Cause For Alarm Blu-ray - Loretta Young

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

Directed by Tay Garnett
USA 1951

A not uninteresting attempt at a suburban film noir, with Loretta Young as a housewife whose bed-ridden ex-serviceman husband (Sullivan), consumed with totally unfounded jealousy, concocts a fiendish revenge plot. Having planted evidence indicating that she and her supposed lover were conspiring to poison him, he then proposes to shoot her, but dies of a heart attack. Although rather too fluttery for comfort, Young gives a good account of the woman's panic-stricken dilemma as, left alone with a corpse in the house and her every move adding to the web of suspicious circumstances, she desperately battles red tape to retrieve an incriminating letter posted to the DA.

***

Married after a whirlwind courtship during World War II, suburban housewife Ellen Jones (Young) copes with the fact that her husband George (Barry Sullivan) is now a bedridden invalid. Increasingly paranoid and quick to anger, George is convinced that Ellen is having an affair with their old friend (and George’s physician), Dr. Ranney Grahame (Bruce Cowling).

Afraid for his life and certain that Ellen and Ranney are conspiring to kill him by overdosing his medication, George composes a letter to the local district attorney requesting an investigation in the event of his untimely death. Ellen later unwittingly mails the letter, but upon learning of its contents shortly before George dies of natural causes, she goes to every length possible to retrieve the incriminating note!

Loretta Young gives a sensational performance in Cause for Alarm! as a woman trapped in a desperate situation, with taut direction courtesy of Tay Garnett (The Postman Always Rings Twice), and a memorable musical score by composer André Previn (Irma La Duce) who was only twenty-one at the time.

Posters

Theatrical Release: February 2nd, 1951

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Review: Classicflix - Region FREE - Blu-ray

Box Cover		CLICK to order from: Also available on DVD from Classicflix: Bonus Captures:
Distribution	Classicflix - Region FREE - Blu-ray
Runtime	1:14:45.606
Video	1.37:1 1080P Single-layered Blu-ray Disc Size: 23,552,440,292 bytes Feature: 19,990,745,088 bytes Video Bitrate: 31.98 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 1823 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 1823 kbps / 24-bit (DTS Core: 2.0 / 48 kHz / 1509 kbps / 24-bit)
Subtitles	English, None
Features	Release Information: Studio: Classicflix 1.37:1 1080P Single-layered Blu-ray Disc Size: 23,552,440,292 bytes Feature: 19,990,745,088 bytes Video Bitrate: 31.98 Mbps Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video Edition Details: • Trailers for Black Magic, I the Jury, Blonde Ice, The Long Wait, and T-Men Blu-ray Release Date: January 16th, 2024 Transparent Blu-ray Case Chapters 15

Comments:

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

ADDITION: Classicflix Blu-ray (February 2024): Classicflix have transferred Tay Garnett's Cause for Alarm! to Blu-ray. An opening screen informs us "The main source for the ClassicFlix restoration of Cause for Alarm! is from a 35mm dupe negative accessed from The British Film Institute. While relatively sharp, the material suffered from severe warping and persistent scratches, which we were mostly able to remove or mitigate.
Several minutes of 35mm dupe prints were also present in BFI's master element, while four minutes of the film were completely missing. In order to fill in the gaps and present this Loretta Young thriller in complete form, ClassicFlix found, scanned and restored the missing sections from a 16mm print." We presume that this is the reason that no one has taken-on the production of a 1080P release despite the film being in the Public Domain.

We compared a Roan Group vs. Alive DVDs back in 2013, HERE - with some matched captures below. Both DVDs appear to be missing the 3-4-minutes mentioned above - but, thankfully, they are now part of this Blu-ray presentation. There are at least three short sequences where the transition to the 16mm is noticeable. To be fair - it is not overly glaring a difference. So... the overall image has a few inconsistencies - with a few light vertical scratches and it is predominantly soft-ish, but most visuals facets - contrast and detail - take a pleasing bump over the old SD transfers. This is in the accurate 1.37:1 aspect ratio and shows more information in the frame.

NOTE: We have added 64 more large resolution Blu-ray captures (in lossless PNG format) for DVDBeaver Patrons HERE

On their Blu-ray, Classicflix use a DTS-HD Master dual-mono track (24-bit) in the original English language. Cause for Alarm! has only a single gunshot in terms of aggression. That's it. The score in notable - by the German-American pianist, composer, and conductor, André Previn (Irma La Duce, Bad Day At Black Rock, Dial 1119, Border Incident, The Fastest Gun Alive, Elmer Gantry, Long Day's Journey Into Night) and it supports the film's dramatic tension well via the lossless. Classicflix offer optional English subtitles on their Region FREE Blu-ray.

The Classicflix Blu-ray offers only trailers for Black Magic, I the Jury, Blonde Ice, The Long Wait, and T-Men. None for Cause for Alarm!

Tay Garnett's Cause for Alarm! is a prime example of "a little going a long way" with an economical 2-week shooting schedule, almost no effects - filming on residential side streets near Melrose Avenue in Hollywood - but eventually turning this 'B' movie into an essential 'suburban noir'. Loretta Young sells the "June Cleaver" persona and being rattled as she becomes cognoscente of her husband's 'emotional illness' jealousy manifesting itself in destructive ways. Timing is never a friend of noir protagonists. George has Ellen post the poison letter to the District Attorney before he expires... gun clutched menacingly in his hand. Yes, indeed "This Girl Is In Trouble" as the tagline accurately informs us. The bare-bones Classicflix Blu-ray has the, cobbled-together, full film in 1080P with wonderful Loretta Young in a sweet gem of the cycle. Certainly recommended to fans. A huge keeper for this reviewer.

Gary Tooze

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