DVD Comparison Edward Dmytryk's Warlock DVD Review 20th Century Fox - Region 1 - NTSC vs. Optimum - Region 2 - PAL Warlock Edward Dmytryk Richard Widmark Henry Fonda Anthony Quinn Warlock DVD Review Warlock Edward Dmytryk Richard Widmark H

(aka "Shoot Out at Warlock" or "Ultima notte a Warlock" or "Der Mann mit den goldenen Colts")

directed by Edward Dmytryk
USA 1959

When the town of Warlock is being terrorised by some wild cowboys, the pillars of the town hire the gunslinger Curt Blaisdell (Henry Fonda), who has made a career of killing troublemakers. Along with his companion, the silver haired Tom Morgan (Anthony Quinn), they now begin to clean up the town, killing everyone who doesn’t obey their rules.

Growing both tired of the terrorizing the town and the new order, one of the cowboys, Johnny Gannon (Richard Widmark), takes on the position as sheriff in the town, but at eighth times less the pay than the gunslingers, and with twice the work, as he not only has to expel the gang, but also the gunslingers.

What makes “Warlock” such a great Western is the complexity of the story. On one side we have a homosexual variation of Wyatt Earp and Doc Holiday in form of Blaisdell and Morgan. On the other side we have an impotent sheriff and finally we have Lily, who is set to revenge the killing of her fiancée. These “three” characters form several triangles: A triangle of love (Blaisdell, Lily, Gannon), a triangle of jealousy (Blaisdell, Lily, Morgan) and a triangle of power (Blaisdell/Morgan, Gannon, Lily).

Being Dmytryk, and considering the HUAC, the political reading of the film is rather interesting. In many ways Gannon reminds one of Terry Malloy in Kazan’s “On the Waterfront”, as he turns on his friends in order to set the record straight. But more interesting is the triangle between the town, the gunslingers and the sheriff. The men of the town are cowards, who rather pay killers to protect them, than take matters into their own hands, and even when the town gets a sheriff, they rather stick by the professionals. The law is openly castrated in order to live in controlled fear rather than in uncontrolled fear.

One of the early "thinking mans" Westerns, and by some hailed as Dmytryk’s masterpiece, "Warlock" is a monumental Western by all accounts, featuring an incredible use of the scope format, by the cinematography of Joseph MacDonald, who also shot films as “My Darling Clementine” and Dmytryk’s “Broken Lance”, and some great performances by especially Widmark and Fonda. A must see.

Henrik Sylow

Posters

Theatrical Release: April 1, 1959

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DVD Comparison:

20th Century Fox - Region 1 - NTSC vs. Optimum - Region 2 - PAL

(20th Century Fox - Region 1 - NTSC - LEFT vs. Optimum - Region 2 - PAL - RIGHT)

DVD Box Covers
Distribution	20th Century Fox Region 1 - NTSC	Optimum Releasing Region 2 - PAL
Runtime	2:01:16	1:56:26 (4% PAL speedup)
Video	2.34:1 Original Aspect Ratio 16X9 enhanced Average Bitrate: 7.78 mb/s NTSC 720x480 29.97 f/s	2.34:1 Original Aspect Ratio 16X9 enhanced Average Bitrate: 5.80 mb/s PAL 720x576 25.00 f/s
	NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate: Fox
Bitrate: Optimum
Audio	English (Dolby Digital 4.0), English (mono), DUBs: Spanish (mono), French (mono)	English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Dolby)
Subtitles	English, Spanish, and none	None
Features	Release Information: Studio: Twentieth Century Fox Aspect Ratio: Widescreen anamorphic - 2.34:1 Edition Details: • Theatrical trailer • 6 other western trailers • Movie-Tone News reel DVD Release Date: May 24th, 2005 Keep Case Chapters 24	Release Information: Studio: Optimum Classics Aspect Ratio: Widescreen anamorphic - 2.34:1 Edition Details: • None DVD Release Date: February 21, 2005 Keep case Chapters 12

Comments

We can duplicate some of our comments from "Forty Guns" in this comparison. The Optimum is slightly sharper and has minutely better color balance than the Fox. Both have a small degree of edge enhancement. The image differences are pretty negligible though. The Fox has well-appointed optional subtitles and the Optimum has none. The Fox has a trailer for the film and six other westerns and a short 'Movie-Tone news reel', where the Optimum has nothing. I don't see any significant cropping issues and as both are so cheap I'm glad I own the Optimum for image and Fox for the trailers + bumped stereo audio if I'm in the mood for that.

Gary W Tooze

RE: the Optimum: Except for some occasional edge enhancements (see frame #3), this is a great transfer.

Being a discount release, it lacks subtitles and extras, and of all the releases in this batch of Western Classics, this is one film that really would benefit of an audio commentary.

While it is great that this film finally is available on DVD, those deaf and hard of hearing are left out, and those who seek more information on the film, has to resort to literature. Still, a most welcomed and great DVD.

- Henrik Sylow

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(20th Century Fox - Region 1 - NTSC - LEFT vs. Optimum - Region 2 - PAL - RIGHT)