially in some of the brightly lit outdoor material. The palette is nicely suffused for the most part. Grain resolves well for the most part, but can occasionally look pretty gritty against some of the bright blue skies.

Five Bloody Graves Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Five Bloody Graves features a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono mix that has a few moments of distortion or a slightly muffled sound, but which on the whole is one of the better sounding tracks in the set. The film features a somewhat anachronistic (though au courant for the late sixties) occasionally rock inflected score, but the more traditional orchestral cues sound full bodied. This is another film that perhaps relies on abundant narration to help it elide some narrative deficiencies, and that aspect sounds fine, if fairly boxy. Dialogue is presented cleanly and clearly throughout. English subtitles are available via the button on your remote.

Five Bloody Graves Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Outside of Tucson (1080p; 16:06) is an interview with actor and screenwriter Robert Dix, some of which looks like it was filmed at the same time as the documentary about Adamson included in this set.


• Partial Archival Audio Commentary with Producer / Distributor Samuel M. Sherman also includes some comments (phoned in?) by Robert Dix.


• Alternate Five Bloody Days to Tombstone Title Sequence
(1080p; 2:11)

• Radio Spot (00:27)


• Trailer (480p; 2:17)

Five Bloody Graves Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Five Bloody Graves could have used some tightening in the screenplay department, but it's scenic and it's fun to see a cast that features not just Robert Dix, but Scott Brady, Jim Davis, Paula Raymond and John Carradine in various roles. This film offers some of the better technical merits in the set, and the partial commentary by Sherman (with a little help from Dix) is very enjoyable.