6.9 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Anti-Nazi Prussian sea captain Karl Erlich opposed the war but feels it would be unpatriotic to refuse to save his ship from destruction. His ship -- an old, rusty 5,000 ton freighter named the Ergenstrasse -- is being pursued by a British warship on his journey from Australia back to Germany. Erlich must face obstacles ranging from horrendous sea storms and shark attacks to false murder accusations, and it seems his only devotee is Elsa, a beautiful German spy.
Starring: John Wayne, Lana Turner, David Farrar, Lyle Bettger, Tab HunterWar | 100% |
Drama | Insignificant |
Action | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.55:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.55:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English SDH
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region free
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 0.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Humphrey Bogart wasn't convincing as a French freedom fighter in Passage to Marseilles, but John Wayne is even less believable as a wartime German ship's captain in The Sea Chase, one of two nautical films starring the Duke released in 1955. The other is Blood Alley, and it's the better of the pair. Both have been issued on Blu-ray in new transfers by the Warner Archive Collection, and both involve special technical challenges, which WAC appears to have handled as well as anyone can expect.
The Sea Chase was shot in Cinemascope by William H. Clothier, John Wayne's favorite
cinematographer and the DP he chose to photograph The Alamo.
Clothier also shot Wayne's
other 1955 release, Blood Alley, and both
films present significant challenges in transferring and
mastering. Both were made during a period of major transition in filmmaking technology, when
studios were experimenting with widescreen formats to compete with TV, of which the
anamorphic process dubbed Cinemascope was one example. Studios were also attempting to
develop in-house processing expertise to compete with Technicolor, which is why the credits and
trailer proudly announce that The Sea Chase is presented in "Warnercolor"—an inferior process
that lasted only a few years before being abandoned. Warnercolor is an obstacle to contemporary
restoration efforts, because its color reproduction was inferior and the process was uniquely
subject to fading. Add to that the softening and spatial distortions typical of Cinemascope lenses,
plus the early stages of "yellow layer collapse" that plagued Eastmancolor stock in the Fifties
(see my discussion in connection with Silk
Stockings), and you have a daunting array of source
limitations.
For this 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray, the Warner Archive Collection commissioned a new
scan, which was performed by Warner's Motion Picture Imaging facility at 2K using a recently struck
interpositive. MPI then applied the latest in digital tools to restore the film's palette, followed by
WAC's customary meticulous cleaning and removal of dirt, scratches and similar flaws. The
resulting Blu-ray image is impressively sharp and detailed for an early Cinemascope production,
with solid blacks, good contrast and a grain pattern that is unexpectedly fine, given the source.
As is customary with WAC's titles, no filtering or grain reduction has been applied. The film's
palette offers what is no doubt an intentionally ironic commentary on the conflicted loyalties of
Wayne's German officer, with a recurring dominance of Yankee (and Union Jack) red, white and
blue, accentuated by the earth tones of the wooden ship and the third-world ports that it visits
during its eventful voyage. The high average bitrate of 34.99 Mbps, with a capable encode, helps
ensure accurate and artifact-free reproduction.
Cinemascope lenses were notorious for their instability, which is one of many reasons why the
format was ultimately supplanted by Panavision's superior optics. Depending on one's playback
equipment, you may notice odd distortions at the extreme right and left of the frame, especially
during camera moves where the focal length changes. (The larger your display, the more
noticeable these visual quirks are likely to be.) Modern eyes are unaccustomed to such flaws in
widescreen films, and while it's tempting to blame the transfer and mastering, the Blu-ray
accurately represents the source.
As with the video scoring of other films from this era, my score of 4.0 is meant to balance the
accuracy of the restoration efforts against the source's limitations.
The Sea Chase arrives with a stereo track encoded in lossless DTS-HD MA 2.0—and thereby hangs a tale. The film was originally released in both mono and four-track stereo, but Warner Brothers in this era did not make a practice of retaining the original magnetic recordings of multi-track mixes. In the early Nineties, with a new appreciation for the value of preserving its library, the studio embarked on a project to reclaim these stereo soundtracks from release prints, capturing and preserving two-channel mixes from the optical print tracks wherever possible. The Sea Chase is a beneficiary of this effort, and the Blu-ray soundtrack reveals surprisingly robust stereo separation, of which the effect is most audible in the score by Roy Webb (Bringing Up Baby and Out of the Past, among others). The dialogue is clearly rendered, and the excitement of the action sequences is amplified by the track's enhanced fidelity and expanded dynamic range. The Sea Chase may not sound like a recent release, but the audio is surprisingly effective for a film that's over sixty years old.
The only extra is the film's trailer (1080p; 2.55:1; 3:29), which has been remastered in 1080p, although the quality is limited by the roughness of the source. Warner's 2005 DVD of The Sea Chase (reissued in 2007 as part of the John Wayne Collection) contained a gallery of trailers for Wayne's films.
The Sea Chase is lesser Wayne, but it's still the Duke, and his fans should enjoy watching him
stretch himself in a role that is so obviously out of his comfort zone, even if the results are less
than satisfying. WAC's presentation is faithful, superior and recommended.
Limited Edition / Import
1940
Saboteur: Code Name Morituri | Limited Edition to 3000
1965
1943
Special Edition
1958
1954
1954
Warner Archive Collection
1955
1967
1953
1957
1971
1960
1976
1960
Warner Archive Collection
1944
1959
1954
La Battaglia d'Inghilterra
1969
The Great Spy Mission / Warner Archive Collection
1965
1970