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

ADDITION: Indicator Blu-ray (January 2024): Indicator have transferred John Krish's The Man Who Had Power Over Women to Blu-ray. It is cited as being from a "4K restoration". The 1080P image is on a dual-layered disc with a max'ed out bitrate. Colors have some boldness although the film's texture is less-consistent - more a function of the film itself than the adept transfer. There are some garish 60's colors that are showcased well in this rendering. There is depth and I suspect the image quality is a fair representation of how the film may have looked 40+ years ago.  

NOTE: We have added 48 more large resolution Blu-ray captures (in lossless PNG format) for DVDBeaver Patrons HERE

On their Blu-ray, Indicator use a linear PCM mono track (24-bit) in the original English language. The Man Who Had Power Over Women has no real aggression - a few boisterous party scenes but nothing requiring demonstrative depth from the soundtrack. The score was by Johnny Mandel ( I Want To Live, That Cold Day in the Park,  Pretty Poison, Point Blank, Deathtrap, M*A*S*H, Heaven with a Gun etc.) and also has Bend Over Backwards performed by Bill and Buster. The sound is clean with consistent dialogue in the uncompressed transfer. Indicator offer optional English (SDH) subtitles - see sample below - on their Region FREE Blu-ray.

The Indicator Blu-ray includes a 90-minute BEHP (British Entertainment History Project) interview with director John Krish. It is an archival audio recording, running to the film, of the celebrated director in a career-spanning conversation with Rodney Giesler. A Bad Marriage is new (2023) and spends ten minutes with screenwriter Allan Scott who discusses the process of adapting The Man Who Had Power Over Women for the big screen with writing partner Chris Bryant, and the reasons for removing their names from the final film. Break-In is Krish 3/4 hour dramatized training film from 1956 about the military police, made for the British Army and featuring Jim Dale in his earliest-known screen appearance. Let My People Go is from 1961 running 20-minutes; and is Krish’s powerful, polemical film which combines archival footage and staged reconstructions to inform and educate about the brutal realities of Apartheid in South Africa. There is also an image gallery of promotional and publicity materials and the package has a limited edition exclusive 40-page booklet with a new essay by Vic Pratt, archival interviews with Rod Taylor and John Krish, new writing on Break-In, Patrick Russell on Let My People Go, and film credits

I wasn't overly keen on The Man Who Had Power Over Women. I found the title misleading (taken from Gordon M. Williams novel) as a potential sci-fi sex-romp about a man taking advantage of women with some unique 'power'. It is not that at all. Alcohol, promiscuity, the break-up of a bad marriage etc. circle the life of the 60's swinging London protagonist, played by charismatic Rod Taylor (Hitchcock's The Birds), who comes to the realization of moral concerns and disenchantment with the people in his sleazy PR business of catering to a spoiled rock star... reflecting directly back on his own life. The original director was Canadian-born British filmmaker Silvio Narizzano (Fanatic, Georgy Girl, The Sky is Falling) but he left the project before shooting and the screenwriters, Chris Bryant and Allan Scott (Nicolas Roeg’s Don't Look Now,) were so upset with post-alterations to their script that they requested their names be omitted... and were both credited as "Andrew Meredith". These are not stellar signs of a cohesive film project. The Indicator Blu-ray package did allow me to learn about director John Krish, someone I knew very little about (one of his shorts, Snatch of the Day, was put on BFI's Blu-ray of Bresson's Pickpocket.) But The Man Who Had Power Over Women is not that much a Brit-sex comedy or a musical but an uninteresting, dark, story hinting at one man's moral awakening. To each his own.

Gary Tooze