6.6 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
An ex-con is given the chance to redeem himself, and revenge the murder of an old army buddy, by going undercover in Germany and helping the authorities break up a ring of international counterfeiters who will stop at nothing, including murder, to protect their operation.
Starring: Ray Danton, Leigh Snowden, Grant Williams, Onslow Stevens, Raymond BaileyDrama | 100% |
Crime | 38% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono (48kHz, 16-bit)
BDInfo verified
English SDH
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (locked)
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 5.0 | |
Extras | 3.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Jack Arnold's "Outside the Law" (1956) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber. The supplemental features on the release include an exclusive new audio commentary by film historian Richard Harlan Smith as well as vintage trailer for the film. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".
Our guy is on the other side. We bust him now.
Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Outside the Law arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber.
The release is sourced from a wonderful organic master that was supplied by Universal Pictures. I don't know when this master was prepared, but it is very healthy and has the type of consistent strengths that were not common during the DVD era. Regardless, as far as I am concerned the age of the master is actually irrelevant.
Delineation, clarity, and depth are either very good or excellent. A few small density fluctuations become noticeable as the film progresses, but they are actually inherited, not a byproduct of some poor digital corrections. Grain is nicely exposed and evenly distributed, and in a few daylight sequences looks really, really good. The master is wonderfully graded as well. In fact, it is a lot better graded than some of the recent 2K masters that the folks at Kino Lorber have used for various catalog releases. The grayscale supports strong but not overdone blacks as well as wonderful ranges of healthy grays and whites. Image stability is very good. Finally, I did not see any annoying age-related imperfections to report in our review. (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.
I did not encounter any technical flaws to report in our review. On my system the audio sounded very clear, clean, stable, and nicely balanced. As mentioned in the video section, at some point Outside the Law was remastered and the folks that did the work made sure that the audio sounds as good as it can. Is there any room for meaningful improvements? I don't think so.
Jack Arnold left a very diverse body of genre films that share a common quality -- in all of them there is a great emphasis on detail. In the very best, like The Incredible Shrinking Man and No Name on the Bullet, there is usually a great deal of intelligent symbolism that keeps them relevant as well. Outside the Law is a fine film noir, but its take on the mechanics of police detective work is a bit too loose for my taste. Obviously, this isn't exactly a rare occurrence in film noir, but there is plenty of material in Outside the Law that was clearly shot to convince that it is reflective of a reality most people are unfamiliar with. I still like the film quite a lot, but I think that with a few minor adjustments it could have been a lot easier to place next to Jules Dassin's The Naked City and Edward Dmytryk's The Sniper. Kino Lorber's release is sourced from a very fine organic master that was supplied by Universal Pictures and features an excellent exclusive new audio commentary by Richard Harlan Smith. It is included in Film Noir: The Dark Side of Cinema V, a three-disc box set. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
(Still not reliable for this title)
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