7.1 | / 10 |
Users | 4.5 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Three Americans are headed by ship around the cape to the California gold fields when they are put ashore for several weeks in a sleepy little Mexican village. While there, they are offered the job of following a lady deep into the indian infested mountains of Mexico to rescue the ladies husband trapped by a cave-in at their gold mine. For the job they are promised two thousand dollars each. While each contemplates their own chances for getting the lady and /or the gold mine, if they can survive to enjoy it.
Starring: Gary Cooper, Susan Hayward, Richard Widmark, Hugh Marlowe, Cameron MitchellWestern | 100% |
Romance | 32% |
Drama | 3% |
Adventure | Insignificant |
Action | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.55:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.55:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 4.0 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 (48kHz, 24-bit)
Music: DTS-HD Master Audio 3.0 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English SDH
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region free
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
After a series of uncredited or unseen (due to being deleted from the final cut) performances, Susan Hayward got her big break playing a smallish role in 1939’s Beau Geste, a part whch had originally been announced for Frances Farmer, before Farmer decided such an underdeveloped character didn’t merit her attention. Hayward and Farmer actually co-starred together a couple of years later in the little seen but quite interesting thriller Among the Living, an early noir-ish film where Hayward played a blowsy seductress, exactly the kind of part Farmer had spent the early part of her career trying to avoid (Farmer was consigned to playing the part of the “nice” girl in the film). In 1947, Hayward received her first Academy Award nomination for Smash-Up: The Story of a Woman, a film directed by Among the Living’s helmsman Stuart Heisler and which a couple of film historians have mentioned could well have been inspired (at least in part) by what were then still much reported incidents documenting the sad trajectory of Farmer’s mental health and alcohol issues. (Interestingly, Marsha Hunt, one of the gaggle of “starlets” signed by Paramount at around the same time as Farmer and included in tons of early publicity material with her, plays a supporting role in Smash-Up. Hunt is still going strong at 98 as of the writing of this review.) One way or the other, Smash-Up was a breakthrough of sorts for Hayward, with the now prominent actress receiving recurrent Academy Award nominations every two or three years (until her final triumph for I Want to Live! in 1958). Hayward had an undeniably seductive persona, a kind of sensuous quality that strangely wasn’t as overtly sexual as it was suggestive. That “come hither” persona is firmly on display in the somewhat turgid Garden of Evil, a 1954 opus which reunited her with her long ago Beau Geste star Gary Cooper. Garden of Evil is an intermittently exciting film where the characters at least occasionally seem to want to sit around and discuss things ad infinitum instead of actually doing something about them, an odd choice for an early CinemaScope outing that was obviously meant to capitalize on some stunning locations and an at least perceived action adventure Western ambience. If the film’s narrative never really amounts to much, Hayward, Cooper and co-star Richard Widmark are all in top form, supported by a nicely colorful aggregation of character actors including Cameron Mitchell, Hugh Marlowe, Victor Manuel Mendoza and (in what amounts to a cameo) Rita Moreno.
Garden of Evil is presented on Blu-ray with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.55:1. This relatively early Fox CinemaScope feature was lensed by Milton Krasner and Jorge Stahl, Jr., and was obviously designed from the get go to exploit some of the stunning Mexican locales that provide so much of the film's literal and figurative color. Speaking of color (ahem), while the vast majority of this transfer has rock solid blues and reds, flesh tones can be occasionally on the sallow side, as several of the screenshots accompanying this review detail. That tends to be relegated mostly to the early scenes (though it recurs later as well), and is probably the only thing the palette police may have to complain about. Occasional opticals struggle with both detail and density (see screenshot 12), understandably looking a bit ragged when compared to the bulk of the presentation. Other, perhaps slightly less understandable, moments crop up at rare intervals where the image simply doesn't have the sharpness and level of detail of even other shots in the same sequence (see screenshots 14 and 17 for two examples). Contrast is generally excellent (a couple of day for night shots were a tiny bit undercooked to my eyes), and the grain field looks natural and encounters no resolution issues. Damage is virtually negligible (I noticed one or two tiny anomalies like a miniscule scratch that appears for a second by Widmark's eye when he's on a horse galloping down a river in an early scene).
Twilight Time has given audiophiles a glut of listening options with this release of Garden of Evil, and all of them sound fantastic. A DTS- HD Master Audio 5.1 mix slightly ups the ante in terms of surround activity and (especially) low end for Bernard Herrmann's towering score from the also included DTS-HD Master Audio 4.0 mix (recreating the four track stereo presentation of the original theatrical exhibition). A DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mix is also included, and just for good measure (and/or measures—that's a musical joke), Herrmann's score is presented in DTS- HD Master Audio 3.0 as an isolated track option. Fidelity is superb across the board, and there's none of the phasing quality that sometimes attends rejiggered surround mixes.
Garden of Evil may not exactly be rip roarin' entertainment in the most raucous Western tradition, but it provides a nice showcase for Hayward as well as Fox's ultra-hyped CinemaScope widescreen glories. This release sports excellent technical merits and an appealing supplementary package. Recommended.
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