ADDITION: Shout! Factory Blu-ray - February 18': The new Shout! Factory has an appropriate pairing of two 70's films with Robert Mitchum as hard-boiled detective Philip Marlowe - 1975's Farewell My Lovely and the inferior 1978 The Big Sleep.  It is on one dual-layered Blu-ray. Frankly, they don't looks great - scanner noise - both are in the 1.78:1 aspect ratio but look superior to SD. I think The Big Sleep may look a shade better of the two - despite looking waxy at times - and neither will be used as demo discs. It's possible they can't look much better and I was happy to see them in 1080P - even if it was less than stellar.

DTS-HD Master (24-bit) tracks for both films and in Farewell My Lovely the score is by David Shire (All the President's Men, Zodiac, The Conversation) and has some minor depth but I enjoyed the The Big Sleep score by Jerry Fielding (Straw Dogs, Scorpio,  The Wild Bunch, Straw Dogs, The Killer Elite, The Mechanic, Kolchak: The Night Stalker and The Getaway) which benefits a bit more from the lossless transfer. Both have optional English subtitles (see samples below) and the Blu-ray disc is Region 'A'-locked.

The only extra on Farewell My Lovely is a theatrical trailer but on The Big Sleep portion there is a new 7-minute interview with actress Sarah Miles reflecting briefly on the film and her role in The Big Sleep. “The Big Sleep: On Location” shows some of where the film was shot and it includes a brief interview with director Michael Winner. The entire video runs shy of 1/4 hour. “Maxim Jakubowski At Murder One” is an interview at the famous bookstore, expert on Hard Boiled Fiction, and some may recall him in the extras of Altman's The Long Goodbye Arrow Blu-ray. There is a 7-minute The Big Sleep vintage featurette that is really like a long trailer and there is also a 2-minute trailer for the film.

While we endorse both originals - 1944's Murder My Sweet and 1946's Bogie/Bacall The Big Sleep - both on Blu-ray, these two efforts capture some of that Noir mystique that we can't seem to sate ourselves. Mitchum is, as always, fabulous and the storys aren't fatally poor although the 1978 The Big Sleep could have been far more cohesive - and probably didn't need to be made unless they were willing to put more into the production (Mitchum can only carry so much).

Still, after all my complaining, I loved seeing these neo-noir throwbacks and I'll watch anything with Mitchum as Marlowe. Enjoy!

***

ON THE DVD: Finally, so nice, to have a watchable, new, digital representation of this classic. This is, of course, a remake of 1944's Murder My Sweet - now on Blu-ray. But it has Robert Mitchum as Philip Marlowe and Charlotte Rampling as Helen Grayle embodying a slinky Lauren Bacall in any number of Noir-ish gems. This is so great for 'Dark Cinema' fans who just can't get enough.

The Shout! Factory SD disc is single-layered and the image is progressive in the 1.78:1 aspect ratio. There is grain and a bit of, unfortunate, noise. The quality is consistent and watchable. It's not dynamically sharp but the SD does the job - imperfectly, but I'll take it.

The audio is clean and also consistent - dialogue is completely audible. The score is by David Shire (All the President's Men, Zodiac, The Conversation) and sounds equally supportive. There are optional English subtitles and the media is locked to region 1.

No extras aside from a couple of trailers. This still has value although we all would prefer it in 1080P. I was so pleased to watch this - one of the later-great Mitchums and an essential for Noir fans. Absolutely recommended! 

Gary Tooze