ON THE DVDs: ADDITION: Pop Flix / Allegro - August 2011: I was pointed to this DVD collection at Home Theater Forum as having superior image quality for this particular title. Just like Acme DVD Works / VCI disc, Pop Flix / Allegro disc features superior transfer compared to Alpha abomination. It still has all too familiar scratches, marks and damage - all three transfers were clearly made from the same print. Unfortunately, mono soundtrack is still problematic on this disc with lots of distortion and noise on the soundtrack. The two-disc set features five other films noir, all mainstay of public domain. Unfortunately, all other transfers are very poor quality - The Stranger and Scarlet Street exist in superior versions, The Scar/Hollow Triumph and The Woman on the Run are just as poor releases we already reviewed. Inner Sanctum (1949) hasn't been reviewed at DVDBeaver yet, although the transfer on this disc is poor. Compared to double feature from VCI, this set will get more bang for your buck, but we are still on a lookout for a better version of The Red House to surface.

The Red House is an effective rural film noir / gothic horror from an underrated Delmer Daves, who directed Humphrey Bogart noir Dark Passage the same year. Unlike the latter movie from Warner, The Red House was an independent production from Sol Lesser, mostly known for his various Tarzan productions that was distributed by United Artists and eventually found its place among public domain jewels. The film saw many releases on digital media, starting with Madacy disc in 1998 and ending with most recent DVD-R editions from various public domain companies. Unfortunately, none of these releases can be recommended since the film did not go any restoration and mostly transferred from the same beat-up 16mm print.

We selected two editions to compare - the DVD from Alpha and part of a double feature from VCI under Acme DVD Works imprint. The same marks and scratches shows that the same print was used for these transfers, but while Alpha disc was sourced from a tape (note the bottom of each capture and straight line bitrate), the VCI disc is much closer to the source material. Yet, both transfers are interlaced. The single-layered disc from Alpha also has some contrast boosting and chroma. Audio is below average for both releases and neither have subtitles provided. VCI is a clear winner in terms of image quality and extras with this double-layered disc - it features a brief 1948 Movietone newsreel from Fox and an extra film, Fritz Lang's Scarlet Street, although we recommend either US edition from Kino or UK edition from Odeon Entertainment rather than the companies who specialize in public domain films. But The Red House is unlikely to get such a costly restoration and it's unknown if good materials exist for this film. So since the price is low for either releases, VCI disc is our recommendation, although we hope that a better quality release will eventually surface.

 - Gregory Meshman