ADDITION: Arrow - Region 'B' - Blu-ray October 15': The Arrow looks marvelous - just as I presume the film  to have looked theatrically. It's a beautiful dual-layered transfer showcasing some brilliant film-like visuals with the inherent thickness and excellent contrast. It looks super-sweet in-motion - darker than the manipulated Criterion SD (a shade too much 'magic'), and, presumably, totally accurate - smokey and heavy, in 1080P. The Arrow is either horizontally stretched (fatter faces) or the Criterion vertically streteched (slimmer faces). It may be a little of both. I was not bothered at all. IMO, the softer look is more accurate, is smoother (Criterion has some minor compression artifacts along with the digitization issues.)

Arrow go with a linear PCM Audio 1.0 channel mono track at 1152 kbps (24-bit). Likewise, it seems very pleasing to me sounding rich and tight. The score by the great Alfred Newman (The Diary of Anne Frank, Bus Stop, Blood and Sand, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Panic in the Streets, The Song of Bernadette etc. etc.) with Cyril J. Mockridge (Where the Sidewalk Ends, Desk Set, The Ox-Bow Incident, The Dark Corner, My Darling Clementine, Nightmare Alley) and supports the films wonderfully via the uncompressed transfer. There are optional English subtitles on the region 'B' Blu-ray disc.

Arrow, once again stack their release with impressive supplements. The Long Haul of A.I. Bezzerides is a 55-minute documentary portrait by Fay Efrosini Lellios the Thieves Highway author and screenwriter, featuring contributions from Bezzerides, director Jules Dassin and writers George P. Pelecanos (The Wire), Mickey Spillane (Kiss Me Deadly) and Barry Gifford (Lost Highway). It's very informative and really worth watching for fans of Noir. The Fruits of Labour, is a new 1/2 hour video essay about the genesis, production, reception and politics of Thieves Highway by Frank Krutnik, author of In a Lonely Street: Film Noir, Genre, Masculinity. Arrow include about 30-minutes worth of selected scene and character commentaries by Mr. Krutnik for the segments; The Homecoming, Delicious Gold and Rica. His insights are very much appreciated by this reviewer. Lastly, is a still gallery, a theatrical trailer and the package contains a reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Graham Humphreys and a collector's booklet featuring new writing on the film by Alastair Phillips (co-author of 100 Film Noirs), illustrated with original production stills. Being dual-format a DVD is included.

The film is too good - Noir class - the Blu-ray has our highest recommendation! What a package!

***

ON THE DVD: Aside from some very infrequent missteps, almost exclusively in their early days of DVD production, the Criterion Collection is usually worthy of totally blind purchases. This film looks great with some minor edge-enhancement halos (see sample below). Also a shade of minor chroma (not captured) in two spots the image is exquisitely sharp with no scratches or damage, perfectly appointed optional subtitles, clear original audio and worthwhile extras that help garner further appreciation of this great cinema masterpiece. The ten minute Dassin interview is key but I craved it to be much longer. Alain Silver knows his stuff and the commentary is highly relevant to the film - very good! For me this will be one of my favorite films-to-DVD of the year - in a year filled with marvels. We certainly recommend even with the imperfections in the video!

Gary W. Tooze