7.1 | / 10 |
Users | 3.5 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
A British agent masquerades as a Nazi officer to protect an inventor and his daughter.
Starring: Margaret Lockwood, Rex Harrison, Paul Henreid, Basil Radford, Naunton WayneWar | 100% |
Thriller | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.34:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.37:1
English: LPCM Mono (48kHz, 24-bit)
English SDH
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (locked)
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 2.0 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Carol Reed's "Night Train to Munich" (1940) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion. The only bonus feature on the disc is an archival filmed conversation between film historians Bruce Babington and Peter Evans. The release also arrives with an illustrated leaflet featuring an essay by film critic Philip Kemp. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".
The Train
Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.34:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Carol Reed's Night Train to Munich arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion.
The following text appears inside the leaflet provided with this Blu-ray release:
"This high-definition digital transfer was created on a Spirit 2K DataCine from a 35mm duplicate negative. Thousands of instances of dirt, debris, scratches, splices, warps, jitter, and flicker were manually removed using MTI's DRS and the Pixel Farm's PFClean, while Digital Vision's Phoenix was used for small dirt, grain, and noise management.
Transfer supervisor: Maria Palazzola.
Colorist: Gregg Garvin/Modern VideoFilm, Los Angeles."
Elucidating a few very small shaky transitions -- and obviously the bits of documentary footage that exhibit different density and show some light damage (see screencapture #16) -- the film's overall appearance is quite nice. Indeed, the visuals are well balanced and depth is consistently very good. In fact, even during the darker/nighttime footage depth and fluidity remain very convincing (see screencaptures #14 and 15). Grain is healthy and well distributed. Contrast and brightness levels are stable. There are no traces of compromising sharpening adjustments or other digital enhancements that impact the integrity of the film. A few tiny scratches remain, but it is very easy to tell that debris, damage marks, stains, and other age-related imperfections have been removed as best as possible. Ultimately, this is a strong presentation of Night Train to Munich which offers solid upgrades in all key areas we address when older films transition to Blu-ray. (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 LPCM 1.0. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature.
Depth is modest but clarity is very good. There are a couple of segments where a slight 'thinning' is noticeable in the mid/high register, but there are no distracting distortions. The dialog is stable, clean, and very easy to follow. Also, there are no pops, cracks, or audio dropouts.
It is impossible not to compare Carol Reed's Night Train to Munich to Alfred Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes and Ernst Lubitsch's To Be or Not to Be and the truth is that both of these films are vastly superior. Some of the individual performances in Reed's film are quite wonderful, but the end result is somewhat underwhelming. If you have already seen Night Train to Munich and liked it, you will be pleased to know that it looks wonderful in high-definition. The only bonus feature on this upcoming Blu-ray release, however, is an archival conversation between film historians Bruce Babington and Peter Evans. RECOMMENDED when it goes on sale.
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