The Tijuana Story Blu-ray

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

directed by László Kardos
USA 1957

Yet another fifties semi-documentary style crime thriller "ripped from the pages of todays headlines" purporting to expose the sin, crime, vice and corruption of some major city. This time the setting is south of the border in sunny Mexico, where a crusading newspaper editor battles the local syndicate who have turned the border city of Tijuana into a cesspool of drug dealing, gambling, and prostitution.

Despite the slightly different setting, THE TIJUANA STORY is mostly a routine low budget semi-documentary style crime drama. The film is not as exciting as many of the other films of this genre. [...]

Excerpt of review from Jim Riecken for imdb.com located HERE

***

This gritty crime drama is based on the true story of a Mexican news reporter who single-handedly takes on a crime syndicate. The journalist begins by publishing the names of several prominent, corrupt politicians. The syndicate retaliates and the journalist is killed. The locals rebel and the reporter's son takes up his father's cause. By uniting, the community routs the crooks from their home. The story is narrated by the actual journalist.

Excerpt from B+N located HERE

Posters

Theatrical Release: October 1957 (USA

Reviews More Reviews DVD Reviews

Comparison:

Sony Pictures (Screen Classics by Request) - Region 0 - NTSC vs. Kit Parker Films - Region FREE - Blu-ray

Thanks to Gregory Meshman for the DVD Review!

Box Cover		The Tijuana Story is part of the Noir Archive Volume 3: 1957-1960 9-film Collection Bu-ray
Distribution	Sony Pictures (Screen Classics by Request) Home Video - Region 0 - NTSC	Kit Parker Films - Region FREE - Blu-ray
Runtime	1:12:27	1:12:37.144
Video	1.85:1 Original Aspect Ratio 16X9 enhanced Average Bitrate: 6.50 mb/s NTSC 720x480 29.97 f/s	1.85:1 1080P Dual-layered Blu-ray Disc Size: 48,587,202,604 bytes Feature: 14,888,534,016 bytes Video Bitrate: 24.98 Mbps Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video
	NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate:
Bitrate Blu-ray:
Audio	Dolby Digital 2.0 (English)	DTS-HD Master Audio English 916 kbps 1.0 / 48 kHz / 916 kbps / 24-bit (DTS Core: 1.0 / 48 kHz / 768 kbps / 24-bit)
Subtitles	None	English, None
Features	Release Information: Studio: Sony Pictures Aspect Ratio: Widescreen anamorphic - 1.85:1 Edition Details: • None DVD Release Date: June 4th, 2013 Keep case Chapters 7	Release Information: Studio: Kit Parker Films 1.85:1 1080P Dual-layered Blu-ray Disc Size: 48,587,202,604 bytes Feature: 14,888,534,016 bytes Video Bitrate: 24.98 Mbps Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video Edition Details: • Shares disc with She Played With Fire and The Case Against Brooklyn Blu-ray Release Date: September 17th, 2019 Standard Blu-ray Case Chapters 11

Comments:

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

ADDITION: Kit Parker Films Blu-ray (September 2019): Kit Parker Films in association with Millcreek Entertainment have released the last (of three) of these 3 Blu-ray / 9 Film Noir features Boxsets. Volume Three has:

The Crimson Kimono (1959), The Lineup (1958), Man on a String (1960), The Shadow in the Window (1956), The Long Haul (1957), Pickup Alley (1957), The Case Against Brooklyn (1958), The Tijuana Story (1957) and She Played with Fire (1957)

Volume One was described as "Stalwart noir directors and casts highlight these hard to find features Address Unknown (1944) dir/William Cameron Menzies, cast/Paul Lukas, Carl Esmond, Peter Van Eyck; Escape in the Fog (1945) dir/Oscar (Budd) Boetticher cast/Otto Kruger, Nina Foch, William Wright; The Guilt of Janet Ames (1947) dir/Henry Levin cast/Rosalind Russell, Melvyn Douglas, Sid Caesar; The Black Book (aka The Reign of Terror) (1949) dir/Anthony Mann cast/Robert Cummings, Richard Basehart, Arlene Dahl; Johnny Allegro (1949) dir/Ted Tetzlaff cast/George Raft, Nina Foch, George Macready; 711 Ocean Drive (1950) dir/Joseph M. Newman cast/Edmond O'Brien, Joanne Dru, Otto Kruger; The Killer That Stalked New York (1950) dir/Earl McEvoy cast/Evelyn Keyes, Charles Korvin, William Bishop; Assignment Paris (1952) dir/Earl McEvoy cast/Dana Andrews, Marta Toren, George Sanders; The Miami Story (1954) dir/Fred F. Sears cast/Barry Sullivan, Luther Adler, John Baer - all in high definition presented in their original aspect ratios."

Volume Two has:

Bait (1954), The Crooked Web (1955), The Night Holds Terror (1955), Footsteps in the Fog (1955), Cell 2455, Death Row (1955), 5 Against the House (1955), New Orleans Uncensored (1955), Spin a Dark Web (1955), and Rumble on the Docks (1956)

So again, 3 films per dual-layered Blu-ray, with a supportive bitrate in 1080P and this is in the original 1.85:1 aspect ratio. She Played with Fire in HD, like the DVD, has a modest image quality - looking fine, but a bit drab. The 1080P has its usual superiorities over the DVD - contrast, detail, grain... there is some depth visible. It is definitely and improvement.

The audio is 24-bit lossless (DTS-HD Master 1.0 channel mono) is unremarkable excepting for the score by Mischa Bakaleinikoff (The Crooked Web, Cell 2455 Death Row, Comanche Station, It Came from Beneath the Sea, The Giant Claw, Earth vs. the Flying Saucers, The 27th Day, 20 Million Miles to Earth, Lady for a Day) sounds more effective in the lossless. The Blu-ray offers optional English subtitles (see sample) on this Region FREE Blu-ray package.

No supplements - but the disc is shared with She Played with Fire and The Case Against Brooklyn. The Tijuana Story is not really a Noir but more a corruption expose and has 'city name' moniker like The Miami Story, New Orleans Uncensored and The Phenix City Story. The negative on these Noir Archive sets are the lack of extras but the value with these packages is that each has 9, 50's crime, films (many with Noir cycle approximation). I'm enjoying watching and rewatching them.

Gary Tooze

ON THE DVD: By 1957 city exposé sub-genre of film noir, highlighted in The Miami Story review, was winding down. Producer Sam Katzman ran out of cities to expose in the US, so he went south of the border, to Tijuana for The Tijuana Story. Only 1 more city exposé was made after this - New Orleans Uncensored (1958) by Allied Artists, subject of prior film from Columbia - New Orleans Uncensored.

Mexican character actor Rodolfo Acosta, mostly seen in US movies as a villain, play a surprisingly sympathetic role here as a newspaper editor battling the mob to clean up his city from crime. The film drags by too many plot-lines including Robert McQueeney as a club owner who closes his eyes on the criminal activity around him, Jean Willes as his devoted wife, James Darren as a teen in trouble and Joy Stoner as his love interest. The last two share especially cringe-worthy sequence on the beach. Thankfully, Rodolfo Acosta is on hand to make the film worth watching to the end.

Sony presents the film on a made-on-demand disc in a stellar progressive anamorphic transfer. There is very little damage on the print and the contrast is well-balanced. The mono audio is fine, with no distortion. There are only 7 chapters - a chapter every 10 minutes, and no menus - the films starts right after the company logo and FBI messages. A stellar release of, unfortunately, lackluster film.