The Arrow Blu-ray of The Desperate Hours is reviewed/compared HERE

The Kino Blu-ray of The Strange Love of Martha Ivers is compared HERE

The Kino Blu-ray of The Turning Point is compared HERE

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

ADDITION: Imprint Blu-ray (September 2022): Imprint have transferred four more films as part of their third Essential Film Noir catalogue to Blu-ray. This is number three. The four films, on four separate dual-layered Blu-rays are The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946,) No Man Of Her Own (1950,) The Turning Point (1952) and The Desperate Hours (1955.)

Okay, let's take this one at a time. HD Cinema Classics produced a Blu-ray of the public domain The Strange Love of Martha Ivers in 2012. It was awful and we compared it to DVDs HERE. Later this month Kino are releasing a Blu-ray of The Strange Love of Martha Ivers HERE. ( It should be revealing because this Imprint, while easily advancing on the HD Cinema Classics still has some issues. I suspect mostly it is the print source (nitrate decomposition) - lots of speckles, a few scratches - and after a dual-layered transfer with a very high bitrate - it still looks softer than I would have expected. A comparison with the forthcoming Kino should resolve some suspicions.

We've compare No Man Of Her Own to a 2012 Olive DVD - reviewed HERE. The Blu-ray has the same infrequent marks and appears to be the same print but in 1080P - more prominent grain but only the common superiority of the higher resolution - even if it is a bump (I don't know.)

We only had a very poor Spanish PAL DVD of The Turning Point - that Gregory reviewed HERE. It announced for a Blu-ray release by Olive Films back in 2011, but, unfortunately, it was cancelled due to poor film elements provided by the studio. It has also been announced by Kino later this month HERE. This Imprint Blu-ray is a notable upgrade - detail, contrast balance and more. I was appreciative to see the film looking so improved on my system although the source remains imperfect. We will compare to the Kino as soon as we can.

Lastly, the much desired The Desperate Hours directed by William Wyler - starring Humphrey Bogart and Fredric March. Like the 2003, bare-bones Paramount DVD, reviewed HERE, this is also in the slightly bastardized 1.78:1 aspect ratio. The Blu-ray is likely the same source but shows more information in the frame (not a bump) in the top and left frame and it is quite a lot better in terms of sharpness - even showing some depth. It looked impressive on my system with no egregious digitization. A big positive for the set.

NOTE: We have added 120 more large resolution Blu-ray captures (in lossless PNG format) for DVDBeaver Patrons HERE

On their Blu-ray, Imprint use linear PCM dual-mono tracks (24-bit) in the original English language for all four films. Sounds is authentically flat with hints of depth in the aggressive sequences (gunfire etc.) The score for The Strange Love of Martha Ivers is by the iconic Miklós Rózsa (The Green Cockatoo, Kiss the Blood Off My Hands, The Killers, The Lost Weekend, The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, Double Indemnity.) The score for No Man Of Her Own was by Hugo Friedhofer (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,) The Turning Point doesn't have a credited score but does have Rózsa's Prelude from Desert Fury and on The Desperate Hours music is by Gail Kubik and Daniele Amfitheatrof (The Capture, An Act of Murder, The Last Hunt, I'll Be Seeing You, Edge of Eternity, The Lost Moment, The Desperate Hours, Human Desire, Letter From An Unknown Woman.) I had no issues with the audio transfers that export consistent dialogue in the uncompressed transfers. Imprint offer optional English (SDH) subtitles on their Region FREE Blu-rays.

The Imprint Blu-ray package is stacked and they offer new commentaries for every film. And it is commentarist gold with Alan K. Rode on The Strange Love of Martha Ivers and The Turning Point, Dr. Drew Casper for No Man Of Her Own (great to hear him again!) and Kevin Lyons for The Desperate Hours. Drink deeply of these golden commentaries crammed with noir history, referencing of similar dark cinema efforts, the actors that dwell there, the directors, cinematographers, anecdotes and specifics on the productions. Plenty on the Noir queen Stanwyck with a new video essay on by Kat Ellinger - "Domestic Terror - Barbara Stanwyck and the Gothic Noir", "From Stage to Screen to Legend by Alan Rode, the 1997, 50-minute "Barbara Stanwyck: Straight Down the Line" episode of "Biography" directed by Gene Feldman with archive footage Stanwyck, snippets of Gary Cooper, Kirk Douglas, Henry Fonda, William Holden, Burt Lancaster and others. There is also an introduction by Kirk Douglas on his first feature, The Strange Love of Martha Ivers. There is more - an hour-long The Screen Directors Playhouse Radio Drama of No Man of Her Own starring Barbara Stanwyck and Lyle Bettgar, a new interview with writer, broadcaster and journalist Barry Forshaw for three of the films, trailers, a photo gallery and another sturdy hard-case holding the four separate transparent Blu-ray cases.

Imprint's third Essential Film Noir Blu-ray package is book-ended by two extremely desirable titles; The Strange Love of Martha Ivers and Wyler's The Desperate Hours. Both highly lauded 'dark cinema' classics. The Turning Point is also prime; as Gregory describes - "an essential film noir that was influenced by Kefauver Committee of early 1950's, just like many exposé crime films that followed the hearings - The Captive City, Hoodlum Empire, The Phenix City Story, etc. What distinguishes this title from all the others is a masterful direction by William Dieterle (The Devil and Daniel Webster, Portrait of Jennie) and all-star cast featuring William Holden (post-Sunset Blvd. and Born Yesterday, pre-Stalag 17 and Sabrina) and Edmond O'Brien (D.O.A., Shield for Murder). Alexis Smith (Split Second, Whiplash) co-stars as a love interest for both men and Ed Begley Sr. (Odds Against Tomorrow, The Dunwich Horror) steals the movie as an oily crime boss". No Man of Her Own is the second film Stanwyck made with director Mitchell Leisen. The screenplay was adapted from Cornell Woolrich's 1948 novel I Married a Dead Man - listed by the pseudonym "William Irish" in the credits. It is a melodramatic, and often far-fetched, romance but it works wonderfully within the cycle. The Imprint Blu-ray package has a few ups and down with the video but the supplements, like the four films, are top-shelf. Noir fans will covert this - and rightly so. It has a strong recommendation to those aficionados.

Gary Tooze