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

ADDITION: Kino Blu-ray (August 2024): Kino have transferred another three films for their twentieth edition of Film Noir: The Dark Side of Cinema series to three, single-layered, Blu-rays. This has 1950's Captain Carey U.S.A., Appointment with Danger and Make Haste to Live. They are cited as being from a "2020-2022 HD Masters by Paramount Pictures - From 4K Scans". Back in 2012 we reviewed the Olive Blu-ray of Captain Carey U.S.A. HERE. Later that year we compared the Olive DVD and Blu-ray of Appointment with Danger HERE. The Kino 1080P transfers in this boxset are superior mostly showing better contrast (black levels are deeper) and an overall darker appearance. It's a minor notch but exists and there are film-like textures and a few speckles throughout. All single-layered transfers but fully watchable and serviceable.

NOTE: We have added 130 more large resolution Blu-ray captures (in lossless PNG format) for DVDBeaver Patrons HERE

On their Blu-ray, Kino use DTS-HD Master dual-mono tracks (24-bit) in the original English language. There is the anticipated violence and aggressive action sequences that come with the dark cinema cycle and war films (Captain Carey U.S.A); machine guns, hand guns, beatings, screams etc. but nothing dynamically impactful in terms of bass response. The score for Captain Carey U.S.A. was by Hugo Friedhofer (No Man of Her Own, Plunder of the Sun, One-Eyed Jacks Two Flags West, Man in the Attic, Ace in the Hole, Body and Soul, Gilda, The Bishop's Wife.) Jay Livingston and Ray Evans' theme song, "Mona Lisa", was performed in Captain Carey U.S.A by Sergio de Karlo played frequently throughout. It was a #1 hit for Nat King Cole in 1950. The supportive score for Appointment with Danger was by Victor Young (No Time For Love, Arise My Love, Union Pacific, The Accused, Strategic Air Command, The Sun Shines Bright, Johnny Guitar, China Gate etc.) who also performs Joe Lilley's Slow Bus to Memphis used in the film. The score for Make Haste to Live was by Elmer Bernstein (The Tin Star, The Shootist The Great Escape, See No Evil, Sudden Fear, From the Terrace, The Hallelujah Trail, The Grifters, Robot Monster, Devil in a Blue Dress, Saturn 3, Birdman of Alcatraz, Love With the Proper Stranger, The Bride at Remagen, The Comancheros, The World of Henry Orient, Kings of the Sun, Hud, To Kill a Mockingbird, Summer and Smoke) and it adds to thriller atmosphere.  Dialogue is consistent in the lossless transfers. Kino offer optional English (SDH) subtitles on their Region 'A' Blu-rays.

The Kino Blu-rays offers new commentaries for each of the three films. For Captain Carey U.S.A. by film historian / screenwriter Gary Gerani (Fantastic Television) - for Appointment with Danger by Heath Holland, host of Cereal at Midnight Podcast with friend, writer Max Allan Collins (Road to Perdition, Quarry), co-author of Spillane - King of Pulp Fiction, and, lastly, for Make Haste to Live by film historian Samm Deighan (The Legacy of World War II in European Arthouse Cinema.) I look forward to indulging soon. They are all experts we have heard many times. Lastly are some trailers for the first two films and other similar genre cinema.

In Captain Carey, U.S.A., Ladd plays the titular character, an OSS (Office of Strategic Services) agent, on a secret mission behind enemy lines who was captured, is liberated but returns to avenge the death-by-Nazi's of his former 'honey' Giulia played by Wanda Hendrix (Ride the Pink Horse, Highway Dragnet.) To his surprise she is actually not deceased. It was based on Martha Albrand's 1948 novel After Midnight. It's not much of a Noir but Ladd (Shane still a few years away) carries the perception seeking to settle old scores in picturesque post-war Italy. Ladd played another member of an OSS team (forerunner of the CIA), in Nazi-occupied France, four years earlier in O.S.S. Appointment with Danger is more noirish as a pulpy cop-and-robber saga with Ladd as doggedly intrepid postal inspector Al Goddard, Nun witness Phyllis Calvert (Indiscreet, The Man in Grey) as Sister Augustine, Moll-plaything Dodie (Jan Sterling, Female on the Beach, Man With The Gun) and Jack Webb and Harry Morgan as murderous thugs. They would go on nearly 20 years later to be iconic partners in TV's Dragnet 67 "This is the city." I liked Make Haste to Live - an adaptation of the Gordon Gordon + Mildred Nixon Gordon’s novel of the same name. It has Dorothy McGuire (Friendly Persuasion, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn) as a single mother, Crystal Benson, residing in a small town in New Mexico. She, regretfully, wed mobster Steve and he's recently released from prison after serving 18 years. He is a pestering bad egg but has a link as Crystal's daughter, Randy, is also his own. Nice to see brief Carolyn Jones (Invasion of the Body Snatchers, of Morticia Addams fame and married for 11 years to Aaron Spelling.) Make Haste to Live was the last directed feature film of veteran William A. Seiter. We love Alan Ladd and there are two here, both improved over previous editions. The Kino Blu-ray package has a decent grouping especially for Ladd fans. Nothing premium but still entertaining.

Gary Tooze