Impact Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.0
Overall		4.0

Impact Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov May 7, 2025

Arthur Lubin's "Impact" (1949) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of VCI Home Entertainment. The only bonus feature on the release is a collection of vintage publicity materials for the film. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-Free.

Successful businessman Walter Williams (Brian Donlevy) has given his wife, Irene (Helen Walker), everything she could possibly want -- his unconditional love, a great home in a great area of San Francisco, and access to a bank account where he has amassed a small fortune. But Irene wants him dead because she intends to start a new life with her younger lover, Jim Torrence (Tony Barrett).

To get rid of Walter, Irene has hatched a brilliant plan for a perfect murder. Irene convinces Walter that she is unwell and unable to accompany him on his business trip to Denver and asks him to give her visiting cousin a ride. Despite not recalling ever hearing his name before, Walter agrees, and shortly after, the two get in his car. High up in the mountains, Jim grabs a wrench, hits Walter in the head, and throws him off a cliff, assuming that he is already dead. However, just moments later, while trying to get away from the murder scene with Walter’s car, Jim gets killed by a massive truck in a horrific head-on collision.

As Walter miraculously recovers and heads North, Detective Quincy (Charles Coburn) visits his wife to give her the tragic news that he has died in a terrible accident. Appearing appropriately devastated, Irene initiates the next phase of her brilliant plan.

In Larkspur, Idaho, Walter, still shaken up, makes a phone call confirming that Irene’s cousin does not exist, and then, without seeking one, gets a job as a mechanic in hard-working widow Marsha Peters’ (Ella Raines) garage. In the months ahead, Walter melts Marsha’s heart, but having never revealed his real name and why he is in Idaho, chooses to walk away from her. Marsha’s mother (Mae Marsh), after accidentally discovering his true identity, changes his mind, and when Walter tells Marsha about his wife’s plan to get rid of him, she convinces him to go back to San Francisco and confront her. However, shortly after Walter meets Irene again, she accuses him of eliminating her younger lover in a perfect murder.

Jay Dratler’s writings are associated with several terrific film noirs, the most famous of which is the Oscar winner Laura. However, even the lesser-known of these film noirs, like Pitfall and The Las Vegas Story, are equally effective for the same reason. They produce wonderfully crafted, always memorable characters.

In Arthur Lubin’s Impact, the survivor dominates because plenty of time is dedicated to his transformation. However, he is surrounded by other good characters, two of them female, who constantly contribute to what eventually becomes his complete profile, expanding the drama in areas that initially are not on the viewer’s radar. As a result, this multi-layered drama, not the conventional noir material, gives Impact its identity.

The final act remains as intriguing as it undoubtedly was in the 1940s. Developments there suggest that sometimes, in a trial like the one where the survivor must prove he is innocent, the legal system seeks the best legal outcome, not the truth. Only after a Chinese girl (Anna May Wong) gathers the courage to step up, a crucial domino effect is initiated, and the truth prevails.

Lubin’s director of photography was Oscar winner Ernest Laszlo, who shortly after Impact went on to lense one of the greatest of all film noirs, Kiss Me Deadly.

Impact Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in it original aspect ratio of 1.37:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Impact arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of VCI Home Entertainment.

It is very easy to tell that at some point Impact was remastered because its visuals have a very nice, stable organic appearance. However, I write remastered, rather than restored, because there are a couple of large surface imperfections that quickly pop up and disappear, and a proper restoration undoubtedly would have addressed them. Also, there are minor blemishes and nicks that can be spotted. All of these imperfections are never distracting, and despite their presence, I think that the film still has a healthy appearance. Delineation, clarity, and depth are quite nice, and the grayscale is always convincing. However, some inherited density fluctuations occasionally produce minor inconsistencies. Image stability is good. There are no traces of problematic digital corrections. However, some encoding optimizations could have been introduced to ensure that grain is always as nicely exposed as it can be. Nevertheless, even on a large screen, the overall quality of the visuals is very good. My score is 3.75/5.00. (Note: This is a Region-Free Blu-ray release. Therefore, you will be able to play it on your player regardless of your geographical location).

Impact Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: English Dolby Digital 2.0. Optional yellow English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature.

Of course, a lossless track would have been the ideal option. However, I thought that the overall quality of the lossy 2.0 track was surprisingly good. Clarity and sharpness are also very nice, and in some places even depth is pretty good. Dynamic intensity is quite limited, but it is not because the 2.0 track is lossy, rather than lossless. The truth is that Impact was not shot with a massive budget, and its soundtrack is very modest. Also, I think that if this track was lossless rather than lossy, it would have had a virtually identical dynamic range. Why? If you turn up the volume of your system enough, you will hear that the upper register is quite thin and there is light background hiss that is embedded in the thinness. There are no audio dropouts or distortions.

Impact Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Gallery - a large collection of vintage publicity materials for Impact. Presented with music. (7 min).

Impact Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Just a few years later, during the mid-1950s, Walter Williams would not have gone North and attempted to hide in Idaho, hoping that his wife will slip and make a crucial error. Walter would have gone berserk, driven back to San Francisco, put a bullet in her head, and almost certainly evolved into a lunatic like the one Arthur Franz plays in The Sniper. This is essentially the main difference between the film noirs of the 1940s and the film noirs of the 1950s -- the latter produced meaner, often suicidal characters, and seldom had happy endings. Impact is a solid film uniting several very good actors that look quite impressive together. It is worth picking up. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.