The Locket - Laraine Day

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

directed by John Brahm
USA 1946

There are certainly any number of labyrinthianly complicated noirs, but nothing can quite prepare the viewer for the experience of watching John Brahm’s The Locket (1946), famous for its “flashback within a flashback within a flashback” structure, perhaps the most convoluted narrative in the history of noir. The plot itself is relatively simple: Nancy (Laraine Day) is a kleptomaniac, driven to steal anything that strikes her fancy (the original title of the film was “What Nancy Wanted”). Nancy’s compulsion springs from a childhood incident, in which she was given a locket as birthday gift, which was then taken away from her by the cruel Mrs. Willis (Katherine Emery), her mother’s employer. When the locket goes missing, Nancy is suspected of having stolen it to recover the trinket for herself. Although it is later discovered that the locket simply fell in the hem of a garment, Nancy is never truly exonerated. Now, twenty years later, Nancy is poised to marry John Willis (Gene Raymond), and thus regain admission to the household she was banished from as a child...

Excerpt of review from Wheeler Winston Dixon located HERE

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Theatrical Release: 20 December 1946 (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	1:25:27
Video	1.33:1 Original Aspect Ratio Average Bitrate: 6.12 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 Mono (English)
Subtitles	None
Features	Release Information: Studio: Warner Home Video Aspect Ratio: Fullscreen - 1.33:1 Edition Details: • None DVD Release Date: August 3rd, 2010 Keep Case Chapters 9

Comments

The Locket has been released on DVD in Spain and Italy, but this Warner Archive release is a debut of the film in region 1. The overall presentation is very fine. The progressive transfer has a number of specs and marks, including cue marks and a short sequence at 35-minute mark with some lines running on the right side of the screen (see the last capture), but blacks are strong and the grain is minimal, but still present.

The unimpressive mono soundtrack is tinny, but still acceptable and as usual for Archive releases, there are no subtitles provided. The disc doesn't include any extras, no trailer or even a 1-minute Archive advert that starts all previous Archive releases. We don't have Spanish or Italian disc to compare, but compared to a recent broadcast of the movie on TCM, which was overly dark, this is major improvement of this underrated film noir.

- Gregory Meshman

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