6 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
The Master of Suspense, Alfred Hitchcock, brought a best-selling spy novel to the screen with riveting results in this spellbinding espionage thriller. John Forsythe star as an American CIA agent who hires a French operative named Devereaux (Frederick Stafford) to go to Cuba and check out rumours of Russian missiles and a NATO spy called Topaz.
Starring: Frederick Stafford, Dany Robin, John Vernon (I), Karin Dor, Michel PiccoliThriller | 100% |
Video codec: VC-1
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono (48kHz, 24-bit)
English SDH, French, Spanish
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region free
Movie | 2.5 | |
Video | 3.5 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 2.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
A man confronts his accuser atop the Statue of Liberty, where one false move will spell death. A wolf in sheep's clothing allows the beast lurking within to bear its teeth. A housemaster slowly, oh so slowly, pieces together the heinous crime perpetrated by two former students. A woman searches for clues in a suspected murderer's apartment just as the man returns home. Four people work to keep the demise of a fellow smalltown resident a secret from a local deputy. An assassin's gun slides out from behind a curtain as an ordinary man races to thwart his plot. An airplane buzzes then roars past as a man dives for cover. The hiss of a shower masks the approach of a madman with a knife in his hand. Countless birds gather on a jungle gym as a woman smokes a cigarette nearby. A husband barges into his new wife's bedroom and has his way with her as she retreats into a near-catatonic state. A physicist discovers killing a man isn't as easy as it might seem, wrestling with his victim right up until the violent end. A purple dress billows out beneath a dying woman like spilled blood. A serial killer retrieves his pin from a woman's grasp, one dead finger at a time. A fake psychic tries to squirm out of a thief's vice-like grip as he pushes a syringe closer and closer. Be it drama, horror or comedy, psychological stunner, monster movie or international spy thriller, is it any mystery that filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock was known as the Master of Suspense? Is it any wonder his movies still hold hypnotic sway over filmfans all these years later?
An American CIA agent hires a French operative to investigate rumors of Russian missiles in Cuba...
Topaz and its 1080p/VC-1 encoded video transfer fare pretty well, especially compared to what follows: Frenzy, Family Plot and two of the most disheartening presentations in the Masterpiece Collection. Yes, Topaz is subject to some rather obvious digital manipulation -- noise reduction, edge enhancement et al -- but fine detail prevails on the whole, leading to a decently resolved image with crisp edges, able-bodied textures and revealing shadow delineation. Closeups are particularly satisfying too, mild halos or no, and little else underwhelms (minus the occasional shot or two). Colors are warm and pleasing (barring a few skintones that skew green), contrast is bright and consistent, black levels are perfectly deep, and encoding issues are few and far between. With very little in the way of print blemishes or damage to report, there aren't enough distractions to warrant any further criticism.
Topaz sounds even better thanks to a reliable and surprisingly robust two-channel DTS-HD Master Audio Mono track. Dialogue is clean and clear from beginning to end, without any distracting noise floor, reduction in clarity, dropouts or misprioritized voices. Gunshots, footfalls and physcial struggles deliver as well, lending power to the mix in ways I didn't expect. Maurice Jarre's score doesn't overpower or under-deliver either, seizing every opportunity and filling out the soundscape nicely. And while I wouldn't call it a mono masterwork, it is a decidedly solid experience that suits the film and everything it attempts to accomplish.
Topaz is, without hesitation, my least favorite film in the Alfred Hitchcock Masterpiece Collection. The director stopped short of disowning the picture, but it's clear he wasn't pleased with the results. It isn't a bad film per se; it's just subpar Hitchcock, and it doesn't deserve a place next to the likes of Rear Window, Vertigo, North by Northwest, Psycho and other high caliber movies. Universal's solid AV presentation is much better, thankfully, and its supplemental package emerges as the only real disappointment. If I had to whittle the Masterpiece Collection down to fourteen films, though, Topaz would be the first to go.
1966
1942
1976
1964
1972
1956
1959
1955
L'affaire Farewell
2009
1964
1943
2008
2014
1967
2014
1965
1948
1946
2012
2011