Official Film Noir on Blu-ray Thread

[kaseaver]

Originally Posted by noirjunkie

When Warner Bros. prepared and released the original DVD in 2004, the studio created a HD master as a source. So they've been sitting on a BD-ready transfer for literally a decade without releasing it.

Noirjunkie, was it you that mentioned on another thread that you had seen a screening of a remastered OOTP? Spec at that time was that a DB release could be imminent.

Puzzling why Warner won't upgrade or license a title like this when it has put forth resources to remaster. If a title hadn't already been remastered, then I could see Warner or a potential licensee thinking an upgrade would have limited appeal without a remaster and not be willing to make the investment.

Are we film noir fanatics overestimating the overall market appeal of these films? Sometimes I think we are, and that not many of these films will be upgraded, especially from Warner.

One question I have is to what degree the viewing experience is improved from DVD to BD when an old B&W film is upgraded without a remaster. Is the improvement in resolution enough to justify an upgrade? Can a studio/licensee like Criterion add enough value by cleaning up the film without a remaster? Some examples come to mind like many of the Olive film noir BDs or the BD release of The Strange Loves of Marth Ivers by HD Cinema Classics. There was also the case of The Stranger where the first BD from HD Cinema Classics was not impressive but the BD from Kino was much better.

[Feiereisel]

Originally Posted by MifuneFan

Anyone here watch the movie Jack Reacher? I saw it a few months back, and I thought a lot of it had a neo-noir feel to it. There's a lot of dialogue that feels like a throwback to detective movies from the 40's and 50's (perhaps straight from the novels), and the whole atmosphere feels very noirish too. It does have a thriller plot, I just think there's a noir feel there too. In any event, I was pleasantly surprised by it, and would say it's worth checking out.

I think you're both right. The action--the car chase, and the elaborately staged conclusion, specifically--nudges it away from noir or neo-noir classification, but Reacher himself shares character traits with lot of noir characters (ex-military, ostensibly a private investigator, moves outside of traditional social structures, extremely determined, etc) and much of the film is devoted to the process of his investigation, which in turn folds in more noir tropes and characters.

It may not be the truest example of a neo-noir, but it's also hard to argue it's unlike noir films. Hybrid-noir? diet-noir? noir-lite?

[John Ross Ewing]

Originally Posted by kevinrnash89

Sounds like Touch of Evil.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052311/?ref_=nv_sr_1

The scene you may be thinking of starts at 12:50 in the following video: Touch of EVIL EXCERPT MASTER.mov - YouTube

You have no idea how silly I feel for this being the movie, and yet I had the Blu-Ray of this and Double Indemnity sitting on my shelf since Friday. I'm going to watch Touch Of Evil tonight. I first saw that scene either in a PBS documentary about film noir or the Personal Journey With Martin Scorsese documentary. I've been trying to get all of the movies featured in both of those documentaries.

By the way, happy Easter everyone!

[goldie1970]

Noir strikes me as needing first person narration....not always, but a lot of it. I like the character giving me his insight as to why they are doing the things they do....trying to explain the often unseemly things they do

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by goldie1970

Noir strikes me as needing first person narration....not always, but a lot of it. I like the character giving me his insight as to why they are doing the things they do....trying to explain the often unseemly things they do

A lot of classic film noirs are first-person stories that are told in flashbacks. The flashback storytelling was always a good style for the genre.

[lemonski]

Originally Posted by kaseaver

Are we film noir fanatics overestimating the overall market appeal of these films? Sometimes I think we are, and that not many of these films will be upgraded, especially from Warner.

There must be a reasonable amount of market appeal in noir - after all, Warner got to 5 volumes of their DVD set and the Columbia Noir series got to 4 (from memory). Perhaps it's just the work involved in making HD remasters of so many titles (remember the Warner Noir Classic Collection with 10 movies?) that probably don't have very good elements to start with.

[Feiereisel]

Originally Posted by goldie1970

Noir strikes me as needing first person narration....not always, but a lot of it. I like the character giving me his insight as to why they are doing the things they do....trying to explain the often unseemly things they do

In my view, though narration is a trope closely associated with noir, it's not strictly necessary. I know The Killing has narration, but it's mostly inaccurate, so it kind of undercuts the traditional purpose of it. Surely there are scads of prime films noir that don't feature narration. It's been a while since I've seen Night and the City, but I'm fairly certain that has no first-person voice-over.

[kaseaver]

Originally Posted by lemonski

There must be a reasonable amount of market appeal in noir - after all, Warner got to 5 volumes of their DVD set and the Columbia Noir series got to 4 (from memory). Perhaps it's just the work involved in making HD remasters of so many titles (remember the Warner Noir Classic Collection with 10 movies?) that probably don't have very good elements to start with.

Warner, to my knowldge, has released 4 classic fim noirs on DB. Here are the imdb ratings and number of votes for these:

Maltese Falcon 8.2 86.9 K votes
Treas. of the Sierra Madre 8.4 60.1
White Heat 8.2 16.6
Postman Always Rings Tw 7.6 11.6

Here are numbers for some other Warner classics I listed above:

The Big Sleep 8.1 50.6 K votes
Out of the Past 8.1 17.7
Asphalt Jungle 7.9 14.7
Mildred Pierce 8.0 12.8
The Bad and the Beautiful 7.8 8.1
Murder My Sweet 7.7 6.8
The Letter 7.8 6.6
The Narrow Margin 7.8 4.1
The Window 7.5 1.8
Crime Wave 7.4 1.5

The Big Sleep seems to be an obvious candidate for upgrade. I know it's been released in Eurpoe, but why not Region A already?

Kudos to Warner for upgrading White Heat and Postman, but Out of the Past, Asphalt Jungle and Mildred Pierce all have similar rating and popularity. The rest are questionable.

[MifuneFan]

Originally Posted by kaseaver

Warner, to my knowldge, has released 4 classic fim noirs on DB. Here are the imdb ratings and number of votes for these:

Maltese Falcon 8.2 86.9 K votes
Treas. of the Sierra Madre 8.4 60.1
White Heat 8.2 16.6
Postman Always Rings Tw 7.6 11.6

Here are numbers for some other Warner classics I listed above:

The Big Sleep 8.1 50.6 K votes
Out of the Past 8.1 17.7
Asphalt Jungle 7.9 14.7
Mildred Pierce 8.0 12.8
The Bad and the Beautiful 7.8 8.1
Murder My Sweet 7.7 6.8
The Letter 7.8 6.6
The Narrow Margin 7.8 4.1
The Window 7.5 1.8
Crime Wave 7.4 1.5

The Big Sleep seems to be an obvious candidate for upgrade. I know it's been released in Eurpoe, but why not Region A already?

Kudos to Warner for upgrading White Heat and Postman, but Out of the Past, Asphalt Jungle and Mildred Pierce all have similar rating and popularity. The rest are questionable.

I don't think The Big Sleep has been released yet. France and Germany Amazon sites have pages up, and the database says a Jan. release, but neither release seems to actually be available, and there's no cover art either.

[Scottie]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

A lot of classic film noirs are first-person stories that are told in flashbacks. The flashback storytelling was always a good style for the genre.

I think that's why I enjoy film-noirs as much as I do.

The flashback storytelling makes the film a lot more mysterious because the littlest details in the past can have haunting repercussions in the present.

Although I'm not the biggest fan of the 1946 film, The Locket, for example, I think the flashbacks within flashbacks within flashbacks structure of it works wonderfully.

[theprestige85]

Any noirs as good or similar to that o Hitchcock'sf Shadow Of Doubt that are worth blind buying for me? God I love that film.

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by theprestige85

Any noirs as good or similar to that o Hitchcock'sf Shadow Of Doubt that are worth blind buying for me? God I love that film.

There are quite a few "danger comes to a small town" film noir movies.

The Stranger
The Night of the Hunter
The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946)
Suddenly
Cry Vengeance

The Kino Blu-ray of The Stranger is probably closest to Shadow of a Doubt in terms of storyline.

If you're looking for more great Hitchcock noirs, then I highly recommend Strangers on a Train, Rear Window, Rebecca, Notorious, and Spellbound.

[Scottie]

Originally Posted by theprestige85

Any noirs as good or similar to that o Hitchcock'sf Shadow Of Doubt that are worth blind buying for me? God I love that film.

I personally think Shadow of a Doubt is one of a kind, but I think The Night of the Hunter and The Postman Always Rings Twice come close in terms of setting / story.

However, I would also (based on your liking of SOAD) highly recommend: The Big Heat, Double Indemnity, The Lady from Shanghai, Notorious, Rear Window, Rebecca, Sunset Boulevard, Touch of Evil, and Vertigo.

[Akijama]

Originally Posted by noirjunkie

When Warner Bros. prepared and released the original DVD in 2004, the studio created a HD master as a source. So they've been sitting on a BD-ready transfer for literally a decade without releasing it.

Therein lies the problem. 10-year-old HD transfer is not up to snuff for Warner.

Here's what WAC told me when I asked them about Out of Past blu release around a year ago:

The film elements pose a challenge to create a great Blu...but eventually it will come to pass!

[theprestige85]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

There are quite a few "danger comes to a small town" film noir movies.

The Stranger
The Night of the Hunter
The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946)
Suddenly
Cry Vengeance

The Kino Blu-ray of The Stranger is probably closest to Shadow of a Doubt in terms of storyline.

If you're looking for more great Hitchcock noirs, then I highly recommend Strangers on a Train, Rear Window, Rebecca, Notorious, and Spellbound.

Cheers man. I will take a look at The Stranger then. I've seen Rear Window as I have the Masterpiece collection, but I haven't seen the other Hitchcock films you have mentioned, I think I can get them all in a pack so will take a look, but it will be The Stranger first. Just read the synopsis and it sounds right up my ally and Shadow Of Doubtish.

I personally think Shadow of a Doubt is one of a kind, but I think The Night of the Hunter and The Postman Always Rings Twice come close in terms of setting / story.

However, I would also (based on your liking of SOAD) highly recommend: The Big Heat, Double Indemnity, The Lady from Shanghai, Notorious, Rear Window, Rebecca, Sunset Boulevard, Touch of Evil, and Vertigo.

Absolutely man, I was mesmerised by just about everything in the film, the look, the characterisations, the performances. It's incredibly well written and genuinely suspenseful at times. Probably my favourite Hitchcock film or at least tied with The Birds and Rear Window.

I already brought Double Indemnity, but have yet to watch it. Same thing with Touch of Evil, yet to watch that, too. And since I have the Masterpiece collection I already have and have seen Vertigo, and I must say...was slightly disappointed in it. Was expecting 'The Greatest Film Of All Time' and instead got a good thriller from Hitchcock . The other Hitchcock films I mentioned are much more deserving of the praise than Vertigo is. Maybe I need a rewatch, I dunno.

I've heard a bit about this Night Of The Hunter, seems to be a fan favourite on here and that sounds intriguing too. Gonna have to put that on what is an increasingly large list. Man, so many noirs to get, rather excited. Guess it really says something about the current state of affairs in the film industry when I would rather to seek out classic cinema than actually go to the cinema today.

This thread is brilliant, should be a sticky as most of these films you guys have mentioned are region free, which is great for Brits like me, and the ones that aren't region free are available in the UK anyway!

Thanks the help iScottie and The Great Owl

[noirjunkie]

Originally Posted by kaseaver

Noirjunkie, was it you that mentioned on another thread that you had seen a screening of a remastered OOTP? Spec at that time was that a DB release could be imminent.

No, that wasn't me (but I wish it was).

Originally Posted by Akijama

Therein lies the problem. 10-year-old HD transfer is not up to snuff for Warner.

Here's what WAC told me when I asked them about Out of Past blu release around a year ago:

I have a hard time believing WB's claim in this instance. The print used for the DVD release is one of the cleanest, strongest DVD transfers of a noir film I've ever seen. I know a lot more detail comes out in a blu-ray transfer, but I didn't see anything especially problematic that would present an insurmountable challenge for a quality blu-ray release. I hope they are right and it does eventually happen, though, because it's one of my favorite films.

[Akijama]

Max Ophuls's Caught is coming to blu-ray on July 8th, from Olive Films.

Also, The Last Seduction is due September 15th in UK, courtesy of Network.

[noirjunkie]

I just realized that Swerve isn't in the neo-noir list. It should definitely be added. JMK's review is a nice writeup of it, too.

[The Great Owl]

This summer, I am going to see Double Indemnity on the big screen, because it is part of the Fox Theatre Summer Film Festival here in Atlanta.

The Fox Theatre Summer Film Festival announcement lists Double Indemnity as "70th Anniversary", but I'm not sure if it is the recent Universal restoration.

At any rate, I'm excited to see a classic-era film noir in a theatrical screening.

[lhslancers]

Originally Posted by noirjunkie

No, that wasn't me (but I wish it was).



I have a hard time believing WB's claim in this instance. The print used for the DVD release is one of the cleanest, strongest DVD transfers of a noir film I've ever seen. I know a lot more detail comes out in a blu-ray transfer, but I didn't see anything especially problematic that would present an insurmountable challenge for a quality blu-ray release. I hope they are right and it does eventually happen, though, because it's one of my favorite films.

I have the old WB DVD and it looks excellent. It should not be a problem for them to put out a very clean looking Blu.