6.1 | / 10 |
Users | 2.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 2.8 |
Jimmy idolizes bootlegger Matt, and when he refuses to implicate his friend, he is sent to reform school. He befriends Shorty, a boy with a heart condition, and escapes to let the world know about the brutal conditions.
Starring: Bette Davis, Pat O'Brien (I), Junior Durkin, Emma Dunn, Charley GrapewinDrama | 100% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.2:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.37:1
English: LPCM Mono
None
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region free
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 3.5 | |
Audio | 3.5 | |
Extras | 0.5 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
Don't be misled by Bette Davis' top billing here; the starlet with the sultry eyes plays only an ancillary role in Hell's House, a low-budget boys reform school drama made in 1932, two years before Davis landed her breakout role as the cruel and manipulative Mildred Rogers in John Cromwell's adaptation of Somerset Maugham's Of Human Bondage. (Which Kino is also releasing this week.) A "poverty row" production shot on the cheap in just thirteen days, Hell's House is almost entirely unexceptional aside from Davis' brief presence. These sorts of social-ill/juvie-hall films were a dime a dozen in the 1930s—see the long- running Dead End Kids series—and Hell's House is one of the more routine, too tame to be a pre-Hays Code proto-exploitation flick and too timid to drive home a real message about the injustices of the type of reform school it depicts. (This is no Scum.) Upon its release, even moribund New York Times critic Mordaunt Hall called it "old-fashioned," which is to say, it's an early talkie with the narrative simplicity and bald sentimentality of an early silent picture. It's perhaps worth watching as a historical curiosity—so many of these movies are either lost or so obscure that no one cares to release them—but taken on its own merits, Hell's House is conventional and dry.
At the beginning of the film, you'll read this disclaimer:
"This archival edition of Hell's House was mastered in HD from an original 35mm print from Bette Davis' personal collection, donated to the
Library of Congress. The first reel is considerably worn, suffering nitrate decomposition and some missing frames. The film is otherwise intact."
And that about sums it up. The film's first few minutes suffer from strong print damage, with deterioration along the edges of the frame—resulting in a
sort of ghostly white, flickering vignetting—and a heavy flurry of white specks, overlayed with thick vertical and horizontal scratches. Additionally, there
are a few stutters and moments of choppiness due to the dropped frames, though these are fleeting. (There are no substantial chunks missing.) After
the first reel, the level of damage definitely lightens, but scratches and white flecks are still present to some degree throughout, along with other age-
related issues, like brightness fluctuations and small judders. Even at its worst, in those opening scenes, the damage is not in the least distracting,
especially if you're accustomed to watching films from this era. As with most Kino Classics releases, emphasis is placed on the true-to-source fidelity of
the picture. While the image hasn't undergone a frame-by-frame digital restoration, neither has it been artificially smoothed over with noise reduction or
other filtering methods. The film looks entirely natural, with a visible patina of grain and no signs of edge enhancement, compression artifacts, etc.
Clarity is often very impressive—you'll notice the fine detail in the boys' detention center uniforms, Bette Davis' individually visible eyelashes, etc.—and
the black and white contrast curve is balanced, with no overly crushed shadows or blown out highlights. A very watchable picture.
Like the picture, the film's uncompressed Linear PCM 2.0 mono track is also subject to some inevitable age damage, but never to a distracting extent. A light hiss runs through much of the movie, and you'll hear semi-frequent splice pops and crackles—along with a few outright dropouts from missing frames— but these are easy enough to ignore. What's most important is that the dialogue is relatively clear and easy to understand, with no major muffling or peaking. Likewise, the film's orchestral score sounds as good as can be expected for a film from this era, dynamically limited but bright and mostly clean. My only quibble here is that Kino—per custom—has once again neglected to include any subtitle options.
The only extra on the disc is a collection of high definition trailers for other Kino Classics releases.
Headliner Bette Davis plays only a bit role in Hell's House, a routine boys reform school melodrama which really stars Junior Durkin, a child actor who tragically died two years later in a car accident. It's the archetypal rural hayseed kid gets in over his head in the big city story, and besides Davis' brief screen time, there's little here to differentiate Hell's House from the dozens of other juvenile delinquent films of the 1930s. Still, if you're a Bette Davis fan, she's reason enough to check watch the film, which arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino with a high definition transfer sourced from a print that came from the big-eyed star's personal collection. For a film that features Davis more prominently, also check out Of Human Bondage, which Kino is also releasing this week.
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