Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		4.0

Quantez Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov August 19, 2021

Harry Keller's "Quantez" (1957) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber. The supplemental features on the disc include exclusive new aucio commentary by critic Toby Roan and vintage trailer for the film. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".

A gang of outlaws arrive in the desolate desert town of Quantez and take shelter in a rundown inn. They plan to cross into Mexico, divide the loot from a recent robbery, and never see each other again. But after a day of riding under the scorching desert sun, the outlaws can barely stand each other. Their leader, Heller (John Larch), has openly started abusing his mistress, Chaney (Dorothy Malone), and the young gunslinger Teach (John Gavin) has begun entertaining the idea of putting a bullet in his head. After repeatedly being mistreated by a few of his partners, the half-breed Gato (Sydney Chaplin) has started fantasizing about getting even with them as well. Gentry (Fred MacMurray), the most experienced amongst the outlaws, has managed to remain cool and focused during the getaway, but Heller’s constant quarrels with Teach have begun testing his patience.

Directed by Harry Keller, Quantez very easily could have been a wonderful film noir because the location where the outlaws choose to hide and its affection for minimalism produce quite an atmosphere. There is a decent dose of fatalism in it as well, which a proper film noir from the same period would have required to appear legit. (Two years after Keller completed Quantez, Andre De Toth directed Day of the Outlaw, which has a very similar stylistic identity but is set somewhere in frozen Wyoming. In Day of the Outlaw, the influence of film noir is not only undeniable but heavily promoted).

The growing animosity between the outlaws is at the center of the narrative, but Keller often uses it as a ruse as well. It allows him to abruptly redirect the film and, in the process, manipulate the viewer’s initial assessment of the individual strengths and weaknesses of the outlaws. This makes it rather tricky to predict whether each of the outlaws would remain committed to the original plan of reaching Mexico as well. Needless to say, some quite unexpected surprises emerge from the evolving character arcs.

Another key strength of the film is its commitment to producing intelligent entertainment while utilizing a fair number of overused cliches. For example, there is a lot of macho posturing of the kind that traditional westerns from the same period welcomed with open arms, but it does not hurt the integrity of the main characters. On the contrary, because the outlaws are shot as imperfect, often easily irritable grownups, not conventional good and bad cinematic characters, their behavior and the drama that is fueled by it look entirely authentic. (The final segment with the Apache is the only exception). The lack of over-the-top action further helps as well.

Keller secured the services of cinematographer Carl E. Guthrie, who in the early 1950s lensed a number of low-budget but very solid film noirs like Hollywood Story, Girls in the Night, and Playgirl. Is this the reason why Quantez feels like a film noir disguised as a western? Maybe. A lot of the footage from inside the inn where the outlaws engage each other and debate their fate has a familiar minimalistic appearance, though there is some very effective lighting that produces ‘new’ shades and nuances.

The soundtrack was composed by Herman Stein, who teamed up with Frank Skinner and scored another much bigger and better-known film noir from the same period, Naked Alibi.

Quantez Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in its original aspect ratio of 2.35:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Quantez arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber.

The release is sourced from a good remaster that was supplied by Universal Studio. I don't know how old it is, but it could be that it was finalized before or around 2011, when this DVD release of Quantez was produced. Regardless, the age is irrelevant. Indeed, while the film can be fully restored to look spectacular in high-definition, the current master has very pleasing organic qualities. For example, detail ranges from good to very good, which isn't always easy because there is quite a bit of darker footage. Clarity is good. There is some inherited softness -- a proper 4K master struck from the OCN will obviously produce superior visuals -- but the overall appearance of the visuals is quite wonderful. Color balance is very convincing as well. Yes, saturation levels can be rebalanced even better, plus some darker nuances can be expanded, but as it is the film looks very nice. Image stability is good. There are no traces of problematic digital work. All in all, while there is room for meaningful improvements, the current master is in fact quite good. My score is 4.25/5.00. (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).

Quantez 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. When turned on, they appear inside the image frame.

I did not encounter any technical anomalies to report in our review. I thought that clarity and sharpness were very strong. Balance is good. Is there room for improvement? I think so. I think that some enhancements can be performed to even dynamic balance in a few areas, but as far as I am concerned this isn't a major weakness. I just feel that with modern equipment it would be quite easy to strengthen the audio a bit more.

Quantez Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer - vintage trailer for Quantez. In English, not subtitled. (3 min).

• Commentary - this exclusive new audio commentary was recorded by critic Toby Roan. If you have listened to any of his previous commentaries on various releases of westerns from Kino Lorber's catalog, you should know exactly what to expect. There is plenty of factual information addressing the production history of Quantez as well as the careers of the people that made it.

Quantez Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Much like André De Toth's Day of the Outlaw, Harry Keller's Quantez is a film noir disguised as a western. Because Day of the Outlaw is set in the freezing fields of Wyoming and shot in black-and-white, I think that the noir ambience in it is quite a bit stronger, but in Quantez the hot desert produces plenty of noir magic as well. I am quite certain that this was done entirely by design as well because Harry Keller chose to work with cinematographer Carl E. Guthrie, whose credits include several small but very solid film noirs. Kino Lorber's release is sourced from a lovely organic remaster that was supplied by Universal Pictures. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.