The Brasher Doubloon - George Montgomery

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

(aka "The High Window" )

directed by John Brahm
USA 1947

John Brahm's The Brasher Doubloon is a version of Chandler's The High Window and, unfortunately, the most disappointing of this crop. Troubles start with the running time; at 72 minutes, that's not enough time for Chandler's baroque structures to start to unfurl, unless you reduce them to mere plot (and plot is not Chandler's long suit). Second, there's George Montgomery trying to fill the shoes of Dick Powell, Humphrey Bogart and the other Montgomery, Robert. He doesn't. While he's pleasant enough -- as a light leading man -- he swallows line after line of the script smoothly where a more nuanced actor would have found a whole ham sandwich to sink his teeth into. Still, there are good points here, especially in Brahm's directing. The big old mansion with its twin, massive turrets is especially ominous with the Santa Ana winds whistling outside; Florence Bates, as its owner, knows how to grande-dame it with the best; and a striking series of sinister characters take us down meaner and ever meaner streets. With a better star and a more leisurely pace, this private-eye flick could have been a contender.

Posters

Theatrical Release: 6 February 1947 (USA)

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DVD Review: 20th Century Fox (20th Century Fox Cinema Archives) - Region 0 - NTSC

Big thanks to Gregory Meshman for the Review!

DVD Box Cover		CLICK to order from:
Distribution	20th Century Fox Region 0 - NTSC
Runtime	1:11:51
Video	1.33:1 Original Aspect Ratio Average Bitrate: 6.77 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: 20th Century Fox Aspect Ratio: Fullscreen - 1.33:1 Edition Details: • None DVD Release Date: December 18th, 2012 Keep case Chapters 8

Comments

This is a truly disappointing release, especially if you consider that czar of noir Eddie Muller already recorded a commentary for this film for a planned DVD release in Fox Film Noir series. That release never happened due to some legal issues, but once everything was cleared, we get this film dumped into a made-on-demand DVD missing any extras.

Not even a trailer is included and this looks lie a transfer back from the VHS days. There is some chroma evident in scenes (see edge of a straw-hat in capture 7 and Ms. Guild's hair in capture 8). The transfer is not interlaced, but still we expected some sort of restoration, when film noir is in demand. The mono audio is decent and, like said earlier, no extras are included. A truly disappointing release especially if you consider what could have been released 10 years earlier.

- Gregory Meshman

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