Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.0

The Criminal Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov October 13, 2019

Joseph Losey's "The Criminal" (1960) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of StudioCanal. The supplemental features on the disc include vintage trailer for the film and exclusive new audio commentary by critic Kat Ellinger. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-B "locked".

The price of freedom

Joseph Losey made The Criminal (also known as The Concrete Jungle) under his real name in 1960, just a few years after permanently relocating to the United Kingdom because of his blacklisting in the United States. The film is based on a script by Allan Owen, who later on teamed up with Richard Lester for The Beatles classic A Hard Day's Night.

While in prison, working-class thug Johnny Bannion (Stanley Baker) puts together a brilliant plan that is supposed to make him rich quick and permanently remove him from the underworld. When he is released, Bannion teams up with a few of his trusted old pals, and together they go over the details. A couple of days later, the gang goes to work and successfully robs a very busy horseracing venue. The loot is then buried in a desolated farm field, as agreed between Bannion and his top associate, Mike Carter (Sam Wanamaker), and the rest of the gang members are told lay low until the heat is gone. Very soon after that, however, Bannion’s former mistress (Jill Bennett), whom he has recently rejected again, tips off a couple of detectives that he has been busy meeting with his old pals, and they quickly pick him up. The big sum of money that they recover from Bannion then convince them that they have the right man, and he is promptly sent back to prison.

Despite being placed in a different block where he is surrounded by former foes and routinely pressured by the investigators to name his accomplices Bannion holds out, but when word goes out that he was captured with a good chunk of money he becomes concerned that he will be seen as a cheater and taken out. To avoid certain death, Bannion then offers another thug (Gregoire Aslan), an Italian with plenty of connections in the prison, a deal: if he helps him get out and leave the country, he would reveal the location where the loot is buried, and his people can claim it. The Italian, who has been in touch with Carter, accepts and arranges a riot as cover for the breakout, but when complications arise Bannion is forced to improvise.

An outspoken communist behind the camera and an outspoken socialist in front of it doing a film about a working-class thug who is forced to have a dose of his own medicine definitely sounds like a description for a project with potential. Unfortunately, despite a few good sequences where Baker goes off in a familiar fashion, The Criminal is an instantly forgettable film.

There are two crucial flaws that this film has. First, the direction is so choppy that a lot of the important events that are supposed to build the drama actually look completely random. Different characters that have meaningful roles to play in Bannion’s life, for instance, pass through them and fail to create the impression that they actually want to be associated with him, which is why virtually all of their reactions and emotions appear suspicious. As a result, Bannion also begins to look like an annoyed small-timer rather than the reputable bold thug that the film needs him to be. Second, many, many lines are delivered with the wrong type of intensity. On a scale of one to ten, the intensity is cranked up to twelve, and this ultimately destroys the credibility of large parts of the film.

Losey secured the services of Oscar-winning cinematographer Robert Krasker, but his mastery is virtually unrecognizable here. Excluding the staged attack on the prison truck before Bannion’s escape, there isn’t even a whiff of the special atmosphere that defines genre classics like Odd Man Out, The Great Manhunt, and of course The Third Man.

The Criminal Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.66:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, The Criminal arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of StudioCanal.

Neither the original press release we received nor the actual disc feature technical details about the master that was used to source the release, but I can assure you that it is not old. It has very strong organic qualities of the type that onoy recent makeovers deliver, plus the overall stability and fluidity of the visuals also make it painfully obvious that it is a high-quality master.

Clarity and delineation are outstanding, and while a few shots can exhibit momentary softness depth is excellent as well. I projected the film and was quite impressed with the overall quality of the visuals. Grain exposure is strong and even, as it should be, and there are no traces of digital sharpening or other similar enhancements. The grading job is very convincing -- the blacks are stable and lush, but do not appear boosted, while the supporting white and gray nuances appear very healthy and nicely balance. There is only one sequence early into the film, from the prison, where the whites appear somewhat elevated, but this is likely a limitation of the original photography that was introduced by the indoor lighting. There are distracting large debris, cuts, damage marks, warped or torn frames to report. My score is 4.75/5.00. (Note: This is a Region-B "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-B or Region-Free player in order to access its content).

The Criminal Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: English LPCM 2.0. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature.

The audio has the type of native qualities that a film from the 1960s ought to have. Some minor unevenness exists, but clarity and depth are very nice. (You won't have to turn on the subtitles to catch all lines during the mass footage). Dynamic intensity is not impressive, but this isn't surprising because there is quite a bit of borderline documentary footage. There are no audio dropouts or distortions to report.

The Criminal Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer - a vintage trailer for The Criminal. In English, not subtitled. (2 min).

• Commentary - exclusive new commentary by critic Kat Ellinger.

The Criminal Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Criminal is an instantly forgettable film for two simple reasons -- Joseph Losey's rather surprisingly choppy direction, and a mismanagement of its intensity, which has a significant impact on its credibility. It is possible that big admirers of Losey and Stanley Baker would find something to like in it, but I am certain most viewers will agree with me that there are much better genre films from the 1960s. StudioCanal's release is sourced from a recent and very strong remaster of the film. RECOMMENDED only to Losey and Baker completists.