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directed by Don Siegel
USA 1946

 

Forced to retire because his techniques are deemed "old-fashioned," a Scotland Yard detective and his artist friend conspire to dupe a young arrogant detective by committing the perfect murder. Starring "Casablanca" co-stars Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre and Oscar- nominee George Coulouris ("Watch on the Rhine"). From the director of "Dirty Harry."

***

Siegel's first film, an ingenious locked room mystery set in London in 1890, adapted from a novel by Israel Zangwill (often described as the father of the genre). Greenstreet plays a genial Scotland Yard inspector who, dismissed after thirty years of distinguished service when an oversight results in the hanging of an innocent man, deviously stages a second case; this not only sees justice done (the victim is himself a killer), but puts Greenstreet's baffled successor (Coulouris, the ambitious underling who shopped him in the first place) on the road to perpetrating a similar miscarriage of justice in solving it. Fascinatingly, though, Siegel deliberately plays on ambivalences throughout, leaving motivations not quite explained and opening up dark, speculative avenues of paranoia and perversity, not least through Greenstreet's teasing, subtly suggestive intimacy with Lorre as an amiably decadent, inimitably sinister artist friend. The result, impeccably performed and beautifully shot by Ernest Haller, emerges as splendid cross between Gothic melodrama and film noir.

Excerpt from TimeOut located HERE

Posters

Theatrical Release: 23 November 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

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Distribution

Warner Home Video

Region 0 - NTSC

Runtime 1:26:12
Video

1.33:1 Original Aspect Ratio
Average Bitrate: 5.82 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:

• Trailer (2:57)
• Archive Advert (:59)


DVD Release Date: May 8th, 2009
Keep Case

Chapters 9

 

Comments

This 1946 film became the last collaboration between Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre and the first feature directed by Don Siegel. Warner Archive disc was first released as an Amazon exclusive in May 2009, but later added to Warner Archive store. The image has speckles, marks and scratches, but the progressive transfer is decent overall.

There are no subtitles or closed captioning and a short clip listed as theatrical trailer is actually the first 3 minutes of the film after the credits.

 - Gregory Meshman

 



 

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DVD Box Cover

CLICK to order from:

 

Distribution

Warner Home Video

Region 0 - NTSC

 



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