NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

ADDITION: Indicator Blu-ray (August 2021): Indicator have also transferred David Greene's The People Next Door to Blu-ray. It is also cited as being a "4K restoration from the original negative". On a dual-layered disc with a max'ed out bitrate - the 1080P image towers above the Scorpion Blu-ray from the previous month. The US transfer looks more green where the Indicator has superior contrast, shows more textured grain and is patently the better HD presentation.

Indicator go linear PCM, authentic, mono at 24-bits and it nudges ahead of the Scorpion Blu-ray audio. The People Next Door has very few aggressive moments that come through with modest depth and score by Don Sebesky (The Rosary Murders) - The People Next Door was his first feature. There is also music by Scott English and Larry Weiss; Mama, Don't You Wait Up for Me, Sweet Medusa and My Life in Review sounding clean with consistent dialogue in the uncompressed transfer. Indicator offer optional English (SDH) subtitles on their Region 'B'-locked Blu-ray.

Indicator also offer a commentary. Theirs is also new and has actor Rutanya Alda and film historian Lee Gambin. They discuss addiction and the perils of addiction expanding on details of the production, story, cast and crew. I think they are both good commentarists with Rutanya giving real life experiences often relating to the subjects broached. Being honest, I was pretty blown away by Bill Ackerman's commentary on the Scorpion and lean to that as the superior one. The rest all goes to Indicator; Deborah Winters is interviewed (2021) in a video piece entitled Tripping with Maxie for almost 40-minutes as she remembers playing the film’s troubled teenage protagonist. Structured How to Feel is a new 10-minute interview with supervising editor Brian Smedley-Aston revisits his various collaborations with director David Greene. My Life in Review has musician John Sheldon, formerly of the Bead Game, recalls his band’s musical contributions to the film in a new 1/4 hour piece. We also get People Person - a new 20-minuite appreciation of Greene’s eclectic career by film historian Vic Pratt. There is an image gallery of promotional and publicity material and the package has a limited edition (3,000 copies) exclusive 36-page booklet with a new essay by Peter Tonguette, an account of the reception of the controversial television play on which the film is based, an archival interview with actor Eli Wallach, a look at the film’s soundtrack album, an overview of contemporary critical responses, and film credits.   

David Greene's The People Next Door is one of the better 70's films about the effects on parents of drug use by their children, the generation gap specifically in regards to the counter culture movement, and new experimentation with LSD. The daughter seems partly a victim of the changing times than solely of drug abuse. This expands the film's themes enormously and there are subtle details involving family stress on relationships - exposing its dysfunction - and the The People Next Door deals with them objectively. It's filled with bravo performances from Eli Wallach, Julie Harris, Deborah Winters, Hal Holbrook, Cloris Leachman and others. The Indicator Blu-ray adds a commentary, multiple interviews and the limited edition booklet. Both have value but the UK edition wins in the a/v and supplements. Strongly recommended!

***

Scorpion Blu-ray (July 2021): Scorpion have transferred David Greene's The People Next Door to Blu-ray. It is cited as being from a "4K Restoration from the Original Camera Negative". It is on a single-layered disc with a supportive bitrate. It looks good - maybe a little dull and green with some blue-leaning. We may know more by comparing it to Indicator's August 2021 release. I suspect it is a strong replication of the source - there is healthy grain - and it provides a reasonably consistent 1080P image quality with a few non-intrusive speckles. 

NOTE: We have added 36 more large resolution Blu-ray captures (in lossless PNG format) for DVDBeaver Patrons HERE

On their Blu-ray, Scorpion use a DTS-HD Master / linear PCM mono track (16-bit) in the original English language. Scorpion offer optional English subtitles on their Region 'A' Blu-ray.

The Scorpion Blu-ray offers a new commentary by my friend, film historian / podcaster Bill Ackerman. Bill does one of the most thorough and fact-filled commentaries that I can recall. He follows degrees of separation from the majority of cast (including many with their Soap-opera work) and crew with fascinating connections. He goes incredibly deep and I was duly impressed with his knowledge and extensive research. He talks at quite a clip too - and the commentary could be revisited multiple times to accrue all its value. He covers the New York film renaissance that The People Next Door belongs and discusses the generational conflicts and counter-cultural drug usage themes inherent in this film and similar work by director Greene. He had spoken to Deborah Winters (Maxie) and can relate some of her opinions about the production. Bill also identifies differences from the story. He amusingly remarks that "If we were to make a drinking game using every time an actor with an impressive body of work in New York theater appears in this movie... things might starts to resemble J.P. Miller's Days of Wine and Roses pretty quickly." Bill's great and I hope to hear much more from his in future commentaries. Scorpion also add a new 36-minute interview with actor Don Scardino (Sandy Hoffman in The People Next Door), a revisable sleeve (see below) and some trailers although none for this feature.            

Gary Tooze