Bait Blu-ray - Cleo Moore

We have started a Patreon page with the hopes that some of our followers would be willing to donate a small amount to keep DVDBeaver alive. We are a tiny niche, so your generosity is vital to our existence.

We are talking about a minimum of $0.10 - $0.15 a day, perhaps a quarter (or more) to those who won't miss it from their budget. It equates to buying DVDBeaver a coffee once, twice or a few times a month. You can then participate in our monthly Silent auctions, and have exclusive access to many 'bonus' High Resolution screen captures - both 4K UHD and Blu-ray (see HERE).

To those that are unfamiliar, Patreon is a secure/verified third-party service where users can agree to a monthly donation via credit card or PayPal by clicking the button below.

Search DVDBeaver

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

directed by Hugo Haas
USA 1954

Cleo stars as a cashier in a little dump of a mom-and-pop store, despised because she is an apparently unwed mother. Nasty old gold prospector Hugo Haas looks on her as trash but his partner John Agar is clearly attracted to the luckless blonde. When the men actually discover gold, greedy Haas tries to think of a way to have it all for himself and decides to marry Cleo, certain that in their secluded corner of the world Agar won't be able to resist Cleo's sex appeal, thus allowing Haas to shoot and kill him and get away with it via "the unwritten law".

The best thing about the film is the natural chemistry between Cleo Moore and John Agar. Hugo Haas makes a much better villain than sympathetic leading man so he's well cast and gives a good performance although his direction is generally uninspired

Excerpt of review from HarlowMGM for imdb.com located HERE

Posters

Theatrical Release: 24 February 1954 (USA)

Reviews More Reviews DVD Reviews

Comparison:

Sony Pictures (Choice Collection) - Region 0 - NTSC vs. Kit Parker Films - Region FREE - Blu-ray

Big thanks to Gregory Meshman for the DVD Review!

Box Cover
Distribution	Sony Pictures Region 0 - NTSC	Kit Parker Films - Region FREE - Blu-ray
Runtime	1:19:27	1:19:34.519
Video	1.33:1 Aspect Ratio Average Bitrate: 4.29 mb/s NTSC 720x480 29.97 f/s	1.33:1 1080P Dual-layered Blu-ray Disc Size: 47,813,861,592 bytes Feature: 16,229,203,968 bytes Video Bitrate: 24.98 Mbps Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video
	NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate
Bitrate Blu-ray
Audio	Dolby Digital Mono (English)	DTS-HD Master Audio English 824 kbps 1.0 / 48 kHz / 824 kbps / 24-bit (DTS Core: 1.0 / 48 kHz / 768 kbps / 24-bit)
Subtitles	None	English, None
Features	Release Information: Studio: Sony Pictures Aspect Ratio: Fullscreen - 1.33:1 Edition Details: • None DVD Release Date: April 7th, 2014 Keep case Chapters 8	Release Information: Studio: Kit Parker 1.33:1 1080P Dual-layered Blu-ray Disc Size: 47,813,861,592 bytes Feature: 16,229,203,968 bytes Video Bitrate: 24.98 Mbps Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video Edition Details: • No extras - shares the disc with The Crooked Web and Cell 2455, Death Row Blu-ray Release Date: July 16th, 2019 Standard Blu-ray Case Chapters 7

Comments

NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

ADDITION: Kit Parker Blu-ray (August 2019): Kit Parker Films in association with Millcreek Entertainment have released the first (of three announced) of these 3 Blu-ray / 9 Film Noir features Boxsets. Volume Two is has:

Bait (1954), The Crooked Web (1955), The Night Holds Terror (1955), Footsteps in the Fog (1955), Cell 2455, Death Row (1955), 5 Against the House (1955), New Orleans Uncensored (1955), Spin a Dark Web (1955), and Rumble on the Docks (1956)

Volume One was described as "Stalwart noir directors and casts highlight these hard to find features Address Unknown (1944) dir/William Cameron Menzies, cast/Paul Lukas, Carl Esmond, Peter Van Eyck; Escape in the Fog (1945) dir/Oscar (Budd) Boetticher cast/Otto Kruger, Nina Foch, William Wright; The Guilt of Janet Ames (1947) dir/Henry Levin cast/Rosalind Russell, Melvyn Douglas, Sid Caesar; The Black Book (aka The Reign of Terror) (1949) dir/Anthony Mann cast/Robert Cummings, Richard Basehart, Arlene Dahl; Johnny Allegro (1949) dir/Ted Tetzlaff cast/George Raft, Nina Foch, George Macready; 711 Ocean Drive (1950) dir/Joseph M. Newman cast/Edmond O'Brien, Joanne Dru, Otto Kruger; The Killer That Stalked New York (1950) dir/Earl McEvoy cast/Evelyn Keyes, Charles Korvin, William Bishop; Assignment Paris (1952) dir/Earl McEvoy cast/Dana Andrews, Marta Toren, George Sanders; The Miami Story (1954) dir/Fred F. Sears cast/Barry Sullivan, Luther Adler, John Baer - all in high definition presented in their original aspect ratios."

So, 3 films on a dual-layered Blu-ray, with a decent bitrate in 1080P and the original 1.33:1 aspect ratio. This has the same damage as the Sony DVD - but the higher resolution shows more texture, and film-like heaviness without the compression of the SD. The differences will be notable dependant on how large your system is.

The audio is 24-bit lossless (DTS-HD Master mono) exporting the score from Václav Divina (Thy Neighbor's Wife, One Girl's Confession and Strange Fascination) it adds a more substantial mood to the film experience - advancing on the lossy DVD. The Blu-ray offers optional English subtitles (see sample) on this Region FREE Blu-ray package.

No supplements - but the disc is shared with The Crooked Web and Cell 2455, Death Row. Noir fans get to revisit these delights in a far more film-like presentation with optional subtitles. This has sexy Cleo Moore and interesting cinematography by Edward P. Fitzgerald (New York Confidential).

Gary Tooze

***

ON THE DVD: Hugo Haas is a true auteur of B's having written, directed, produced and starred in many of his own pictures. His career started in Czechoslovakia between 2 wars where he directed highly regarded Skeleton on Horseback (Bílá nemoc). He escaped Nazis and moved to US, first having small parts in number of Hollywood productions of 1940's-1950's. In 1951 he produced, wrote, directed and starred in a noir melodrama Pickup, co-starring Beverly Michaels. Of 14 films in his oeuvre, only One Girl's Confession was released on DVD as part of Bad Girls of Film Noir, Vol. 2 until now.

Bait is one of many collaborations between Haas and his one-time mistress Cleo Moore. Hugo Haas stars as a gold prospector who marries Ms. Moore to use her as a bait to kill his partner John Agar, in love with Cleo and take his cut all to himself. The films starts with Sir Cedric Hardwicke playing the devil who tells this story of greed and retribution. The film comes to DVD as part of Sony's made-on-demand program in a stellar full screen transfer. The film was first widescreen picture for Hugo Haas Productions and the opening credits support this, but some shots look too tight masking the image to 1.66:1. The opening sequence with Cedric Hardwicke going up the stairs is such an example - the camera stays on him until he is totally out of the frame in the upper right corner. If that sequence was masked, the viewer would be staring at an empty screen for extra few seconds. With this noted, the progressive image looks excellent. It is with very little damage or marks, with a nice grain, some of it due to soft focus on some of Ms. Moore's close-ups. The mono audio is adequate, with no distortions or pops/clicks. There is no menu and the film starts after all the logos when you insert the disc. A quite enjoyable release from Sony - we're ready for more Haas on DVD.

- Gregory Meshman