6.4 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
Turhan Bey (THE MUMMY'S TOMB) plays the mysterious spiritualist who convinces a beautiful widow (Lynn Bari, ORCHESTRA WIVES) and her young sister (Cathy O'Donnell, THEY LIVE BY NIGHT), that her dead husband is trying to contact her from beyond the grave. Richly photographed by famed cinematographer John Alton (BORDER INCIDENT, THE BIG COMBO), the dark, smoky interiors and fog-swept beaches give this a gothic feel that elevates this B-picture to a favorite of noir fans. Co-starring Richard Carlson, Donald Curtis and Virginia Gregg, with stylish direction by Bernard Vorhaus (BURY ME DEAD); sadly, this was one of his last films in the U.S. before being blacklisted. Also known as THE AMAZING MR. X, the film is mastered from original 35mm elements.
Starring: Turhan Bey, Lynn Bari, Cathy O'Donnell, Richard Carlson, Donald CurtisFilm-Noir | 100% |
Thriller | Insignificant |
Mystery | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-2
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.37:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.37:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono (48kHz, 16-bit)
English, Spanish
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A, B (C untested)
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 3.0 | |
Audio | 3.5 | |
Extras | 2.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
A rather interesting (if kind of peculiarly title-less on the disc menu) supplement included on this disc provides a bit of history with regard to so- called "spiritualism", mentioning how in the wake of wars in particular interest in contacting those "on the other side" tends to increase, especially since calamities of that sort often leave families unsure of what might have happened to relatives who went missing in battle. In that regard, it's perhaps salient to note that The Amazing Mr. X was evidently initially released as The Spiritualist in 1948, a year that may have had some distance from the end of World War II (and with the Korean conflict not yet in full "swing", if that's an appropriate term to use in this context), but which was still temporally close enough to the maelstrom to probably evoke similar sentiments in at least some segments of the general populace. The Amazing Mr. X doesn't make any bones about depicting its focal character, a supposed psychic named Alexis (Turhan Bey), as something of a charlatan, but rather interestingly, Alexis turns out to not be the chief villain in a story that sees a distraught widow named Christine Faber (Lynn Bari) who believes the spirit of her dead husband Paul (Douglas Murphy) is attempting to contact her. A felicitous meeting with Alexis seems to provide Christine with a method of "reaching out" to Paul, but what's actually going on is a bit more sinister. The Amazing Mr. X is an above average programmer from Poverty Row studio Eagle-Lion, one with a general sense of competency in the performance arena and frankly also with regard to the overall shape of the screenplay, but what may really excite viewers is the absolutely lustrous cinematography from the iconic John C. Alton, who offers chiaroscuro in abundance, giving The Amazing Mr. X a kind of noir-ish undertone.
The Amazing Mr. X is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of The Film Detective with an MPEG-2 encoded 1080p transfer in 1.37:1. As I mentioned in our recent review of The Film Detective's Frankenstein's Daughter, the label's use of an arguably outmoded codec doesn't necessarily spell disaster, and in fact I found the video presentation of Frankenstein's Daughter to be quite good overall. There's a lot to like about this presentation, but it's decidedly less competent looking, and there are some rather strange anomalies that I'm frankly not sure are due to a faulty encode or some baked in problems with the element. Look at screenshots 1 and 8 and if you examine them closely you can see what almost looks like "ghosting" or some kind of lens refraction where, for example, edges of faces are duplicated slightly outside of the main image (look at the noses of Bari and Marlowe in the first screenshot or around the outside of Bey's face in screenshot 8). A more contemporary compression codec might have helped to ameliorate some issues the accrue with the combination of grain, heavy mist and John C. Alton's chiaroscuro cinematography, which can look noisy at times. There's minor but still noticeable damage on display, including the usual suspects like scratches, nicks and white specks and flecks.
The Amazing Mr. X features a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono track that shows some the kind of narrowness and shallowness endemic to the film's production era, but which completely adequately supports the film's dialogue and occasionally strident score by Alexander Laszlo. While the track has a certain aged quality, there's really no real damage to report in the form of distortion or dropouts. Optional English and Spanish subtitles are available.
The Amazing Mr. X is really a rather interesting film from a number of angles. It defies certain "genre" expectations (even if some might struggle to define exactly what "genre" this film is), and it's notably cynical about both the need for belief and those who might take advantage of that need. While the film's performances are all well done, it's really the style here that may be most memorable, quite a bit of it courtesy of some really gorgeous cinematography by John C. Alton. The Film Detective might consider upping its compression game (is AVC that much more expensive/difficult than MPEG-2) since video quality here is kind of processed looking, but audio is relatively fine and the spiritualism supplement in particular very interesting, for those who may be considering making a purchase.
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