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

ADDITION: Kino Blu-ray (March 2024): Kino have transferred three more films for their eighteenth edition of Film Noir: The Dark Side of Cinema series. They are on separate Blu-rays cited as being from a "NEW HD Masters by Paramount Pictures". All three 1955 films, Crashout, City of Shadows and Finger Man, are on single-layered discs with high bitrates in 1080P. We reviewed the bare-bones Olive 1.78:1 Crashout Blu-ray in 2013, HERE and have compared some captures below. The 1.85:1 Kino is an easy upgrade with deep black levels and more grain. It may be a shade brighter. There are two or more density-compromised image quality instances. City of Shadows, probably the weakest of the three films, is in 1.37:1 and has some decent contrast layering looking quite pleasing in 1080P. There are a few frame-specific marks / damage on Finger Man (see sample below) but it wasn't distracting. Contrast is dull but this improves in the second half of the film. This is certainly watchable with surprising detail but is the poorest image quality of the three transfers.    

NOTE: We have added 122 more large resolution Blu-ray captures (in lossless PNG format) for DVDBeaver Patrons HERE

On their Blu-rays, Kino use DTS-HD Master dual-mono tracks (24-bit) in the original English language. Effects exist - mostly cars and guns with occasionally dramatic scores - by Leith Stevens (When World's Collide, I Married a Monster From Outer Space, Great Day in the Morning, The Gun Runners, Syncopation, World Without End, The Night of the Grizzly, 20 Million Miles to Earth, The Garment Jungle) on Crashout. Robert Armbruster (Mutiny on the Bounty) and R. Dale Butts (The Catman of Paris, Too Late For Tears, No Man's Woman, The Shanghai Story, Stranger at My Door, Hell's Half Acre, City That Never Sleeps) on City of Shadows and Paul Dunlap (Black Tuesday, How to Make a Monster, The Angry Red Planet, Shack Out on 101, Portland Expose, Big House U.S.A., Target Earth, Park Row, Cry Vengeance) on Finger Man. No flaw issues - 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-rays offer new commentaries - on Crashout by noir stalwart Alan K. Rode (author of Charles McGraw: Biography of a Film Noir Tough Guy.) He discusses the borrowed footage from Riot in Cell Black 11, producer Irving H. Levin,  writer Hal E. Chester, the strong cast of William Bendix, Arthur Kennedy, William Talman, Marshall Thompson, Beverly Michaels, Gloria Talbott etc. It's another excellent commentary from Alan. On City of Shadows there is a commentary by film historian / screenwriter Gary Gerani (Fantastic Television) who shares details on the production, history of Republic Pictures the cast with Victor McLaglen, John Baer, Kathleen Crowley and he discusses some of the minor players including colorful histories (ex. 'Voluptua' Gloria Pall) plus much more. There is also a commentary by Professor and film scholar Jason A. Ney on Finger Man. He talks about the LA location shooting, wild and tragic stories of the people who made the film, Christmas setting, noir themes, the production title of 'Dark Venture', the quality of performances and how it was initially received. It's very thorough, as always. Also included a low-res trailer for Crashout.

Kino's Film Noir: The Dark Side of Cinema #18 Blu-ray package has the standout Crashout, that starts with a grandiose prison break, and is undoubtedly the best of the three films in the set - with plenty of Noir pedigree - starring William Bendix (Hitchcock's Lifeboat, and paired with Alan Ladd in noirs, ex. The Glass Key, Calcutta, The Blue Dahlia), Arthur Kennedy (Boomerang), William Talman (Ida Lupino's The Hitch-Hiker and remembered as perennially-losing Los Angeles District Attorney Hamilton Burger in the television series Perry Mason,) Marshall Thompson (wonderful 50's monster flics like Fiend Without a Face, First Man into Space, Cult of the Cobra, and It! The Terror from Beyond Space) Beverly Michaels ('Bad girl' films like Pickup, Wicked Woman, The Girl on the Bridge), and a train ride with delightful Gloria Talbott (I Married a Monster From Outer Space, The Leech Woman). There are tense themes involving greed, convicts, mercenary behavior and survival. City of Shadows has a rare late career lead role by once-boxer Victor McLaglen - who's son was director Andrew V. McLaglen (The Rare Breed and many other westerns starring John Wayne or James Stewart.) City of Shadows is about a small-time racketeer and a 12-year-old orphaned newsboy - the former becoming King-pin of the rackets in the city and the latter graduating from law school to persuade him to go legit. It also has Kathleen Crowley (Curse of the Undead, FBI Code 98, one of her last roles being in Redford's Downhill Racer.) Finger Man has ex-convict Casey Martin (Frank Lovejoy - The Crooked Web, The Hitch-Hiker) coerced into going undercover for the police. His gal-pal is beautiful dark-cinema lady Peggie Castle (I, The Jury, 99 River Street, Outside the Wall, I Was a Shoplifter.)  Kino's Film Noir: The Dark Side of Cinema #18 Blu-ray is an all around decent trifecta of crime films with noir leanings; ex-cons, double-crossing, gangster morality, surviving and honorable femmes etc. Certainly worth a few spins for devotees of the cycle. Recommended.

Gary Tooze