Grand Central Murder

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

directed by S. Sylvan Simon
USA 1942

When a not so sympathetic victim (Patricia Dane) is murdered in a private side car at Grand Central Station, detective Van Heflin and a crusty inspector (Sam Levene) join forces to solve the case. A neat little mystery yarn, this was an above average B-picture from MGM that gave us an early glimpse of Van Heflin, a young actor who was certainly blessed with enormous talent. Virginia Grey, Stephen McNally, Samuel S. Hinds, Connie Gilchrist, Tom Conway and Millard Mitchell are fine in supporting roles and the ending comes as a satisfying, if not probable, conclusion.

Excerpt of review from Neil Doyle for imdb.com located HERE

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Theatrical Release: 23 May 1942 (New York City, NY)

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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	1:13:30
Video	1.33:1 Original Aspect Ratio Average Bitrate: 7.18 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 Mono (English)
Subtitles	None
Features	Release Information: Studio: Warner Home Video Aspect Ratio: Fullscreen - 1.33:1 Edition Details: • Theatrical trailer (2:46) DVD Release Date: March 27th, 2012 Keep Case Chapters 8

Comments

Grand Central Murder is an MGM B-mystery from 1942 and if you squint, you can see some stylistic touches from a genre later known as film noir. The movie stars Van Heflin as a private detective and Patricia Dane, his co-star from Johnny Eager, as an unlucky murder victim. A few character actors familiar to fans of noirs - Virginia Grey (Highway 301, The Naked Kiss), Sam Levene (The Killers, Crossfire), Millard Mitchell (A Double Life, Thieves' Highway), Tom Conway just before he replaced his brother in RKO Falcon series elevates the enjoyment of this feature, what would otherwise be a pedestrian mystery.

Warner Archive Collection made-on-demand disc came out before they started releasing films with a "Film Noir Archive Collection" banner, but this title would not be out of place in the series. The progressive transfer has its share of marks and the film looks softer than newly remastered features. The mono English audio is fine, without any distortions or hiss. A nice trailer rounds off this release. We can easily recommend this disc to fans of B mysteries and early noirs.

- Gregory Meshman

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