6 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Another case for American private eye Philip Marlowe (Robert Mitchum, reprising the role from 'Farewell My Lovely'). While in London Marlowe is called upon by General Sternwood (James Stewart), who is being blackmailed over his daughter Camilla's (Candy Clark) gambling debts. The mystery deepens when the gun-running husband of Sternwood's other daughter, Charlotte (Sarah Miles), goes missing, and Marlowe finds himself surrounded by the usual web of intrigue and murder.
Starring: Robert Mitchum, Sarah Miles, Richard Boone (I), Candy Clark, Joan CollinsCrime | 100% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 (48kHz, 24-bit)
BDInfo
English SDH
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 2.0 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Shout Select has released a pair of remakes starring Robert Mitchum on a single BD-50. Farewell, My Lovely (1975) and The Big Sleep (1978) are only available as a Shout double feature.
Note that this review includes some spoilers.
I remember working on a term project for my history of cinema and media undergrad course at the University of Minnesota in which our class was tasked with picking selected scenes from Howard Hawks's The Big Sleep (1946) and then rearranging the shots to create a new scene and causal pattern. I can't recall if we could take individual shots from different scenes and insert them in but it was a useful exercise for the film production students, especially aspiring storyboard artists. Aside from stills printed in Bordwell and Thompson's Film Art, that was my first official exposure to this film noir classic. Until recently, I wasn't aware that it had been remade in the late '70s, or more aptly, re-imagined for a European milieu. My research indicates that executive producer Lew Grade chose to film it in his native Britain for tax purposes and that it was cheaper overall than shooting it in America.
Robert Mitchum reprises his role as Private Eye Philip Marlowe from Farewell, My Lovely and unlike the earlier picture, he's sharply dressed in expensive suits that aren't rumpled and drives a Mercedes Benz convertible. Through Marlowe's POV, the audience takes a jaunt around the rural countryside where he's on his way to Sternwood Manor. He's greeted by Norris (Harry Andrews), an obsequious and efficient butler, who escorts him across the manicured lawn to the greenhouse to see Gen. Sternwood (James Stewart), an expatriate tycoon who was an Air Force officer in World War II. It's a real treat to see two legends from Hollywood's Golden Age filmed together: the 70-year-old Stewart and the 60-year-old Mitchum. (Stewart has two scenes in different locales in the movie, which were completed on the same day. Both Mitchum and Stewart would pass in 1997.) Sternwood's youngest daughter, Camilla (Candy Clark), is a nymphomaniac who has gambling debts she needs to pay off to Arthur Geiger (John Justin), who has blackmailed her father. Gen. Sternwood wants Marlowe to locate Geiger so he can get him off his and Camilla's back. When Marlowe learns that Geiger is a proprietor of a store selling rare books and manuscripts, he quickly finds out that it's really a front for selling filthy books. Indeed, Geiger is a pornographer and when Marlowe trails him to his home, commotion erupts and the investigator finds Camila fully nude in a chair. She's just wrapped a photo shoot but something's happened to Geiger. Marlowe must keep the filthy pictures of Camila away from Sternwood's foes. The stiff Eddie Mars (Oliver Reed), owner of a gambling palace, is also very interested in this whole affair, not the least of which is because Camilla' older sister, Charlotte (Sarah Miles), is a patron at Mars's establishment and purportedly had a romantic relationship with him at some time. In addition, Charlotte's husband Rusty Regan has been missing for awhile and Marlowe gets himself entangled in much more than he signed up for.
Shout Select delivers the first public domain high-def release of The Big Sleep on this MPEG-4 AVC-encoded BD-50 that it shares with Farewell, My Lovely. (See screenshot #29 for one of the menus.) It appears in the aspect ratio of 1.78:1, which differs from the 1.85:1 theatrical exhibition. This is an overall crisp and sharp transfer. There are, however, a row of medium-sized blue circles that appear in the frame twice in two separate shots (within seconds of frame grab #s 27 & 28). The damage marks appear only momentarily during this first reel and thankfully don't recur. DNR tools have been applied to smooth the image over. Movie critic Fred Haeseker of the Calgary Herald summed up the film's shooting locations as "the lush green English countryside and the rain-washed streets of London." The former is particularly evident throughout these screen captures. The Daily (NY) News's Harry Haun notes that Winner "pours on the Technicolor" in the scenes set in Sternwood Manor. No digital manipulations of skin tones are apparent. Shout has encoded this feature at a mean video bitrate of 25996 kbps. My video score is 4.25/5.00.
The 99-minute film receives the standard twelve scene selections.
Shout supplies a DTS-HD Master Audio Dual Mono mix (1589 kbps, 24-bit). The spoken dialogue by the mostly British cast sounds crisp and authentic, if a bit flat. The sound recording is in very good shape with no sonic deficiencies or distortions to report. Peckinpah's frequent composer Jerry Fielding crafted a spicy jazz score with bouncy rhythms that demonstrate the most oscillations in pitch on this monaural track.
I also screened The Big Sleep with the optional English SDH active and they give a pretty complete transcription of the dialogue, although I spotted a couple spelling errors.
The Big Sleep (1978) is markedly different in tone and atmosphere than Farewell, My Lovely and I found it more enjoyable and entertaining. Death Wish (1974) is probably director Michael Winner's most popular film during this era but this picture has to be one of his better efforts. I was glad to see Robert Mitchum, Sarah Miles, and John Mills reunited. The trio had appeared in David Lean's criminally underrated Ryan's Daughter (1970). (When will Warner get that out on BD?) I'm pleased with Shout Select's transfer here, notwithstanding some DNR and a few print defects. The label has ported over three featurettes from ITV's UK Special Edition DVD but probably due to licensing rights, couldn't secure Winner's audio commentary and intro. Still, this deserves a SOLID RECOMMENDATION.
(Still not reliable for this title)
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