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

ADDITION: Kino Blu-ray (January 2024): Kino have transferred three films for their sixteenth edition of Film Noir: The Dark Side of Cinema series to three Blu-rays. This has the crime-horror Mystery of Marie Roget (1942), Alan Ladd crime-drama Chicago Deadline (1949) and the boxing flic Iron Man (1951). It is cited as being from a "Brand New HD Masters – From a 2K Scan of the 35mm Fine Grains". Surprisingly the image quality may be the best on the oldest film; Mystery of Marie Roget. This will delight the film's fans - with rich, impressive black levels, and only a few scattered speckles. There is depth and pleasing detail. Wonderful. The next film, Chicago Deadline, is the worst looking of the three with pale contrast and some flickering. Odd softness creeps into a few scenes. Certainly watchable but the source may have been slightly compromised. Iron Man looks okay in 1080P showing some decent texture an contrast layering and the detail is very good with consistency. All single-layered but supportive bitrates.

NOTE: We have added 132 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. Effects exist (most in Iron Man's boxing sequences an some gunfire in Chicago Deadline) but aural atmosphere is generated by the dramatic scores; on Mystery of Marie Roget credited to Hans J. Salter (The Female Animal, Naked Alibi, Pittsburgh, Man Without a Star, The Killer that Stalked New York, The Strange Door, Cover Up, Man Without a Star, Scarlet Street, The Land Unknown, The War Lord, The Mole People, The Strange Case of Doctor Rx.) The film reuses several music pieces from previous films, including Franz Waxman's music from The Invisible Ray and the waltz music is from the 1941 film Back Street. On Chicago Deadline by Victor Young (The Mad Doctor, Union Pacific, Arise My Love, Union Pacific, The Accused, Strategic Air Command, The Sun Shines Bright, Johnny Guitar, China Gate etc.) and on Iron Man by Milton Rosen (Sudan, The Spider Woman Strikes Back, Jack Arnold's 3-D The Glass Web, serials like Junior G-Men of the Air or Jungle Queen.) The audio comes through authentically flat for all three, plus consistent and clean with clearly audible dialogue. Kino offer optional English (SDH) subtitles on their Region 'A' Blu-rays.

The Kino Blu-ray offers four new commentaries! Two for Mystery of Marie Roget with the first by Film Historians Tom Weaver (co-author of Universal Horrors: The Studio's Classic Films, 1931-1946) with input from Gary L. Prange, and Tom Zimmerman (The author of The Queen of Technicolor: Maria Montez in Hollywood). Tom Weaver talks about the effect that Pearl Harbor had on Hollywood productions of the day, two real-life old-time character actor murders, there are actor recreation voices; Nell O'Day etc., input on Maria Montez by author Tom Zimmerman. The second commentary for Mystery of Marie Roget was by Kim Newman (author of Classic Monsters Unleashed) and Stephen Jones (author of The Mammoth Book of Folk Horror: Evil Lives On in the Land!), who share their enthusiasm wishing Marie Roget as a series of films, a lot on Poe's short story and the author himself, the obvious singing DUB of Dorothy Triden for Marie's performance number, suggestions for Simone Simon (Cat People) who could have replaced Maria Montez in the role of Marie, the latter's tragic early death and much more. It's excellent. There is also a new audio commentary for Chicago Deadline by film historian Alan K. Rode (author of Michael Curtiz: A Life in Film.) He talks about director Lewis Allen and the only other film he and Ladd worked together on; Appointment with Danger. A lot of history on the cast and some of the crew. It's excellent per Alan's standard. Lastly, there is another new audio commentary for Iron Man by film historian / screenwriter Gary Gerani (Fantastic Television.) He keeps a fabulous pace discussing the W.R. Burnett novel, how this was one of three adaptations - all by Paramount, the film's flashbacks, performers Jeff Chandler, Evelyn Keyes, Stephen McNally, Rock Hudson, Jim Backus, James Arness etc. Gary is always well-researched and this is worth the indulgence. There are also newly mastered 2K theatrical trailers for Mystery of Marie Roget and Chicago Deadline. 

Mystery of Marie Roget (later re-released as Phantom of Paris) is certainly no noir, but it is a delightfully twisty mystery written 100-years before the production by Edgar Allan Poe. It had “The Queen of Technicolor” or aka “Caribbean Cyclone”, Maria Montez who was frequently portrayed as exotic during her brief career as an ersatz glamour girl. The film is fun and has some Holmes-Watson-like sleuthing, a brisk "B" film pace and an enjoyable cast. While it was panned by critics but I am very pleased that it received two commentaries as it is ripe for reappraisal. Cranky Maria Ouspenskaya is a gem. An absolute keeper for this reviewer. Chicago Deadline fits into the film noir cycle with a lot of flashbacks an elements of Preminger's Laura (1944) and John Farrow's The Big Clock (1948). It offers stalwart Alan Ladd, at his coolest, and Donna Reed as Rosita Jean d'Ur - a sweet and gorgeous 'girl next door' type - that everyone pines for. It was remade as Fame Is the Name of the Game (1966) as a made-for-television drama film starring Tony Franciosa and Jill St. John. A huge part of the appeal is Ladd - very comfortable in his machismo role as edgy, no-nonsense, reporter casually seducing alluring blonde Leona Purdy (played by June Havoc.) Iron Man is labeled a "film noir drama sport film" fitting elements of each genre. It was directed by Joseph Pevney who was also an actor in such 'dark cinema' films as Body and Soul (1947) as Shorty Polaski, The Street with No Name (1948) as Matty, Thieves' Highway (1949) as Pete and Shakedown (1950) as Keller, the reporter. His director credits are notable including Undercover Girl (1950), The Strange Door (1951), Female on the Beach (1955). While Iron Man has some pugilist gambling, I wouldn't put it anywhere near Robert Wise's The Set-up with Robert Ryan. Chandler, Keyes, and McNally are quite good and it's always nice to have glimpses of Rock Hudson as an up-and-coming boxer and Jim "Mister Magoo' Backus as a harsh sports journalist. So another Kino Noir Blu-ray Box with value including four excellent commentaries. Certainly recommended for the diverse mix from the delightful crime-horror Mystery of Marie Roget to Alan Ladd (nu'ff said) and a hard-nosed boxing yarn. I wasn't disappointed at all. One of the more enjoyable in Kino's 'Dark Side' series. 

Gary Tooze