The Blu-ray review thread - Blu-ray Forum

nitin · 04-01-2020, 01:23 PM

A few relatively disappointing ones:

The Baron Of Arizona is Sam Fuller’s 2nd film and, for most of its runtime, it’s a super entertaining story with a lively but not over the top performance from Vincent Price as a (based on a true story but exaggerated) conman who goes to great lengths to falsify Spanish grants of land to the whole of Arizona.

Apparently this was shot in a ridiculous 15 days on a very low budget, but it never really shows. James Wong Howe conjures up some terrific cinematography with a couple of very memorable shots.

Unfortunately, it falls just short of an overall recommendation from me as it undoes a lot of its good work in a very un-Fuller like ending that drips with sentimentality and seems like an abrupt shift in tone.

I saw it off Criterion’s DVD from their Eclipse set and it looks pretty good with decent contrast and detail.

Anthony Mann’s Desperate is also one of his earlier films, a sort of noir that has all noirish elements in place but struggles a little bit in juggling various different tones and subplots. It has one of the all time great beatdown scenes, lit primarily by a swinging overhead light and also an excellent and tense last 10 minutes, with Raymond Burr stealing all of the scenes he is in. But in between all of that is a strangely sentimental lovers on the run film that is also anchored by some unremarkable lead performances.

Warner’s DVD from their vol 5 noir set generally looks pretty good and sharp but every now and then a fair bit of noise and pulsing creeps in.

Hitchock’s I Confess might be his most deadly serious film. It certainly lacks any of his usual humorous touches and the tone is definitely in line with his main character’s religiously imposed burden of stoically protecting a constituent’s murderous confession.

But aside from that change in usual tone, I also found a lot of the film to be pretty unremarkably directed outside of a couple of powerhouse scenes. The first of those is a mid film flashback ‘confession’ by Anne Baxter’s character to the police that is fantastically shot and acted. The second is a scene where the protagonist follows the main priest character and taunts him the whole way as if he was his conscience stalking him.

Warner Archive’s blu ray looks super sharp and has a fabulous grayscale.

04-01-2020, 01:23 PM	#10
nitin Blu-ray Knight Top contributor Member since:Feb 2010 Trading Score:9	A few relatively disappointing ones: The Baron Of Arizona is Sam Fuller’s 2nd film and, for most of its runtime, it’s a super entertaining story with a lively but not over the top performance from Vincent Price as a (based on a true story but exaggerated) conman who goes to great lengths to falsify Spanish grants of land to the whole of Arizona. Apparently this was shot in a ridiculous 15 days on a very low budget, but it never really shows. James Wong Howe conjures up some terrific cinematography with a couple of very memorable shots. Unfortunately, it falls just short of an overall recommendation from me as it undoes a lot of its good work in a very un-Fuller like ending that drips with sentimentality and seems like an abrupt shift in tone. I saw it off Criterion’s DVD from their Eclipse set and it looks pretty good with decent contrast and detail. Anthony Mann’s Desperate is also one of his earlier films, a sort of noir that has all noirish elements in place but struggles a little bit in juggling various different tones and subplots. It has one of the all time great beatdown scenes, lit primarily by a swinging overhead light and also an excellent and tense last 10 minutes, with Raymond Burr stealing all of the scenes he is in. But in between all of that is a strangely sentimental lovers on the run film that is also anchored by some unremarkable lead performances. Warner’s DVD from their vol 5 noir set generally looks pretty good and sharp but every now and then a fair bit of noise and pulsing creeps in. Hitchock’s I Confess might be his most deadly serious film. It certainly lacks any of his usual humorous touches and the tone is definitely in line with his main character’s religiously imposed burden of stoically protecting a constituent’s murderous confession. But aside from that change in usual tone, I also found a lot of the film to be pretty unremarkably directed outside of a couple of powerhouse scenes. The first of those is a mid film flashback ‘confession’ by Anne Baxter’s character to the police that is fantastically shot and acted. The second is a scene where the protagonist follows the main priest character and taunts him the whole way as if he was his conscience stalking him. Warner Archive’s blu ray looks super sharp and has a fabulous grayscale.

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