6.7 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 2.5 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
"Don't laugh little girl Better run for your life. The man you just talked to Has just murdered his wife!" When two teenagers make prank phone calls to strangers, they become the target for terror when they whisper "I saw what you did" to a psychopath who has just murdered his wife. I SAW WHAT YOU DID features a cavalcade of William Castle-style shocks, plus a gloriously over-the-top performance by Joan Crawford as the killer's desperately amorous neighbor. Producer/director William Castle, known as Hollywood's Greatest Showman, had theaters showing the film equipped with special "Shock Sections" for faint-of-heart patrons, and proudly boasted that the movie instigated a nationwide epidemic of crank calls by America's teens.
Starring: Joan Crawford, John Ireland (I), Leif Erickson, Sara Lane, Andi GarrettHorror | 100% |
Thriller | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 (48kHz, 24-bit)
1569 kbps
English
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (locked)
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 2.5 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 1.0 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
With the collapse of the studio system in the early sixties, Golden Age stars like Joan Crawford and her chief rival Bette Davis sought lower
budgeted projects that were often beneath their talents. Crawford and Davis famously collaborated (and clashed) on the set of Robert Aldrich's What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?
(1962). Crawford was also tapped by Fox to co-star with Davis again in Aldrich's follow-up film, Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964)
, but her running feud with Davis reportedly forced her off the picture. Crawford and Davis went their separate ways as their careers took
divergent paths. Crawford teemed with horror filmmaker William Castle in Columbia's Strait-Jacket (1964), which was a hoot with
audiences and critics. I Saw What You Did, which followed Castle's The Night Walker (1964), brought the filmmaker and star
together once again but under different circumstances. Universal was seeking a younger actress to portray a love-obsessed widow living next door
to a psychopath in a California suburban neighborhood. Crawford became top billed on I Saw What You Did because this B-grade suspense
thriller needed a name actor to bring it major star power.
Crawford is more of a supporting player opposite John Ireland and two prurient teens who are best friends. Libby Mannering (Andi Garrett, who
went on to do "The Wild Wild West" TV series shortly thereafter) invites close friend Kit Austin (Sara Lane, who later worked on the TV Series, "The
Virginian") over to the country house while Libby's parents, Ellie (Patricia Breslin) and Dave Mannering (Leif Erickson), drive to Santa Barbara for a
social and business visit with acquaintances. Libby wants Kit to sleep over but after Kit informs her principled father John Austin (John Archer) that
Libby's folks will be gone, he insists that he pick his daughter up at 11:30 later that night. The Mannerings were hopeful that a babysitter could
look after Tess (Sharyl Locke), Libby's perky and sassy nine-year-old sister, but after the sitter becomes ill, that task falls to Libby and her friend.
Libby and Kit, along with Tess, decide that it would be a fun game to pick up the telephone directory and randomly select residents to make prank
calls to. Tess even calls an older lady pretending to be stranded at a movie theater and requesting that the stranger phone Libby to pick her up.
Judith later reaches one Judith Marak (Joyce Meadows) and asks to be connected to her husband, Steve Marak (John Ireland), who is taking a
shower. Unbeknownst to the girls, something terrible is imminent in the Marak household. Libby has a fantasy that Mr. Marak is a young
dreamboat and has no idea who he really is or what he's done.
Libby, Kitt, and Tess play a deadly game of telephone prank calls.
I Saw What You Did makes its inaugural debut on Blu-ray worldwide courtesy of Shout! Factory. The film was unavailable in the LaserDisc and
VHS era until Anchor Bay released it in 1999 with a letterboxed transfer on DVD. Universal later reissued the movie as a manufactured-on-demand disc
under the studio's "Vault Series" banner. Shout! has encoded a 2K transfer of I Saw What You Did on this AVC-encoded BD-25 boosting a total
video bitrate of 32.18 Mbps. The label presents Castle's film in the aspect ratio of 1.78:1, which approximates its projected theatrical ratio of 1.85:1.
Shout! advertises this as a new 2016 HD transfer but this is a bit of a misnomer. Analyzing the opening credits (which are quite crisp), I could tell that
this print derives from a digital intermediate and not an upconverted DVD. However, the transfer is struck from a dated master emanating from
Universal's vault. I disagree with MONO DIGITAL's take that the transfer delivers "a
very clean, clear, satisfying presentation." The image quality varies to the degree that it is essentially a tale of two transfers. On the plus side, blacks
are pretty deep and grayscale is outstanding most of the time. The grayscale on the daylight scenes, however, can tend to look too homogeneous
amidst the California countryside with a somewhat hazy appearance. (See Screenshot #13.) The outdoor shots taken during the day exhibit the
weakest contrast. There are film artifacts, predominantly white speckles (as well as black specks), tramlines, and scratches that periodically mar the
print from to start to finish. In addition, a half-dozen shots contain cue marks on the upper right-hand corner of the frame. (See #s 15, 16, 17, 18, 19,
and 20.) These cue dots come in two forms: first, as a motor cue (a mark indicating that the reel will conclude in about eight seconds); and second, as
a changeover cue (a mark appearing one second before the next reel should be loaded). Reel-change marks appeared on the transfers of some early
DVDs of older films but there is no excuse for why Universal/Shout! could not have eliminated them for the DI that went on this Blu-ray.
Shout! supplies the original monaural track of I Saw What You Did as a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0, which gives a fairly wide dispersal of the film's sound track. Dialogue is pretty clean throughout and I didn't feel the need to activate the optional English subtitles. Van Alexander's two alternating musical styles sound solid and are spread evenly across the two front channels. I also listened to this recording on headphones and noticed a little analog hiss throughout the first half of the film. (The hiss dies down during the second half.) There are a couple of very minor crackles but only hardcore audiophiles will spot them if they listen attentively. The track is audibly clear for the most part.
I Saw What You Did is a fun ride even though it is an erratic and maligned low-budget suspense thriller. The movie still needs to receive a full restoration by removing all of the anomalies present on this transfer. The picture is okay and remains the only version available at present. I look forward to seeing more of William Castle and Joan Crawford's films come to Blu-ray. A MINOR RECOMMENDATION for I Saw What You Did and purchase it in the $13-$18 range.
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