Half Way to Hell Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		2.0
Audio		2.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		2.0

Half Way to Hell 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, though arguably Half Way to Hell is an "Al Adamson film" by implication only, since the film was supposed to be a Victor Adamson film (Al's father). As is disclosed in some of the supplementary material in this set, Al and his Dad had a falling out, with the upshot being that Al was an uncredited director. Al is on hand as an actor under his "stage name" Lyle Felice.

Half Way to Hell actually has a rather interesting plot, with an early 20th century Mexican woman named Maria (Caroll Mantour) attempting to escape an arranged marriage, with all sorts of trauma ensuing. The film kind of flirts with some of the exploitation angles that Adamson would later mine ad infinitum, albeit here perhaps a bit more discreetly, perhaps at least in part to its 1960 production date. The film was evidently beset with a number of production issues, and as such quite a few of the segues are elided by narration offered by Maria (not the only time Adamson would resort to this particular gambit).

Half Way to Hell Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Half Way to Hell is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Severin Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.84:1. This is culled from a pretty badly damaged element, one with manifest scratches, nicks, unstable frames, inartful splices and some really wonky, variable contrast that can alternately make things look to dark or blown out. There are passing moments here that at least look decent, with okay detail levels and relatively solid contrast, but this is one of the less pleasing looking transfers in the Adamson set.

Half Way to Hell Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Half Way to Hell features a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono track which is probably as problematic as the video element. There are a lot of pops, cracks, missing phonemes and occasional dropouts noticeable throughout the presentation. Some of the voiceover sounds reasonably full bodied, and dialogue makes it through the gauntlet mostly unscathed other than the aforementioned issues. English subtitles are available via the button on your remote, but there are some curious errors (hero cowboy Jeff Lawton's name is offered as Jeff London).

Half Way to Hell Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This film has no supplemental material.

Half Way to Hell Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Half Way to Hell has some rather interesting elements, but it's probably best appreciated as a historical curio and a chance to see Adamson in a somewhat more featured performances. Both video and audio encounter some fairly significant issues, and there is no supplementary content.