6.9 | / 10 |
Users | 4.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.3 |
Lewis Harper, a cool private investigator, is hired by a wealthy California matron to locate her kidnapped husband.
Starring: Paul Newman, Lauren Bacall, Julie Harris, Arthur Hill (I), Janet LeighCrime | Insignificant |
Drama | Insignificant |
Mystery | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.35:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono (48kHz, 24-bit)
English SDH
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A, B (C untested)
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 5.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 2.5 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
By the mid-Sixties, filmed detective stories had migrated from local cinemas to series TV. Philip
Marlowe, Sam Spade and the Thin Man had been replaced by the likes of Peter
Gunn, Honey
West and the residents of 77 Sunset Strip (and
many others would follow). But an aspiring young
screenwriter named William Goldman decided to try reviving the genre for the movies with an
adaptation of Ross Macdonald's Lew Archer series, and his script caught the interest of one of
Hollywood's then-leading stars, Paul Newman. Newman's participation attracted both studio
backing and an exceptional supporting cast, and the combination of the star's appeal and the
sheer novelty of a detective tale reappearing on the silver screen made Harper a hit. (The
detective's name was changed because studio executives didn't like "Archer", and the
replacement began with an "H" because Newman considered it a lucky letter after The Hustler
and Hud.)
Goldman would go on to become a celebrated writer for and about the movies. He won his first
Oscar for reuniting with Newman to script Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and his second
for wrestling the Woodward and Bernstein account of their Watergate investigation into a
compelling thriller in All the President's
Men. He created a comedy classic with his screen
adaptation of his own novel, The Princess
Bride, and one of the best Stephen King adaptations
with Misery. He managed to pursue a lucrative career as
an uncredited script doctor, while
simultaneously writing acerbic insider accounts of the film industry, including Adventures in the
Screen Trade, where he memorably proclaimed that "Nobody knows anything".
Unfortunately, what Goldman could not do was interest Newman in the sequel to Harper that he
desperately wanted to write. Nine years after Harper's success, Newman would revisit the
character with a different creative team in The
Drowning Pool, but by then TV so thoroughly
dominated the traditional detective genre—think Columbo, Mannix, Cannon
and The Rockford
Files, just to name a few—that Hollywood had been forced to reinvent it with twisted tales like
Klute and Chinatown. Even with Newman reprising the character, his second Harper film couldn't
buck the larger Zeitgeist, and the sequel barely made an impression.
Today, more than five decades later, there's been a curious reversal of fortune in which the
unsuccessful sequel has aged better than the more successful original. Viewers interested in
doing their own comparison, not to mention Newman fans and mystery junkies, can now revisit
both films in sensational new 1080p transfers from the Warner Archive Collection.
Harper was shot by legendary cinematographer Conrad Hall, who would win his first Oscar for
his reunion with Paul Newman and screenwriter William Goldman in Butch Cassidy and the
Sundance Kid. (His second was for American
Beauty and his third, posthumously, for Road to
Perdition, which reunited him with Newman yet again.) Hall's work in Harper required him to
create a visually coherent narrative out of wildly disparate environments, from Claude's Temple
in the Clouds to the shadowy marine warehouse filled with huge propellers and anchors, where
Harper battles an adversary. (A later scene with Harper and Graves searching a derelict ship is
equally challenging—and memorable.) Hall, who would later say that he was afraid of darkness in film, still
managed to light dark scenes beautifully—and notice how he always arranged to get a key light on his
actors, especially his star's famous face, even in the dimmest of scenes.
For this 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray from the Warner Archive Collection, an interpositive was
scanned at 2K by Warner's Motion Picture Imaging facility. This was the same IP used to
transfer Harper for its 2006 DVD, but here it receives the benefit of far more advanced
technology for both scanning and color correction. MPI had the benefit of a dye-transfer
Technicolor print as a color reference, and the result is an exquisite reproduction of Harper's
stylized Sixties design, which captures California fashion and decor on the cusp of its
transformation by the brewing counterculture. Blacks are deep and solid, sharpness and detail are
exceptional, and the film's grain is naturally and finely rendered. Harper doesn't have a
particularly rich palette, except for occasional flashes of brighter colors, usually associated with a
female character (note how Lauren Bacall's Elaine makes her first appearance under the
artificial glow of tanning lamps). The predominant hues are varieties of gray and brown, like the
dull shades of Harper's junk heap of a car, of which the faded paint and mismatched door are an
appropriate metaphor for the owner's life.
As per its usual practice, WAC has mastered Harper at a high average bitrate, here 34.99 Mbps.
Harper's original mono track has been taken from the magnetic master and encoded on Blu-ray in lossless DTS-HD MA 2.0. The mags were found to be in very good condition and required only minimal cleanup. It's a solidly serviceable mono track that effectively prioritizes the dialogue while accentuating it with environmental sound effects appropriate to the diverse locales in which Harper finds himself, from a loud airfield to the various nightclubs inhabited by Fay Estabrook and Betty Fraley to the silent mountain top where Claude performs his acts of worship (and possibly something else). The dynamic range is acceptable for the period, and the score by Johnny Mandel (who would reteam with Newman for The Verdict) provides a suitably jaunty accompaniment to Harper's roving investigation of a case where nothing is what it seems.
The extras have been ported over from Warner's 2006 DVD of Harper, with the omission of the
TCM introduction by Robert Osborne. The trailer has been remastered in 1080p.
Harper isn't among Newman's better films, but it was a box office hit and is remembered fondly by
its fans. For them, and just for anyone who enjoys watching what the star could do in his prime
with juicy lines like what Goldman wrote for him, WAC has brought the film to Blu-ray in high
style with a brilliant image showcasing the work of a master cinematographer. Highly
recommended as a Blu-ray; the film may be an acquired taste.
1967
1946
1978
1975
Hot Spot
1941
1941
Warner Archive Collection
1946
1942
4K Restoration
1973
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1976
1950
1967
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1968
Reissue
1957
Warner Archive Collection
1944
1995
50th Anniversary Edition
1974
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