7.4 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
The public defender's secretary and an ex-convict get married and try to make a life together, but a series of disasters sends their lives spiraling out of control.
Starring: Sylvia Sidney, Henry Fonda, Barton MacLane, Jean Dixon, William GarganFilm-Noir | 100% |
Crime | Insignificant |
Drama | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.37:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.37:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono (48kHz, 24-bit)
English SDH
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (locked)
Movie | 4.5 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 3.0 | |
Extras | 1.5 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
I’ve shared in another review how my often impudent sense of humor made me tell my wife, then my girlfriend, that the 1937 Alexander Korda epic Elephant Boy was a prequel to The Elephant Man, when she happened upon an old VHS copy of the Sabu spectacular and asked me what it was about. Several decades of married life has taught us both a thing or two, so there was no mention of You Only Live Once being a prequel to You Only Live Twice when it showed up and was added to my review queue. There may in fact be another 1967 film aside from that well remembered Bond opus that some viewers may be thinking of as they wend their way through this saga of star-crossed criminal lovers, at least one of whom has a shadowy past, and that film would be Arthur Penn’s iconic Bonnie and Clyde. Kind of ironically, another Henry Fonda film, the underappreciated Alfred Hitchcock outing The Wrong Man, may spring to mind for some viewers since Fonda’s character in You Only Live Once, a hapless type named Eddie Taylor, is the victim of a false accusation, much like the character portrayed in The Wrong Man. You Only Live Once was only the second film Fritz Lang directed after coming to the United States, and it bears a typically Langian dour outlook on the vagaries of life and fate.
You Only Live Once is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of ClassicFlix with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.37:1. The restoration comparison included on this Blu-ray as a supplement mentions hundreds of hours of work done on a 35mm element provided by the British Film Institute, so I am assuming this is a "new, improved" restoration that's different from the one that appeared on some international Blu-rays several years ago. The results here are generally excellent, and in fact when watching the restoration comparison and seeing some of the damage the original elements displayed, some may term it as near miraculous. The original version has pretty anemic contrast and pretty recurrent damage in the form of scratches and dirt, along with warped frames and the like. Virtually all of these anomalies have been ameliorated if not outright eliminated in this restoration. There are still recurrent (small) signs of age related wear and tear, and the overall appearance strikes me as just a tad dark, but the improvement is notable. Things still have a somewhat "dupey" look, with at times pretty heavy grain, but the general appearance is organic and natural looking, though detail levels are (understandably) nowhere near modern levels. Without having seen the restoration demonstration, I might have graded this closer to 3.5, but after having seen some of the issues that have been dealt with, I'm rewarding ClassicFlix with a bit of encouragement.
You Only Live Once features a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono track which doesn't have the luster of the video presentation, but which doesn't offer anything overly problematic. The entire track has the typically boxy and occasionally tinny sound of its era's recording technologies, and as a result some of the sound effects don't resonate with any particular force. Dialogue makes it through the age related gauntlet relatively fine, though there's occasional clipping in the upper registers.
For my money, this is the best release yet from ClassicFlix. The video restoration is largely quite impressive, and the commentary by Jeremy Arnold is also enjoyable and informative. The film itself is notable from any number of angles and should certainly appeal to cineastes with a taste for Lang or the film's iconic stars. Highly recommended.
Warner Archive Collection
1978
1948
1955
Reissue | Special Edition
1948
Gunmen on the Loose
1955
1955
1949
1950
I Became a Criminal / Kino Classics Presents
1947
1949
1955
1955
1955
1948
1950
Deluxe Edition
1949
1941
1954
1945
1927