ADDITION: Koch Media - Region 2 - PAL - November 2011: Disappointment abounds. Unfortunately, this appears to be the same transfer - yes, it has marginally better compression but is still, almost imperceptibly, interlaced and may be slightly greener. Either/or it is not enough of an advancement to recommend. It comes in a nice booklet case, essay (in German) with a trailer and image gallery as part of the dual-layered transfer. A German DUB and subtitles are optional on the PAL encoded disc. 

Koch Media have been doing a series of classic noir with this as the #1 starting release. We've also covered Dark Mirror (#5) and Desert Fury (#4) - both excellent transfers. I had high hopes for this German DVD of the Raymond Chandler-Lake-Ladd classic but price-wise we'd suggest the UK disc as it is significantly cheaper and only marginally inferior. I'd love to see this on Blu-ray one day but even a progressive DVD seems to have been too much to ask the powers that be. Perhaps one day...

***

Overall, I am now not as disappointed as I was expecting to be. We had already heard that The Big Steal, also released in this DVD Noir grouping, was the Turner colorized edition, not - as advertised - the black and white original. So the noir-aficionado community was getting its collective back up in regards to the quality of these releases. But I have had to subsist on a VHS-to-DVD bootleg of this film for a while. It was not badly done at all and even included a trailer but this new Universal UK transfer is certainly superior (see comparison sample below). It is sharper and shows a little more information the frame, is not as heavily contrast boosted, has far less artifacts and offers optional English subtitles. This is by no means a strong transfer - very minor combing is there (although almost invisible), more muddy than I would like, and cue blips (see last capture) and speckles are prevalent - but it is the best we have seen this Noir staple digitally to date. Audio has some minor hiss. The shame of it is that this film deserves an Eddie Muller commentary - or the like - and this new edition is bare-bones.

With Chandler's smooth street-wise dialogue, Ladd's silent-type good looks and Lake's wispy chemistry (the girl was built for Noir) this remains one of the defining films of the stylistic reputation of The Black Cinema. A must-own, in some form, for fans of the style.

NOTE: Favorite Hugh Beaumont plays another important bit part in a strong Noir classic.

Gary W. Tooze