Hell Hath No Fury Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.5

Hell Hath No Fury Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman December 20, 2021

Based on one of those "and now the rest of the story" text crawls that appears at the end of Hell Hath No Fury, it would seem that focal character Marie Dujardin (Nina Bergman) was a real life French Resistance fighter during World War II, though that said, I haven't been able to track down any authoritative and/or verifiable information in that regard, though it's notable that several sites devoted to marketing this film in one way or the other do at least allude to the story being "ripped from the (historical) headlines". If that is indeed the case, it may cause some American lovers of war films to reevaluate how they probably automatically tend to think of U.S. soldiers as the "heroes", since the Americans in this film are just one of three groups basically harassing Marie, since she supposedly knows where a cache of gold bullion has been stored as World War II is drawing to a close. The other two groups are the Nazis, who initially stole the loot, and the French Resistance itself, who had planned to steal it for themselves. All of this information is doled out rather discursively and disjunctively in a film that might have benefitted from a bit less wobbly structure (which includes sudden flashbacks repeatedly interrupting the story to help flesh things out). The film begins with Marie and an SS officer named Von Bruckner (Daniel Bernhardt) being chauffered through a French forest in the middle years of World War II, when their driver has to stop the car due to a blockage in the road. Of course, that turns out to be a trap, and suddenly there are hordes of French Resistance fighters coming out of the woodwork, or at least the woods. Von Bruckner rather ingallantly high tails it out of the car, telling Marie to stay put, and then as the Resistance Fighters seem about to shoot Marie, even as she speaks in French and tells them she's "one of them", Von Bruckner's expertise with a Glock comes in handy, and suddenly the clearing is full of "former" Resistance fighters, with a traumatized Marie kind of gasping in the back seat. The film then segues forward three years to find Marie being shorn of her hair and branded with a swastika by French villagers for having collaborated with the enemy.

The film kind of lurches again without much explanation, suddenly placing Marie in the back of a Jeep being driven by a bunch of GIs, including Major Maitland (Louis Mandylor). The group arrives at a French cemetery, where they've been led to believe, apparently by Marie herself, that the gold is supposedly buried there, in a grave ostensibly containing Von Bruckner's body. Marie claims to be experiencing some kind of amnesia, and can't immediately identify the right plot, and that gives the narrative "breathing room" for all sorts of mayhem and internecine strife to intrude. The film turns out to be a rather elaborate cat and mouse game between various interested parties, but in that regard, while the film's trailer (included on this disc as the sole supplement) makes it seem like Hell Hath No Fury is a nonstop shootout between the Germans and Americans, in fact the Nazis only show up in the last few minutes of the story, when things have really started to get perilous.

The "relationship" between Maitland and Marie is front and center in the film, but there are a gaggle of supporting players floating in and out of events, including a couple of Resistance fighters lurking in the background who literally spring up (in one case out of the earth) at various points, one of whom brutally murders an American fairly early in the film. While that subterfuge simmers in the background, Marie's backstory is slowly but surely developed, though it's presented in such a disjointed manner that it may become hard for some viewers to really establish the sort of empathy for the character the filmmakers obviously intended. While the opening vignette of the film seemed to suggest Marie was more than happy to be the lover of an SS officer, the truth of course turns out to be significantly more nuanced, though that set of "facts" is shown not have helped Marie with either her own countrymen or her temporary (?) American captors.

This is ultimately the story of one woman's survival against significant odds, and it hinges on a believable performance by Bergman. She acquits herself rather admirably in a role that requires both visceral steeliness and undeniable vulnerability. The supporting cast is generally excellent as well, and director Jesse V. Johnson stages the action elements, which frankly only really unfold in the film's last half hour or so, very well. It still might have been nice to actually know if any of these events were "based on real life".

Hell Hath No Fury Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Hell Hath No Fury is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Well Go USA with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. Kind of interestingly, the closing credits cite both Arriflex cameras and lenses utilized (see below in my final comments for another kind of interesting credit listing), but "Arriflex" is a term and/or brand with a long history, and I haven't been able to track down any authoritative information on what model was actually utilized (it's perhaps salient to note that the Arriflex line is old enough it encompasses both standard film technology in both 16mm and 35mm as well as newer digital capture technologies). This is a generally very well detailed looking presentation, and the palette, while kind of "khaki dreary" some of the time, can actually pop surprisingly well in certain select sequences, including the opening vignette in the car, as well as some of the flashback material featuring Marie and her German lover. Fine detail is often excellent, encompassing everything from the fabrics on costumes to things like the stubble on one of the resistance fighter's faces. There's one very brief establishing shot at the beginning of the film which struck me as having been sourced from stock footage, and some extremely brief CGI toward the end of the film is not especially convincing (see screenshot 18).

Hell Hath No Fury Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Hell Hath no Fury features a nicely immersive DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track which is mostly in English, but which darts off into both German and French at times, rather interestingly not always with subtitles (more on the subtitles situation at the end of this section). The track delivers good engagement of the surround channels at several key moments, including the calamitous showdown that begins the film, as well as the even more calamitous battle which caps the final act. The vast majority of the film takes place outside in the cemetery, and as such well placed ambient environmental sounds help to establish a realistic ambience. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Regarding the subtitles, there are optional English subtitles which append most of the English language dialogue, but not all (one notable missing moment is a supposed newsreel which helps the film segue from 1941 to 1944). As mentioned above, the film darts off into both French and German at various points, and rather interestingly, forced subtitles only appear some of the time during those scenes.

Hell Hath No Fury Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer (HD; 2:02)

Note: As tends to be the case with Well Go USA Blu-ray releases, the disc has been authored to automatically move on to trailers for other Well Go USA releases after the trailer for this film plays. Those trailers for other Well Go USA releases also play automatically at disc boot up.

Packaging features a slipcover.

Hell Hath No Fury Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

A propos of nothing other than being an example of the times in which we're living, I believe this is the first film I've reviewed personally that had "Covid Nurse" among the personnel listed in the credits roll. That may be a subliminal allusion to the grit it takes to keep going when things get tough, and in way serves as a fitting enough analog for what Marie experiences in this story. The film could arguably have been structured a bit more artfully, so that repeated flashbacks didn't seem to be such obvious exposition dumps, but the performances are quite viscerally effective, especially Bergman. Technical merits are solid, and Hell Hath No Fury comes Recommended.