The Tall Target - Dick Powell

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

(aka "Man on the Train" )

USA 1951

This DVD of The Tall Target is compared to the 2024 Blu-ray HERE

Director Anthony Mann generates suspense from a story that logically shouldn't have any—a New York cop trying to foil an assassination plot against president-elect Abraham Lincoln. Fred Zinnemann should have looked at this before he made The Day of the Jackal. Mann understands that mood is more important than plausibility in a thriller, and you could cut the mood here with a knife. With Dick Powell, Paula Raymond, Adolphe Menjou, and Ruby Dee (1951).

Excerpt from Dave Kehr at the Chicago Reader

Posters

Theatrical Release: 17 August 1951 (USA)

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DVD Review: Warner Home Video (Warner Archive Collection) - Region 0 - NTSC

Big thanks to Gregory Meshman for the Review!

DVD Box Cover		CLICK to order from:
Distribution	Warner Home Video Region 0 - NTSC
Runtime	1:17:48
Video	1.33:1 Original Aspect Ratio Average Bitrate: 6.76 mb/s NTSC 720x480 29.97 f/s
	NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate
Audio	Dolby Digital 2.0 (English)
Subtitles	None
Features	Release Information: Studio: Warner Home Video Aspect Ratio: Fullscreen - 1.33:1 Edition Details: • Theatrical trailer (2:15) DVD Release Date: September, 2009 Keepcase Chapters 8

Comments

This DVD of The Tall Target is compared to the 2024 Blu-ray HERE

Anthony Mann has already made a French revolution noir, Reign of Terror aka The Black Book which is already available on DVD, so now comes his take on noir story set just before the outbreak of The Civil War in US. Long unavailable on home video, Warner Home Video delivers an old mastered print, but presented here in progressive mode and in very good quality. The print has visible damages (see capture 6), cue marks (capture 3) and chroma (captures 1 and 4), but overall contrast and grey-scale are well balanced.

The mono soundtrack is encoded well, but like other archive releases, there are no subtitles or closed captioning. Worth noting that this is one of only 2 MGM classic films that doesn't feature a musical score. The only extra is a brief theatrical trailer.

- Gregory Meshman

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