The Magnificent Seven Deadly Sins Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.0

The Magnificent Seven Deadly Sins Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov April 22, 2018

Graham Stark's "The Magnificent Seven Deadly Sins" (1971) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of British label Odeon Entertainment. The supplemental features on the disc include an original trailer for the film and a collection of vintage promotional materials. In English, without optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-Free.

"You have to go in and recover the coin"

Graham Stark’s comedy The Magnificent Seven Deadly Sins borrows the formula that various French and Italian producers used during the late ’60s and early ‘70s for the popular at the time ‘package’ films. However, instead of having a collection of segments unified by a common theme and directed by different filmmakers, The Magnificent Seven Deadly Sins had only a big group of popular British actors contributing to each of its segments. Stark was the only director behind the camera.

Each of the seven segments delivers a ‘very British lesson’ about one of the seven sins from the Bible. The quality of the comedy material varies, but at the end of each lesson, there is always a twist urging one not to forget that the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Avarice

A wealthy, slightly overweight snob (Paul Whitsun-Jones) becomes very upset when his slightly dim-witted chauffeur (Bruce Forsyth) accidentally drops a 50p in a sewage canal. The snob tells the chauffeur that it is his duty to retrieve it, and the poor soul goes to work. But the more he tries to catch and pull out the coin, the more he complicates things, and the coin moves further away from him. A lively group of ‘experts’ then gather around the scene of the ‘disaster’ and eventually a few even become involved in the rescue operation. At the end, the snob reappears and gets a dose of his own medicine.

Greed

Happy couple Stanley (Harry Secombe) and Vera (Carmel Cryan) are looking to purchase a brand new house. Vera eventually spots one she likes, but the owners (Geoffrey Bayldon and June Whitfield) refuse to sell it. So, Stanley and Vera decide to cheat to get what they want, but shortly after closing their dream deal, they realize that the value of their property is about to go down.

Gluttony

Quite possibly the funniest segment in the entire film. The brilliant Leslie Phillips plays a top executive in a company that sells healthy food. In front of his employees, the man pretends to practice what he preaches, but as soon as they leave his office, he brings out stacks of junk food and devours it in spectacular fashion. The liar’s problem with food is revealed when he goes out on a date with a sexy blonde (Julie Ege).

Lust

A middle-aged gentleman (Harry H. Corbett) enters a phone booth and then engages an attractive woman in another phone booth next to him. The surprised beauty very quickly becomes excited about the possibility of meeting him. Then, at the end of their conversation, the beauty confesses that she can’t stand the weird stranger in the booth right across her who has been undressing her with his eyes.

Pride

Two gentlemen (Ian Carmichael and Alfie Bass), heading somewhere with their ladies, get stuck in the middle of a very narrow country road. They both refuse to back up their cars and then engage in a passionate debate about their rights to go forward. When the ladies get bored with them and warm up to each other, they begin discussing their flaws. Eventually, a local police officer emerges and proceeds to fix the ‘problem’.

Sloth

Perhaps the most original segment in the entire film. A collection of silent black-and-white clips introduces several rather remarkably lazy people.

Wrath

Two aging loons (Ronald Fraser and Arthur Howard) become seriously upset with a park guard (Stephen Lewis) who keeps harassing them. They decide to get rid of the guy, but their supposedly witty plan for him backfires –somewhat literally.

The Magnificent Seven Deadly Sins Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.67:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Graham Stark's The Magnificent Seven Deadly Sins arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Odeon Entertainment.

The release is sourced from an old remaster, and if I had to guess, I would say that it was probably prepared towards the end of the DVD era. It is not bad, but it has plenty of obvious limitations. For example, its dynamic levels are not too convincing, though I am unsure if some tweaking of the gamma levels was done when the remaster was created, or if the disc is simply encoded this way. Either way, density is not optimal and during some of the darker footage there is actually some noticeable flatness. Grain exposure can be better, but I want to specifically mention that plenty of the flatness that is present during the black-and-white clips is intended. Colors are stable, but ideally the primaries and the supporting nuances should be better. There are no traces of problematic sharpening adjustments. Image stability is excellent. My score is 3.25/5.00. (Note: This is a Region-Free Blu-ray release. Therefore, you will be able to play it on your player regardless of your geographical location. For the record, there is no problematic PAL or 1080/50i content preceding the main menu).

The Magnificent Seven Deadly Sins 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 not provided for the main feature.

There are no technical issues to report. Even though the overall dynamic range of the lossless audio is modest, the dialog is always clear, stable, and nicely rounded. Balance is also convincing. There are no pops, cracks, dropouts, or digital distortions to report.

The Magnificent Seven Deadly Sins Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer - original trailer for The Magnificent Seven Deadly Sins. (3 min, 1080p).

• Stills - a collection of vintage promotional materials for the film. (1080p).

• Previews - four trailers for other releases from Odeon Entertainment's catalog.

The Magnificent Seven Deadly Sins Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I've had my eye on The Magnificent Seven Deadly Sins for a long time because I very much enjoy Leslie Phillips' work, but even during the DVD era, I never picked up a copy of it for my library. I had seen the film before and to be honest I don't think that it is as effective as it should have been. There are a lot of traditional 'package' films made around the same time in France and Italy that play with similar themes and ideas, and they are much easier to recommend to folks who like these types of projects. So, here is my advice to you: if there is a star that contributed to The Magnificent Seven Deadly Sins you like a lot, then perhaps you can hunt down a Blu-ray copy of it for your collection. But if there isn't, and you are not sure that you will enjoy it, consider grabbing a different comedy you know well.