6.9 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Trotter Polling Company employee Pete Marshall (Fred MacMurray) is sent down the back roads and into the backwoods in search of a missing fellow employee. The city slicker soon finds himself mixed up with a family of homicidal hillbillies who are looking for stolen loot hidden on their property. Featuring Marjorie Main in an over-the-top performance, this fast-paced farce is in the grand tradition of such macabre favorites as THE OLD DARK HOUSE (1932) and ARSENIC AND OLD LACE (1944).
Starring: Fred MacMurray, Helen Walker, Marjorie Main, Jean Heather, Porter HallComedy | 100% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.35:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.37:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
English SDH
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (locked)
Movie | 4.0 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 5.0 | |
Extras | 2.5 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
George Marshall's "Murder, He Says" (1945) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber. The supplemental features on the disc include vintage trailer for the film and exclusive new audio commentary by by filmmaker/historian Michael Schlesinger and film archivist Stan Taffel. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".
The pollster
Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.35:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Murder, He Says arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber.
The release is sourced from a recent 4K master that was supplied by Universal Pictures. It is a very good master, but there is room for small but meaningful improvements. First, the good news. There are no traces of problematic digital adjustments, so the entire film has a very solid organic appearance. For example, depth ranges from very good to near excellent, plus density levels are consistently pleasing. Clarity is very good, though there are a few darker areas with minor fluctuations that reveal the age of the elements that were used to produce the new master. The grading job is convincing as well. The blacks appear nicely saturated and have good hues even in areas where light is restricted in ways that naturally tend to suppress them. There are good ranges of grays and whites, even during the segments with the 'glowing' people. Now, some small damage remains. It is not a lot and it is certainly not distracting, but you will spot it. It is of the type that requires manual work to be properly repaired or removed. Also, there are a few segments where there is room for small stability optimizations, which again require careful manual work. So, this is a very fine organic presentation of Murder, He Says, but with some extra work it could have been outstanding. My score is 4.25/5.00. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free player in order to access its content).
There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature.
The audio is stable and clear. I viewed the film with the volume turned up to 'cinema level' and did not detect any troubling age-related imperfections. In fact, the upper register, where older films are typically most vulnerable, was so strong -- meaning clean and stable -- that I was somewhat surprised. Dynamic intensity is good for a film from the '1940s.
What a crazy film. It can be very funny but the humor routinely comes out of left field and it has some seriously dark undertones that are very uncommon for films from the 1940s. I find it very strange that it isn't better known and folks aren't speculating that it might have been an inspiration for contemporary genre favorites like The Addams Family. It is a tremendous acquisition for Kino Lorber, for sure. This release is sourced from a nice 4K master that was supplied by Universal Pictures. It also features a wonderful exclusive new audio commentary by filmmaker/historian Michael Schlesinger and film archivist Stan Taffel. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
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