Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		4.0
Overall		4.0

The Prowler Blu-ray Movie Review

Un homme fatal.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman March 12, 2015

One of the seemingly ineluctable tropes of film noir is the (often but not always blonde and sultry) femme fatale. The paradigmatic example is no doubt Barbara Stanwyck in Billy Wilder’s iconic Double Indemnity. Stanwyck’s character Phyllis is a scheming, machinating “rhymes with witch” whose unhappy marriage comes to a rather calamitous close after she meets up with clueless insurance salesman Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray). The Prowler, a strangely underappreciated noir from 1951 takes several elements from the basic setup of Double Indemnity but then turns them on their head. In this particular case the blond(ish) seducer is not in fact a wily female, but prevaricating cop Webb Garwood (Van Heflin), a guy who’s called to the home (or “hacienda” as the film terms it) of a panicked woman named Susan Gilvray (Evelyn Keyes) after she spies a titular creep gazing into her bedroom window one night. That (maybe, maybe not) serendipitous meeting sets off a cascading set of events where the married Susan finds herself becoming further and further ensnared by Webb’s allure and, ultimately, plans for the future, plans that obviously do not include Susan’s husband.

The Prowler begins with an intriguing pre-credits sequence that puts the viewer squarely in the point of view of the prowler, in a gambit that presages a technique that would less than a decade later temporarily scuttle the vaunted career of Michael Powell, when he sought to interpolate layers of voyeurism (including the kind that is inherently part of the film viewing experience) in his initially hugely misunderstood and misinterpreted Peeping Tom. (It's instructive to note a basic difference between the two films, however. In The Prowler, Susan looks at a three-quarter angle off to the side of the frame, while in Peeping Tom, usually whoever is in the frame— including some murder victims—stare squarely at the camera. This may in fact be why the Powell film is more viscerally disturbing in exploiting any voyeuristic content.) That interloper in turn leads to Webb and his partner Bud Crocker (John Maxwell) showing up to investigate. It seems possible, at least to a smirking Webb, that Susan has made the whole incident up in order to get a little transitory company at her expansive home.

Webb rather quickly ingratiates himself with Susan, especially when he returns the night of the prowler incident to do a supposed “routine” follow up. Heflin is rather amazing to watch in this scene, especially when he’s alone in the frame. He makes Webb a shambling but menacing figure, one who’s scarily right at home in Susan’s domicile, despite the fact that her announcer husband’s voice (reportedly done by Dalton Trumbo) emanates from the radio, at least that is until she turns him off to devote full attention to Webb. Susan may put up some fleeting demurrals along the way, but it’s obvious she’s ripe for seduction, if not for the aftermath.

The insert on this new Blu-ray correctly touts The Prowler as “subversive,” but even that loaded adjective barely skims the surface of some of the audaciousness that screenwriter Dalton Trumbo (fronted by Hugo Butler) and director Joseph Losey put on the screen. Aside from the “switcheroo” aspect, with the man leading the woman down the garden path toward seeming destruction, there’s the rather disturbing fact that Webb is a civic officer of the law supposedly trained to be noble, uplifting and protective. Webb turns out to be protective, alright, but it’s a protectiveness wallowing in insecurity, paranoia and duplicity. There’s even more “subversive” content later in the film, when a major change in Susan is announced.

One of the most interesting things about The Prowler, an element especially remarkable given the tawdry and salacious aspects of the overall plot, is how well rounded the characters of Webb and Susan both are. While Webb is by default the more static character, the puppet master so to speak who is already molded and simply pulling the strings, Heflin makes him both repulsive and oddly compelling. Susan, on the other hand, goes through quite a whirlwind journey from seemingly docile housewife to surreptitious lover to witting or unwitting accomplice in murder to—well, someone in a different kind of trouble. Keyes is quite remarkable in the role, able to suggest Susan’s vulnerability and an ultimately disastrous lack of self esteem.

The Prowler is at least as notable for its “below the line” talent as for its on screen sizzle between Keyes and Heflin. The film was ostensibly produced by one S.P. Eagle, which cineastes will know is a pseudonym for noted icon Sam Spiegel, working here with his partner John Huston. (Huston had been married to Keyes at one point, but they evidently divorced before the film’s actual release.) As mentioned above, the screenplay was by blacklisted Dalton Trumbo, a man not shy about exposing the rotten underbelly of Capitalism and the American Dream. Directing was Joseph Losey, himself about to experience the blacklist, causing him to emigrate to Europe. Losey invests the film with an almost palpably sordid ambience, putting the lie to preconceptions about “nice” people like policemen and housewives.

The Prowler Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Prowler is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of VCI with an MPEG-2 encoded 1080p transfer in 1.34:1. The elements utilized for this transfer were part of an evidently massive restoration process undertaken by the Film Noir Foundation and the UCLA Film and Television Archive. There is some noticeable fluctuation in clarity and sharpness, perhaps the result of cobbling together a useable master (contrast screenshot 2 with screenshot 16 for just one example). Grain structure is also slightly variable at times, but overall looks organic, though rather thick. Gray scale is impressively modulated and blacks look deep. VCI's continued use of MPEG-2 "technology" is debatable (I've been on the receiving end of some pretty emphatic emails from a VCI compressionist insisting MPEG-2 is "as good as" AVC and VC-1, a contention I'll leave for others to discuss.) What is at least as problematic as an outdated codec is this disc's rather anemic bitrates, which tend to hover in the low 20s a lot of the time (there are occasional but transitory forays into higher bitrates). Whether a newer compression regimen coupled with a healthier bitrate could have at least incrementally increased levels of detail here is another debatable issue, but at least bears mentioning. All of this said, The Prowler certainly enjoys a substantial uptick in detail over the DVD, and the restorative efforts and subsequent work have not deprived the film from looking like film. My one general concern here is that this looks to me to be a bit too dark quite a bit of the time. It's fine for a noir to exploit shadows and chiaroscuro lighting techniques (two things The Prowler does), but here on occasion even normally lit scenes can offer crushed blacks and murky to nonexistent shadow detail.

The Prowler Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Prowler features a rather robust sounding LPCM 2.0 mono soundtrack which capably supports the film's dialogue and enjoyable score by Lyn Murray. There's really nothing in the way of age related damage here, and fidelity remains convincing throughout the presentation.

The Prowler Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• The Cost of Living: Creating The Prowler (480i; 24:59) is a really well done overview of the film and its context, including the troubled careers of several of the participants. This includes interviews with Dalton Trumbo's son Christopher, along with Denise Hamilton, Eddie Muller, Alan K. Rode and James Ellroy.


• Masterpiece in the Margins (480i; 20:12) is another very interesting piece, this time featuring French critic and filmmaker Bertrand Tavernier.


• Original Theatrical Trailer (480i; 1:49)


• Pressbook Photo Gallery (480i; 2:58)


• Restoring The Prowler (480i; 9:22) features Eddie Muller and some the team that undertook the restoration of this title, including Todd Wiener of the UCLA Film and Television Archive.


• Commentary with Film Noir Export Eddie Muller is an extremely well rounded and informative affair. It almost sounds like there's a bit of a sync issue early on, as Muller begins talking about Susan's house before the credits end, but it's a passing anomaly.

The Prowler Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Prowler so smartly topples noir tropes while at the same time evoking a near perfect noir ambience that it's a little amazing this film hasn't generated more interest through the years. Trumbo paints two desperate characters swirling the drain of destitution together, and Losey paces things very smartly. The Prowler would make a fantastic double feature with Double Indemnity, for home theater enthusiasts interested in looking at two sides of the same noir coin. While some may continue to at least wonder at some of the encoding work VCI does on its Blu-ray releases, generally speaking technical merits are very good and the supplemental package is great. Recommended.