|
Firstly, a massive thank you to our Patreon supporters. Your generosity touches me deeply. These supporters have become the single biggest contributing factor to the survival of DVDBeaver. Your assistance has become essential.
What do Patrons receive, that you don't?
1)
Our
weekly
Newsletter
sent to your Inbox every
Monday morning!
Please consider keeping us in existence with a couple of dollars or more each month (your pocket change!) so we can continue to do our best in giving you timely, thorough reviews, calendar updates and detailed comparisons. Thank you very much.
|
|
Search DVDBeaver |
S E A R C H D V D B e a v e r |
Directed by
Val Guest
UK 1960
|
Committed but seen-it-all police inspector Martineau rightly guesses that after a violent jailbreak a local criminal will head home to Manchester to pick up the spoils from his last job. Martineau is soon investigating a murder during a street robbery which seems to lead back to the same villain. Concentrating on the case and using his local contacts to try and track the gang down, he is aware he is not keeping his own personal life together as well as he might. *** A persuasively sweaty crime thriller set in Manchester, written and directed by the once reliable Guest (from a novel by Maurice Proctor), this atypical Hammer production benefited from a strong cast and fine use of location photography (in 'Hammerscope'). Square-jawed Baker toughs it out as a harassed police inspector with a volubly frustrated wife (Audley) at home, and the arduous assignment on the streets of tracking down a jailbreaker (Crawford) wanted for murder. The atmosphere is persuasively seedy and downbeat, and there's a striking performance by Billie Whitelaw in a period when she seemed to specialise in 'fallen women'. |
Posters
 |
 |
Theatrical Release: April 10th, 1960
Reviews More Reviews DVD Reviews
DVD Review: Cinema Club - Region 2,7 - PAL
| DVD Box Cover |
|
CLICK to order from:
|
| Distribution | Cinema Club - Region 2,7 - PAL | |
 |
There
is a region 1 NTSC DVD of Hell is a City produced by Anchor Bay with
a
director commentary. It is also 2.35 anamorphic and image quality is
supposed to be acceptable. Unfortunately it is, at present, almost 4 X the price of this
Cinema Club UK edition.
|
|
| Runtime | 1:32:21 | |
| Video |
2.35:1
Aspect Ratio Average Bitrate: 5.71 mb/s PAL 720x576 25.00 f/s |
|
|
NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes. |
||
| Bitrate: |
|
|
| Audio | English (Dolby Digital 1.0) | |
| Subtitles | None | |
| Features |
Release Information:
Edition Details: • Alternate
Ending (6:02) |
|
| Comments: |
This transfer is a little better than what you might expect from a frugal single-layered DVD. It is both anamorphic and progressive plus contrast is fairly good. Detail is not bad either. There is an Anchor Bay NTSC single-layered edition of this film on DVD, which I have not seen, but it is reported to have a similar image quality but adds a Val Guest commentary for both the feature and the 'alternate ending'.
No subtitles and the mono audio is fairly quiet. There is a 6 minute alternate ending and a 2:23 theatrical trailer. The film, and its great title, definitely has some noir qualities and is good to watch, but certainly won't eclipse any of the quintessential powerhouses of the style - and it's a little less than 'Hammer-like'. Still you can't beat the price to see the film in a such a decent presentation. |
DVD Menus
 |
 |
 |
 |
Screen Captures
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| DVD Box Cover |
|
CLICK to order from:
|
| Distribution | Cinema Club - Region 2,7 - PAL | |
|
|
There
is a region 1 NTSC DVD of Hell is a City produced by Anchor Bay with
a
director commentary. It is also 2.35 anamorphic and image quality is
supposed to be acceptable. Unfortunately it is, at present, over 4 X the price of this
Cinema Club UK edition.
|
|
Mail cheques, money orders, cash to: or CLICK PayPal logo to donate!
|
Gary Tooze
|
|
Thank You!
