Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		4.0

Prime Cut Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov August 21, 2024

Michael Ritchie's "Prime Cut" (1972) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber. The supplemental features on the release include audio commentary by Lee Marvin biographer Dwayne Epstein; audio commentary by critics Steve Mitchell and Nathaniel Thompson; and vintage trailer. In English with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".

We sent Murphy down to Kansas City to see Mary Ann and his boys. This is how they sent him back.

A Chicago mafia boss (Eddie Egan, The French Connection) hires aging enforcer Nick Devlin (Lee Marvin, Point Blank) to go to Kansas City and convince cattle rancher Mary Ann (Gene Hackman, Riot) to pay back the $500,000 he owes. Before they part ways, the boss shows Devlin a small gray packet and tells him to be careful because the sausages in it is all that is left from the last guy he used to recover his money.

Assisted by a couple of eager to please Chicago boys, Devlin arrives in Kansas City and quickly locates Mary Ann. They meet at his ranch, where in addition to cows, Mary Ann sells young white girls. Devlin tells him that he has a day to pay back what he owes and then leaves with one of his girls, Poppy (Sissy Spacek, Badlands), who is so drugged up that she can’t even move. Shortly after, the enraged Mary Ann vows to send more fresh sausages to Chicago.

Michael Ritchie’s Prime Cut is a fascinating hybrid of a film. It blends the rawness of Sam Peckinpah’s crime films with the attitude of Fernando Di Leo’s mafia films, but it has the moody atmosphere of a late film noir classic. Throughout the film, there are also splashes of very dark humor.

The film is broken into multiple episodes and the majority of them are very unusual. In one of them, Devlin warms up to Poppy and the two go out for a fancy dinner, but there is no romance and roses. The whole episode is very anticlimactic. In another, Devlin meets Mary Ann’s wife Clarabelle (played by the stunningly beautiful Angel Tompkins), who tries to seduce him, but at the crucial moment he does what James Bond wouldn’t do – he walks away. There is also a really intense episode in which Mary Ann’s right-hand man, Weenie (Gregory Walcott, Thunderbolt and Lightfoot), attacks Devlin with a wiener. All of these episodes are shot with a degree of seriousness that makes it very difficult to decide whether Prime Cut was meant to be a serious gangster film or some sort of parody.

But this is what makes Prime Cut so fascinating to behold. It is totally out there, and it feels like it might have been conceived by the great Robert Altman before he figured out that you can have a great film without having a great story. (Nashville was released only a couple of years after Prime Cut). It is about atmosphere, attitudes, and all the clichés gangster films have rehashed over and over again, mixed with a good dose of very dark humor which makes the final product look surprisingly fresh.

The cast is excellent. Marvin wears white shoes and looks jaded yet dangerous, the type of good ol’ boy from Chicago that is guaranteed to stick out like a sore thumb in Kansas City. Hackman looks exactly like the type of lunatic that can make a fortune selling the people what they want – dope and flesh. Spacek’s role, her acting debut, is a small one, but she does leave a lasting impression. Walcott could not have been better as the crazy butcher.

Gene Polito’s (Westworld, Futureworld) cinematography is unusually beautiful. It is easy to tell that the film had a limited budget, but Polito made it look gorgeous. Lalo Schifrin's (Cool Hand Luke, Bullitt) score is also terrific. It is deceivingly simple but very elegant, reminding of the great scores legendary Italian composers such as Piero Piccioni and Armando Trovajoli created for various genre films.

Prime Cut Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in its original aspect ratio of 2.39:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Prime Cut arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber.

The release introduces a new 4K makeover of Prime Cut sourced from the original camera negative. The 4K makeover is also available on 4K Blu-ray via this combo pack release.

This morning, I saw the entire film, without interruptions, in 1080p as well. I must restate my frustration with the quality of the new 4K makeover because with just a few minor tweaks it could have been an absolute stunner. I think that several darker areas become a tad too dark, though crushing is not an overwhelming issue. It is noticeable, but it does compromise these areas with serious anomalies. (This is a bigger issue on the 4K Blu-ray). Unfortunately, color reproduction is unsatisfactory. The film looks a bit cooler than it should, and primary red shifts toward light brown. In some areas, the change is very small and easy to ignore. However, in other areas, it clearly produces anomalies. You can see how primary red is destabilized and shifts toward light brown, creating anomalies, by comparing this screencapture from the new 4K makeover and this screencapture from the old MGM master. This is unfortunate because the 4K makeover strengthens other primaries and nuances, so everything could have been perfect. There are no traces of problematic digital corrections. Image stability is excellent. On this release, there is room for some minor encoding optimizations. My score is 3.75/5.00. (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).

Prime Cut Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There are two standard audio tracks on this release: English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 and English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature. When turned on, they appear inside the image frame.

Earlier this morning, I viewed Prime Cut, in its entirety, on Blu-ray. Once again, I used the DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 track.

I only used the DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 track. It is healthy and stable. It handles all action material very well, plus the music breathes easily throughout the film. Dynamic intensity is somewhat limited, but this is to be expected. The European release of Prime Cut I have in my library does not have optional English SDH subtitles, but this release does.

Prime Cut Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Commentary One - this audio commentary was recorded by Lee Marvin biographer Dwayne Epstein.

• Commentary Two - this audio commentary was recorded by critics Steve Mitchell and Nathaniel Thompson.

• Trailer - presented here is a remastered trailer for Prime Cut. In English, not subtitled. (3 min).

Prime Cut Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Completed three years after Downhill Racer, Michael Ritchie's Prime Cut is a cracking gangster film that has all the right ingredients to be considered a minor classic. It is as quirky as Robert Altman's Nashville, but a lot darker and a lot funnier. Kino Lorber's Blu-ray release is sourced from an exclusive new 4K master struck from the film's original camera negative. (A 4K Blu-ray/Blu-ray combo pack is available for purchase as well). I have viewed the 4K makeover in native 4K and 1080p and find it quite frustrating. Clearly, it produces richer, better detailed, and healthier visuals than previous home video releases do. However, it is not graded as convincingly as it could have been. For this reason, if you wish to have the Blu-ray or combo pack in your collection, I suggest that you find a way to test your preferred release before spending money on it.