6.9 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
Stephen McNally is Lightning, the quick-drawing marshal of Silver City who's intent on capturing a ruthless gang of claim jumpers that have been terrorizing and murdering local miners - including his best friend. After losing the use of his famed trigger finger in a shootout, Lightning deputizes the sharp-shooting Silver Kid (Audie Murphy), whose own father was killed by the gang, to help bring the outlaws to justice. But their plans are complicated when Lightning falls for the beautiful new lady in town (Faith Domergue), whose interest in the marshal is a thin disguise for her own dangerous agenda.
Starring: Audie Murphy, Faith Domergue, Stephen McNally, Susan Cabot, Gerald MohrWestern | 100% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.35:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.37:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
English SDH
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 4.0 | |
Video | 3.0 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 2.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
Don Siegel's "The Duel at Silver Creek" (1952) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber. The supplemental features on the disc include an exclusive new audio commentary by critic Toby Roan and vintage trailer for the film. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked.
Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.35:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, The Duel at Silver Creek arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber.
The release is sourced from an older master that was supplied by Universal. It is pretty weak master that gives the film a very dated appearance. A lot of the outdoor panoramic shots for instance can look quite flat, occasionally disappointingly anemic as well. Obviously, delineation and depth are underwhelming, but even clarity can be problematic. There are no traces of compromising digital work, but it is very easy to tell that if properly restored the film will boast visuals with much better grain field. The lush Technicolor colors are missing, too. There are some obvious registration issues that further exacerbate the basic weaknesses of the master as well. Image stability is good, but there is room for minor enhancement work. Finally, a few blemishes can be spotted here and there, but there are no large 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).
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.
The lossless audio track sounded very good on my system. However, I think that if remastered some minor enhancements could make a difference in the mid-/upper registers where occasionally some unevenness can be noticed. But the overall quality of the lossless audio track is still very nice, so you should not worry about encountering annoying age-related imperfections.
Don Siegel's first western, The Duel at Silver Creek, is the type of nicely polished and confident film that you would expect to emerge much later in the career of a veteran director. However, I personally do not think that this is surprising because Siegel's output was remarkably consistent. Kino Lorber's release is sourced from an older and regrettably pretty weak master that was supplied by Universal Pictures. It is included in Audie Murphy Collection, a three-disc box set.
(Still not reliable for this title)
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