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

ADDITION: Warner Archive Blu-ray (April 2025): Warner Archive has transferred Raoul Walsh's The Man I Love to Blu-ray. It is cited, "This new Blu-ray presentation restores 6 minutes cut from the film and unseen for nearly seven decades. Newly remastered, the film can finally be experienced as first shown in its original theatrical release." We reviewed the 2009 Warner Archive DVD, HERE, and can confirm this 2024 Blu-ray edition is almost 6.5-minutes longer. Also, most obviously, this new 1080P has a significantly cleaner image. The look of The Man I Love is a smoky, atmospheric blend of film noir and melodrama. The jazz club, with its shadowy interiors and neon glow, serves as a quintessential noir space, while the foggy docks and cramped apartments ground the film in a realistic urban landscape. The contrast on the restoration captures the black-and-white palette, and textures are fine and resilient. This is a beautifully restored transfer that enhances the film’s noir aesthetic, with minor softness in darker scenes reflecting the source material’s age. It's a dynamic upgrade from the older, damaged and shortened SD.

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

On their Blu-ray, Warner Archive uses a DTS-HD Master dual-mono track (24-bit) in the original English language. The Man I Love is really all about the music. The Gershwin-heavy soundtrack, featuring songs, like “The Man I Love,” “Why Was I Born?,” and “Bill,” sounds “full and dramatic,” with Peg LaCentra’s dubbed vocals for Lupino delivered with sultry authenticity. The restored 6-minute “Bill” sequence, absent from TV prints due to rights issues, is a sonic highlight, with LaCentra’s voice and the accompanying jazz ensemble (piano, saxophone, drums) sounding pristine. San’s exquisite piano interludes, performed by Bennett himself, are also clear, adding authenticity to his character. The ambient club noise - clinking glasses, murmured conversations, applause - is effectively balanced with dialogue and music, creating an authentic nightclub atmosphere. The lossless delivers it with aplomb. Warner Archive offers optional English (SDH) subtitles on their Region FREE Blu-ray.

The Warner Archive Blu-ray bonus features are two vintage Warner Bros. cartoons: Crowing Pains (1947), directed by Robert McKimson, featuring Henery Hawk, Foghorn Leghorn, and Sylvester the Cat, and Rabbit Transit (1947), a Technicolor Looney Tunes short directed by Friz Freleng, where Bugs Bunny races Cecil the Turtle in a spoof of The Tortoise and the Hare, with Mel Blanc providing the voices. Additionally, the release includes the original theatrical trailer (in standard definition), offering a glimpse of how the film was marketed in 1946.

The Warner Archive Blu-ray release of Raoul Walsh's The Man I Love is a testament to the label’s commitment to preserving vintage classics. A commentary is deserved and its absence is a black mark. The video, though, is a standout, offering a maxed-out bitrate, restored, transfer that elevates the film noir aesthetic and reintegrates 6 minutes of lost footage, making it the definitive presentation of this 1946 'dark cinema' effort. For under $12 (at the writing of this review,) you’re getting a lovingly preserved piece of 1940's Hollywood cinema history that highlights Lupino’s commanding performance and the film’s atmospheric blend of noir, music, and melodrama - an absolute steal for cinephiles looking to add a rare gem to their collection. If you’re considering it, this price makes it a no-brainer!

Gary Tooze