Nightmare Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.5

Nightmare Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov May 11, 2025

Maxwell Shane's "Nightmare" (1956) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber. The only bonus feature on the release is an exclusive new audio commentary recorded by film scholar Jason A. Ney. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Reigon-A "locked".

The jazzman

If you pair Nightmare with Night Has a Thousand Eyes, you will create a very fine double bill. While not lavish productions, both films are done well and treat Edward G. Robinson as a star. Both step away from the familiar playground that conventional film noirs visit to impress. The latter goes a little further away and, more importantly, is directed by a much better director, but ultimately the two produce very similar thrills. If you enjoy one of them, it is guaranteed that you will have a good time with the other.

In New Orleans, jazz musician Stan Grayson (Kevin McCarthy) wakes up with a headache. Initially, he assumes that it has everything to do with the intense nightmare he has endured during the night, but while washing his face with cold water, he makes a troubling discovery -- a mark on his neck. Several hours later, Grayson becomes convinced that the avalanche of moving images his mind was forcing through the nightmare, in one of which he commits a murder, are not manufactured.

Overwhelmed by fear that somehow, somewhere, he has killed someone, Grayson reaches out to his brother-in-law, Rene Bressard (Robinson), who makes ends meet as a police detective. Bressard immediately dismisses his fear as a byproduct of work exhaustion. However, it is not long before Grayson’s mind begins leaking troubling information suggesting that he has gotten involved with something very serious and worth investigating. When Bressard goes to work to figure out whether it is a real murder, Grayson attempts to jump out the window of his high-rise apartment.

A decade after directing Fear in the Night, Maxwell Shane returned to the same original material that inspired it to do Nightmare. This material comes from a fine novel by Cornell Woolrich, which Shane also adapted twice.

Nightmare is a very different film, but the key aspect of its production that was clearly supposed to make it unique is somewhat mismanaged. All of its drama takes place in the New Orleans area, which is supposed to provide plenty of the crucial atmosphere needed to make Grayson’s ‘nightmare’ come alive. Unfortunately, even though Nightmare does incorporate some quite good authentic footage, the dark mystique of New Orleans, which has always been ideal for an atmospheric film noir, is missing. (Even decades later, the same mystique was brilliantly used in such great genre films as No Mercy and Angel Heart).

If you ignore the fact that New Orleans does not evolve into a meaningful character, as it should have, Nightmare quickly becomes a fine film. Grayson’s transformation is done well, while Bressard’s efforts to unlock the mystery driving him mad produce several decent curveballs. The second act, where Grayson decides to self-destruct, also features several wonderfully shot sequences.

Considering that Nightmare was completed in the mid-1950s, however, it is fair to speculate that it should have been a more intense, far more cynical film noir. Grayson’s deterioration could have been used to dispatch him on a fascinating trip through the popular nightclubs and brothels of New Orleans, which single-handedly would have accomplished precisely that.

Nightmare Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Nightmare arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber.

This film looks wonderful in high-definition. For this release, it was remastered in 2K, and the quality of its visuals is, perhaps unsurprisingly, incredibly easy to describe as impressive. Indeed, delineation, clarity, and depth are consistently very good, and all visuals maintain great density levels. The grayscale is very nice, too. All blacks are lush, but not boosted, and nicely balanced with the equally good looking grays and whites. There are no traces of any problematic digital corrections. There is only area of the presentation where some additional work could have been done. Some visuals reveal tiny white specks that digital tools easily would have removed. However, there are no distracting large cuts, debris, marks, and other similar age-related imperfections. (Note: This is a Region-A "looked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free player in order to access its content).

Nightmare Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

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.

It does not take long to conclude that Nightmare was not shot with a big budget because a lot of material with great potential for dynamic surprises is ignored. So, while clarity, sharpness, and depth are very nice, dynamic variety is pretty average. The lossless track is very healthy. I had the volume of my system turned up quite a bit and the upper register was as solid as it could have been.

Nightmare Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Commentary - in this exclusive new audio commentary, film scholar Jason A. Ney deconstructs Nightmare and compares Kevin McCarthy's character to another he played in Laslo Benedek's Death of a Salesman. There are some interesting comments about the genre identity of Nightmare and locations from New Orleans seen in it as well.

Nightmare Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

New Orleans should have been a much bigger, much more prominent character, providing Nightmare with the lush atmosphere it needed to become a very special film noir. As shot, Nightmare is a good film, but it is a small film that cannot compete with its famous relatives from the 1950s. If you decide to see it, you should pair it with Night Has a Thousand Eyes, which also treats Edward G. Robinson as a star and was inspired by one of Cornell Woolrich's novels. Nightmare is included in Film Noir: The Dark Side of Cinema XVII, a three-disc box set. RECOMMENDED.