Nightmare - Edward G. Robinson

Firstly, a massive thank you to our Patreon supporters. These supporters have become the single biggest contributing factor to the survival of DVDBeaver. Your assistance is essential to our survival.

What do Patrons receive, that you don't?

1) Our weekly Newsletter and Calendar Updates sent to your Inbox!
2) Access to over 70,000 unpublished screen captures in lossless high-resolution format!

Please consider keeping us in existence with a couple of dollars or more each month (your pocket change! / a coffee!) so we can continue to do our best in giving you timely, thorough reviews, calendar updates and detailed comparisons. I am indebted to your generosity.

Search DVDBeaver

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

(aka "Noche de pesadilla" )

directed by Maxwell Shane
USA 1956

Nightmare is compared on Blu-ray HERE

Nine years after adapting Cornell Woolrich’s “Nightmare” for his 1947 film Fear in the Night, Maxwell Shane directed a remake. Although this later film, renamed Nightmare, strongly resembles the earlier film, a meticulous analysis shows that they are really two different films.

Nightmare begins with a similar dream sequence that Shane adapted for Fear in the Night. Stan Grayson (Kevin McCarthy), a clarinetist in a New Orleans band, envisions himself in a mirrored room where he encounters a strange woman, then fights with a man and stabs him to death with an awl. After waking, he finds bruises on his neck and pulls from his pocket two items he saw in the dream, a button he had ripped from the man’s coat and a key he had used to lock the body in a closet. He seeks help from his detective brother-in-law, René Bressard (Edward G. Robinson), but René attributes Stan’s fear to an overactive imagination.

Excerpt of review from Thomas C. Renzi at Film Noir of the Week located HERE

Posters

Theatrical Release: 11 May 1956 (New York City)

Reviews More Reviews DVD Reviews

DVD Review: Sogemedia - Region 0 - PAL

Big thanks to Gregory Meshman for the Review!

DVD Box Cover		CLICK to order from:
Distribution	Sogemedia Region 0 - PAL
Runtime	1:25:12 (4% PAL speedup)
Video	1.69:1 Original Aspect Ratio Average Bitrate: 5.90 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	Dolby Digital Mono (English, Spanish Dub)
Subtitles	None
Features	Release Information: Studio: Sogemedia Aspect Ratio: Widescreen letterboxed - 1.69:1 Edition Details: • None DVD Release Date: November 18th, 2009 Keep Case Chapters 7

Comments

Nightmare is compared on Blu-ray HERE

I recently posted a review of a disappointed DVD release of Maxwell Shane film noir Fear in the Night where I mention this remake released just 9 years later - Shane is back at the helm and starring Edward G. Robinson. I tried to match screen captures for both reviews, although contrived scene with a newspaper ad is not in the remake. An interesting comparison between two films at Film Noir of the Week is linked above. The film is currently owned by MGM and hopefully an anamorphic transfer is coming from their Made-on-Demand program, but until such time, this DVD release from Sogemedia is an acceptable option.

The single-layered disc is not region coded but is in PAL. The widescreen image is letterboxed and of acceptable quality. The film was likely shot open matte and letterboxed for theatrical presentation. Sound quality is unremarkable. There is also a Spanish dub included, but no subtitles of any kind. When I played the disc on my computer, the DVD-player was spinning so loudly, I thought it is going to blow up, but I didn't have this issue while playing in a DVD player. (Another film with Edward G Robinson, The Red House from Alpha Video, had the same issue). The disc from Sogemedia is a decent release if the price is right until something better comes along.

- Gregory Meshman

DVD Menus