Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		1.5
Overall		4.0

The Tarnished Angels Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov May 22, 2019

Douglas Sirk's "The Tarnished Angels" (1957) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber. The supplemental features on the disc include an original trailer for the film and new audio commentary by critic Imogen Sara Smith. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".

New Orleans, a few years after World War I. Former fighter pilot Roger Shumann (Robert Stack, Bullfighter and the Lady, The Last Voyage), his beautiful wife LaVerne (Dorothy Malone, Private Hell 36, Young at Heart), and their 9-year-old son Jack (Chris Olson) spend most of their time at rural air shows - Roger races while LaVerne performs parachute demonstrations for money. Also working with them is Jiggs (Jack Carson, A Star is Born, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof), an aging mechanic and closeted romantic, who fixes everything that gets broken.

Roger loves racing, but LaVerne and Jiggs are both disillusioned with their lives. LaVerne has learned not to show her frustration, but Jiggs would occasionally tell Roger that his wife should have had a better life.

Local newspaper man Burke Devlin (Rock Hudson, Seconds, Pillow Talk) approaches Jack and LaVerne after he learns that they have no place to stay. He offers them the key to his apartment in exchange for their stories – because a family living on the road surely has the type of stories a newspaper needs. But instead of exciting stories about wild adventures, LaVerne shares intimate stories which make Burke realize that she desperately needs to be loved. Meanwhile, Jack crashes his only plane and becomes seriously depressed.

The main protagonists in this notably beautiful film loosely based on William Faulkner’s novel and directed by the great Douglas Sirk are people who gradually come to realize that they have built their lives around impossible dreams. These realizations occur at different times but have the same dramatic effects on their relationships.

LaVerne’s story is the simplest one. She was a young and naive girl when she fell in love with a man who made her believe that life outside of rural Iowa could be beautiful. He looked like the right man – he was a handsome war hero whose words can be trusted. But the more time LaVerne spent with him, the more she began doubting herself. She never stopped loving him, but eventually realized that he wasn’t the man she had seen in her dreams.

Halfway through the film a flashback shows how Roger married LaVerne. He desired her. He was attached to her. And he won her. But did he truly love her?

Jiggs did. And even after LaVerne married Roger he never stopped loving her. As the film progresses one gets the feeling that part of him also never stopped hoping that one day she might belong to him. But the cynic in him never allowed him to question LaVerne’s decision to be with Roger.

Burke, the newspaper man, is the wild card in the film. At first he is only a curious listener, but when LaVerne opens up her heart something inside him snaps. Could he be falling in love with another man’s woman?

The classic melodramatic overtones that make many of Sirk’s films special are definitely present in The Tarnished Angels, but the emotions are notably toned down here. Some breathtakingly beautiful sequences are also countered with cold and sterile imagery.

The film’s terrific orchestral soundtrack was created by the prolific composer Frank Skinner (Jules Dassin’s The Naked City, Douglas Sirk’s Written on the Wind, Henry Koster’s Harvey).

The Tarnished Angels Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented its original aspect ratio of 2.35:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Douglas Sirk's The Tarnished Angels arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber.

This release is sourced from an older master, but it is one that I actually like quite a lot. British label Eureka Entertainment used it in 2013 to produce this release, and all these years later I still think that the film looks quite wonderful in high-definition. To be honest, I think that a newer remaster can offer meaningful improvements only in these two areas: shadow definition, because there is some darker footage where finer nuances could be even better; and density, because this is a very high-quality production and there are a few areas where some minor fluctuations and tiny blemishes can be addressed. The overall quality of the current master, however, is really solid, and if you view your films on a larger screen you will be very pleased with a strong organic appearance of the film. The grading is excellent as well. It supports strong, but not overdone blacks, and wonderful and healthy ranges of whites and grays. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free player in order to access its content).

The Tarnished Angels Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 (48kHz, 16-bit). Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature. When turned on, they appear inside the image frame.

The audio is stable and clarity is good. If you turn up the volume a lot, the upper register still holds up well. This leads me to believe that the audio was fully remixed when the current master was prepared. There are no encoding anomalies or dropouts to report.

The Tarnished Angels Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer - original U.S. trailer for The Tarnished Angels. In English, not subtitled. (3 min, 480/60i).

• Commentary - an exclusive new audio commentary by critic Imogen Sara Smith.

• Trailers - additional trailers for other Kino Lorber releases.

The Tarnished Angels Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Douglas Sirk's The Tarnished Angels looks quite wonderful on Blu-ray, though this should not be news to a lot of folks who had previously seen Eureka Entertainment's release of the film. The only minor disappointment here is the lack of good archival bonus features. (I would have loved to see a few vintage interviews or programs with some of the stars that made the film). Regardless, if you enjoy Sirk's melodramas, pick up a copy of The Tarnished Angels for your library. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.