The Long, Hot Summer Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.0

The Long, Hot Summer Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov October 6, 2012

Winner of Best Actor Award at the Cannes Film Festival, Martin Ritt's "The Long Hot Summer" (1958) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Italian distributors Medusa/General Video. The supplemental features on the disc include the film's original U.S. theatrical trailer and a short Italian documentary directed by Valentina Pattavina. In English, with optional Italian SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-B "locked".

This is our town

Bad boy and suspected barn burner Ben Quick (Paul Newman, The Hustler) arrives in the great state of Mississippi looking for work. He ends up in the town of Frenchman’s Bend, a place where nothing gets done without the approval of Will Varner (Orson Welles, Touch of Evil), a big, loud and rich man who loves cigars, whiskey and women.

Quick and Varner meet and immediately impress each other. Then they begin discussing an interesting deal - if Quick agrees to marry Varner’s single daughter Clara (Joanne Woodward, From the Terrace) and give him a grandson, Varner would welcome him into the family and make sure that he never ever again have to worry about money and the police.

But Jody (Anthony Franciosa, A Hatful of Rain), Varner’s real son, does not like the fact that he is being pushed aside and makes sure that Quick knows exactly how he feels. Hardly concerned about his feelings, at first Quick ignores Jody, but then teaches him a lesson that sends him crying into the arms of his young and beautiful wife Eula (Lee Remick, Anatomy of a Murder).

Meanwhile, Clara, who has been vehemently rejecting Quick’s advances, slowly begins to warm up to him, just as her Daddy has predicted she would. This further frustrates Jody, who has long been Clara’s favorite man in the house. Energized by Quick’s progress, Varner also rekindles his not so private affair with Minnie Littlejohn (Angela Lansbury, The Manchurian Candidate), a local cougar who has been dying to officially take the spot of his late wife.

Based on two short stories by William Faulkner, Martin Ritt’s The Long, Hot Summer is a witty and surprisingly bold film that targets attitudes and manners. Predictably, there are plenty of stereotypes in it but few, if any, are in any way offensive. The overwhelming majority of them are introduced with light humor that spices up the narrative and ultimately keeps the film fresh.

The film’s greatest strength is the outstanding script. Scene after scene the main characters exchange terrific lines which essentially define who they are and what they represent. However, the weight such exchanges carry in other similarly themed classic films is missing here; instead, there is a genuine feeling that the folks in front of the camera are real people with real desires and needs.

Another unusual aspect of this film is the constant sexual tension. Quite surprisingly, it is promoted by the male and female characters, and with an attitude that initially seems out of sync with the period environment. In the grand scheme of things, however, the suggestive nature of the script is actually the only legit link between the film and Faulkner’s writings.

It is difficult to pick a star. The young and very handsome Newman plays the bad boy to perfection, but Welles is also very impressive as the aging businessman who has grown tired of waiting for his daughter to pick a husband. Woodward and Remick are also terrific. There is a short sequence with the former where she tries to explain with simple words that she has such high standards that it is impossible to find the right man to settle down with in Frenchman’s Bend. If you read carefully between the lines, this is clearly the most damning statement in the entire film. On the other hand, the beautiful Remick is perfectly happy with her man, but definitely not opposed to the idea of experimenting with another one.

All in all, The Long, Hot Summer is a fine melodrama, definitely worth seeing - as long as one does not have a problem with the fact that it takes a lot of liberties in its interpretation of Faulkner’s writings.

Note: In 1958, The Long, Hot Summer won Best Actor Award at the Cannes Film Festival. It was also nominated for Palme d’Or Award.

The Long, Hot Summer Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in its original aspect ratio of 2.35:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Martin Ritt's The Long, Hot Summer arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Italian distributors Medusa/General Video.

I have mixed feelings about this release. The high-definition transfer it uses has been struck from a dated source - and it clearly shows. Portions of the film look quite good, boasting pleasing detail and decent clarity. With a few minor exceptions, contrast levels are also relatively stable. The high-definition transfer's greatest strength, however, is the absence of edge-enhancement. Unsurprisingly, the film occasionally conveys depth that isn't present on the R1 DVD release which 20th Century Fox produced years ago in the United States. This being said, there is quite a bit of color fluttering. Grain is also not evenly distributed, which is why occasionally the lack of balance and stability could be somewhat distracting. The larger panoramic scenes also lack the depth they ought to have. Quite a few scenes also convey light flicker that is enhanced by light noise (see screencapture #16). Finally, there are plenty of tiny flecks and scratches popping up throughout the entire film. To sum it all up, this release of The Long, Hot Summer is clearly an upgrade in quality over the old R1 DVD release, but there is a lot of room for serious improvements. (Note: This is a Region-B "locked" Blu-ray disc. Therefore, you must have a native Region-B or Region-Free PS3 or SA in order to access its content).

The Long, Hot Summer Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There are two audio tracks on this Blu-ray disc: English LPCM and Italian LPCM 2.0. For the record, Medusa/General Video have provided optional Italian SDH subtitles for the main feature. When turned on, they split the image frame and the black bar below it.

The lossless English track serves the film quite well. It is free of heavy hiss and there are no sudden drops/spikes in dynamic movement. However, it is slightly uneven, especially as far as crispness and clarity are concerned. Some minor stabilizations could be used here. For the record, there are no problematic audio dropouts or distortions to report in this review.

The Long, Hot Summer Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer - original trailer for The Long, Hot Summer. In English, not subtitled. (3 min, 1080/50i).

• Una storia del Profondo Sud - Italian documentary about the American South and William Faulkner. Directed by Valentina Pattavina. In Italian, not subtitled. (25 min, 1080/50i).

The Long, Hot Summer Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

If interested in owning a copy of Martin Ritt's The Long Hot Summer, I would suggest that you do some research and see if you could find it on sale. This Italian release definitely represents an upgrade in quality, but there is still plenty of room for serious improvements. Let's hope that eventually we would also see Blu-ray releases of From the Terrace and WUSA as the current DVD releases are not terribly impressive. Some of these early films where Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward are seen together are amongst their best.