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 S E A R C H    D V D B e a v e r

(aka "Farewell My Lovely" or "Hyvästi kaunokaiseni" or "Crime vient à la fin, Le" or "Ombra del passato, L'" )

 

directed by Edward Dmytryk
USA 1944

 

One-time movie crooner Dick Powell literally turned his career around in the 1944 film noir Murder My Sweet. Powell stars as Phillip Marlowe, the hard-boiled private detective antihero created by novelist Raymond Chandler. Hired by hulking, psychotic Moose Malloy (Mike Mazurki) to locate Moose's old girl friend, Marlowe is pitched headlong into a morass of intrigue and deception. The participants include duplicitous glamour-girl Claire Trevor, sodden slattern Esther Howard, suave blackmailer Otto Kruger and dyspeptic doctor Ralf Harolde. At one point, Marlowe is railroaded into a lunatic asylum, where under the influence of drugs he experiences a surrealistic nightmare the like of which would not be seen on screen again until Hitchcock's Vertigo (1958). So fascinating are the "bad" characters in Murder My Sweet that the two 100% "good" characters, heroine Anne Shirley and detective Don Douglas, seem wishy-washy wimps by comparison. After years of insipid golly-gee roles, Dick Powell startled his fans with his cynical, world-weary portrayal of Philip Marlowe. The part put him back on top of the box-office tallies and enabled him to extend his acting career into the 1950s, which led to an even more lucrative "third life" as a powerful TV-studio executive. Murder My Sweet was based on Chandler's Farewell My Lovely, previously filmed in 1942 as The Falcon Takes Over; a remake, Farewell, My Lovely, was produced in 1975, with Robert Mitchum as Marlowe.

Posters

Theatrical Release: 18 December 1944 (Minneapolis, Minnesota)

 

 Reviews                                                                              More Reviews                                                                   DVD Reviews

 

Comparison:

Pan Vision Oy - Region 0 - PAL vs. Warner Home Video - Region 1 - NTSC vs. Pan Vision Oy (Colored version) - Region 0 - PAL vs. Warner Archive - Region FREE - Blu-ray

Big thanks to Jarkko Pienimäki and for the DVD Screen Caps!

1) Pan Vision Oy - Region 0 - PAL - LEFT

2) Warner Home Video - Region 1 - NTSC SECOND

3) Pan Vision Oy (Colored version) - Region 0 - PAL THIRD

4) Warner Archive - Region FREE - Blu-ray RIGHT

 
Box Covers

 

 

 

Also coming to Blu-ray from Warner Archive via a package that includes Murder, My Sweet, Out of the Past, The Set-up and Gun Crazy in September 2020:
Distribution

Pan Vision Oy

Region 0 - PAL

 Warner Home Video
Region 1 - NTSC		 Pan Vision Oy
Region 0 - PAL

Warner Archive

Region FREE  - Blu-ray
Runtime 1:31:28 (4% PAL speedup) 1:35:18 1:35:20 (4% PAL speedup) 1:35:25.761
Video

1.33:1 Original Aspect Ratio
Average Bitrate: 5.47 mb/s
PAL 720x576 25.00 f/s

1.33:1 Original Aspect Ratio
Average Bitrate: 5.29 mb/s
NTSC 720x480 29.97 f/s

1.33:1 Original Aspect Ratio
Average Bitrate: mb/s
PAL 720x576 25.00 f/s

1080P Dual-layered Blu-ray

Disc Size: 30,247,194,794 bytes

Feature: 29,374,371,840 bytes

Video Bitrate: 34.99 Mbps

Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video

NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate:

 

Pan Vision Oy

Bitrate:

Warner Home Video

Bitrate:

Pan Vision Oy (Colored version)

Bitrate:

Blu-ray

Audio English (Dolby Digital 1.0 Mono)

English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono)

English (Dolby Digital 1.0 Mono)

DTS-HD Master Audio English 1837 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 1837 kbps / 24-bit (DTS Core: 2.0 / 48 kHz / 1509 kbps / 24-bit)
Commentary:

DTS-HD Master Audio English 1872 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 1872 kbps / 24-bit (DTS Core: 2.0 / 48 kHz / 1509 kbps / 24-bit)
Subtitles Finnish (Forced) English, Spanish, French, None Finnish and none English, None
Features Release Information:
Studio: Pan Vision Oy

Aspect Ratio:
Fullscreen - 1.33:1

Edition Details:

DVD Release Date: June 15, 2003
Keepcase

Chapters 16

Release Information:
Studio: Warner Home Video

Aspect Ratio:
Fullscreen - 1.33:1

Edition Details:
• Audio Commentary by Author/ Film Noir Specialist Alain Silver
• Theatrical Trailer (2:11)
 

DVD Release Date: July 6, 2004
Keepcase

Chapters 25

Release Information:
Studio: Pan Vision Oy

Aspect Ratio:
Fullscreen - 1.33:1

Edition Details:
• Colored version
 

DVD Release Date: June 15, 2003
Keepcase

Chapters 16

Release Information:
Studio: Warner Archive
 

1080P Dual-layered Blu-ray

Disc Size: 30,247,194,794 bytes

Feature: 29,374,371,840 bytes

Video Bitrate: 34.99 Mbps

Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video

 

Edition Details:

• Audio Commentary by Author/ Film Noir Specialist Alain Silver

• Trailer (2:09)

 Blu-ray Release Date: September 15th, 2015
Standard Blu-ray Case
Chapters: 16

 

 

 

Comments

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

ADDITION: (October 2014) Warner Archive Region FREE - Blu-ray: A pleasure to see these classic Noirs, like Out of the Past and Murder My Sweet coming to 1080P. By the way these are both in the Shadows, Lies, and Private Eyes - The Film Noir DVD Collection, Vol. 1 along with Gun Crazy (also already on Blu-ray, but out of France) perhaps meaning The Asphalt Jungle and The Set-Up will be coming soon.  I guess it was kind of pointless to compare with the Finnish SD that included a colorized version but you can see how poor it was (by comparison.) While the screen captures do show it to some degree, I can state that the new Warner (Mod) Blu-ray looks tremendous in-motion. Tight lines, grain textures and wonderful black levels. Shadow detail, very notable in the film, is marvelous and the film's visuals give off a very rich, appealing presentation.

The audio is transferred via a DTS-HD Master 2.0 channel track at 1837 kbps (24-bit). Dialogue and effects are clean and consistent. The original score by, veteran, Roy Webb (I Married a Witch, Clash by Night, This Is Cinerama, Easy Living, The Window, Journey Into Fear, I Walked with a Zombie etc.) is delightful and seems to buoy the adventurousness and dark atmosphere. There are optional English subtitles (yellow font) and my Oppo has identified it as being a region FREE.

Shamefully, no new extras from the 2004 DVD with the same informative and professional audio commentary by Alain Silver and a poor quality trailer. This is still highly recommended! Watching these iconic Noirs in 1080P is akin to seeing them anew. The aura is such a big part of the 'dark cinema' film presentation that the higher resolution and lossless audio create a fresh, more profound, experience. It is far closer to what you would have seen theatrically - possibly at the premiere. Drench yourself in the atmosphere. Our highest recommendation!  

***

ON THE DVDs (2004): Warner R1 has much sharper, clearer picture and R2 has some print damage (white dots and small scratches etc). R1 has a bit better audio track and it has also English, Spanish and French subtitles which can be turned off, R2 has only burned in Finnish subtitles in b/w version and normal Finnish subtitles in colored version.

Warner has also a great commentary by Alain Silver but Pan Vision has only colored version on the same disc with b/w version. Colored version is only a curiosity and is redundant in my opinion.

 - Jarkko Pienimäki

 

Recommended Reading in Film Noir (CLICK COVERS or TITLES for more information)




DVD Menus

(Pan Vision Oy - Region 0 - PAL - LEFT vs. Warner Home Video - Region 1 - NTSC - MIDDLE vs. Pan Vision Oy (Colored version) - Region 0 - PAL - RIGHT)


 

 

 
 

 
 

 

 

Warner Archive - Region FREE - Blu-ray

 

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

 

Screen Captures

 

1) Pan Vision Oy - Region 0 - PAL - TOP

2) Warner Home Video - Region 1 - NTSC SECOND

3) Pan Vision Oy (Colored version) - Region 0 - PAL THIRD

4) Warner Archive - Region FREE - Blu-ray BOTTOM

 

 

1) Pan Vision Oy - Region 0 - PAL - TOP

2) Warner Home Video - Region 1 - NTSC SECOND

3) Pan Vision Oy (Colored version) - Region 0 - PAL THIRD

4) Warner Archive - Region FREE - Blu-ray BOTTOM

 

1) Pan Vision Oy - Region 0 - PAL - TOP

2) Warner Home Video - Region 1 - NTSC SECOND

3) Pan Vision Oy (Colored version) - Region 0 - PAL THIRD

4) Warner Archive - Region FREE - Blu-ray BOTTOM

 

More Blu-ray Captures

 

 

Box Covers

 

 

 

Also coming to Blu-ray from Warner Archive via a package that includes Murder, My Sweet, Out of the Past, The Set-up and Gun Crazy in September 2020:
Distribution

Pan Vision Oy

Region 0 - PAL

 Warner Home Video
Region 1 - NTSC		 Pan Vision Oy
Region 0 - PAL

Warner Archive

Region FREE  - Blu-ray

 



 

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