7.7 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Window washers Ted Higgins (Bud Abbott) and Homer Hinchcliffe (Lou Costello) are mistaken for messengers and sent to collect $50,000 by a gangster who runs a gambling syndicate. But Homer inadvertently mails the cash to a woman (Cathy Downs) who spends it before they can track her down. Faced with a thirty-six hour deadline to come up with the gangster's dough, the desperate trio must act quickly... or it'll be their necks!
Starring: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Joseph Calleia, Leon Errol, Cathy DownsComedy | 100% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.37:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.37:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono (48kHz, 24-bit)
English SDH
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 3.5 | |
Audio | 3.5 | |
Extras | 1.0 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
The Noose Hangs High marked the beginning of the end of Abbott and Costello’s exclusive deal with Universal Pictures (which included three at bats for Metro Goldwyn Mayer under a corollary agreement). Some may also perceive it as the beginning of the end for the legendary duo’s stellar film heyday, though the pair would continue to produce huge box office receipts for years to come, albeit in efforts that often paired them with Universal’s stable of monsters (Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, Abbott and Costello Meet The Invisible Man, Abbott & Costello Meet the Mummy). The Noose Hangs High was originally slated to be a Universal release, but with at least the hint of a little freedom, and the smarts to try to take more control of their cinematic output, Abbott and Costello ported it over to Eagle-Lion, a studio which, despite its impressive sounding aggregate moniker, was in fact little more than a dressed up version of “Poverty Row”’s Producing Releasing Corporation. The Noose Hangs High recycles some earlier Abbott and Costello bits, as tended to be the case more and more with the two comics as the years passed by, and it, like many other Abbott and Costello efforts, is also stuffed with a number of shtick laden sequences, to varying effectiveness. The film depends on one of those “why don’t they just tell someone” artifices, when the two leads are mistaken for messengers (they’re actually window washers) and get mixed up in a missing $50,000 caper that leads to predictably calamitous results.
The Noose Hangs High is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of ClassicFlix with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.37:1. The bulk of this presentation is rather nice looking, with an organic grain field and solid contrast. Clarity and sharpness are variable, however, and while the majority of the film looks fine, if not stunning, there are moments where things look a good deal fuzzier (see screenshot 19 for one example, though this is a recurrent if intermittent and transitory issue), something that leads me to believe either a solitary source element had some problematic damage, or alternatively that more than one source was utilized. Whatever source was utilized was either largely damage free, in terms of age related wear and tear like nicks, scratches and dirt, or has been restored to appear so.
The Noose Hangs High features a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono mix that doesn't have any of the variability of the video presentation, and which on the whole sounds surprisingly full bodied. Dialogue and effects resonate cleanly and clearly and there are no real issues with dropouts or distortion. The age of the track is evident in a slightly boxy sound, but there's nothing overly problematic in my estimation.
There are some fun bits in The Noose Hangs High, and my hunch is any devoted Abbott and Costello fan will find a lot to enjoy in this picture. The film hinges on ridiculous plot contrivances, as any number of other Abbott and Costello vehicles do, but the pair are as amiable as ever (if, in Abbott's case, on the curmudgeonly side), and Charles Barton keeps things moving along at a breakneck pace. There are probably a few too many distractions along the way, including a kind of bizarre Deus ex Machina in the form of an eccentric millionaire who shows up to save the day, but The Noose Hangs High delivers enough solid comedy to satisfy most Abbott and Costello aficionados. Recommended.
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