I, the Jury 4K + 3D Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		4.0
Overall		3.5

I, the Jury 4K + 3D Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman October 27, 2022

There's a moment in I, the Jury where just one of several femmes fatales offers hardscrabble private dick Mike Hammer (Biff Elliot) an old fashioned kind of "ViewMaster" device where Hammer can gawk at 3D images of that very femme fatale (and her twin sister, to boot), and some may feel they're similarly engaging in an "antique technology" if they watch this film in its own 3D presentation. Much like the "3D craze" of the early to mid-fifties ultimately kind of went as quickly as it had come, manufacture of 3D televisions, projectors, players and, of course, discs seems to be going the way of the dinosaur, which is why I for one think "niche format" champions like Robert Furmanek of the 3-D Film Archive should be celebrated by film lovers with an eye (no pun intended) toward historical preservation. Kind of interestingly, then, while Mr. Furmanek did team with ClassicFlix for Africa Screams, The Abbott and Costello Show: Season 1 and Jack and the Beanstalk (none of which had any 3-D content in terms of the main feature offered), at least going by the credits on this release, he doesn't seem to have been an "official" participant here, though this post on our Forum gives a detailed timeline of both this film and the long gestating restoration and Blu-ray release which may suggest the story, as they say, is more complicated. The film itself is a bit of a hit or miss affair, and it obviously suffers from a lower budget that didn't allow it to take advantage of supposed New York City locations, but the 3D imagery is quite spectacular a lot of the time, and due to a relatively recent 4K scan by StudioCanal which I'm assuming this release utilized (there's a StudioCanal production masthead at the beginning of this presentation, which, hardscrabble private dick that I am, I took as a "major clue", one which has since been confirmed by a confidential informant and/or stool pigeon), this release also offers a 4K UHD disc.

Mickey Spillane's iconic character Mike Hammer would seem to have been almost the perfect paradigm for the film noir craze (perhaps especially of the B-movie variety) that probably preceded but then continued into the 3D era, though kind of interestingly in that regard, I, the Jury was the first cinematic vehicle for the kind of private investigator who was more than willing to beat the truth out of various suspects. I, the Jury in (pulp?) novel form had introduced Hammer in 1947, and in some ways it's kind of curious that it took until 1953 for him to matriculate to the big screen, and it's perhaps equally curious that he'd be played by Biff Elliot in what is arguably his only starring role. Elliot's Wikipedia page suggests he actually was supposed to continue playing the character in a planned franchise, but as Robert Aldrich and/or Ralph Meeker fans will certainly know, by the time Kiss Me Deadly came along two years later, things had changed. (Real trivia fans will know that Mickey Spillane himself portrayed Hammer in 1963's The Girl Hunters.)

I, the Jury starts with a fun sequence featuring the first of several "in your face" moments as a gun is pointed to a hapless amputee who is shot and who succumbs while kind of horrifyingly trying to drag himself to his prosthetic limb. The victim turns out to be a buddy of Hammer's, and so of course our intrepid detective is personally involved in the case, in the best time honored tradition. Helpful policeman Captain Pat Chambers (Preston Foster) announces via a newspaper article that Mike already has a suspect, hoping to draw the murderer out (with Mike as the target), but Chambers also provides Mike with a handy list of suspects, and the first part of the film offers a series of sometimes patently weird and provocative vignettes as Mike "interviews" various characters.

For a 1953 film, there's a really interesting and completely obvious if never "stated out loud" subtext involving two male characters, a kind of Sugar Daddy older type and a younger acolyte, who are pretty obviously a couple, and there are also two beguiling twin sisters. The victim's girlfriend is a drug addict, and it turns out that both she and the victim had been seeing therapist Charlotte Manning (Peggie Castle). This isn't even the entire litany of unusual suspects who dot this enterprise, and while not all that surprising given the longstanding custom of film noir featuring blonde femmes fatales who are the main culprits, I, the Jury does a decent enough job of keeping enough red herrings in play to divert attention from the denouement.

An evidently low budget kept ace cinematographer John Alton from utilizing locations, and instead the film offers "settings" courtesy of interstitial illustrations that are quasi-Christmas cards (the story takes place during the holiday season). The film's really fascinating framings are one of its chief highlights, and are certainly one of the main pluses of the 3D presentation in particular. On the minus side, while Elliot is okay as Hammer, he never seems to completely capture the feral intensity of the character. Some of the supporting players are on the stiff side, but the story and its kind of oblique presentation in terms of its smarmier aspects may make this a fascinating viewing experience for cultural anthropologists.

I, the Jury 4K + 3D Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Note: Screenshots are sourced from the 1080 disc in this package (which can play either a 2D or 3D 1080 image, depending on which you choose). Because this is another release where the 1080 version is also new, I've included twenty screenshots rather than the customary five we offer in our 4K UHD reviews. I'll also be addressing all three formats simultaneously in my comments below.

I, the Jury is presented in both 1080 (3D and 2D) and 2160 versions in 1.37:1 courtesy of ClassicFlix. A number of entities like the UCLA Film & Television Archive, PKL Pictures Ltd. and Romulus Films Limited are credited with this product, and Biff Elliot's widow Connie also gets a special thanks. My bottom line here is the two 1080 presentations, especially the 3D, are largely superb, but the 4K UHD version, while based on a 4K master per my above comments, does not offer HDR (at least that either of my 4K players discerned), and also frankly doesn't offer a huge uptick in detail. It also perhaps simultaneously exposes the viewer to a greater perception of admittedly minor nicks, scratches, flecks and speckling due to the increased resolution. I found the 3D presentation to be really excellent almost all of the time, and while the Forum post I linked to above gets into some documented reactions to a TCM screening that evidently suffered from some alignment issues (at least according to the person quoted), the only thing that really stood out to my eyes in this Blu- ray presentation was an uncomfortable credits sequence where I kind of wanted to shut one of my eyes to make it more viewable (I tend to be extremely sensitive to misaligned 3D imagery). Cinematographer John Alton and director Harry Essex exploit all kinds of askew framings, as I mention above, and they quite often like to place a foreground object in the corner of the frame which almost unavoidably creates depth as you look past it. Both depth of field and "in your face" 3D exploitation typically look excellent. There are some passing oddities in both of the 1080 presentations which, again, are probably only more noticeable in the 2160 version. Occasional frankly out of focus or at least noticeably blurry moments can intrude (see screenshot 19 for just one example), and there are some very slight fluctuations in clarity and detail. The film is awash in opticals like dissolves, which probably plays into some passing issues. Contrast is great in the 1080 versions, but I didn't see any huge improvement in the 4K UHD version, perhaps due in part to the lack of HDR.

I, the Jury 4K + 3D Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

I, the Jury features a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono track (the film was originally released in three track stereo, interestingly) that has a good deal of energy, but which can occasionally sound just a tad strident in the upper registers, especially some of the more hyperbolic cues from Franz Waxman's kind of amazing score (listen to how Waxman uses an almost screeching clarinet when the victim's drug addled girlfriend is introduced). Dialogue, including that famous first person Hammer voiceover, sounds fine, and sound effects like fists pummeling flesh also reverberate very well. Optional English subtitles are available.

I, the Jury 4K + 3D Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

4K UHD Disc

• Commentary by Max Allan Collins


• Archival Commentary with Biff Elliot

1080 Disc

• Commentary by Max Allan Collins


• Archival Commentary with Biff Elliot


• Archival Interview with Biff Elliot (HD; 5:20)


• Deep in the Shadows - The 3D World of I, the Jury (HD; 10:28) is an interesting overview of the 3D technology utilized for this production. Written and produced by Mike Ballew (with a thanks to Robert Furmanek in the closing credits).


• Television Episodes

  Unaired Mike Hammer TV Show Pilot (HD; 28:57) features an intro and outro by Max Allan Collins, and stars Brian Keith (!) as Hammer. Written and directed by Blake Edwards, who of course would go on to Peter Gunn, which owed at least a bit to Spillane.

  
  

  O. Henry Playhouse TV Episode starring Preston Foster (HD; 26:32) is entitled "Between Rounds".

  
  

  O. Henry Playhouse TV Episode starring Peggie Castle (HD; 26:20) is entitled "After Twenty Years".

  
  

  Public Defender TV Episode featuring Biff Elliot (HD; 24:46)

• Trailers includes Michael Shayne Mysteries (HD; 3:04) and an O. Henry Playhouse Clip (HD; 3:36), along with a couple of other trailers for ClassicFlix releases.

I, the Jury 4K + 3D Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Releases like this one make me incredibly happy I stuck with my 3D Blu-ray player and television. And in fact I have a hunch that those with all the various equipment needed to play the three versions included on this release may well prefer the 3D 1080 version to the 2D 4K UHD version. One way or the other, this offers generally solid technical merits and some appealing supplements. Recommended.