5.9 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Ex-gangster Tony Banks is called out of retirement by mob kingpin God to carry out a hit on fellow mobster "Blue Chips" Packard...
Starring: Jackie Gleason, Carol Channing, Frankie Avalon, Fred Clark (I), Michael ConstantineComedy | 100% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.35:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio Mono
None
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 0.0 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Note: This title is currently only available in this box set: The Otto Preminger Collection. Some aspects of this review refer to
all three films in this collection.
Otto Preminger loved pushing the envelope, and a number of his films, while seeming fairly passé today, were the
subject of major controversies when they were released. As incredible as it may sound, Preminger’s film version of
The Moon is Blue was the focus of a major cause célèbre due to its perceived sanguine approach toward
sex, something that will strike anyone seeing the film nowadays as positively weird. Preminger, ever the master
showman, played the controversy for all it was worth, releasing the film without the vaunted Breen office Seal of
Approval, and made the film into one of the blockbusters of the early fifties. Several more films in the fifties and sixties
caused various ruckuses. Carmen Jones featured a largely African American cast and once again toyed with
illicit seduction. A couple of years later Preminger caused headlines again when he tackled the subject of drug addiction
in The Man With the Golden Arm. 1959 saw the release of both Preminger’s film of Porgy and Bess, a
well meaning if flawed adaptation that has been tied up in rights issues with the Gershwin Estate (which hated the film)
and has rarely if ever been seen in the intervening years since its theatrical release, and what has become probably
Preminger’s most critically lauded film of this era, Anatomy of a Murder. That film created a sensation due to its then remarkably candid
discussions involving sex and rape.
While Preminger’s 1960 film of Leon Uris’ Exodus wasn’t as patently
controversial as some of his previous works, it continued Preminger’s tendency of being an agent provocateur,
at least behind the scenes, when the director started pounding the nails in the coffin of the blacklist by hiring Dalton
Trumbo under his own name to write the screenplay. Two years later Preminger offered Advise and Consent, a
film which wasn’t circumspect about portraying homosexuality in the highest levels of government. Sandwiched before,
after and in between this mere handful of films mentioned above are several other Preminger pieces, many of which are
undisputed classics in their own right (Laura) or at least highly regarded if acknowledged as being somewhat
flawed (The Cardinal). But the sixties saw a perhaps predictable decline in Preminger’s directorial fortunes, and
few would accord his later films the same accolades that were regularly bestowed on his earlier works. That said,
there’s virtually no Preminger film that doesn’t have something to recommend it, even if that something is
nothing other than camp value. The three films in this new box set may well be in that category, but they each also are
distinctive in at least a couple of other elements as well, not the least of which is the window they offer into Preminger’s
late sixties and early seventies mindset.
All three of the films are delivered via AVC encoded 1080p transfers. Hurry, Sundown and Skidoo offer a 2.35:1 aspect ratio, while Such Good Friends is presented in 1.78:1. Both Hurry, Sundown and Skidoo look very sharp and naturally filmic, for the most part, while rather strangely Such Good Friends, the most recent of the three films, is far softer and less robustly saturated than the first two. Both Hurry, Sundown and Such Good Friends have some really weird anomalies, where brief sequences seem to have been culled from a second generation (at least element). In these sequences, things suddenly get much softer and less detailed and color is also nowhere near as saturated as the bulk of the films (see screencap 4 of Caine and Law in the car for a great example of this phenomenon, something that also happens late in Such Good Friends in a scene featuring Elaine Joyce in an apartment). All three films boast elements in very good to excellent shape, within certain limitations.
All three of the films feature lossless DTS-HD Master Audio Mono tracks that more than adequately recreate the rather modest sonic charms of these outings. Dialogue is very cleanly presented in all three of these films, and the music (which includes some sung elements in all three films, most notably in Hurry, Sundown and Skidoo) sounds just fine. Fidelity is very strong in all three of these tracks, though dynamic range is somewhat limited. Hurry, Sundown does have several boisterous explosions dotting its sonic landscape and Skidoo is so relentlessly frenetic it may give the impression of having dynamic range, but it's just an auditory hallucination.
No supplements of any kind are included on any of the three discs in this package.
There's no denying that these three films are not exactly prime Preminger, but that doesn't mean they're worthless. Preminger's quality was frankly pretty spotty overall after his Anatomy of a Murder high, but there are glimmers of the director's innate brilliance, as well as his very pointed social justice attitudes, in all three of these films. The best of these is probably Such Good Friends, though those with an outré sense of the bizarre may well place Skidoo at the top of this particular pile for reasons only tangentially related to the film's actual instrinsic quality. I can't outright recommend this package on objective quality criteria, but I will say for certain fans, this collection is absolutely indispensable.
1965
2015
1972
1985
1961
Warner Archive Collection
1965
1970-1975
2012
Limited Edition to 3000 - SOLD OUT
1967
1994
1980
2K Restoration
1965
1961
Warner Archive Collection
1961
1941
1949
1963
1963
1956
1945