New Orleans Uncensored Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.0

New Orleans Uncensored Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman July 16, 2019

Note: This film is available as part of Noir Archive Volume 2: 1954-1956.

Kit Parker Films and Mill Creek Entertainment mined an interesting nonet of features for their Noir Archive Volume 1: 1944-1954, and now a second volume is forthcoming, with another nine outings that show what a reliable purveyor of noir or at least noir-ish films Columbia Studios continued to be through the mid-fifties. As the subtitle for the first volume made clear, that collection spanned a decade, from what was arguably the apex of noir in the mid-forties to the arguably somewhat less fertile era of Eisenhower. This second volume picks up in 1954 and continues forward two years, assembling a rather diverse collection of writers, directors and stars, some of whom at least many would probably consign to the so-called “B list”, though others, like Kim Novak, Jack Finney and even William Castle, certainly have claims to "A list" fame. One way or the other, though, there are some interesting titles in this second collection, and noir fans may well find this as appealing a set as the first outing.

New Orleans Uncensored traffics in some of the same “ On the Waterfront sensibility” that I mentioned with regard to Rumble on the Docks (also included in this second volume of noir offerings), with an emphasis on longshoremen and either racketeering or anti-racketeering (depending on which side of the conflict you come down on) efforts. Dan Corbett (Arthur Franz) is a decent guy trying to make a living in shipping in New Orleans, who runs up against a bevy of bad guys including the wonderfully named chief villain Zero Saxon (Michael Ansara). Kind of interestingly (and quite probably not completely by coincidence), there’s also a boxing angle to this film (as with On the Waterfront), but the film never attains the near mythic emotional power of Kazan’s masterpiece, even if this film does offer one of the better known directors featured in this set of films (that would be William Castle). Instead, it’s a suitably gritty morality lesson which features some really good performances (including a surprisingly pouty Beverly Garland) and at least some passing shots of New Orleans in the fifties.

New Orleans Uncensored Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

New Orleans Uncensored is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Kit Parker Films and Mill Creek Entertainment with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. This presentation has a couple of built in detriments that keep it from looking totally excellent all of the time, including a glut of stock footage developing various locations of New Orleans (even though the film does appear to have been shot there, at least in part), and perhaps more importantly a huge number of optical dissolves, including some montage sequences (as in one beginning at circa 18:00). All of these approaches and/or techniques can lead to a pretty noticeable downgrade in detail levels and uptick in grain and dirt. There are also some pretty bad scratches as with a rather large black one that recurs just right of the center of the frame during a boxing sequence at around 27:00. Otherwise, though, this presentation does deliver some appealing detail levels on things like fabrics or even some of the New Orleans location work. Grain is once again on the heavy side, but doesn't encounter any major compression issues.

New Orleans Uncensored Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

New Orleans Uncensored features a DTS-HD Master Audio Mono track that capably supports narration, score and dialogue. Several of the outdoor scenes have appealing background noise and/or music which helps to bring the New Orleans setting to life. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout the presentation.

New Orleans Uncensored Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

None of the three discs in this set feature any supplements.

New Orleans Uncensored Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

This is the kind of film where you know the bad guys are bad guys because they're almost always chomping on cigars. This may have had aims to be a B-movie On the Waterfront, but it never quite attains that same kind of mythic grandeur. Performances are generally excellent, and it's kind of fun to see Michael Ansara featured as a snarling bad guy. Video has some issues, but audio is fine, for those considering a purchase.