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

ADDITION: Shout! Factory Blu-ray (July 2019): Shout! Factory have transferred Jacques Tourneur's The Leopard Man to Blu-ray and it is a very welcome advancement over the lackluster DVD from 2005. It is advertised as a new "4K Scan Of The Original Nitrate Camera Negative". It towers over the murky SD appearing brighter, far more detailed and has some pleasing textures in the 1080P resolution. It is on a single-layered disc but the short feature embraces a max'ed out bitrate looking much cleaner and tighter in-motion. The softness is inherent in the production and produces a film-like presentation experience.

NOTE: 22 more full resolution (1920 X 1080) captures for Patrons are available HERE.

On their Blu-ray, Shout! Factory use a, reasonably robust, DTS-HD Master 2.0 channel mono track (24-bit) in the original English language. It is another advancement in the film's audio and score by Roy Webb (A Bill of Divorcement, Notorious, The Spiral Staircase, The Curse of the Cat People, I Married a Witch, The Fallen Sparrow, The Window, Journey Into Fear, I Walked with a Zombie etc.) that adds further atmosphere. Shout! Factory offer optional English subtitles on their Region 'A' Blu-ray.

The Shout! Factory Blu-ray includes the same audio commentary with director William Friedkin (that Adam found a disappointment - see below) from the old DVD but they also add a new fact-filled commentary by the director of Shadows in the Dark: The Val Lewton Legacy  Constantine Nasr (author of Roger Corman: Interviews (Conversations with Filmmakers Series). The discussion revolves a lot around Lewton and his preferences, some of the cast and Jacques Tourneur. It's quite interesting and has plenty of information I was not aware of about the producer. There is also a short theatrical trailer and extensive stills gallery.

One of the richest of short horrors - Jacques Tourneur is a poet and this is a thoroughly re-watchable effort. It's a film I am very thrilled to own on 4K-restored Blu-ray with the new commentary. An easy, and very strong, recommendation! 

Gary Tooze

ON THE DVD: The transfer: A seriously flawed transfer from Warner’s, which is a shame given that this is the only real fault in otherwise stupendous boxset (think of Criterion’s Renoir box and the tragedy that is The Golden Coach transfer). Lots of dirt and scratches are prevalent throughout the film, and considering how much of Tourneur’s work depends upon his play between light and shadows, you may find these print blemishes more noticeable than usual. The major flaw is the appearance of an obtrusive black line on the right hand side of the frame that rears its ugly face at about the 20-minute mark and continues to appear off and on for the remainder of the film. Whether this ‘black line’ is the result of a botched transfer or was present on the original filmic elements I cannot say, but I suspect that once others have taken a look at the disc, we will be able to report back to you with more details.

The transfer on The Ghost Ship fairs much better fortunately (see below). Present here, are Warner’s usual standards of high quality, sharp progressively scanned image, relatively dirt free and glistening with a life that we associate with only the best transfers of 1940’s black and white films on DVD.

The audio: Each transfer sounds relatively the same, and depending if you are listening to these through your TV set or through a home sound system, your impressions might vary. Each film is presented with a mono audio track. Played through your set this audio can sound a little flat and muted, but played through a sound system (which I assume it was optimized for) the audio is clear. A picky observation perhaps, but something for you to keep in mind before viewing.

Extras: Keeping the trend of The Leopard Man transfer, the William Friedkin commentary track is also a disappointment. Friedkin offers none of the meaty observations you’d suspect a filmmaker to offer up, and instead you get hour-long snooze fest where the filmmaker simply dictates the events that happen onscreen. I recommend skipping over this one and devoting your time to one of the Film historian commentaries on the other discs, preferably Tom Weaver’s on Bedlam.

 - Adam Lemke