The Woman Between Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		3.0
Audio		2.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.5

The Woman Between Blu-ray Movie Review

A classic romance featuring a star performance from Lili Damita

An early pre-code romance of the 1930's, The Woman Between is a surprisingly feisty and unique classic-era romance with spunk. The film is a production of the iconic film studio RKO Radio Pictures. With production by William LeBaron (Give Us This Night, Till We Meet Again), the foundation of the film is one which is rooted in showstopping melodrama with elegant class.

Julie Whitcomb (Lili Damita) is a beautiful vixen who meets the handsome Victor Whitcomb (Lester Vail) while on a special trip traveling across the sea. When the pair meet, the two hit it off together and begin having a romantic-connection simmering with pre-code erotic sensuality. What the couple doesn't know is that Victor is in fact the stepson of Julie (and by consequence that makes Julie his stepmother to boot). This complicates their romantic entanglement considerably and leads to some difficult conversations as the storyline unfolds upon the characters return home.

One of the things early pre-code melodramas often share in common in is the beautiful attire for the female cast. With some highly sensual attire, The Woman Between is no exception to this rule. It has arguably the best looking costume designs out of every feature which is included in the RKO Classic Romances collection.

An unexpectedly unique romance

The attractive Lili Damita looks absolutely gorgeous throughout the film (becoming a clear femme fatale of the silver screen). The elegant costumes by Max Ree (who was certainly one of the top-contributors to the RKO classics) are perhaps the best the designer did for any of the features that have been compiled and include on this Kino collection. Damita's performance also showcases her clear enthusiasm and confidence.

To match the film's sensual style is the original score composed by director Victor Schertzinger (The Edge of the Abyss, Dorothy Vernon of Haddon Hall). There are many sequences which feel much stylish in mood with the surprisingly thoughtful composition by Schertzinger. Acting as both the composer and director of the film, the music compositions used feel like a great fit alongside the cinematography by J. Roy Hunt (Riders of the Range, Call Out the Marines), which has such an impeccably done black and white photographic quality that the film evokes film noir.

Schertzinger (Long Live the King, What Happened to Rosa) directs with a firm hand that has a grasp on bringing the pace and tempo of the story to life. With swift editing by William Hamilton (Suspicion, Topaze), the filmmaking feels tightly focused. While the screenplay written by Howard Estabrook (Street of Chance, Heavenly Days) lacks in greater depth, it's still a witty and biting script that keeps this strange story interesting. The Woman Between is a interesting curiosity that is worthy of some consideration for classic film enthusiasts.

The Woman Between Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Woman Between arrives on Blu-ray with a high definition 1080p MPEG-4 AVC encoded presentation. The film is presented in 1.33:1 full frame. This is a reasonably good high-definition transfer featuring restorative work completed from Lobster Films. The first thing that stood out to me about the video transfer was the fine film grain preserved in the image. The image has nice layers of grain. The transfer is often a sharp and impressive presentation which offers more detail than one would expect for a film made in 1931. On the downside, the transfer sometimes does ebb and flow in quality with some scenes being a tad softer (and this is most likely due in part to source limitations). The transfer also still has scratches and minor print damage speckled across the image. Even with these minor picture-quality drawbacks, The Woman Between has received a decent high definition upgrade.

The Woman Between Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The film is presented with lossless stereo audio. The audio track is encoded in DTS-HD Master Audio. The Woman Between has a somewhat reserved sound presentation but the lossless mix does provide a reasonable sonic boost of the limited source material. The dialogue is generally clear and it is easy to understand. Though the track doesn't sound like it has received a full restorative effort, the overall quality is reasonably good. The track has some scenes which sound somewhat muffled but nothing too detrimental to distract from the overall experience. Optional English SDH subtitles are included.

The Woman Between Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

There are no supplemental features on this release.

The Woman Between Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Woman Between is easily one of the most melodramatic films to be included in the RKO Classic Romances collection. However, it is also one of the most entertaining and engaging features included on the set. With top notch direction by Victor Schertzinger and the star-power of actress Lili Damita, one can't help but become invested in it. This is a worthy entry in the RKO set and is worth checking out.