The Black Marble Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		3.5
Overall		4.0

The Black Marble Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov August 3, 2021

Harold Becker's "The Black Marble" (1980) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber. The supplemental features on the disc include an archival audio commentary recorded by the director as well as vintage trailer for the film. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".

Natasha and Andrushka

The short scene from the Russian church where Robert Foxworth’s character is forced to leave because he is drunk as a skunk was enough for my mind to begin speculating that he must have crossed paths with another very interesting character Elliott Gould played less than a decade earlier. They could have met in a lousy LA bar and had a drink while pursuing the same person of interest. Or they could have met at a crime scene where someone had taken out their target.

Both were created by prolific writers. Foxworth’s character, Sgt. Valnikov, comes from Joseph Wambauch’s novel The Black Marble. Gould’s famous character, Philip Marlowe, has a slightly more complicated background, but you can trace him back to Raymond Chandler's classic novel The Long Goodbye. Both are detectives and heavy drinkers. Both share an equally odd sense of humor, which could be why they have remained bachelors as well. Both have pets. Valnikov’s pet is a whacky parrot that seems determined to drill into his head that his boozing has transformed him into a miserable guvno. (In case you are wondering, guvno is a Russian word that has the exact same meaning in a number of Slavic languages).

Here’s another very interesting similarity that gives credibility to my theory that somehow Valnikov and Marlowe must have met. In The Black Marble and The Long Goodbye they are unleashed and allowed to bend the personalities of the original characters from the novels, which is why both films cannot be seen as accurate cinematic adaptations. Is this done by design? Absolutely. This is the main reason why these films produce so many terrific surprises. For example, in The Black Marble Valnikov’s pursuit of a loony dog breeder (terrific Harry Dean Stanton) very quickly becomes a ruse for an odd but wonderful romantic story that involves a fellow detective (equally impressive Paula Prentiss). This secondary story is full of old-fashioned melodrama but instead of dumbing down the film it adds a new flavor that makes it look seriously stylish. Then there is the quality of the dialog, and I am not referring to the screenplay that Wambaugh delivered. Valnikov and his surprising muse deliver their lines in a way that reveals a real connection between two adults who despite their completely different lifestyles have been yearning for the same type of love.

The biggest twist that transforms The Black Marble into a truly special film, however, is its employment of a very, very wicked sense of humor. It is of the kind that can make you pause at times and wonder whether Valnikov and the people around him are actually working as a team to make you feel like you have gotten drunk on the same Russian vodka they are drinking. It is a great trick. The Long Goodbye has some similar moments as well, but in it the tricks are made possible through the use of witty satire.

In an archival audio commentary that is included on this release, Harold Becker reveals that he and cinematographer Owen Roizman had to make a number of difficult decisions because the budget they had to work with was quite small. However, The Black Marble is one very impressive time capsule that very much looks like a big-budget studio project from the late ‘70s.

*A very young James Woods has an appropriately strange cameo. He makes ends meet as a street fiddler who is temporarily forced to entertain Valnikov and his feisty girlfriend while they have an impromptu dinner.

The Black Marble Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

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

The release is sourced from a recent 4K master that was prepared on behalf of StudioCanal. I think that the master is quite good, but it could have been even better. Why? Well, there are some extremely minor traces of denoising adjustments and they were completely unnecessary. Delineation is still very good, but in some darker areas depth could have been more impressive. The other good news is that in the same darker areas the dynamic range of the visuals remains convincing. (Again, it could have been better, but the awful anomalies that have been present on some recent 4K projects from L'immagine Ritrovata for instance are avoided). Image stability is excellent. The color-grading is convincing, but select ranges of darker nuances could have been better. There are no distracting large debris, cuts, damage marks, warped or torn frames to report. (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).

The Black Marble 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.

Maurice Jarre's score has an essential role in The Black Marble. Thankfully, when the film was restored the audio must have been fully remastered because it sounds terrific. Clarity, sharpness, depth, and balance are as good as I think they can be. There are no transfer-specific anomalies either.

The Black Marble Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Commentary - director Harold Becker recorded this audio commentary for the old R1 DVD release of The Black Marble. It is really, really good. He discusses in great detail how and where he shot the film with Owen Roizman and has plenty of interesting observations about its style and sense of humor. I found myself agreeing with pretty much everything he had to say not only about the film, but the evolution of American cinema since the '70s as well.

• Trailer - an original trailer for The Black Marble. In English, not subtitled. (3 min).

The Black Marble Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Black Marble has such a wicked sense of humor that I find it impossible not to admire the vision of its creator, Harold Becker. I know Joseph Wambaugh's book that inspired it and think that it is very nice, but Becker's take on the original material is a lot more entertaining. This shouldn't be surprising. During the '80s his films produced characters that are truly unforgettable and in certain ways actually defined what made the decade special. (My favorite of his films is The Boost, which features an astonishing performance by Jimmy Woods). Kino Lorber's release of The Black Marble is sourced from a good recent 4K master that was supplied by StudioCanal. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.