6.8 | / 10 |
Users | 4.5 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Marsha Mitchell, a traveling dress model, stops in a southern town to see her sister who has married a Ku Klux Klansman. Marsha sees the KKK commit a murder and helps District Attorney Burt Rainey in bringing the criminals to justice.
Starring: Ginger Rogers, Ronald Reagan, Doris Day, Steve Cochran (I), Hugh SandersFilm-Noir | 100% |
Drama | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.37:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.37:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono (48kHz, 24-bit)
English SDH
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 2.0 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Stuart Heisler's Storm Warning is a rare studio film that dared to address the Ku Klux Klan in a time when "foreign dangers" were all the rage, yet its portrayal of the kowardly lot forgets to add any racism. We mostly see things from the perspective of model Marsha Mitchell (Ginger Rogers), who's on a business trip and stops in a neighboring town to see her younger sister Lucy (Doris Day). Immediately upon her nighttime arrival, Marsha is mostly ignored by the locals and finds that most of the nearby shops have closed early. On her way to Lucy's house, Marsha hears cries for help by the local police station; from a safe distance, she sees a group of mostly white-hooded men shoot and kill a man they'd just broken out of jail. Finally in the safety of Lucy's house, distraught Marsha is consoled by her sister... until Lucy's husband Hank (Steve Cochran), who looks an awful lot like one of the murderous mob, comes home.
Unfortunately, the puzzle as a whole doesn't feel quite as well-made. That's certainly not a complaint lodged at its other fundamentals, such as excellent cinematography, editing, music, pacing, and more, but more at its surprisingly wishy-washy portrayal of the Klan itself. Whether due to Hays Code restrictions or big-studio fears (possibly in relation to how it might be commercially received in Southern states), there's little to no insinuation of the Klan's racial motivations or their traditionally religious beliefs, with their inner-workings shows as being more financially-driven than anything else. It's kind of ironic given the film's headstrong choice to make them the main antagonists: Storm Warning might look like a realistic picture, but its key villains certainly aren't painted with fine-tipped brush strokes.
This ends up bleeding into the film's other sore thumb: Steve Cochran as husband Hank who, whether due to iffy writing or his wide-eyed portrayal of the character, feels more than a little exaggerated. Yet the Klan's watery portrayal all but requires a bit of overacting to generate enough of a threat, which can be seen in almost all of his leering looks and even a painful-to-watch attempted rape of Marsha while Lucy's away from the house.
Despite these obvious narrative missteps, Storm Warning is still an entertaining affair that should please fans of the narrow genre even
without ranking in its upper tier. Warner Archive nonetheless goes all-out for their Blu-ray edition: it features a terrific A/V restoration and
era-specific extras, all of which improve upon WB's 2006 DVD release.
Sourced from a recent 4K scan of the original nitrate camera negative, Warner Archive's new 1080p transfer offers a precise presentation of difficult source material. The earliest scenes -- beginning with Marsha's nighttime arrival in Rock Point, where she soon makes her disturbing discovery after the local shops close up early -- are obviously dominated by shadows and deep blacks; these have a higher level of noise than usual which is largely kept under control, but the more pervasive noise occasionally fights for attention with fine detail and textures. Such moments return periodically, especially during the climactic showdown at a Klan rally, but to be fair are handled with more care and attention than previous home video presentations by a fairly wide margin. Elsewhere, well-lit and daytime scenes obviously pose no problem at all: these are almost disarmingly crisp and film-like with plenty of natural grain and excellent depth, all hallmarks of Warner Archive's best-looking Blu-rays. As usual, disc encoding is very good with only very mild signs of posterization but no apparent macro blocking, banding, and other such artifacts. It's an extremely solid effort all around, another purist-minded effort that should appeal to die-hard fans and newcomers alike.
Similarly sourced from the same negative, Warner Archive's DTS-HD 2.0 Master Audio mix offers a very pleasing presentation of its dynamic original soundtrack, from the hustle and bustle of the rec center -- which really does look like the place to be -- to the stirring original score by the wonderfully-named Daniele Amfitheatrof, a Russian-American composer whose work can be heard on films as diverse as Letter from an Unknown Woman to Song of the South and Friday the 13th, Part V: A New Beginning. Conversations, background elements, and other sonic details remain largely crisp and clear within reasonable expectations, with almost no hiss or other distractions along the way.
Optional English (SDH) subtitles are offering during the main feature... not the extras, unfortunately.
This one-disc release ships in a standard keepcase with poster-themed cover art and no inserts. The extras, as usual, are mostly made of era-specific content that may have played before the film during theatrical showings.
Stuart Heisler's Storm Warning is a mostly effective "socially conscious" drama that unfortunately pulls some punches with the subject matter, side-stepping several narrative details while having its most front-and-center villain try and overact his way out of it. This is still compelling stuff and an otherwise solid effort by the stacked cast, with excellent cinematography and music to match. Warner Archive's new Blu-ray serves up another reliably great A/V presentation and a trio of era-specific bonus features, easily surpassing Warner Bros.' DVD released almost two decades ago. It's heartily Recommended to established fans, although newcomers may want to try before they buy.
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Warner Archive Collection
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4K Restoration
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Limited Edition to 3000 - SOLD OUT
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Special Edition
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Hot Spot
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