The Damned Don't Cry Blu-ray

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S E A R C H D V D B e a v e r

(aka "The Victim")

Directed by Vincent Sherman
USA 1950

Oscar-winner Joan Crawford stars as a woman who uses and abandons men--clawing her way from poverty to wealth and social status--a woman who knows that The Damned Don't Cry! Crawford gives one of her best performances as Ethel Whitehead, an empowered woman who leaves her laborer husband and squalid factory town behind to find a new, better life. She uses a quiet accountant who adores her to meet a rich gangster, learns to carry herself as a socialite and leads a life of wealth and luxury as the kept woman of the mobster. But her ambition doesn't stop there, and she engineers a rivalry between the city's two leading underworld kingpins--a rivalry that will lead to the ruin of everything she has fought to gain.

***

The murder of gangster Nick Prenta touches off an investigation of mysterious socialite Lorna Hansen Forbes, who seems to have no past, and has now disappeared. In flashback, we see the woman's anonymous roots; her poor working-class marriage, which ends in tragedy and her determination to find "better things." Soon finding that sex appeal is her only salable commodity, she climbs from man to man toward the center of a nationwide crime syndicate...a very perilous position.

Posters

Theatrical Release: April 7th, 1950

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Review: Warner Archive - Region FREE - Blu-ray

Box Cover		CLICK to order from: Bonus Captures:
Distribution	Warner Archive - Region FREE - Blu-ray
Runtime	1:43:35.292
Video	1.37:1 1080P Dual-layered Blu-ray Disc Size: 40,610,486,494 bytes Feature: 30,211,565,568 bytes Video Bitrate: 34.90 Mbps Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video
	NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate Blu-ray:
Audio	DTS-HD Master Audio English 1768 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 1768 kbps / 24-bit (DTS Core: 2.0 / 48 kHz / 1509 kbps / 24-bit) Commentary: Dolby Digital Audio English 192 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 192 kbps
Subtitles	English (SDH), None
Features	Release Information: Studio: Warner Archive 1.37:1 1080P Dual-layered Blu-ray Disc Size: 40,610,486,494 bytes Feature: 30,211,565,568 bytes Video Bitrate: 34.90 Mbps Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video Edition Details: • Commentary by the film's Director Vincent Sherman • The Crawford Formula: Real and Reel (13:43) • Radio Broadcast "The Damned Don't Cry" (59:14) Screen Director's Playhouse Joan Crawford / Frank Lovejoy • Theatrical Trailer (2:12) Blu-ray Release Date: June 27th, 2023 Standard Blu-ray Case Chapters 29

Comments:

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

ADDITION: Warner Archive Blu-ray (September 2023): Warner Archive have transferred Vincent Sherman's The Damned Don't Cry to Blu-ray. We reviewed The Joan Crawford DVD Collection in 2005 HERE. The 1080P is quite an improvement over the green hued SD transfer. It also shows more in the 1.37:1 frame. Contrast is pleasing and there are textures. It is on a dual-layered disc with a max'ed out bitrate. Warner sources are always pristine and this looked pretty flawless on my system.

NOTE: We have added 60 more large resolution Blu-ray captures (in lossless PNG format) for DVDBeaver Patrons HERE

On their Blu-ray, Warner Archive use a DTS-HD Master dual-mono track (24-bit) in the original English language. The Damned Don't Cry has gangster bodies, a bloodstained carpet and a surprise gunfight but it all has standard depth. The score was by Daniele Amfitheatrof (Human Desire, The Capture, An Act of Murder, The Last Hunt, I'll Be Seeing You, Edge of Eternity, The Lost Moment, The Desperate Hours, Undercover Girl, Letter From An Unknown Woman) and it adds some class sounding moving in the lossless transfer. Warner Archive offer optional English (SDH) subtitles on their Region FREE Blu-ray.

The Warner Archive Blu-ray offers the original commentary by director Vincent Sherman. It has gaps but also value for what he can inform us about the production in drips and drabs. Also repeated from the DVD is the 1/4 hour featurette The Crawford Formula: Real and Reel - it has archival footage of Crawford, plus Glenn Erickson, Boze Hadleigh (Scandals, Secrets and Swansongs: How Hollywood Stars Lived, Worked, and Died), Dr. Drew Casper, Vincent Sherman, Karen Swenson and James Ursini. Warner also include a Screen Director's Playhouse Radio Broadcast of "The Damned Don't Cry" with Joan Crawford and Frank Lovejoy - running shy of an hour. Lastly is a theatrical trailer.

Vincent Sherman's The Damned Don't Cry was based on the story "Case History" by Gertrude Walker and the plot is loosely based on the relationship of American mobster Bugsy Siegel and his girlfriend, Alabama native, Virginia Hill. Crawford covers the gamut - initially as a mysterious socialite who morphed from a struggling working-class wife beset by tragedy. The latter persona realizes that her allure can translate into 'a better life' by commoditizing her sex appeal, first as a model then by manipulating men. So she does - but runs with the wrong crowd. Crime, social and moral issues abound. It's a worthy, if not premium, noir - if mostly for Crawford. The Warner Archive Blu-ray has a massive a/v improvement, the original commentary, featurette and newly added vintage Playhouse Radio Broadcast.