A Bullet For Joey Blu-ray - Edward G. Robinson

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

Directed by Lewis Allen
USA 1955

With fear of communism running rampant, Hollywood scripts of the 1950s often dealt with Soviet plots to undermine the American way of life. One example is United Artists' A Bullet for Joey (1955), starring Edward G. Robinson as a police inspector on the trail of a spy who plots to kidnap an important American atomic scientist. George Raft co-stars as the gangster who is hired to carry out the abduction - but balks when he learns what is at stake and helps the G-man keep the world safe for democracy.

Robinson had personal experience with the Red Scare in the early 1950s when columnists and other writers began to imply that he was either a communist or a communist sympathizer. The witch-hunting publication Red Channels listed him as having been connected with 11 alleged communist fronts. To clear his name, Robinson appeared before the House Un-American Activities Committee three times beginning in 1950. The HUAC eventually cleared him with this finding: "According to the evidence of this committee, you are a good, loyal and intensely patriotic American citizen." But in paranoia-prone Hollywood, damage had already been done to Robinson's career. With no offers forthcoming, he turned to European films and the Broadway stage. Eventually he was able to rebuild his Hollywood career with such films as Vice Squad (1953), The Violent Men (1955), and A Bullet for Joey.

Excerpt from Turner Classic Movies website located HERE

Posters

Theatrical Release: April 15th, 1955

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Comparison:

MGM - Region 1 - NTSC vs. Kino Lorber - Region 'A' - Blu-ray

1) MGM - Region 1 - NTSC - LEFT

2) Kino Lorber - Region 'A' - Blu-ray - RIGHT

Box Covers		Also available in *Film Noir: The Dark Side of Cinema* [Blu-ray] (*Big House, U.S.A., A Bullet For Joey, He Ran All the Way, Storm Fear, Witness to Murder*):
Distribution	MGM Home Video - Region 1 - NTSC	Kino Lorber Region 'A' - Blu-ray
Runtime	1:27:00	1:27:09.224
Video	1.33:1 Aspect Ratio Average Bitrate: 6.33 mb/s NTSC 720x480 29.97 f/s	1.75:1 Disc Size: 19,505,121,895 bytes Feature Size: 18,346,137,600 bytes Total Bitrate: 24.93 Mbps Single-layered Blu-ray MPEG4 - AVC / 1080P
	NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate:
Bitrate: Blu-ray
Audio	English (Dolby Digital mono), DUBs: Spanish (Dolby Digital mono), French (Dolby Digital mono)	DTS-HD Master Audio English 1624 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 1624 kbps / 16-bit (DTS Core: 2.0 / 48 kHz / 1509 kbps / 16-bit)
Subtitles	English, Spanish, None	None
Features	Release Information: Studio: MGM Home Video Aspect Ratio: Original Aspect Ratio 1.33:1 Edition Details: • none DVD Release Date: July 10th, 2007 Keep Case Chapters: 20	Release Information: Studio: Kino Lorber 1.75:1 Disc Size: 19,505,121,895 bytes Feature Size: 18,346,137,600 bytes Total Bitrate: 24.93 Mbps Single-layered Blu-ray MPEG4 - AVC / 1080P Edition Details: • Trailers for *A Bullet For Joey* (2:17), *He Ran All the Way* (2:13), *Witness to Murder* (2:08) Blu-ray Release Date: November 17th, 2015 Standard Blu-ray case Chapters: 8

Comments:

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

ADDITION: Kino Lorber - Region 'A' - Blu-ray October 15': Now accurately widescreen (1.75:1), Kino Lorber's Blu-ray get a 1080P transfer. We get more information on the sides and less on the top and bottom. It is single-layered with a supportive bitrate and a little bit lighter/brighter than the DVD visuals. The film has a lot of texture and thickness with modest detail but in advance of the SD. It does seem it may be horizontally stretched (fatter faces) and there are still some light scratches and a few speckles but it does look quite good in-motion.

Kino Lorber use a DTS-HD Master 2.0 channel at 1624 kbps. It exports the minor gunplay with some depth and the score by Harry Sukman (Forty Guns, Verboten!, The Crimson Kimono, Underworld U.S.A., Someone's Watching Me!) sounds decent in the lossless with some occasional orchestral depth. There are no subtitles and the Blu-ray disc is region 'A'-locked.

No supplements beyond trailers for A Bullet For Joey, He Ran All the Way, Witness to Murder.

Good, solid cops and robbers with Edward G. and Raft. It's a decent replacement if you are craving some Noir. Presently almost 50% OFF Pre-order.

***

ON THE DVD: NOTE WhiteSheik says -: "A Bullet For Joey - clearly an open matte transfer - in 1955 this film was projected at 1:85 in the US, as is clearly and obviously evident by the abnormal amount of headroom in every shot, which completely subverts the framing." (Thanks Brian!)

Decent progressive, single-layered, transfer from MGM. Fair contrast and acceptable grey tones and the image is fairly clean. Still some artifacts but its a little better than I was anticipating from the usual lackluster manner that MGM tends to treat vintage films.

No extras at all but there are optional subtitles and a couple of DUBs available. The lack of extras makes the price on the exorbitant side. The film, although certainly not a pure representative of the Noir style - has some of the signature markers. It does have a favorite Noir gal - Audrey Totter. For hardcore 'noirists' only.

Gary W. Tooze

DVD Menus

Kino Lorber - Region 'A' - Blu-ray

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

Subtitle Sample (no subtitles on the Blu-ray)