Review by Gary Tooze

 

Production:

Theatrical: Periclean Productions

Video: Olive Films

 

Disc:

Region: 'A' (as verified by the Oppo Blu-ray player)

Runtime: 1:18:34.960

Disc Size: 21,933,786,677 bytes

Feature Size: 21,789,499,392 bytes

Video Bitrate: 32.99 Mbps

Chapters: 8

Case: Standard Blu-ray case

Release date: January 20th, 2015

 

Video:

Aspect ratio: 1.78:1

Resolution: 1080p / 23.976 fps

Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video

 

Audio:

DTS-HD Master Audio English 2117 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 2117 kbps / 24-bit (DTS Core: 2.0 /
48 kHz / 1509 kbps / 24-bit)

 

Subtitles:

• None

 

Extras:

• None

 

Bitrate:

 

 

Description: When a young boy (Jon Whiteley) accidentally shoots a playmate with a pistol found in the rubble of a bombed-out building, he runs away from home and wanders the streets of postwar England. Ballistic analysis connects the weapon to the unsolved murder of a military officer ten years earlier. A gruff American captain, Mark Andrews (Steve Cochran), attempts to track down the missing gun, while trying to appease the boy’s anxious mother (Lizabeth Scott). The search for the missing boy (and the weapon he’s carrying) leads Andrews into the seedy London underworld, where a series of unsavory characters attempt to divert him from his quest. As depicted by director Val Guest the decayed urban setting resembles the Vienna of Carol Reed’s The Third Man, permeated by grime and shadow, and shot through with an oppressive sense of despair.

 

 

The Film:

The Weapon is a loose grouping of elements first seen in the 1951 British melodrama The Yellow Balloon. Jon Whitely plays a young London boy who finds a loaded gun in a blitzed-out building. He fires, accidentally shooting a playmate. Believing he's killed his friend, the boy runs away--leading to a relentlessly suspenseful climax. Though filmed in England, The Weapon was geared from the start for primarily American audiences; its producer was Hollywood's own Hal E. Chester, and its adult stars included Steve Cochran and Lizabeth Scott. The script was written by Fred Freiberger, best known to sci-fi followers as the producer of the original Star Trek's third and final season.

Excerpt from Barnes and Noble located HERE

A neat suspense story about a youngster, Whiteley, who accidentally shoots his playmate with a gun he finds, then hides the weapon and runs away. The gun turns out to be the murder weapon in a case involving a US Army officer 10 years earlier. CID officer Cochran is in pursuit of the boy, as is the murderer of the Army man. The killer tries to force the boy to dig up the weapon but has to flee when Cochran closes in. The chase leads to a gutted building, and the killer falls to his death. A well-crafted, energetic thriller.

Excerpt from TV Guide located HERE

 

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

The Weapon has a, predictably, single-layered, bare-bones, Blu-ray transfer from Olive Films. Unfortunately the film is filled with speckles (almost every frame had some) and a small amount of, less-noticeable, damage marks. I also noted some warped frames a few times. It is transferred in a bastardized 1.78:1 aspect ratio. The black levels appear acceptable - occasionally strong - and detail is right about when you might anticipate with some pleasing grain textures present. The greyscale and shadow-detail are actually quite good. There is even a few instances of notable depth. The 1080P Blu-ray is based on a unrestored source and, although has imperfections, it was nothing that negatively impacted my viewing.

 

NOTE: Jim Harwood says in our FaceBook group: "The speckles don't bother me personally. Having been a 16mm print collector for decades, specks, dirt and other duped in crud go with the territory. "

 

CLICK EACH BLU-RAY CAPTURE TO SEE ALL IMAGES IN FULL 1920X1080 RESOLUTION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Audio :

Scratchy audio in the credits didn't bode well but it soon cleared and was acceptable, if not stellar, throughout most of the film. Olive's DTS-HD Master 2.0 channel at 2117 kbps seems to do the best with what was provided, but like the video could have used some form of restoration.  James Stevens composed sporadically for film through his career and his score for The Weapon is fairly unremarkable but adds some receptive flavor to the shadowy mix and sounds flat without much punch. There are a few aggressive effects and gun shots through the film. There are no subtitles and my Oppo has identified it as being a region 'A'-locked.

 

 

Extras :

No supplements - not even a trailer which is the bare-bones route that Olive are going with most of their Blu-ray releases. The Weapon is such a keen little cracker - I'd have loved a commentary or some production information.

 

 

BOTTOM LINE:
The Weapon is a stellar Brit-based thriller with a few Noir-ish conventions. It doesn't hurt that I'm a big Lizabeth Scott fan too. I only wish it was longer. The Olive Blu-ray does its usual unmanipulated presentation in 1080P, it's just a shame that the condition of the source was sub-par although I didn't let it hurt my viewing pleasure. Lose another point for such a good film having no supplements. I was quite happy to have seen this - and now, own it. Despite the limitations - for the film itself, we give a recommendation! 

Gary Tooze

January 26th, 2015

Coming out on Blu-ray in the UK from Network in March 2021: